bottles break in slow-mo

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Guest

Guest
Hey,
Any suggestions on shooting 22ounce beer bottles dropped from waist height. They should hit the ground and break. I would like to use slow-mo during post (Sony Vegas). We will set up safety messures. Thanks.
Dave
 
Re: bottles break in slow-mo

Use highest shutter speed that you can...make sure you have plenty of light. Since you are dropping more than one bottle, getting in super tight shouldn't be necessary. If you were dropping just one bottle, it would be cool to get in tight on the bottle and follow it as it falls to the ground in slow motion.
 
Re: bottles break in slow-mo

mmmhhh, actually capturing the bottle break will be quite difficult with a DV camera. The entire process of hitting the ground, breaking, having pieces of glass flying all over the place takes maybe less than 1/2 second = 12 frames.
You can't do much slo-mo if you actually have only 12 frames!

Slo-mo is still the realm of film cameras as you can overcrank them (an Arri 16SR3 HiSpeed can be overcranked to 100 fps and there are special slow-motion cameras that can do up to 10.000 fps and more).
 
Re: bottles break in slow-mo

Best bet is to do it in 30p or (better) 60i (a kind of "overcranking" which you CAN do). You can then slow it multiple times in post. With care, the results will be passable, even if not spectacular -- depending on what you really want to achieve.
 
Re: bottles break in slow-mo

The best you can do is shoot in 60i and use an After Effects plugin like Twixtor or ReTimer to slow the footage down by interpolating frames. Of course this assumes you can get access to AE and a plug. Otherwise, just shoot in 60i and run some tests in Vegas to see if you can use the shot.
 
Re: bottles break in slow-mo

Since you're using Vegas you could also apply a velocity envelope.  You may need to add a Video Supersampling envelope as well to help with the interpolation.
 
Re: bottles break in slow-mo

since twixtor, retimer, and timemaster 2.5 are all very expensive(mostly over 1,000.00) you might also want to consider "motion perfect" by dynapel . its a 50.00 program that can do slowmotion by frame interpolation at the pixel level, but is not anywher near as pro or customizeable as the others, but it does work well for most stuff, especially if your shooting for slow motion by using all the techniques that wil yeild good frame interpolation. i use it for alot of my slow mo stuff, and its a very simple to use standalone app, that im pretty happy with for the most part.. certainly worth 50.00
 
Re: bottles break in slow-mo

You could also get ahold of a Filmo and shoot it on film at 64 fps or, better yet, find the high-speed version of the Filmo and shoot it at 128 fps. If you use Vision 2 stock you should end up with a fairly grainless, sharp picture that would intercut nicely with DVX footage.

If you want to shot it on the DVX, definitely use 60i for the best slow-motion potential.
 
Re: bottles break in slow-mo

No question 128 fps on the filmo would look great. Motion Perfect sounds interesting and the price is right. Twixtor and reTimer are both around $300--not cheap, but they do a very good job. If you want to FTP me the footage, I'd be happy to run it through Twixtor for you.
 
Re: bottles break in slow-mo

Remember you may need to score the bottle if it's thick glass or you'll be dropping it forever from that height before it breaks.
 
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