Tài liệu Videomaker-2008-07 ppt

Video Tape Decks Enter Their Golden Years ; 3, Drdameg Delis 46 : The Divine Proportion Progressive or Interlace {Balancing the Golden Rule: Nature created it, visual artists folow it,

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20 : Editing Software Buyer’s Guide 2008 42: Alakazam! The Magic Gear Bag

2, by Heath MỆT : Just like every good magician has a bag of tricks, so should every

4 i : great videographer : VIR Buyer's Guide : ¡ by Miehael Reff

¡- Coming of Age Video Tape Decks Enter Their Golden Years ;

3, Drdameg Delis 46 : The Divine Proportion

Progressive or Interlace {Balancing the Golden Rule: Nature created it, visual artists folow it, _ ï

Choosing Your Direction {Using aestheticaly-pleasing framing creatively draws your viewer into

* your shot composition : by Michael Reff

} by James Williams

Shooting video to look like film

by Brian Peterson

} The art of infrared videography can produce an image that is ethereal,

{timeless and full of light

by Fernando Garcia

0n the 0over Departmenis - - - -

Canon Vixia HF10 Camcorder :

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Video Blogging & Podcasting Behind the Lens: Profle on an award winning : Ẹ We want to hear from you! To help us you, the reader, more of what you want, we'd give

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On Sale July 15, 2008 = Please visit our July Article Rating Page at

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4

Footage

As the world of making video con-

tinues to change, I enjoy reviewing

the language and nomenclature that

are becoming less and less intuitive

Here's the Wikipedia entry for the

word footage:

In video and film, footage is the raw,

unedited material as it has been recorded

by the film or video camera, which usu-

ally must be edited to complete a motion

picture, broadcast show or similar creative

work More loosely, footage can also refer

to all sequences used in film and video edit-

ing, such as special effects and archive ma-

terial and B-roll Since the term originates

in film, footage is only used for recorded

images, such as film stock, videotapes or

digitized clips

Charlie Fulton, Videomaker's

Associate Editor, brought this term to

my attention Since motion picture film

is stored on open reels, and people us-

ing film can actually unroll a few feet

of film with their hands, we can easily

imagine where the term originated

When videotape came along in the late

1950s, it too was stored on open reels

In the late 60s, a new videotape

format appeared: Sony announced

U-matic, the first widespread video-

cassette This tape width was %-inch,

and the cassette was the size of a

cigar box Filmmakers were still using

open-reel tapes well into the 70s In

fact, my first videotaping experience

(1975) was with black-and-white %-

inch videotape with a “portable” video

recorder called the Portapak I was

also shooting Super 8mm film, which

was in a cartridge By the 90s, nearly

all videotape was in a cassette

More recently, we have seen the

arrival of DVD camcorders, which re-

cord video as bits of data stored along

a track around the disc You can mea-

sure these tracks in terms of linear

distance, but no one really does that

However, when someone shoots with

it in your fingers and feel the footage,

should we be still be calling it by the same name? I grant that, inside the cassette, there is still a linear distance

to measure, but it doesn’t seem right to call it footage This point may be debat- able, but video shot on DVD or Flash media certainly is not footage

More and more video is being stored

on SD cards, Memory Stick or internal memory These recording formats have

no linear distance to measure Shoot- ing footage with an SD camcorder is

like dehydrating water If something is

dehydrated, there is no more water, so dehydrated water doesn't make sense

Bittage is a more accurate term for

“raw, unedited material as it has been recorded by a digital recorder, whether tape, memory, optical disc or magnetic disk.” Bittage is “a number of bits.” It is far superior to the word footage

Ayr

Matthew York is Videomaker's Publishgf/Editor

FEEDBACK

For comments on this article, email us

= at editor@videomaker.com, use article

#13497 in the subject line

publisher/editor associate publisher

John Burkhart Jennifer O'Rourke

Mark Montgomery Charles Fulton

editor in chiet managing editor technical editor associate editor

Hal Robertson Kyle Cassidy Robert G Nulph, Ph.D Morgan Paar Brian Peterson contributing editors

Melissa Hageman Susan Schmierer Joseph Ayres

production director

production coordinator design associate

advertising director Scott Memmott

Dawn Branthaver Heather Handley Kent Hinesley

customer service

fulfillment assistant

Elissa Raigosa Autumn Ludington subscription information

Videomaker Subscription Fulfillment P.0 Box 3780, Chico, CA 95927 telephone: (800) 284-3226 e-mail: customerservice@videomaker.com

address P0 Box 4591, Chico, CA 95927 telephone: (530) 891-8410 fax: (530) 891-8443

Videomaker 'SW 08-472) pulshed monly sone Videomaley, Ine, PO.Box 50, Chico, CA S527 C06 Videomaker In Al igh spelen pc yer by

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‘ign Delver(pepaynan resired, US funds) Sod sobseripion correspondence o Videomaker PO Bax 30, Chica, CASE Back issues af Viceemakarara de nlnatuahttiitoasler ca or by calling Customer Sonics a (0) 2 3226 aiatl fr Prriteal postage gsi at Chie, CASS97 and abtanalmaling oices Canada Post Iovrnationa Ma Seles Areement 0051 BK6 POSTMASTER Send ade changes to Videomaker PO Bo 70, Chic, CA S527 POSTMASTER: Please rend Cana

in addeoss changes to: IDS, P.Box 122, Nagar Fas, Ontario LE 688

‘he completeness, accuracy owl hese mater or any nrmation or opinion

fantainadin these mater These eters ae fatto be construed as wh endorse

‘ment of any predictor ampany, nar ae he adoption or ramulgean a am guidelines, Slandard ot ecammendtons

®& M[A printep in usa

VIDEOMAKER >>> JULY 2008 ———————

Your vision drives the project;

"

yout, determination knows no bounds

what you want fo achieve,

6

Amplification

We received and reported incomplete

information regarding the names of the

winners of the 2007 Videomaker Short

Video Contest's Best Animation prize

Bacon Samurai was created by Wright

Rickman and produced by Chris David-

son We congratulate everyone involved

with all of the winning videos

A Personal Note to Matt

Your contributions to the field have been

outstanding and are greatly appreciated,

for personal as well as business reasons

What better way is there to interest a

younger audience (my 20 grandchil-

dren, for example) in the traditions and

heritage of their family than to augment

our printed family book of remembrance

with vignettes on DVD video of their fore-

bears? Videomaker's up-to-date introduc-

tions to technology and technique have

been tremendously valuable in helping

engaging ways than would have been

possible otherwise

Rob Dunford

Videomaker in South America

This is to say thanks to you and your

team for the priceless work shown in

every issue of Videomaker It is very

educational for us We keep duly up-

dated in this fascinating world

This year in Colombia, the Minister of

Culture started a program named PNA

(National Audiovisual Plan) in Cali City

and Buenaventura (Main Port in Colom-

bia) with hopes of going countrywide

soon Our Company “Dogg Fat Pro,”

includes four members and our aim is

to produce high quality movies, and we

use Videomaker for our referencing,

One link to our last Musi-

cal video : http://es.youtube.com/

creating believable characters, and

I found it very informative I will

definitely be doing character analysis

and answering the “who, what, when,

where, how” questions when I create

my next storytelling film 1 very much enjoy both your magazine and the website Keep up the good work

Dominic Hasbrouck

Hasbrouck Entertainment (HE)

Public Access is Still Alive

Good article on Public Access Televi-

sion in your May issue I would like to

see an up-to-date article on Leased Ac- cess Television The availability of use, the legal aspects, and what you need

to get started I have heard that each cable TV channel has an x amount of channels dedicated to Leased Access, but I personally see no mention of it to outside producers I commend Video- maker magazine for bringing a myriad

of subjects in an easy-reading manner

to its subscribers

boc

Michael Moore Reactions

This is aimed at the message, not the

messenger

I've never taken the time to respond

to any of the articles in Videomaker Magazine, and I have been reading through its pages for 10 years But I did feel compelled to add these com- ments concerning your reporting on

Documentarian in All of Us (Videomak-

er, May 2008)

Michael Moore is a very talented, creative and funny film maker, but

he does not produce documentaries

His productions fall more under the

title of mockumentaries, or just plain propaganda films My dictionary

defines a documentary as follows:

depicting an actual event, era, life story, etc., accurately (my emphasis)

Address your letters to In Box, c/o Videomaker, P.O

Box 4591, Chico, CA 95927 Videomaker is unable to

process personal replies; however, questions of inter-

est to the Videomaker readership will appear in print

: You can also submit In Box entries by e-mail: editor@ : videomaker.com

and without fictional elements Mr

Moore still proves you can fool some

of the people some of the time And

by including him (IDA honors) in

with many others that have labored

behind a camera for years to produce

a true documentary that is factual, without deception, misleading sce- narios or outright falsehoods, is a slap in the face

I labored for three full years, cap- turing the demolition of The Buick Motor Division auto plant here in

Flint, Michigan (The Buick employed

22,000 people in the 60s) And when

Mr Moore's production company (West

Side Productions) called wanting to use some of my video, I was very happy to tell them NO!

It would appear that as more and more documentaries are produced, more of them end up having a politi- cal agenda (usually to the left), and end up being just mere propaganda This is really sad for the video/film industry, especially for the viewers of these projects

Thank you for your contribution to Videomaker Magazine

Leonard Thygesen, producer of The Buick

36 years service

He’s No Ken Burns

If you can’t find better people than Michael Moore to write about, we must

be at an all-time low

By the way, Sicko was loaded with errors, which is a poor at best docu- mentary Ken Burns is a film maker,

a real film maker A few month back, Matthew York had used Ken Burns’ name in the same sentence as Mi- chael Moore's I could have died Give

me a break Ken Burns is an artist,

Moore is a political hack I still love

your magazine

Stay well,

David A Zappardino Fairfield, PA

———— —_ VIDEOMAKER >>> JULY 2008 ———————

No More Moore

How you could profile that sorry

excuse for a human being is beyond

me I can’t think of a worse example

of liar, propagandist, hatemonger, and

sleaze peddler than him He deserves

nothing more than our contempt, yet

your magazine chooses to praise him?

Not on my dime Who’s next, Seymour

Butts? Please cancel my subscription

Lawrence Deleski

Michael Moore always seems to bring

strong reactions from our readers, but

politics aside, the article was on the

Academy Award nominations for best

documentary, and Mr Moore was indeed

anominee — these are facts we can

all agree on However, what exactly is

a documentary is a fact not so easily

established, Is anything “real” any-

more, once you point a camera at it?

Ken Burns sets up his interviews with

nice lighting and composition; Michael

Moore is a fan of the handheld camera

ambush In terms of cinema verité,

Moore is the more “real,” but no one

would argue that Burns is less of a film-

maker for his choice Documentary is

an umbrella that’s big enough to cover

a wide range of styles, and its definitive

definition remains elusive and the topic

for much debate

—The Editors

Greetings from England

RE your article about sound at weddings,

1 don't do weddings but have a similar

problem when trying to film people in a

busy street My solution: use a Sony Mini

Disc Recorder In the UK these recorders

run at 25fps, same as PAL film A mini

disc recorder will run for 3 hours Pop it

in the pocket of the performer suitably

miked up, capture film and audio into

your editing system, synch up on the

time line — and Bob's your uncle,

Ray Puleston

More from Across the Water

| was delighted to read that the winner

of the Short Video Contest used a Sony

if the floodlights have been turned on

The VX2100 sees much better than my

eyes and finds colors of which I wasn’t even aware, | use Vegas for my editing

and I have produced a reasonably good

collection of holiday films I enjoy your

magazine, which is better than anything

published over here Best wishes from

ing the RCA wire into an RCA input, is

it better to twist while pushing in, or

just push it in?

Ed Targonski Whichever makes you feel better is the best way to plug in RCA cables, as long

as it doesn't damage the cord or termi- nal Neither pushing in nor twisting in will hurt The best solution for anything such as this, however, is to minimize the

number of times you need to plug them

in We say plug ‘em in once and leave

‘em there as long as possible Excessive

plugging and unplugging will give a fair amount of wear on the terminals

If you haven't joined our online com- munity, now is the time to do it and get all your technical questions answered

Your questions answered by the Vid- eomaker Community, 24 hours a day,

7 days a week at www.videomaker

com/forums, — The Editors

Photog, Videographer Vidtog?

Regarding a question in Matthew York’s Viewfinder column about what we, the video producers, will call ourselves some day as we no longer shoot on film, so are not photographers I've got

an idea, how ‘bout calling a person who

shoots on the video format a Vidtog

When I was in the Navy, I was a still photographer, I was known as a photog Then when I starting working in news,

I was call a videographer, which | hated,

I considered myself a cameraman be- cause I used many different formats of cameras Then I started thinking about the terminology and it would make sense that Vidtog would work because,

after all, we are shooting on a video

format and we are also photographers

Ramon Hernandez, Vidtog

Is That the Shock Mount?

Your May 2008 Test Bench article men-

tions a “shock mount” as part of the Azden smx-10 mic, but every website vendor that I have visited to purchase

it, the mount doesn't appear to be listed

or shown, All they mention is a “shoe mount.” Did I miss something in the article? | also contacted Azden as well asking the same question,

Greg Michael

Although it doesn't look like what you traditionally think of, the device that the mic is attached to in our review is a shoe mount AND a flexible shock mount

— The Editors

Discussing Paper vs Cyber Again

I cast my vote in favor of the paper

magazine! | keep Videomaker on the front seat of my car or secured to my bicycle so that it’s always available Sometimes I think of your magazine as

my portable classroom By the time I've finished studying each edition, it’s dog- eared and covered with notes I can look

up any references and view tutorials, then pass it on to a friend who is starting

to seriously improve his skills

I find that the webzine is occasionally

useful as a searchable archive, but read-

ing text on a computer screen doesn't reproduce the tactile learning experience

I get from the paper magazine, However,

it is obvious that web-based media offer

a valuable adjunct to printed materials

Tutorials and podcasts can add a lot of value: perhaps Videomaker will one day publish some how-to articles on the subject of “Narrated Screencasts.” George Henderson

FEEDBACK

For comments on this article, email us

at editor@videomaker.com, use article

= #13661 in the subject line

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No more tape? Not for Canon's new

Vixia HF10 It records directly to a

built-in Flash memory As if that

weren't enough, the FH10 also offers

high-definition video recording at a

1920x1080 resolution

First Look

Right away, as I pull the sleek black

camcorder out of the box, I notice

how small it is and how well it fits in

my hand Weighing in at just over 15

ounces with memory card and battery,

the Canon Vixia HF 10 offers a small

package for what appears to be a pow-

erful camera

From the front, we see the f1.8-

3.0 12x zoom lens sitting right above

the stereo microphone To the right of

the microphone is an LED-powered

camera light for shooting in low-light

conditions To the right and slightly

above is a built-in flash for taking still

images - a huge plus

Turning the camera to the right,

we see the USB as well as mini HDMI

output located right under the hand

strap Above and just to the left, we see

THE 1/8" MICROPHONE IN- PUT IS ONE OF THE GREAT FEATURES OF THE HF10

tures of the HF10 You rarely find mi-

crophone inputs on consumer-grade cameras, so this feature automati- cally puts the HF10 a step above the rest in terms of functionality

Looking at the camera on the left side with the LCD window open, we see the SD card slot followed by the component output Above, we see

that Canon has included an “easy

button,” a feature similar to that of

Sony camcorders, which basically

to the LCD screen, we see the func- tion and playback control buttons Also on the LCD screen is a thumb stick used in most features, including the manual controls

Finally, from the top, we see the

power on/off button, photo button, zoom rocker switch and the mini ad-

that there is no viewfinder, just a 2.7"

LCD screen for viewing Of course, the

absence of the viewfinder plays a part

in making the camera such a com-

pact size On a camera this small, you

hardly miss a viewfinder

I first tested the camera indoors,

and I was pleasantly surprised by

how well the FH10's automatic white

balance, focus and exposure quickly

adjusted to the environment, allowing

even the most inexperienced user to

capture good video The lack of light

for my test shot did force the camera

to increase the exposure gain, which

introduced a slight loss of saturation

and an increase of noise, but over-

all the HF10 performed quite well

TECH SPECS

Sensor 1/3.2" CMOS sensor

(RGB primary color filter)

Dolby Digital 2-channel

indoors The LED

video light works

well only for short distance shots, but, ina pinch, this little light could be

a lifesaver

My next test

of the camera took

place outside, and again

the automatic features quickly adjusted the camera to the appropriate settings,

The color came through vivid and true I

was also pleased at the contrast ratio that came through in the image

Although it is somewhat cumber-

some to use, the Vixia HF10 does offer

E THE HF10 IS A COMPACT

HD CAMCORDER WITH A SLEEK AND SOLID DESIGN

L-

manual focus, white balance, shut-

ter speed and exposure When you

activate these functions in the menu settings, you can adjust them by using the thumb stick

Once the video clips are completed,

they are stored and easily accessed

from the HF10's internal 16-gigabyte

Flash drive by simply selecting from

a series of thumbnails viewed on

the 2.7" LCD viewfinder The video,

played back on a 37" LCD HDTV, came

through with crisp, vibrant color and

a nice sharp picture

I'm quite impressed at the qual- ity from such a compact little cam- era, The audio also comes through very clearly and concisely You may want to consider getting an external microphone to take advantage of the microphone input, but for quick and

easy use, the built-in microphone

works quite well

The Final Word

The Canon Vixia HF10 is a compact

HD camcorder with a sleek and solid design It offers ease of use mixed

with high-quality results The built-in

Flash memory drive can hold over 2

hours of video at the highest qual- ity setting (AVCHD, 17 megabits per second at 1920x1080 resolution) and over 6 hours at the lowest-quality set- ting (6 megabits per second)

The versatility and usability make the HF10 a great option for

beginners, as well as advanced users looking to produce semi-professional

video or just simply to document a

Brent Holland is a wedding/event video producer and

‘owner of a video production company

FEEDBACK For comments on this article, email us

at editor@videomaker.com, use article

#13694 in the subject line

eS

The GZ-MG550 sets its crosshairs

precisely at the entry-level user Its

small size, low price and color options

will most likely appeal to the family

reunion shooter or to the non-techni-

cal members of Generation-Y who

want to link their YouTube clips from

their MySpace page Such a customer

ona limited budget will find value in

the GZ-MG330

Cute Is Where It’s At

This hard-drive camera shoots in

standard definition (740x480) It sports

designer colors: Diamond Silver, Ruby

Red, Sapphire Blue and Onyx Black

Street pricing makes it less expensive

than four quick trips to the gas station

in an SUV Add to that the fact that it

fits nicely into the pocket of my Hawai-

ian shirt, and you've got a consumer

camcorder that is ready for action

The battery hangs on the back The

manually-operated lens cover is built

into the body The 2.7" LCD display

swings out in the usual way with the

flip-over self-portrait feature The pow-

er cord and the A/V cord plug in toward

—————

the rear The mini USB connector is in the front The stereo mic hides beneath the lens on the front of the camera

The housing begs to be touched and held The adjustable hand strap holds the camera nicely to your hand The low weight, around 11 0z., reduces the tendency to roll It “feels” good

Menu systems control most camera

functions Five buttons and a “Laser Touch” slider can be found around the

LCD display While I didn’t find the

menus necessarily “counter-intuitive,”

they did take a bit of practice The Laser Touch navigation left me unim- pressed It’s a nice idea, but since it allows only one dimension of scrolling, you have to do item selection with the very small buttons

A whisper-quiet 30GB hard drive stores the video files Stills can be stored on either the hard drive or ona MicroSD card These media, of course, boast great flexibility over tape

The camera comes with an AC

adapter, A/V cable, USB cable, remote control, battery and CD-ROM with basic editing software Some of

Performance

On a more substantial note: the camera zooms great In other words, the opti-

cal zoom goes all the way up to 35x,

far surpassing many of its rivals The

Left side of camcorder with Direct DVD button

Psa

BACKUP MAI

et INFO

VIDEOMAKER >>> JULY 2008 F——

zoom rocker sits in the normal loca-

tion beneath the right forefinger Range

options include 35x (optical only), 75x

digital zoom and a ridiculous 800x

digital zoom Needless to say, we stayed

away from the latter

We also liked the tele-macro op-

tion, This allowed us to focus on

extremely close objects We filled

the monitor with Lincoln's head and

shoulders from a penny Occasionally,

a bit of macro work now and then can

be useful

1 found the image quality to be

mediocre, overall The GZ-MG330 car-

ries a 1/6-inch CCD with 680K pixels,

which is typical of low-cost consumer

camcorders As we suspected, in mod-

erate and low light, there is quite a bit

of noise

The smaller CCD also limits the reso-

lution of the still photos to essentially

web quality (640x480) This will be

good for snapshots of the family pet,

but you won't see a great deal of fine

detail at this resolution

The auto focus

works okay, but

could be a tad fast-

er Adjusting from

closeup to infinity took a little longer

than we expected The

auto white balance adjusted well from daylight conditions to tungsten light- ing Manual white balance gave even

better color renderings

Even though this camera is not

designed for the advanced video

shooter, it sports a decent selection

of manual options: focus, exposure,

white balance, shutter speed and

spot meter, Again, our experience

with the Laser Touch slider controls with some of these manual functions left more to be desired Not only did

it take seven control inputs just to switch to manual focus, the Laser Touch made it cumbersome to actual-

ly focus scroll scroll scroll scroll A serious manual-mode operator would

soon be climbing the walls, However,

in a blue moon, it's nice to know

that they're there and that you can override the auto controls in tricky shooting scenarios

The onboard mic performed comparably to other cameras in this class Close subjects are very clear, but

performance drops off rapidly with distance The GZ-MG330 does not include an input for an external mic

What you hear is what you get with

the GZ-MG330

The battery that comes with the camera operates for just under two hours on a full charge Optional higher

capacity batteries will go for well over

five hours

The hard drive holds up to 7 hours,

10 minutes of video shot in the high- est “Ultra Fine” mode (720x480, 8Mbps variable bit rate) It can hold over

thirty-seven hours of Economy mode

video (352x 240, 1.5Mbps VBR)

This is a slick little camera for the most casual user The advanced user will want to spend more money to get some critical features not found on this fashion queen Many of the smaller

camcorders make a nice second or

third camera for the professional That

doesn’t quite apply here

Simple camera for the very budget con- scious, Lacks many features an advanced user would want

Greg Robinson is the owner of an independent produc- tion company He creates independent documentaries and takes commissions,

FEEDBACK For comments on this article, email us

at editor@videomaker.com, use article

#13923 in the subject line

=

When, exactly, does the time come for

a duplicator? If you're making money

with video, and you've got a lot of discs

to ship out to a lot of places, and burn-

ing them individually would take too

long or be too tedious, but you need

too few discs to bother taking the job

to a duplication house a duplicator is

your friend

Like the original Primera Bravo SỈ

the SE Blu’s still billed as an entry-level

| |

THE OUT-OF-BOX EXPERI-

ENCE FOR THE BRAVO SE

BLU IS VERY PLEASANT

2]

robotic duplicator - but the only thing

making it “entry-level” is the unit's disc

capacity While higher-end duplicators

have input bins that can handle 50 or

more discs at a time and can sometimes

burn multiple discs at once, the Bravo

i:

: Blu keeps it simple with a 20-disc

input bin and single disc burner For smaller jobs, it’s entirely possible you might not need much more than that

This particular duplicator is special, though It’s not just a DVD burner - no

sirree, Bob Installed in its chassis is

a Panasonic Blu-ray Disc burner You

provide the computer to control the system (burner, printer and robotics)

If you just need to duplicate DVDs and CDs, though, you can get the original

Bravo SE for pretty much half the cost

of the Bravo SE Blu ($1,495 vs $2,995)

Setup

Primera has taken the initiative to make the out-of-

box experience for

the Bravo SE Blu

very pleasant A

Quick Start poster

is the first thing

you see, and you find everything

potential to waste ink

- 82/885

else encased in cardboard Once you

break it out of its license agreement

envelope, the software/driver CD is

visually striking (and was duplicated and printed with a Primera duplicator, natch) Lift the platform up top to re- veal the actual duplicator Remove the

shipping tape and head retainer from

the unit, then insert the software/driver

CD into either your Mac or your Win-

dows PC, and the installer will guide

you through the process of connecting

the power and data cables, installing

the driver and software, loading discs

and installing the print cartridge (We

tested the system with an HP xw4600 workstation running Windows XP SP2.)

Formats and Write Speeds BD-R (E) (SL/DL); 2x; DVD+R (SL): 8x;

Realtime HD Editing

at a Breakthrough Pricel

The demand for HD video production is set to skyrocket now that HD televisions are in

widespread use and Blue-ray has won the battle of the distribution formats The time to add

HD production capabilties to your repertoire is now Cameras are affordable and the new

Matrox RT.X2 LE card dramatically reduces the cost of a high-performance HD editing system

Not only is the price of the card itself lower than ever, it also fits into a low cost desktop system

REAL realtime editing

Realtime HD monitoring

Matrox RT.X2 LE gives you all the realtime editing power and additional produetivity tools you Fast, versatile output

P2 MXF, or a combination, you'll find that RT.X2 LE goes far beyond the capabilities of

software-only in all aspects of video production — capture, editing, content creation, and delivery,

Matrox RT.X2 LE wil save you time on every project, letting you concentrate on creating your

best work and buiding your business

Contact us today for the name of a dealer near you

1.800.361.4908 (US and Canada), +1.514.822.6364, www.matrox.com/Video

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Đigital Video Solutions *

We were fairly impressed with

the Bravo SE Blu’s inkjet mechanism,

which avoided a lot of the annoying

inkjet setup rituals of the past The Bra-

vo SE Blu still requires calibration, but

it makes needed adjustments by itself,

as opposed to older print mechanisms

where you had to look at patterns

yourself and tell the driver which set of

lines was straightest

Speaking of the print mechanism, it

uses a single cartridge for all colors (it's

a 4-color system, known as CMYK in

the biz, because it reproduces the sub-

tractive colors of cyan, magenta, yellow

and black) Ink level reports are in terms

of the color with the smallest remaining

ink supply, even if the other colors may

be nearly full We prefer to see indi-

vidual ink cartridges for each of the ink

colors, so that extra ink isn’t wasted

In Use

We experienced an odd little issue

when launching PTPublisher, the core

application driving the duplicator On

every other launch, we received an in-

valid ink cartridge report The fix was

really quite easy, though - a firmware

update and an upgrade installation

of PTPublisher (offered for free on

Primera’s website) took care of that

problem in short order

Inside the Bravo SE Blu featuring the drive and robotic arm

screen to monitor the duplicator's disc

burner and printer Additionally, it lists the number of discs you load into the duplicator's input tray and the print

cartridge capacity in the lower right-

hand corner of the window, so you can keep an eye on your consumables

The system offers many disc-burn- ing tasks: make data discs, make audio discs, copy discs, make DVDs or other

tasks - e.g., print a disc without burning

it, burn an image or create a disc image

The only thing missing is the ability to create a Blu-ray Disc with video (e.g.,

BDAV or BDMV) I you have a disc

image you've already created, though,

you're golden The menu system is also logical - for example, the task of copy- ing a DVD appears in both the Make

DVD section and the Copy section

As with all of Primera’s past dupli-

cators, it’s great fun watching the ro-

botics move everything around While you can simply give the duplicator its

task and walk away, we bet at least once you'll just have to watch it move

a disc from the input tray to the disc

burner, then watch the arm pick up the

disc and place it in

the print tray, then

repeat the process

Best Blu Dupe

Choice for

If your primary

task will be du-

plicating Blu-ray Discs, it doesn’t get much bet- ter than this for the time being It takes quite a while

to burn a full

Blu-ray Disc (with

the duplicator’s

Panasonic SW- ee) 5582 drive, about

of those items currently command pre-

mium prices (For $8,995, Primera also offers the Bravo XRP-Blu, which has

a 100-disc input bin and two burners, but also includes an improved printer

PTPUBLISHER KEEPS USERS INFORMED WITH A COM- PLETE INFO SCREEN

that uses a separate cartridge for black

ink However, it also utilizes 2x speed

Blu-ray Disc burners.)

The $2,995 price tag on the Bravo

SE Blu duplicator is pretty high, consid- ering that the internet price difference

for a DVD burner versus a Blu-ray Disc

burner is somewhere between $325

and $350 We realize that there are

also software license costs and other royalties involved, but it couldn't pos-

sibly double the price of its DVD-only

counterpart As competing products come out, though, we expect that a price cut will be forthcoming

That's not to say that it’s not a good

choice - it’s just pricey We really like

the Bravo SE Blu, but it would be even

better if it cost less, that's all

For comments on this article, email us

= at editor@videomaker.com, use article

= #13693 in the subject line

This little black box has a cable go-

ing in and a cable going out Oh, and

there are two buttons too That's pretty

much it But what happens in the

middle makes it a useful tool

Let's say you don’t have a com-

puter handy or you just don’t

want to mess with it You take your

camcorder or your VCR and plug it

into the Video Transfer unit

AS A HANDY FEATURE, THE

VIDEO TRANSFER CHARGES

THE IPOD BATTERY

fh ¬

Then plug your iPod into the USB

connector on the other end You just

press the Mode button until you get

the video quality you want The LEDs

below the Mode button light up: one

for Good, two for Better, three for

Now press Play on your camcorder and the REC button on the Video Transfer That's it

The LEDs change to red again when recording The video signal is convert-

ed in real time and placed automati-

cally in the Videos folder of your iPod

Just press REC again when you're

finished recording Two of the lights

turn blue, but two stay red Pinnacle

warns that you must wait until all lights at the top and bottom of the device turn blue before disconnecting

the cables If you disconnect

before the lights turn blue,

you could lose your video

A handy feature is that

the Video Transfer charges

the iPod battery during the video transfer

Knowing that the Video Transfer was billed as

a camcorder and an iPod and started pressing the buttons that made sense

to me Before long, | had some video clips waiting for me to watch on the

small screen

Ins and Outs

Of course, you aren't limited to saving

video to just your iPod The Pinnacle

video transfer unit will also talk to

other USB devices: Sony PSP, USB

Flash drives and USB hard drives

Video and audio inputs, including an S-video connector

(06000,

Make sure the Flash drives

and hard drives are USB

2.0 and that you are using

FAT16/32 formatting

Inputs devices include

your camcorder, DVD play-

er, VCR, DVR, set-top box

or gaming console You can

record your favorite TV shows or mov-

ies to your mobile device for watching

away from home Gaming enthusiasts

can record their best sessions to share

with friends

Archiving

Who doesn't have a pile of videocas-

settes and camcorder tapes they'd

love to convert to digital? The Pinna-

cle video transfer device provides an

easy and inexpensive way to preserve

those tapes on your hard drive in

digital format You can easily transfer

video samples to a mobile player to

show to your potential clients, too

Features

Pinnacle included some fail-safe

features in the Video Transfer design

Recording stops if the receiving de-

vice is full or if the input signal is lost

or corrupted You can defeat that fail-

safe and go into “forced record” to

capture whatever signal is coming in

Before using your Pinnacle Video

Transfer, you'll want to download the

latest firmware update at www.pin-

TECH SPECS

Input Connectors Composite video (RCA)

y File Format, H.264 (MPEG-4)

Video Modes Good (320x240, 768kbps

HDD/Flash Memory video, 64kbps stereo audio,

naclesys.com/pvtsupport If your unit

sometimes writes a blank MP4 file

when the input signal goes bad, the

THIS NIFTY LITTLE UNIT WORKS AS ADVERTISED:

VIDEO IN, MP4 FILES OUT

firmware update will help You'll also want to update the firmware on your

iPod, PSP or other destination device

To watch your transferred video on

your PC or Mac, you must have Quick-

Time installed

Wish-list The unit's uber-simplicity does come

at a price: your attention You have

to stand by to stop the record process

at the desired moment A program- mable countdown timer would have been useful Higher bitrates would

also be nice and maybe even HD

resolution, but I guess I'm getting greedy now

This nifty little unit works as adver- tised: video in, MP4 files out Great for

archiving, digitizing home videos or

just for instant iPod gratification

For comments on this article, email us

at editor@videomaker.com, use article

#13690 in the subject line

‘SGM-1000

A phantom powered shotgun mic with

new high-performance microphone element that features: phantom 12-48V or 1.5V

"AA" battery * wide frequency response

* highly directional pick-up pattern

© high sensitivity/low noise * shockmount holder with new taller integrated shoe

mount © XLR output ¢ switchable low-cut filter ¢ On/Off power switch * standard

foam windscreen ® length - 310mm (12.5") Battery and cable not included

MSRP $360

SGM-2X

Ideal for full-size cameras, it is 2 mics in one

Combined, they are a 15.75" low-noise, wide bandwidth, shotgun, with balanced

low-impedance output Includes same

features of the SGM-1000 but no phantom power The short barrel (8.125") is a general purpose omni mic, MSRP $310

SGM-1X SGM-1X At 298mm (11.75") with XLR

output it's ideal for smaller DV cams with

XLR audio inputs Comes supplied with the same unique integrated shockmount with shoe-mount as the SGM-1000 Cable not included MSRP $230

SGM-X

At 216mm (8.5") the mini SGM-X is a complete system, including windscreen,

‘shoe-mount holder and mini cable With mini

output, the SGM-X is perfect for smaller DV cams with mini-jack mic inputs

MSRP $155

AJAZDEN

P.0 Box 10, Franklin Square, NY 11010 (616) 328-7500 s FAX: (516) 328-7506

For full specifications,

visit our website: www.azdencorp.com

VIDEOMAKER >>> JULY 2008 ——————— 19

2007 seemed to be the year of the video editing soft-

ware application Apple Final Cut Pro, Sony Vegas,

Apple iMovie, NewTek SpeedEDIT, Apple Final Cut

Express, Adobe Premiere Pro and others released major

new versions This means filmmakers have some excel-

lent professional and consumer applications for 2008

New Support

New formats means new support, and you can now cut

AVCHD with virtually all of the new versions of editing

software The AVCHD format is becoming more and

more popular in the consumer world, and it’s making

an appearance in prosumer video as well Better 24p

and 60p support made many editors happy, with proj-

ects shot on cameras such as the Panasonic HVX200

and the JVC HD250

Consumer

and iDVD, part of iLife ‘08 (purchased separately for

$79, included with new Mac computers), which saw a

major revision Some longtime iMovie fans cried foul

centric, although a new update from Apple seemed to add in professional tools and functions Some iMovie editors have returned to older versions, like the one included with iLife ‘06 There are also many third-party plug-ins you can use with iMovie, no matter which ver- sion you choose

More consumer-friendly applications include Roxio's

Easy Media Creator 10, Windows Movie Maker, Sony Vegas Movie Studio 8, Pinnacle System's Studio 11, Movie Edit

Pro from Magix, Corel/Ulead VideoStudio 11 Plus, Cyber- Link PowerDirector 7 and many more All the apps can

support HD, output to tape or DVD and compress and upload to YouTube, one of the biggest reasons consumers are buying video cameras and editing software

Adobe's Premiere Elements 4 (for Windows) and Apple’s Final Cut Express 4 (Mac only) are a great way

to dip your toes in the professional realm, while still working in the comfort of an easy-to-use graphical user

interface (GUI) Both applications are affordable and

well worth checking out, if you aren't quite ready to

move into the professional realm >>

Adobe Premiere Elements 4 y | Win XP SP2/Vista y

www.apple.com Final Cut Express 4 $199 na |n | Mao 0§ X 10.4.10 (Universal) y

CyberLink PowerDirector 7 $90 $90 |y | Win 2000/XP/Vista y

\ww.canopus.com EDIUS Pro 4.5 2 sf SQ cf MM ff WIM XP §P2, - osama

Magix Movie Edit Pro 14 $50 nla |y | Win 2000/XPIVista y

Media 100 Producer 12.5 $995 $995 |y | Mac 0§ 104.1 (Universal) y

Suite) SUITE

Liquid $500 na |y |WinXPS$PI y

Roxio Buzz 2 wa $19 |n_| Win XP SP2/Vista a

wwwserif.com

Vegas Pro 8 $600 $550 |y | Win XP SP2/Vista yị|#

Stoik Video Man 3.0 $39 $39 |y | Win 2000/xP mẽ

If you're working on major video projects, like

event video, film, commercials and more, you

need to be working with a professional editing

software application These apps can handle

everything from digital video (DV) to high defini-

tion (HD) and everything in between Whether you

prefer a Windows PC or a Mac, there are plenty of

software apps that will suit your needs

The Avid Liquid family gets better and better

and includes Liquid Pro (with an SD, standard-

definition, 1/0 device), and Liquid Chrome Xe (sup-

ports the AJA Lhe card, available separately) The

Avid Media Composer line includes video editing Sony Vegas Pro8_ = g

hardware and software solutions Avid has been $600

an industry standard for years and is constantly S550 download) |

Avid Mojo SDI adds 1/0 and monitoring support a Express om

ing the full-size Media Composer at a discounted Apple Final Cut

price from it's original hundred-thousand-plus Express 4

Adobe introduced several new iterations of its $199

famed software, including Photoshop CS3, After

———————=——— VIDEOMAKER >>> JULY 2008

long absence The Creative Suite 3 Production

Premium package is a great way to get a bundle

of Adobe software, including the latest ver-

sions of Premiere Pro, After Effects, Photoshop,

Soundbooth (audio), Encore (DVD) and more

There is also support for burning Blu-ray Discs

For Windows users, CS3 versions of OnLocation

and Ultra are included OnLocation was once Serious Magic’s DVRack, a field monitoring soft- ware solution for video cameras connected to a workstation or laptop; Ultra is an excellent key-

ing application for green- and bluescreen work

Sony Creative Software released Vegas Pro 8 + DVD Architect Pro 4.5 with much fanfare, and

many Vegas users were happy with the latest version (By the time of print, DVD Architect will

have been updated to version 5.) Vegas Pro's GUI

is a little different from what you may be used to,

but the excellent tools and functions make this one of the newest industry standards Add a copy

of Cinescore to put together musical arrange- ments for your video masterpiece, and you're ready for prime time, including support for burn- ing Blu-ray Discs and standard-definition DVDs

Final Cut Studio 2, also an industry standard, made its appearance at NAB 2007 and includes many upgraded apps, like Final Cut Pro, Motion

(graphics and animation), Soundtrack Pro (audio

and music), LiveType (graphics) and Compressor

(compresses video for output, the web or DVD)

Color, formerly Final Touch, is a professional color grader and finisher, at no extra charge

Curiously, DVD Studio Pro didn’t see a major

Pinnacle Studio Ultimate 11

Conclusion

Whether you're choosing a consumer or profes-

sional editing software solution or even some-

thing in between, like Apple Final Cut Express

or Adobe Premiere Elements, make sure you're familiar with system requirements and ensure you have a separate hard drive to capture and store video This will keep it off the start-up disk, where the operating system resides, and will avoid the possibility of fatal damage to the drive Nearly all the applications come with ad- ditional software to create and burn DVDs, compress and upload to the web, create music, edit sound, and provide graphics and animation

support If the company offers a free trial, try out

the applications; this will further help you in your

decision One last note: don’t switch platforms (Windows to Mac or vice versa) because you think acertain app is better than another Stay with what's familiar to you, unless you've tried another NLE software application and decided it's worth the switch All these applications can meet most editors' needs, so try to find something that feels comfortable for your particular workflow

Heath McKnight is a filmmaker and writer who co-wrote the book, HOV: What You NEED to Know, Volume 2, from VAST

FEEDBACK

For comments on this article, email us

it editor@videomaker.com, use article

#13725 in the subject line

S&S

the Digital Generation

Spend more time on the creative process With EDIUS"

Broadcast you get true native mixed format, mixed resolution

editing without the need to convert or rewrap You can freely

mix SD and HD formats, and take advantage of best-in-class

workflows for emerging non-tape-based formats such as

Series, Sony XDCAM EX

Thomson Grass Valley™ Infinity

& Panasonic P2

Brought to you by the experts in

real-time, mixed format video editing

CUMING OF AGE

Videotape Decks

HifF llltlI ÌI0liltI] Tba[5

BY JAMES IeRUW0

In the days of olde, a videotape deck

was an important member of your

video editing arsenal Believe it or not,

itis still an essential tool for many

editing situations

[= of carrying a videotape recorder on my shoulder

for those early consumer video cameras The VCR por- tion was ultra heavy, while the camera had a crappy pic- ture but a rather cool telescoping microphone Well, that was the early 70s, but few realize that the first videotape

recorder was invented just after the beginning of the1950s

VIDEOMAKER >>> 1

AU [INllL mane |Intlls

tr llleir IliltI Íear9

Panasonic Broadcast | AG-DV2500 | $2095| DV/DVUAM Mini/Full|n os jn jn |A |y |RS-42A |y |1í8”

www panasonie.cam

IMMM,A0II/S[Jit,t0

Sony Business HVR-Mi5U $2,350 | DV/DVCAM/HOV 10801 Mini/Full | 1 csp jn jo | AC y | LANG; Ctrl-S}n_ | n

This buyef que includes DV format VCRS priced up to $5,000, This isnot @ comprehensive lst The information forthe buyer's guide was compiled from information provided by

‘manufacturers Information is subject to change without notice

A Little History

While Bill Haley and his Comets were

rocking around the clock and the Fonz

was hanging out with Richie and Potsie

at Arnold's, Charles Ginsburg led the

research team at Ampex in developing

the first practical videotape recorder

(VTR) The image wasn't clear and

sharp In fact, you could barely discern

it as an image The heavily-modified

Ampex 200 tape recorder recorded

“blurred and indistinct” images on

standard 1/4-inch (0.6cm) audiotape

moving at 360 inches (9.1m) per sec-

ond But it was a beginning

A year later, using one-inch (2.6cm)

magnetic tape, Ginsburg’s team had

improved the quality to the point that

it had “a persistent grainy quality that

looked like a worn motion picture.”

That meant it was still inferior to the

state-of-the-art kinescope recordings on

film It took Bing Crosby Enterprises to

take the professional leap into the bold

new world of videotape operations

They worked for four years to develop a

commercially-viable videotape recorder

for broadcast TV Their 42-inch tape sys-

tem was similar to Ampex’ original de-

sign, just taken to the next logical step,

If Ampex hadn’t introduced the Ampex

Compiled by Charles Fulton

Analog Video Out The types of analog

video outputs that the VCR includes

c=composite; s=S-Video; p=component

*=additional cable required to use this

type of output

HDMI Out Whether the VCR includes an

HDMI port

Headphone Jack Whether headphones

can be attached directly to the VCR

Power Whether the VCR can be operated

from AC wall current or from batteries

Wireless Remote Whether the VCR ships with a wireless remote control

Edit Interface Whether the VCR can be

attached to an edit controller

VU Meters Whether the VCR shows the au- dio levels being recorded or played back

Mic Input Whether a microphone can be

standard for 20 years

In 1969, Sony intro-

duced the composite

U-matic system, which

used a cassette of %-inch

magnetic tape It was only

a prototype, but two years

later, after creating an in- dustry standard with other

manufacturers, Sony released the first commer-

cial Broadcast Video U-matic Recorder, or BVU It

would have a lock on the professional industry

until 1982, when Sony again released a format

which could have taken the commercial and con-

sumer worlds by storm: the 1⁄2-inch Betacam for-

mat Sadly, Sony was hesitant to license Betacam

(called Betamax) to competing consumer manu- facturers and lost the market to the emerging VHS system, But thanks to a digital upgrade in the 90s, Betacam is still popular among professionals

Since then, videotape recorders have never looked back But is there room for VTRs in the

digital age? Or has this magnetic medium gone the

way of so many other pioneering technologies

before it? Well, thanks to a digital makeover, video-

tape recorders can still play an important part in

video production And some are flat-out necessary

Gone are the days of reel-to-reel takeup or %4-inch pneumatic tape cassettes The current state of the art, like its camcorder cousins, relies on digital tape, which can record up to an hour in high-quality HD

Heir Apparents

In 1997, Sony once again gave its Betacam

system a makeover, creating two HD variants,

HDCAM for standard models and a higher-end HDCAM SR, The SONY HVR-M15U, for example,

is well suited for desktop applications, with its

recording in 1080i, DVCAM and DV SP formats

It can also play back HDV at 720p, although in

analog only Additionally, the HVR-M15U has the

ability to down-convert HD to SD when necessary

and can also switch from NTSC to PAL on the fly

It’s available for around $2,400, which is quite a

bargain for a high-end editing deck

If you are looking for a quick and affordable upgrade to HD, then you may to take a hard look

at JVC's entry into the professional VIR market:

the ProHD BR-HD50U HD Recorder For just over

$3,000, this deck packs a lot of features Switch-

able between HDV and DV formats, this VTR has

FireWire inputs and outputs via a standard 6-pin connector It takes full-size DV and miniDV cas- settes and can record up to 276 minutes of video

in standard or high definition Formats supported

include 720p in 24, 25 and 30 frames per second

Thanks to its sophisticated cross-converter func-

tion, output can be not only in 720p but also in

1080i, and DV formats of 480/576p and 480/576i

signals Plus, the switchable HDV and DV record- ing mode gives DVCAM playback as well, so users have a wide variety of options when adding this recorder/player to an existing editing system

Where will videotape recorders go from here?

With competing formats like professional Flash storage and hard drive-based cameras constantly

attempting to bleed off market share, only time will tell if videotape can maintain a hold on pro-

fessional editing And then there’s the never-end- ing promise of optical storage Still, high-tech and digital upgrades to the format have proven that videotape recorders will remain an integral part of any editing suite for the near future

Matrox RT.X2 LE does not include any Adobe software,

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powerhouse capable of editing HD & SD footage in realtime ~ that’s the HARDWARE ADVANTAGE!

The demand for HD video production is set to skyrocket now that HD televisions are in widespread use and Blu-ray Disc has won the

battle of the distribution formats The time to add HD production capabilities to your repertoire is now Cameras are affordable and

the new Matrox RT.X2 LE card dramatically reduces the cost of a high performance HD editing system, Not only is the price of the

card itself lower than ever, it also fits into a low cost desktop system

Matrox RT.X2 LE gives you all the realtime editing power and additional productivity tools you need to get the most from Adobe

CS3 Production Premium, Whether you work in DV, HDV, P2 MXF, or a combination, you'll find that RT.X2 LE goes far beyond the

capabilities of software-only in all aspects of video production ~ capture, editing, content creation, and delivery Matrox RT.X2 LE will

save you time on every project, letting you concentrate on creating your best work and building your business Here are just some

advantages of this revolutionary hardware:

+ REAL Realtime Editing Hundreds of Realtime Effects mean you can spend less

time waiting and more time creating! RT.X2 LE features

realtime Matrox Flex CPU effects including color correction, speed changes, chroma/luma keying plus realtime and accelerated Matrox Flex GPU effects including 2D/3D DVE, blur/glow/soft focus, shine and many more

+ Realtime HD Monitoring Monitor your footage in full-resolution on the same HDTV monitors that your audience will be using to view the final production, Matrox RT.X2 LE analog Component video output let’s you preview HD and SD video and color correct

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LEADING THE WAY INTO HD- WE ARE THE VIDEO EDITING & PRODUCTION EXPERTS

0c Dee eT)

es

Choosing Yo

2

ur Direction

Progressive

or Interlaced

A great director once asked, “To Interlace

or not to Interlace? That is the Question Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to cap- ture slings and arrows of sporting events Clearly, or to make beautiful film-like pictures against a sea of blur ”

BY MICHAEL REFF Wi: maybe that wasn’t exactly what he said, but it went something like that In

any case, the question is asked a lot: Should

I shoot in interlaced or shoot progressive

instead? Most people have learned that video shot progressively has a film-like look and

that interlaced looks more like news Well,

ing have a place and a time, and to use one

over the other is asking for some real drama

But make a choice you must So in order to understand which way to shoot, you must

first understand the difference in the way the

video is laid down on the tape

Progressive

Let's take the progressive image first Progres-

sive, also known as the letter “p” (as in 24p or

30p), is laid down line by line onto the tape

in sequential order (i.e., lines 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc.) until it fills a frame Then it returns to the top

VIDEOMAKER >>> JULY

' Choosing Your Direction

Interlaced scanning separates the image

into two fields: upper and lower (or, odd and

even) The first pass scans the odd-number

lines and the second pass scans the even-

longer to lay the image down This means more

movement can happen while it is scanning, po-

tentially causing a softer image Some non-techie types might be looking at each other at this point

and asking, “What do you mean? Video is recorded

some other way - we don’t shoot one image at a

time?” The answer is NO We don't We shoot two

half-images called fields “We” - the U.S., that is

~ a long time ago decided to record images ina

faster way and called it interlaced

Interlaced

Interlaced, also known as the letter “i” (as in 60i or 1080i), was chosen for a lot of technical reasons that have little to do with how we watch and shoot television today, but nonetheless we are stuck with it, unless you've chosen a progres-

sive HD format The outcome of this decision left

us with a very crisp image that is laid down in an alternating order This time the lines are scanned

——— VIDEOMAKER >>> 1ULY 2005 —————

1,5, 5, 7, 9, etc into what is called a field When

the scan returns to the top and repeats (now scan-

ning the even lines), the two fields are then woven

back together to make a full-frame image, hence

the name interlaced

What makes this technique different from pro-

gressive is that it reaches the bottom of

the frame in half the time This means

ETHING IS MOVING VERY FAST ACROSS THE SCREEN,

across the screen, say a runner or a car, SAY A RUNNER OR A CAR, INTERLACED WILL DELIVER A

interlaced will deliver a crisper picture,

much like a fast shutter speed on a still

camera Keep in mind we are not talk-

ing about engaging the shutter switch,

which can increase the speed upwards to 1/1000th

of a second OR shooting at a faster progressive

speed like 60p, which a lot of newer cameras now

have available as an option and which we will dis-

cuss in a minute This is just plain old interlaced

However, just recording faster doesn't make it bet-

CRISPER PICTURE, MUCH LIKE A FASTER SHUTTER SPEED

ing effect called jitter, which, I think, really looks

like someone with a bad caffeine rush! I do find

it ironic, however, that interlaced delivers a much cleaner image overall for sporting-type events, but is worse for freeze-frame But that is the case

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i Choosing Your Direction

2.5 sec

Camcorders that shoot 60 progressive frames per second can be used to

create smooth slow motion in a 24p timeline

Fast-moving images can blur, because

the scan takes longer to complete, but

because it is a full frame, there can

never be jitter in a freeze-frame image

Other Concerns

There is one other thing that I should

mention for those of you wishing to

shoot progressive and still do sports,

and that is HD You can now shoot

modern-day HD in very fast progressive

speeds (60p), thus capturing very fast

WITH PROGRESSIVE, FAST-MOVING

IMAGES CAN BLUR, BECAUSE TH

TAKES LONGER TO COMPLETE

images, yet still maintaining the clear

freeze frames To me, this is the best

of both worlds, but you pay for it You

might also want to try engaging your

shutter switch and increasing your

shutter speed, by shooting at 1/250th

up to 1/1000th of a second This effect

breaks your image into even shorter

time intervals per frame When slowed

down, this makes for an awesome slow

motion Be aware, though, high shutter

speeds require lots of light So be sure

to try this on a sunny day One other

great trick is to shoot at 60p but play

back at 24p Now you are talking pro-

fessional slow-mo Try this sometime

You will be amazed!

Whew! OK, so now do you get

the picture? Or should I say frame?

Progressive and interlaced are merely choices, not hard and fast rules, Unless,

of course, you're working for someone else Then be very sure that you ask

which format is wanted Many produc-

tion companies and TV stations have a

look that they adhere to, regardless of

what they are shooting To shoot the other might create headaches for their

setup and could possibly lose you their

future business

I find that I like the soft look of progressive for

most of my pieces, because

I rarely shoot sports

But if you are doing a

hunting show or capturing

a football game, | would recommend that you shoot in inter-

laced Before you shoot, ask yourself

these questions: “What type of story

am I telling? Which format best suits

my needs? Am I shooting a slower-

moving piece that requires warmer,

softer images, or do I need to see lots of

detail when the dagger falls?”

Good luck in finding your direction,

whether progressive or interlaced!

E SCAN

Michael Reff is a Senior Photographer for Turner

Broadcasting System, Inc

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