David Osborne

Hi Greg, Thanks for your post, and your videos look great; really nice high contrast and I love the selective focus. I like the ramp when the guy crosses that opening in the wall, that's exactly the type of freedom I'm looking for in editing. I don't think I mind having the shutter speed appear high/"strobe-like", I guess only experimentation will tell. Also I won't necessarily be shooting 720/60p/60fps all the time, just for shots when I know I want to overcrank the camera, but don't really know how slow I'll want the motion to appear in the end. One of these days I'll get around to posting some of my stuff on the web... Thanks again, Dave

Let's say you shot some action in 720p with the variable frame rate set to 32, then you bring it into post on FCP pro and you're watching and you think, man I kind of want it to be slower (like as if I shot 48 fps) or faster, whatever. Since the camera is recording 60p (when not in native mode) there is 60 frames worth of data per second there right? So you should be able to play it back as if you shot anywhere between 0 and 60 fps? Is there any way to change the frame rate (way that the frames are flagged) after the fact? Can you do it easily is another question, because there are some miserable ways I can think of to accomplish this "retro-active frame rate control" but I wouldn't want to do it; like manually slicing individual frames from a 60p timeline then sequentially deleting or keeping ones you want in ratio to the speed you desire then plopping it in a 24p timeline :o So again, basically my question is, can I just shoot 720/60p at 60 fps all the time and decide later how I want the frame rate to be? :rolleyes:

Ok so I have Raylight now and I'm wondering why, when I import the files into Premiere Pro, there is the little red line above the timeline, like it needs to be rendered. I set the project settings to match the footage, so the editing mode is "desktop" (video for windows) and the compressor is set to "DVFilm Raylight". The frame dimensions and aspect ratio all match the properties of the avi files, yet when I drop them in the timeline I see that miserable red line. It seems to play back ok but that red line bothers me/worries me. Also, I shot some stuff thinking, "hmm this is never going to get printed to film I'll just shoot 24p (as opposed to 24pa)", so I did. Apparently Raylight can't remove a 2:3 24p cadence, only 2:3:3:2 24pa, and I'm wondering how I can remove it, cause I'm thinking of making a 24p DVD. I guess that from now on I'll always shoot 24pa but it seems like it shouldn't be that hard to remove the 24p cadence and I don't understand exactly what a stutter frame is. Upon conversion shouldn't you be left with the same number of progressive frames as you would if you had shot 24pa? What I mean is once you get rid of the interlace nonsense shouldn't you have the same final product as a converted 24pa file? Last thing I promise. The frame rate conversion; I'm used to editing with FCP where I simply download the frame rate converter from the Panasonic website and then do it and have lovely 48fps and 60fps slow-mo quicktime files which I then plop into the timeline. How does this work with Premiere? Thanks for your help!

Can someone tell me please exactly what files need to be transfered from P2/Firestore and maybe how, so that this never happens to me?

I've been shooting some stuff with an FS100 and no P2 cards and have had no problems. The P2 cards do not need to be in the camera. Haha the menu is slightly reminiscent of something out of 1980, no real frills but it does the trick. I've yet to experiment with the other functions, like recording what happened 3 seconds before you hit the record button etc. But for "regular" shooting everything runs like you'd expect. It is kind of scary initially to set the firestore to respond when you hit the record button on the camera; like so it starts/stops recording. I still take my eyes away from the camera and down to my belt (or wherever I have the firestore sitting) to see if it's actually recording. I expect that after a very short span of successful shoots I will become conditioned to disregard this fear and no longer check to see if I remembered to actually connect the firewire, turn the thing on, or if I even brought it with me.

Thanks for the feedback, it's good to get a sense of the range of options out there. I originally posted because I want to get some simple, short (not moving very far) dolly shots for an upcoming shoot. The CamTram and skater type dollies are great because they don't need to be on the ground, and for a subtle 3 foot dolly move one only needs a ladder or a piece of wood or a table to act as track. For this shoot I'm just going to put something together from materials that I already have. I'm pretty confident about my idea; I'll see if I can host my footage somewhere in case anyone is interested. Thanks again.

The Skater Dolly (Skater Dolly) is a pretty good idea, and an easy way to add high production value to your project. No 300 lb. dolly to lug around, one person can operate it, you can throw it up on a table or on a board, get cool low angle shots, etc. The only problem that I have with it is that p+s technik wants $4,000 for it. Again, yes it's a great idea and a useful tool, but it's a piece of metal with three rollerblade wheels attached to it. I'm sure it's a nice rigid piece of metal but honestly, it's a little bit absurd. I came across the Slym Skater and it appears to be a good alternative and not at crack prices. Thank you very much to its creator. I wish I had the initiative to purchase the rollerblade wheels myself and adjoin them to some rigid material that can support a tripod head or something. I have done some research in finding rollerblade wheels but the tricky thing seems to be finding the rotating hub that the rollerblade wheels sit in; painting little hash marks for the various degree angles seems like something I could pull off. I'm wondering if there are any other alternatives out there? Yes I could afford to rent the p+s technik version for a hundred something dollars a day but I just can't bring myself to do it as a matter of principal.