Michael Collier

This camera seems to be aimed at the television market. ENG style most likely. I would like to see my TV station switch over, just as a cost saving measure. Almost all of our beta decks are close to dead and a $300 rev drive is much more appealing than a 8K beta SP deck No, its not teh Best of HD, it will be compressed. Though the 110Mb is far better than the 19.4M/s of HDV. The rev disks will provide quick edit time (no ingest, just plug and edit) Though it is more compressed than HDCAM or SR its no slouch. The MPEG compression is a much more effecient codec than in the SR or HDCAM. not to say better quality, they just result in less data while maintaining some level of qualtiy. Look at it like this: a DVD MPEG stream is 8Mbaud. thats in standard def, so multiply by six to get the same quality stream in HD. at 110Mbaud these cams are outputting MPEG streams more than 4 times the quality of DVD or HDV. and no its not for everyone. But for a television station that may have to move away from antiquated formats, why not spend the same money you would on an XDCAM and get a HD camera instead. Not to mention the HUGE savings you get from not buying expensive decks. Those who arent burdened by quick turn arounds and zero-based budgets should look to a better HD solution, but for ENG and people looking to move out of beta it seems like an affordable option (plus I think those rev disks are nifty. amillion cycles wow. XD has a cycle rate of 1000. Both are about the same cost per minute

Thanks David. Yeah the 2/3" is a limitation, I try and light to the lowest light level given the setup and scene so I can keep it wide open, and anytime I can I try and pull the camera back and zoom in to crush the depth of focus. It will never look like a 35mm camera. so I am trying to work with the format to get the best image possible. that shot was on a slow dolly to replace the romantic feeling grain and dof would. I cant shoot the whole movie like that because the comedic scenes need less romance and more funny, but its a great scene to start with. also its funny to note how creative you have to be on an independant. today i put garbage bags in the floros overhead to bring the levels down on the wall simply because I didnt have enough ND (lot to mention no neg-green) heres some more pics from the same scene.

OK, here are some pics. tell me what you think. These are quarter ress (720 down ressed from 1080) and they are JPEG compressed, but you get the idea.

Bottom Line is what does it look like Viper 2.2Gb/s is uncompressed 4:4:4 obviously takeing 1920x1080 will be a large file Digibeta 90M/s compressed (I believe) but in an interframe compression method, ie 4:2:2 (though im not sure its exaclty 4:2:2, I have a hard time thinking its less. JPEG might play a role in compression as well, though I'm not that keen on the specs of this camera) HDV 19.4 M/s yes it is quite a lot less, but it is also an MPEG 2 compression. DVD compression in SD is about 8M/s, which would roughly translate to 24M/s in HD (1920x1080) You can see that it wont be quite as high quality as DVD but close. and with so many pixels there is a greater likely hood that a pixel will be part of an B frame (high compression) because the gradients change slower when compared to a lower res image of with the same framing. Bottom line I am working on a new movie in HDV (first time working with HDV, I was anxious at first) but the footage came out beautifully. even when looking extremely closely at a magnafied still I could only barely make out compression artifacts. Blown up on a 50" monitor it still looks good so I have full confidence that a 35mm blowup will look good (though obviously nothing compared to Viper) I guess the point I am trying to make is that the bit rates cant be directly compared because the compression scemes are totally different. You just got to understand that you get what you pay for. a 6K HDV cam wont compare to a 60k HDCAM footage. but if your saving money from a tight budget you gotta focus on story. HDV will be better than any format you could afford. remember when everyone was trying to convince us a DV file would look good on filmout? This will be closer to an acceptable 35filmout, though I doubt anyone with experience will ever say it looks better than any other HD format. If you have the money invest in a grass valley infinity. true 1080p/i, true 24fps, and it only cost 20k. It records to revPro drives that cost about 75 a peice and can be uploaded to a Hard drive to clear them (they are 35Gb and hold aprox 45minutes of footage, aprox 103 M/s)

Keep in mind that if you shoot in interlaced, wether 60i or 50i, when you slow things down a good edit software will split the feilds into 2 frames. since each feild is taken at regular intervals if you slow everything down by a factor of 2 (50% slow) you actually end up with smooth motion (though you do cut resolution in half, shoot 1080i). Make sure your shutter isnt too long, maybe 1/200 will work well (long shutters stutters and flickers). also make sure you slow in a quality program, one that can handle feilds (avid, premiere, final cut are a few options) as with anything else a few days before your shoot get the camera and test test test. see what you like. I ended up using a slowmo effect that did show artifacts because it seemed to fit within the project.

If your just looking to feed DV into your NLE and back out, I have always recomended a $300 mini dv consumer camera. The best part about miniDV is its all digital. A cheap camera is as good as a 2k deck (although you dont get the analog setup options or outputs.) but if your final format is mostly miniDV you can save yourself thousands of dollars and you wont loose any quality. If you need to put it to another format occasionally, you can pay a production house, or become friends with a few photogs at your local TV station, they may let you make free dubs to beta or VHS using quality gear

most cool white floros have a fair bit of green in them. if you ballance your camera for tungsten (or use a tungsten stock) the floros will go greenish anyway (check requium for a dream, the dp in that loved it for the winter scenes) though that shot might have a 1/2 plus green. at work I have a warm card that is specificaly for shooting under floros. Its a 1/2 neg-green I believe.

On a well organized set, everyone should know what to do with their time if they arent being used. Try and pull some of the crew together to help running the lights and setting the picture. For the actors if you have a buddy who you trust I would have them go over the lines with the actors and give them tips, that way you dont have to deal with 10 takes that dont work at all. If people are getting antsy give them something to do. If there still isnt anything to do just be upfront about it. tell your cast and crew that you are interested in making the best movie possible and that art takes time (try telling that to a bean counter) If they are interested in being in a good movie they will understand. For the vain actors and actresses tell them you need time to set the perfect light to flatter their allready radious apperence. a little flattery should buy some time. bottom line if you can still make your day and take the proper amount of time to set lights, take all the time you can get. dont let anyone or anything rush you into a mistake (unless rushing would mean the difference between getting it and not getting it.) also go into each shoot with a very clear idea of what you want the lighting to look like. this will minimize ajustments and indesicion once you get on set. i forget who said it, maybe it was kubrick, who said by the time I get on set, I have seen the movie already in my head

I might try and get the TV station to switch formats to the infinity. Mostly because instead of buying a 50k deck like you would for any HD or SD format, you can buy a $300 rev reader. Every reporter can have their own and I can have edit bays wide open. we use old beta SPs right now and I have a suspicion that all 8 decks we have in the newsroom will need replacing within 2 years (2 decks have gone bad in the last month) and switching to the infinity would actually save money, though we would still finish in SD for broadcast (no HD pcr yet) the standard infinity will ship for 20k, the XDCAM, in its cheapest setup will be 19,200

I'm currently using the same camera on a feature movie. I am using the 50p. Interlace just has no place in a movie and if you shoot with out it, that would be better for the image, and get you to see the deinterlaced version to make desicions off of. I know I have heard this about several other CCD cameras, but the camera in question is a CMOS sensor and isnt limited like a CCD (CCD transfer each pixel to the one beside it to read out and if my understanding is correct interlacing is nessicary due to bandwidth limitations and the noise created by a whole frame transfering pixel to pixel if a few pixels have been overexposed and begin to bloom. another limitation is CCDs 'rolling frame sinc' where not every pixel gets exposed at the exact same moment, so footage from 'progressive' out would look smeared with one horizontal line that would start at the top and work its way down, same reason you get a red line that scrolls down most times when you shoot a monitor) You might be right though david. I know my GL1 does that, my roomates pany does it. Im just not sure about the new CMOS sensors. I know grass valleys cameras (viper and the cheaper infinities) output the entireframe all at once. the cinealtas do too i believe. (the dalsa camera outputs a 4k,2160 x 3840, 4:4:4 output and is able to achieve a true progressive from Either way enjoy the shoot. control highlights carefully. its a dead ringer for video, the the camera does function remarkably well in the shadows. I just saw dailies from my shoot last night....it was like a DPs wet dream (i know all you purist will hate me) but with good lighting it almost looked like a frame of 16, but without grain. I cant wait to see what a 35mm filmout would look like.

I agree. I have been using premiere since 4.2 days. I have 6.5 now and my station has a pro 1.5 after using the 1.5 pro i never want to use it again. Its not inuitive and it seems a bit flakey. I had lots of troubles with slowdowns/crashes when I was using it, and the computer is usually rock solid.

If your already good with premiere (and if you have or could get after effects, you would be better off for color gradding) I would recomend you focus on the other aspects of your shot. Lighting is key. The best 35mm camera will look like poo if you dont properly light it, but even a cheap DV cam will look decent with great lighting. (im sure especially on these boards people will back me on that one) Get a couple of open face tungsten and maybe a small kinoflo if you can afford them. I recomend getting at least 2 lowell omnis and 2 lowell totas. Get several different kinds of bulbs for them. If you can only have 4 insturments in your kit, at least you can set a light anywhere from 100w to 1000w. make sure you get the barn doors for the omnis, as controling the light is just as important as having enough light. Buy a pack of gells to go with the kit. A few daylight corrections, a few nutral densitys, a few defusers and a few different color gells would be enough to give you several options. Go out and buy large peices of stiff foamcore board. Its relatively cheap and makes for very soft, pleasing light if you bounce a light off of it. They aslo work as a flag to create negative fill or control light spill, and work good outdoors as a bounce card. after you get the lighting right you will need good sound. as a shotgun I recomend the senhiezer ME-66, possibly one of the best sounding senhiezer's ever. Better than the ME-88 that replaced it when the 66 was discontinued. since its out of production they will be hard to find, but you can find them for cheap on ebay sometimes. expect to pay 200-400 bucks. you may need an XLR addapter (about 150-200) if your camera only has 3.5mm audio in. a cheaper solution is wired lav mics. they are small and can be hidden under hats or cloths and since they are so close you get perfect sound. the only downside is they are wired so if your actor ventures more than the wires 20' range, you will have a problem. also hiding the wire gets tricky, but for 20 bucks its a good deal. you can get 2 and a splitter so you can plug them both into a stereo audio in jack and record dialoge between two people really well. if the wire becomes a problem you can purchase a wireless lav, but those will run between 150-500 and up. next time you make a movie take your time. you wont have the resources or manpower of a large budget movie, but you have what they envy....time and lots of it. dont shoot a scene until you have the look perfect. dont shoot if the audio is off. a polished movie will show your attention to detail and will hide equipment/budget shortcommings. clerks had its problems, but it was a damn good movie right? hope that helps. I was in your shoes not to long ago and if you stick with it and focus on developing your talent you will go farther than the person who is looking for the quick in to the industry.

quick update: The director had been looking for a computer fast enough to put a software program (pinnicle i believe, simple and prosumer based, but it will do for an EDL to fly it into avid) and it just so happens a guy in my production house (random acronym entertainment) just got a new dell. so pics from the movie are comming shortly. hopefully some of the veterans can critique some of my stuff. btw after a few weeks working on principle and prep at the same time i will finally get to see some dailies (I have yet to see a frame of the movie)

I got a job as 1st AC for a new comedy shot in HDV. Its exciting for me because I have never shot HD resolution stuff before and I cant wait to see it up on a big screen. My experience is mostly in video and TV (Im a news photographer today) but I have a penchant for shooting cinematicly (mostly with lighting) to get the best look I can out of the format given. This format is one of the new HVR sony single chip CMOS cameras. I am digging the new chip, I have much more exposure lattitude than I get with my beta (UVW-100U, ya I know, old) As AC on this project I am stepping a little more into the DP role, as the DP has been with the project since I came into it, but he has far less experience than I do. Its a good working relationship, I let him call the shots pretty much, I put my 2 cents in here and there and let him decide. I raise flags when they are preparing to break an axis rule or something large like that, but they give me latitude to light the scene, one of my passions. Its nice to be on a well organized project like this, so I dont mind taking a back seat to someone with less experience, I think jesse (DP) looks at things with a fresh eye so he comes up with stuff I wouldnt think of. Since we all have full time jobs and dont have full time access to the camera we shoot on weekends, so the 2 days we have actually spanned about a week. Day 1 INT. day, video rental store. Pretty simple settup, just a shot/reverse and a few cutaway shots. Lighting on the main charecters was a 500 watt omni (lowell) with the unbrella (i like the ultra-white look of the unbrella, it lets the key go a little orange.) The key was a hevily stopped down 500 watt omni (i think we had 4 or 5 layers of diffuser, and one daylight orange gell to cheat daylight comming in the store.) The background was lit with an omni with a daylight filter to warm up the greenish looking tape racks (painted blue with floros i couldnt turn off) and behind that a 1000watt dual head shop light with daylight blue gels on those, just to turn up the color contrast behind the charecters. it is a comedy afterall. We got through the shoot in a few hours, with the crew of the video store laughing between takes....an encouraging sign. Day 2 INT. day school. This was a tough one to get done, being in a covered walkway with windows so large. it gave horrible contrast problems and the background was overpowering the actors. To make matters worse it included a 20ft dolly move (straight back) and the dolly we got from a local TV station(not mine) had only 5 ft of track to work with. we ended up 'borrowing' a bookcart from the library and having the DP sit on that and go handheld while a PA pulled him back. I walked along the dark side with a 500 watt omni with a 5600 blue filter (not much light comming out, but enough) this became quite a challenge though, as there were only enough to work sound, dolly, and camera. I ended up pulling my own wire, carefully reaching down ever 5 feet to grab the next loop before my tether catches frame, though after one take I became quite good at keeping the lighting rock solid as i reached for my next length of wire. when we went to the two shot I doubled my efforts with a 500w tota and 500w omni, both with daylight correction. because of the angle of the shot I didnt have to pull wire (THANK GOD!!) and we ended up getting some convincing shots. Day 2 after crew move We moved to the radio production room for the DJ scenes. This proved to be both trickey and a huge time saver. Since 4 or 5 scenes were in this one room we were able to get setups done quickly. Unfortunatley because of the size of the room hiding lights and cables and equipment became a huge factor. I am very sore from 6 hours of jockeying all the gear around, and fitting that 5ft dolly also became quite a problem. In the end it looked good and was totally worth it. The light was a 500w tota with the unbrella, a 500w omni with 1/2 diffuser, and on the floor i put large peices of cardstock I bought at a local store. One was golden looking, one silver. Pointing a 500w tota from about 1ft away it bounced a very pleasing organic shadow and highlight pattern, which i could control by putting creases in the board (this trick will follow me into my daily work) I matched the gold board to the wood tones behind the DJ, and the silver board cast light on the blue acoustic foam, breaking up the monotony. The DP refered to this lighting as 'sexy lighting' which cracked me up. we had only 1 scene in there with any large amount of people so when we had all 4 in place i lit for simplicity, 2 500 w totas with unbrellas for fill and one omni to kill the only shadow in the master. when we cut to the 1 and 2 shots I ajusted the lighting slightly just to make it more a more pleasant image, without being so different than the master that it would jump out at you. that scene went very smoothly. (we have no flags or mounting options for a flag, other than duct tape, so usually i ended up being the flag stand once we had the lights set. Oh, incidently I also figured out the universities max power handling, as I tripped the breaker trying to add a 4th light to the setup. yeah 4 lights is too much the power went out at the end of a take, almost on cue. We talked to a school security guard who said he would look into it, but end of the day we still had no power. I ended up running cables from another room to power the shot, and limited myself to a max 1500w of light. The dolly shots were tough to get done in such a small room, but they looked good and were very effective. being a radio station production room it had 2 mics already in place, and i brought a 3d radio style mic for the large scene, which greatly simplified audio on set. and in a matter of 8 hours we got through 15 settups and about 8 pages. (read that to be equivalent of a 10 day shoot for this 81 page masterpiece.) anyways I hope to get screenshots of the movie on these boards possibly. And this is for all you verterans out there: I shoot and edit every day. I have professionaly since I was 15. I shoot for the news to spend my weekends making features (either my own that I will DP or others where I put my experience to use where its needed) What is the best way to transision into theatrical feature projects. I ultamatley want to helm the photography of deep dramas. Think Fightclub, seven (any fincher really) requium for a dream. I love films that can be both gritty with a mutted color pallete but at the same time vibrant and organic. If anyone can help me it would be very very much appriciated.