Video Editing: Image Size, Format, Camera, Lighting, Techniques

It depends.

CBS likes the SONY HDcam codecs.

DVCproHD is very common.

If it's being sent over Satellite than the local uplink defines the format.




You're probably going to encounter AVCHD codec based cameras in your budgtet. There are so many to choose from... good luck. The hot ticket for picture equality is the DSLR camera format and the nice lenses you may use.





For green screen the main factor is too shoot in as deep a color space as possible so a 4:2:2 DVCpro codec is a good choice. The latest stuff with RAW is even better.

Good lighting is more important than choice of backdrop material... but a nice non reflective fabric helps. Over here you can order a nice canvas backed flocked material from green screen suppliers pretty easily. I also use green poly-fleece from the fabric store and some pop open disks for work with garbage mattes. Having a nice soft rim light for separation helps a bunch.

If you have to shoot 4:2:0 or 4:1:1 then use one of the keying systems that automatically upcodes to 4:4:2 or 4:4:4 for the key process.


best regards,
mike

If you're looking at DSLRs for video, make sure they can operate for the length of time you need for your shot. Some overheat and shut down after a few minutes of video. They're designed for stills, not continuous video encoding. But some work fine, just do your homework.

The budget cameras like that Kodak have the exact quality as the price would suggest--poor lens, poor image sensor, and they skimp on the video encoding quality.

Chroma-Key works best with an uncompressed source. We do it by capturing direct to the computer's hard drive through an SDI connection without going through the camera's lossy compression codec. It's possible to chroma-key with the compressed source but works much better on the uncompressed format.

I like to think that a light bulb is a light bulb...

but those work lights will exhibit an uneven intensity... so you'll probably want to either punch them through some sort of silk, (make sure it's heat resistant and a 18" or so away from the bulb) or you'll want to try bouncing the light off of reflectors.

The expensive part about run of the mill video production lamps adds up to all the easy to use features like good built in reflectors, parabolas, fresnel lenses etc.

We usually light a small green screen with two 600 watt "soft box" fixtures or some "kino- flos" florescents. We occasionally use LED arrays and expect to see a lot more of those.



I really don't have advice cameras... I work with a wide variety of the so called pro video cameras and it represents a spectrum of quality that ranges form ok to good. It's easy to want to work with a better camera no matter how nice a camera you have.

One of my clients just got their new Red Epic this week and they are borrowing my lenses... I'm hoping that sort of picture quality will keep trickling down.

I happen to have a Canon 5D mkII that I bought for stills but that seems great for video too... for the price.

If you really have a concern about camera quality maybe you can consider what most of the industry does... rent a camera? It'd be a great way to start and it will seem expensive but you'll get the picture quality you need.


Good luck and have fun!

best regards,
mike



 

The canon 600D is an amazing camera for film. You'll need something more than just the kit lens though if you want to get a really shallow depth of field for that professional cinematography look. But the 50mm f/1.8 will do the trick and it's virtually a free lens at the price they sell it for. Though you can't zoom and it's a b!tch to focus nicely. I have a 17-55mm f/2.8 EF-S lens which cost more than the camera body, but it's great for film. I have had some overheating issues (I think that's what it was) but when it's running ok it will go continuously for the full 10 minutes (4GB file size limit due to it being FAT32). Audio is only via 3.5mm unbalanced mic jack so use your own equipment for that. One of the cheapest cameras out there for high quality film. Next serious step up is the 5D mrk II, and the price is a big step up too... In practise you'll typically find it much easier to achieve a shallow depth of field with the 5D, so it typically provides more aesthetically pleasing results. It also performs better in low light with less noise.

As for the lights, I have seen some pretty cheap film light kits on ebay. I would stay well away from those yellow ones you linked. They will give you a nasty yellow look on film which is probably going to look sh1te.. Something like these kits should be available in the US for a similar cheap price:


http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Photography-Photo-Studio-Softbox-Continuous-Video-Light-Lighting-Kit-VL-9026S3-/120804403445?pt=AU_Cameras_Photographic_Accessories&hash=item1c2080e8f5#ht_6451wt_906

And remember, the more you look into film, the more stuff you need. Tripod, steady cam, eyepiece etc. For filming outdoors while maintaining a shallow depth of field and optimal (for the typical cinema look) shutter speed of 1/50 (for 24fps film), you'll need a variable ND filter as there is WAY too much light which will overexpose your shot. Filming at 1/2000 just looks stuttery and not good. You need that longer exposure time. Costs just keep going up. But for a good shallow depth of field look for a good price, DSLR is the only way to go. Also if you'll be doing any low light shots. You just can't beat it for the price. If that isn't too important, a dedicated film camera may be a more viable option for you. If you go the DSLR route, you won't be able to do it for under $500. You'll get $500 for the bare minimum, but think $2000 + for something half decent. Depending on the look you're going for, that may or may not be worth it.

The T series are old models that don't do video... Only the EOS range have video capable cameras.

mattplaysguitar


The T series are old models that don't do video... Only the EOS range have video capable cameras.

Yes, the EOS T-Series for example T3i does HD 1080 P that is what I was looking at recently and retails for about $750. (USD), others available for around $450, don't know if I can get lower price then that. But yeah I like the Canon and already own two old still cameras including an old Nikon. 

Thanks Mike, all good info about lighting.

Agree, lighting in itself is an art and can be tricky getting the desired effect, considering all the choices of lights, material and techniques.

Good point about the dangers of using materials such as paper - paper lanterns might look pretty but are dangerous. I definitely would not take that risk.

And thanks for the headups on those yellow tripod stands. 

Hi Song craft,

You might want to see if you can still get a Cannon T2i. Not much different from T3i. Also, you should check out Magic Lantern (not company sanctioned) as it's a firmware upgrade for those cameras that deal with some of the gotchas that Mike is talking about.

You can get external audio in to those camera if you use something like THIS. With the Magic Lantern which gives manual control over the audio levels and this cable you can record directly to the camera.

HTH,

Brian

SongCraft


PS: Haven't bump into you for quite a while, hope your album is progressing well. All the best. 

Thanks man, album is going very well. Just finished the drums which involved about 40 minutes of audio and midi to quantise cause I'm not the worlds tightest drummer! Spent about 4-5 hours per song (10 songs) comping then auto and manual quantising. It got very boring and my mouse had an amazing workout! Now moving on to perfecting and expanding on my bass lines. Hopefully start recording that in 3-4 weeks fingers crossed. Slowly coming together! Drums were midi with real cymbals recorded with a pair of Rode K2's for overheads. Without any processing/mixing at all it's sounding really good and they already work well together. BFD for the drum component. Can't wait to mix it.

Yes, the EOS T-Series for example T3i does HD 1080 P that is what I was looking at recently and retails for about $750. (USD), others available for around $450, don't know if I can get lower price then that. But yeah I like the Canon and already own two old still cameras including an old Nikon. 

Ah, T series in that regard. In aus we go by the 550d and 600d etc so I forget the T2i and T3i references! T3i is great and from my research, not much cheaper than the T2i. It's worth the extra $50 or so for the flip out screen which I have used on many occasions.
As for lighting, I'll admit I have zero experience so I just figured the yellow wouldn't really work from just filming under incandescent lights that I have done. But mike knows more than me so go by that!


As for lenses, for that shallow depth of field look, you need a lens with a low f stop number. The kit lens zoom 18-55mm has an f-stop of 3.5-5.6. That's not too good looking on a cropped sensor body (cheaper camera bodies are cropped, the 5D is full frame and allows you to more readily get that look than a cropped sensor will - too complicated to explain why). Doesn't quite have the awesome look. If you're buying this for video, I wouldn't even consider the kit lens. I'd buy a cheaper camera instead. But for $100 you can get the 50mm f/1.8, which looks great. Only problem is you can't zoom. If you want a good lens with a low f-stop number that has a zoom, you're looking at the 17-55mm f/2.8 which will cost about 1.5-2 times the price of you're camera body. That's what I use and it's great for film. But it's expensive. So in my opinion, DSLR wise, those are your options around your budget!

And like mike said, they do have their limitations. A quick google search will find plenty of articles explaining them. But for the price and quality of picture, it's worth working around those issues for things such as film clips, tv adverts (a large amount are done on dslrs these days) and sometimes film and tv (mainly due to their compact size which can allow different angles not possible with traditional tv cameras without ripping down the walls).


I did all this research many months ago. My goal was/is filming film clips for my album. When it comes to canon dslrs and available lenses, I have researched the heck out of them. I know nothing else of other products. Sso if you want further advice in this area, I'd glad to be of assistance.

If that's all you're shooting, the standard 18-55mm f/3.5-f/5.6 kit lens should be perfectly fine. You won't see the shallow DOF anyway with a green screen. If you're doing anything else though, you may want it.

Just a thought on those cheapo yellow lights, remember they are incandescent so are going to put out a lot of heat. If you're not in a big room with lots of airflow, things are going to get toasty pretty quickly! Consider the energy efficient lights like I linked to earlier if you think that may be an issue in your environment. Heat should be a lot less from them.

SongCraft, there are ways to diffuse the lighting on work lights to make them more usable. here is an example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5Vk_31hqvY. In a pinch i have used them, but they are a challenge because of the lack of control and the heat