Possible to display "race time" in corner of frame?

J

Jeff

Member
I have a new HMC150, and am going through Barry's book now which is very good. However, I have an unusual shooting challenge and was hoping someone could help.

My son runs cross country. It would be great to have the "elapsed race time" show up in the bottom corner of the frame, like they do on TV during the olympics etc. I think I could do it with 2 cameras (leave one on a tripod aimed at the race clock, use another cam to follow the runners), but is it possible with just the -150? The time should be close, but doesn't have to be super-accurate; ie, could I be filming them poised at the starting line, with 0:00 displayed, then hit a button to start the clock when I hear the gun. Thanks for any suggestions, Jeff.
 
I guess you could sync the time code with the start of race and then use it in post. But then you'd miss the start of the race.
 
Do it in post, or get a switcher that will allow you to do PiP... another huge investment! (especially HD switchers)...
 
I ran into this situation last year for a project. What I ended up doing was going to the local hockey rink during free skate, and I asked the rink manager if he could get the clock counting down from 1:00:00 on the big score board.

I shot it at 720p, with a shutter of 100, filled the frame and then didn't touch the camera for the whole hour. I ended up with a fantastic clip of the 7 segments counting down, and the shutter speed helped reduce the noticeable physical change in the segments.

Since the colours were bright yellow against black, it made it easy to change the colours in post, easy to chroma OR luma key. Worked out very, very well.
 
Thanks to all for helping me out. At the risk of confusing this thread...

Voytech - Missing the start of the race (and the ~5 sec of "ready to go" excitement) would be a problem.

VoxWerx - I can't afford a HD switcher. By "do it in post", do you mean film just race clock with a 2nd camera, and then put that video in the corner in post (FCE for me)?

WpgCameraMan - Even having that 1 hour of good footage of the clock, how do you synch it up with a current game?
 
You got it exactly right. Used to do it with post-production on b-ball games back in the day. WPG's idea is a great one, too. (BTW, WPG- nice to see you over here - I gained a lot from you over in the pana3ccd group!)
 
voxwerx said:
You got it exactly right. Used to do it with post-production on b-ball games back in the day. WPG's idea is a great one, too. (BTW, WPG- nice to see you over here - I gained a lot from you over in the pana3ccd group!)
Click to expand...

I tend to wander around in a stupor, eventually make my way back to a warm place.


Sync up the 1hr clock to event time is simple. Record with Free Running Time Code. Set it to the time of day (this can drift, so if it's critical to that day's shoot, set it). Now your time code is time of day.

It's a matter of fuzzy math to figure out what the displayed time should be from scene to scene.
 
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