GH4 Filming Conference Speaker?

F

Finster

Well-known member
I've been asked to film a conference speaker. He'll probably go on for 40-60 minutes. I'll be in the back of the room ... perhaps about 40 feet away.

I usually don't do this sort of thing. Seems like a full fledged video camera, like the new Sony X70 or Panasonic X1000, would be better suited. But could I pull it off with my GH4? I've been eying the 35-100mm, so maybe now's the time to buy it?

Guess I'm wondering what others think? Anybody use the GH4 to film a conference speaker?
 
Also look at the 45-175. You lose a little bit at the near end, but gain a lot at the far end. It's also capable of got a zoom control on it, and is capable of being used with a remote zoom. The downside is it's not a fast lens... but it's also about 1/5 the cost of the 35-100 (which is a fantastic lens, by the way).
 
Zoom control? Wow, how is that possible? I've never heard of having zoom control or remote zoom on the GH4.

Yeah, I'm not sure what the lighting is going to be like. Wish I knew for sure since f4-5.6 sounds a lot slower than f2.8! ;)

You've definitely got me curious about the zoom control, though. I'll keep googling ...
 
At 40 feet the 35-100mm might not have enough reach (unless you use the digital extender in HD or zoom in in post) - your framing would basically be from knees to top of head.
 
At a distance of 40 feet, 100mm will be from knees to top of the head of the speaker, eh? What about 150mm? Or 200mm?

How do you calculate this?
 
As much as I like DSLR/BMC footage, I'll often go to a real "video camera" for a gig like this.

You're gonna be shooting a 2.8 if my experience holds up. There's never enough light unless you bring your own.

And unless they just want the talking head, you may want the option to cut to another angle to get rid of "umms", dead spots, etc... or if he's showing a powerpoint or something, get a copy to stick into your edit.

4K is nice for something like this since reframing can act as a b-cam in a pinch.
 
Finster said:
Zoom control? Wow, how is that possible? I've never heard of having zoom control or remote zoom on the GH4.
Click to expand...

Yep, above the SD card slot is a remote port. I have not tried the zoom yet with my 45-175, but it will take the same zoom/start/stop remote I use with my AF100 and HMC150, and the start/stop function works just fine.

It's my understanding that the m4/3 protocal allows for zoom control, and Panosonic makes zoom lenses that work using this function on the AF100. Even if it doesn't work on the GH4, there is a zoom rocker on the lens itself.
 
I just tested the zoom function. Not only does it work, but a small read-out pops up in the LCD letting you know where from 45mm to 175mm you are when you try to zoom separate from the normal read-out in the corner. Nice.

That being said, Michael Carter is right. If you have a better low light option, I would go with that. My guess is the aperture is going to be around f/5.6 zoomed as far as you'll need it. Unless you have good lighting, that might start to become a problem.
 
If I just needed a static head and shoulders, I 'd consider renting or borrowing a legacy Nikkor 300mm f4, and a Speedbooster to make it effectively a 210mm f2.8.

Plus ideally a second wider camera for stage and audience shots ..
 
So I do this type of shoot often as both camera and editor. I strongly suggest you rent or borrow a camcorder with servo zoom lens and xlr audio inputs. I have recently had to edit conference footage shot in the USA on a DSLR for my client. It was a nightmare! Not because the "look" was bad but because it was the wrong tool for the job. The expectations of the client were based on prior shoots that provided a smooth zoom in and out framing as well as following the action. This action often included show and tell with power point and other hand held items. Sometimes there were two people at the podium. You get my point. Then there was the audio, which in the last one I did was recorded on a Zoom or some other handheld recorder. Doing presentations that were 20+ minutes back to back with card changes was major pain, and sure I use plural eyes but nt was still a pain. Which brings up organizing your media and backing it up. I use a PMW300 for this work. An EX3 or EX1 or some other camera with a couple of slots for media makes life much easier when you are shooting conferences. Will you get a feed for audio from the house p.a.?
So bottom line is find out for sure what your clients expectations are and what the desired out come will be. Get a clear idea of the agenda and what will happen that you need to shoot throughout the conference and get camera that will make your life easy for this job and perhaps get you more of this type of work if you want it.
My two cents.
 
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Thanks everyone. Slept on it. I think you're right, Brian. I need to rent a camcorder.

Regarding audio - they want me to put a wireless lav mic on the speaker.

Sort of wishing now that I hadn't agreed to this. The pay ain't all that great, either! Oh well.

Again, thanks tons for the feedback.
 
Couple questions I would ask before choosing the gear is:


Screen Direction:
- Is your speaker static or moving on stage?
- Is your speaker doing more than just speaking on stage such as doing some kind of live demo?

Bigger Picture:
- Is your footage part of a larger story? If so, how should you compliment the rest of the story?

Focusing Issue:
- Assuming your speaker is moving on the stage then you need to compensate for limitations of your GH4. I've not used the GH4 but I'm guessing it doesn't have very good autofocus and object/face tracking for video. So in this case you would have to consider the amount of light you have to work with. This will determine how deep you can go for depth of field.
- Also assuming this is to be delivered in 1080p or 720p, then you could use 4K as a wide master then do a punch-in in post to track the speaker. Delivering in 720p would obviously help you more as it gives you more to punch into.

Knowing the type of lighting used helps too so you know what shutter speeds you may be limited to. This in turn affects what your aperture and iso are going to be.

I have successfully filmed one of these before with my Canon T2i's because I researched the speaker ahead of time and noticed how static he was. So knowing more ahead of time can factor in big time into what gear you choose.

I also used several angles with increasing depth of fields in case the unexpected happened.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLjR5kY5TpA&list=UU69bhKJoXqtQZG-rYtzAe1w
 
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Finster said:
Thanks everyone. Slept on it. I think you're right, Brian. I need to rent a camcorder.

Regarding audio - they want me to put a wireless lav mic on the speaker.

Sort of wishing now that I hadn't agreed to this. The pay ain't all that great, either! Oh well.

Again, thanks tons for the feedback.
Click to expand...

I'd still take your GH4 along and use it as a second angle to experiment how you would best use it in this situation. In this case I'd definitely would experiment with using it as a wide master in 4K so you could do 1080p/720p punch-in's in post to simulate camera pans.
 
I've done this with the GH2 and the 14-140. Came out fine. (I did record audio to the Zoom H4n.)

While a faster lens would have been nice, most conference rooms have enough light to make this work.
 
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