Very nice, Nathan. Did you find the Glidecam easy to use? And may I ask where you got the music for this piece?

Thanks.

--Greg

Hey guys, I've been on these boards for a while just reading and asking questions. Two years later lol, I finally got the guts and shot something with my Canon XH-A1 camera and M2 adapter. This is my first music video and also the first thing I ever directed.
Total budget was around 150 dollars.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/844413/nothing_day_chelsea_brummet/

To download it:
http://www.mediafire.com/?8bxgymtfyet


Screencaps

Hi Taj,

I sent a message elsewhere but congrats! What did your lighting setups consist of? Also thanks for putting up some stills.

Simone

Wow, this is really good, especially for your first time directing. You must have been doing something within those two years. lol.

But one question: What does the video have to do with Nickelodeon and All That? lol. Just out of curiosity.

*Edit* Nevermind. I'm a retard. I looked her up. Whoopsy. XD

Wow, shes hot... nice video... specially for a first timer... would have been nicer if there was a little more camera movement.. and also i didnt like the shots with her against the black it would have been nicer if it was like maybe wider shots at a different location or something to add a little variety. Like maybe some shots of her remembering the beach scenes, walking on sand, some nice scenic shots, or even just different rooms in the house with a few more extreme close ups aswell hehe :)

Hi,

I've been looking at this forum for a long time while I was doing my research about the A1. Finally, I bought it last weekend and I'm absolutely loving it now!!

I haven't had much time to take it out and do some proper filming (mainly because of the crappy weather here in the UK) but I went to the botanical gardens yesterday and filmed for the first time. I've put some music over the footage, hope you like it!!

cheers!!

http://dhost.info/guillermo/

(you have to click on the file name: allotment_01, I think)

Yeah really nice job! The colors look so vibrant. Did you do any color correction in post? What settings did you use??

thanks Ryan,

I used the famous 'vividRGB' with a few minor tweaks. I am completely overwhelmed by the possibilities of this camera. I didn't correct the colour but I made it a bit less bright and gave it more contrast for the flowers to stand out a bit more.
I was in the yorkshire moors today with that special sunset light that makes everything 'yellowish' and nice. I was astounded, the footage is so full of colour and mood, I'll try to post it this weekend.

Also, I've had to change my NLE recently to Vegas trial as AVID Xpress didn't seem to recognize 25f, any suggestion about this?

cheers

Hello all I have been on this forum for about 2 months I bought my Xh A1 because of your comments I have shot some test footage inside with lights preset for low light and aperture wide open and wondering why I am getting so much noise and color problems any help would be appreciated Thanks

You can see the video here

www.shadoahstudio.com/movie/snatch/snatch.mov

this was only a test and not intended to be a cinematic piece of art :)

Loved it. I dont think its noisy at all. I am having problems achieving this quality indoors./

Can you tell me your settings? Was this uploaded in HD? or downcoverted?

Thanks

Thanks for your reply...Uhmmm I cant really tell you what setting I had But...i CAN TELL YOU I used 2 lights about 500 watts the Photography type with umbrellas (ooops) and I used the Low light preset I found here on this site with the Aperture wide open and Manual focus in Av Mode...

Miguel

the weights are all different sizes so the number isn`t important...its the fact they are about equal to the camera weight. Honestly this was a long time ago so I don`t quite remember. Same answer for the music heh, it was just something I threw together for those looking for sample footage.

I took this picture totally at a whim with the actor the last day we were filming. I wanted to test out the A1's picture taking, and loved how it came out. I thought it sucked when I took it, looked all dark and washed out on the viewfinder....almost erased it. But I forgot to and when I got home found it on the card....I love the detail and the light and shadow, captured beautifully. I used VIVIDRGB version 3 i think with black to press maybe? I forget exactly...but yea, my favorite picture so far

http://www.kiukle.com/temp/zarrius_woods.jpg

After looking again and realizing the pic was taken in jpg format, I was curious...can the camera take a higher quality picture? At %100 you can see artifacts from the jpg compression and I`d think they`d do better with such a nice camera

I've been deleting pix for that reason too. They look horrible when you take them in the cam. This is good to know.

For a video camera, that pic is pretty damn nice. For a production still on a website or a thumbnail on a cover, it’s totally useable.

If you do use it, you may want to brush out those waterfront condos.
They aren't vibing too well with the ye olde barbarian swordsman..unless of course your project is entitled "Barbarian Timeshare"...which would be awesome. The possibilities are endless.

Hi

I've been lurking around this forum for a long period before I sold my Panasonic DVC30, saved money and bought a Canon XH-A1 two weeks ago. The DVC30 was a really good camcorder and as an entry level prosumer cam it has helped me a lot to understand all parameters possible to tweak on the XH-A1. When blowing up the DVC30:s picture on a 42" plasma, it was no discussion, the DVC was not made for big screens. After experimenting with the XH-A1 for two weeks, I must say that the 'upgrade' was worth the price. The picture from the camera is absolutely outstanding with details picked up at an incredible level. The limitations on the DV format regarding details is history.

I've made a short film with clips from my first day with the cam. Learning the cam will probably result in better clips. The video is a divx file, 1280x720, 1080/50i deinterlaced for divx. As custom preset i used Steven Dempseys VIVIDRGB. I really am a fan of that man, his knowledge and his films, and I also understand the effort of creating this preset. It really makes colours pop out.

A link to the film:


https://lagring.storegate.se/user/share.aspx?id=de2097d4-34ce-4aa0-ad96-1c8726b99382


Kind regards,

/Bo

Wow, beautiful!
Makes me want to go out and shoot something with my A1.

I guess the vividrgb is just right for this sort of thing. I will try it out next chance I get.

The HDV codec is really getting overwhelmed by all the little details in these shots, especially the water. But I always tell myself, that 95% of the "normal" people out there don´t really recognize that. You can not beat the A1´s image quality at that price!

I also find it interesting how forgiving 720p televisions are in comparison to 1080p displays. What looks compressed on my 24" 1080p monitor looks great on my brother´s 32" HD-TV. :)

Any way, thanks, I didn´t expect such a nice film when I downloaded it.

That was nice, thank you for the chance to view your work.

That was shot really well!

I believe that is the best DIVX encode I've ever seen...

Hi guy's. Sorry I've got nothing to view as far as footage is concerned, but I'd like to know what the best format is for saving vids, Quicktime or WMV. Whats the pro's and cons.

Thanks,

Mark.

"Saving" them for what?

Archive, online, broadcast, DVD, home use on HDTV?

Saving them for Archive and the internet.

I notice a lot of the footage on this forum is in Quicktime. Is there a reason for this over WMV.

Mark

to archive i would save them as m2t or cineform avi to disc or hd storage.
for online, i like 720p wmv.

As a last minute decision, I recorded a concert at our church this past weekend.

The conditions were: dark sanctuary, well lit stage(front of sanctuary). No movement of folks on stage singing into mikes and not much contrast. I'm new to the A-1(couple of weeks now) and since this was a last minute decision to record, I didn't do any research on shooting in these conditions ahead of time.

My camera setting: auto, vividRGB preset, auto white balance...everything pretty much auto.

For those of you who shot in these conditions, as you might expect, my results were severely blown highlights. This was my first experience shooting in these conditions.

Since this weekend, I have read everything I could find on this forum and in magazines about filming in such conditions....tricky at best I understand.

After wading through the information, here's what I'm coming up with pertenent to the A-1 and dark room, well lit stage. I'm trying to simplify as best I can here.

1. Full manual

2. Ride the iris

3. No presets

4. No gain

5. Use contrast boost to help focus.

6. White balance - tungsten.

Does this look right for a starting point for a set up in these conditions?

Any other suggestions?

Many thanks.

Rog Lee

oops, I meant for this to be in the normal threads. Sorry.

I haven't used the VividRGB preset much, haven't really cared for it myself.

I would recommend utilizing a preset which consists of low knees and stretched blacks. Depending on what you want, you might also consider going to one of the gamma levels (I use Gamma2) as it lowers the contrast between brights and darks. Maybe play with the master pedestal and setup levels, too.

The result I'm suggesting will come in very low contrast, but you will then have both muted highlights and detailed shadows, and in post you can tweak the picture to the level of contrast you need.

EDIT:
The reason I'm suggesting this is due to the fact that event shooting is very unpredictable -- for narrative or interview type work you are in charge of what's happening, thus you have control of lighting and can afford to crunch the blacks you don't need and push the contrast exactly where you want it. But in an environment where the video serves the action, my opinion is that you need to be as accommodating as possible and capture as much visual information as you can. Then, in post, crunch and tweak until you get the right contrast that doesn't blow any highlights and doesn't lose any needed shadow information.

Also, to avoid excessive blowouts, I would recommend using zebras between 85-100 -- these are basically indicators in the form of black and white lines (they won't record onto your footage) that show what is overexposed according to the current percentage. I personally shoot with zebras at 100 at all times as I detest blowouts. A little bit of zebra is okay at 100 (in fact you'll most likely want to see a bit, otherwise the image will be underexposed, which is also nasty).

As far as manual vs. auto, the more you can keep manual the better, especially when it comes to gain.

My two cents. :)

Brandon,

Thanks for the help. It's appreciated.

Rog Lee

They aren't vibing too well with the ye olde barbarian swordsman..unless of course your project is entitled "Barbarian Timeshare"...which would be awesome. The possibilities are endless.

lmao!

i know one word replies aren't very useful, but i can't help myself... amidst all the techie talk here i got a good chuckle

So, here's the first in a long line to come. I've included a media fire link as well as a youtube link. feel free to comment here or on youtube. The mediafire link will be much better quality, and it is only 16 megs.

Let me know!

"The Traveler"
What is real? What isn't real? Where does the world behind the camera become the world in front of the camera?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNXhPl0EPeo


http://www.mediafire.com/?3251rgpbvm0

Ben! Great stuff!

Liked your use of the colour-ways: Beach>Darks>Leaves

Didn't like the mugging jump cut.

Liked the envelope hand-over.

Didn't like the low mic level "chat" on the beach. Do we hear or don't we hear?

Liked the music.

LIKED the dolly-work? Was that a dolly?

Didn't like the too sharp initial move.

Didn't like the non-continuity of the one-handed Mobile phone and the two hand-Laptop user.

LOVED the silhouette against the LEAVES! Great choice!!

Kinda needed a real snappy cut to man-in-street-scape mobile. Happened too late?

But yes, very funny punchline!
Great simple story of a suspension of belief in time/space - liked it!!

More please!!!

Grazie

Actually, my brother has a scion, which has a hatchback, so I laid in the back of the car and held the camera sideways, as low to the ground, and as steady as possible. Half my body was in the car, and the other half was out. And I noticed the two-handed thing too, it's just been cloudy the last four days in LA and I gave up waiting for it!

Thanks for the advice too! It's so nice to be able to have a fresh eye on things. I can't thank this board enough for that.

Hi Roger,

I've been getting into doing more of these types of projects, dance shows, plays, etc. with dark surroundings and bright, quickly changing lighting. I shoot using a slighly tweeked VividRGB (lower the red gain slightly) and try to go with full manual. On the white balance if you can get into the sight early during the tech call you can have the lighting tech turn down the house lights and turn stage lights to typical white spots. Then use the white manual white balance shooting at a white page. I've also use auto exposure when I know the action is going to be crazy and the lighting will have extreme changes at very high rates. In those cases I usually use a small negative AE shift which seems to help keep the brights from getting blown out. Then in post I really monitor the luma levels to make sure they stay within broadcast limits.

Another hint I found to be really usefull is if you are using manual iris don't go below the max f stop at your most extreme zoom. In other words, at full zoom the lense will only go to F 3.5 but when in wide it will go to f 1.6. I you set at f 1.6 when widen then start to zoom you'll notice you loose a few stops.

As far as gain the lower the better but I have had to shoot with as much as +6. I find going up to +3 doesn't yield totally objectionable results and it's always better to get good brightness and contrast and sacrafice alittle noise and grain. And, I find that if you're going to downconvert to SD it almost becomes unnoticeable.

Another really usefull thing is to go to a dress rehearsal and shoot tons of test footage making slight variatons in your settings. Make sure you record the timecode and what changes you made so you can go back and view which setting yields the best results. I'm a believer that my camera work should be tansparent. The lighting director had a vision in mind when they set up the show and I want to try to capture as much of that as possible. That means that I try to make as little adjustments to picture settings as possible once the performance starts.

http://ia360613.us.archive.org/1/items/Powder_705/powder2.wmv

right click, save as...file is large

Well I just bought my A1 recently and finally found sometime to go and shoot in the backyard. Take a look, any criticisms are welcome. Keep in mind that this is the first time I have ever had a camera to myself to shoot my own personal stuff.

Look good, and congrats on get the XH A1.

The only thing is some of the shoots look slightly out of focus. You must be using the Auto Focus on some shots too because as your hand shakes it focuses on different points. The shot of the shed looked good, and the shot of the tree and dog look good also. There was one shot in the beginning where the dog is walking down the stairs and the wood look a little weird / noises / washed out.

Overall its looks good, but slightly bland color wise and noisy. Keep messing with and im sure you will get it right.

What were you export settings? The file was really big.

Look good, and congrats on get the XH A1.

The only thing is some of the shoots look slightly out of focus. You must be using the Auto Focus on some shots too because as your hand shakes it focuses on different points. The shot of the shed looked good, and the shot of the tree and dog look good also. There was one shot in the beginning where the dog is walking down the stairs and the wood look a little weird / noises / washed out.

Overall its looks good, but slightly bland color wise and noisy. Keep messing with and im sure you will get it right.

What were you export settings? The file was really big.

I just exported as a wmv 6.7mbps 1080i

do you have any suggestions in that area?

Thanks for the help, I appreciate it

well, im still learning the exporting game my self, but here is one i found thats is good for the web.

Video:
H.264, 3mbit max, 3mbit target, 2pass VBR, 480 x 270, 29.97fps (or w/e ur timeline is in),

Audio:
AAC, 160kbps, 48hz, stereo


Got about 1min 12secs of HDV footage to about 28megs.

well I tried that setting, but it made a few things look a little off...I'll keep working at it though

Thanks again Alessandro

My newest sketch:

www.eldersofthedarktower.com

warning: not safe for work

Here's my first video I'm posting that I shot with my A1. Just looking for some feedback... I did this drug PSA for a class.

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?cqzddxjbltg

wow.............

lmao! That was funny as hell. I love how the animated dude sounds like Towliee from South Park. lol.

Very funny stuff bro. Clever. Easily could be an SNL skit; one of the better ones. This is just a personal thing here: didn't need so much swearing; but apart from that, very humorous. Good idea, great timing, great acting.

Steve,

Thanks for sharing...fun stuff.

As strange as it sounds......I was looking for a bigger crowd..with a noisy background etc. that would give a person a feeling that this was a big, noisy nightclub. My guess is that a big, noisy, nightclub would not be easy to re-recreate.

Besides that, the angle of the shots, the sound, the dialogue and the action would give this viewer an impression that this was a multi-camera shot done by a more pro group.

Thanks for letting this rookie comment.

Take care.

hahaha... I just watched it again. Funny stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdk17rIeLFs

This is the first official item I shot with my A1. As with all projects there are things that one wishes turned out differently, but I am happy with the attempt.

The video quality is mediocre on Youtube compared to the original but it is not too bad.

Hope you guys and gals enjoy.

2 minutes, 12 seconds.

Jay

"Hey"

Pretty funny. I liked it. I also like that you get your camera and your out there in a hallway shooting a funny idea.
That's the way to do it.

Thanks Sean,

I wasn't sure if it was well recieved by those who have watched it from this post.

I hope to punch out more shorts in the future and improve each time. This one took about an hour to shoot.

Glad you liked it Sean.

Jay

I try to play the first video with my camera Canon A1, preset 18, using my cat "lusi" as actor and then I went to the mountain (Bardonecchia -Italy) to try outdoor.
Now you could see them...here:

http://vimeo.com/367533

and other:


http://vimeo.com/360714

The First one: What kinda tripod are you using? it looks like its some sort of bolt action and it keeps sticking. Id suggest a new fluid tripod. Than maybe do some zooms while your panning. Great look and soundtrack though =)

The Second One: Maybe its my computer? but its really badly dropping frames. But i am on a Power Mac. BUt could be me. Nice shots.

Hey folks,

I've started a website at www.softcitylights.com that is basically mini-documentaries featuring Cincinnati based artists and musicians. I've put the first one online including a download in 720p. Check it out if you can and I'd love any feedback you might have. All shot with the XH-A1.

Thanks,
Kevin

Hi Loren, in the first movie I used a Manfrotto 503hdv tripod, but I used it more fast and with no fluid moviments.
Thank you for your other comments.


The First one: What kinda tripod are you using? it looks like its some sort of bolt action and it keeps sticking. Id suggest a new fluid tripod. Than maybe do some zooms while your panning. Great look and soundtrack though =)

The Second One: Maybe its my computer? but its really badly dropping frames. But i am on a Power Mac. BUt could be me. Nice shots.

I created this website for my buddy and shot four short video segments to overlay on four of the pages. http://www.inspectionadvantage.com/

I made a bracket to turn the cam 90 degrees, then shot him full-length on my greescreen in 30F. Footage was keyed with Keylight in After Effects, then I cleaned up the audio and made the alpha FLVs with Premiere Pro CS3. Flash was used to create the skin and set the FLVs to progressive download.

I coded everything by hand, but am really just a hack at HTML and CSS. I don't typically do websites except my own domains, but wanted to try out this "walk-on" style technique.

I'm finding that A1 footage keys very well and will offer this "walk-on" website service to my clients. The hardest part of the process is getting a good long take, since any editing at all would spoil the illusion. I don't have a prompter, but might have to invest in one if these videos prove successful.

Cheers,
Brian Brown
BrownCow Productions
Longmont, CO USA