Shooting Ballet Workflow. Help Needed.

SurJones

SurJones

Veteran
Hi everyone.

I am going to be shooting a Ballet coming up in 2 weeks. I will be shooting to FCP since CinePorter is not on the market yet. I will have a table next to my Tripod, 1394 to FW800 into my G5 dircect capture into FCP. As for Audio I have a Alesis 16channel USB Mixer, with a line runing from audio board into my mixer and capture audio into FCP along with video feed.

Will this work? Has anyone captured 2hours into FinalCut. I also have 2.5Gigs of Ram, and am even thinking about in between the perfroamance acts, to hit stop then record so I can have multi clips, and if something were to crash. I would not miss much :)

Also use the SpotLight Feature on the camera.

Thanks
 
Suggest: May be better to take the audio feed into the camera so it becomes part of the primary video stream.

Suggest: test the set up before you actually shoot the ballet.
 
Okay, sounds good on the Audio into the camera. I plan on doing a test shoot in the next couple days, as well as to check out the audio board MOST aduio boards have an Audio out L & R. So would I need to run Left into Input 1 and Right into Input 2. How do I set up my HVX to record I notice there is in the front a swtich for Mic and Line. I am guessing line, beacuase that is what it seems to be :) And What settings behind the LCD do I need to alter to make sure I ONLY record the Sound board, and not the interal mics.??..?? thanks again
 
SurJones, I'm the technical director for a non-profit dance company, here is what I would do:
  • Set the WB during the dress rehearsal.
  • Don't use auto-focus or auto-WB. Auto iris is a good idea if the lighting conditions vary.
  • Shoot 720p/30P. 30PN doesn't send data out the DV port so you can't record it. Lower framerates introduce judder.
  • Patch the sound board into the XLR input, which should be set to LINE level. Better yet, get the music and use that in post. Get some audio of the applause from the performance (the music will have stopped by then anyway) and cut that in as needed.
  • Set the XLR input to INPUT 1 and INPUT 2. The internal mics automatically become audio tracks 3 and 4.
  • I would not use spotlight mode, the switch to and from this mode is not seamless to put it mildly. You are better off using manual iris controls and zebras.
 
BenB: As noted in another thread, sometimes mics can be line or mic, so kind of threw me off. (maybe I read wrong?)

Also thanks THoff: I dont think there has been I time I have Shot in Auto mode. However the Iris is a good idea for auto. I am so thankful I have time to go and set up and do some tests before hand. What do you think about the shutter?

How about the Final Cut Questions. Anyone know of any issues recording 2 hours. I have have plenty of HDD space.
 
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As mentioned before, don't use 24P for dance performances, you'll get too much judder. For the shutter, I would stick with 180 degrees / 1/60th -- certainly nothing slower. You could choose a faster shutter speed to try to get cleaner motion, but if you make it too short you lose light and the video becomes too strobey. Watch the light (or lack thereof), B-Press is probably your best bet for the gamma.

I'm not a Mac guy and can't comment on FCP. I have recorded long performances using DV Rack HD, and I consider that program essential for live events, not only for the recording capability but also the field monitor and vectorscope. A week ago I used it to record a 2 1/2 hour exercise video in a dance studio, it would have been a major PITA without DV Rack.
 
As mention before I plan on Shooting 30p VideoMode :)(sorry could not resist.) So would defualt shutter be bad? Which defualt would be 1/60th right? And yea, one camera shoot.
thanks for the help thus far.
 
There is no point in selecting VIDEOCAM mode, it basically just changes the units used for the shutter speed from degress to fractional seconds and makes some other options like interval recording available.

Regardless of whether you use VIDEO CAM or FILM CAM mode, the default shutter speed for 30P of 1/60th or 180 degress seems to work best. If you find that you don't have enough light, then you could select a slower shutter speed, but if you overdo it, you'll get noticeable motion blur.

If there is more than one performance, film the performances from two or more angles, and try to get some closeups of soloists. For that it helps to know the choreography so you know where the action will be. Don't forget to shoot some B-roll of the audience applauding, and get the company's bows at the end.
 
ian lucero said:
Another: Will you be shooting to tape as well? If not, you should for backup purposes. You never know.
Click to expand...
That's technically not possible -- not unless you want to use the camera purely as a MiniDV camera anyway. You'll lose the HD, four audio tracks, and better color sampling if you do that.
 
Ah! That's right. Oops. I'm a DVX user. Use to redundancy via tape. Hee Hee. What are the options for redundancy for the HVX when shooting HD? Is there no way, even if the signal is SD, to have some kind of backup to tape? I know you are plugging into FCP via the camera's only FIrewire port. Wait... are there more ports on the HVX? Isn't there a USB 2 port? Can you go to FCP using USB 2 and have a the Firewire port go to an HD tape deck? :beer:
 
Hi SurJones,

I shot ballet all weekend. Important: In FCP preferences, UNcheck "abort capture if frames are dropped". Also, I agree on patching your audio feed into the camera.
Don't use the USB interface. Keep the built-in HVX mics for applause. I did 720p60, although 30p looks nice, too. AWB 3.2K works nice. I set up either about halfway in the house or at the rear of the house, and I was able to do one very careful focus (before the show) and keep it there. Avoid the temptation to zoom in too tight. DON'T
cut off the dancers' feet! They are very attached to them. :) Keep an eye on the stage (not just your viewfinder) to anticipate changes so you can move to the right spot. Don't do too much full stage, cause it's boring, but for large group dances or establishing shots it's nice. If you leave a little room all around the dancers, they can do surprise moves and you won't lose them. You can leave your mouse just above the "capture now" button, so you can hit escape and capture now quickly between movements. In the FCP setup, be sure the camera is Noncontrollable (not Firewire controlled). Keep your zebra stripes on...and OIS on, too. Relax and don't move too much.

And when you're done....check out how FANTASTIC this camera makes things look!

Les
 
Les: Thanks for all the GREAT input. One question why have OIS on? If I am right doesnt that create a issue when on tripod? thanks
 
OIS is useful when you're moving the camera to follow the action, although maybe there is more expert opinion out there.

Les
 
I agree, I would leave OIS off. The OIS system will fight pans -- the only time I use it is when hand-holding the camera.

Having 60P footage will be nice down the road if you ever want to make a HD-DVD or Blu-Ray disk, but for SD DVD and web content, it just chews up disk space. Remember, you'll wind up with about 1GB/minute of video, so archiving the raw footage becomes a consideration with long live events.

PS: One exception to the "no OIS when using a tripod" rule is when you have a camera set up on stage, which may be permissible during classes or rehearsals. Dance floors and some stages are sprung and transmit vibration across long distances, and without OIS, the video may be unusable when a dancer lands a jump. It makes the dancers cringe when they see themselves land and the whole picture shakes. :)
 
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Yea, I shot 150gigs once, and I just buy a hard drive and then burn to DVD's as my backup, HardDrive stays here, and DVD's security depo box.
 
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