HurtinMinorKey

Please, not this debate again...

But the footage looks pretty good.

Sony Vegas Pro 12

I use this too. I grew up with SoundForge and ACID for audio, so Vegas was the first editor i used. 

To be fair, it looks like tv because it's used heavily in tv (as a B camera for the Alexa and an A cam on reality). The Alexa looks like tv, too, for that matter. Correlation isn't causation. Victims of success. 

I agree with your point in general, but i actually think it's one of the reasons Alexa is a bit overrated.  It's so expensive that it only gets used on the bigger budget projects.  So the overall quality of everything else (besides the camera) is going to be better, and therefore the final result will look better. 

Use handheld only when you have a very good reason to.  And don't compare handheld shots to static, compare them to slides, pans, tilts, ..etc.

I really hope you've scooped Canonrumors on this one.  They've been getting lazy .

Will this work with the BMCC EF? 

One with a riot shield attached to it. 

 

 

 

A laptop is non essential.  If it makes more sense to go with a desktop then I am happy to trade convenience for power.  What desktops would you recommend?

 

Then it definitely makes more sense to go with a desktop. Given your budget, you probably should be aiming for something that has a nvidia 745 GTX or 750 GTX GPU.  The 760 is a big step up, but it requires more power, and so the overall system is going to be more expensive.  The processor should probably be Intel i5 4400 series.  

Thank you for your replies.  A Macbook Pro is probably beyond current budget.  Thankfully, I've just come across an affordable alternative - the Asus N56 laptop.  My current thinking is to edit in Premiere Elements and grade in Resolve Lite (thanks to jonpais for the Resolve Lite recommendation).

 

I've noticed that many video editors opt for external drives to store footage.  Would a standard USB3 drive be sufficient or would a RAID drive be more appropriate?

RAID configured drive arrays are only really a necessity if you are shooting really large files (4K or raw) that need to be stored and edited in real time. The raid configuration will increase the rate at which data goes to the I/O hub, but since you will be shooting with G6s I don't think you need it.    And for the record, USB 3 is probably fast enough (~400MB/s) to handle 2-4 drive raid configurations, assuming the drives are not SSDs. 

The laptop you picked out looks to be a good budget solution. The SSD will make it snapier (faster boots and file transfers), but it will also add to the price and decrease your overall storage space..

The IQ is worth the 1/1000000 chance of smokey battery.   :lol:

Does anyone know anyone that actually owns one of these cameras?

Whatever they paid you to make this, it probably wasn't enough.  :D

Fucking masterpiece. Looks like it was shot on film. Great story, great lighting, great shot composition. 

If forced to nitpick, i would say that the opening shots in the graveyard were not as strong as everything that followed.  

Thank you guys!

Don't forget to let us know how it turns out. :)

Yes.

 

I am pretty sure neither one of those are on the official list of supported SSD's. Apparently SSD's can have fairly variable sequential write speeds that can drop too low causing the BMCC to drop frames. Here is a list of SSD's that should work without issue. Also be sure to format the SSD after every time you off load the footage, delete clips isn't enough as it fragments the drive and causes a drop in write speed. The BMCC need's a high stable sequential write speed or it drops frames.

 

http://www.blackmagicdesign.com/support/detail/faqs?sid=27541&pid=27542&os=linux

^This. Even the recommended SSDs will drop frames if you don't reformat once you delete.  

Cheers for that, I'll note that one down. 

 

What is your opinion on the G-RAID hard drives? 

I have no experience with them. Although in general, if you are going to use a raid array for storage, you should use at least some form of parity for backup. For this reason, i am against the 2 drive models using RAID 0.  

 

I'm stuck on the display options though. I don't have the budget to ALSO grab an expensive 4k monitor. I'll be delivering in 1080p, if I had a 4k monitor that would be for my own pleasure, plus the price will be bound to be cheaper once I actually need 4k for delivery  :).

 

Hold off on the 4K monitor.

If you want something 1080 for grading i'd consider NEC spectra-view:

http://www.necdisplay.com/p/desktop-monitors/pa231w-bk-sv

If you want the budget option you can go with the dell ultra-sharp:

Cheers. Need the advice, as I'm more camera/lights than computer!

 

You are exactly right, its worth pulling the trigger on the beast if business is at stake. I've been told that I don't need a Mac Pro for what I intend to do. I think this person failed to see I need a machine that will blast every project. Massively. No hiccups.

 

I think I will probably wait to til top 4k monitors reduce in price. What do you think are the best alternatives?

 

As for external hard drives, do you recommend any other than the Lacie 2big?

The lacie 2big 2 bay systems give a you a slight performance increase in RAID 0, but they don't provide any pairty in case a drive fails (if one fails, then the data is gone).

Storage reads are often a bottlekneck, if you want to take advantage of Thunderbolt 2, PromisePegasus is the way to go. I think their 8TB 4 Drive option (using Raid 5 gives you 6TB of storage) is a nice cost/benefit balance.

They go all the way up to 32TB, but they get pricy.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist.jsp&sku=1013099&is=REG&gclid=CNjfjrjuj70CFUVp7AodW3YAtg&Q=add&q=1&A=cart

If you plan on doing this for business, there is really no reason to go with the iMac. Go with the six core Mac Pro with 6GB GPU (3X2) for ~3900 and get a real 4K monitor for ~2500.

The aditional $3K-$4 should be a wash over the lifetime of the computer, and you will see noticeble performance improvements over the top spec iMac (time is money).

The reason you would use a 4K video camera to capture stills is to capture 30 raw photos per second and have more choice in the editorial. No DSLR can shoot 30 photos per second at this time.

No DSLR, but their is always the Nikon V1! :D

I have the Rokinon 16mm and 24mm cines. I love them both, especially the 24mm, which i can use on full frame sensors too. I think the Sigma 18-35 is a great lens too, and probably the best value.

Who wants to bet we see a new Black Magic cam at NAB this year? I put the odds at 75%.

If they are capturing the full 14 stops of the Sony sensor, then i'll jump through whatever hopes they deem necessary to separate it form the F5/F55

Don't get your hopes up, i'd expect it to be priced the 1D-C. 

This is a very good thing that DXomark is starting to measure the video camera sensor. It was long time we needed a proper scientific way to measure performance. It will pacify the forums, like it did in the photo world and debunk some of the fanboys.

 

For example, how will the Red and their fanboys take on the Dragon sensor numbers in DXOmark. On one side it is now the overall highest sensor ranking, but on the other side it has only 14.8 stop Dynamic range. Where are the 16-18 that Red has been barking over as the super feature of the Dragon. 14.8 is still very good but not much more compared to their main competitor Arri Alexa.

Have they scored the Alexa? I don't think so. I guess it's because the Dragon is marketed as stills also? They might as well run that test too.

As a director/AD, the Surface is great tool while shooting for shot list/script in split screen side by side, real, full version Excel, and real filesystems and Skydrive.

 

If it had monitoring abilities, and were just a bit smaller, it'd be the perfect filming companion.

It's got USB 3.0., so it should be able to handle a lot of inbound data.  I wonder if it's possible.

The day i can monitor on an IPad/Surface is the day i will buy an iPad/Surface.