Advice on shooting robotic combat with the HV20?

[MadOverlord]

I am by no means even a semi-professional videographer, but I've gotten some decent footage of combat robotics (hobby of mine and the kids) with DV camcorders. Now I'm going to try doing it in HDV, and would like some advice to get me over the learning curve with the HV20.

The general setup is this: the fights occur in a large arena, with polycarbonate (lexan) panels all around to protect the audience from the shrapnel. We shoot through the lexan using a camera blind made out of blackout fabric - the camera is tripod-mounted and only the lens projects into the blind (actually, the blind fabric is trapped behind a lens hood, so it moves as the camera moves). This does a great job of killing reflections off the lexan.

Interior arena lighting is basically an array of halogen worklights.

I would like some advice on what camera settings to try (24p? shutter or aperture control?) and so on.

Also, if any of you are based near San Francisco and would like to join in the fun, I may be able to get you access in return for copies of the footage for the event organizer. It's RoboGames, June 15-17 at Fort Mason.

 

[mozwald]

24p wont be very good if you want to slow down the action, although...if you wanted it to look more filmatic, then go for it. (doing the pulldown on 24p footage is a real pain and takes a little bit of research)

I would avoid it if you dont need to shoot in that mode.

 

[MadOverlord]

24p wont be very good if you want to slow down the action, although...if you wanted it to look more filmatic, then go for it. (doing the pulldown on 24p footage is a real pain and takes a little bit of research)

Oh, the reverse telecine isn't a big deal, I've done it before on my Mac using Cinema Tools. My main reasons for going to 24p would be (a) I can do slomo without losing half the resolution to the interlace, (b) potentially a bit more flexibility in shutter speed, and (c) the final compressed versions will be smaller.

But it won't be hard to argue me off this position, as I know some people prefer 60i for sports.