SEANFX

One of the reasons I enjoyed using my Kodak Zi6 was because of the double AA batteries. But when I first picked up my Kodak Zi8 I was worried about the new battery system the Zi8 uses. Not anymore. Now I can shoot for as long as I want.  I only need these three things.

Depending on your shooting needs your battery choice will vary. Also if you click on the image it will take you to flickr where you can view the hotboxes I put around the items in the image.

This is this setup:

1. Zi8
2. Griffen Dual USB Car Charger
3. Bescor 12 Battery with Cigarette lighter plug

One of the great things about the Zi8 is its new charger.  Plugs into a wall outlet but the cord goes from USB to a regular power connector.  You take that and the USB Car Charger and now you can hook it up to a 12 volt battery belt of your choosing.  How many of you have one of these 12 volt batteries just laying around?

Time to charge it up again!

Now you can shoot all day, well depending on your battery I bet you could shoot for days.  Now you’ll need to go buy more SD Cards.  The best thing, the 12 volt battery supplies enough power to keep your Zi8 fully charged for when your battery belt finally does run out of juice.

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Don’t have a shotgun mic but you still need to get a little closer to your source?

Here’s a simple solution for low budget filmmakers or audio podcasters. This is a combo of my video double sound kit and my podcasting kit.

In the image:

1. Zoom H2
2. 20 foot 1/8 inch headphone cable
3. Gitzo 3 section Fishpole mic boom
4. Mounting screw for the mic boom

Click on the image and go to the flickr page to see a more detailed description of the parts.

You’ll need the head phones for sure but that’s a given when recording audio. The nice thing about this mic boom is it has 2 standard mounting options included in the end where you normally mount the mic holder for the shotgun mic.

Just flip the mounting screw around and it should mount into any standard recording device you have that has that 3/8 screw mount on the bottom like the H2.

Here is the H2 mounted on the end of the Fishpole. As you can see you’ll need the head phone extension cable and headphones. But now you can extend the pole and get the H2 in over a crowd or close to the ground for some Foley work.

TIPS:

1. Don’t forget the head phones
2. Always make sure you press RECORD! ( With the Recorder so far away it will be easy to forget. It’s not like you’re wasting tape anymore.)

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If you live in the Midwest and just got hit with all the snow we did here in Chicago, it’s a perfect time to grab images for matte paintings.  Especially if you are doing snow scenes!  So it’s time to grab images of snow blown fields, piles of snow in parking lots, and shear cliffs that come from cleared driveways.

Try to get shots from low angles and high, close ups and wide shots.  That way you can bring a lot of images together in Photoshop.

Even if you can’t paint out the elements that give away the scale of the snow banks, you can use it as a lighting study or as a foundation of your painting.

Once elements are removed that give away the scale of these snow banks, it might be pretty hard to tell these are just piles of snow in a parking lot somewhere.

Don’t you think this could be some alien world or some place near Outpost #31?

I’ve created a set of images on my Flickr page called “matte painting raw” just in case you live somewhere where you don’t get snow.  I also have clouds in there too.  You just never know when you might need to do some sky replacements.  Feel free to use mine.  If you do, please send me link so I can check it out!

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If you’re like me and still don’t own a blu-ray burner you are still archiving on lots of DVD disks. At least I have a Duel Layer…

Maybe this is obvious but when doing a lot of backups in a series and you’re not sure how many disks it might take up.

Just write “1 of” ( 1 of 5 ), leave the second number blank the when you are done you’ll know how many disks you have and you can fill it then.

If you have any other tips share them with me.

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I’m not the most organized person, but I do start my motion graphics or visual effect projects this way. As the image below shows this is a folder full of empty folders. 

I use 3D Studio Max and the Adobe Creative Suite. So my folder structure is geared to what I use and my workflow. It’s easy to arrange and rename the folders anyway you need for whatever software you use.

The benefits.  Archive is the main one. With everything split up in to folders it’s easy to split up the project depending on the disk size you have to archive on. The other is memory… As I get older it’s harder for me to remember where I put things. So if I start off with this it’s much easier to find where things go without having to think about it. I’d rather be creating than managing.

You can download this folder here or click on the image!

I’m a PC but there is no reason this wouldn’t work with a MAC. Stuff-IT will open it no problem just be sure to extract it so all the files keep their parents.

Quick Tips:

1. Change the folder names for your project.
2. Rendered folder already has blank folders for all your render passes
3. Most folders have sub folder for further organizing files.
4. Use the extra folders under “06_video_vidcaps” to separate different tapes or memory cards. Plus it’s easier for archiving.
5. Delete folders you don’t need.

Let me know what I left out, can’t think of everything.

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I really mean Makeup.  You’ve guessed it these are makeup bags.  Cost me $3.99 at Target.  I know this is not a new idea and I think I remember it back from my film school days.  Recently the wife had a couple extra little bags around so I repurposed them for my adapters.

The problem I couldn’t see what I had in the bag.  So on my last visit Target I took a look around.  With wife in tow of course.  Didn’t want to be seen in cosmetics by myself….

Anyway found these little gems clear and just the right size.  The great thing is they fit into my video and audio bags easily.  I also have my adapters divided up for different uses.  Now if I don’t need some of the adapters I can leave a bag or 2 behind.

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January 1st I helped launch Midwest Media Now! This is a project I’ve been talking with my friends for a while now.   I’d drive them nuts talking about this stuff and to get me off their back, they’d tell me I should start my own show…

So I did!

It’s taken me about 2 years to get a handle on it myself.  The good news is a lot of people are trying to make something of this.  The even better news is everyone well most everyone is still trying to figure this out.  So there is still time to get in and make something happen.

Is this a race? YES! But I think it’s one everyone (content creators) of all types might win out on.

What’s the show about?

You can hear me and others talk about the state of new media in the Midwest, ideas behind new media and Internet distribution. But that’s not the only thing we’ll be talking about.

The show will also be full of tips and tricks things we’ve learned and things our guests have learned while making content for the Internet. We’ll find out what kind gear they use, the computers, software and how they put it together on a shoe string budget.

Are people making money with this yet and where do we see it going.  Even though the theme of the show is the Midwest, there are projects being created around the world that are great examples of what can be done with an idea and some hard work.

We are just starting this up so things are a little rough right now and I’m not sure how good of a host I’ll be.  I do know I’m deeply interested in the ideas and opportunities the Internet has grown into over the past few years and I just want to talk about it with other like minded people.

So listen to the show and if you want to be a part of the conversation and share your thoughts or the project you’re working on then click here.  Let others know about all the creative hard work that is being done right here in the Midwest.

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This effect has been getting some buzz lately because of this fantastic looking tilt shift time-lapse effect created by Keith Loutit.  There are a number of Photoshop Tutorials out there related to this, this one is great! so check it out.  I believe I even saw this explained in “Wired”…

But I figured if it can be done in Photoshop it can be done in After Effects.

It’s a pretty simple concept and so many other people have done a great job of explaining it, I figured why should I even bother.

But I figured I could do it one better by making an After Effects file you can use!  You can download it here.

In the file you’ll find a version for HD and SD.  You can drop in your own footage by just replacing the image I’ve included in the project file.

TIPS:

If you replace the footage un-parent the null object first, then do a replace footage command.( I used a null because I was using a digital image and I wanted to scale.)

You can adjust the blur of the image and the feather of the mask.

Keep in mind the band of focus should be narrow.  But with this technique you can move the mask around and make any part of the image have the miniature effect.

I hope this is useful.

Oh yeah, The photo is Downtown Kansas City, MO!

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No I didn’t spell it wrong. I mean Nagra not Niagara.

Let me start off by saying I am not a sound guy and no sound persons job is any danger.

When I was in film school the way we would gather sound was with a Narga reel to reel recorder or a Marantz audio cassette recorder. The Nagra offered Crystal sync with the film camera. Which enabled the picture from the film camera and the audio from the recorder to by synchronized for editing later.  This was called a double system.  Get it… sound and picture… two, double system.

But who needs this any more? Nagra is still around and it looks like they have some very cool gear. But this has always been the Mercedes of Recorders not to mention the price is pretty similar.

Here’s my kit.

Zoom H2

Azden shot gun

mic cable

grip

mic mount

I’m usually a crew of one or two people so I don’t really need anything that complicated.  But even if I had more people around and I needed more mics I would still go this way.  There is a mic input and line input on the Zoom H2 which enables you to hook in a Shotgun Mic like I have pictured above or a mixer.  (I’ll do a another post on my mixer solutions later.)

But for run-a-gun productions this is a sweet system and can be used several ways.  Always remember to at least carry some ear buds with you.  Just in case you forget your head phones.

1. Double system: Don’t worry about the sound that is being recorded on the camera and the sound person can be running around separate from the camera person.  It’s a good idea to have a slate with you or clapping hands is fine too.  You just need a visual and a sound cue on the wave form to see there the two medias line up.

2. Sound Gathering: Capturing wild sounds that you find you need during post production and editing.

3. Interview Style: Recording two or more people.  In most cases you can just use the built in mic on the H2 but if you have a group or people at a little distance the shotgun mic will help out tremendously.  The pistol grip makes pointing the mic around a lot easier too.

What other sound tips do you have or what’s your sound kit look like?

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This is a good example of the kind of video projects I work on from time to time. It’s fun stuff and I’m always on the move. You always have to be ready to go when doing a productions like this. You never know what’s going to happen. There is some planning you can do but not much so here are some tips for getting the job done.

Equipment Check: Every production is going to be different and for these I’m packing lighter and lighter every trip. But here’s my short list.

1. Camera
2. Batteries
3. Video Tapes!
4. Camera light and Battery
5. Firewire Cable (just in case) mini to mini and Large to mini
6. Mic Cables plus a (Mic Adapter to go in camera depending on model)
7. Mics, I have a Shotgun and Hand held. Someday I’ll go wireless…
8. Batteries for the Mics if you need them.
9. Lens cleaner
10. LCD hood for outdoor shooting.
11. I like bringing a still camera for extra web content.
12. Yeah, I might even twitter about it when it’s slow.

Don’t for get a quick double check.

Story Check: My host and I like to do a brief check of the facts. Who is this person. What’s their story. Everyone has a story if you think they don’t you’re wrong, it’s up to you to help find it. For these types of videos we’ve established a system.

There are 3 elements we know we are going to need.

1. Intro: It’s the introduction. We find what who’s who and what are we doing here.
2. Middle Recap: By this time we have an idea of what’s going on and we’ve meet some of the players so it’s time to give more information. Most of the time this is made up on the spot because you really don’t know the all facts until you get there. One shooting style note: I’m a big fan of the walk and talk. That’s where the host walks toward the camera and the cameraman (ME) has to walk backwards or sideways… Visually I think it adds a lot of drama and makes it more interesting.
3. Outtro. You guessed it this is where the host says see ya next time! You’re style may vary.

B-Roll: When things are quite and people are standing around talking or trying to figure out the next move this is your chance to get some shots that will fill in the story. You have to pay attention to what people are saying. You are the second set of ears. So you might catch something the Host didn’t and that’s your chance to speak up and say, “hey we need to get this shot or interview this person too”. That’s going to influence the images you take. But there are always some standards you need to get. These images also help in editing to cover mistakes, flubs and changes in storyline or any dialogue you might need to shorten.

1. Establishing shots. Location, People, Prizes anything that was important or mentioned
2. Logos ALWAYS, Always get shots of logos. If there are several groups involved with the event you need to be on the look out for logos. They can be on the backs of shirts, sleeves, hats, cars, store fronts. And this is the chance to so something clever with a camera move or angle. Those company names are going to get mentioned at some point so it’s just nice to have it in the can.
3. People milling around looking over the prize or just at the event.
4. Make sure to get the winner spending some alone time with the prize. Usually they playing with it either way there are all types of emotions running around which always makes for good video.
5. Lot’s of footage of the prize. Another chance to get creative with the camera work and it covers creative editing

Since most of these videos are done on the road and I can’t run back to the office because I forgot something I always make sure I have the things I can’t buy while I’m there. I’m not going to buy a new camcorder, lights or sound gear. I can always pick up video tape, extension cords, pens and other little things when I get to my location. So it’s not always the end of the world if you forgot something.

What are your tips and what would you add to these lists of must haves on a video shoot?

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