OT: Video recording and play back

One thing I do know a bit about.

ALWAYS use a TRIPOD

Regards

Maurice Larcombe Please remove one "r" from jandorr to reply by email

In message , Maurice & Doreen Larcombe writes

Me too!!

..if you possibly can, but if you must hand hold (and it's often necessary), avoid the telephoto end of the zoom like the plague. Stay on full wide angle and get closer to your subject. Camera wobble increases dramatically as you zoom in.

The two marks of "amateur" footage are camera wobble and indiscriminate "hosepiping" - waving the camera around rather than pausing the recording while framing the next shot. A good tip is never to pan the camera "on shot" unless you know in advance the framing on which the pan will end.

BTW a monopod is better than nothing and much easier to carry around than a tripod. Another trick is to look for something to lean against to help steady yourself. If none of that's possible, stand with your legs apart and hold the camera close to your face using the elbows braced against your body to form a "human mini-tripod". No real chance of producing stable footage using the LCD screen and holding the camera in one hand in front of the body!!

HTH

Cheers

Guy

One point to remember is that video takes a huge amount of memory. If you are serious, increase your RAM and install a second hard drive just for video use. With all due respect to Maurice, I have not found a tripod essential except on long shots using the zoom to it's fullest. On the subject of zoom, most camcorders use a combination of optical and electronic zoom. The optical is good but the electronic degrades the picture as it gets longer. The reason is that it zooms by reducing area of the CCD chip that is sensed. I have the facility to limit my electronic zoom. The degradation at 2:1 is almost un-noticeable in normal use. Practice panning before you use the camera in action. Most people pan far too fast. The pro's refer to it as hosepiping, swinging the camera around from one held shot to another. A directional mike is a good accessory. Most camera mike pick up everything, the closer the better. The closest is the camera man. Everything you say will be crystal clear. The Great Dorset is probably one of the worst places to use a camcorder. Their biggest enemies are water and dust. Dorset has one or the other. The dust can be especially penetrating. If you insist on using it, get a protective sport bag to seal the camera. Finally, you will need some editing software. There is lots around but I have little experience of any.

John

All sound advice. I'd recommend you sit down and watch something like "ER". Like it or not as a programme, their camera work is second to none and a good deal of it is hand held.

The other American show which uses a lot of really tight hand held stuff is the cop show on 5, "The Shield" and this will give you a perspective on its uses and abuses.

It is really worthwhile drawing up the briefest of shot lists, and having a clear idea of what you want to show in the video. As a cameraman said to me once "it's nice to work for someone that not only knows what he wants, but knows when he's got it!"

Be kind to the viewer, move the camera gently. Watch one of the programmes aimed at teenagers to see what not to do! If I want to get dizzy, I can just spin on my heel until I fall over and jerky focus changes, strangely angled and rotating shots are just distracting. I suspect they are used when the piece will not stand up without them ... The camera has a grammar of its own and anyone that walks off shot to the left will startle the onlooker by not re-appearing from that side of the screen. Don't do it unless you're making a point.

In edit, don't be tempted to use anything but straight cuts from shot to shot. All the gimmicky shutters, roller blinds and the like are just that, gimmicks. The straight cut works well because it replicates blinking and our brains are programmed not to notice it. Again, unless you're making a point, don't use very short sequences. Fades to and from black replicate sleep and bring a scene to an end.

I'll shut up now ...............

Regards,

Kim Siddorn, Regia Anglorum

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When operating the camera always keep the other eye open. Watch a professional and you won't see then squinting with one eye. This gives you the adavenge to seeing objects and obstructions off frame. Generally never pan the camera unless following a moving subject, and then sparingly. Having the other eye open will also give you adavance warning of when to stop before the shot 'goes off'.

Editing: Hopfully your camera a a Digital Video port (DV) rather than just a USB port. Generally the USB won't be fast enough for DVD quality. Software, be aware most if not all packaged software with the camera will be crap. It may look good but I've spend days with software than just won't take DVD quality in and then put it out the other end the same without altering it. Like PAL in and NTSC out when you don't ask for it. Visit

for excelllent resources where all that BS has already been filtered by some very knowlegable people. Use TMPGEnc for encoding and conversions, it's the only one I know that doesn't degrade or in other ways alter the file, especially when you don't ask it to.

I also suggest Adobe Premier for editing.

The really good operators can move their eyes independently. It takes a while to learn I'm told but it makes camera panning dead easy. I'm not there yet and I don't suppose Martin will be either. Hopefully your camera also has DV in facility. If not, it's well worth while getting it arranged. Storing your video on DV tape is far better than VHS or any analogue system. You may be able to burn to CD or DVD to maintain digital quality. That's good too. The important bit is to keep with digital as long as possible. I would disagree about only panning with a moving subject. I have had great success panning onto a scene from a point of interest. This works well if combined with a zoom in or out at the same time. Another good technique is to start a shot with a tight zoom, perhaps on a flywheel, and then pull back to show the whole engine.

John

In message , John Manders writes

Indeed it's the only way to avoid quality loss and only then if you transfer via DV to your editing package.

Agreed but burning to CD/DVD still results in some loss from the initial DV.

Agreed subject to being able to hold a stable shot when zoomed in. See my previous comment about knowing in advance where the end point of a zoom or pan will be.

WRT editing, I'd agree with the comment that fancy transitions are a waste of space in most circumstances. However I would encourage the use of mixes as well as cuts. Very useful for music sequences and as a way of joining pan shots which are still moving, apart from anything else.

Cheers

Guy

True hand held or steadycam? I have feeling that it is steadycam which isn't quite the same.

Couldn't agree more, the latter half particulary. I've lost count of the times I've heard "That was absolutly perfect, lets go one more time"...

Otherwise know as "crossing the line". A simple concept but very difficult to explain and can cause quite lengthy discussions on set if there is a suggestion that "the line" has been accidentally crossed. It can get very complex if there are more than 2 subjects in the recording.

Or simply the passage of time, like mixes.

Any captions should be there long enough to read. A good rule of thumb for the duration is the time it takes you to read them fully, at a normal pace, three times.

-- Dave Liquorice MIBS snipped-for-privacy@howhill.com Broadcast Sound Engineer pam is missing e-mail Alston, Cumbria, UK "It's all right leaving me."

There seems to be an awful lot of experience out there, what a shame there is such a dearth of rally videos concentrating on engines (rather than hot fog, 'classic' cars etc) on the market at the moment. Personally I miss the old White horse ones which were perhaps a little less than professional but rather emulated a walk around the engine enclosure pausing at each exhibit.

In 25+ years of being in TV broadcasting I never so much heard a hint of such an abilty. I think it would be easier to train the brain to work independantly on the image form each eye and switch concentration between the two. I can do that without much bother and to a limited extent watch both at the same time, I'm not a cameraman either. Do it day in day out and things would only improve.

It does work but to do it, or a variation, on every new engine shown would become very tiring. Static or developing (without the zoom) shots, illustrating what the narration is talking about is much better. But don't forget the "establisher wide" early on so the viewer knows the geography of the new sequence.

Hear Hear. Many of the offerings are total crap. Long overdue for some more Tim/Pat videos - if you are lurking :-) ttfn Roland

As a mere viewer, one of my pet gripes is where the subject is explaining a piece of equipment or an object, and the cameraman insists on dwelling on the speaker's face to the expense of the object being described.

OK, the human interest, showing the personality of the interviewee is certainly important, but it is so often overdone and leaves me wishing I could reach out and point the camera at what it is being described.

Same thing at a parade where we get lots of lingering views of the crowd and very little of the parade itself. This doesn't seem to happen too much at cricket matches - I suspect there might be too many there who really should be at work, and wouldn't appreciate their bosses spotting them!

Jack Watson

One problem there might be the inability of the editing process to separate sound & vision - recording a "live voice-over" , filming the engine running as the owner is talking about it might be a little difficult!

Brian L Dominic

Web Sites: Canals:

of the Cromford Canal: Light Railway:

It would be a very basic edit that didn't allow the abilty to replace the sound. On VHS you may have to drop another generation though which might not be a good idea. Any computer based editing package ought to allow this, if it doesn't get a different one. B-)

I also agree that not seeing what someone is talking about is *very* annoying.

Yes, of the 'proper' videos (with commentary etc) Knight-Macair productions are pretty much the best of the bunch. But I would still go for those old White Horse jobs as an antidote to winter withdrawal symptoms though ;-)

In message , Dave Liquorice writes

Basically shoot it once wide enough to see the speaker and what he's describing then get him to do it again and shoot it tight so that you

*never* see the speaker's face and also from a different angle. Then wallpaper the relevant bits of the first take with the pictures from the second one. You'll never have lipsync problems as all the sound comes from the first take. If you're careful about hand positions on cuts if something is pointed to, then it'll look pretty much like a two camera shoot!

I'd go a bit further and say that if you've paid money for something like that you should ask for your money back. I've been amazed at the low standard of some of the offerings for which people feel able to charge serious money.

Cheers

Guy

I'd always assumed that ER stuff was Steadycam work, but I saw a programme about "The Making of ..." and they simply had DigiBetas poised on their shoulders. I've been very impressed ever since!

For the many who won't know what a Steadycam is, it's a complicated set of damped counterweights and levers that serve to keep a hand-held camera steady. A good operator can run with one - gotta be fit, mind, they weigh a ton ;o)) There are various sizes, little ones for DV cameras are really pretty.

We once did some work for an in house video for the Largs Viking Centre. It was shot with two servo operated Betas on a special mount as the screen it was to be shown on is split and angled. It was without doubt the most tedious thing I've done, as "crossing the line" took on a whole new meaning!

For anyone that might be in the least interested, my re-enactment society, Regia Anglorum, is featured in "Battlefield Britain " this Friday. If you're quick, you might even see me!

Regards,

Kim Siddorn,

"Dave Liquorice" wrote >

Thanks for the reminder Kim. I managed to miss Boudicca - probably clashed with Big Brother or something ;-(