Thanks Stephen - whereas you would use 50p on slow mo, well, where's the 12.5p for fast motion I thought!
I haven't had chance to use FCP yet (thanks to apple's 'speedy' shipping!) but I will try one or two techniques as soon as recieve the kit.
I'm guessing with 25p I should be looking at something like 75% (for example). The night shots (where it quickly gets dark as per George's footage) I would presume to speed up by something far greater?
I'll do a search on this forum as I bet this has been covered before (and I don't want to go off topic here).

Many thanks.
Dave.

If you know you will be undercranking, you should lower your shutterspeed for the proper motion blur effect.

For example, if undercranking for 12fps (200% speedup from 24fps), set the shutter speed to 1/24th.
If undercranking to 6fps (400% speedup from 24fps) set the shutter speed to 1/12th.

Another clip to watch...
 

David, thanks for the email. I tested 25p very briefly and I'll play around with that some more as I have more time.

Jamon, that was too kind of you. I don't even know what to say about that but thanks. I just had fun playing around with the settings designed by these guys who are 50x more knowledgeable than me.

Stephen is right about speeding that up in post. That was 8x normal speed. As far as the super fast transition from day to night, I just crossfaded two different clips together.

Tim, thanks for the shutter speed setting tip. I'll definitely remember that :-)

Here's more testing that I've done (nothing fancy). I wish I had more time adding clips of real actors and stuff. But I'm just too swamped right now preparing for this little film. I really love the Bleach bypass setting especially underexposed. I may do the whole movie that way to get that Tim Burton feel.

Please right-click and save.
http://www.georgedavidfilms.com/samp...nefiletest.wmv

Interesting...
Tim - where did you get these figures from (and I'm certainly not by a vast stretch of the imagination debating these - more I'd like to know how to work them out):

I've found the shutter speed on this camera to become almost strobe like as soon as it's switched past 1/25th.
The 'classic' day quickly switching to night with the automobiles car light trails - is there a number for this eg at 25fps should I be looking at around 6.25fps (400%)?
Also - there are often pans in these shots - you have to be slow enough with progressive anyhow - how would you achieve a pan that could feasibly take 15 mins (thereabouts)???

Oh and thanks again George. Now downloading your latest footage fella.

Spotted it. I actually thought you had the day into dusk scene over the sped up footage, which looking back you didn't - it was the later scene.

Ha ha - the pans!!! 2 words - Sony Vegas :-) The 'Event Pan/Crop' is a secret weapon. You can make fake dolly shots in post with this tool.

OK - so these are usually not/never genuine pans then? Merely cropped footage in a 'pan and scan' style in a 16:9 frame? Well I never!
Will FCP allow me to cheat...I mean carry out these 'pans'?

I saw the Dolly shots on the anit-war video posted by Miltos Pilalitos. Looked great though.

Oh yes, FCP can do that by using keyframing. So I guess it's not really Vegas' secret weapon but keyframing is just part of an editor's arsenal. But using dolly's, jibs or a great tripod is even better.

George TC3?
 

Hi George,

great idea, really appreciate it, is it me or does TC2 and Panamatch look quite similar?

Also, it seems you lean towards TC2 and not TC3, as all your avi comparo demonstrates, is there a reason for this?

Cheers

Adam

Adam - you are right. Panamatch and TC look very similar when encoded to wmv. They look a little different in the NLE though.

Indoors, you can easily tell the difference between panamatch (that DVX saturated look) and TC.

I use TC2 because it's what I've been using for several months and I really like it. I also had TC3 but with my untrained eye I just couldn't tell the difference. So I made room for Tim's film noir instead in the SD card.

Again, I just don't know how Paolo could improve on perfection - ha ha.

If you take a look at the settings: Panamatch and TC3 are very similar. Panamatch is a richer look (in R) and you can really tell, as George said, on your timeline and on uncompressed frames. I've come up with some new scene files but they are not ready for prime time.

Thanks guys
 

as everybody knows, the standard colour matrix is not too desireable, and many have no idea how to make it work. Keep up the good work everyone, Paolo, Stephen, Tim, Nate, Jonathon, Chris and all who make this community so valuable.

Thank you George, very flattering and totally unexpected. I can only say that I'm very happy that my small contribution has helped so many videographers. The difference between TC2 and TC3 is minimal and I actually have another one that I labelled TC 3.5 that is just a minor tweak for the blacks. As I often say, TrueColor was born out of necessity to get a better, true to life color matrix, and one that i could trust to be as faithful to the real image as the HD100 can get. In this light TrueColor doesn't try to be a look but instead a way for you to achieve your look.

My way of working, with HDV at least, is to leave the look interpretation in post and use all the "camera bits" to capture a detailed image. This might be good or not, it just makes sense to me. Where I prefer to get a "in camera" look is with the use of filters. There are ways of the light to interract with filters that are impossible of incredibly time-consuming to do in post. And soemtimes it's just more fun to see it happening in camera.

There is one thing to be said about these minor tweaks. Sometimes they are very hard to detect by the naked eye but they become visible when you look at the VectorScope. You might argue that something that is only visible with a Vscope is not really usefull but think about this. When you do color correction in your NLE/compositing program you might end up with results that less satisfactory just because you're missing some bits. We just have so little "wiggle room" with the current HDV format that all bits are useful. You might not see it right away but the difference might become evident later, when you'll be manipulating the image.

Thanks again and take care.

Guys I thought that was excellent. I am new to the industry and I bought a JVC HD100. Just when I was beginning to feel bogged down with all the technical jargon which detracts from the art side of things along come your splendid clips. I found them inspirational!
As a novice I feel a little bit guilty bothering you experts with beginner questions. I hope to be able to contribute as soon as possible.
However, what are these titles referring to? Are they functions in the camera....TC2 etc.?
Also, Could somebody explain, simply if possible, why it is that 50p is so good for slow mo? I own a PD1 as well and as yet have been unable to edit with Hi-res on my mac.
Grateful for anybody's time.
You guys really know your shit!

Martin

Martin i feel your pain! I got my hd100 bout 6 months ago and had the same question.
As far as the 50p i'll let someone else answer that but as far as the scene file (TC1,TC2 ect..) Yeah they are camera functions u will have to change. What u do is download the file or goto Paolo or Tim's site, get the scene files. Then hold down the Menu/Status button on the left side of the cam until menu comes up then select CAMERA PROCESS, keep going page by page (ithink there are only 2) using the "next page" and change the setting in ur cam to the settings listed on the scene file..... BTW to get to change the Red,Blue & Green gain and rotation you'll have to go to the ADVANCED PROCESS option on the second menu page.Here is some help finding the scene files

http://dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.ph...ht=Scene+files

hope this helped! I'm sure not an expert just feel your pain!

BTW Paolo thanks again! I remember be'n here and u help me out!!!!

cheers
 

Thanks for your empathy Jamon and your time in replying.
It's also encouraging to know that other people have been where I am and have battled through.
It's just a fact that to get to enjoy the arty stuff that Tim and friends are creating you just have to get your head around the technical stuff.
Tell you what Jamon I thank the stars for this forum!

Cheers again I'll download and check the settings out.

Martin

That refers to my scene configuration called "TrueColor" and the number is the version level. You can find a complete explanation, with the descriptionm of the process used to find that configuration at my site: http://www.paolociccone.com
Because you're basically overcranking, you're shooting at twice the speed of playback, assuming that you are shooting at 24fps. As fast moving objects are framed by the camera, if you shoot twice the number of frames then you'll have convincing slomo. If you shoot at 24fps then the object will be a fast moving blur that will be finished with the motion in 1/2 the number of frames. You can reduce the blur by using faster shutter speed but there is very little that can be done to recreate missing motion frames. Programs like AfterEffect 7 (TimeWarp) or Shake can do an excellent job at simulating slomo but nothing can replace actual frames. When you have overcranked footage you can then use a compositing program, NLEs are usually not good enough, to exagerate the slomo effect and it will look good.

Paolo,

I'm in the similar mind set as you, I prefer to do all my work in post in regard to color/looks, I already shoot most everything TC3 now anyway. Do you have a TC, either tweaked or standard, that you feel is a good fit for use in pulling a more perfected key? Anything you would do different to one of your current TC settings?

Thanks in advance.

I tried your recipe for the 50p slo-mo and it looked pretty good. But I noticed that in both the smaller image and the blown-up (via Motion in FCP) image the video looked a little low-res and blocky. It appears lossy and it doesn't seem that the slight amount of enlargement in Motion would degrade the video so much.

Is it because it has to pass through AIC? Is it just my imagination? I'm afraid it just didn't seem to hold up quality-wise to other non 50p slo-mo clips in the same timeline. Still a neat trick though, love to be able to improve the quality of it!

Oh-- there's another question that's been bouncing around in my head for a while concerning these nice "home-made" camera settings. The TCs by Paolo and other similar cool recipes seem great for film and narative type of projects.

But has anyone cooked up some camera settings that would work especially well for ENG, reality TV and run-and-gun type projects?

The HD100 (110, etc) seems to be designed as a great ENG camera. And, I come from an ENG, news photography background. I could fiddle up some settings myself, but I'm wondering if there are already some ENG recipes floating around here somewhere.

My guess would be you could start with the main JVC factory setting, add a tiny bit of black stretch, leave the knee at auto or maybe 90 or 95%, and then juice the color just a bit (similar to Paolo's color settings but not quite as aggressive).

Lenses
 

Hi George,

First, I love the clips and examples, nice lighting and scenery in your part of the world.

What lenses are you using on those clips? different for each shot? or the same?
Standard lens?

I ask particularily about the shots with people, as there is some nice DOF there.


I come from a Panasonic environment, but really do prefer the JVC, as again and again the pictures speak for themselves.

Nice work.

Hi Phil. Thanks for your comments. I used the standard 16x lens for everything. For DOF or rack focus, the macro mode works really well. The camera definitely has a lot of pluses.

On a different note, this camera is very tough too, BTW. I dropped it during filming this past weekend -- nothing broke even with the matte box attached and the side of the lens hitting the ground first. It kept on ticking. I also left the IDX charger outside powered on and plugged in to a power supply (RV park) and it rained really hard. Water soaked in overnight and earwigs came of that thing after I cleaned it up. It still worked.

Well, I just lost the chance to sell this thing but I just want to endorse this camera (and IDX) now more than ever. I could just imagine how good it would be as we have 5 more lenses available.

The loss of quality doesn't depend on the AIC, instead it's because in HD-SD50 mode you are shooting at 576 lines instead of 720. In HD-SD60 you shoot at 480 lines. Basically these are SD-resolution modes that run in progressive scan and with a 16:9 screen ratio. When upsized they show the usual artifacts that you can expect. For this reason the slomo modes are best used in short clips.

OK. I thought it might be because of the enlargement, but it just didn't seem like the blow-up was very much (576 to 720) so I was afraid the artifacts were coming from elsewhere.

Does the use of AIC in the slo-mo "recipe" indeed cause any loss of qualty--however small it might be? Is there a was to do this 50p slo-mo without having to go into AIC?

Thanks once again for your help.

It is because of the enlargement method (math) FCP uses. You probably do not have the choice of scaling math in FCP (at least it never had it in previous versions AFAIK). This leaves you a bit handycapped when it comes to scaling up to HD rez from an SD (PAL) source. If they (Apple) did get it together and offer you scaling math methods, then you need to choose Cubic B-Spline as your scale up method in order for you footage to come out smooth in appearance. Althernately you could use MOMS3 if it's available.

S.Noe

Thanks Steve. You know I honestly forgot for a moment that the 50P we're using for the slo-mo is SD and not HD!

D'oh!

Now it makes a lot more sense.

Nope, it;s the resizing plus any additional HDV artifact which can vary depending on lighting situations, background type etc. In your FCP sequence call the properties window (Cmd-0) and select "Best" for the "Motion filter quality"

i cant see anything
 

im sorry if this was answered anyplace else on this thread but I can't seem to get the video to work on my computer. I have the ability to play .wmv files but it just shows up on as a white screen. Im using a Mac Pro if that helps at all.

ha..nevermind

Should you always use BEST for Motion Filter Quality?

And which is the command key: (I'm a PC guy) the one with the Apple on it? and did you mean "O" or "zero"

Another dumb question... do you set the Motion Filter Quality before you capture the video, or after it's already on the timeline?

Many thanks.

Having just purchased the HD110, I'm very pleased to actually see footage from the 100. Nicely done. Very nicely done.

Thank you, Dee. I really appreciate that. The HD100 is one great choice, especially for the money. I actually have new footage from the film to show using the settings uploaded here. I'll post that on a new thread as this one is getting too long.

Not necessarily. If you are rendering an interview with no scaling or other changes to the "Motion" part of the clip, the "Best" settings adds overhead that you don't need.
Yes, the Command key is the one next to the space bar, the Apple key. If you're migrating from the PC, first of all, welcome :). Second, there are a couple of books that can help. One is titled something like "Mac OS for Windows users" and the other is the excellent "Mac OS: the missing manual". High recommended.

I would do it at the end, if you use the highest settings. This will save you rendering time. When you change it FCP will need to re-render the sequence. It detects the change.

So really, while you're doing offline edits you wouldn't use "Best" at all. You'd just turn it on for the final online edit, right?

Again, thanks for the help.