Questions from anthropologist (new to filming & GH1) on settings/logging movement

I

irving2000

New member
Hi There...

A couple of quick questions from a complete newbie

I'm not a film-maker but an anthropologist, and am going to be doing a project in Africa on movement, eg dancing, walking, hunting etc. where I will need to follow people as they move and so will be walking behind them while filming them. I bought a GH1 and FCP7 for the project. As mentioned am an almost total beginner but have been doing some tests, and would be very grateful if anyone could help with the following!

What settings eg aperture, shutter speed, ISO etc are best for capturing movement, when both the subject is moving and myself, say for example when following someone who is tracking an animal?

What film setting is best? Full HD or another?

What are the best video settings for logging, importing and exporting in FCP7 (in beginners terms please!). Some of my test footage seems okay but then when I put it into FCP7 it looks terrible, maybe there is mismatch in my easy set up or capture settings?

Any advice is really welcome

thanks and all the best

Andrew
 
Wow - where to start?
I'm tempted to say that's a bit like me asking "I want to be an anthropologist. Where should I go and what should I do?"
Your questions really don't have simple answers. What conditions are you filming in - how much light? What look do you want?
Are you trying to capture precise movement as an academic record or trying to capture something that looks nice (eg filmic)?

It's not a matter of knowing the answers to these questions - there is no right answer. You need to understand the pros and cons of all the different options and why you'd chose them.

I'd recommend getting an introductory book on film making. From Still to Motion is a good one that is specific to DSLRs.

For importing in to FCP you should use the Log and Transfer tool - that should look pretty good. Your problem in the field will be storage as importing to FCP gives you big files.

I'd also question whether the GH1 is the best option for what you want to do. It's an amazing creative tool - but not the easiest for capturing stuff as it happens. If you're a novice you might be better off with an easy to use camcorder. But perhaps its too late!
 
You may want to shoot your moving subjects with the GH1 set to 720p 60, as this will give you 60 fps (frames per second) video. Go into your main menu and find Rec Quality. Set it to SH (FHD is 1080 24p). Set your camera to full manual mode and set your shutter speed to 125th of a second (twice the framerate). Bring it into your editing software and apply a 50% speed reduction. Play it back and check out the smooth slow motion. The 1080 24p mode may work for much of you work as well. Test all of this out now before you make the trip. Good Luck!
 
...thanks very much for the info...i'll test out those settings today.

For the most part its generic tips i'm after, such as your suggestion that 720 might generally better than 1080 for capturing things motion. So any other generic tips that anyone has will be very useful, eg is it generally better to go for a wide aperture or a narrow one/ a low iso or a high one/ a slow shutter speed or a quick one, when for example a person is walking and I am also walking behind. From having a regular SLR, I'm fairly familiar with the idea that say a fast shutter speed and good depth of field combination is good for sports, but don't know how far this applies to video. Mostly the lighting conditions will be bright, with occasional more subdued conditions such as in the jungle. I think that you may have answered one of the fcp7 questions as I had it set to 720 /24 and so now have changed it to 720/60. So will download the test footage in that.
 
I will second a suggestion of using 720/60p mode, which works easier for capturing motion than 1080/p24, especially if you are not after the "movie" look in your footage. In Hollywood they capture all kinds of action in 24p, but that takes skill and experience. Another thing I noticed in my own shooting is that 60p mode is more forgiving of untypically high shutter speeds (look up 180 degree shutter rule), which maybe a factor when shooting in broad daylight and not having ND filters available to limit amount of incoming light.

As far as shooting mode is concerned, most people prefer to shoot in "Creative Movie Mode", because it allows precise control over all aspects of capture. When on the move, I don't think you will have time to fiddle with focus, so deep DOF (smaller apertures in f/8-f/11 range) would be preferred. You will also need some form of image stabilization, like a Steady Cam device (search in this forum for some good and cheap options that Vitaliy Kiselev covered) to make sure that image doesn't jump all over the place when following someone.

I recall watching a movie 5-7 years ago about some cinematographers who shadowed a group of 3 hunters in Africa on their weeklong hunt. It was quite awesome, but unfortunately I forgot the title. Have you seen it?

By the way, make sure to review the following sticky, http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?204761-Sticky-please-How-to-set-your-GH1-up-for-video.
 
Hi irving2000, sounds like a very interesting project. I think recording on higher framerate for the option of slow-motion is a good idea, as been suggested. Is this for making a documentary or for scientific research? I.e. what is the object of capturing the movement?

I'd also like to stress that walking behind someone with a GH1 is usually not going to look pleasant unless you have some sort of stabilization gear. I can't judge for your project, but my first thought would be that when representing movement on the screen, it' a little bit counter-productive to be moving the camera as well. At least bear in mind, that the aestetic feel will be affected no less how you are moving the camera as whatever is moving in front of it.

I'll add to others' excellent comments that you might want to study how different focal lenses effect our perception of movement. A telefoto lens (50mm or higher on GH1) will make the camera appear to be moving more, and will make foreground objects appear to be moving faster, while the opposite is true of lenses at around 20mm or lower.

nathankw is right when he compares what you are doing to someone who wants to do anthopology. It's possible, but usable stuff usually only gets done with a lot of research and proper testing and training.

Good luck with it, again it sounds very interesting. I love working with dancers on screen because it somehow brings you down to the core of what this medium is about. Capturing moving objects.
 
Keep in mind that while a stabilizer device like a "Steadicam" will produce beautiful (i.e. smooth/floating) camera movements - you cannot manual focus with a stabilizer. Therefore, you might be restricted to not touching your focus much, and restricted to small apertures (i.e. large Depth of Field) and high ISO (e.g. 400-800) to compensate for the reduced amount of light. Test if you don't mind this "look".

On the other hand, you could also practice using a stabilizer device like a "Shoulder Rig", which allows you to manual focus a lens. Although walking will affect the camera movement.

Regarding walking while manual focusing, you should practice keeping people in focus while you follow them. This will help you learn how shallow or wide your depth of field is for a given lens (as related to aperture size).

irving2000 said:
...From having a regular SLR, I'm fairly familiar with the idea that say a fast shutter speed and good depth of field combination is good for sports, but don't know how far this applies to video.
Click to expand...

Drawing on the anthropological concept of cultural relativity, I don't know if by "good" you mean deep or shallow Depth of Field? I prefer large apertures (i.e. shallow Depth of Field = f/1.4 to f/2.8), but I'm not tracking hunters, just my kid.
 
I'm way below the level of the people who've already posted, but I'll throw my 2c in.
If you want the subject to be in focus all the time, and at close range, I'd probably go with one of the Panasonic pancakes. It'll make the camera easier to handle and you'll have an option to try auto focus. I'm all manual myself, but haven't done much moving object work yet.
I echo the need for stabilization. It's not even a pure aesthetic thing, camera shake can ruin your footage by introducing 'jello'.
If you are shooting in Africa by day, the light is going to be bright.
That'll send you towards 100asa and f11, f16, f22. More will be in focus of course, but if you want to try shallower depth of field in some instances, you may need to employ ND filtering (neutral density filters).
 
...thanks for the advice: i used the setting people have been recommending went and got the panasonic pancake today and it made a big difference. I also bought a Modo-steady but this seemed to make little difference, and will take this back and try some other steadying devices. The pancake lens is ideal so thanks for that recommendation.

One thing i noticed is that the raw MTS footage is smoother than when it is transcoded, at least to my eye, is this other people's experiences too or are there other factors involved?
 
irving2000 said:
...thanks for the advice: i used the setting people have been recommending went and got the panasonic pancake today and it made a big difference. I also bought a Modo-steady but this seemed to make little difference, and will take this back and try some other steadying devices. The pancake lens is ideal so thanks for that recommendation.

One thing i noticed is that the raw MTS footage is smoother than when it is transcoded, at least to my eye, is this other people's experiences too or are there other factors involved?
Click to expand...

Pls return that ModoSteady, in my opinion it doesn't offer real stabilization. Perhaps do a search on stabilizers.


Another thought I had is if your filming an interview use a lens like an autofocus Panasonic 20mm f1.7 (m43 mount) or a manual focus 50mm f1.8 (any mount with aperture ring, e.g. nikon ais/af or canon fd).

Then when you are following ppl in the jungle, use a fisheye lens like the affordable Peleng 8mm f3.5 (link). You could then just hold your camera attached to a monopod with a fluid video head on top. This would allow you to run for cover while still filming, and its a walking stick in bad situations.

Good luck.
 
Do you need to walk with the dancers? I don't know if it is a muss but for dancing, if the camera doesn't move, it could be better to see the dancing.
A Joby Gorillapod that could be used as a mini tripod and a hand grip.
For the ISO I would set a top limit so that in low light you don't film thing that later would not be usable. Try to test your limit with different camera profiles. (I use 400 as a top limit).
If you don't have any wide angle lenses a 0.7x wide angle converter could work good with your 20mm making it a 14mm, if your budget is higher get the 14mmf2.5,and if you have the kit zoom forget what I'm saying.
I second the idea of a manual old 50mm nikon AI, canon fd, olympus om, or minolta md.
well good luck with everything
 
Funny how people perceive Africa, most people have a false picture of what Africa is and have the default media build picture of Africa.
For one to say that he/she is going to Africa is very vague, unlike Europe or USA which have same season in the whole continent , Morocco, Nigeria
or Ghana have "summer" when South Africa, Namibia etc. are having spels of "winter". Uganda, Congo or Kenya lie within the equator and almost never experience these seasons.
The question is will you be running after these dancers in Libyan desert, Congo forest , cold Namibian desert or the mangrove swamps in Madagascar?
Light in countries around the equator is 12h day 12h night, it is not so in Cape town or Cairo.
 
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