View Full Version : How to keep track of where I was?


Kenneth Burgener
May 2nd, 2018, 10:36 AM
Going to shoot a doc about the 1919 Army Convoy. 3,200 miles and about 35 days with drone and four cameras. How can I know later where it was filmed? I see a massive headache!

Thanks.

Ken
Looked on other sites, with no luck

Gary Huff
May 2nd, 2018, 10:44 AM
The unsexy element of record keeping and offloading into organized folders.

Chris Hurd
May 2nd, 2018, 11:53 AM
GPS metadata. Streaming-capable JVC camcorders have this ability built in.

As do the better drones... I think?

Mark Rosenzweig
May 2nd, 2018, 04:14 PM
The Sony FS5 had GPS built in, and adds location information into the metadata of each clip when turned on.

Roger Gunkel
May 2nd, 2018, 04:41 PM
How about good old fashioned shot logging :-)

Roger

Jim Feeley
May 3rd, 2018, 11:37 AM
All good replies above. I was on a shoot like this a few years ago, though it was only a week long and three cameras. Anyway...

One thing that helped was running cameras on time-of-day timecode, and then at each scene, a person (PA or a producer depending on what was going on), would take a picture of a watch and a GPS (since the display option with big location coordinates didn't include a clock, IIRC). We used a smartphone, but also made a quick annotation into a paper log.

At the end of each shoot day, the info was entered into the electronic logs with pix attached.

At the end of the shoot, the location/date/time info was entered into an electronic topographic map, and also pinned on paper USGS topo maps and stuck those on the wall. Added some images, too. That was fun and also gave a great big visual device to contemplate where we'd been, pace, and such.

I may have a project kinda like yours next year. So I hope you let us know what you end up doing and how it works out for you!

Donald McPherson
May 3rd, 2018, 11:51 PM
Good old clapperboard.

Bob Safay
May 6th, 2018, 05:18 PM
Sounds like Eisenhower's trip after WWI

Jim Michael
May 6th, 2018, 08:59 PM
If you want to know exactly where you were the entire trip log the NMEA data stream from a gps. Use one or more mobile devices. The data should be consistent with similar data coming via your cameras.

Kenneth Burgener
May 10th, 2018, 10:16 AM
Sounds like Eisenhower's trip after WWI

Yep it is, and it should be fun!

Kenneth Burgener
May 10th, 2018, 10:21 AM
Thanks for the ideas. I will let you all know what I am going to do.

Mark Williams
May 10th, 2018, 01:34 PM
No wonder Eisenhower became the motivating force behind the development of the Interstate Highway System, 56 days traveling coast to coast on crappy roads is a long time.