I hate how YouTube rapes the quality... If you convert the video to an ".flv" (flash video file) on your end they will not re-compress it once you upload it...

As you progress you may try playing around with some lighting which can be fairly inexpensive such as China Balls and work lights... It will dramatically improve the quality from something that looks DVish to something that looks more cinematic...


A wise man once said "the only thing the camera sees is light!"....

Good video man....

Nice video... shot well.. just need some background music..to help move it along. :)

Doug: FLV, huh? I'll keep that in mind. Mmm... Yeah, I'll admit that my lighting (or lack of) does need a lot of work. The quality isn't that bad though, the non-youtube version of course.

Rick: Music? I dunno... I like to keep dialogue scenes mostly free of music, except when it gets dramatic.

Thanks for the comments guys.

DVD First Play Clip
 

I'm putting together a DVD for my daughter's soccer coach. Here is the First Play clip (DivX):

http://www.diamondrosevideo.com/videos/PSN_B2_full.avi (16MB)
or
http://www.diamondrosevideo.com/videos/PSN_B2_med.avi (6MB)

All of the clips were recorded with the XH A1. Half of them were down-converted by the camera during capture and the other half were m2t files pulled directly from a Fire Store 4 HD into Liquid. Liquid encoded the DivX files from the timeline.

Hi Glen,

Very nice clip loved it.

Glen I have to do the same thing next week can you please tell me your preset and the set up? i.e( 60i or 30F and the shutter speed?) I would really appreciate it.


Thanks
Matthew

You're gonna laugh...
 

Matthew,

Thanks for the compliment. I produced this clip before I was a member of this forum and therefore had not played with the Custom Presets yet. So what you see is the factory setting...oh wait, That's PRESET01...

I cheated on the exposure settings. These scenes were shot in direct sunlight so after verifying with manual mode that I could keep the shutter speed faster than 1/60, while stopping down the apperature to 9.5, I put the cam in aperature priority mode. This allowed me to keep the lens stopped down making the focus less critical. Since I didn't have my focus assist monitor with me, I used the viewfinder in B/W mode to do that.

I used a monpod to aid stability. The down side of using a support in this scenario is that the kids subconsciously think of it as a "target". For example: take the final freeze frame in the clip...2 frames later I was hit with that soccer ball. I guess it goes with the territory. At least it didn't hit the camera.

The format is 1080/60i. Since the final product was DVD, I downconverted the clips. Half of them with the camera and half with Liquid. I am now going to experiment with this sequence in DivX, H.264 and HDDVD.

Hope this helps and good luck on your shoot.

A1Day1
 

Recieved my A1 a couple of weeks ago, but haven't really had time to use it until this past week-end.
It's my first camcorder and first time using a NLE, so I guess this is the very minimum you can expect from an A1 ;)
Shot in manual mode, manual focus (I know, some shots are slightly OOF)
Not very interesting footage, just trying to get a feel for the controls, OIS, judging exposure with LCD, focal range etc.

Shot with "-3dB clean" preset from http://www.fxsupport.de/20.html
PAL DV 25F
Minor CC

H264 .MP4 (Quicktime):

http://s1u.net/480

The second link does not work!

Sorry, using a free file host. Link works for me though.
Try http://www.mediafire.com/?awjlukwm4qj instead.

Link to my latest XH-A1 film: Back
 

Hey all, here's a link to my latest film, Back, that I just completed on Canon's XH-A1. Comments please!

http://stage6.divx.com/user/yummount...o/1293317/Back

You'll need the DivX Codec... free and easy from their main site!

i can`t seem to have Divx installed with premiere on my machine, or premiere crashes. You may want to try a different codec, as well as have this moved to the 'A1 clips' sub-forum.

Just my two cents here:


Dislikes:
I am struggling to understand the overall story line if there is one (Beginning Middle and End)... It seems like things were really drawn out when they didn't need to be (could have easily been a three minute (or less) video).... The audio for the cell phone calls was difficult to understand at times... The cuts had Audio pops or clips that made it distracting to what was going on... If you ease in to the audio it makes it seem like it's all one big clip even though it has been edited...

Likes:
The grain and black and white... Not sure if you cranked the gain up or did the B&W preset in camera or did it all in post but it had a very vintage antiquated feel...

General thoughts:
Zoom out what else is going on in the room... Is there a room? Not sure... Manual focus is a marvelous thing...

Anyway take it for what it's worth... Only about two cents...

New Link
 

Sorry all... the above link was trashed... here's the new one:

http://stage6.divx.com/user/yummount...o/1295837/Back

Please, keep the comments rolling!

Here's what I have to say about your comments... no confrontation, just healthy discussion :).

When I wrote this film, I decided that I was going to take a simple concept, and explore the things that revolve around it: getting a drink of water, waiting, being alone, waiting, miscommunication, and waiting. It was odd actually how much WAS there with such a simple idea. I kept lighting to a minimum... only using one key, often without a fill (a delibrate choice, as I did have the ability to do so). This lead to a lot of dark faces. The location had plenty of space to show, but again, I didn't. I felt like I wanted to create a sense of fixture with the body instead... something I kinda' picked up from my ex-girlfriend who makes dance films for the camera. The people are the location rather. A little far-fetched, I know.

I know there are parts missing, I can feel it. Then again, I get the feeling that it's all there. I could shoot some more, I'm just waiting for some more comments to really sell me on that idea right now. I also know very well that these themes I constantly explore, and I can easily start another piece fixing the problems there instead of re-shooting here.

Keep em' coming, please!

First HDV
 

Please, take a look at my first attempt with HDV. I used XH-A1 and FCP 2. The file is 55MB, about 1.5 min.
http://web.mac.com/milankalus/iWeb/Site%202/Movie.html

Thanks,

Milan