Bind River, suffering for your career...

bbalser

bbalser

Veteran
Here is the hell I have to go through at least three times a month, if not more, working on two different projects that demand I get shots in sort of remote locations. This is Blind River, in St. James Parish, Louisiana. It's over an hour to get where we have to go sometimes. What a long ride. Oh, how I suffer this so much. And at this hour in the morning, it's freezing cold! Even in the dead of summer, it can get pretty frekin' chilly on that river! Oh, my life, how it does so suck to be me...

Starts dark, very grainy. First two shots gain was up to the max, cause it was just that early in the morning, and it took all that little video camera had to get an image. All recorded directly to an FS-100. It's formated for my iPod, just cause that's all I've had time to do. Although I see more of a blue-ish tint, just oh so very slight in this encoded version, from the original.

Just somthing I slapped together last minute. I spent no time at all thinking, or planing, or anything. Just grabbed a song, threw in some shots, there you have it.

Oh, all shot on a HVX200 in 720p24. All slo-mo is generated in the NLE, not in camera. I was just shooting at the time, not thinking. I really do just space out on the scenery when I'm out here. I just space out and have no idea what I video or photograph until I get home very late that night (if we even come home that day). All done in FCP. The tail animation done in Studio Artist.

At the end, I use the Variable Speed ramp in FCP, that very few folks have a real grip on. So, you can see just how subtle it can actually be.

Oh yeah, y'all may want a link, eh? Here it is-
http://www.wolfdigitalmedia.net/video/BlindRiver.m4v

3 minutes long, 34.5MB file. If you'd like some other encoding, it's so short, PM me and I'll re-encode and add the URL. It's not much, it's all in chronological order, it's just a goof off thing. Enjoy...
 
Done with "Studio Artist", a Mac only application. There is nothing like it anywhere, literally. This sample is the most basic, archaic, crap version of applying Stuido Artist to a QuickTime clip I've ever done, and I'm embarrased by how over simplified it is.

Just kidding!!!! Really, I am! "I kid because I love!"

Seriously, Studio Artist is unique and does some amazing stuff.

It's very powerful, very flexible, and to be honest, a task to learn. But if you have the brass marbles and can get into it, it's a really nice, powerful tool to have. Comes with hours and hours of QuickTime, catalouged tutorials.

It does white balance, color balance, luma balance, and so much more, so very different, and a lot of other effects that enhance footage in some really cool ways. Not just FX, but mostly, once you learn it, a way to clean up and enhance video clips in ways you never dreamed...

http://www.synthetik.com

Tripod, yes. Installed extra cleats and stuff to accomidate several different camera support systems onboard. It does get interesting some mornings. Some shots are not done, well, not "some", but a whole "LOT" of shots are NOT done with a tripod, but with either a CineSaddle or MiniSaddle, strapped down to one of several stratigic ponts we've cataloged for the boat, by extra deck cleats, loops, bungie cords, wire, rope, etc, in one form or an other. I love the CineSaddle, dude. Can't say enough about it.

It actually absourbes a ton of boat vibration, compared to a tripod! Swear it does! And I do mean a TON of vibration!

I'm going to try for shooting alternative frame rate shots soon for these very same shots. I'm on various rivers and bayous and lakes at sunrise and sunset, so it's not like I can't try to get this again. Don't know if "Mother Nature" will cooperate. That part of it is totally out of my control. But I am out there every week. I'll have to try some 720p24 Alt 60, and see how that works out. I mean, like, color wise, and saturation, and all, I'm just not going to push that, not when it's that early in the freakin' moring...

WWWIIIITTTHHHHOOOOUUUTTTTCCCCOOOOFFFFFEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!

And freezing your cajounes off!!!!!

Hmmmm.... how much motion blur would I want from my original frames? Maybe a fast shutter speed, but not too fast. Wouldn't I want "some" degree of "natural" motion blur, when overcranking to 60fps?

Oh, BTW, boat averages 32 knots, in case you want to really geek out on the pan and Alt Frame Rate, etc, speed crap for 24p shots like this.

I get out there, I space out, I hand the wheel to someone else, I snuggle up with one of the secured tripods and my HVX and my FS-100, and it's all my own footage. I just space out and hit buttons. This is all BEFORE I've had any FREAKIN' COFFEE!

And good think, too. Cause this is not my "professional" stuff. This is my own personal stuff shot while traveling around during work and being an air head...
 
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Well, it's the swamps and marshes, thousands upon thousands upon thousands of acres of it, come on down for a visit and find out...

But, thanks to big oil and big government, we're loose the equivilent of two football feilds of it a day due to costal errosion. Did you know the overwhelming majority of seafood exports in the U.S. come from there? That at least one thrid of domestically produced oil comes from that coast?

Anyway, if you don't know your way around, it's really easy to get lost for a very long time. Plus, it's swamps and marshes and aligators and all sorts of poisonous snakes, and critters that eat dead animals in a matter of hours, for thousands of miles, what do you think could happen?
 
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