Posted by Larry J. on 02/04/06 22:36

Waiving the right to remain silent, Mark <nospam@nospam.com> said:

> Larry J. wrote:
>> Waiving the right to remain silent, Martin Heffels
>> <mot@sneeuw.nl> said:
>>
>>> On Sat, 04 Feb 2006 11:56:53 -0800, Mark <nospam@nospam.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> * I know that lighting is critical, particularly when there
>>>> is only artificial light available. Since this will be a
>>>> one-off, we don't want to buy lights. What would the best
>>>> lights be to use that we have hanging around. Are
>>>> incandescent lights okay? What about fluros? Perhaps a
>>>> combination of both? I think the lab is lit with fluros, but
>>>> we can probably supplement this with globes. Are there
>>>> particular incandescent globes that give good light for
>>>> video?
>>> Your best bet would be to create a nice big soft light source.
>>> Fluoro's will do for that. If you want to improve on the look,
>>> buy a couple with a high CRI, as they have "purer white"
>>> light.
>>
>> Good advice, but this all depends on the size of his "set." He
>> hasn't said if it's a rat running around in a little 3-foot
>> square maze, or a much larger area. A description of the
>> conditions is necessary.
>
> It will be more like 1-foot square.

That's tiny, but could still be difficult to light and shoot if
it's something like a maze with high walls.

Not knowing, I'd suggest some simple soft light, from the top to
eliminate wall shadows as much as possible. If it's like some
mazes I've seen with clear lucite walls, then you could get a lot
of reflections. Soft light will help here, too.

>>
>>>> * We are thinking of using a PAL camera, and then converting
>>>> to NTSC. Does software conversion do this okay? We do
>>>> currently have Adobe Premiere. Does that do it with good
>>>> results? Any recommendations for other software, hopefully
>>>> free?
>>> Software does this, but the results are usually not that
>>> great. Canopus Procoder is probably the best choice for you,
>>> or if you shoot mini-DV/DVCAM, FireStore DV Standards
>>> Converter might do the trick as well.
>>
>> I don't know why he would even think of using a PAL format
>> camera, unless he's in a PAL country, which he's not. He's at
>> UCLA.
>
> Yes, I'm at UCLA, but I brought my camera from Australia. I was
> thinking that the PAL - NTSC shouldn't be such a big deal as we
> can also just give it to the TV station to convert. They must do
> this all of the time when they get overseas footage to show??

Many TV stations have no cheap, easy method of converting PAL to
NTSC, and if they have to go through that process, won't bother
with it. They get a lot of promotional stuff.

>>>> * The camera can record in both interlaced and progressive
>>>> scan. Should we use interlaced given that the footage might
>>>> be broadcast? Or do the tv networks now prefer progressive?
>>> Go interlaced. Progressive will look jerky. For some reasons
>>> some tv-station here have decided to record progressive
>>> recently, and it looks abysmal.
>>
>> Agreed.
>>
>> Addiionally, I might add that UCLA has HUGE video production
>> resources there on campus. He should consult with those
>> departments.
>>
>
> Yes, I've been thinking that too. However, I don't know how to
> contact them or where they are. I did a quick search of the ucla
> website and didn't come up with anything obvious. We do want to
> do this quickly, rather than contacting someone, waiting for
> them to get back to us, having to book the equipment a week in
> advance, paying a lot of money in rental, etc.

As Martin suggested, maybe the TV/Film Department students could
take it as a quickie project. It might cost you nothing. You're
there, and it's much easier for you to check this out than for the
rest of us.

Otherwise, you'll just do it yourself, and the results will be the
best you can manage with limited knowledge and time.

Either way, I'd suggest shooting it in the format that the MAJORITY
of your reciipient TV stations will want, be that PAL or NTSC, and
provide the alternative format yourself. Don't expect them to do
it.

--
Larry Jandro
Video Engineering & Equipment Rentals
Scottsdale, Arizona, USA
[Remove spamtrap in ALLCAPS to reply]

[Back to original message]