I mean really… there are lots of productions where you should not shoot video with a DSLR.

Here’s another one.

Scenario

You get a call for a location photo shoot for a regular client. The concept is to follow a top executive through a series of interactions solving a problem with his team. They want you to capture real people, documentary style, with lots of human interest shots.

Near the end of the conversation they casually say, “Oh, you can shoot video of this at the same time, right?”

Question

Do you tell them you’ve never shot video before or do you rush out, buy a DSLR that shoots video and wing it?

Reality

I just talked with a local professional photographer with exactly this situation. From what I hear, he’s not alone.

Here’s my take on this.

I don’t believe you should be shooting video with a DSLR when you’re getting paid for the job and haven’t taken the time to shoot, transcode, edit, grade and render test footage…

using that camera…

those lenses…

in that lighting…

for this distribution channel.

I remember walking backstage at Disney’s Animal Kingdom and catching a glimpse of a team of acrobats going through their show. They played a troup of monkey’s in the Lion King live stage show.

I have no idea how many times they’d performed that act – several times a day for weeks, months, maybe years. Yet there they were, practicing, stretching, working on the timing, putting in the kind of great effort it takes to make their show look effortless.

If you’re a pro in this business you know that’s what it takes.

But then I see professional photographers with zero years of video experience deciding to take on video projects on the spur of the moment.

And I know professional video shooters with zero years of DSLR experience deciding to pick up a Canon 7D two days before a shoot.

Anyone can pick up a point-and-shoot camera these days and take a pretty good picture. Just like anyone can pick up an auto-everything video camcorder and take decent video.

But if you shoot either stills or video for a living you know there’s a lot of work between being able to push a button and delivering professional results.

One of the things I love about shooting video with a DSLR is that takes you back to the essence of capturing lightning in a jar. It’s not auto-anything.

You need to have a decent understanding of lenses, f-stops, focal length and all the other physics of light going through a lens to create an image.

And you need a decent understanding of the full video workflow from capture to distribution.

It’s time to go back to the “beginner mind” and learn experientially how this works for you, your equipment and your type of production.

Play with it all.

Set up the camera, try different lenses, light up different types of objects, try different types of fixtures. Use a light meter and learn to go old school while setting things up.

Move your footage into a computer and push it through the entire workflow. Work out what happens when you transcode the footage, when you apply effects, and especially when you grade the footage.

Test it through the compression and render phase to your intended distribution media.

If you’re delivering on DVD then burn a test and watch it on a variety of systems.

If you’re delivering on the web then post it to at test page and watch it through a variety of browsers and operating systems.

If you’re delivering on Blu-Ray disc to digital projectors lighting up a theater screen then find some way to test your footage in that environment.

Otherwise, you’re just monkeying around and shouldn’t be shooting video with a DSLR.

Leave your comments and tell me what you think.

As Shane was shooting the Terminator webisodes to be released in the week before the release of “Terminator:Salvation” there was an established look that he needed to match. He went through a learning process to get his 5D to match the feature film look.

When he got to post production, he discovered that footage from a Canon 5D must be treated a bit differently. His post has lots of details of the process and, from my read of it, makes the case for shooting as flat as possible to give yourself as much room in post as possible. Give it a read and let me know what you think.

One of the great things about shooting video with a DSLR camera is that you can capture great images in much lower light than regular video camcorders. That doesn’t mean you shoot in the dark just for fun, it means you can use more subtle light and create images that are more intriguing.

Here are some tips to help you learn to do this.

A recent article on dv.com documents a low budget shoot where the lighting shifted radically during the production in an apartment. The sun was up and flowing through the windows when they started but it was pretty dark outside by the time they were finished.

Unfortunately, the scene they were shooting was supposed to take place in a fairly short period of time. The lighting needed to be consistent through the entire scene.

It always takes longer to shoot a scene that the scene takes to watch in real life. If you’re shooting where the sun is a factor you have to find ways to deal with this situation. If you’re indoors, like in this example, it’s much easier to handle the changing light than if you’re on a full outdoor set.

The scene was being shot on a Canon 7D so shooting in low light was no problem. Simulating the sunlight was another issue.

As the article details, the most important thing is to have a clear idea of where the sun should be in all the shots. Sunlight is almost always the strongest light in the frame and everyone will notice if the sun suddenly shifts from one side to the other or if the color or angle of the sun light shifts between cuts.

You can always grab a quick still of the first setup and use that as a base line for the lighting. You can also make a lighting diagram or even play back a clip for comparison. The closer you get all the shots to match the same lighting, the easier time you’ll have in post production.

Another great thing about simulating sunlight indoors is that the light is rarely direct in the scene. The sun bounces off walls, floors and ceilings. It comes through drapes or curtains and gets filtered by plants and trees outside of windows.

Rather than a standard three-point lighting with the lights directly hitting the subject, you can simulate the effects of sunlight with bounce boards or by bouncing light off of existing walls.

Finally, there is always a color difference between sunlight and electric lights inside a room. You can use gels and filters on the lights to reproduce the difference in the color temperatures. But the interesting thing is to go against reality and make the sunlight warmer than the indoor light.

Subjectively we all think of sunlight as a warm golden glow when it’s actually much more blue than the typical light bulb. Notice the shot above, though, and you’ll see it look more like sunlight because it’s so warm. Remember, this is art, not a physics demonstration!

Take a moment and read the whole article, it’s worth absorbing how they solved the problem of fading daylight and turned it to their advantage.

http://www.dv.com/article/92462

Get Stu’s book – The DV Rebel’s Guide: An All-Digital Approach to Making Killer Action Movies on the Cheap

Click here if you don’t know who Stu Macshwitz is.

Click here for Stu’s interview.

My first draft of this post quickly crossed 1,000 words as I tried to provide information about the reality of shooting and editing in 24p and other frame rates. It’s a subject that will take some work and maybe several posts to explore. I’ll spare you that now.

Here’s the bottom line from my perspective. As Stu said, people expect films to play at 24 fps. Video runs at 30 fps. Even if the audience couldn’t tell you why, most people would feel the differences between film and video.

My point is simple. The most obvious difference between film and video is not the frame rate!

The most obvious difference is ratio.

I had a program shot in SD that came to me for edit. It was a live presentation shot with two cameras – one on the presenter and one on the audience. When I looked at the footage I discovered that main camera had somehow been set to shoot a 16 x9 ratio. When I dropped the clips on the timeline there were black bars at the top and bottom.

I completed the edit then nested the entire timeline in a second timeline and applied a wide screen filter. The program now played as a 16 x 9 video with no letter-boxing.

When the client played the DVD at the premier several people mentioned how great it was that they had moved into high def. It wasn’t HD. It was SD with a 16 x9 ratio. Their perception was that all video with that ratio was HD.

In my post about the Indian wedding video “City of Lakes” I mentioned that they cropped the video much more horizontal than 16 x 9 so it feels even more like film. I would suggest that more people will view your film as shot on film when you crop to a ratio that looks like a feature film.

Here’s an image from this video in the original format and one cropped to 4 x 3 format.

Another obvious difference is that all films are graded (color corrected) and most video is not.

Most of my projects require grading to correct for differences in color between cameras. Sometimes the lighting needs improvement as well. I normally use Apple Color and get great results.

Then I had a project that I knew would benefit from a ‘film look’ approach to grading. Magic Bullet Mojo had just been released so I grabbed a copy, watched the tutorial and started playing around with the footage. In seconds the whole project started to look like a it had been shot on film. All the footage was from a Nikon D90 so it already had that 24p feel to it but grading for the film look made a huge difference.

Watch this tutorial on using Magic Bullet Mojo from Stu. You’ll see what I mean instantly.

Intro To Magic Bullet Mojo from Red Giant Software on Vimeo.

The third difference is transcoding from an interlaced video format to progressive.

Whether you plan to distribute on DVD, web or as film the sooner you get your footage into progressive format rather than interlaced the better. Yes, you can edit interlaced video in Final Cut Pro. Take your clips and transcode to progressive format and watch how much better it plays in real time, how many more effects are rendered correctly in real time.

All computers, flat screen monitors and LCD projectors run as progressive natively along with all Blu-Ray players and most regular DVD players. Interlaced video on these devices will show up with horizontal tearing lines when paused. The images below show an interlaced frame from a video and the same frame de-interlaced.

The differences between 30p and 24p are more subtle than the differences in ratio, grading and progressive footage. All that being said, I believe shooting, editing, and rendering at 24p makes sense for most project if you can. And with so many low cost DSLR cameras on the market this is now a choice anyone can – and should – make.

Get Stu’s book – The DV Rebel’s Guide: An All-Digital Approach to Making Killer Action Movies on the Cheap

Click here for all the details.

Not every feature is compared between these cameras. But this ones that are listed are likely the most important for shooting HD video with a DSLR.

Let’s take a look at each feature on the list.

Sensor Size – While the ultimate image area of the video may be 720 pixels wide, the size of the sensor affects both the quality of that image and the way the lens on the camera images on the sensor. The effects of sensor size and pixel density are too deep a subject for this post but it’s something you may want to look into.

The most obvious effect of moving to a smaller sensor is that all your lenses are more telephoto. Or, going the other way, moving from to a larger sensor means your lenses are more wide angle.

The most important issue is that you can always use a full sensor lens on a camera with a smaller sensor with no problem. Putting a lens made for a small sensor camera on a full sensor will likely produce vignetting around the edges and in the corners of the image. If you plan to mix sensor sizes invest in full sensor lenses.

Resolution -This is another area of discussion concerning sensor size and pixel size or density. Here’s a link to an article with a decent explanation of pixel size, image quality and noise. Basically, the bigger the pixels the more light captured and the less noise you’ll get. This is especially true in low light, which is why a lot of film makers are interested in DSLR cameras. They shoot great video in low light.

All of this is partly why the Canon 1D shoots better video in extreme low light than the Canon 5D even though it has a smaller sensor and lower resolution.

Media Slot – Compact Flash cards (CF) cost more than Secure Digital High-Capacity (SDHC) cards. You can get a Firewire CF card reader and pull files to your computer much faster than using a USB reader on an SDHC card. There’s no clear better or worse situation here. Unless you already have a big stash of one type and the camera you want to use is of the other type.

I’ve used all of them and my recommendation is buy the best you can get and immediately create a backup copy of all files. When we shoot tape and tape-less we use the tape for backup. But when all you’ve got of that one incredible shot is a digital file on a card then take no chances.

ISO Range – Higher ISO numbers mean better performance in low light. If you plan to shoot in daylight or with lots of great lighting gear then it doesn’t matter. But that’s not a realistic option for most of us. But you can shoot in normal light so much easier without your video getting noisy when you can crank up the ISO.

Of course, high ISO comes at a price so there’s always a balance to be had that’s right for you and your project.

PL Mount Compatible – This feature is only important to film makers. They’re likely the only ones with a set of PL mount prime lenses sitting around. Yes, there are adapters but the most successful require sending your camera in for physical modification. They need to modify the hardware by doing things like removing the mirror that flips up and down in DSLR’s because the PL lenses stick inside the camera body too far.

The thing about real cinema PL lenses is that they come in set that are extremely consistent in look from one lens to the next. And they have accurate markings for f-stop and focus distance. And the focus and f-stop rings are large and easy for a focus puller to move during a shot consistently. And they can be rented by the day in most major cities.

So aspiring film makers will do well to try them on a project sometime and see if all that is worth the bother.

Monitor Output – This is another sign that this feature list comes from a film guy. Not only is it difficult to accurately focus a DSLR camera using the built-in LCD monitor, no one else can take a look. And on a film set there are lots of people who need to see what’s happening in the camera in real time and for playback.

In fact, most sets will have whole little network for distributing audio and video to various people. If your camera doesn’t have monitor out, it will not be used on a set like this. If you’re shooting by yourself you still need to use a good external monitor sometime and see how much easier it is to focus.

Recording Formats – More is better. A particularly useful feature is shooting at twice the frame rate of the final program. 60 frames a second played back at 30 frames a second gives you a beautiful 2-to-1 slow motion effect with every frame perfectly captured. Taking a 30 fps video and using a function in your editor does not produce the same result. You will get slo-mo but it will not look nearly as good. It may actually have so many artifacts that it’s unusable. In the film world this is called overcranking and all pro film cameras have variable frame rates.

Slow motion is like way-short depth of focus. It’s nice to have that trick in your bag but it’s not something you want to use all the time. From one perspective, just have the option to shoot double the rate is barely enough to make the camera useful. Sometimes you want just a little overcranking, sometimes a lot more than double.

Like I said, it’s clearly a list from a guy who knows a thing or two about making films. And if you’re intent on using a DSLR to shoot your film you’d do well to spend some time thinking about what’s important to you. You may even decide to pick up two different cameras so you can take advantage of their different strengths.

For instance, one set of lenses will produce significant changes in the frame when switched from the full sensor Canon 5D and 7D. Your full sensor 50mm lens on a 7D will be ‘zoomed in’ more than on a 5D. That may be just the effect you’re looking for. Working with a smaller set of great lenses and two camera bodies is likely a good idea.

-a-

And what kept coming up to me was the importance of a basic business fundamental. How do you make sure you get paid?

One of the things I’ve learned is that successful producers, directors, cinematographers and others in this business have to learn to balance their art and their craft.

Part of the craft is handling their business like a business. I’ve met more successful people that were great at business and just above average on the creativity level than the reverse. That’s why we have the stereotype of the starving artist.

I remember a story a friend of mine told me. He is a very successful oil painter. But back in the days when he was struggling to pay the rent he showed up at an opening of his work in a new gallery.

He overheard an older couple talking about one of his paintings. She wanted it. He wasn’t too sure.

He gathered himself together and headed over to introduce himself. People are always more likely to buy art if they have a personal interaction with the artist.

He glanced at the price tag on the painting as he came up behind the couple and noticed that the price was $3,000. It was supposed to be $300. He was about to interrupt their discussion and let them know about the mistake when he heard the man say, “Well, it must be worth it or they couldn’t charge that much money.”

Not only did that couple buy the painting, he sold the same number of paintings that night as he did at an average gallery opening. But he made ten times as much. It was a defining moment in his career.

I’ve had moments like that myself when I realized the truth of the sign on the wall in my studio.

This is not a rehearsal.

We are professionals.

This is the big time.

And that is another story.

It’s possible that you can be successful in the video business by marking up various line items in the budget. But the real profit comes from the charges that are above the line – charges for the creative side of the production business.

Unless you are working with a client that is looking for pure production services only and demands to see your full line item budget, you’ll likely hand the client the only first page of your budget. And that should be the last page in your proposal.

This is where you move ahead of the pack, where you begin to get paid for the value you add more than just your ability to set up lights, point a camera and deliver an edited video.

As I mention in the video, you need to understand what this project is worth to your client. And you need to understand how that client values investments like this project.

But the most important thing is how you value yourself. What is this worth to you?

This goes way beyond the usual video production budget line items. At this level your client does not care which camera you use or which cool post-production technique you added. What they care about is simple – does this project do the job they expected?

Beyond knowing about your client and your own values you have to know the real return on investment the client expects.

I just saw the web site for a wedding video company. I don’t know much about that part of the production business but I could easily see that this company understands how they and their clients value their services. They specialize in weddings in exotic locations and put their pricing right on the site – local packages range from $10,000 to $19,000. On location packages start at $19,000.

They also are clear about the services they offer but more importantly they demonstrate how they feel about their work on the site. I’m not getting married (whew!) but this company had me in seconds and I looked through every section of the site. They know how to tell their story and I believe they know how to tell the story of their client’s wedding beatifully and uniquely.

The return on the investment from hiring this company is a moving love story starring the happy couple.

That’s value beyond the budget. No line items, no discounts. And that’s what happens when you spend time figuring out what it’s worth.

So, I’ve put together a three part tutorial on budgeting and pricing video production. I’ll post them through this week and link them together when it’s all online.

I’m deliberately keeping these tutorials at a beginner level because it’s important to get the basics in place first. And I’m using simple tools that anyone can access.

Part I is a 4 minute overview of budgeting video productions. If you’re running an established video production company you probably need to skip Part I and start with Part II as that discussion is about establishing value in the market. Part III is a bonus section that will make anyone’s video business more successful.

One of the difficulties in a tutorial like this is that projects and peoples experience vary a lot. It would be great if I could say, “Take the number of pages in your script and multiply by 5 and…” so you’d have a formula to use as a starting point. But it just doesn’t work that way.

I can tell you that setting up for a basic interview/testimonial shoot takes a couple of hours. If I have someone scheduling testimonials (like at a convention with lots of satisfied customers) I can shoot an average of three testimonials an hour. If they are really just sound bites that number can increase to 5 or 6 an hour.

All that footage has to be digitized and logged. I convert the audio tracks to MP3 and get it transcribed so everyone can work from text rather than scanning video files. From there it’s on to rough edit, changes, final graphics and music, color grading, audio sweetening, rendering for the delivery media.

What was captured in a day can take two weeks of steady work to deliver as a final video. And that’s with something as simple as a testimonial project. As projects get more complex in shooting the rest of the production workflow multiplies that complexity. Learning how to budget and price larger productions is an art.

On the other hand, it you’re just looking to establish a price for yourself as a camera operator I recommend spending your time connecting with production companies and established operators. You’ll quickly find out what the going rates are in your area and you’ll learn if you have what it takes to get work.

My goal is to give you enough information to help you move forward and improve how you budget and price your productions. Please leave your comments with feedback and questions.

RULE #1 – If there is anyway to avoid having to pull chromakeys then do it.

RULE #2 – If you have to use a chromakey do it with an uncompressed video feed right off the camera and record the resulting key

RULE #3 – If you have to key it in post spend lots of time with great equipment and learn how to make it work or you’ll be wishing you’d stuck with RULE #1.

But it you’re going into this swamp here’s how to live through it as gracefully as possible.

Jem Schofield has a great video blog called theC47. Go there and subscribe. He shoots all the segments with a Canon 5D, is always pulling the gear he uses into the segments and showing you how it works. He’s a working professional who also speaks and trains people on Final Cut and DSLR shooting. Like I said, go there and subscribe.

Here are links to a series he recently posted on doing greenscreen work. It’s a great set of tutorials and you’ll understand RULE #1 much better after watching.

Feeling Green Part 1

Feeling Green Part 2

Feeling Green Part 3

Feeling Green Part 4

Feeling Green Part 5

http://digitalfilms.wordpress.com/2010/01/23/easy-canon-5d-post-–-round-ii/

But what if you’re shooting something other than a 5D?

When I talk about learning how to get the most from your DSLR for creating a video project this is the kind of thing I’m referring to. Oliver has modified his production work flow and equipment setup based on his editing experiences. And he modifies his post-production workflow based on real world projects with all the variables of clients, deadlines, render times and other issues.

While there would be different issues if a Canon 7D or Nikon D90 had been used to shoot the clips with, the workflow would have had many of the same elements.

In the end, your choice of image acquisition tool is just that – your choice.

All cameras have issues and quirks, ways they work better or worse, situations where they shine or fail. Knowing how to deal with the footage all the way through post-production makes your choices better in pre-production.

Check out Oliver’s article and the helpful links he offers at the end. It’s all good stuff and will make your DSLR project better.