Filming Skateboarding at DVinfo.net

Austin Puskas · April 22nd, 2006, 09:54 PM

Ok, i've been filming skateboarding for a year now with the GL2, learned to set the white balance always or footage is throw away, so I bring paper with me. I have the bp-945 batt and I have a .5x fisheye, planning on getting the century .3x mark2 lens.
I use normal movie mode, never tried frame mode for skateboarding.. so far that i've been reading is that frame mode makes the footage look a bit more cinimatic and give a fake 30fps?. also i heard its better when slowed down.
I use AE for slow-mo by time remapping. I use settings for NTSC format video captured with firewire.

I don't know what you guys think on how I should film, so far I think its alright. what do you think on frame mode for filming skateboarding? and anything else that would help my filming out, or make it look better?

Ethan Sobin · April 24th, 2006, 09:34 AM

yea, i'm starting to film rollerblading with a GL 1, i shoot in frame mode because it gives it a more skate video feel, as far as i know most people film skating in frame mode. heres a little edit that was filmed in frame mode, you could compare it to some your edits shot in normal mode to see if you notice a difference, http://www.rolldc.com/movies/rolldcedit.mov

Tim Hupalo · April 24th, 2006, 04:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Austin Puskas

Ok, i've been filming skateboarding for a year now with the GL2, learned to set the white balance always or footage is throw away, so I bring paper with me. I have the bp-945 batt and I have a .5x fisheye, planning on getting the century .3x mark2 lens.
I use normal movie mode, never tried frame mode for skateboarding.. so far that i've been reading is that frame mode makes the footage look a bit more cinimatic and give a fake 30fps?. also i heard its better when slowed down.
I use AE for slow-mo by time remapping. I use settings for NTSC format video captured with firewire.

I don't know what you guys think on how I should film, so far I think its alright. what do you think on frame mode for filming skateboarding? and anything else that would help my filming out, or make it look better?

film and then figure it out later. dont worry about how your gonna film if you havent experienced problems yet. once you get a feel for how you work and were your problems are, then ask for advice on how to fix it. It should be your influence not what someone tells you to do, otherwise you lose your creative control. filming frame shouldnt be a problem, it not like its gonna make your footage look bad it will just have a different feel to it. its hard to say what is better ive seen skate films in both frame, normal, and 24p. you have a good setup, i would worry about as far as filming, is practicing your camera motion in handheld that way your footage doesnt look overtly shakey and practice with the focal limits of the camera that way your not always checking your focus. if your worried about white balance just set the GL2 to auto white outdoors i do that alot myself if im filming a sequence in quick succession. and Frame mode is just filming video 60Fields per second Deinterlaced, makes it look like film. film runs at 24fps, color video at 29.97, black and white video at 30fps.

Austin Puskas · April 24th, 2006, 04:27 PM

well i noticed one thing. when they do a couple slowmo's in the vid, it looks a bit sketchy, like jittery , and when in normal its smoother, the only difference i know is its sharper for the slowmo's but a bit jittery.

Adam Bray · April 25th, 2006, 08:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ethan Sobin

yea, i'm starting to film rollerblading with a GL 1, i shoot in frame mode because it gives it a more skate video feel, as far as i know most people film skating in frame mode. heres a little edit that was filmed in frame mode, you could compare it to some your edits shot in normal mode to see if you notice a difference, http://www.rolldc.com/movies/rolldcedit.mov

those are some pretty smooth shots for a handheld. you using a tripod on some of those shots?

Tim Hupalo · April 25th, 2006, 03:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Austin Puskas

well i noticed one thing. when they do a couple slowmo's in the vid, it looks a bit sketchy, like jittery , and when in normal its smoother, the only difference i know is its sharper for the slowmo's but a bit jittery.

thats probably just the the compression of the raw footage since its not being shot on a highspeed camera. i think the best way to get good slo mo on a standard dv camera would be to set your shutter speed really high like 1/800 so that there is little loss in the time remap of the original footage

Austin Puskas · April 25th, 2006, 09:00 PM

well, when I put it inot frame mode, the lcd screen is not smooth at all. I always thought of it that was, '' it looks as how the lcd shows it '' and for frame mode, the lcd looks like crap, as same for the viewfinder.
why is it glitchy when put on frame mode?

Ethan Sobin · April 26th, 2006, 09:25 AM

I didn't actually film any of that, that is the person I bought my Gl1 from, but I'm pretty sure he used a tripod for some of those shots

Tim Hupalo · April 26th, 2006, 05:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Austin Puskas

well, when I put it inot frame mode, the lcd screen is not smooth at all. I always thought of it that was, '' it looks as how the lcd shows it '' and for frame mode, the lcd looks like crap, as same for the viewfinder.
why is it glitchy when put on frame mode?

i dont know man, mine doesnt do that to the LCD. i mean i can visually tell when frame mode is on cause i can see the deinterlace chop, but you might have something wrong your lcd

Austin Puskas · April 26th, 2006, 05:51 PM

yea deinterlaced chop. like not smooth like normal
why is it like that

Tim Hupalo · April 27th, 2006, 03:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Austin Puskas

yea deinterlaced chop. like not smooth like normal
why is it like that

so your saying your seeing that deinterlace chop?

thats normal, thats what frame mode it is. im not sure on the definition but i think its...
normal mode is 60i the image scans the screen in 60fields per second by interlacing the lines. during a scan it scans 30 even lines and 30 odds and puts them together for a smooth image

60 deinterlaced doesnt put them together it just scans the lines 1-60 in a straight row insted of odds and evens. thats what creates that flicker. if its doing that on your LCD its normal otherwise i cant help you.

Austin Puskas · April 27th, 2006, 08:02 PM

so its supposed to look like through the lcd when on frame mode correct?

Chris Burgess · April 28th, 2006, 12:00 AM

i film mostly sportbike freestyle...its alot like skate footage where you want to hit that slo-mo just right, etc...the only time i do not shoot in the frame mode is when the light levels are just super low...

other than that the frame mode, in addition to some other tweaks will give you some very different looks to your shots...

to get good clean slo-mo with the frame mode, try a shutter speed between 2 and 5 grand, with the auto white set and do some in cam image adjustment...on a really really bright day i have cranked it up to the max 15k shutter speed but i would not recommend it...

when you use the frame mode with a higher shutter speed in good light conditions, do some in cam color adjustments and an overall slight sharpening of the shot it will not look like the lcd presents it...it will look tons better...

i really just worry about the lcd to frame the shot and have enough confidence in my settings that i know the shot will turn out good, kinda hard to do much more than that when you are in a chase vehicle doing 60-70 to do tracking shots on a closed course...

Tim Hupalo · April 29th, 2006, 10:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Austin Puskas

so its supposed to look like through the lcd when on frame mode correct?

from my understanding of your descriptions yes it should look like that in the LCD.

when looking in the LCD there is a noticable difference between Frame mode and Normal Mode.

Anthony Mazzola · May 14th, 2006, 06:31 AM

In one part of the footage, about 3/4 of the way through - the camera is looking upward with the sun directly shining on the top left of the picture. There is no 'darkening' (or it's very slight) of the other parts of the picture (sky, skater, background).

As a complete novice (having just purchased the same camera) .. I'm just wondering if there was some kind of filter on the camera, or if the camera can be set to compensate for the direct sunlight without darkening the rest of the image so much?

April 22nd, 2006, 09:54 PM	#1
Austin Puskas New Boot Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 24	Filming Skateboarding Ok, i've been filming skateboarding for a year now with the GL2, learned to set the white balance always or footage is throw away, so I bring paper with me. I have the bp-945 batt and I have a .5x fisheye, planning on getting the century .3x mark2 lens. I use normal movie mode, never tried frame mode for skateboarding.. so far that i've been reading is that frame mode makes the footage look a bit more cinimatic and give a fake 30fps?. also i heard its better when slowed down. I use AE for slow-mo by time remapping. I use settings for NTSC format video captured with firewire. I don't know what you guys think on how I should film, so far I think its alright. what do you think on frame mode for filming skateboarding? and anything else that would help my filming out, or make it look better?

April 24th, 2006, 09:34 AM	#2
Ethan Sobin Tourist Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Richmond Va Posts: 3	yea, i'm starting to film rollerblading with a GL 1, i shoot in frame mode because it gives it a more skate video feel, as far as i know most people film skating in frame mode. heres a little edit that was filmed in frame mode, you could compare it to some your edits shot in normal mode to see if you notice a difference, http://www.rolldc.com/movies/rolldcedit.mov

April 24th, 2006, 04:27 PM	#4
Austin Puskas New Boot Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 24	well i noticed one thing. when they do a couple slowmo's in the vid, it looks a bit sketchy, like jittery , and when in normal its smoother, the only difference i know is its sharper for the slowmo's but a bit jittery.

April 25th, 2006, 09:00 PM	#7
Austin Puskas New Boot Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 24	well, when I put it inot frame mode, the lcd screen is not smooth at all. I always thought of it that was, '' it looks as how the lcd shows it '' and for frame mode, the lcd looks like crap, as same for the viewfinder. why is it glitchy when put on frame mode?

April 26th, 2006, 09:25 AM	#8
Ethan Sobin Tourist Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Richmond Va Posts: 3	I didn't actually film any of that, that is the person I bought my Gl1 from, but I'm pretty sure he used a tripod for some of those shots

April 26th, 2006, 05:51 PM	#10
Austin Puskas New Boot Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 24	yea deinterlaced chop. like not smooth like normal why is it like that

April 27th, 2006, 08:02 PM	#12
Austin Puskas New Boot Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 24	so its supposed to look like through the lcd when on frame mode correct?

April 28th, 2006, 12:00 AM	#13
Chris Burgess Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Atlanta, Georgia Posts: 30	i film mostly sportbike freestyle...its alot like skate footage where you want to hit that slo-mo just right, etc...the only time i do not shoot in the frame mode is when the light levels are just super low... other than that the frame mode, in addition to some other tweaks will give you some very different looks to your shots... to get good clean slo-mo with the frame mode, try a shutter speed between 2 and 5 grand, with the auto white set and do some in cam image adjustment...on a really really bright day i have cranked it up to the max 15k shutter speed but i would not recommend it... when you use the frame mode with a higher shutter speed in good light conditions, do some in cam color adjustments and an overall slight sharpening of the shot it will not look like the lcd presents it...it will look tons better... i really just worry about the lcd to frame the shot and have enough confidence in my settings that i know the shot will turn out good, kinda hard to do much more than that when you are in a chase vehicle doing 60-70 to do tracking shots on a closed course...

May 14th, 2006, 06:31 AM	#15
Anthony Mazzola New Boot Join Date: May 2006 Location: London, England. Posts: 12	In one part of the footage, about 3/4 of the way through - the camera is looking upward with the sun directly shining on the top left of the picture. There is no 'darkening' (or it's very slight) of the other parts of the picture (sky, skater, background). As a complete novice (having just purchased the same camera) .. I'm just wondering if there was some kind of filter on the camera, or if the camera can be set to compensate for the direct sunlight without darkening the rest of the image so much?