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Filming tips.

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B.Snow
Posts: 1859 - Karma: 92
I've always been pretty interested in shooting video and filming skiing(like every other kid on this site), but I've only every just kind of scratched the surface. This year I'm feeling a lot more pumped about it, and feel like pursuing it a bit more. I've already posted like a million of these questions similar to these but I'm pretty sure these are my last ones haha. I would have kept this in the movie maker cult but its dead as shit.

I've been checking out video's and tutorials all over the internet and I just kind of want to know the basics when shooting video, and more importantly, shooting skiing. Here's a few questions that I have:

ps.(I shoot with an Hv30 but am thinking of upgrading to an HDDSLR sometime later on this this year.)

1. When shooting skiing and stuff is it best to just leave the camera on auto or to set stuff up manually?
(I guess if I were filming with a fisheye and doing followcams and stuff auto would be the way to go, but I'm talking about for still shots where I might want to manually control my image.)

2. Say I want to take the camera off auto and manually control my image how do I go about doing it? I know how to set shutter speed, aperture and white balance but I want to know what the correct order is, when setting these things. Should I start with shutter speed then aperture and then white balance?

3. What is the best format for shooting skiing? Obviously since I have an Hv30 I can only shoot in 60i, 24p and 30p but I was wondering what the ideal frame rate is for filming skiing. I'm gonna shoot in 30p this season but I'm guessing the ideal frame rate is 60p?maybe?


If anyone has any other sick tips It'd be sick if you could share. I've kind of been looking all over the internet and stuff and I figured I'd just ask questions on NS as opposed to a photo/video forum. If anyone knows of any good video forums please share those too.
Nov 18 2010 11:26PM
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B.Snow
Posts: 1859 - Karma: 92
What program do you use for this?

Nov 22 2010 5:20PM
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[~_~]
Posts: 20239 - Karma: 1,273
Cinema Tools. It literally takes one second, as opposed to individually clicking every clip in a timeline, typing in the percentage, unchecking frame blending, then rendering.

Also, conforming is better to use as a simple precaution. Sometimes FCP hiccups and can't render the timeline, saying "out of memory." This is often due to the fact that digital frame rates are not perfect numbers (integers), which is why 24p is actually 23.98, 30p is actually 29.97, and 60p is actually 59.97. Sometimes when working with long continuous clips and long renders at once, these numbers don't completely "add up" (I'm using this term loosely) and the frame rate of the file becomes inconsistent. This is fixed by finding the clips that have errors, and conforming the source files to the frame rate of the timeline (this even happens to 24p footage and needs to be conformed to 23.98). This entire mess can be avoided in the first place by making frame rate conforming a standard protocol. While I only conform footage shot in 30p and 60p, sometimes 24p footage needs to have it done in order to fix the problem.
Nov 22 2010 5:27PM
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WillStart
Posts: 3955 - Karma: 3,192
i agree with landis. the fish should really only be used by a very good and experienced filmer, and even then it should be used rarely and in creative ways only.

if you are still learning how to film or wouldn't consider yourself pretty experienced, please do not use a fisheye. it will make you such a lazy filmer and you won't learn anything. better to start out with the stock lens and learn how to use a fish (much) later on.

i'm not trying to come off as a dick, i'm just speaking from experience. i filmed with a fish on my VX for a whole season and made no filmmaking progression whatsoever. Once i stopped using the fish, I got better and better with each edit.
Nov 23 2010 3:50PM
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WillStart
Posts: 3955 - Karma: 3,192
sorry for dub post, but i just wanted to add that i feel like not using fish really helps you learn how to use lenses in general. you learn a lot more about aperture and filters and such when you use a normal lens, and after filming a few season with the stock lens on my hvx, i had no problem making the switch to my 35mm adapter and my T2i later on.
Nov 23 2010 3:52PM
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B.Snow
Posts: 1859 - Karma: 92
Ye for sure dude, you're not coming off as a dick at all, I really appreciate all your input. I'd say that I have a pretty decent amount of experience filming, I've just never really full-on applied myself too it.

About the fisheye thing, I'm looking at getting a 0.7x canon wide angle for my Hv30. I find anything wider causes really noticeable distortion around the edges of the frame, and looks super cheesy. I have shot with a 0.3x before on my older camera's and am really not feeling that look.

What are your thoughts on a 0.7x wide angle?
Nov 23 2010 5:06PM
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fnstoked
Posts: 802 - Karma: 27
educate me, i don't understand how 60p and 30p can look different? i thought we can only see so many fps so it's irrevelant... also i thought more is better cause its suppose to be smoother and such
Nov 23 2010 5:41PM
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B.Snow
Posts: 1859 - Karma: 92
Here's a link to some footage I took this aft. tell me what you think.

Nov 23 2010 6:19PM
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B.Snow
Posts: 1859 - Karma: 92
worky?

Nov 23 2010 6:19PM
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bkap
Posts: 446 - Karma: 23
threads
Nov 23 2010 6:30PM
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eheath
Posts: 61091 - Karma: 118,105
You gotta have the eye for it, you can definitely tell if you know what to look for. 60p is very digital and smooth while 30p is still pretty digital and smooth, just less and hard to notice, but you can.
Nov 24 2010 1:39AM
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gordie.
Posts: 2014 - Karma: 84
yeah... this.

If I have time tomorrow I'll shoot examples of each for this thread.
Nov 24 2010 2:09AM
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gordie.
Posts: 2014 - Karma: 84
yes, it is true, to an extent... I believe it's just because you're putting more hours on your drum and that's not a good thing.

you want to keep the amount of wear on it as low as possible
Nov 24 2010 2:30PM
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