Help with Beginner Accessory list for controlled environment

[nexidus]

I am moments away from purchasing my HV20. I plan on using this camcorder for one type of situation for the first 6 months to a year.

Situation:

My wife and I will be filming family members, mainly the older ones, in an interview format. The idea is to document as much information as possible before they die. The first four interviews are grandparents that are terminally ill, or in their 90s. This may be the last chance to hear the stories we both grew up listening to. Plus, both of us are Anthropologists so this sorta fits anyway.

We plan on visiting old school sites, homes, and other locations mentioned in the interviews for some post production use. I believe we will only be using our digital cameras for that though, as there is no need to film a walk around an old house.

Environment:

All filming will take place indoors. Some control will be had over where the filming will take place indoors, but for the last 20 years they each have their spot they like to sit in the house and I would rather them be 100% comfortable for the 1-2+ hour interviews than trying to place them where I think they should be. All interviews will be in a place where there will be absolutely no ambient noise that I am aware of.

Preliminary list of accessories:

Rode VideoMic = $149.00
Blackmagic Intensity Pro = $329.95

I am also building a Hackintosh for all the video editing. Overview specs are as follows:

Intel Allendale Dual-core 1.8GHz (overclocked to 3.2GHz)
**Just a starter processor till Penryn 45nm really takes hold in a year.
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3P motherboard with Firewire 400
eVGA GeForce 8800GT 512MB
G.Skill DDR2-1000 (2 x 2GB) memory (more headroom for OC than DDR2-800)
Loaded with OSX Leopard 10.5.1 (yes this is easily do-able)

This computer should be on scale with the last high-end Mac Pro and once I upgrade the processor it will be on the level with a mid-level New Mac Pro announced just a day or two ago.


As you can see I am already spending a lot of money on this whole setup. Unfortunately the "new camcorder" idea just started a few days ago so it was no in the budget. When we did decide on a new cam we figured we should futureproof a little bit. We set a budget of $1000 for vid cam stuff, but HAHAHA...no seriously...$700 for cam, $500 for the two accessories listed above passed that already so...Anything else that is absolutely crucial?!? This could be the only opportunity to do this right. I don't need the greatest production quality, but I do want at least good results.

Thanks for your help.

[mattias]

sounds like a great project. a lavalier or omnidirectional mic on a stand will give you much much much better audio than an on camera røde, but the røde can also work fine on a boom or stand, and go on the camera for the run and gun shots. why are you getting the bm card? as for lighting i would suggest a lowel rifa.

/matt

[nexidus]

Yeah, I was looking at the lavalier and omni's, but I figured that the shotgun would be useful in more applications than interviews if we go another direction. I was gonna mount it on it's own tripod infront of or beside the camera to hopefully eliminate all vibration noise.

I really wanna get the blackmagic intensity pro card because I am anal. If I can get 1920x1080 instead of 1440x1080 off of the tapes I want that and I will determine the final quality in post. I know it is me being rediculous, but hey, I have about 30 years of home videos in a bin from my wife's parents house that need to be converted to newer media also.

Hmm...no "light bulb over the head" smiley. This one will do. Big question...many a year ago, back in my college days I had a use for a 400W grow lamp . I bought one of the best on the market at the time. Needless to say I couldn't part with it even though I really had/have no use for it. Best part is that the ballast is completely separate from the bulb socket. Just a connecting cord about 8 feet long from the ballast to the bulb. The bulb end has a lightweight mounting plate on it too. Now, I have a 400 HPS and MH bulb in the basement somewhere too that are basically brand new. If I was to get the right materials would this be a start toward a lighting setup? I would think I would need a large tripod and a hood with a translucent screen right?

[Erik Bien]

Hi nexidus, welcome to the forum!

Regarding your HID grow lights, see this link for suggestions how to rig them for video lights. Bottom line, you'll probably need to invest in some light stands, UV absorbing and diffusion gels, but the end result should be 5600K "daylight" balanced fixtures many of us will envy!

[mattias]

Yeah, I was looking at the lavalier and omni's, but I figured that the shotgun would be useful in more applications than interviews if we go another direction. I was gonna mount it on it's own tripod infront of or beside the camera

yes and no. it can work really well, but you need to put it as close to the person being interviewed as possible. a handheld boom is nice, but a mic stand with jib arm is also fine. i mean this is not because it's a shotgun, quite the contrary, but all mics need to be as close as possible.

I really wanna get the blackmagic intensity pro card because I am anal. If I can get 1920x1080 instead of 1440x1080 off of the tapes

you can't. if you capure at that res it only scales it digitally, which you can do when capturing via firewire as well. you only get higher res and less compression if you capture directly, no tape involved. the intensity card has many advantages when it comes to workflow compared to firewire/hdv, but when it comes to image quality it can do nothing but degrade the image. firewire capture is a bit by bit exact copy of what's on the tape.

If I was to get the right materials would this be a start toward a lighting setup?

maybe, but you will probably get problems with color temperature, eyes burnt by uv light, possibly flicker, and still not have a light that's as controllable as a "real" movie light. if you wanna do it cheap use halogen work lights and chinese lanterns.

/matt

[ztrain727]

Hmm...no "light bulb over the head" smiley. This one will do. Big question...many a year ago, back in my college days I had a use for a 400W grow lamp . I bought one of the best on the market at the time.

HAHAHAHHAHAHA!!!!

Right...I don't really have any advice but I just though the way you posted that was incredibly amusing (love the smiley with shades).

That's a really good idea though, to use a grow lamp as a lighting source. I think I'll look into that for myself. Especially great if you can get two uses out of it. No, just kidding, but that is a good idea.

[Erik Bien]

Here's a thread on the chinese lanterns matt's talking about and here's where to buy them dirt cheap (maybe a mod could move it out of "Modifications" and into "Lighting"?).

[nexidus]

Okay I think my resolution issues (i.e. needing a Blackmagic Intensity card) are finally at ease. This post has at least shown me the difference would be neglegable.

http://hv20.com/showthread.php?t=327...phic+intensity

As for the microphone issue, what I don't want is a microphone "IN" the shot. I don't want to be able to see it. Can anyone recommend a microphone that would fit this requirement and give me good interview quality audio?

Erik Bien

Here's a thread on the chinese lanterns matt's talking about and here's where to buy them dirt cheap (maybe a mod could move it out of "Modifications" and into "Lighting"?).

That's an awesome idea, I will definitely look into that. Shame I can't use the 400W ballast though. No way to get a bulb that would work in it? I mean, I see these 300W, 500W photographer lights online everywhere....I will check it out, but I don't think there is a bulb requirement other than socket size for the ballast. The only difference maybe would be that it steps up the wattage over 30 or 60 seconds...I think, need to go back and read the instructions again.