Describe your HDV "studio" and equipment!
 

I thought this might be a little fun, describing your HDV studio/work space and equipment.

Here's mine:

1. HD10 camera (which, for now, acts as my deck, too, until I make enough money to buy the VH1 HDV deck).

2. Tripod, lights, etc.

3. Cokin P filters: ND .6 and .9 (though it states it's a .8) and diffusion filter.

4. A D-VHS deck (I have the JVC HM-DH30000U).

5. G5 1.6 ghz PowerMac with my HDTV not-so-good 15 inch LCD acting as the monitor. Why "not-so-good?" Well, when I hook it up to the HD10, it's not great. I'd like to get this cool JVC 17 inch HD monitor when I have the cash.

6. I am now testing out Lumiere HD with my Final Cut Pro HD system. Before, I used shareware that was too finicky to really use.

And that's it for now. I hope to buy another $4000 worth of gear, the HD monitor and VH1 deck, when I get enough money.

heath

Here's Mine:

1. JVC JYHD-10 which is also serving as my deck - also until I can afford to buy the VH1 Deck.

2. Bogen 3046 Tripod w/501 Head and a modified Studio 1 Superjib (I think its too heavy for the 501, so its shorter now)

3. 3- JTL Everlight Softlights, Arri Studio 1000 and 650 Plus.

4. Dell 8300 3ghz & Apple G4 Dual 800, Apple 23" Cinema Display (which works great with the Dell & Radeon 9800 Pro).

5. Sony PVM-1340 Purchased on ebay for $20! Mint condition monitor from a junk seller - also bought a Videotek Waveform Monitor and Vectorscope for another 9.99 and they work!

6, SOFTWARE: Vegas 4+DVD. Considering upgrade to Vegas 5, and Cineform Connect HD. Does anyone have any comments about using the Cineform product with Vegas 5? Adobe After Affects (never used) and lots of other misc software. Also have Premiere 6.5 but don't really use it.

7. A bunch of 52mm filters, ND .3 .6 .9 Circ Polarizer, UV, etc. Have LOTS of 52mm filters from other photo work.

8. Sony ECM 44 B Lav. Shure 'Hammer' 635, going to get an Azden SGM-2X shortly unless I can find a great deal on a Senheiser K6.

I also have a Sony 53" HDTV and an Electrohome ECP 4100 projector, though I haven't used the projector for HD yet.

Looking to buy: a 17" HD Monitor for editing. Azden SGM-2X or Sennheiser K6 Mic & boom pole, JVC VH1 Deck, Cineform Aspect HD, Vegas 5 upgrade, and maybe, someday, a new Dual 2ghz G5.

Any comments on what I can add? What am I doing with all of this stuff (besides spending alot of money and playing around? I'm making my first feature length documentary. All my prior video experience has been making 'industrial' training videos for a single large company.

Bill ask the experts on our HDV Editing page about the editing questions.

Good luck on the doc, and I'm impressed with your set up!

heath

My modest setup :)
 

JVC HD1 Camera

JVC sd camera I use as a deck for SD

2 Athlon XP 2.6Ghz 1Gb ram machines for post.

Vegas 4.0, but will soon upgrade to 5.0

Maya 5.0 (for those nice 3D effects)

JTL lights

2.5 m crane

Home made Green Screen that works great with proper fluorescent lighting.

Standard Tripod with standard on-tripod dolly :)

Commodore 1084s RGB/NTSC monitor (legacy from my C= Amiga times)

A warm cup of coffee for those long editing hours :)

hd10
3Ghz P4 Hypertheading
2GBRam
400 Gb Storage
tripod (don't remember the make)
Crane(homemade, but it goes twenty feet in the air with remote control head)
azden shotgun mike
42" fujitsu SD plasma(HD too much and I'm No-Budget)
Pioneer surround sound

Aspect HD
Premier Pro
Adobe stuff

and a partdidge in a pear tree.

I haven't been here in a while, I'm sorry. Just Premiered my 40 minute short last night.

I love this camera... and I hate it too.
It's all we got so far. We either do it or we don't, right?

Erik,

cool set up. Was the short on HDV?

heath

Heath,
Yeah it was the HD10. Although as much as I wanted to show it in HD... we screened it from a dvd player. the projector wasn't HD, but it still looked pretty good. We made a screen that measured 18'x10' and we showed it in a martini bar here in denver. Kinda cool, get everybody liquored up before you show the movie. So they liked it:)

I should probably ask this in the TOTEM thread, but how is the film scene in Denver? I'm originally from Denver, but have been living in West Palm Beach, Florida for 20 years now (I'm 28).

heath

28, me too.
and not to be a negative-nancy but the Denver movie scene kinda sucks.
It's great if you're a No-budget and need actors. They are just dying for something to be in. It was my first time working with "actors", they are a silly bunch, but I loved the experience. Is Florida a good place to make movies?
I would really like to stay Denver based, but It's all about the green. Plus my Crew is all family and I don't have to pay them, just the occasional beer and pizza.

Here's mine:

1. HD10 camera, acts as deck too (i know, bad)

2. Miller DS-5 tripod

3. Homemade light kit includes Home Depot lights, reflectors made from car windshield bouncers, lots of odds and ends. I'd like to buy a kit next.

3. Tiffen ND filters, and a few other filters polarizers etc.

4. Azden SX-2 full shotgun, boom pole

5. G5 dual 2 ghz, 1 gig RAM, 160 gig internal drive, 400 gigs firewire external, 23 inch Cinema (ROCKS!) -- OHH! I also have the Klipsch 5.1 surround system!

6. Final Cut Pro HD (bought it the day it showed up at the local Apple Store last week!)

7. No external monitor yet, but that's going to be one of my questions coming up on this board soon. (can i use my G4 17" laptop as a monitor??)

8. Lumiere HD (buy it!)

9. Mac G4 laptop 1 ghz, 17"

10. HDTV, Sony 46" (damn thing is to big!)

Some said on this thread, "I love this camera and hate it too." I have felt the same way, but with my new computer and LumiereHD...it's more love than hate now.

Murph

I used to work for a electronics store called soundtrack here and ultimate electronics elsewhere, and Klipsch were the easiest sell, because they have such a crisp sound. I love those speakers.
The winshield thingy...I'm gonna have to start using that.

Gonna shoot an 5 minute short before the month is over... and then we'll see if it leans more towrds the "love" part of the HD10.

Erik, yeah....windshield reflectors are cheap. They're like 2 bucks at a 5 and Dime store.

Also, I learned some great stuff at a 4 day "Film Lighting" course last year. The one thing that stuck with me most - ANYTHING can be used in lighting. That means, the floor, clothes, walls, mirrors...anything can be used to bounce, project, alter or illuminate. It's amazing really, it opened my eyes because I used to think light came from the source only. But, in actual fact...anything you can see is potential reflector material.

There was this one little tip too...a little detail that blew my mind. Look at photos, film or video that's properly lit. Almost always when a professional was lighting it - you'll see a little dot in a persons eyes. If you only see darkness it wasn't lit well...(unless you are going for the look). In short, look at magazines (doesn't matter that it's a still because lighting for magazines or film/video is mostly similar based on end result) and you will see this dot...sometimes its a diamond shaped dot, other times a circle, square...whatever the lighting person wants. Sometimes a mirror across the room turned until this dot shows up in their eyes at the angle they're looking into the camera (or elsewhere) is all that's needed.

It's truly bizarre because after that I started looking all over the place and seeing the dots in peoples eyes! Without them they look almost dead now....really, start looking! You'll notice that 9 out of 10 have these things in their eyes from proper lighting.

Scroll down to the bottom of this page. I did a search for "Photography Portraits" and this came up....the bottom photo has diamonds! Can you imagine the babies face without them??

http://www.photo.net/portraits/intro

Murph

Wow, you're right.
I Draw... and every time I draw lets say an eye for example. without even thinking about it, I would always draw that little white dot. I never bothered to ask why I drew it or how it made the eye look more real, but it just always did. Lighting is king.

Thanks Murph

Erik, my pleasure. I love sharing info.

Hey, Heath am I messing up the HTML code on here? Can you check my link up above please.

Also, I know we went a little off topic via lighting..

To bring it back on track - who here has a "studio"? What type of studio is it? Just a room, a seperate building (like mine, I have a seperate garage detached from the house and it's my studio) or totally seperate location in an official office or studio location?

I've got my "studio" finished off completely - here is the details:

- Digital phone service, High speed internet (3 megs a second since Jan!!), L-shaped desk, printer, microwave, refridgerator, coffee maker......and get this, a stocked bar!!!!!

Just curious to know if people are editing in the bedrooms or full blown "studios". I'll post a video online if someone has space??

Murph

Nice.
here's me.
Office in My uncles warehouse, track lighting, fridge as well, not fully stocked because I keep emptying it.(drinking it) a couch(casting...not really) huge dry erase board, two computers, the plasma and surround sound, glass and metal desks(a bitch with finger prints) printer and a T1 line for internet. I don't drink coffee.

Nice.

My garage is finished off with barnwood, beams and the bar is all wood too. It sounds like your place is industrial like? Sounds very cool to me.

I don't use the coffee maker...it just looks cool. ;)

Murph

When making links, use one of these: [ and one of these: ]

[ url]www.dvinfo.net/conf[ /url]

Now, take away the space between [ and u and [ and / and you have a clickable link!

I have my stuff in my room, until I move into my condo. Then, I'll have a seperate "room" (really just a den with a wall) for my office/studio. I may put up track lighting and a green screen, too.

heath

The outside wall of my office is painted blue, for blue screen but I read on this site that the HD10 likes the green a little bit more so I'm going to repaint.
Coffee makers do like kinda cool whether they get used or not, makes us look kinda legit...maybe. For a bunch of HDVers

To funny...maybe it's all about the coffee makers? If you have one of those then everything you do is cool no matter what..

Thanks Heath, I'll fix it now.

UPDATE:
Lol! It magically fixed itself!

I have a 'Great Room' in my house which is 46' by 32' with 28' high ceilings that serves as my 'studio'. I'll upload a pic next time I set up my 'set' (mostly for interviews) if you would like to see it.

Regarding the previous post about lighting, I learned long ago in school that photography (which includes video and film) is the recording of reflected light. Light is EVERYTHING - that's all you are capturing, relfected light.

I know what you mean about the dot. If watch a 2 shot in some films, (Hudsucker Proxy comes to mind) you can see how that little dot draws you to the character they want you to pay attention to!

Yeah, it's all about light.

Does anyone use an on-board light with the JVC? I have one that use with a piece that goes on the "shoe" plate on the bottom of the camera. It's about 6 inches, so it's off to one side of the camera. Most people put a light directly on top facing directly at a subject, but ideally you always want it off to the side shining towards the subject.

It's like a key light instead of a straight on light.

Murph

Is the market yet prepared for HDV?
 

I have to say that I am really a newbie regarding cameras and lighting, my specialty is editing and adding some post-production eye candy.

This led me to take quite a long time to decide on which camera to buy, my other option was a DVX-100A, but finally decided that HD was the way to go.

I don't know about you guys, but it seems to me that the market is not yet prepared for HDV, at least not in Mexico. Most people seems to prefer SD.

Has anyone been able to convince a client on going HD?

Cheers

It's a perception in my opinion.

The easiest thing to do - show them the difference before you make your pitch for HD(V). If you have a decent laptop or can get them near a fast enough computer - play them an HD clip. Then play them an SD clip - explain in real simple terms that SD is old and HD is new and better. It will have a longer life because it'll play on larger screens in the future without resolution loss.

Something like that works for me usually. Instead of talking about it...show it. Usually, the eyes can make up their mind anyway. Plus, the biggest sell of all is to say that HD can be downcoverted to SD at anytime...and yet, still look better than standard shot SD cameras.

Murph

Here is my stuff:

1.Exchanged bright green spot GR-HD1

2.Athlon 2gHz, 1G of RAM with Adobe Pro and Main Concept Mpeg Pro HD

3.Raynox wide angle and Tiffen filters.

4.Samsung HDTV monitor.

5.Tripod, blue, green screens and etc.

6.My favorite Pan and Tilt controllers. One is very simple, but convenient and does a good job. Below is link to the web side with manual: http://www.21best.com/21_best/electr...or_sale_3.html

7.Camera car mount. Bought it at filmtools for $100 and use it almost everywhere, but cars.
That's about it. I'm not a professional. Just doing some short movies for family and friends.

Where'd you get your green and blue screens at? Did you just paint them yourself?

heath

I bought mine at http://www.filmtools.com/
They are widely available. I never thought it's a problem

HDV for your clients
 

That's a very usefull tip Murph, I'll bring my laptop next time!

On another subject, Is it common in the States to charge extra for HD? There is currently no tariff standard set here for this kind of service.

Most people think that it will cost them lots of money to have their masters done on HD, because they are used to thinking that HD = Cinealta or other expensive equipment.

But then, if the rates are equall to SD, people might think it is some kind of scam.

I've tried to explain them about the new cameras, but they still think that there's a catch somewhere...

Any ideas?

Mauricio,

Show them the HD footage and they'll know!

heath

True Heath, guess the old sayings are wise: An image is worth more than 1000 words.

If every second of video has 30 images (30i), every second of video is worth 30,000 words :)

Now, that's what I call 'saving my breath' :)

Cheers!

We prefer 30p around here so those 30,000 images will have full resolution ;>)
Ken

Setup
 

Just wanted to share with you all my new setup. Slowly I bought them all and I am really happy with the purchase so far.

JVC HD10U Camera
Century Optics Matte Box
Azden SGM 1-X Shotgun Microphone
Bogen Manfrotto 3046 Tripod w/h 501 Fluid Head
Schneider (3x3) and Cavision (4x4) Glass Filters :
3x3 Filters : ND .6 , ND .9 , Circular Polarizer , Enhancing , Warm Black Frost 1/8 & 1/2 , Warm Classic Soft 1/8 & 1/2 , White Frost 1/8 & 1/2
4x4 Filters : Star , G.Blue , G.Sunset , G.ND and Soft

Still need a bag to carry this all and it looks like it will be the Porta
Brace DV organizer.

Editing Computer Configuration :
Pentium IV 2.8 GHZ , 1024 MB RAM , 160 GB RAID-0 w/h 19 inch Monitor

Editing on the Road
Pentium IV 3.06 GHZ , 512 MB RAM , 160 GB G-RAID-0 , w/h 17 inch Widescreen

I will use Adobe Premier Pro 1.5 w/h Aspect HD for video editing , for audio Adobe Audition and Encore for DVD authoring.
Thanks for everybody for the help and guide on what to buy and where to look.......
Gabor

Awesome!

hwm

HD10u
CU-VH1 ( this thing was worth every penny!)
Sennheiser ME66
Multiple filters NDs, NDGs, Polerizers

Just finished building a Steady Cam and an awesome Pan & tilt 13' crane out of aluminum and powder coating it black ( even with the HD10s crappy panning I find the crane shots are the ticket, I wish I had this thing on my last 2 projects.........still giddy like opening Christmas presents as a 7 year old everytime I view a crane shot for the first time on a large HD widescreen. heres pics before the powder coating which I just got it back tonight and it looks pretty professional now. http://prohdstudio.com/_wsn/page3.html

3.6 hyper thread P4
ABIT motherboard
1 GIG ram
2 - 75 GIG Raid Rapture HDs
1 -100 GIG HD
Raedeon all-in-wonder 9800 HD video card
Vegas 5
Cineform Connect HD
55" Mits HD
47" Sony HD widescreen

Mark,

Would you please tell us a bit more about your DIY Steady cam? I'm very interested!

Thanks

Ric

are you talking about the Crane ( if so theres more discusson in

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=31905

or the steady cam? I took the steady Cam pic off last night to fit more crane shots in but if you were wondering about the steady cam here it is




The steady cam was made out of a single pole tripod ($50 ) Bogen if I recall?

This is kinda cool because when I get tired I just extend the legs and use it as a tripod ( I did a Football game the other night as its trial run and it worked so nice!)

I welded a piece of 2"X 24" X 1/4" thick aluminum on the bottom pole as a counter balance and low shot carrier , being able to turn the lower "shelf" before locking in makes balancing a breeze.

The gimble was made from a stainless steel bearing with 2 stainless steel bolts welded on opposite sides and I fabricated the handle assembly out of aluminum bought at Lowes ( I didnt but you can, they have 1" aluminum pipe and a big variety of flat stock..........what I used would probably cost you about $18)

If you cant weld aluminum your local sheet metal shops surely can ( Look in phone book under heating and air conditioning and any of those guys would probably sneak it in at lunchtime for $40 or less)

Great explanation,thank you.

I'd like to see some photographs of the Steady cam. I went to your site and the crane looks really great!

cheers

Ric

UPDATED STUDIO

Here's Mine:

1. SONY HDR-FX1

2. Bogen 3046 Tripod w/501 Head and a modified Studio 1 Superjib (I think its too heavy for the 501, so its shorter now)

3. 3- JTL Everlight Softlights, Arri Studio 1000, 650 Plus, 2 Arri 300 Plus

4. Dell 8300 3ghz & Apple G4 Dual 800, Apple 23" Cinema Display (which works great with the Dell & Radeon 9800 Pro).

5. Sony PVM-1340 Purchased on ebay for $20! Mint condition monitor from a junk seller - also bought a Videotek Waveform Monitor and Vectorscope for another 9.99 and they work!

6, SOFTWARE: Vegas 4+DVD. Considering upgrade to Vegas 5, and Cineform Connect HD. Does anyone have any comments about using the Cineform product with Vegas 5? Adobe After Affects (never used) and lots of other misc software. Also have Premiere 6.5 but don't really use it.

7. Century Optics mattebox with 3x3 and 4x4 filter frames, plus Schneider 'DV Essential Filter set' and assorted Cokin 3x3 filters.

8. Sony ECM 44 B Lav. Shure 'Hammer' 63. Azden SGM-2X shotgun.

9. V-Digi YrPrPb to RGB converter box w/Dell 19" CRT - untested as of yet for use as HD Studio monitor.

10. TONS of assorted stingers, blackwrap, gaffe tape, white & black foamcore reflectors.

I also have a Sony 53" HDTV and an Electrohome ECP 4100 projector, though I haven't used the projector for HD yet.



Any comments on what I can add? What am I doing with all of this stuff (besides spending alot of money and playing around? I'm making my first feature length documentary. All my prior video experience has been making 'industrial' training videos for a single large company.

UPDATED!

An extra 120 gb firewire drive, an FX1 I use (it's my friend's) and an uncompressed HD card. I now need a higher-end G5 to make the card work. <g>

heath