What camera lens should I get for this project of shooting animals close up?

[Josh Bass]

I can't give you the utlra techy explanation but 3:2 pulldown is how something shot at 24fps is broadcast at 29.97. REdestributes the 24 frames into 30 in some fancy way to maintain the speed and motion cadence.

[Brian Drysdale]

Google is your friend with questions. There are loads of explanations regarding 3:2 pulldown online.

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay, I looked it up, I see, thanks.

So the point of 30 frames per second is that wildlife just looks better movement wise? It has nothing to do with how the product is played back technically speaking, as to why they want 30 fps specifically?

[Brian Drysdale]

30 fps is the video standard in your country, there is no reason to shoot 24fps for a standard video that's going no where else (eg theatrical release). There is a small improvement in temporal resolution. at 30 fps, it fits with the 60 Hz mains frequency of your country, which is the historical reason, just as Europe has 25fps.

[Paul R Johnson]

We explained the sound thing already. Your camera mic will capture the local ambience. Animals simply don't make the noises you are expecting, so for most of them, sound effects or Foley work so much better. Remember that as Brian said earlier - this stuff was often 16mm with with either sepmag, or no audio at all. wildlife is also about cheating. The usual techniques always edit together footage that is non-sequential. The deer exits the frame left. A long shot then shows it wandering up a hill, then we see a closeup of grazing. It might not even be the same deer, and could be a same species shot from the summer before, and the wandering up a hill shot could have been shot on your holiday in a different country. HUGE scope for editing material - and another reason to stick with the common aspect ratio and not be silly or adventurous.

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay, I live in Canada, but I thought you could have 24 fps and 60 hz, at least in Premiere Pro's export settings you can. I can do 30 then. What can I do to record animal sounds, since they don't seem to want to get within 80 or more feet of me it seems? Even if I put them in with Foley or sound effects separately, I still have to record their sounds of their voices originally, if I they want voice sounds, so how do I get close enough to do it then, if they keep moving away?

[Paul R Johnson]

Ryan - you just don't. the problem is that to get the closeup audio everyone hears on TV, you need to be close enough to frighten them off, or potentially get eaten. Real shots of Eagles tearing am mouse apart and crunching it down don't sound remotely like that. I had to produce the sound of a huge eagle taking off, opening it's wings and launching. In reality, this makes so little noise that the shot sounds weak with the real sound - so my favourite was a pair of old fashioned leather motorcycle gauntlet style gloves which I flapped together. This was what the audience expected. If you hear a deer eating it eats practically silent. They make odd noises when they rut, but mostly they are quite silent, so for video you want to be over the top. Give them what they expect. The really good wildlife people spend an entire career learning the tricks - best you can do is get a very long lens and some camo to wear.

Again - you are believing what people ask you as 'the norm'. If your job is to get images and sound, then it's hard work and will take ages. However, there are loads and loads of official SFX, and of course youtube clips you can study and, er, adapt maybe? Your camera audio, as I already said is the wild track, and you add the manufactured sounds over the top - AND DO NOT TELL THEM.

[Brian Drysdale]

Again, most of the answers are available online, one example:

BBC - Earth - Sounds of nature: Making a soundtrack for wildlife films

You can research the project basics without asking in a forum all the time. It's so easy to this, since there are so many resources now available for free.

[David Knaggs]

Originally Posted by Seth Bloombaum

But I have 4 lenses where I should have two, because I just can't lose the f2.8 constant aperture pair when I want better low light or shallower DoF.

Thanks for that excellent info, Seth. And I know what you mean about the f2.8!

I've started a new thread over in the BM forum for anyone who wants to continue this discussion about EF and EF-S lenses:

https://www.dvinfo.net/forum/blackma...ml#post1952360

[Mark Williams]

I use freesound.org for audio that I can't get myself.

[Chris Hurd]

Moving this thread from Open DV to Under Water, Over Land with 1-month redirect.

[Ryan Elder]

Oh ok I've tried using freesound before but it was difficult to get the sound to match with others projects cause the room tone and background sound was always different. Is there anything i csn do about that?

I can do Foley, its just the animals voices are hard to mimic of course.

[Josh Bass]

the magic of mixing is how you blend those freesound sounds in. reverb, eq, etc. Good luck. Are you want to/are able to take this project on? sounds like a miserable amount of work for a freebie.

[Brian Drysdale]

Bird calls you can record, but you need specialized microphones and requires spending time in the field with the knowledge to get geod results. You have to be correct with these calls because it's a specialist audience, the rustles and eating sounds etc you can use Foley.

Usually with sound effect recordings you can just use the effect itself, cut the unwanted room tone etc and use your own room tone as a background. It really depends on the effect recording, again you have to spend time going through the different sound effect libraries until you get what you want. if it's not there, you have to record it yourself.

With a clean, closely miked, spot effect you can do a lot during the mixing stage, if you've got reverb already on the effect etc you're limited.

[Paul R Johnson]

If you want to record realistic wildlife tracks and you are doing it anywhere other than treated, dead studio, then why not record them outside? no reverb, occasional birds and crickets or whatever, but animal sounds can be really fun. There are loads of effects pre done out there. Tell you what, send me your cut video and I'll sort the audio for it at cost. It would be rather nostalgic doing it all again.

Have you made any progress with the camera, lens and tripod/head?