Mountain Bike Video footage on Vimeo

[flip808]

Here is a VIMEO link to one of the most artistic looking MOUNTAIN BIKE videos I have ever seen.

Rich colors...slow mo...fast action along with great camera angles.

http://www.vimeo.com/1494242





If you were to shoot this with the HV30 without a 35mm DOF adapter....just a wide angle raynox6600 and canon lens hood... what would your suggested settings look like as far as shooting mode.

I'm gonna edit with Vegas 8 and Magic Bullet Looks to get as close to this look as possible.

I know there is no magic settings...just want to see what more experienced users would start out with.

Anybody's suggestions would be appreciated along with those mentioned in the THREAD TITLE.

[Eugenia Loli-Queru]

It's not the shooting mode that makes this video great. It's his stabilized camera on top of a 4x4 car, his helicopter shot, his DOF. You can't get that kind of result with just a plain consumer camera and nothing else.

[bobsaget]

Seasons is a great movie. I've probably watched it over 20 times dissecting their techniques as far as angle and overall feel of the film goes. I have also had my fair share of shooting action sports with my HV30. It does a great job for what it is.

While it is possible to create a semi-professional mountain bike film with the HV30, it is going to be impossible to achieve what you see in Seasons. Perhaps the biggest reason for this is because of the HV30's lack of true HD slow motion. The cameras that The Collective used in Seasons were Panasonic HVX200s which have a 720p/60fps mode. This gives you very crisp, HD (1280x720) slow motion with a very easy workflow.

The closest you can get to this with the HV30 is shooting in 60i with a shutter of at least 1/250th (1/500 preferred if you have enough light). After doing that you have to spend quite a bit of time tweaking the footage to make it 24p slow motion using different software of your choice. Finally, when it's all said and done, you are left with slow motion, but in half the resolution than when you started. This has to do with how interlaced footage works and what happens when you exctract each field by de-interlacing it.

You definitely wouldn't want to shoot an action sport film with a DOF adapter. Too much would be out of focus and you would have to be REALLY good at pulling focus. I thought they did a decent job using the HVX200's stock DOF. In fact, the HV30 has shallower DOF than an HVX200.

All in all the HV30 is a great camera to get a started in making action sport movies but is far from a professional camera like the HVX200. But, the the reality is is that it's good enough to impress people so get out there, lock your exposure, turn on your 60i for the slow mo shots and 24p for everything else and start making great movies!

Here's my SHORT clip of some slow motion mountain bike stuff I did...

http://vimeo.com/1853563 (it should be done converting soon I hope)


Good luck!

[flip808]

I know I'm not gonna get that exact quality.

My hv30 arrives tomorrow.

Gonna shoot this weekend.

Just want to try and take as much guess work out as possible.

So I'm thinking :

Shoot in SPORTS MODE and then try and "warm" it up with
MAGIC BULLET LOOKS.

Good idea or bad idea?



I

[flip808]

As far as slow motion goes....shooting in 30p? good or bad?

[Eugenia Loli-Queru]

No, shoot in 60i for slow motion at 1/200th shutter speed.

>Shoot in SPORTS MODE

No, the worst thing you can do is let the camera over-saturate your images. Shoot either in cinemode or shutter priority, with colors set to "neutral".

[Ian-T]

If your final output is going to be 30p then there's nothing wrong with that. But for slow motion...stay away (unless you will be converting your 60i shots to 30p for slow mo). You don't want to slow 30p down.....because like 24p it will be too choppy. I'll basically agree with what Eugenia and bobsaget said. 60i is best for slow motion. As far as shutter speeds though...you should experiment with what you like best. The slow motion in that video was real smooth. I would go for 60i @ 1/120 shutter to get it smooth. Also...the resolution loss from converting is not half but more like a 20% vertical loss. It's not bad.


You are going to get differing opinions as far as shutter speed...but this is where you experiment to find out what you like.

Edit: Since this is faster motion than just moderate walking etc., then a little faster shutter might not hurt (like what Eugenia suggested 1/250th or there about)

[flip808]

I'll go with that suggestion!

side note:My HV30 gets here tomorrow from B&H. I sent my first one back last week because my "RATTLE" sounded way more intense than the ones on display at BEST BUY and CIRCUIT CITY. I shook the hell out of em too!
So I am curious to see what this one will sound like.

When you spend $800 on a camcorder that gets all kinds of rave reviews you don't expect it to sound like there's a ping pong ball rolling around inside.

[Ian-T]

Actually there's nothing wrong with that. You should expect that with all cams that use Optical Image Stabilization. What you are hearing is the lens dancing around. Once you turn it on....it will go away. Try it.

[CWildenradt]

As far as slow motion goes....shooting in 30p? good or bad?

For what it's worth, I've had some pretty good luck with slow motion in 30p. Nowhere near the quality of the featured video in this thread, but fairly good results. Depending on the speed of the subject, I hang around 1/100 to 1/250 as was stated already. Although 1/250 borders on choppy below 70%. I have had satisfactory results with 1/100 down to 60%. Bear in mind that this is with a moving camera. On a tripod, I would dare to say that in 30p you could take 1/100 down to 50% or even a little lower and still have it look acceptable. It's just easier than shooting in 60i and doing the workarounds. The 60i technique would more than likely get you a better overall end result, but you may want to consider carefully planning out some 30p shots if post production simplicity is what you desire. Have fun!

[flip808]

CWILDENRADT: Thanks for the tip. I like your Skate video. It has some grit to it that goes well with the song. (yeah... I read what "they" said on vimeo)

How are you liking that steady cam?

[CWildenradt]

CWILDENRADT: Thanks for the tip. I like your Skate video. It has some grit to it that goes well with the song. (yeah... I read what "they" said on vimeo)

How are you liking that steady cam?

Loving the steadicam! Thanks!

[Lunchbox]

I'm renaming this thread

[rufus benjamin]

That looks amazing, gonna get that now, the last one, ROAM looked nice but was a bit "emotional" in it's tone, this looks more aggressive and the cinematography looks even better. It was shot on 16mm aswell.... big bucks production.

If you have a look at the ROAM extras you see how they set up ZIP lines and spend a few days setting up each shot.....

yup


a few days, for a few seconds worth of shots