The band is Big Band Boom! Yeah I’m friends with a sound guy that has a big band. He had been begging me to come down and see his show. So I brought some cameras with me.

The live mix was done by Jeff Powell.

I had 7 cameras there that night with one other camera guy Tony Gasbarro.

You can watch all 5 videos on the channel I made on VIMEO Check it out!

This video was shot with 5 Kodak Zi8s, a Canon HV40 and a Canon 7D. Even though you can see a difference between these cameras (well people on Vimeo will be able too) the average person maybe not but even if you do I think it doesn’t hurt the content of the video. I think they actually mix together very well. One of the things that helps them mix together so well is the audio mix. This is a great example that 50% of the picture is SOUND.

All I had to worry about was the picture that night and as I mentioned above Jeff worried about sound. I didn’t do anything fancy to make sure the cameras were all in sync. Just tried to start them all around the same time. I used this remote from Kodak which is about 12 bucks and should work on any Kodak pocket video camera. The great thing about that is if you have all Kodak cameras you can start the cameras rolling from far away. I had to point to several different spots but at least they all started.

TIP: Use the power supply that comes with the camera that way you can record all night. Also the camera will shut off after about 5 minutes so keep that in mind when stopping the recording. Because if your camera is an awkward location it might be hard to turn it back on. The remote doesn’t not have a wake up or power button, wish it did but that’s an easy thing to work around if you know about it.

During the edit the video files were fairly easy to sync up mainly because the pocket camera handled the audio of the loud band very well. No distortion, which made it easy to find the wave peaks on the time line. Once you find a good spot it’s easy to find the pattern. Depending on what editing software you use you might have to expand the track a little to get a better look at the waveform.

I also set all the cameras to recorded in 720p 60. The only camera that couldn’t do that was the Canon HV40 but it never slipped a note. If I learned anything that night I realized I NEVER want to shoot on tape again. Digital is the way to go. So if anyone wants to buy my HV40 just let me know. Seriously I’m selling contact me here I’ve got some nice extras I’ll include with it.

Before you say anything about my head room or lead room. I should explain most of the cameras were set up before hand and I was making a guess to the shots. The bar was like a sardine can and the 16 piece band took up nearly half the place. So even if I wanted to adjust the camera I would have to stand on someone to do it. Also the the camera were up against the wall. So even if would have taken a snapshot there would be no way to know if I would have put it back in the same place. I wish I could plug the Zi8s into an external monitor just to line up the shot but that functionality just isn’t in that camera. But hey they are $100 cameras shouldn’t expect the world but you can do some cool things with them.

On one of the cameras I was trying out a wide angle lens that Kodak sells for about $20. It worked out pretty nice an I’m buying more for the rest of the cameras. Whenever you see trombones that’s the wide angle at work.

They also have a Fish Eye and a Telephoto too! I’d like to try out the Fish Eye for sure!

As far as shooting goes we had 4 Kodak Zi8 camera locked down on various stands, tripods, mic stands and Joby grips, if you ask me JOBY makes the best of these flexible grips and if you buy anything else you’ll regret it I promise. We used one extra Zi8 as a free camera. The two other free cameras were the Canon HV40 and the Canon 7D. After shooting this I’m convinced now that I could have just shot all this with 10 Zi8’s. My Dream set up would be 8 or 10 pocket cameras and 4 hand held cameras. But even with a minimal crew we managed to pull off a lot.

Because I have an older Adobe Suite I really couldn’t bring in the footage right into my timeline. But I use TMPGEnc Encoder to convert my h.264 footage to MPG2 which works great in my CS3 Premiere Pro. As you can see I had no trouble syncing the video. TMPGEnc Encoder has been a life saver mainly because if you’re like me and haven’t upgraded your Creative Suite to 5.5 you will need something like this to enable editing your h.264 footage. The great thing is you can keep the original footage because the files size are so small. TMPGEnc Encoder gives you many settings to really dial up the quality of the video. Once converted to high bitrate MPG2 file CS3 has no trouble at all scrubbing through an HD timeline.

Matt the band director had the idea to make use an old record as the title video, I thought I better make it move and so I did. I recreated the old record label in Photoshop and brought it into After Effects. After doing this I had the bright idea that I sell it on Pond5. I’m sure there are only about 3 people out there that might need it so I hope they find it… If you’d like to purchase that graphics project you can find it at Pond5.

Let me know what you think when you get a chance to watch the videos.

At first I couldn’t figure out what to do with this old shoe rack. No one wanted it on freecycle, so it sat.

After trying to sort though all my cables it dawned on me. Hang them up.

This bag is 10 bucks! I picked up 2. They have a lot of pockets on the inside and outside for all your tools and stuff.  Maybe I’ll go to Home Depot today to pick up some Spring Clamps to fill up my other bag.  I get my C47’s at Target… some things you just can’t bend on.

If you don’t have an Harbor Freight Tools near you go here to see their selection of bags, maybe you can find one that will work for you.

Seemed like a soft place to put my camera and admire it while I was twittering… SIDE NOTE: That’s not the carpet I went with.

So I got the new camera and I want to take pictures of people, places, and things. Places and things are easy, just take the picture. People that’s a different story.

I don’t mind asking for permission but I wanted some way to offer them a copy of it without giving them my regular card. Something less business like and kind of fun. I was also looking for a way to share the photo since they were nice enough to let me take their picture.

I ordered these cards from Vista Print for free and paid about 5 bucks for shipping.

If you have ideas share them here.

THREE WAYS TO RECORD YOU PHONE GUEST
1. Cordless and Cell phones are the same because most Cordless phones have an earpiece jack. Both phones are sub-mini.
2. Land Lines or hard wired phone.
3. Use Talkshoe http://talkshoe.com

CORDLESS AND CELL PHONES
I personally like the cell or cordless system because they are more portable. When I’m recording from a cell phone I’ve done podcasts in my car and if someone is driving you could do it from the road! I get to use a good mic so I sound like the radio guy an the interviewee sounds like they are on the air.

This is the adapter you want to use for cordless and cell phones. The trouble is you won’t find these at Radio Shack anymore. Worse thing is it works great I wish I could find a secret stash of them.  Radio Shacks Model number is 17-855.

If you can find one BUY IT! Other wise you will have to buy this CELL TAP from B&H Photo for $75.  But if you are going to be doing a lot of phone recording it will be worth the investment it’s simple and fool proof and you’ll get very good audio out it and you’ll be surprised how good it sounds.

Some Extra Parts you might need for this set up:
1. 1/8 to 3/32 sub mini This will get you from a mini plug to a sub mini. A mini is like an ear bud jack, a sub mini looks the same but is about half the size and this is what cell phone ear pieces have for a plug.

2.  You you’ll need the ear/mic piece that came with the phone or buy one if you don’t have one they are like 5 or 10 bucks and they have a sub mini headphone jack. You’ll use that so the person on the other end of the phone can hear you talk back to them.

Plus there is a jack on the device where that plugs in. I usually put the earpiece mic near my mic or I wrap the cord around my mic so I know it’s close to where I’m talking.

You won’t have to use the ear peace if you are recording into a device where you are monitoring on head phones.

LAND LINES
You can use either of these products for hardwired phones, or landlines. Mini Recorder Controller or a Smart Phone Recorder Control

These you can get at Radio Shack no problem. One plugs in to the main telephone line. The other plugs into a handset remember that Phone with the cord that goes into a wall?  Yeah that thing!  I prefer the mainline instead of the handset. Just feel like a better connection. Recording this way you’ll leave the handset off the phone and you’ll need to come up with a way to hold the phone because you’ll still need to speak into it so you guest can hear you.

I have used suction cup mic pickup that you can get at Radio Shack but they are better going directly into a micro cassette or a small handset digital recorder. They don’t seem to work well going into any sort of mixer. Well at least I haven’t had much luck with it.

In both cases keep in mind the devices comes out MONO 1/8 inch connectors. So now it’s time to figure out what you are mixing that into so you probably have a better idea than me what you need. If you need to step up to 1/4 inch or XLR you really need to get a 1/8 to 1/4 adapter and make sure it’s MONO. This is KEY the sound will be off with a stereo adapter. Then you can go into a mixer with the 1/4 or 1/4 to XLR.

This is also a great reference if you still have questions about these plugs.

TALK SHOE

A third way is to use Talk Shoe.  This is a great FREE service I’ve used a little bit but I really want to do a podcast where all the people are driving around and calling in from cell phones hand free of course.  After you set up an account you get a phone number and 4 digit access code people can call in on they punch in their code and follow the 2 or 3 step instructions. Believe me it’s easy! And now you are in a chat room that is being recorded to an MP3 format.

The cool thing is you can set your options which I recommend, to start recording the second the HOST calls in no extra steps boom you are online recording and guest can come in and out of the show goes on seamlessly. Of course you are both on phones so it might sound like two phones depending on the kind of phone you are calling in on.

After you are done it encodes an MP3 for you that you can download and edit it if you want. It’s going out live while you are recording but if you don’t tell anyone no one will know….

I hope that helps.

Be sure and get the large rings if you order them separately most Lens kits come with the right size that matches the lens.

Remove the adhesive backing on the ring and attach it to the camera like I did here. Center it around the lens area. It fits right around the lens extrusion.

One extra trick, I took one of the extra rings and cut off about a lower one 1/3 of it and placed it on the bottom of the ring.  There is a slight angle on the camera body surface and that extra little piece at the bottom really helps to level it out.

Check out the video with and with out the wide angle adapter.  You should also be able to find a telephoto adapter as well.  But I think wide is best.  This will come in handy when you are the only camera person and the talent. It just gives you that extra little headroom or leadroom that you might need with out the normal cramped feeling you get when you’re shooting at arm length.

This is shot from the Zi8, half way through I add a 0.45 Wide Lens adapter. It’s magnetic so it just snaps right on.

This was shot at arms length, see how much more room you have if you want to do an intro or any kind of stand up for a video you’re working on and none of your goofy friends will help you out.

I’m sure I’ll have a few more tricks for modding out your Zi8 soon. Please Kodak make it so I can edit right on my Zi8 or how about an Audio only mode since I have a mic input, or just ask me what features I’d like to see in your Zi10.

Stephen Knapp in the photo. Photo taken by Tony Gasbarro

I think all filmmakers, content creators and bloggers should have one in their bag of tricks. Well filmmakers should have 2. Why should a filmmaker have two? I’m sure there’s many times you have extra hands on set helping you out. This is a perfect time to hand them a camera and have them get behind the scenes footage or do a quick interview.

It could be used in your extras, blog or promotional material. The image quality will come closer to the look of the film you are shooting. Plus it won’t look like a completely different format which tend to make extras look like a after thought. IMHO

If you’re a hyperlocal news person or blogger this camera and future cameras like this will be the future ENG/EFP cameras

What makes this camera a great ENG/EFP camera?

1. HD Video, already off to a great start with full 1920×1080 HD resolution.
2. The mic input. With this adapter you can plug in any kind of microphone. Like a reporter type mic, shotgun(that’s the one I use), even a Lavalier mic (you could even plug that in to a wireless system). Don’t forget any extension cords you might need depending on what kind of mic you pick up.
3. Replaceable battery. If you do a lot of shooting you’ll want extra batteries. Get at least one extra but 2 are always a better bet. Here’s a charger for when the camera is in use. Want REALLY long life? Check one of my earlier blog posts.
4. SD Cards. Need more recording time pop in another card, up to 16 gigs!
5. Still images. Check out these, at 5 megapixel they are great for any broadcast situation

Macro setting

This one was aided with a wide angle lens, more on that in a later post.

Here’s a tip need to do a V.O.? Set the camera to a lower video resolution and use your external mic to do your V.O. That way you get a make shift audio recorder since you don’t need the video track it will just make it more manageable.

Kodak the only bit of advice I have is make the door easier to use to get the card out and you can drop the USB port. I’d never dangle that thing from my computer unless I was desperate.  Oh and maybe make an audio mode.

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.

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.)