I'm directing an interview this Saturday (the inaugural shoot for my feature doc, yay!), which will be the first time working with the EX1. Very excited about it, but I have no experience with the camera and have only a small window for a test shoot the evening before, which pretty much is for testing the lighting (green screen background with chiaroscuro lighting for subject). The camera op has plenty of experience with BetaCam video cameras, but only NTSC... HD is a little bit new to him and he has only shot HD in 29.97, so shooting 23.98p is going to be new to him (his background seems to be exclusively broadcast, not film).

My main areas of concern are over picture profile and shutter settings.

For the picture profile, I gleaned from the many threads here that I want to keep the DETAIL setting off and to otherwise not do anything to achieve any "look" in-camera in order to not skew the camera's colour response (in order to be able to pull a good key). But what about dynamic range? Since I will be lighting the subject with just the key and a reflector for some fill to achieve a Rembrantesque lighting, I want to make sure I don't loose too much detail in the shadows. Is there a preset I should use as a base for tweaking the detail down?

For the shutter, I have been trying to understand the discussion here and want to make sure I have a decent understanding. We will be shooting 1080p at 23.98, so I take it I want the shutter at 1/48, correct?

The camera op has plenty of experience with BetaCam video cameras, but only NTSC... HD is a little bit new to him and he has only shot HD in 29.97, so shooting 23.98p is going to be new to him (his background seems to be exclusively broadcast, not film).

The main differences will be composing for widescreen, which can be interesting in interviews, and as for frame rate, not panning too quickly (shouldn't be an issue for you).

For the picture profile, I gleaned from the many threads here that I want to keep the DETAIL setting off and to otherwise not do anything to achieve any "look" in-camera in order to not skew the camera's colour response (in order to be able to pull a good key).

That's the safe way to go--however, I've had no problem pulling keys using some of the more popular PP settings (hi-sat matrix, cinegamma).

For the shutter, I have been trying to understand the discussion here and want to make sure I have a decent understanding. We will be shooting 1080p at 23.98, so I take it I want the shutter at 1/48, correct?

Ideally, but if you need to let in some more light, you can turn the shutter off, especially for an interview. See: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/sony-xdcam-ex-cinealta/145075-ex1-1080-30p-shutter-off.html

Good luck, and post some frame grabs--chiaroscuro in front of a green screen sounds interesting!

The main differences will be composing for widescreen, which can be interesting in interviews, and as for frame rate, not panning too quickly (shouldn't be an issue for you).
Indeed, the camera will pretty much be locked down. I'll be doing some reframing/cropping in post.


That's the safe way to go--however, I've had no problem pulling keys using some of the more popular PP settings (hi-sat matrix, cinegamma).
I need to spend some time looking at the PP settings. I plan on exposing one stop to the right, just to make sure I don't crush the shadows at first, and keep as much latitude as I can there for when I work the footage in Apple's Color.


Good luck, and post some frame grabs--chiaroscuro in front of a green screen sounds interesting!
Thanks, I will. It's going to be a great project and the intense aesthetic will reflect that. The subject is on the invisible history of slavery in Canada. A light, Sunday afternoon watch with the family kind of thing. ;-p