Tips for Shooting on Tape

Here’s a simple tip for shooting with tape based media (and, let’s face it, some of us still are) that can save you some hassles in post: always record heads and tails on your tapes. That is, put maybe 10 seconds of something unimportant at the very beginning of your tape, and after the last thing you shot (assuming you didn’t run the tape out).

Why?

On the head end, for two reasons. Firstly, the very start of the tape tends to be unstable because of its physical connection to the hub, since it’s likely to be left wound around the mechanism inside the tape if you rewind it before you eject it, and because it’s the part of the tape most commonly loaded and unloaded in the tape mechanism. Sometimes you can see this happening when you insert or eject a tape into your camera (or a deck). There are little metal arms that grab the tape and place it in the transport. If this is done with the same part of the tape over and over (like the beginning) the tape can get stretched or wrinkled, causing playback problems.

The second problem that comes up is the ability of the tape deck (or camera) and the edit system to capture the very first thing on a tape close to the start of the roll. There’s not only the chance of that playback being unstable, but depending on your combination of equipment you may not be able to capture the first second or so of the footage. I have run into this enough to feel it’s worth mentioning here and because the solution is very simple.

So, when you start a new tape, record a little bit of something unimportant at the beginning. Traditionally, this would be the color bars; the SMPTE test pattern. However, it is also not unusual to slate the tape either visually or audibly with something that says the project, date and maybe the names of director or DP. You might also just roll with the lens cap or your hand over the lens. Keep recording for 10 to 30 seconds. Longer is safer (because you get farther away from the sensitive area at the head of the tape) but you shouldn’t need more than 30 seconds.

How about the tail?

I’ve seen fewer problems at the tails of tape but on a couple of occasions I’ve had to deal with footage where the camera operator stopped hard on the end of a scene or an interview and, for whatever reason, the last second of video has become unstable or can’t be captured by the edit system. It’s another one of those cases where there’s a simple preventative for what could be a huge problem. Just let your tape keep rolling a couple of seconds longer at the end of a shot. Or, if you’re really serious, record 5 or 10 seconds with the lens cap on or your hand across the lens.

So, there you have a couple of simple ways to avoid some potentially big headaches. There’s nothing more frustrating than a great shot that’s just missing a fraction of a second off its beginning or end. It’s worth taking a few seconds to avoid that, believe me.

C.

Editing: DVD Studio Pro

Well, I am sending out preview copies of our documentary, Lost Masterpiece.

(Here’s our web page for the doc. We also have a page on Facebook.)

We’ve been editing in Final Cut Pro and although I plan to do a blu-ray/DVD project in Avid DVD over on the PC, for now I’m sending out previews directly from the Mac using DVD Studio Pro to get it done quickly.

I rather like DVD Studio Pro. It’s much easier to use than our previous software and more fully featured than some of the alternatives we have on the PC. The templates let you create professionally looking DVDs quickly, and more advanced features are available to you if you need them.

Encoding:

Part of making a DVD is converting your digital media to the file types used to make DVDs. This is frequently m2v for picture and either ac3 or wav for audio.

As much as I like it as a program, DVD Studio Pro does not have a good reputation for encoding quality. This is a shame because its drag/drop and background encoding approach to media files is really handy. If you have Final Cut Studio and are going for high quality you’re better off encoding outside of DVD Studio Pro in Compressor then bringing in the m2v and ac3 files already done. The “Best 90-minute” preset does a really nice job.

I’m working on precisely this workflow this evening, after having some disappointing results, even for a preview, with the encoder in DVD Studio Pro. Weirdly enough, bumping up the bandwidth on the encoder settings actually produced a poorer result. Hmmm.

Making a Basic DVD:

Apart from that, it’s really easy to make a basic DVD using DVD Studio Pro.

Drag and drop your source files into the assets pane. If you’re concerned about quality, consider encoding them in something else, like Compressor, which has presets for different program length, quality and encode speeds. If not, you can drag and drop most common Quicktime accessible files into the assets pane and the program will figure it out. If you didn’t encode already and have background encoding turned on it will begin now.

For the most basic DVD configuration, we’ll make one that has one piece of video in it and autoplays that when it is put in (with no menus). Click on the “Graphical” tab in the main window. There will be two items in there. One is a menu. The other is a track. We don’t need the menu, so you can delete it.

Now right-click or control-click on the remaining track and select first-play. This selects what will happen first when you put the DVD into the player. You should see a little arrow icon appear on the track.

Now you can drag and drop your video clips from the assets pane to the track. Do this in video/audio pairs. Your clips will show up as pairs even if they were one file to begin with. You can drag and drop additional clips over to the same track and the new one will be placed at the end.

Take a look in the “Inspector” window and make sure DVD Studio Pro has selected the correct aspect ratio for your clip. You may have to set 16:9 if your source is anamorphic (widescreen squashed to 4:3 that needs to be stretched out again). You can also set the track name and other parameters there.

If you click on the DVD at the top of the Outline tab page you can rename the DVD in the inspector.

Finally, click on “simulate” to get a preview of your DVD and make sure it is behaving like you want. If everything is Ok, “burn” away!

C.

Better Filmmaking – Quality

I recently directed (along with writer and comedian Mike Stiles), shot and edited the Notorious D-A-D: Christmas in the Suburbs music video for comedy group Sketchworks. Sketchworks shoots are always fun, funny and a little crazy.

At the screening I was asked what I did to get such good quality video in an essentially no-budget production. Here are some tips based both on what I’ve discovered on set, and the problems I’ve seen people bring into the edit suite that might have been avoided.

Quality in Production:

The basic thing is start with good equipment, know as much as you can about how to use it, and, yes, it’s worth sweating the small stuff. There’s no substitute for experience, so test, experiment and try things out beforehand and get to know your equipment.

For picture:

A good 3-chip camera will give you an instant head start over a single chip camera. Single chip cameras tend to produce a washed-out, noisy, home-video look. Compare footage from different cameras and find a look you like.

If you are technically inclined, learn to use the manual settings on your camera, particularly for focus and iris. Manual white balance is also good to learn.

Use an external monitor (or TV set) to set up your shots even if you’re going to unplug and move around during the take. The larger picture on the monitor lets you see more detail and a get better idea of how the final result will look than the small picture on the camera’s viewfinder or LCD screen.

Lighting is critical – you need enough light for your camera to pick up good color, contrast and detail. That doesn’t mean drowning everything in light so it looks flat or washed out – you want a balance of key light, fill and shadow, and ideally some backlighting for depth. On our shoot we were fortunate that Burt from Encyclomedia took the time to light the green screen stage well for us (which is a whole different art in itself.)

For sound:

Sound is frequently not high on the list of priorities for independent filmmakers, but it is worth your while to take some time and effort with it. An audience becomes frustrated very quickly with incomprehensible dialog. The difference between recording good or bad sound may be taking literally 1 minute to think about the scene and do some prep.

Maybe it goes without saying but use good quality mics and try to get the right mics for the job. Get mics in close to the subject. For wide shots this may require the use of wireless body packs or hiding mics in set dressing.

Eliminate background noise as much as possible. A/C, heat and refrigerators should be temporarily turned off. If shooting interiors close windows and doors to eliminate environmental sounds.

If you can’t eliminate  background noise  it’s common to record “room tone” (or “world tone” for exteriors) where everyone is quiet on set and the sound mixer records 30 seconds to 1 minute of ambient noise for editing purposes.

Most importantly: monitor your record device when recording! There’s no bigger disappointment than coming back from a shoot believing you got good sound only to find it’s not there when you go to play it back. If possible, record and playback a test at the beginning of each day when you assemble the kit and always have somebody monitor your record device (sound recorder or camera) with headphones to avoid embarrassment later!

Quality in Post:

The basis of quality in post is, quite simply, not messing things up. This is easier in the digital world than it was with analog equipment where every process introduced some noise and signal degradation, but you still need to be careful.

In digital post, the main thing is to avoid recompressing your video. This typically means going back to source material as much as possible, using uncompressed or high quality codecs to edit, and staying in these high quality modes until final output. Most quality problems are caused by converting formats or resolutions with incorrect or low quality settings.

The nastiest looking video problems have to do with field conversions – between interlaced and progressive formats or between different flavors of interlaced formats. Field conversion problems are particularly apparent in areas of high motion and appear as a breakup of the picture into jagged horizontal lines. Once you get this problem in your picture you may not be able to get it out without returning to the source files.

For sound, the most common loss of quality I see is an editor treating source material as though it is stereo (two tracks of the same source from matched mics) where the recording is actually two mono tracks from different microphones. E.g., one boom mic and the on-camera mic. In this case you are editing in a second track of sound that is a lower quality recording than the primary track, may interfere with your primary track or just contains noise. Listen to your sound sources and pick the best track. Very little professional sound is sourced  or edited in stereo. If in doubt pick the best sounding track, center pan it and delete the other.

Positive things to do in Post:

For picture: We typically use a process of simple color correction (both Avid and Final Cut Pro have good basic color correction tools) to make sure that brightness and color are even from shot to shot. Adjusting black (setup) and gain (brightness) levels as well as color saturation can give an extra punch to your footage.

For sound: A good sound mix starts with picking a  level for your primary voices and sticking close to it.  -14dB is a common reference level for digital systems. Mix in music and sound effects afterward, remembering that dialog is most important to the audience.

To test your mix, listen to your program all the way through without changing the volume level on your monitors. Listen at different levels – once through soft, once through loud, once through at a medium level – to get an idea of whether your mix level is changing too much during the program. It can also help to test on a consumer TV, ear bud headphones or another “low quality” device to make sure your dialog stays understandable. Your audience does not want to have to constantly change the volume level while watching your film!

That’s a start.

These are some basic things that will give you a hard start. There’s always more to learn, and don’t underestimate the value of having experienced crew to help you on your shoot.

Even professionals like to test equipment before hand, particularly if they haven’t worked with a particular set up before. Testing and verifying record and playback quality on set while you can still do something over can save you a world of hurt later.

Craig Tollis
(c) 2010 Film Finish LLC

Brian Newman speaks on self-distribution @GSU

Joe and I went to Brian Newman’s seminar on self-funding and self-distribution in the wired world on 11/11/09 at Georgia State University.

Brian was a previous executive of IMAGE, which ran the Atlanta Film Festival, so it was good to see him back in town supporting independent filmmakers. He’s now in New York, has been CEO of the Tribeca Film Institute, and is involved in the indie scene there.

The thrust of Brian’s talk was that distribution has changed rapidly and critically in recent years, with the likelihood of making your money back selling your film to distributors becoming extremely doubtful. In fact, Brian believes that model never worked well, and the digital age has just made that more apparent.

In light of this, filmmakers are becoming more and more involved in getting their  films up there, building an audience and raising money both to cover expenses and for new projects.

Techniques include a “value-added” approach where you sell more than just your film, subscription or donation models, getting fans involved in your projects and distribution, and giving your work away for free to generate sales. Believe it or not there’s evidence this last one actually works. In fact the file sharing and “pirate” sites who have been the bane of independent distribution are becoming one of its most active friends.

Take a look at Brian’s blog to find out more:

Brian’s blog:
http://springboardmedia.blogspot.com

Documentary Filmmaking Class for 11/09

We started the 5 week documentary filmmaking class yesterday. It really reminded me what I got into this business for – how powerful it can be to tell somebody’s story.

I’ve spent the last year working on a film history documentary about the movie Stark Love, a 1927 docu-drama that Paramount shot in the North Carolina mountains using “real people” for actors. The amount of interest that has developed around this project has been really inspiring – from the descendants of the people who were involved in making the original film, and from those interested in Appalachian history.

Subconsciously, things on television take on an exaggerated sense of importance. They become larger than life, and in the process we perhaps see our own lives as smaller. It’s always an incredible experience, as a documentarian, to be able show people their own story on the screen and share that moment of realization that they too have something to say and a place in history.

Craig Tollis
(c) 2009 Film Finish, LLC.