David_M_Payne
Well-known member
Notes from a novice filmmaker on the HVX200 and keeping costs down.
We've been shooting "Holy War" and using a couple of older (Bought this year before the switch over) G4 15" PowerBooks with 1.67 processors and 1.5g of ram, FCP 5.0.4 and OWC 500 RAID drives with no problems at all. You will have to look around to find one now because the new ones have Intel processors and no PCMA slot so they are not plug and play like mine are. So far we have only used the 4g P2 cards, as we are shooting in 720/24PN and they have given us plenty of time to shoot a scene or even a few if they are short, before we have to download. And the picture quality is very sharp and downloading is pretty fast. I also bought a couple of LACIE FW800 PC cards so that we could just shoot to the computer/OWC drives but haven't had the need to do that yet, it would take long scenes to need that capacity and no one can remember that many lines on our sets.
For editing we are using an older Quad G5 2.5 processors with 4.5g of ram (Also bought this year) and it rocks. For a monitor we are using Ilo HD TV/monitors 2-17” and a 26” for the G5 and we are getting a crystal clear picture in HD for editing in the field and in the studio. 600 bucks each. They are not as nice (Or nearly as expensive) as top of the line monitors, but they do the job at this level of filmmaking. (Very low budget)
I bought a Marshal 7” on camera monitor and we use it, but we have found that the focus assist gives us as good a picture in post as the marshal equipped camera does, so my hats off to Panasonic for such a good add on to help focusing. You can get a great picture in 720/24PN using the focus assist. Perhaps it would be not as useful in 1080, but we haven’t seen the need for that high a resolution given the clarity in 720/24PN, not to mention how useful the P2 cards are time wise in that format/frame rate. Plus I understand that uprezing to 1080 from 720 gives good results.
Lights. I bought the britec set of two 600/300 and one 250 fill and we haven’t used them at all. I tried out some screw in florescent bulbs at a local store Bulbman and they are great for this camera. I have many 5100k lights as well as a couple of flood 5000k and some 6500k lights and they really light up the scenes with almost no heat and a lot less electrical power usage. This allows us to use store bought fixtures, light trees, regular lamp fixtures, clamp on fixtures etc that can be put right in the scene if needed and they fit in, something that studio lights aren’t good for. This camera isn’t as light hungry as film cameras are light wise so you can use these lights, save a lot of money and get great results in most instances. (Daylight is best, but these lights are close to that spectrum) Also we shot in a lab and used the lab florescent lighting. Once you set the white balance we got what we were looking for, lab scenes that looked like lab scenes in part due to the lighting. (We did use some of my lights for fill, but again easy to use and set up and you can put your hand on the bulbs while they are on and not get burned.)
Also we have gotten good sound from an AT 897. I have some Sennheiser mics, a pair of EW100 lavs which we have used, and a couple of shotgun mics the ME66/60 combo that we haven’t used as they are too sensitive for most of the places we have shot in. (The lab with its air conditioning noise and the restaurant with its fridge noise.) Sometimes a mic with less sensitivity properly placed is more useful than a very sensitive mic that will pick up everything, including things you don’t want.
There are some tips for what they are worth, you can cut corners and still get great results, but nothing beats a big budget that’s for sure. However if like me you don’t have a big budget, you can still shoot what you need if you are creative enough.
David
We've been shooting "Holy War" and using a couple of older (Bought this year before the switch over) G4 15" PowerBooks with 1.67 processors and 1.5g of ram, FCP 5.0.4 and OWC 500 RAID drives with no problems at all. You will have to look around to find one now because the new ones have Intel processors and no PCMA slot so they are not plug and play like mine are. So far we have only used the 4g P2 cards, as we are shooting in 720/24PN and they have given us plenty of time to shoot a scene or even a few if they are short, before we have to download. And the picture quality is very sharp and downloading is pretty fast. I also bought a couple of LACIE FW800 PC cards so that we could just shoot to the computer/OWC drives but haven't had the need to do that yet, it would take long scenes to need that capacity and no one can remember that many lines on our sets.
For editing we are using an older Quad G5 2.5 processors with 4.5g of ram (Also bought this year) and it rocks. For a monitor we are using Ilo HD TV/monitors 2-17” and a 26” for the G5 and we are getting a crystal clear picture in HD for editing in the field and in the studio. 600 bucks each. They are not as nice (Or nearly as expensive) as top of the line monitors, but they do the job at this level of filmmaking. (Very low budget)
I bought a Marshal 7” on camera monitor and we use it, but we have found that the focus assist gives us as good a picture in post as the marshal equipped camera does, so my hats off to Panasonic for such a good add on to help focusing. You can get a great picture in 720/24PN using the focus assist. Perhaps it would be not as useful in 1080, but we haven’t seen the need for that high a resolution given the clarity in 720/24PN, not to mention how useful the P2 cards are time wise in that format/frame rate. Plus I understand that uprezing to 1080 from 720 gives good results.
Lights. I bought the britec set of two 600/300 and one 250 fill and we haven’t used them at all. I tried out some screw in florescent bulbs at a local store Bulbman and they are great for this camera. I have many 5100k lights as well as a couple of flood 5000k and some 6500k lights and they really light up the scenes with almost no heat and a lot less electrical power usage. This allows us to use store bought fixtures, light trees, regular lamp fixtures, clamp on fixtures etc that can be put right in the scene if needed and they fit in, something that studio lights aren’t good for. This camera isn’t as light hungry as film cameras are light wise so you can use these lights, save a lot of money and get great results in most instances. (Daylight is best, but these lights are close to that spectrum) Also we shot in a lab and used the lab florescent lighting. Once you set the white balance we got what we were looking for, lab scenes that looked like lab scenes in part due to the lighting. (We did use some of my lights for fill, but again easy to use and set up and you can put your hand on the bulbs while they are on and not get burned.)
Also we have gotten good sound from an AT 897. I have some Sennheiser mics, a pair of EW100 lavs which we have used, and a couple of shotgun mics the ME66/60 combo that we haven’t used as they are too sensitive for most of the places we have shot in. (The lab with its air conditioning noise and the restaurant with its fridge noise.) Sometimes a mic with less sensitivity properly placed is more useful than a very sensitive mic that will pick up everything, including things you don’t want.
There are some tips for what they are worth, you can cut corners and still get great results, but nothing beats a big budget that’s for sure. However if like me you don’t have a big budget, you can still shoot what you need if you are creative enough.
David
