Urgent Car exhaust filming tips help

[cruvon]

Hi, am just helping out a friend in doing a shoot on his cars new performance exhaust for a car forum we are on possibly tomorrow but am a total newbie on this. I am wondering what are the best settings I would need to keep. I have a HF S100, the Canon wide angle lens and a Canon DM-100 microphone. I intend keeping it in 30fps, MXP mode and the microphone at 90 deg setting to point to the exhaust and setup on a tripod. Do I keep volume as auto or any manual settings(saw an earlier post that said keep volume at -12db and edit in post)?..Any other settings that I would need to be aware of? Most probably the video will be like

1) Camera pointing at exhaust, he starts the car
2) He revs the car to depict exhaust notes
3) He pulls away and exhaust note captured
4) He comes back and zooms past and I try to capture the exhaust note

I will be rendering the video in Sony Vegas to create a You Tube video and am hoping to get something like this, better if possible
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1lU7Y1BqCk

Thanks

[cruvon]

Hi, just filmed this footage today with my Canon HFS100, DM-100 shotgun and Canon wideangle. Edited in Sony Vegas.
Some constructive criticism please on the filming and editing since am a neewbie

[AJUK]

Editing-wise, I'm not a big fan of the wipes and keyhole effects. They look super cheesey.
Filming, you really need a better tripod, the pans look stiff and jerky, so a fluid head will really improve things there, also you have several instances of small 'jerky' adjustments to your framing which make the video feel less polished, try to change the framing smoothly if you need to adjust during a shot (again a fluid head will help).
I'd also consider including some more shots of the car, we only really get to see the back of it, if you introduced it more up-front with some 'top gear' style shots of the bodywork before homing in on the exhaust.

[cruvon]

Editing-wise, I'm not a big fan of the wipes and keyhole effects. They look super cheesey.
Filming, you really need a better tripod, the pans look stiff and jerky, so a fluid head will really improve things there, also you have several instances of small 'jerky' adjustments to your framing which make the video feel less polished, try to change the framing smoothly if you need to adjust during a shot (again a fluid head will help).
I'd also consider including some more shots of the car, we only really get to see the back of it, if you introduced it more up-front with some 'top gear' style shots of the bodywork before homing in on the exhaust.

Thanks for the tips, much appreciated.
1) True about the wipes and the keyholes, which are decent looking effects between clips to use that look more professional?
2) What and which is a good fluidhead to have?..Is it a special tripod?
3) Yupz, I need to practice more on the framing I reckon, looking at the video again, is quite jerky in some places.
4) True, should have started off with shots of the car

Thanks again

[zagnut]

All good tips.

I have a Velbon tripod. Paid about $70 for it last year. Although not a true fluid head, it's silky smooth.

Slik, Manfrotto, Gitzo, and Giottos all have a pretty good reputation. You'll more than likely want a panning head and not a ball head.

Want a badass tripod head? Check this out.


Not cheap though at $300-$400 depending on what model you want.

Plan to spend about $100 on a decent first tripod. Make sure it can support a few pounds giving room for adding things on, like DOF adapter, external monitor, light, mic & sound. I think mines rated at 15lbs.

[cruvon]

Thanks zagnut for the tripod tips...whew, that Induro 5 way one in the video's a killer. Guess will start off wiith a resonable one like the Veblon you mentioned before trying anything more fancy,
Cheers

[zagnut]

The tripod I got was this one -
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...07_Tripod.html

Paid $70 last year. Great tripod for as cheap as it was. Hell of a lot better than the $15 bargain tripod I first had.

Somethings to keep in mind -
1. Height - will it go high enough?
2. Weight - If you're going to be lugging it around with the rest of your gear, keep in mind this is more weight to lug around
3. Length when collapsed - this kinda goes with #2. The shorter it collapses, the easier it is to carry around.
4. Support weight - already mentioned. I needed something heavy that wasn't flimsy in a midwest thunderstorm and would allow me to use heavy lenses, once I get the money.

Some tripods will have a hook on the bottom of the center column. This can come in handy for hanging a weight to stabilize the camera.

[cruvon]

Thanks for the useful tripod tips..Btw just out of curiosity I did a sort by price and there are tripods costing nearly 15grand, what sort of a crazy person would buy those?
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search...9&N=4291073447

[HueyNRolf]

what sort of a crazy person would buy those?

People with cameras weighing 150 Lbs or more?

[zagnut]

People with cameras weighing 150 Lbs or more?

BOOM!

[cruvon]

whew...still hard to justify the 15K price I reckon..doesn't look like it has any electronics or an engine involved