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JazzBox

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Posts posted by JazzBox

  1. 3 hours ago, tupp said:

    Your terror is justified.  Avoid looping like the plague.  It's not something you would ever want to do.  If you do not record your audio live, you are in for a long slog through the mud in post.

     

    ADR was discussed in a similar thread last week.

     

    In this post, I embedded a video example of the proper way to setup each take in an ADR session to save time.  If after watching that video you still think ADR is a cake walk, do a test -- try shooting one page of dialog with camera audio and then loop it.  See how you  feel about looping your entire project after doing that small test.

    I slowly started thinking to record the audio on set: I have no problems for medium/close up indoor (I own some pics from my recording studio and the Rode micro boom). 

    But how to achieve a decent sound when you record the establishing shot, the wide one? When the mic is far away from the actors the sound dramatically changes and it is... far and thin.

    And also outdoor, with a shotgun everyone will notice we are filming and we want to be as fast and as invisible as we can.

    I started to think to Lavalier: I own a Rode SmartLav+, it's ok for interview, but I don't know if it's good for narrative works. 

    Also: my Zoom H5 will be unusable since it is too big to hide near a Lavalier. 

    My other problem is that one of the characters it is not human, so we have to ADR it anyway and I don't want the sound is too different from its voice (made in studio like a voice over) and the sound of other actors in the room.

    I have no budget, I can spend no more then 300 €: what do you suggest? A Rode NTG4 (or 4+) shotgun, 2 lavaliers? ADR everything? 

    Thank you! :)

  2. 3 hours ago, jonpais said:

    Then I'll try to keep my zoom at 12mm... I also really like tracking shots with shallow DOF. I try not to stop any of my lenses down beyond f/8 because of diffraction issues. Loved Birdman!

    As long as you track by the side you have no problems, it's easy to remain at the same distance from the subject. 

  3. I shot the MCU with the Olympus 12-40 at 25mm f/2.8 on a gimbal: more then that, if you precede or follow the actor you loose the sense of movement and the parallax effect, while it is great if you follow him/her on the side. 
     

     

    After that video I made other shot with the gimbal and the sweet spot was between 12mm and 18mm.
    I made this part at 14mm f/2.8 and I think it is more dynamic then at 25mm. 

    Of course no focus pulling during the shot, I just had to remain at the same distance from the subjects.

    Hope that helps :) 

     

  4. 2 hours ago, sanveer said:

    Yeah I guess. Andy has the most hands-on experience with the G7, under various lighting and shooting conditions. So, I guess, it's good for everyone to learn.

    My saying that was merely like soliloquy. And, I agree with that bit about recording sound in the field instead of ADR (lapel mics on the talent's chest, inside clothing could be a great idea). You can still get reasonably good sound (though a little cleaning might be required to prevent it sounding like a documentary, due to some background noise the mic with pickup). 

    I'm tempted with shotgun outdoor... But I also think that it could slow down the work... 
    I have to think about it... :) 

  5. 4 hours ago, sanveer said:


    Just out of curiosity, isn't this like a private chat, instead of a group discussion, since 'Andy' is the one whom you want to address the question to ("Dear Andy")?
    Maybe a private message would have been better in this case. That's just my opinion ... 
     

    I wrote here, since it is something that could be helpful for 99.9% of the people here: "Dear Andy" is because I think he's the best one to talk about Panasonic cameras and all the users should be happy to read what he has to say about.  
    I work with those cameras and I have some great results, but I mostly shot music videos. He use them for features, where the look is less stilized then in a 3 minutes music video.

    Maybe his experience and his answers are something everyone could benefit. 

    But of course, it is my opinion. And of course, everyone has other answers is more then welcome. No "private chat" here, just the right recognition of authority to the people that boost my way of working. 

    Remember that if it not was for him and Andrew I (and all the EOSHD users) would still shot videos with Canon 7D, complaining that Canon should give us a better codec, 4K, slow motion...

  6. 3 hours ago, andy lee said:

    0-255 all my cameras are set to this

    I would use both the G7 and GH4 and shoot 2 cameras all the time shoot a mid at 35mm and a tight head shot at 70mm at the same time .

    Thank you very much for your precious tips!

    I have to do that! 30 degrees rule for framing mid and head?
    I was worried I had not a Metabones for larger shot (so planning to use the Olympus 12-40 for that kind of work), but a mid at 35 is certainly something I can easily achieve :) 

    How to light the set for f/2? It means having the "right" exposure (white on the histogram) at f/2 and then underexposing 2 or 3 stops?
    Sorry for the dumb question, but I always try to shoot at the lowest ISO with 1/50 :) 

    Tiffen for ND on the mattebox is ok? 

    Huge huge huge thanks Andy!!

    2 hours ago, tupp said:

    Sorry to butt-in, but looping all of the dialog for your web series might not be such a great idea.   You shouldn't really need to do so, unless there is some constant, uncontrollable, overbearing noise on set.

     

    It takes a lot more time and additional resources for all of that overdubbing than it does to merely get the audio right when shooting.  If you are paying your actors, looping your entire show could add 25% in cast expenditure. Add to that the cost of time and kit rental (and recording booth) of the post sound person.  Plus, your director has to work the entire ADR session.

     

    Furthermore, there will likely be moments at which the overdub will sound/look fake.

     

    With the the many excellent, inexpensive audio recorders out there, one can easily obtain nice, clean, genuine dialog sound on set.    Your BM Video assist might make a nice audio recorder.  In addition, using one of the recent NLE audio sync plug-ins makes it almost effortless to get that separate sound placed precisely on the timeline.

     

    Audio is 1/2 of your show.  If you are not knowledgeable and experienced with audio, it might be wise to hire a separate audio professional to handle that department.

     

     

    We are going to shoot in Naples, a city full of noises. 
    I have a little recording studio full of mics, preamps etc... so I can do that at no costs apart my time. I also have a "travel kit" with a Mac, an Apollo Twin soundcard, a nice mic an a reflexion filter, so I can go directly to actor's places to record them after the editing (I live 400 km from Naples).

    Of course It could sound "fake"... but I'm scared of recording on the set, because all I have is a Zoom H5 and a couple of cheap pencil microphones. 
    The Rode NTG4 (or NTG 2, the two mics I could afford) is ok for outdoor but not for indoor recording. 
    The Zoom H5 preamp is quite noisy... so I think I could have a better chance with ADR: all actors are professionals, I think that they could do that.... 
    Especially because one of the characters is an "object", not an human, so I have to ADR anyway for this character. 

     

  7. Dear Andy,

    since I learned 90% of what I know about Lumix mirrorless from you and Andrew, I write you asking some tips for an incoming web series I'm going to shoot in September.

    I have also a BlackMagic Micro Cinema Camera, but we have to shoot 6 episodes of 5 minutes in 6 days, so the Director asked me to be as quick as possible and I opted to use the GH4 with which I'm more confident.
    As you suggested me I ordered a G7 (it should be here in a couple of days), since we will shoot a lot of underexposed indoor scenes with minimal LED lights (2 x 600 LED, 1 x 150 LED and a couple of panels and gels).

    -Do you think is it best to use the GH4 or the G7 as main camera? 
    -Does it worth to shoot multicam (one for the master shot and one for another angle) and which setting would you use on both? 4k or 1080? Natural? Contrast and saturation? For 4k they seems similar, for slow motion the GH4 codec seems more solid, but maybe it's just math :) 
    -Is it safe enough to shoot everything with only audio from the cameras for reference and at the end of the editing to ADR all the episodes? 
    -Does it worth to record externally with BM VideoAssist I own or the internal codec of G7 and GH4 is good enough? 
    - Is the peaking of G7 reliable as the one on the GH4? 
    - The lenses I own are the Olympus 12-40 f/2.8 and some CY Zeiss (25 f/2.8, 28 f/2.8, 35 f/2.8, 50 f/1.7 and 28-70 f/3.5-4.5)

    I'm going to rig at least one with a cage/follow focus/handle similar to yours.  

    What would you use as A cam (and lenses) in order to have the best quality in less time?

    Thank you very much for your patience,
    Simo :) 

  8. 6 hours ago, PannySVHS said:

     

    Hallo video afficiandos!

     

    I recently read about @Inazuma´s and @John Matthews´ A3G3 for the GX80 and GX7 in the GX80 thread and @jase´ examples as well. I did some

    filming with this and another setting about three weeks ago.

    I´m kind of a Panny fan and have been enjoying the great value I´m getting out of my G6 I bought about a year ago.

    It was my first step into digital.

     

    So when I bought my Panny G6 last April due to bushman films and Andy Lee on Andrew´s forum, I had high expectations.

    I was exited about the nice HD footage the G6 let me shoot. Bought an editing machine with a 2nd generatoin I7 2600K- great

    value for starters one year ago. Now of the sudden I had this digi tech at my hands coming from SVHS-C camcorders

    when I was a teen. Just that Panasonic colors didn´t seem that awesome to me, rather just okay.

     

    Last fall I got my hands onto Davinci and a GTX970 and got myself started into the joys of messing around with video color.

    The G6 held a few surprises for me. I´m surprised by the color "hidden" in that 24mbps 24p codec and even the 28mbps for 50p.

     

    A friend of mine wanted me to test some slomo, if codec would hold up for 50p, if she could use Panny Slomo for a kind of a Ballhaus effect for her project.

    So there is no plotline here. All handheld, with a 28mm FD, WB at 7000K with A3G3 and some A3M9, harsh sun at 4-6pm.

    Some hoolahoop parts are shot in Extele and the closest framing is an additional larger percentage zoomed in with Davinci.

    So now I would like to share my share I got out of the Panasonic colors.  :)

     

     

    Great! I really like your video!
    G6 + Canon FD was also my first step in mirrorless world (thanks to Andrew and Andy) and I started to have far better  results than with Canon DSLR.
    All the best!

  9. 21 hours ago, andy lee said:

    ps I always keep the g7 at 800 iso or under , I shot 80% of the Pandora movie at 800 iso and I went down to 640 for the rest of it , this film is mainly all shot at night there are no day scenes in the movie at all , so the G7 let me shoot in the low light 3 or 4 stops under exposed that I like to work at to get the look I use.

    So light your set for 800 iso , if you start going to 3200 etc and higher you will get noise ! thats life!! so use the camera in its sweet spot 800 and under .

    The problem with my GH4 is that I shot this video at 500 iso. Honestly it was the first time I had problems with noise in the mids.  
    The histogram was "nice" (no black crushed out and enough highlights). Probably I had to check better the middle area, measuring the light on his face etc...
    In the past I shot a lot of video at 800 and some at 1600 with the GH4, never had problems, for that I asked if my GH4 was faulty :) 

  10. 2 hours ago, M Carter said:

    There's always going to be something more to buy. I don't know that you "have to" buy a new system to get the look you want. I'd use more light, but in the same proportions, get the iso down. With 8-bit footage, I try to fill in the blacks a bit more, just a big source of fill to bring everything up a half stop or so. Sort of like "lighting flat" vs. a flat profile, and then push up the blacks in post. I never mess with faux-log or anything-log with 8-bit though, just seems to noise everything up in the long run.

    By the way, on my screen at the posted resolution, there was no noise that really jumped out at me. Full screen there's a lot of noise in the mids, which is odd. But nothing neat video wouldn't work well on.

    You're right!
    When I have time to set up the camera I prefer the ProRes 10 bit from the BlackMagic Micro Cinema, I love the BlackMagic codec, but normally for quick gig I use the GH4 that is far more easy for my taste: changing WB, ISO, Shutter Speed etc.. it's super fast, while on the BM it's quite slow.

    With GH4 I started with Cine-D, but after some times I went for the Natural profile. I'd like to buy the G7 in order to have a nice little camera that could become the B camera when GH5 will arrive. 

    Probably I never noticed that noise because normally I use a lots of light. I'll put more attention to lights next time! :)

    58 minutes ago, andy lee said:

    the G7 is significantly better in low light than the GH4 it has a newer cleaner better sensor , you dont get those issues with the G7 , its very clean in low light blacks . its is noticably better .

    I tried it and I loved it! A friend of mine has it and it is a great camera, even in 1080p!

  11. 3 hours ago, funkyou86 said:

    Your GH4 is not faulty. I'm having the same issue with mine. Just shot a video at night, and it's full of noise, I was shooting with ISO 400. IMO it's the downside of the MFT sensor, but I noticed that grading helps to smooth this noise out.

    Here are some snapshots from my footages (straight from the camera).  The second one was shot in 4K, the first and last one in 1080p 200mBit/s

    vlcsnap-2016-07-14-11h36m26s140.png

    vlcsnap-2016-07-14-11h37m04s200.png

    vlcsnap-2016-07-14-11h37m50s299.png

    Thank you! :)

    2 hours ago, bunk said:

    I think there lies your problem. I keep saturation to 0 or even plus 2 when shooting in the dark. It doesn't prevent the 'grain' but it keeps "grain clouds" to a minimum. Not a huge difference, but visible.

    Apart from that I think your choice of lights (green red) might have amplified it and explain why it didn't happen at other occasions.

    ...for what it's worth.

    Thank you! :)
    Yes, the lights was just what we have in that room plus a mini-Led... normally I tend to shoot with far more light... Luckily that was not a paid gig, but just a favor for a friend... but I think I have to buy the G7, that (Andy Lee says and I'm sure of that seeing the results) it is far better in low light. 

  12. Dear all,

    some days ago I shot a little promo for a friend with my GH4, a practical light and a mini-LED to have a sort of "chiaroscuro" on his face.

    I shot with "natural" (with contrast -3 and saturation -5), 25 fps, 1/50, 500 ISO, 3400° K and 1080 - 100mbps. The lens was a CY Zeiss 35mm f/2.8 (at 2.8).

    I exposed with the blacks "kissing" on the left but not crushed out.

    I see some bad "grain" on the curtain (I noticed it before in other videos I shot, but just when underxposing seriously) and a lot of moire on the guitar' strings near the soundhole. 

    I'm going to buy a G7 as soon as possible, but in the meantime I'd like to shoot as underexposed and low-key as much as I can: I'd like to have a look similar to Andy Lee's Pandora, with great chiaroscuro but not grain in the middle. 

    It's the first time in 2 years I have this bad grain at so low ISO in the middle. Also the moire never was so severe: maybe I used not enough light (and not the same lights I always use), maybe my GH4 is faulty... I don't know.

    I post the test here: the first 20 seconds are the clip straight from the camera, the second 20 are the same clip with a little color test for a "vintage" look:

    the password is "gh4"

    Thank you in advance for your kind advices!

     

  13. 9 hours ago, andy lee said:

    Director is being bold ! and decided to ADR the entire movie - partly as the sets where built in a building under Manchester Airport flight path so Jumbo jets very five minuites made on set sound unusable !! that decission made it alot faster and easier for me as DOP !!

    Thank you Andy!
    It is something I'm considering for a web series: maybe it is far more easy to ADR six episodes of 5 minutes each then having perfect audio on the set :)

  14. 19 hours ago, andy lee said:

    Pansonic have just made me one of their Ambassadors this week ! I am working very closely with them now .

    That's a great news!
    You really deserve it! Congratulations Andy!
    I'm sure that with people like you they can be closer to real needs of filmmakers, because you really squeeze their cameras and you know every pro and cons :)
     

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