Alaskan footage

[DC EX1]

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?p=1227953#post1227953


http://web.mac.com/stansfieldb/Pacific_Rim_Tour_Blog/Alpine_Air_Alaska_Video.html

Alaska shot on the ex1....

rough little short of an ad hoc helicopter trip

(lessons learned, get a shoulder mount or gyroscope for heli footage)


Brian
Dead City Films

[DeeZiD]

Mhh, nice area.

But the video looks heavy overexposed. Was Iris on auto, it changes a lot.
And the scaling seems very wrong - lines everywhere.

And again, EX1 wobble is visible in some of the scenes. If a shouldermount would fix it - I don't know.


regards Dennis

[Ben_McElroy]

Looks like a great location, I'd love to shoot in Alaska. The take off shot would have been better if in manual focus. Your Ex was hunting for focus the whole time.
Great stuff though.

[DC EX1]

I actually had the camera in full manual... I think the compression combined with final cut's SmoothCam (blending) makes the focus shift... I was just seeing if it was going to help with some of the shaking... again, never been up in a helicopter and was more shooting for fun... no real prep time, just hopped in and took off... it was hard to get the exposure right with sunglasses on the glare from the snow was intense, its also hard to have contrast with the white on white areas, very few shadows.... it was a great area and a great experience, next helicopter trip in hawaii I'll be much more prepared and try to get my hands on a shoulder mount or some sort of mono pod for the cockpit... not really sure the best method for commercial heli's, most heli shots are done from helis/planes with camera mounts... any suggestions for next time?

[DC EX1]

Also, I just re-watched the video online and the compression is terrible... I still haven't come up with the best compression for xdcam to a web-friendly compression... the movement on the video looks awful online but looks great on my macbook pro... I'm using compressor, but haven't had the time to play with it since I've been on the road non-stop, I'm trying to be a prepared as possible for the next helishoot... (this is all just for fun for me while I'm on business on location) Anyone with suggestions for the next shoot would be greatly appreciated, I just wasn't prepared and had trouble with the exposure... truth be told, I'm not really a motion videographer, I mainly shoot interviews and VNR's, this was something totally out of my element.

[Buck Forester]

I thought it was a great video! I don't think it was overexposed for what you were trying to do. In harsh mid-day lighting, especially with snow, you have to choose what you want to meter on. You chose the flesh tones. If you chose the surrounding snow, the people would be nearly silhouettes. I didn't find the chopper footage unexceptably shaky either. Very well done.

[thefilmaddict]

I like Quicktime H264 700x400 for the web. The quality setting is up to you. It can look super clean if you don't mind having people wait a little to load the file.

[rrrobb]

use at least 10 mbits to get a decent picture

[THoff]

use at least 10 mbits to get a decent pictureNo offense, but are you crazy? DVDs that use a far less efficient codec than H.264 get excellent quality at a similar resolution using a lower bitrate.

For 700x400 (which is a really odd resolution BTW), I would use 2Mbps to start and only bump that up if you have complex footage.

[Pepeds]

Hey DC, i hope you don't mind me telling you, but you have some beautiful material mixed with some awful shots, you definitely had problems with the exposure. You can for sure lessen some of those issues in post.