Shooting a seminar, what do i need?

Pete L

Pete L

Active member
Hello everyone, i am hoping some of you could help me out with some info please?
I have been approached to record a Chiropractic Seminar that is run over 2 days & edit it into a dvd for future sale.
Now, the big problem is i have never done anything like this & am really unsure what i need to do.
I have pretty much only shot footage underwater with an occasional topside shot of a boat or a panning shot of a marina etc. Nothing on this scale.
So i have my HVX200 & 1 64gb P2 card.

So i will need another P2 card so i can continue to record while downloading the other card.
What are my options for a P2 card reader/downloader? At present i just download with the camera connected to my PC by USB but obviously i need the camera to be recording while i am downloading so that renders that situation useless.
I see there is a Panasonic P2 card reader, is there anything that is USB 3 capable?
I am thinking the way to go is to download the P2 card directly to two seperate external hard drives using something like shotput pro?

What equipment will i need apart from another P2 card & card reader?
Capturing the audio is vital so i need some way of capturing it nice & clear. Is there some sort of microphone that the presenter could wear? How do i capture that to the camera?
Do i record the audio seperately?

The seminar will be inside a function room & the camera will just be setup on a tripod in the middle of the room & running for the whole day basically.
Can the camera still record while i remove a P2 card? or do i need to turn it off to remove the cards?
Is it ok to leave the camera running for a couple of hours at a time?
There will be breaks throughout the day where i will turn the camera off but while the seminar is running i need to be recording continuously.
Is there anything else i need to look at?
I am PC based & edit with sony vegas pro 12.
This is happening in 9 days from now so i need to get myself setup asap!
A little bit nervous right now to say the least...
Cheers Pete.
 
Also, if anyone has done this sort of thing before, what settings do you find works well for indoor shooting?
I don't know if my settings for underwater will be right for doing an indoor seminar & i won't have a chance to shoot any practice footage so i need to get this as close to spot on as i can straight away.
Thanks in advance for anyones help/input.
Cheers Pete.
 
Another thing, does anyone use a wide angle lens on their cameras? If so, what ones?
Cheers Pete.
 
What you'll need.... A pillow and ear plugs :)

haha sorry mate, never shot one but sure it's pretty easy. Just set up 2 cameras. Maybe one locked down and move around with the other. Maybe 2 mics on a stand as close to speaker as possible depending on what they do.

Have fun :)
 
Hey Pete, I've been part of a couple of folks shooting a seminar before and it can be anywhere from a cakewalk to a nightmare. Each one is different and much depends on the clients expectations and how clearly they can communicate those expectations. Sometimes the client has no idea how it all will unfold. If you have to shovel in a new p2 card, extra lens and other stuff, it may not be worth your effort. Of course, google or check you tube...this has been done before. I'm sure there are shooters here that do it all the time. It's just a matter of getting a response before your 9 days are up!
 
Two cams would be nice. One locked and one moving about.

If there are slide or video presentations, get those files separately from the presenters.

If the speakers aren't moving, you might get buy with fixed mics, but the first time a speaker looks at the screen, moves and talks, you are screwed, so a lav, or a lav with wireless kit is an option, but you will have to wire them before speaking.

Will the speakers be lit at the lecturn? If the speaker lighting is tungsten, and the room is lit with flos, expect some wonky colors.

Going in cold turkey without seeing the venue is asking for trouble.

You can wrangle p2 cards, but a better option would be a long form recorder using swappable hard drives like the black magic unit.

You will probably need to worry over equipment power for long form.

You are going to need some help, trying to do this alone would be a fools errand; someone to worry over audio, and or help wrangling the video files will be needs. Perhaps record dual audio to a cart setup which would allow you to worry about the visuals. Use the cam scratch track to synch the audio in post.

That is a start.

Grant
 
Hi Pete- I work for a University and do long format video taping. I would recommend you rent a couple pieces of equipment to help you out.

Recording: You can rent P2 cards from this source. I've never used them personally but check them out. http://www.atsrentals.com/cat--Panasonic-P2-Cards--112.html
I would recommend filling your two P2 card slots with 64 gb cards. You're going to get about one minute of HD footage per GB on the card recording in 720/60p. So about 60 minutes on a 64gb card. You can also click on the info and it will tell you the memory capacity based on what you shoot in. If you have four cards and a laptop with you you will be able to offload and clean the cards throughout the day. The camera records one slot at a time. You can remove the card not being used, however I wouldn't recommend that as a practice. I would get enough card space to carry me to a break and then change them out. IMO. Camera will be fine to run a couple of hours...just make sure you've got enough battery or that you take your wall power supply with you (which is what i would recommend).

Audio:
http://www.lensrentals.com/rent/nik...es/sennheiser-g3-wireless-mic-kit-frequency-a I just rented some lenses from them and they are a GREAT company. These Seinesser Mics are great. I use them all the time. Make sure you've got the correct frequency set to both the mic and the receiver. I would put a mic on the speaker you are capturing. In one XLR input and then use nat sound on the other channel. That way you have a backup audio...even though nat sound wouldn't sound great. Your audio is embedded with your video recording so no need for a separate audio source.

If you can use two cameras that would help you have cut away shots. But you might not have the equipment.

I agree with one of the other posts...any slideshow or powerpoint can be cut in in post. I don't know about PC based software but FCP likes .tga's if you're working with stills.

Lighting: I have found in seminars lighting is just difficult. You can't bring in lights really without the prior approval of the client. Do the best you can. If you've got natural light 5600k and overhead tungsten or flourescent lighting around 3200k it's going to be hard to get a proper white balance. Try and remove as much of the natural light by closing blinds/curtains etc. and get your camera to read the 32k or whatever light is most present in the room. If you've got big huge windows...try cutting off the overhead lights and going only with natural lighting. I too recommend you check out the venue prior to shooting. It will help the day of not being so nervous.


I would also recommend getting with your client and preparing somewhat of a storyboard/shot list. Make sure you are getting what they want ... do they want only a wide shot of the seminar? Close ups of the speaker? close up of any demonstration? Ask and prepare before makes editing in post MUUUUUch quicker.

Good luck to you!
hope this helps some :)
margaret
 
Good Stuff from MBuell, I would add if you can get a line feed. Be sure to use the waveform for exposure and check levels for no clipping. Do the basics, establishing shots, if there is signage, after reception. Sound is probably more important than visual so be sure to take time to get a level. Use headphones and watch the meters
 
Just tonight I shot a healthcare consultant speaking and giving a 90 minute Powerpoint presentation to about 50 doctors at a hospital.

The client didn't have the budget for inserting the slides from the ppt in post, so we agreed I'd slowly, smoothly zoom into the screen.
I had a wireless lav on the speaker, and with the speaker's (and the client's) OK, a light on the speaker.
Projectors are usually 5600k (Daylight), so I put a CTB (Daylight blue) gel on my tungsten light and used 5600k preset.
The speaker was only in wide shots, so my manual focus was set on the screen.

I was about 20 feet from the speaker and at about an 8 o'clock position to the screen and had to listen to the speaker and find what he was talking about on the screen and smoothly zoom into it. If he spoke more generally, I would zoom out to show him.

If I were you, I would:

- Take the camera out of the housing :happy:
- Shoot 720p/24pn, you'll more than double your card capacity (and less storage for you), getting 170 minutes/64 GB. Three cards will get you about 8.5 hours.
- Rent P2 cards. Don't try to offload on location and format your cards if you're by yourself.
- If there's one speaker, put a wireless lav on the speaker.
- If there's multiple speakers, you don't want to be moving the mic from speaker to speaker, so patch into the soundboard. You can run a wireless (with a line pad to turn the line level audio to mic level) out of the sound board (assuming they have one. Find out).
- Or if you're close to the board, run an XLR audio cable from the board to your camera, Line level in.
- Use a power supply, not batteries. The camera will be fine.
- Talk to the client to be clear on what they want. If they're not paying you to put the slides in, don't. If they are, do you have powerpoint? If not, I think there's a free ppt viewer that will let you save as jpegs, but I'd check first.
- Don't stress, you have plenty of time. Just be proactive and communicate with the client and find out if there is tech crew you can talk to before the event.
- Have a good shoot, and when you finish, put the camera back in the housing... :thumbsup:
 
For a conference with multiple speakers, it definitely helps to have a couple wireless lavs. Mic the first speaker and send the audio back to a mixer connected to:

- your stationary camera
- a separate audio recorder

You can also take the house audio into your mixer and record that on a second channel.

Then let the camera (locked down) and audio recorder capture uninterrupted. Meanwhile you can move around and get audience shots.

As the speaker is near being finished, get the next speaker hooked up with the second lav. With the right mixer, you can check their levels separately from the live recording.

It'll also give you a chance to change out batteries on the wireless, and you'll have a backup in case one of them goes bad.

I'd have an assistant watching the locked down camera, or a second locked down camera with a wider shot. Can't have too much redundancy with this kind of thing.

Cheers!
 
You need to research what the presentations entail and the size of the room before you do anything. If they are going to sell the DVD, then you MUST make sure all the content is captured. The powerpoint has been covered. Find out if the presentation is passive or active. If the audience are going to contribute, then in a small room, they will not have audience mics, in a bigger one, you may find they have runners with booms, or more commonly nowadays, radio mics that runner take and hand out to the end of the row who pass them out. In this case you need to check they audio feed from the mixer will be fed to you properly. Feedback from quietly spoken questioners who hold the mic miles from their mouth means the sound op frequently gets feedback, or worse - fades up the wrong mic! Make sure the client understands sound is out of your control. Worse still with audience participation is that lighting on the audience is frequently VERY dim. You will need to have a camera in the stage/presentation area looking back to the audience. This camera rarely gets a good view of the presenter, apart from reverse shots as cutaways, so the camera out front will be continually busy. So for audience participation presentations, 3 cameras will be needed, two with people operating them! Personally, if it's one presenter, even if they are miked up, I'd also use one of my own radios in addition, just in case. Sometimes venues try to lock the presenter to a lectern, and the mic is fixed to it, so when they wander away to point at something, they lose the audio. Don't assume the audio in the room will be perfect - it never is. These things can be so dull, but the clients always assume that this doesn't matter because the content is king, but the truth is the audience are used to slick TV, and perpetual long shots are so boring! Be adventurous!
 
Wow, you guys & girls rock!
Thankyou for all your replies, i appreciate all the help so far.
Having filmed almost entirely underwater, recording audio is very new to me. Although i have a hydrophone on the housing & yes the camera records sound from underwater, none of it is of any use to me so i simply mute the audio when i am editing & then lay a music track over the top.

I am feeling quite ok about the recording of the footage but the whole audio thing is a whole new language that i don't understand.
The conference is being run by my wifes boss so i have some freedom in what i need to acheive & yes it is a paid job & it will more than cover the cost of buying equipment.
So after ringing around the hire companies here in sydney, only 1 has P2 cards for rent. Unfortunately the only have 32gb cards available & i can get 4 of them plus the card reader for the weekend.
So am i better to buy a second 64gb card for myself, or rent out 4 32gb cards?
I will be recording 1920x1080 so big file sizes & therefor i am thinking 64gb cards will be better as 32 gb cards will give me about 25 mins of record time as i don't want to fill them up completely.

It is a single speaker with an audience of around 30 people & yes there will be some hands on teaching done.
I will only be using a single camera but can move it around at different times of the day to help break up the shots alittle & also when doing the hands on stuff i could set it up for some close up shots too.
I will definately get the power point presentations seperately & include them in post & in case anyone is wondering, yes i asked if we could hold it underwater but not many of the chiros are certified divers:Drogar-BigGrin(DBG) Bugger.....

I'll try to reply to everyone now;

Owen,
I see you are in cronulla. I am just up the road in Peakhurst. Not quite the Shire but knocking on the door.
I will take your advice on the pillow but something tells me i won't have much spare time to rest.

Al,
Thanks for the feedback mate. Knowing the speaker i think will make life alot easier for me, especially being my first time.
It's a decent paying job, even at mates rates it will more than cover costs for anything i need to buy. I am more interested in broadening my horizons than making a quick dollar on this, plus if i do this one good then there is a whole series of these seminars that will be recorded. That is where i will make some good money. As with most things, the first time is expensive for buying everything & also the steep learning curve.

Grant,
I will get the slides seperately then & add in post. No problems there. The speaker will just be standing in front of the crowd, it is fairly informal with only 30 people at this conference. The last one had over 100.
I will find out what the lighting is & go from there.
I don't have a power adaptor for the camera. I have a heap of batteries though, more than enough to keep the camera running all day long. I don't need to plug the camera in to power underwater hehe.
I am trying to decide if i am better off to buy a second P2 64gb card & transfer that while recording to the other card or rent out 4 32gb cards instead?

Margaret,
Thankyou for your info. I am in Sydney Australia so renting from those companies are not really viable. The lighting i will look into & definately get the PP presentations etc to add in post.
The link you supplied for the microphone, i take it that one part of that plugs straight into the cameras XLR port? The speaker wears a microphone with some sort of wireless transmitter & it is picked up by the unit attached to the camera & embedded straight to the footage?
That sounds like what i would want to do as i don't want to pick up audio of the people in the room chatting about whatever is happening in their life etc.....
I don't think it will be much in the way of questions & answers, probably more so when doing the actual demonstrations i guess.
It is a one camera shoot only so limited options here.
As for swapping out the cards, i could gesture the speaker to take a 30 second break or so to remove the card or reformat & go again. That would not be a big drama.
As i said it is my wifes boss & it is a fairly low key event so i have abit of freedom there.
While the slideshows etc are playing i could swap out cards then i suppose?

Slidemaster,
Thankyou for your input BUT you may as well be speaking german to me. I have absolutely no idea what a line feed is, waveform for exposure & clipping???:cry: You lost me with all that.
Oh & what meters???? I'm such a dumbass:Drogar-BigGrin(DBG)

Grovechuck,
Thanks mate for the info, definately taking the camera out of the housing. The housing weighs around 18 kilos:shocked:!
Going to check out the lighting situation & report back here. I am pretty sure she just wants a wide shot of the front of the room where she will be standing so maybe just zoom in occasionally for a head shot or something to break it up a little? Plus the tight shots of the manipulations to go with it.
What would you recommend for an opening/establishing shot?
I will have to sort out the focus on the day i suppose.
I do plan on playing around with the camera at home this weekend & shooting some footage at home to see how it goes.
Even things like focusing on land will be new to me. Underwater, shooting behind a dome port, infinity focus is set at 35 on the HVX's scale as the dome port creates a virtual image that the camera focuses on. So that may even throw me out. I will have to check that stuff out over the weekend.


Keylight,
It is just the one speaker so that should make things alot easier for me to handle & if i needed a 5 min break to catch up on things i could do that. It is a pretty relaxed atmosphere for this shoot.
If this goes well & she decides to do the rest of the series then that is another step up & i will look at that when the time comes.

Paulears,
I do think that the audio is the key to bringing this whole thing together, without it looking & sounding like it was shot from dodgy handicam. I am aiming to capture the best possible audio.
1 speaker only means that i should be able to minimise problems & there is no lecturn or anything like that.
It is just a small conference room hired by the speaker & very informal. However, i don't want to put my name on a second rate dvd that people have to crank up the volume to hear & can hear everyone else talking also.
Is the microphone setup that Margaret posted the best way to go in your opinion? There is no mixers or any other audio equipment in the venue. Just myself, my camera & what ever audio capture setup i decide on.


On another note, i was checking out youtube for some tips on audio recording & came upon Barry Greens hack for higher frame rates for the HVX200.
Has anybody here used this hack & more importantly, does it work with full HD?
Being able to shoot 60fps in 1920x1080 is a HUGE bonus for me if it works.
I am going down the coast in a couple of weeks to film a seal colony & then a few weeks after that i am up the coast filming some grey nurse sharks, all of which would be fantastic if i can shoot at 60fps!
Cheers Pete
Keep the comments coming please:thumbsup:
 
If it's the hotel style, then the audio could really be as simple as one channel of the camera doing room sound from the camera mic and the other being the radio mic. Rent something from the hire company you are getting the cards from - make sure the mic is an omni with clip on mic. Do the TV thing of mounting the omni upside down as this will cut down the chances of pops. Plenty of batteries and change them far more frequently than everyone recommends. Batteries last 8 hours? great, change them at 4! One camera seriously limits your editing. Can you source even a cheap handicam style HD cam - something to leave on wide angle? Otherwise, every time the presenter starts to deal with small things, how do you cover the repeated zooms and reframes, let alone focus issues. The usual tirck of a slow zoom in or out won't work because by the time you're in, he's on the move again and you need head to shoulders! One camera NEVER looks good. I'd never do a seminar session without at least one extra angle. Don't forget cutaways to slot in to help cover those dodgy moments.

Biggest camera issue is likely to be windows, and changing external light. If the room has only internal lighting, the results will be much better. Flu lighting indoors and sun outside mean colour matching issues. I'd advise that the screen is used as the white balance white source. Last thing - make sure the presenter gets everyone to turn their phones to silent, because they WILL ring!
 
Start with a title graphic. If the speaker/organization has a logo, use that with some text explaining the who and what. Or the what, then add a title when you show the speaker.

"Line" is the type of audio signal sent from a soundboard, but doesn't seem relevant in your situation.

"Meters" are the audio level meters, which you need to have turned on in your LCD.

If you record your audio level too low, it will add hiss when you turn it up in post.
Record too high and it will distort.

If you plug the wireless (radio) mic into XLR ( 3 pin audio connections) Input 2, then go inside the LCD and set CH1 Select and CH2 Select both to INPUT 2, you will record your single wireless mic to both Ch 1 and Ch 2.

Then you can set a slightly higher level on one channel, and a slightly lower level on the other.
Then if the speaker speaks softly at point, you can use the higher channel. And if he speaks loudly, you can use the lower channel. Make sense?

Use the audio pots (dials) to set a level that never goes in the red on the meters.

Practice at home with exposure on faces, because you don't want to over or under expose. The waveform is the best way to do that, but I'm not sure if you're ready to use it.
It's a display you set up to show in the LCD.

There's also "Zebra" bars or stripes you can turn on to show a 60% exposure level on skin, which is good for Caucasian faces.
You would see little white stripes on his face.

Read your manual (do you have Barry's book?) and practice, practice, practice.

Practice exposure and audio, those are the 2 most important things to nail just right.

If you can afford a second 64GB card with this project, buy it, especially if you'll be doing more of these in the future.
And again, if you don't need to offload at the event, don't. Do it at home. Much safer to confirm you have everything.

If you're going to DVD, why record 1080??? 720pn is most efficient for your cards. I don't see why you'd want to record 1080...

You know you'll have to share this video with us, right?

I shoot UW in the Florida Keys and Caribbean, but haven't in a couple of years and am jealous of your focus on UW projects while I'm stuck topside!!! :(

Lastly, if it makes you more comfortable, put on your mask to shoot! :grin:
And don't forget to do a decompression stop when leaving the event room! :happy:
 
Ok, update time.
I have ordered this set http://www.johnbarry.com.au/products/sennheiser-sennehiser-ew112-p-g3-wireless-kit, hopefully it will arrive tomorrow.
I am also loaning a shotgun mic from a friend so that should cover me on the audio front. Once it all arrives i will start practacing with it.

I don't see a waveform button on my camera, could it be called something else? I see the zebra button but have not used it before because it doesn't show up on my monitor for my housing.
I don't have Barry's book, i do have his dvd though & it has been very helpful.

I did buy another 64gb P2 card & will rent out the 4x32gb cards & a card reader.
Does anybody know if the Panasonic P2 card reader is quicker than USB 2 speeds?
I am doing a practice file transfer test & the first 64gb card took about 70mins to download. The second card is showing about the same time.
I have the camera plugged in to my computer by the USB cable & transferring directly onto 2 seperate USB3 hard drives, through shotput pro.
I'm wondering wether the Card reader will be quicker than what i am getting from downloading directly from the camera by USB2.
Any thoughts on that?

As for white balancing, i use a white slate underwater & balance off that. Is that something i can use on land or is there some other tricks for indoor lighting that i should try?

I don't think i will be allowed to upload the whole lot onto the net but i will see if i can put a 1 or 2 minute trailer together afterwards to show everyone how it turned out.
Again a massive thanks to everyone so far for all your help.
Much appreciated.
Cheers Pete.
 
By the way, does anyone know if you can switch between the 2 cards in the camera? I can't see anything in the instruction booklet nor any switch on the camera.
Also, after leaving the camera running for the last 2 hours to fill up both cards, i have downloaded 1 card & nearly all the files are just under 5mins long.
Is that normal? I would have thought that it would just run as 1 huge continous file, not a heap of 5 minute files.
Is it easy to sink up the audio this way or is it going to be a pain in the backside?
Cheers Pete.
 
The Panny manuals for this cam are crap. The most important thing to get is Barry's book. It will answer virtually every question you have posted, truly invaluable.

Grant
 
i dont recall on the hvx200 (i sold mine off years ago) but the hpx170 (the hvx's sexier younger sibling) has a physical button for slot select. and you can see both on the screen and via colored light on the camera body which slot is active. once you start recording it will be pretty obvious.

yeah. it'll record in chunks. just bring them all in and they will butt up on the timeline and play seamlessly. once you sync the first clip everything should be fine. you may have to nudge a bit way down the line. but nothing catastrophic.

MAKE SURE YOUR COMPUTERS P2 SOFTWARE CAN FORMAT CARDS!!! i ran into a problem on location once where though my reader worked fine and i could transfer cards. the software formatter (i forget what i was using at the time) wouldnt see the cards. luckily there happened to be long enough pauses in THAT show where i could format in camera. but since then ive recorded directly to external devices (or rented extra p2 cards) for gigs longer than my own cards could fit.
 
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another suggestion: FILE MANAGEMENT!

not sure if anyone has mentioned this yet. but it is absolutely crucial that you establish a good card management procedure for long shoots.

label your cards CLEARLY and name your folders on your drive accordingly. so you'll always know where you are.

for example: lets say you have 3 cards.
- label them 1, 2, and 3
- make folders on your hard drive ( i tend to do it before the shoot to minimize activity on location) name them 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06 and so on. as many as you need. that way you know that every multiple of total cards (+1) you will be back on card 1

what i generally do for shoots like this is set up a folder structure like this:
PROJECT_NAME
----- P2
---------- 01
---------- 02
---------- 03
---------- 04
---------- and so on
 
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