September 8th, 2009 Rich
I was shooting a client’s musical DVD where performers lip-synced to pre-recorded music. Having a second camera made a lot of sense for reducing the amount of time shooting. I could get two different angles of a performance at the same time.
I found a refurbished Canon HV20 for under $500 and purchased it. My first camera had done a great job and this fit my price range. However, part way into the shoot, the camera failed. B&H Photo was very helpful in getting an RMA. I got a credit because I planned on buying a third camera.
So I would have a second camera on the shoot, I purchased a Canon HF200. At first, I was leary of going to an AVCHD camera but decided to give it a try when I learned it did 24 mb/sec., the same as the HDV format on my HV20. It turned out to be a good move.
There were several features lacking on the HF 200 that I decided I could live without since I was using my HV20 as well. The main one was zebra bars. That feature really helps with getting good exposures. It also didn’t have an eye-level viewer. But the pluses far outweighed the negatives.
The first thing I found was that there was less blurring on fast action. This has always been an issue with HDV. It shot full 1920x1080p instead of 1440x1080p I got with tape. That gave better images with fewer artifacts.
Shooting on a 16 gig class 6 SDHC card gives about 90 minutes worth of recording. Once a shot is taken, it can be watched on the camera’s display to make sure you got what you wanted. And of course, it doesn’t take an hour to dump a tape. It’s a drag and drop operation.
The camera feels tiny in your hand. I have heard that small cameras are hard to hold steady. But this one is easily cupped in two hands for rock steady operation. I can also use the loosened strap to hold it in one hand for a fairly steady picture.
– Rich Pulham
Posted in Video equipment | 2 Comments »
September 7th, 2009 Rich
I made a trip to New York for the B&H Photo classes on AfterEffects. I didn’t have the money to fly there but fortunately my wife works for JetBlue and I get to travel free. So I flew on the red eye from Salt Lake and arrived at about 6:30 local time. After eating and hanging around the JFK for a few hours, I took the subway into downtown New York. After the classes, I went back to the airport, had dinner, and flew home. It was exhausting but I brought my own food so all I had to pay for was the subway.
The classes changed my world. CS4 links all the parts together making it much easier to work. For example, I can work in Premiere, link the clip to a composition in After Effects, make my changes, and go back to the Premiere window and see my changes updated. Any change I make in After Effects will automatically update when I look at Premiere.
Photoshop can be brought into After Effects and the layers used there. This is very helpful in doing motion graphics for titles, etc. I can also link a sequence in Premiere to an Encore project and burn a DVD, with or without menus.
Perhaps the biggest realization was that this suite is fully capable of editing a full-lenth feature. Rather than using Vegas and exporting clips to After Effects, then rendering the clip and importing it back into Vegas, I could skip all those steps.
Price was an obstacle. CS4 Production Premium goes for about $1600. But I found an upgrade at Newegg.com $760 and a copy of CS3 Web Premium for about $300. That gave my wife Photoshop and her other favorite tools for her computer and the Production Suite for mine.
– Rich Pulham
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September 7th, 2009 Rich
I became very frustrated with using Sony Vegas Pro 8. My feelings, of course, may be because of my inexperience. But I had a lot of trouble with rendering more complex projects. If often crashed before it completed. And my green screen efforts didn’t do well when I added more layers.
My long-term goal is to make movies and I just didn’t feel like it was up to the job. I learned a lot. It was inexpensive and gave me a lot of basic tools. It has an easy-to-learn interface. Then I went to a seminar on CS4 at B&H Photo in New York City. That was an eye opener.
At NAB, Sony announced Vegas Pro 9. They touted the features in the new version. It sounded exciting. But when I went home, I found most of those features were already in Pro 8. There was no compelling reason to upgrade. Maybe they fixed the rendering problem, maybe they didn’t. I didn’t care.
– Rich Pulham
Posted in Video editing | 2 Comments »
September 7th, 2009 Rich
Wow, it has been a long time since I have posted.
I started my first film back at the end of May. It has been an all-comsuming project that left me with very little time. I’m now nearing the end of the project and for the first time feel like I have time to breathe. I’ll update you on my adventures and the things I’ve learned shortly.
– Rich Pulham
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March 2nd, 2009 Rich
It looks like the recession has been kind to the movie business. Ticket sales are up more than 17% and that isn’t just because ticket prices have risen. Attendance has surged nearly 16%.
It has been speculated that there are two reasons for this.
First, there is lots of troubling news with these tough economic times and people want to forget their troubles. Movies are a good place to do this. Considering other offerings, it is also a relatively inexpensive place to do this.
Secondly, studios have finally gotten the message that people want to have fun at the movies. They don’t go to see great acting and thoughtful plots. They want to leave the theater with a smile on their face.
This is good news for filmmakers. Increased demand should improve the chances for getting distribution.
– Rich Pulham
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