En lille manual

Filming with Christianshavns Kvarter

Preparation
• Check all equipment before leaving home: are batteries charged, are cards erased, is the front lens clean, are camera settings reasonable?
• Verify that the content of the memory cards has been securely transferred to hard drive storage, then delete memory cards before you start shooting a new job (if you don’t, it means waste of hard drive space when storing dublicate footage)

Shooting
Tech stuff
• We shoot in HD, 25 fps, progressive.
• Set the zebra stripes to 95%.
• We aim for high quality sound. Use camera sound for background sound purposes only. For interviews: use microport, shotgun or interview mic, whatever is the best for the environment. Use blimp in windy surroundings.
• Don’t leave batteries in the camera when not in use. It might drain them even if the camera is shut off.
• Close front lens protection between and after shooting. Spots on the lens are very clearly visible on the footage.

Style
• Use a tripod whenever possible. For telephoto it is mandatory. For interviews a monopod will do. If there is much movement in the picture, you can get along without.
• Don’t zoom, pan, tilt, focus/defocus. It works best for home video. If you use it, have a clear idea.
• Setting ligtht almost improves the picture, both outdoor and indoor. It can be just a reflection screen.

Last but not least
• Keep all liquid at least 2 meters away from the camera. Protect it against rain or snow or even moisture.
• Make sure you bring everything back home from the location. Even the tiniest part missing can pose a huge problem to the next user.

Data management
• Before job: Clear cards, as written above.
• After job (logging):
Copy cards to HD. Verify integrity of content.
Clear memory cards
Recharge camera batteries
• Converting mp4->mov
Use the XDCAM transfer program (EX1) or the Saphire browser (X70) for converting mp4->mov. Saphire does not support spanning files for the AVCHD format, so don’t use it. For the XDCAM: Files which are spread over two cards: Highlight both cards, highlight both incomplete files (SPI) and press import. The program ligates the two (or more) fragments.

Editing
• Keep coffee and other liquids FAR away from editing computer and especially the cameras.
• Fcp: Ideally: make new scratch-dirs (a total of 4) for each project (system settings)
• For large projects:
– back up the fcp project regularly
– verify that it you can reestablish everything on another computer

Rendering for Youtube
• In general: keep the existing formats.

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