CineAlta Scene File Downloads?

[James Q. Manning]

Anyone know where to find a "Scene file Gallery" or similar?

I'm coming up on a few short weeks till I shoot my senior film here at the Savannah College of Art & Design. My DP is great...at 35mm. The plan has been to shoot 35mm, as we had a connection to get about 14000ft for free. We were rockin'.

Of course, as it happens, our 14000 ft quickly became "a few rolls" and now we're shooting CineAlta. The problem? My DP, while trained on the CineAlta, doesn't like the camera. He'll shoot it, because he's my DP and he has faith in the project, but he's a film snob, and really has no passion for video. Unless it's the ridiculously expensive ViperCam.

What I'm really looking for are some Scene Files for the CineAlta. Honestly, if I could find the look I wanted, before we head out to set, then I'd be pleased as punch. Specifically, I'd love something that shot a "fat negative" sort of image, that would allow room for manipulation in post-production.

But, I'm not adverse to shooting "in camera," and have been scouring the web for Scene Files for the CineAlta. Alas, I've found such for VariCam or JVC cameras and others, but I've had no luck for the CineAlta yet.

[Chris Hurd]

Let's start a scene file gallery right here. We've done it before on this site for XL H1 custom presets and HD100 scene files, so I see no reason why we can't do the same thing for the CineAlta line.

Please consider this as your CineAlta scene file gallery home. Now who has any to share?

[Greg Boston]

Originally Posted by Chris Hurd

Let's start a scene file gallery right here. We've done it before on this site for XL H1 custom presets and HD100 scene files, so I see no reason why we can't do the same thing for the CineAlta line.

Please consider this as your CineAlta scene file gallery home. Now who has any to share?

Was going to suggest this to you Chris because I've been looking also. I have a couple. But, my question is delivery method. The XDCAM HD units use 128mb memory stick for file storage. I checked, and they are not in text format like some of the others. I guess it would have to be done by zip file archive since that's the only thing the board will accept for upload. I've only done some basic scene files stuff so far. These cameras are so new, that not many people have them yet. So, consider this my first effort. I'll post them shortly.

-gb-

[Greg Boston]

In the spirit of sharing and getting the delivery worked out, I give 330/350 owners three preset .scn files. These scene files go in the HDCAM subdirectory on the Sony memory stick.

Please let me know if you can load them. Brian? Allister?

-gb-

[Simon Wyndham]

because he's my DP and he has faith in the project, but he's a film snob, and really has no passion for video

Please educate your DP that instead of blaming his tools he should work with what he has. And if he can't do that then I would suggest that you get a new DP.

Other than that, a scene file download section would be cool. Although really it would be nice to know that such files had been set up under controlled circumstances with the proper charts and monitors etc.

[Chris Hurd]

If you can give me the parameters of the particular file extension... max size, extension suffix, etc., then I'll make it so that the board will accept them as valid uploadable files... no need to zip.

[Greg Boston]

Originally Posted by Chris Hurd

If you can give me the parameters of the particular file extension... max size, extension suffix, etc., then I'll make it so that the board will accept them as valid uploadable files... no need to zip.

Chris they are about 1KB in size each and have a file extension of .scn if you want to modify the board. And while you're modifying, can you add .MOV so we can upload QT files with the same limitation on size as we have for WMV.

-gb-

[Greg Boston]

Originally Posted by Simon Wyndham

Although really it would be nice to know that such files had been set up under controlled circumstances with the proper charts and monitors etc.

I don't believe that's always necessary, Simon. Besides, if they are offered up for free, you can load them into the camera and if you don't like the result, don't use them. It costs you nothing buf a few seconds of download time since the file sizes are very small. Innovation doesn't always come from highly controlled experiments, just ask Eddie Van Halen.

-gb-

[Chris Hurd]

Originally Posted by Greg Boston

Chris they are about 1KB in size each and have a file extension of .scn if you want to modify the board. And while you're modifying, can you add .MOV so we can upload QT files with the same limitation on size as we have for WMV.

Try it now, Greg... neither .scn nor .mov will have a thumbnail or an icon, but they should both work anyway.

[Simon Wyndham]

Innovation doesn't always come from highly controlled experiments, just ask Eddie Van Halen.

Not quite the same thing. But those sounds still need to mastered to fall within the digital sound range of a CD. Nobody at a mixing desk offers a preset volume setting for other mixers mixing totally different music to use!

But remember that while getting a look is great, setting one up from any old viewpoint is not too useful. In order to set up a look you need to know what is happening across the colour spectrum.

Those User Matrix settings can have some very weird effects unless you know precisely what you are doing.

Are the settings crushing detail? Causing over saturation? I would certainly be dubious of knee and knee slope settings unless they have been measured precisely. You might be inadvertantly restricting the dynamic range of the camera, or be compressing the highlights far too much. So yeah, you might like the look of someones preset. Great. But then you might only find out the horrible artefacts AFTER you have shot something thinking that it will work.

Those looks on the Panasonic site were set up precisely. I don't want to be a killjoy. I'm just saying people should be careful is all.

[James Q. Manning]

This sounds great. Wow. Exciting times!

The only suggestion I could make would obviously be some sort of "screenshot" or similar of what a typical result from that scene file would be.

And I agree about my DP, but he's willing to give it a go, and luckily, we'll have a few well-trained people on the side assisting on camera. Our school requires you have 5 trained cinematographers for the camera you are using on set at all times, otherwise, you're not allowed to use it.

Q

[Greg Boston]

Originally Posted by Simon Wyndham

Not quite the same thing. But those sounds still need to mastered to fall within the digital sound range of a CD. Nobody at a mixing desk offers a preset volume setting for other mixers mixing totally different music to use!

Showing my age Simon since I turn 46 today. Eddie did a lot of his stuff before CD's even existed. My early VH albums are on vinyl. And he left a lot of mistakes in the final product. The band even refused to 'overdub' in the studio in their early days.

I personally understand what tweaking all those things does. What we are trying to do here Simon is to offer the same thing that the XL2, XLH1, HVX200, and HD100 users have. The ability to share your camera settings with others. I don't claim they are a 'one size fits all' to acknowledge your musical analogy. But when Def Leppard released their Hysteria album with those thunderous kick drums, several subsequent releases by other artists followed using the same recording methodology. Don't you think that maybe some information got published or released by the recording engineer who came up with that?

It's not much different than buying or sharing plug-in presets for your NLE that offer up several overall looks. My original statement stands, they are offered here for free. I'm not even advocating using the ones I uploaded. They are basic tweaks like using Cinegamma 2 or bumping the saturation levels a bit. I did this to get a 'delivery system' for this camera established. If by chance someone loads something here that seems to look good, then it might be educational to load it in and then see what it looks like on a waveform monitor, vector scope, RGB parade, or HD monitor.

Just like anything data related, it stands to reason if you don't understand all the parameters, make a backup of your own settings so you can re-load and go back to where you were. You can also just reset and go back to defaults.

I don't see the harm in this. Many artforms are derivatives of works that came before them. If you don't wish to participate and share, then don't. But please don't tell others that they shouldn't share their own ideas just because they weren't contrived in a method of your liking.

-gb-

[James Q. Manning]

I agree that knowing everything about the color of what is being shot is vital. However, there's always the concept of a starting off point, being steered in the right direction for the look of the film.

For me, I want to try and get as much info about this camera as I can before I shoot, as I don't want all of this left in the hands of my DP. As a director, I need to understand the situation, and the good thing about digital is that it's something I've worked with before. Albeit on lesser cameras, for sure.

THis week I plan on working with a professor from the college to try out various things with the CineAlta. That way I can speak the language of the camera to a higher degree.

[Ray Ellis]

Quote:
Originally posted by Greg Boston:
In the spirit of sharing and getting the delivery worked out, I give 330/350 owners three preset .scn files.


Hi Greg,
We recently purchased an F350 and are working to create scene files. I noticed your post and I thought I would take a look at the ones you created. Would you pass on any information about what you were going for when you created these three files and what the major differences are? I appreciate you sharing these.

Best,
Ray Ellis
Videographer
Raleigh, NC

[Carroll Lam]

Originally Posted by Greg Boston

In the spirit of sharing and getting the delivery worked out, I give 330/350 owners three preset .scn files. These scene files go in the HDCAM subdirectory on the Sony memory stick.

Please let me know if you can load them. Brian? Allister?

-gb-

How about some hints as to what these particular files will do? What was your objective? What kind of image were you looking for for each of them. Etc.

Carroll Lam