|
Slim Pickens posted:Or why a 32 gig card for an HVX costs over $1400 for 80 min of footage. I mean, what the hell panasonic? http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/618135-REG/Panasonic_AJ_P2E064XG_P2_MEMORY_CARD_64GB.html  Anyway, full-time shooter checking in.. I shoot mostly HD and use Panasonic, though I have shot with everything from the RED to the Phantom HD to the Iconnix HD system. I primarily work between broadcast documentaries and corporate/commercial gigs. Never really had an interest in shooting features, I'm way to addicted to the travel and randomness that's thrown at me on a weekly basis from these other gigs. That's about all I've got to add for now. Anyone else? What's everyone working on?
|
#
¿
Jun 1, 2009 02:56
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 30, 2024 01:39 |
|
|
Yeah, on the prosumer/camcorder side of things, Panasonic isn't making it easy for people on a budget at all. The E series P2 cards will be useful for me, but will still make it tough for someone starting out. My HVX-200a package has been slowly growing since I bought it last year, but I've sunk more thank $12k into it at this point. Fortunately I get enough corporate work that it's already paid for itself. Otherwise I wouldn't have purchased any camera last year at all and just bummed my friend's Varicam or bugged one of the 3 other filmmakers in my city that have HVX packages ready to go at any time. High-end commercial and documentary work doesn't shoot with cameras at this level due to network snobbery, but if you can get yourself on some corporate gravy-train for a few years like I'm doing, it will help you build a great kit so you can work on your own stuff on the side, or move on to bigger and better things when the opportunity presents itself. It helps that I'm in a fairly corporate-rich market (Connecticut) and that I'm close enough to New York City to be on it's radar for some bigger jobs, but the same basic principle applies anywhere really. And for the RED - kickass camera.. I think it's really at a point where it can be considered a serious solution for a lot of different types of shoots. I had a green screen job last week that shot on a stage in NYC - we had previously been shooting with Panasonic HDX-900's but found limitations when shooting full-body action on green screen in 720 or 1080. The budget was modest, but not a $100 million Hollywood production, so we opted to give the RED a try. We shot with a set of Arri prime lenses - amazing quality, a RED camera is at it's best with a good set of cine primes. We shot full 4k, which even at the maximum settings, only barely filled up a 320gb drive by the end of the day. The on-set data management workflow was really simple - as easy if not easier than P2. We ended up sending the footage to a DI shop in Manhattan for a high-end color correct, also a critical component to shooting RED if you're at all serious about quality. In the end that only cost us about $800 which, if you're familiar with online editing in NY, is a bargain. Opening the 4k footage in After Effects and pulling a key is just insane, but in the end the RED proved itself and then some - and it only slightly raised the budget versus shooting with Panasonic or Sony. Unfortunately, I think a RED camera package is still going to be out of reach of the average low-budget production due to all of the above.. it may have a cheaper price tag than the high-end Panasonic or Sony gear to start, but when you really begin to price things out and factor in all the post-related issues, it becomes just another moderately expensive tool. I would still recommend getting your hands on one if you ever have the chance - totally worth it even if you're just playing around, it's a fun camera!
|
|
#
¿
Jun 1, 2009 04:59
|
|
|
ACanofPepsi posted:http://www.amazon.com/Beachtek-DX-A2S-Compact-Adapter-Camcorders/dp/B0007WVABY This is probably the best solution. Get one of those, plus a cheap shotgun mic, tape it to a long broomstick and you've got a cheap boom. The cheapest external recorder is going to cost as much or more, you'll have to deal with syncing the audio in post and still have to buy the mic anyway. Just remember though, audio is really critical to any production.. if you don't do a good job with it, the whole film will inevitably suck.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 12, 2009 23:30
|
|
|
Crop Top Skank posted:if any of you like me would prefer having a dedicated subforum over a single thread and you reply to that post, there just might be a chance of getting it back! I would love to have a subforum that filmmakers could post in, but the reality is there isn't enough of them here, at least contributing. Look at this thread, I haven't browsed it in days and there were only 9 new posts when I came in here now... I'm probably guilty of not contributing myself, but luckily it seems work has been picking up for freelancers a bit where I am lately, and I'm pretty busy shooting again, finally. Anyone else noticing this around the country?
|
|
#
¿
Sep 18, 2009 02:56
|
|
|
DSLRs are just another tool. I purchased a 7D two weeks ago on a whim. I already had a bunch of Canon glass, and my older Canon DSLR was a few generations out of date, so it wasn't a completely random purchase. But, in two weeks I've shot four paid days with the camera shooting HD, and now it's paid off in full. I've never had an equipment purchase work quite like that before. The two projects I was shooting for, one external video for a Fortune 500 company and one short film both happened to be great projects to experiment with the technology. The corporate video had enough of a budget to shoot with a second HD camera as backup in case the Canon poo poo itself. The short film was a simple concept that involved few locations and plenty of time to beat on the camera and see what bugs needed to be worked out. I have to say, in both cases, the Canon really impressed me. In the corporate video, simple talking head footage shot side by side with a P2 Varicam yielded interesting enough results that the client chose to go with the Canon footage for the final piece. The aesthetics of the image were different enough for me to do a double take at what would normally be a typical boring talking head video and actually say "hey that looks pretty cool" Aside from a few extra hours of post transferring the h.264 to something useful, the process was no different than any other corporate project I've done this year. For the short film, the results may not be too different from what a lot of people have seen posted around the internet, visually anyway. It had its issues. A few shots came out in jello-vision. The 20 hours of h.264 files are going to be a bitch and a half to get to the editor 5000 miles away on a different continent in a format that he can deal with. But yet how we were able to use the Canon as a tool to aid the whole process of filmmaking was pretty neat. Being stuck in the small kitchen of a 100 year old carriage house in Manhattan and having to make the location work is going to be tough no matter what the medium. I was certainly refreshing to be able to say to the director "no problem" when he wanted to flip things around and get a reverse angle that would have previously had us smashing a hole through the wall into the basement of the building next door. The space was just too drat tight. The solution? Put the DSLR 1" away from the wall on top of a tissue box and a wadded up kitchen towel used as a makeshift saddle bag and operate the camera using a hand held bathroom mirror to see the LCD screen from under the table the rig was sitting on. This gave me enough distance to shoot the reverse angle at 22mm, not all that much wider than the first angle. Does it make me an awesome filmmaker now that I've been able to set up and shoot a shot with a tissue box? No, it's still a low-budget project, just as it would have been if it was shot on an HVX-200 or an EX3 with a Letus or film or whatever. I personally think the concept was solid and the Canon was merely a tool that helped us execute that concept efficiently and creatively. Am I going to give up the main cameras I shoot with for most of my jobs and go all DSLR? Hell no.. but it's a nice tool to have in the bag.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 23, 2009 05:00
|
|
|
A lot of cameras have outputs that feed a signal pre-encode. I work a lot with external recorders like the AJA KiPro, which can be pricey (but rent cheap), but are a lot more functional to shoot with than being tethered to a computer. For example, I'm able to take an older tape-based Varicam and feed its HD-SDI signal into a KiPro. The KiPro is limited to Apple's ProRes codec for now, however using that, I'm able to capture a full raster 10-bit 1920x1080 image, versus 1440x1080 or 960x720 and an older 8-bit codec like DVCProHD. Not exactly the same situation as with a Sony HDV camera, but the same basic concept.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 12, 2010 19:43
|
|
|
The DVX and the HVX are practically the same as far as the menus and features go. The obvious difference is that the HVX goes HD. If you're able to get 35mm adapters for the DVX or the HVX, there isn't going to be a price different between the two as far as adapters go, so why not go HD? If there is a major cost issue between the production going with the HVX and the DVX, then go SD and stay SD, as has been mentioned. The HVX has been a relatively affordable HD solution from a rental standpoint for four years now, though, so go with that if you can.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 15, 2010 01:45
|
|
|
infiniteseal posted:Yeah you can transfer the P2 over firewire, I just mean you can't capture live from the firewire output like you can if you're shooting 24P. It's not a problem most of the time, but for example when I was doing a doc overseas we had a firestore, which requires the camera be in 24P. We only had 2 4GB cards so I'd have to switch back to 24PN if I wanted to shoot onto the cards and still get decent space. The Firestore can take the 24P signal from the HVX and do its own 24pn conversion on the fly as well. That does require a Firestore or other device capable of doing that though. The footage does cut seamlessly with 24pn footage shot on P2 cards or even tape-based 720p60/24 that has gone through something like duplicate frame removal in Final Cut.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 19, 2010 04:49
|
|
|
infiniteseal posted:Yeah exactly, but if you're trying to shoot onto P2 cards at the same time, then you have to use the full 24/60 or 30/60 frame rate so that the firewire stays active. If you're shooting 720P 24PN or 30PN tp P2, no signal is sent out through firewire, so there's no way to do a live capture unless it's through the signal out. Sorry, didn't realize you were running to P2 at the same time - that would definitely be an issue. It's unfortunate that the HVX and similar cameras are limited in that regard because it is ALWAYS a good idea to have a backup copy rolling for important shoots where you just can't do another take, or any bigger shoot where you can afford it, really. I just recently a did a shoot with a Sony EX3 recording externally to a KiPro box via SDI as our editor wanted ProRes files ready to go. In this case we were also able to roll Sony SxS cards simultaneously and with a little media management on set, had both copies at the end of the day for the editor to choose from because hey, hard drives aren't that expensive. Of course we were shooting 29.97, so there was no issue as we could send that signal via SDI and record native to the SxS cards.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 28, 2010 03:21
|
|
|
I work for a lot of independent corporate producers on smaller jobs and it's not uncommon for me to wait 30, 60 or even 90 days to see an invoice paid on those jobs. If it is a major job, I'll get them to agree to terms in writing, but that isn't always feasible for quick little jobs. In my 8+ years of doing it this way, I've had to chase people down once in a while, but I've only really been completely burned once for about $2k worth of an $8k invoice.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 14, 2010 01:12
|
|
|
Snap Your Fingers posted:What's everyone's opinion on putting late fees on invoices? I almost did it with this one, which could have proved beneficial to me. Regardless if a client agrees to pay a late fee or not, I've never found that they actually motivate a slow-paying client to pay any faster, and it's those slow-paying clients that are more likely to ignore your late fee when they finally get around to paying anyway. I would think that it might even put off clients who sometimes pay in that 90-120 day window (knowing a few myself), which could cost you future jobs with them. This is just in my experience, however. I don't know what the industry standard is.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 16, 2010 04:03
|
|
|
bassguitarhero posted:I shot this leaving it on the auto-iris http://vimeo.com/16346394 I never noticed a flicker I've found that auto-iris on timelapse doesn't so much flicker as it just keeps the image a bit flat when going in/out of the dark end of a sunset/sunrise. In a very high contrast situation, like a sunset where the sun is popping in and out of clouds, you can also notice a shift in exposure that can silhouette foreground objects while the camera tries to compensate for the sun itself. Keeping a constant exposure based on the "fully lit" portion is usually the best way to go, though it can be trial and error depending on the look you want. I've even sat next to a camera with a light meter and changed exposures manually to achieve a certain look. Whatever you do though, make sure the drat camera is not set to auto-focus. I did that once. 
|
|
#
¿
Oct 31, 2010 16:56
|
|
|
Steadiman posted:Awesome Scarlet stuff This is a great review, and some good opinions that I can't seem to find readily on the rest of the internet, especially the completely useless RED site itself. I've been in the market for a new camera for a good year now, and the Scarlet actually falls within my budget. I can't decide based on what I've read if it has a viable workflow for the majority of what I shoot, however. These days what I shoot is split between two markets. High-end natural history, wildlife and science documentaries (think PBS, NatGeo, Discovery specials), which cover a third of what I shoot. The other two-thirds covers the mid-to-high level corporate and commercial market in the greater NYC area. In other words, a lot of companies that look for and appreciate high production value (in talking heads), but don't necessarily want to pay for it. On any given project I shoot, producers love camera packages that keep them in sub-$1k rates and flip at the concept of camera packages that require more than a one-person camera department, but occasionally spend ridiculous amounts of money on a Phantom and Phantom tech to shoot something stupid in 1000+ fps. We shoot over 60fps on almost every documentary shoot we do, because hey, everyone likes to see animals and corporate suits in slow-mo, for some reason. Some day I'll have to cut a reel juxtaposing the two. With that said, some of what we've shot in the past has been RED, though most has been Panasonic Varicam (now with KiPro), and now we're starting to get into a bit of Canon DSLR shooting, as what we do involves a fair amount of international travel - something we can do a whole lot easier with a few DSLR packages in our carry-on. Considering all of that, I've been looking at the Scarlet with a Canon EF mount as one possible option. Knowing a lot of my corporate/commercial clients won't want to deal with the RED workflow, I've also factored a KiPro Mini (or similar portable recorder) into that budget to record directly to ProRes for clients who don't care about raw formats and just want their files at the end of the day to screw up themselves in post. Now nothing I do is onlined in anything greater than 1080, so I've also looked at the Sony F3 and Canon C300 (whenever it comes out) as possible alternatives. I also already own a decent amount of Canon EF glass, so both the C300 and Scarlet with their native EF mounts have been pretty appealing as options for the larger portion of lower-budget stuff I do. I've also looked at some of the newer Panasonic and Sony 2/3" ENG cameras, but realistically any of those cameras would exceed my budget, with none of the advantages of some of these newer cameras. I guess this question goes out to Stediman and anyone else that has experience with some of these new cameras/formats. Any words of wisdom?
|
|
#
¿
Jan 14, 2012 02:59
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 30, 2024 01:39 |
|
|
Steadiman posted:Hope that helps! It does indeed, thank you. Oh god, 4k consumer camera. I have enough trouble explaining to my clients why no, their $300 camera from Best Buy is not going to match a project we shot in 1080 and no, it's not going to save you money to fly around and shoot on your own. We actually had to take the time to try edit someone's crappy footage from around the country into a project before they agreed to let us re-shoot everything, costing them tens of thousands in overages. Countdown until I lose at least one corporate client because: "We've got someone in HR that owns a 4K camera... That's higher resolution than what you guys shoot, you should give us a discount!"
|
|
#
¿
Jan 14, 2012 21:09
|
|