Short film "Oysterman"

awesome.

what aperture did you shoot at? it looked quite shallow for outside.
how did you find focusing outside in the sun? do you have a hoodman?

the only thing i didn't like was the font and the flashy way it came on screen at the start.

i loved the walking bit at the start with the music. and the end walking bit.
 
i really liked the crispness of the audio. how is your oktava set up? is it mounted onto the camera? if so, which mount do you use? and do you have any wind protection on it? thanks.
 
Thanks Jennings, I had the Iris on the camera open all the way, then until we headed in and it was getting cloudy I had the ND filter at 1/8, and then I just adjusted the aperture on the Nikon depending on the way the light was, for example I had to turn it down when I was aimed toward the sun. I had the Shutter speed set at 1/500 I think the whole time.

Focusing was a little tough, I don't know what a hoodman is, i'm guessing its one of those things that you put around the lcd screen, if it is, then no I don't have one, it was difficult sometimes to see the screen,
If you play around with it enough you get an Idea of the basic distances you need to turn the focus and the distance you need to be between the subject you want in focus, just through playing around with it a little bit. I don't have a follow focus either so its a little tough.

I agree about the fonts I went in and changed some of it and I also added subtitles throughout the whole thing which works much better, and made a couple changes. I think I can only upload one video a week on vimeo so I will have to update it another time.



Luster, I was happy the way the sound came out too, for this video I had it mounted on the camera, I have the K-tek kssm shockmount ( I think this one: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/323324-REG/K_Tek_K_SSM_K_SSM_Shock_Mount.html) and a hot shoe adapter to mount that to the camera,

I have the Fuzzy wind jammer but I actually didn't use it, I just used the Baby ball gag on it, there was not much wind out that day though.
 
liked it. a bit bright at times. realy like the sgpr look. was this one the flip? also were u using a shoulder brace?
 
jambredz - Nope no flip, I used the magnet on the lcd trick, I had a brace my dad built, it goes over both shoulders and has a support bar that sticks out right around chest level and has some handles and the rails with camera mounts onto it, I'll try to post some pictures of it.

longshanks - Shot 4x3, I imported it as 4x3 in vegas, and changed the size of the project in vegas to 720x340 then each clip I have to click on the pan/crop button to flip it anyways so I made a preset that crops to 720x340 and also flips it. The top and bottom that is cropped off is still there so I can click the pan/crop button and use keyframes to either pan it to the top or bottom of the 340 area.
 
Visually very nice, nice range of shots and the music was excellently placed. But, it sounded hollow to me as if you have put the sound through a cleaner and gone too far (I did listen to it through my headphones). It had a robotic edge to the sound.
 
longshanks - Shot 4x3, I imported it as 4x3 in vegas, and changed the size of the project in vegas to 720x340 then each clip I have to click on the pan/crop button to flip it anyways so I made a preset that crops to 720x340 and also flips it. The top and bottom that is cropped off is still there so I can click the pan/crop button and use keyframes to either pan it to the top or bottom of the 340 area.
Click to expand...

interesting methodology, so cropping the image before export doesn't screw with the aspect ratio?(rectangular, square pixels?)
 
DarkElastic - yep, thats how I feel too, I ran it through audacity and used a noise removal, because in a lot of shots there was a small humming noise which I think the mic picked up the sound of the camera running because I had it mounted on the camera, so I think the noise removal ran into some of the bass sound and made it sort of tin-like, like inside a hollow can. I'm working on re-editing some shots as well as trying to clean up the audio better and I will post a new clip when I finish that.

longshanks - No, you keep the aspect ratio the same, (which is .09091) and just change the size of the width Height (it is normally 720x480) So change the 480 to what ever you want, then you have to match that size with the crop tool located on each clip on the timeline, your not really cropping it, because the footage outside the (cropped) 340 pixel area is still there, but its just not visible. When you export the clip is when the actual crop happens and whatever is seen inside your 720x340 crop area in vegas is what is exported and the rest is cropped out. If you export for the web then you can just export a quicktime clip at that size 720x340(or what ever you changed it to) but if you export it as a MPEG for a dvd I found that you have to keep the size at 720x480 and the aspect ratio at 4x3 and it will render your size of 720x340 but with black bars and it is set to play on a 4x3 tv. So far this is the best method I have found, I'm sure there are other ways and possibly better ways for cropping, but this works well for me.


Some images of the rig my dad built:











 
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Ok , Here's a link to the New Revised version:

http://www.vimeo.com/2266183


There are still problems with the sound, there's a low humming sound that's noticeable in a few spots that I can't seem to get rid of without making other parts sound not as good.
If anyone can recommend a free noise removal plug-in for sony vegas that be great.
 
Great subject matter and location.
Love the main character--real down to earth guy. Good eye for editing. Really enjoyed it, especially when there was a pause and he turns to say "now thats a good oyster". Wanted to hear a little more about him getting stuck though.
Other than that, might want to carefully watch your horizon in your viewfinder and also watch your audio levels. Those thumps happen when the audio gets clipped.
Overall, great concept--enjoyed it.
 
Mr-Joe said:
longshanks - No, you keep the aspect ratio the same, (which is .09091) and just change the size of the width Height (it is normally 720x480) So change the 480 to what ever you want, then you have to match that size with the crop tool located on each clip on the timeline, your not really cropping it, because the footage outside the (cropped) 340 pixel area is still there, but its just not visible. When you export the clip is when the actual crop happens and whatever is seen inside your 720x340 crop area in vegas is what is exported and the rest is cropped out. If you export for the web then you can just export a quicktime clip at that size 720x340(or what ever you changed it to) but if you export it as a MPEG for a dvd I found that you have to keep the size at 720x480 and the aspect ratio at 4x3 and it will render your size of 720x340 but with black bars and it is set to play on a 4x3 tv. So far this is the best method I have found, I'm sure there are other ways and possibly better ways for cropping, but this works well for me.
Click to expand...


cool, i use FCP so when i export using compressor i get jaggies but when i use quicktime conversion, no jaggies but slight aspect ratio distortion. anyways 720x480 will not display correctly on the web as you probably know because of rectangular pixels. hence, players like quicktime will resize the video to resolutions such as 640x480 in order to attain a square pixel display for computer monitors and LCD's. that said, does cropping the height help give proper aspect ratio? because so far, the best export i've been able to get is 640x360 for that 'widescreen' look. feel free to critique and rip apart anything i said if its wrong, but thats how i've learned it. :thumbup:

p.s. how do you like your sgpro adapter? (weight, stability, image reproduction)
 
gco - Thank you, he had gone out to wash his bucket of oysters and the tide comes in very fast, there's only about an hour of time you have to pick, and when he turned to come back in he had sunk down in the sand/mud and the warden saw him and came and pulled him out.

What do you mean by watch your horizon line in the viewfinder? And also what do you mean about the audio being clipped?

longshanks -
anyways 720x480 will not display correctly on the web as you probably know because of rectangular pixels
Click to expand...
Actually I didn't know that, The video I posted does it look alright? as far as the aspect ratio goes? It doesn't seem to be stretched or distorted to me. I'm not too sure if cropping the height helps give proper aspect ratio. When I export the clip as a mpeg and put it on a dvd it seems to look fine as well.

As far as I know there are 2 ways of looking at aspect ratio, in vegas, (may be the same in final cut pro) your aspect ratio can be set differently than that of your width/height. What I thought the aspect ratio was, is the ratio of your width/height, so for example 720 divided by 480 is 1.5 which Is what I thought the aspect ratio is, so if you wanted a 16:9 aspect ratio (which is approx 1.8:1) you would take 720 and divide it by 1.8 which equals 400, This is how I thought that it works. But I think this only works with an aspect ratio of 1.

But I think what you have to do, is set your aspect ratio to whatever your camera captures at, (I believe that the DVX captures at the .9 something ratio) then just crop off the height to what ever size you want your image to be, so long as your cutting off part of the height and not trying to squeeze in the footage that was captured, the only thing you are doing is loosing that portion of your 480 pixels to black space.

I'm not an expert about the aspect ratio thing, it seems to be a bit confusing, so the method that I explained is the one that I found works the best for me and seems to cause less complications and maintain the highest resolution.
It seems to me the best thing to do is just leave the aspect ratio thing alone, and set your hight to the size you want to crop it at, and use the crop tool in the editor and set it to the same hight you wanted cropped and render like that. (you have to set the aspect ratio the same when you render as well, in quicktime set the ratio to .9091 if thats what you edited in) I think that vegas is designed that way to eliminate complications in aspect ratios.
If you would like I could try to take some screen shots of how I do that in vegas, if that would help?

Sgpro is pretty good, It certainly adds more weight, I can't compare it to another adapter because I haven't used any other ones, I seems to be stable, I like the image compared to no adapter, the depth of field and way the lens captures things looks to me more film like than with no adapter. It can be a bit difficult to focus with the tiny lcd screen, and it is certainly not as portable than the camera alone.
 
yeah there are a lot of threads on aspect ratio but none seem to adequately explain it. PAR(pixel aspect ratio 1.2 .9 etc.) is the ratio of the width and height, while just regular aspect ratio is the pixels represented- 4:3 16:9 and so on. anyhow, FCP does not to my knowledge allow for the changing of PAR but sets default DV editing at .9. so when i export and crop the height(which i've done numerous times) it still seems to not look right because i think it still has a PAR of .9

oh well, i figure this out. also, i would try to take a screen shot of your video on vimeo and take it into photoshop, i bet you it is not 720 wide, im sure vimeo corrects for this, but i could be wrong.

i ask about the 35mm adapter because the only one i've had experience with is the P+S technik mini35 which is a HEAVY beast. glad you like yours. :)
 
longshanks -

this is from Wiki:

"Pixel Aspect Ratio is often confused with Picture Aspect Ratio. Picture Aspect Ratio is the ratio of the image width and height.Due to non-squareness of pixels in Standard-definition TV, there are two types of Picture Aspect Ratio: Storage Aspect Ratio (SAR) and Display Aspect Ratio (DAR). Storage Aspect Ratio is the ratio of the image width to height in pixels and can be easily calculated from video file. Display Aspect Ratio is the ratio of image width to height (in a unit of length such as centimeters or inches) when displayed on screen and is calculated from the combination of Pixel Aspect Ratio and Storage Aspect Ratio.

However, users who know the definition of these concepts may also get confused as well. Poorly-crafted user-interfaces or poorly-written documentations can easily cause such confusion.

Some video-editing software applications often ask users to specify an "Aspect Ratio" for their video file, presenting him or her with the choices of "4:3" and "16:9"! (Sometimes, these choices may be "PAL 4:3", "NTSC 4:3", "PAL 4:3" and "PAL 16:9"!) In such situations, the video editing program is implicitly asking the Pixel Aspect Ratio of the video file by asking for information about the Video System from which the video file in question is originated. The program will then use a table (similar to the one in Pixel Aspect Ratio of Common Video Formats section below) to determine the correct Pixel Aspect Ratio value.

The rule of thumb is: Video editing products never ask for Storage Aspect Ratio; they can simply retrieve picture dimensions and calculate it. Non-square-pixel–aware applications would often ask either Pixel Aspect Ratio or Display Aspect Ratio, from either of which they can calculate the other."

So it seems that you want to leave the aspect ratio at .9 (what it was captured at) so if FCP asks for that or leaves it at default, then I think that is correct..... What you then need to do, is crop off the height of your project and leave the width at 720 to maintain the highest resolution possible, ( to do this in vegas I just set the size of my project in the properties to 720x340(or what ever you want) (this does not change the size of your actual clips, this is basically the size which you will see your preview at) then to actually crop the clip you have to change each clips cropping properties to that same size,(i'm not sure how to do this in FCP, i'm sure its similar to vegas, in vegas there is a crop tool property button on each clip in the timeline, you click it and punch in the height/width that you want it to zoom in or crop to.)

when you export for the web, as a quicktime file, make sure to set the aspect ratio to .9 and change the width height to what you cropped it at. The editing system should take care of any conversions.
If you export for DVD in the render options change the width height to the original size 720x480 and set the aspect ratio to 4x3 , when the video renders as a 4x3 the pixel aspect ratio it renders out at is 720x480 size in order to fill the entire 4x3 space of a standard television(this is probably converted by FCP, or Vegas to change from pixel aspect ratio to the Display aspect ratio), but the area outsize the 340 space that you cropped each your clips to in the timeline will be filled by black bars.

If you use this method for exporting to the web, you will not have black bars, because you set the width height to size that you cropped at, if you export for web at 720x480 I think that it will look funky and stretch and skew your image, i don't think it is like exporting for dvd where it automatically adds the black bars.

So basically if your exporting for the web, keep aspect ratios at .9 even when you render, then match the width/height to the width/height that you crop at and it should come out fine.



I think that if you took a screen shot of the clip I had on vimeo it won't be 720 anyways because it shrinks it down to a smaller size.
 
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