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tanglewood1420
Oct 28, 2010

The importance of this mission cannot be overemphasized

Poo In An Alleyway posted:

Shot my first short film a couple months ago for college despite the assignment being scrapped, I filled it anyway. Thing is we ran out of time on the interior house set we used and I missed out on getting an establishing shot of the exterior of the building with the lead actor and 2 extras at the house entrance, and I didn’t clock that I missed the shot until I brought it all into editing. Can anyone suggest a quick alternative shot I could put together outside the house location to establish the shot without getting the actors back for it?

Get a clean exterior shot and pre-lap the audio of the scene over it. Even without seeing the cut, you 98% likely do not need to show your characters outside the house.

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Poo In An Alleyway
Feb 12, 2016



Have just DM'd you both the rough edit of the film for suggestions of what can be done

BonoMan
Feb 20, 2002

Jade Ear Joe
I don't know why my google-fu is not working here, but I'm looking for examples of a specific shot.

Basically... creative uses of the circle track dolly shot. I know I've seen commercials, etc that revolve around the usage of circle track, but Google is just turning up nothing but useless tutorials filmschool101 style links.

VoodooXT
Feb 24, 2006
I want Tong Po! Give me Tong Po!

BonoMan posted:

I don't know why my google-fu is not working here, but I'm looking for examples of a specific shot.

Basically... creative uses of the circle track dolly shot. I know I've seen commercials, etc that revolve around the usage of circle track, but Google is just turning up nothing but useless tutorials filmschool101 style links.

The one that comes to mind is this shot Michael Ballhaus did in Martha.

Kingo Ligma
Aug 24, 2019

Fuck yeah cinema is finally dead
Michael Bay's entire filmography is circle dollies zooming around truck nuts

powderific
May 13, 2004

Grimey Drawer
Really liked this series of match cut kinda circle dolly circle crane shots from Euphoria E4: https://youtu.be/3vCHqucEZcA?t=55

This isn't narrative, but Ólafur Arnalds has a couple sessions that use the circle track in a way I like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEj7xYyj9n4 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCFO1Cp766I

BonoMan
Feb 20, 2002

Jade Ear Joe

powderific posted:

Really liked this series of match cut kinda circle dolly circle crane shots from Euphoria E4: https://youtu.be/3vCHqucEZcA?t=55

This isn't narrative, but Ólafur Arnalds has a couple sessions that use the circle track in a way I like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEj7xYyj9n4 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCFO1Cp766I

The Euphoria shot is great, but can't use it in a client presentation. I know there's freakin' commercials out there that use the same technique why can't I find them ARGHHHHHHHHH

timp
Sep 19, 2007

Everything is in my control
Lipstick Apathy
Hey video people :)

I've been tasked with researching and purchasing items for a small business video production studio. It will be used for stuff like product feature videos, tech explainers, interviews, and any other type of company video one might want to produce.

A co-worker and I have finished our research and we're left with a list of items to buy. But before buying them, I figured it would probably be smart to have people who actually know a thing or two about video production review the list to make sure we're not wasting thousands of dollars on something we don't need, or forgetting something essential. Feedback welcome!

The room itself is your typical office space; dimensions are roughly 11ft x 16ft with a 10ft ceiling. My plan was to use a room dividing curtain to section off about 5 feet of the back of the room, which is meant to function as equipment storage, help with sound muffling, and make the room smaller, requiring less sound baffling overall.

---

CAMERAS
(1) Sony Alpha a7 III, (1) Gopro Hero9

LENS
(1) TAMRON 28-75mm F2.8 Di III RXD

JIB
(1) Edelkrone JibONE Bundle #053, including Pan PRO, HeadPLUS v2, case, controller, etc.

LIGHTS
(1) Neewer 700W Softbox

MICS
(1) EW 112P G4-A, (1) Shure w/ 20ft extension cables

TRIPOD
(1) Manfrotto 290 tripod w/ fluid head

EDITING SOFTWARE
Adobe Premiere (we already have Creative Cloud)

SOUND BAFFLING
(40) SoundAssured 4-packs, (2) Foam Bass Trap 4-packs

DATA STORAGE
(1) Seagate 5TB

BACKDROP
(1) Neewer Green Background Screen

HEADPHONES
(1) Sony MDR-7506

COMPUTER
(1) HP Pavilion Computer

ROOM DIVIDER CURTAIN
(1) BGment Room Divider Curtain

---

My co-conspirator recently added the jib bundle and he's 100% convinced it's needed. It's like $3,700 and by far the most expensive thing on the budget. To me it feels a bit like a novelty, but I can't deny it produces some great, professional looking shots.

Alright, light my rear end up! What's totally unnecessary, and what's totally obvious that I forgot?

Kingo Ligma
Aug 24, 2019

Fuck yeah cinema is finally dead

timp posted:

Hey video people :)

I've been tasked with researching and purchasing items for a small business video production studio. It will be used for stuff like product feature videos, tech explainers, interviews, and any other type of company video one might want to produce.

A co-worker and I have finished our research and we're left with a list of items to buy. But before buying them, I figured it would probably be smart to have people who actually know a thing or two about video production review the list to make sure we're not wasting thousands of dollars on something we don't need, or forgetting something essential. Feedback welcome!

The room itself is your typical office space; dimensions are roughly 11ft x 16ft with a 10ft ceiling. My plan was to use a room dividing curtain to section off about 5 feet of the back of the room, which is meant to function as equipment storage, help with sound muffling, and make the room smaller, requiring less sound baffling overall.

---

CAMERAS
(1) Sony Alpha a7 III, (1) Gopro Hero9

LENS
(1) TAMRON 28-75mm F2.8 Di III RXD

JIB
(1) Edelkrone JibONE Bundle #053, including Pan PRO, HeadPLUS v2, case, controller, etc.

LIGHTS
(1) Neewer 700W Softbox

MICS
(1) EW 112P G4-A, (1) Shure w/ 20ft extension cables

TRIPOD
(1) Manfrotto 290 tripod w/ fluid head

EDITING SOFTWARE
Adobe Premiere (we already have Creative Cloud)

SOUND BAFFLING
(40) SoundAssured 4-packs, (2) Foam Bass Trap 4-packs

DATA STORAGE
(1) Seagate 5TB

BACKDROP
(1) Neewer Green Background Screen

HEADPHONES
(1) Sony MDR-7506

COMPUTER
(1) HP Pavilion Computer

ROOM DIVIDER CURTAIN
(1) BGment Room Divider Curtain



My co-conspirator recently added the jib bundle and he's 100% convinced it's needed. It's like $3,700 and by far the most expensive thing on the budget. To me it feels a bit like a novelty, but I can't deny it produces some great, professional looking shots.

Alright, light my rear end up! What's totally unnecessary, and what's totally obvious that I forgot?


Are you doing everything inside this specific room? You don't need the jib or the GoPro.

The places you actually want to spend money are audio and lighting, and maybe a better DSLR long before that. You want three sources of continuous light, you definitely don't want cabled handheld mics (you don't specify which Shure which usually means a 58 but correct me if I'm wrong. Even if you're immediately incredibly skilled with your grip gear (you won't be, you will suck for a very long time) there's no point getting a beautiful shot of a poorly lit dude tripping over a mic cable. And if your audio is bad it doesn't matter what you've put on screen, you've already lost.

timp
Sep 19, 2007

Everything is in my control
Lipstick Apathy

Joe Bogan posted:

Are you doing everything inside this specific room? You don't need the jib or the GoPro.

The places you actually want to spend money are audio and lighting, and maybe a better DSLR long before that. You want three sources of continuous light, you definitely don't want cabled handheld mics (you don't specify which Shure which usually means a 58 but correct me if I'm wrong. Even if you're immediately incredibly skilled with your grip gear (you won't be, you will suck for a very long time) there's no point getting a beautiful shot of a poorly lit dude tripping over a mic cable. And if your audio is bad it doesn't matter what you've put on screen, you've already lost.

Thanks for the feedback!

- The idea is that most of what we shoot will be in the studio, but we want the option to go on field trips with it from time to time, if possible. Maybe take it outside for a torture test video, maybe take it to a client's factory for examples of usage in the field, etc. If that will require wildly different equipment then I guess we can probably scrap that, but if it'd be possible to configure the equipment so it's versatile enough to remove from the room and still get good footage (and maybe even audio?) then that's what we'll want to do.

- The Shure is actually a Shure MVL Lavalier Microphone. Sorry, should have been more careful about my labeling! The extension is just meant to be long enough to connect to the camera so we don't have to buy a wireless pack just to get the sound from one side of the studio to another. That felt superfluous to me but maybe that instinct was wrong!

tanglewood1420
Oct 28, 2010

The importance of this mission cannot be overemphasized
You will absolutely 100% require more than one light, even in a relatively small space. For static product shots you at the very least will need some fill to remove shadows. If you are ever going to do interviews with people then just lighting them with one soft light is going to end up looking very flat on camera. If you are doing green screen you will also need enough lighting to evenly light the whole screen and eliminate shadows, it will save you a lot of time when keying in post. I don't know what your budget is, but one big key light, two soft sources and a small compact punchy light you can move around is a good starting point for a studio. Also look at getting a set of flags and reflectors, they can make the world of difference in shaping and controlling the look.

For work in a small 11x16ft space a jib is total overkill. You don't have anywhere near the space to physically be doing tilts and crane shots and besides in a confined space it will look very boxed in a claustrophobic anyway (which may work for narrative film, but for corporate videos is not what you want). Get a decent slider instead, it will give you the shots you are probably thinking of in your head with way less hassle to set up - which means you work more efficiently and get more done on the shoot.

Audio wise, in addition to two lav mics you should get a boom mic with a stand. This audio quality on booms is higher plus you having two sources adds depth to the sound and also to hide any ruffling or scraping on the lav mic in the mix.

If you plan on doing product shots then a macro lens would be a good investment.

timp
Sep 19, 2007

Everything is in my control
Lipstick Apathy
I just wanted to pop in real quick to say thanks to Joe Bogan and Tanglewood1420 for the feedback! We've made some changes to our budget based on your suggestions :) I'd love to come back in here and post our first video once we're finally up and running! It will be a boring and soulless corporate product video but at least it'll LOOK like a million bucks

Kingo Ligma
Aug 24, 2019

Fuck yeah cinema is finally dead

timp posted:

I just wanted to pop in real quick to say thanks to Joe Bogan and Tanglewood1420 for the feedback! We've made some changes to our budget based on your suggestions :) I'd love to come back in here and post our first video once we're finally up and running! It will be a boring and soulless corporate product video but at least it'll LOOK like a million bucks

Cool! Best of luck and in the words of every failson producer on the planet, have fun with it!

Captain Organ
Sep 9, 2004
cooter. snooper.
Does anybody here have a brand and model preference for SSDs that will run in a Ninja Inferno? And for that matter, for a RAID/NAS box and drives that will store archival footage, scans, etc.?

d0grent
Dec 5, 2004

Does anyone know of any CTB and CTO color gels with a bowens mount setup? I'm looking for a setup to switch gels quickly on the fly.

VoodooXT
Feb 24, 2006
I want Tong Po! Give me Tong Po!

d0grent posted:

Does anyone know of any CTB and CTO color gels with a bowens mount setup? I'm looking for a setup to switch gels quickly on the fly.

Just have 24”x20” sheets and C-47 them to whatever you can clip them on to?

d0grent
Dec 5, 2004

VoodooXT posted:

Just have 24”x20” sheets and C-47 them to whatever you can clip them on to?

not fast enough :colbert:

powderific
May 13, 2004

Grimey Drawer
Aputure has bar doors with a magnetic gel holder. I think one of my soft boxes from them has one as well. Seems like it wouldn’t be too hard to roll your own version with a gel frame, some glue, and some magnets.

VoodooXT
Feb 24, 2006
I want Tong Po! Give me Tong Po!

d0grent posted:

not fast enough :colbert:

How fast do you need to change them?

d0grent
Dec 5, 2004

Well I'm currently aiming my main studio light into an big umbrella reflector that has a diffuser on the other end so it's a giant softbox, but it's pretty inconvenient to access the area where I would attach a gel, so something that seems like a minor improvement would actually be exponential for me.

d0grent fucked around with this message at 16:54 on Mar 5, 2022

VoodooXT
Feb 24, 2006
I want Tong Po! Give me Tong Po!

d0grent posted:

Well I'm currently aiming my main studio light into an big umbrella reflector that has a diffuser on the other end so it's a giant softbox, but it's pretty inconvenient to access the area where I would attach a gel, so something that seems like a minor improvement would actually be exponential for me.

Do you have the picture of the setup?

cruft
Oct 25, 2007

I hope this is the right thread to ask about lighting. If not, apologies for misposting, and thanks to anyone who can direct me to the right place.

Since lockdown, my wife and I appear to be getting more into music video filming and production, for the local Irish dance troupe. It's turned into a fun hobby for us, and a productive way for me to continue using all my DJ equipment rather than trying to hire myself out as "DJ 50-years-old-but-still-relevant-I-promise".

Immediately we're looking to recreate the lighting in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=907JdLh_WPM at 2:00. It looks to me like we could use three or five 12-light RGBW LED PARs, similar to Chauvet SlimPAR Quad 12 IRC. There'd be light at 45-degree angles to the dancers, set in the warm end of white, and then a fifth behind them set at the cool end of white.

What I'm wondering is, for a space about this size, how bright are we going to need to get? Would that Chauvet light be enough?

Thanks!

e: realized we can't use soft lighting, removed mention of it.

cruft fucked around with this message at 21:20 on Jul 31, 2022

jmnmu
Nov 21, 2004
f
Can anyone recommend an affordable ($300 - $500) and fairly easy to use drone with decent video quality?

I'm almost done filming a low budget documentary about a large abandoned building. I've shot most of the film so far using a Canon 60d with an adapter for Canon fd prime lenses. I'm happy with the quality of the footage for the price I paid for the equipment, the fd lenses give it a "film" style look that's appealing to me. To wrap up the film I'd like to get some drone footage of this quite large (10 stories or so) abandoned industrial building. This is probably just going to go onto youtube so I don't need crazy high quality.

I'd like something fairly easy to operate, capable of staying quite still in the air, and capable of getting fairly close up to an abandoned 10 story building without crashing. The footage is going to be mixed in with the Canon 60d footage shot at 24 fps, so something that appears kind of similar would be nice. I have very little experience operating drones so any advice would be great. I alternatively could pay the $300-$500 to get some people I know to shoot the drone footage for me, but I prefer doing it myself as it will allow me considerable more time to experiment and get all kinds of shots rather than pay all that money for one or two briefer filming sessions with seasoned drone operators. All advice, warnings, etc. is welcome. Thanks!

Poo In An Alleyway
Feb 12, 2016



jmnmu posted:

Can anyone recommend an affordable ($300 - $500) and fairly easy to use drone with decent video quality?

I'm almost done filming a low budget documentary about a large abandoned building. I've shot most of the film so far using a Canon 60d with an adapter for Canon fd prime lenses. I'm happy with the quality of the footage for the price I paid for the equipment, the fd lenses give it a "film" style look that's appealing to me. To wrap up the film I'd like to get some drone footage of this quite large (10 stories or so) abandoned industrial building. This is probably just going to go onto youtube so I don't need crazy high quality.

I'd like something fairly easy to operate, capable of staying quite still in the air, and capable of getting fairly close up to an abandoned 10 story building without crashing. The footage is going to be mixed in with the Canon 60d footage shot at 24 fps, so something that appears kind of similar would be nice. I have very little experience operating drones so any advice would be great. I alternatively could pay the $300-$500 to get some people I know to shoot the drone footage for me, but I prefer doing it myself as it will allow me considerable more time to experiment and get all kinds of shots rather than pay all that money for one or two briefer filming sessions with seasoned drone operators. All advice, warnings, etc. is welcome. Thanks!

My husband uses the DJI Mini 2 drone for video. It's fairly well priced (just under €500 here) and the camera quality is excellent. Worth the longterm investment.

jmnmu
Nov 21, 2004
f

Poo In An Alleyway posted:

My husband uses the DJI Mini 2 drone for video. It's fairly well priced (just under €500 here) and the camera quality is excellent. Worth the longterm investment.

Thanks this looks like a solid recommendation. I see there's a very similar model (DJI Mini SE) that is a few hundred dollars cheaper too. I'll spend the night debating over whether it's worth an extra couple hundred bucks for the 4k camera vs. the 2.7k.

cruft
Oct 25, 2007

cruft posted:

I hope this is the right thread to ask about lighting. If not, apologies for misposting, and thanks to anyone who can direct me to the right place.

Since lockdown, my wife and I appear to be getting more into music video filming and production, for the local Irish dance troupe. It's turned into a fun hobby for us, and a productive way for me to continue using all my DJ equipment rather than trying to hire myself out as "DJ 50-years-old-but-still-relevant-I-promise".

Immediately we're looking to recreate the lighting in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=907JdLh_WPM at 2:00. It looks to me like we could use three or five 12-light RGBW LED PARs, similar to Chauvet SlimPAR Quad 12 IRC. There'd be light at 45-degree angles to the dancers, set in the warm end of white, and then a fifth behind them set at the cool end of white.

What I'm wondering is, for a space about this size, how bright are we going to need to get? Would that Chauvet light be enough?

Thanks!

e: realized we can't use soft lighting, removed mention of it.

I'm going to reply to my own post here, in case someone else comes looking.

Get clamp lights from the hardware store. They're (2022) about $10 each, you can swap out any bulb you like. We used some 150W-equivalent daylight colored LED bulbs, and then bought some cheap "color gels" from Amazon. We're using 9 clamp lights in this space, so about $120 worth of stuff, which is cheaper than anything I was looking at previously. They nest in each other so they pack well, you can clamp them to almost anything, they're nice and bright, and you can even put aluminum foil around them to act like cheap shutters.

At some point I'll be like "I like the clamp lights but I really wish they would ______" and then I'll know what to look for in a more expensive light. But I don't know what that is yet, so I'm happy with my clamp lights.

Mister Speaker
May 8, 2007

WE WILL CONTROL
ALL THAT YOU SEE
AND HEAR
I think I've asked this before, but what is the general best practice for timecode sync and what 'department' usually holds the master clock?

Today I worked as audio recordist on a very amateur project for a friend, and it felt really nice getting back into the swing of things and learning my gear (since I also supplied basically everything for the shoot). It's been a while since I've done anything like this and while today definitely boosted my confidence for future gig opportunities, it took me longer than I wanted to get a timecode solution with the little wireless boxes I had (pair of UltraSync Ones and the Atomos device in the same ecosystem) and throughout the day I became curious about how to best handle master/slave (this nomenclature sucks) relationships with the gear.

At first, the audio recording device was the master and the wireless boxes simply existed as transceivers. But they also generate clock themselves, and I noticed that of all the gear used, their little tiny batteries lasted all day - when I had to replace the AAs in the Zoom recorder I went "I hope this works" and changed its connected One over to internal/master. It didn't skip a beat and powering down the recorder didn't affect any other device's tc signal.

So real-deal film sets must have some high-quality dedicated clocks, right? A box that clocks, and nothing else? I assume so, because recording studios often have the same thing; even if you're using primo Avid converters your million-dollar studio probably also has some incredibly robust clock. Whose department possesses this mythical box and how many slaves does it tend to have?

Going forward in my amateur productions, I think I'm just going to use the li'l wireless box itself to govern the Zoom recorder (wired), and the Atomos monitor and timecode slate (wirelessly). Unless there's some critical fault with this plan? I think the slate itself generates a muscular clock signal but the drat thing runs on six AAs and I'm not aware of a solution to power it while swapping batteries.

Mister Speaker fucked around with this message at 02:36 on Aug 21, 2022

tanglewood1420
Oct 28, 2010

The importance of this mission cannot be overemphasized
Sound team is in charge of timecode, with the recorder acting as master timecode for all devices. Cinema cameras all have robust internal clocks, usually the recordist will just jam once in the morning and then once at lunch with each camera every day. Likewise, they will jam with the digital slate before first turnover and again at lunch. During any extended downtime it's common for the sound recordist to swing by camera department and do a manual timecode check with help of one of the ACs.

You can get timecode boxes that sit on the camera all day, Tentacle is one brand I've seen, but generally they aren't used on professional sets. Camera team (me included) hate anything that takes up real estate on the camera body that isn't necessary, especially when running steadicam or gimbals. An Alexa or a Venice is more than capable of keeping sync for five hours without one.

tanglewood1420 fucked around with this message at 03:04 on Aug 21, 2022

powderific
May 13, 2004

Grimey Drawer
OP already has something like a tentacle in the ultra sync ones. Little fancier with screen and whatnot.

I think using the ultra sync as primary in your plan is good and is what I would do.

Mister Speaker
May 8, 2007

WE WILL CONTROL
ALL THAT YOU SEE
AND HEAR
Thanks pals. I figured there wasn't inherently much wrong with using the Ones, it just feels odd I guess to rely on such a tiny piece of gear as the clock, but like I said the batteries last forever and I believe you can even hot charge them from USB while they run.

Total newb "I think I know the answer but" follow up: to 'jam' sync is to force a clock reset signal to a device such that it lines up in case it's drifted or was started at a different time, correct?

tanglewood1420
Oct 28, 2010

The importance of this mission cannot be overemphasized
Yep, set the camera to external timecode and connect aka 'jam' the sound recorder (or intermediary device) with the camera. It will overwrite the internal clock and start a new cycle based on what is being received.

shame on an IGA
Apr 8, 2005

:facepalm:

barclayed
Apr 15, 2022

"I just saved your ass... with MONOPOLY!"
e: i meant to post this in the video editing thread

barclayed fucked around with this message at 01:56 on Mar 6, 2023

nitsuga
Jan 1, 2007

Hey! I picked up a cheapish ($325) Canon XA10 on a whim, and it's proven pretty useful for getting skateboarding clips and b-roll type stuff. It does have some quirks, like a busted USB port and doesn't seem to have the ability to record direct to a card even in manual mode. So with that I'm wondering if it might be worth spending a bit more on a XA30 or something similar, or maybe just trying my luck with another XA10. Seems like XA11's and above all go for about $700 until you get into the 4K cameras.

I don't think I'll be doing anything more than making some short pieces for YouTube and my own enjoyment. I'm in pretty deep with Canon having a good DSLR setup and all, but I could be convinced to look further afield. Really do like the camcorder's form factor and don't have quite the budget for a 4K camera I don't think. Open to recommendations, even to just deal or use my iPhone.

Edit: For what it's worth, I found out the XA10 I have is a PAL version. Shoot. Found a decent enough deal on an XA11, so going to give that a go.

nitsuga fucked around with this message at 21:04 on Jul 6, 2023

C-Euro
Mar 20, 2010

:science:
Soiled Meat
Looking for a holiday present for my brother's girlfriend, she is a content creator who does short-form video stuff but is looking to get into shooting longer videos, and he mentioned that she looking for better/larger storage options for said videos. Anything to watch out for or consider while shopping around, or is storage is storage is storage? I believe she's more in need of cards to use while filming rather than for storing finished videos but I'm not 100% sure.

powderific
May 13, 2004

Grimey Drawer
Hmm, I think you kinda need to know if she needs cards or storage space, and it'd help to know what she's shooting with as that could affect what kind of cards you'd want. I dunno, it's kinda hard to buy something like this for someone else if you don't know a very specific ask. SSDs are nice for storing footage while you work on it, big hard drives are nice if you're shooting a lot, but if she needs cards for the camera most they may actually be the most affordable gift of all those.

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nitsuga
Jan 1, 2007

Yeah, it sounds like a good situation for a gift card to B&H or similar.

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