bmw1602
Member
Hello everybody,
This is my first post here! So I’m pretty much a full fledged Newbie! So sorry for the long post!
I’ve been a life long motorsports nut and racer, I took photography in J. College but dropped it after a few semesters when my camera budget started affecting my racing budget! So I do have a grasp of basic photography. My step dad is a colorist and also owner of a HVX200.
Last year I was a driver/contestant on a reality show on SpeedTV called “Setup” (http://www.setup-tv.com). I did very good and lasted almost to the last episode! During the 3 weeks I was on the show I had all access look at the production of the show I was able to watch the behind the scenes workings of the production and chatted up the camera men and was able to watch them at work, see their techniques etc. They were shooting in HD on Sony XDCAM and the show was broadcast on SpeedTV in HD (direct TV was the first to offer SpeedTV in HD). Needless to say once I got back to my “normal life” I was inspired to start making use of my step dad as a knowledge resource, mentor and of course his HVX200! After years working in the IT world I’m ready to make a change in my life. I want to get involved in the entertainment Industry…..maybe in the production but most likely in post. I already paid up on a few classes at video symphony and I’m reading as much as I can get my eyes on about digital intermediates, HD etc….busy trying to line up a entry level job somewhere…
The eventual winner of the TV show was also my teammate on the show and we became friends. After talking with him one night I decided my first real “project” could be a short 15-20min. promotional video of him that he will use to go after sponsorship and and possible jobs as a driver with a racing teams. So the final product will be a DVD the he can add to his media kit and send to prospects.
I figured I’d get some experience with the camera, so we went to a empty parking lot near the airport. After shooting a few quick shots of me in the race car we got busted by the Burbank PD. Luckily we told him we were shooting a “student film” and he said wrap it up and go home and left us without giving us a ticket or worse impounding my race car! Learned my lesson there! Even from the few shots I did get it was enough to get some seat time on avid express and I cut together a 30 second “commercial” for my website. I learned a lot and it came out pretty good for my first try.
You can see it here, not bad for a first try I think,
http://bmw1602.lostbrazilian.com/v1/videoHD16x9.php
(More info on my race car available @ www.bmw1602.com)
In any case, before handing me the camera unsupervised he handed me Barry’s book, I just finished reading it cover to cover on Friday Then spent some time with the camera in the backyard getting used to handling it and navigating the menu’s, unloading the cards etc…
He’s going to fly me out to the race and pay my expenses and the rental fee’s for a few of the gear we will need. It will either be a Toyota Atlantic race (same weekend as Champ/Indy cars) in Road Atlanta (beautiful green luscious backgrounds) or more likely Grand-Am race at Miller Motorsports park(lots of sunlight/dust and bland desert background).
Since he’s footing the bill I want to be as prepared as possible for the 3 days of shooting. I will have an outline or ‘script’ of the whole project and what kind of shots I want to get every day. Most of all I want to come home with lots of beautiful usable footage! I’m shooting high and going for a very high end polished look for the whole project with visuals along the lines of BBC’s top gear show instead of regular broadcast racing coverage. I would say more documentary feel than broadcast style racing coverage.
I definitely want the ‘film’ look and plan on shooting DVCAMHD 720/24pn. I will be shooting in manual mode most of the time, unless I have to grab the camera to get something spontaneous in the pits or on the track I’ll switch it full AUTO.
I know about the challenge of fast pans at 24fps. I want to see how my test day goes and see how bad it will be. But others have filmed racing successfully in the past (Winning, Bruckheimer’s Grand Prix or even McQueen’s movie LeMans) so it is possible.
So this weekend a few of my friends will be having a test day at willow springs raceway which is very visually similar to Miller Motorsports track. I’m going to tag along and use this opportunity to develop my skills/techniques to prepare myself for the big weekend with Chris. I going to make lots of notes this weekend on how long my batteries last, how long it takes to dump the P2 cards onto the laptop etc… Will be interesting to try out some shots I have envisioned that I want to include in the project. So this upcoming weekend is kinda of a proof of concept day for me both visually and logistically… one big experiment, I’m going to go out there and see what I can come back home with!
All that said, here my questions…
- It will mostly be A LOT of harsh sunlight and light colored sand (think desert) are the built in ND filters enough to keep me below F8 or do I need additional filters?
- What do you recommend for camera dust protection?
- Audio – Race cars are loud! I know I can reduce the audio levels on the back on the camera but will that be enough to prevent any clipping? What do you recommend to capture decent audio in this noisy environment?
- Audio – Willow springs has a lot of wind, is there anything I should do to prepare for this audio wise?
- White balance- should I just leave it on the preset 3200k or should I leave it on ATW
- Black balance- just set it at the beginning of the day? Does this reset every time I change the battery?
- Pan strobing- I’m just going to follow Barry’s book advice and try to pan fast enough (shouldn’t be hard) to minimize strobing. When I can I will try to pan slowly. I will also try some shots with a slower shutter speed to introduce some background blur (should lessen the strobing effect)while keeping the car focused. Lastly I will also do some tests shooting 30fps see how much difference it makes.
- P2 management- How should I organize the files on the laptop? Any tips for organization? I will be shooting a lot and will probably have a lot of footage.
Or than that …….any other tips while panning as the cars go by?
Most of all, IF any of YOU have experience filming MOTORSPORTS and have any tips for me Please, enlighten me on what to watch out for, what to bring, tips, tricks ……your experiences etc..
For my upcoming test day(1) this weekend I will bring;
-tripod, sand bags
-HVX200 with nice boom mic (forgot the brand)
-1x4gb and 1x8gb P2 cards
-5 batteries
-Pelican case for transport
-2x2’ white bored to do white balance
-Barry’s book (I’m sure I have to use it for reference)
-Dell laptop with 300gb partition to dump the p2 cards to.
-Extension cord to steal electricity from closets socket
For the main shooting weekend (3 days, date TBD) I will add;
-Rent- 2 32gb p2 cards
-Rent- wireless microphone for his on camera interviews in the pits
-500gb USB hard drive to store footage once the HD on the laptop fills up.
What am I forgetting?
Any help or advice/comments is much appreciated!
This is my first post here! So I’m pretty much a full fledged Newbie! So sorry for the long post!
I’ve been a life long motorsports nut and racer, I took photography in J. College but dropped it after a few semesters when my camera budget started affecting my racing budget! So I do have a grasp of basic photography. My step dad is a colorist and also owner of a HVX200.
Last year I was a driver/contestant on a reality show on SpeedTV called “Setup” (http://www.setup-tv.com). I did very good and lasted almost to the last episode! During the 3 weeks I was on the show I had all access look at the production of the show I was able to watch the behind the scenes workings of the production and chatted up the camera men and was able to watch them at work, see their techniques etc. They were shooting in HD on Sony XDCAM and the show was broadcast on SpeedTV in HD (direct TV was the first to offer SpeedTV in HD). Needless to say once I got back to my “normal life” I was inspired to start making use of my step dad as a knowledge resource, mentor and of course his HVX200! After years working in the IT world I’m ready to make a change in my life. I want to get involved in the entertainment Industry…..maybe in the production but most likely in post. I already paid up on a few classes at video symphony and I’m reading as much as I can get my eyes on about digital intermediates, HD etc….busy trying to line up a entry level job somewhere…
The eventual winner of the TV show was also my teammate on the show and we became friends. After talking with him one night I decided my first real “project” could be a short 15-20min. promotional video of him that he will use to go after sponsorship and and possible jobs as a driver with a racing teams. So the final product will be a DVD the he can add to his media kit and send to prospects.
I figured I’d get some experience with the camera, so we went to a empty parking lot near the airport. After shooting a few quick shots of me in the race car we got busted by the Burbank PD. Luckily we told him we were shooting a “student film” and he said wrap it up and go home and left us without giving us a ticket or worse impounding my race car! Learned my lesson there! Even from the few shots I did get it was enough to get some seat time on avid express and I cut together a 30 second “commercial” for my website. I learned a lot and it came out pretty good for my first try.
You can see it here, not bad for a first try I think,
http://bmw1602.lostbrazilian.com/v1/videoHD16x9.php
(More info on my race car available @ www.bmw1602.com)
In any case, before handing me the camera unsupervised he handed me Barry’s book, I just finished reading it cover to cover on Friday Then spent some time with the camera in the backyard getting used to handling it and navigating the menu’s, unloading the cards etc…
He’s going to fly me out to the race and pay my expenses and the rental fee’s for a few of the gear we will need. It will either be a Toyota Atlantic race (same weekend as Champ/Indy cars) in Road Atlanta (beautiful green luscious backgrounds) or more likely Grand-Am race at Miller Motorsports park(lots of sunlight/dust and bland desert background).
Since he’s footing the bill I want to be as prepared as possible for the 3 days of shooting. I will have an outline or ‘script’ of the whole project and what kind of shots I want to get every day. Most of all I want to come home with lots of beautiful usable footage! I’m shooting high and going for a very high end polished look for the whole project with visuals along the lines of BBC’s top gear show instead of regular broadcast racing coverage. I would say more documentary feel than broadcast style racing coverage.
I definitely want the ‘film’ look and plan on shooting DVCAMHD 720/24pn. I will be shooting in manual mode most of the time, unless I have to grab the camera to get something spontaneous in the pits or on the track I’ll switch it full AUTO.
I know about the challenge of fast pans at 24fps. I want to see how my test day goes and see how bad it will be. But others have filmed racing successfully in the past (Winning, Bruckheimer’s Grand Prix or even McQueen’s movie LeMans) so it is possible.
So this weekend a few of my friends will be having a test day at willow springs raceway which is very visually similar to Miller Motorsports track. I’m going to tag along and use this opportunity to develop my skills/techniques to prepare myself for the big weekend with Chris. I going to make lots of notes this weekend on how long my batteries last, how long it takes to dump the P2 cards onto the laptop etc… Will be interesting to try out some shots I have envisioned that I want to include in the project. So this upcoming weekend is kinda of a proof of concept day for me both visually and logistically… one big experiment, I’m going to go out there and see what I can come back home with!
All that said, here my questions…
- It will mostly be A LOT of harsh sunlight and light colored sand (think desert) are the built in ND filters enough to keep me below F8 or do I need additional filters?
- What do you recommend for camera dust protection?
- Audio – Race cars are loud! I know I can reduce the audio levels on the back on the camera but will that be enough to prevent any clipping? What do you recommend to capture decent audio in this noisy environment?
- Audio – Willow springs has a lot of wind, is there anything I should do to prepare for this audio wise?
- White balance- should I just leave it on the preset 3200k or should I leave it on ATW
- Black balance- just set it at the beginning of the day? Does this reset every time I change the battery?
- Pan strobing- I’m just going to follow Barry’s book advice and try to pan fast enough (shouldn’t be hard) to minimize strobing. When I can I will try to pan slowly. I will also try some shots with a slower shutter speed to introduce some background blur (should lessen the strobing effect)while keeping the car focused. Lastly I will also do some tests shooting 30fps see how much difference it makes.
- P2 management- How should I organize the files on the laptop? Any tips for organization? I will be shooting a lot and will probably have a lot of footage.
Or than that …….any other tips while panning as the cars go by?
Most of all, IF any of YOU have experience filming MOTORSPORTS and have any tips for me Please, enlighten me on what to watch out for, what to bring, tips, tricks ……your experiences etc..
For my upcoming test day(1) this weekend I will bring;
-tripod, sand bags
-HVX200 with nice boom mic (forgot the brand)
-1x4gb and 1x8gb P2 cards
-5 batteries
-Pelican case for transport
-2x2’ white bored to do white balance
-Barry’s book (I’m sure I have to use it for reference)
-Dell laptop with 300gb partition to dump the p2 cards to.
-Extension cord to steal electricity from closets socket
For the main shooting weekend (3 days, date TBD) I will add;
-Rent- 2 32gb p2 cards
-Rent- wireless microphone for his on camera interviews in the pits
-500gb USB hard drive to store footage once the HD on the laptop fills up.
What am I forgetting?
Any help or advice/comments is much appreciated!
