FHDcrew Posted October 26, 2023 Share Posted October 26, 2023 3 hours ago, IronFilm said: Blackmagic ATEM Minis Love this suggestion. Minimum switcher for me thoufh would be the ATEM Mini Extreme, or of course to continue with a software approach. You tend to need more than 4 inputs when implementing graphics, as you’ll need to either luma/chroma key or have 2 separate copies of the source running to your switcher, the key and fill. the mini extreme also has supersource which lets you layer and composite for picture and picture and whatnot. I’ll start a thread about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrSMW Posted October 26, 2023 Author Share Posted October 26, 2023 3 minutes ago, FHDcrew said: Only like 20 of the 70 people in the department ever think of doing media things outside of literal class Sounds about right and I’d be surprised if it was as high as 20/70. I’ve been to uni twice and the greater majority of those people on any course, seemed to lack interest. I suspect it has a lot to do with age as the mature students were always the most focused as I was second time round. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FHDcrew Posted October 26, 2023 Share Posted October 26, 2023 8 minutes ago, MrSMW said: I’ve been to uni twice and the greater majority of those people on any course, seemed to lack interest. I suspect it has a lot to do with age as the mature students were always the most focused as I was second time round. Very true a lot of them think they can sit around and just graduate and magically make it. Classes barely teach what you need there is so much I’ve learned about cinematography from YouTube that no one in the department will ever learn if they themselves don’t take advantage of online resources. Also they all shoot on crazy old canon vixia camcorders. And I’m over here shooting full frame mirrorless with a bunch of light. kye 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fuzzynormal Posted October 26, 2023 Share Posted October 26, 2023 On 10/25/2023 at 8:45 AM, FHDcrew said: At the university I attend we use a Newtek Tricaster 460. Just popping to to say I still have a working Video Toaster sitting in my closet. I've often thought about doing live streaming with it just for giggles. Never worth the effort, but still... Did you know they officially retired the Newtek brand as of this summer? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronFilm Posted October 26, 2023 Share Posted October 26, 2023 5 hours ago, FHDcrew said: Lol I brought this exact thing up! Only like 20 of the 70 people in the department ever think of doing media things outside of literal class assignments Saturday, and even then would probably only do it for money, which at this stage I can’t promise. With that lack of passion I doubt they'll be going far in the cutthroat real world after graduation. Well, you can still do a lot with just three static cameras. I was thinking for instance I could position myself at a Track & Field event: Cam1: Me (positioned up high in the stands) with an EX3 beside me with a B4 telezoom for extra reach, which I would not actively man it second by second, but if I was to change it from a mid shot of the track finish line to instead zoom in on the LJ pit at the other side of the field, I could. Then I'd sit back down at the switcher again. Cam2: a wide shot of the track finish line at ground level. Cam3: wide shot looking down the back straight. Ideally this coverage would attract the support of the local sporting club(s), and I might get a keen volunteer who can be trained up to do basic manning of one camera. Perhaps with luck some volunteers to do live commentary too. Could then have them micced up and throw a random camera (even merely a a GoPro, or perhaps a Sony RX0) to occasionally cut back to them. Then with time, an extra camera or three could be added to this setup. kye 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FHDcrew Posted October 26, 2023 Share Posted October 26, 2023 27 minutes ago, IronFilm said: With that lack of passion I doubt they'll be going far in the cutthroat real world after graduation. Agreed. The program here is much more broadcast oriented than is film. Which is fine, because through my own experience, forum-reading, YouTube watching, and real-world practice I've found I can learn and mature the skills I need without college. I have learned lighting pretty much solely based on my own research. There are people in this program who are seniors and want to be "film directors", but I sit back and think "what have you actually edited? Did you ever pick up a light during your 4 years here?" Of course, they would rather spend their time in a fraternity or some other stupid thing. IronFilm 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FHDcrew Posted October 26, 2023 Share Posted October 26, 2023 2 hours ago, fuzzynormal said: Just popping to to say I still have a working Video Toaster sitting in my closet. I've often thought about doing live streaming with it just for giggles. Never worth the effort, but still... Did you know they officially retired the Newtek brand as of this summer? Yeah they are Vizrt now! Very interesting merge. The Tricaster is weird cause it is very overpriced compared to building a rack-mountable vMix or OBS PC. Just to get a new 4-SDI input Tricaster costs almost 10 grand. With the price of gear now you can get an old decklink quad and a retired HP Xeon workstation for $250 combined, and cut 1080p shows no problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FHDcrew Posted October 26, 2023 Share Posted October 26, 2023 I love the workflow of the Tricaster though; it makes a ton of sense in my brain, and it is very similar to larger hardware switchers, just with the flexibility software solutions give you. This is why I've been trying to model my entire OBS-based setup around the Tricaster workflow, using plugins and whatnot to make OBS behave as closely as I can to that of a Newtek Tricaster. I don't know why, the workflow just really clicks with my brain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrSMW Posted October 26, 2023 Author Share Posted October 26, 2023 36 minutes ago, IronFilm said: Well, you can still do a lot with just three static cameras Indeed. I work with 3-4 cameras, 2 of which can be static any time, 2 lights, 6 audio recording devices, shooting video and stills 100% (or as close to as makes no difference) all day long. But only because of 3 essential ingredients. 1. Practice practice practice, starting simply and building up over time, adding and eliminating elements that work or do not. 2. Having a game plan in advance based on an understanding of what is going to happen and when etc. Advance knowledge is key. 3. Determination/hard work. 4. Bonus element, being organised and having a system. My environment is weddings and at one level they are ‘all the same’ but at another, they are all different and people do random stuff. But it’s rare for there to be enough random stuff to make a difference. It’s not rocket science and there are limits so it’s a case of knowing those limits and working up to what is possible but without it totally frying your brain. It’s more weird for me if I am doing just video or just photo and the latter feels like I am doing just 20-25% compared with both and the kit level is tiny by comparison. My brother by comparison gave up working in the video industry because he couldn’t work alone or make more than solo shooting viable. We must have different genes! FHDcrew, ntblowz and kye 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Members BTM_Pix Posted October 26, 2023 Super Members Share Posted October 26, 2023 The camera integration tips the balance for me towards the ATEM family, particularly with the release of the new Micro Studio 4K G2 camera. For under $4000 you can have four of them that are timecode locked and they can be fully controlled from the ATEM not just for colour and exposure but focus and zoom (with the inexpensive powered zooms from Olympus and Panasonic). With the integration with Resolve, the ATEM ISOs and these cameras give you three products to sell to a client from one job. The 1080p live stream The 1080p master recording of the live stream. A re-cut version of the live stream in either 1080p or 4K. The last one is interesting because with any manufacturers camera you can just bring in the ISO recordings and re-cut them in Resolve (as the ATEM generates a Resolve project with the cuts in it) but with the BMD cameras gives you the option to bring in the 4K BRAW recordings from the cameras own recordings. When used with the ATEM, the BMD cameras can provide a 'video mode' output through the HDMI for the live switching whilst simultaneously recording their own 'cinema mode' versions to SSD. This is a great option for doing live videos for bands as they get the 'video' version for the live stream and the possibility of a more cinematic looking version from the recut BRAW files. The ATEM Mini Pro ISO is a bit limited so I would definitely recommend going for the ATEM Mini Extreme ISO not just for the extra four channels but also the additional media player and the SuperSource function which offers a lot of creative and practical possibilities. The drawbacks with the ATEM are in the animated CG and video player aspects. The former you can get around fairly easily with software such as Uno Overlays etc and the latter can be addressed using BMD's HyperDeck record/playback devices. The cheapest of these, the newish HyperDeck Shuttle HD, is interesting in the role of producing live sports as with some inexpensive additional hardware splitters you can coax it into being a very decent instant replay system complete with tactile jog/shuttle control. For around $6500 then, you can have an eight channel switcher with ISO recording and streaming, four timecode synced RAW shooting 4K cameras with full remote control and three channels of instant replay. Unlike the Tricaster TC40 that I used to own (which was nowhere near being even half the functionality of this system let alone how much more its modern equivalent will cost) it will also all fit comfortably in a Peli 1510 case rather than an 8u flight case and is a fraction of the weight ! Another thing that people tend to overlook about the ATEM Mini series is that it has an excellent fully fledged Fairlight mixer in it with EQ and Dynamics on every channel including the Master channel. Its mind boggling really how much of a value that is as they didn't really need to make it that comprehensive ! Don't get me wrong, the ATEM system isn't perfect but it is a very good eco system to start a business around. And you never know, maybe one of these days someone might release a product that integrates a few more things to make it even more useful...... j_one and FHDcrew 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fuzzynormal Posted October 26, 2023 Share Posted October 26, 2023 2 hours ago, FHDcrew said: similar to larger hardware switchers Yeah, from what I've seen it offers video-paths similar to the old Grass Valley switchers. Intuitive, but also deep in certain ways. Also, I like how the old half-million dollar equipment is now ridiculously cheap. Of course, who wants NTSC? but still...kinda neat. https://cutt.ly/FwEfAsoc FHDcrew 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronFilm Posted October 27, 2023 Share Posted October 27, 2023 18 hours ago, IronFilm said: Arguably it would be better to combine a collection of Blackmagic Design Studio cameras instead, as they do have a lot of features specifically for multicam live shooting, especially when matched together with the BMD ATEMs! And some of them can be just as cheap as the Sony EX3, such as this Blackmagic Design Studio Camera 4K: https://www.ebay.com/itm/266449406292 (another benefit of this path instead, is you'll be 4K ready right from the start!) Check out this Blackmagic studio/broadcast camera setup (try and discover where the camera is hiding....): kye 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kye Posted October 27, 2023 Share Posted October 27, 2023 6 hours ago, IronFilm said: Check out this Blackmagic studio/broadcast camera setup (try and discover where the camera is hiding....): Easy! It's that black thing with some white writing on it.... duh! FHDcrew 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FHDcrew Posted October 27, 2023 Share Posted October 27, 2023 11 hours ago, IronFilm said: Check out this Blackmagic studio/broadcast camera setup (try and discover where the camera is hiding....): Is this the Micro Studio Camera? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronFilm Posted October 28, 2023 Share Posted October 28, 2023 10 hours ago, FHDcrew said: Is this the Micro Studio Camera? Yup. Maybe the older one. There is a new G2 that just came out: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1787638-REG/blackmagic_design_micro_studio_camera_4k.html FHDcrew 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zlfan Posted October 30, 2023 Share Posted October 30, 2023 R1mx and scarlet Mx can complement each other. R1mx for tripod, scarlet for handheld. IronFilm 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mkabi Posted October 31, 2023 Share Posted October 31, 2023 On 10/27/2023 at 5:40 AM, kye said: Easy! It's that black thing with some white writing on it.... duh! Wrong its the white box - labelled Red under the tripod.... duh! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kye Posted October 31, 2023 Share Posted October 31, 2023 7 hours ago, mkabi said: Wrong its the white box - labelled Red under the tripod.... duh! Ah, that makes sense. Considering the tens of thousands of complains that we have against all cameras ever released, it makes sense not to put the camera anywhere near the image! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Members BTM_Pix Posted November 3, 2023 Super Members Share Posted November 3, 2023 On 10/15/2023 at 10:49 AM, BTM_Pix said: In 2024, I will be releasing five new products. Actually six now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrSMW Posted November 3, 2023 Author Share Posted November 3, 2023 2 hours ago, BTM_Pix said: Actually six now. Ah, the Anne Boleyn counting system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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