Getting Overly Elaborate

At production meetings, keep lists during discussions so you can research costs before committing yourself. Often, knowledgeable people can suggest simpler, less elaborate ways of getting what you want. Less experienced crew members sometimes try to forestall problems by wanting the “proper” equipment—usually the three lighting kits and a Steadicam®? True, sophisticated equipment in experienced hands saves time and money and can give wonderful results. But when the person requesting it is using your production to accrue experience, expect long and exasperating delays during shooting.

The sound department often wants a suspiciously large inventory, but this is more justified. When plans change, sound personnel must solve unexpected coverage problems and must be ready for all eventualities. Their backup equipment is probably a wise precaution.

Incompatibility

When a software or camera manufacturer recommends particular associated equipment, follow recommendations assiduously. Some warnings follow.

Tripod and Pan/Tilt Head

Arri, Sachtler, and O’Connor make excellent tripods, but others are less expensive. Be sure the tripod has spikes, not rubber feet alone, because you need a positive engagement with the ground (Figure 26-3). For a superior tripod, look for one that:

• Is made of carbon fiber rather than metal—it’s lighter if you are trekking in the wild.
• Can handle a camera 30% heavier than the one you’re planning to use—get one that is too small, and it will be flimsy; get one too large, and it will weigh you down.
• Has a tilt head with ball leveling—this allows you to instantly adjust the head according to a bubble level (Figure 26-4).
• Is equipped with a pan and tilt head having a fluid drag, not a friction substitute.
• Has a quick-release plate that you attach to the underside of your camera (Figure 26-5)—this lets you instantly dismount the camera and go handheld.
• Has a carry case and a spreader to go under your “legs,” or tripod (Figure 26-6 and Figure 26-7).
• Comes with a baby legs (low tripod, Figure 26-8) and hi-hat or sandbag for low-angle camera support

FIGURE 26-3 Spike feet on a Bogen® tripod ensure a positive engagement with the ground. Rubber feet are kind to floors but allow a sponginess that compromises telephoto shots.

FIGURE 26-4 Leveling is quick when your tripod has a ball head.

FIGURE 26-5 Quick-release plate mounted on underside of camera.

FIGURE 26-6 A light carbon fiber tripod and spreader. For quick relocations, pick up the whole unit, camera and all. (Photo courtesy of Vinten, a Vitec Group brand.)

Imager

This column displays the various types of image sensing. CMOS (complementary metal – oxide semiconductor) chips are replacing CCD (charge-coupled device) chips whose cameras use a beam splitter. This optically divides incoming light between three CCD image chips, each sensing a different complementary color. They must be in alignment, and each gets only one-third of available light, so the cameras are relatively light-hungry. A single CMOS chip (see Figure 26-10) replaces all of this.

FIGURE 26-7 Using a spreader can mean safety. Videographer Martin Gremmelspacher and his director, Martin Biebel, are above Moon Valley, Atacama Desert, in Chile awaiting a golden sunset that never materialized. (Photo courtesy of Vinten, a Vitec Group brand.)

Lens Mount

The more expensive cameras permit interchangeable lenses, and this column shows the lens mount type.

FIGURE 26-8 Baby legs for low-angle shots. (Photo courtesy of Vinten, a Vitec Group brand.)

Imager Sampling

This gives the number of pixels (picture cells) generated by the imager—more being better because the image contains more information. See “Pixels” section below.

Digital Sampling on Recording Media

Some cameras can record uncompressed or raw data; all offer forms of compression that reduce the amount of digital information flow to more manageable proportions. See “Codecs for Picture Compression” section below.

Base ASA

A fairly sensitive film stock might have a 500 ASA rating, while a slower (less sensitive) one might rate at 125 ASA. Giving a digital video camera these ratings suggests how it handles low-light filming. Video cameras have gain controls that amplify a low video signal so you can still shoot (with some image degradation) under tiny amounts of illumination.

Dynamic Range (Latitude)

Latitude refers to the difference in stops between the least and the most light in which the imaging system can still register detail. Notice that some film stocks

FIGURE 26-9 HD 24p camera comparison chart. (Courtesy of Fletcher Camera, Chicago; check www.fletch.com for the latest version.)

FIGURE 26-10 CMOS imaging chip. (Photo courtesy of Samsung.)

can hold detail over a 14-stop latitude—twice the latitude of the least evolved digital camera in the chart. The Sony® F23 camera, with 11 to 12 stops of latitude, is snapping at film’s heels.

Frame Rates

Many high-definition (HD) digital cameras now offer variable speed filming so you can speed up action such as clouds passing overhead or slow down vehicle crash tests. The “p” after a number stands for “progressive scan” and means that, unlike television formats that construct each frame from two interlaced frames (odd lines, then even), progressive scan lays down all the information for a frame in a single pass. Fast motion and progressive HD scanning produce a torrent of digital information, so many cameras employ a higher compression codec for the faster frame rates. 24 fps is the standard cinema frame rate; for television, 25 fps is European speed, and 30 fps North American. The cinema frame rate was originally 16 fps but was raised to 24 fps for sound projection; the European and American frame rates are derived from the hertz (cycles per second) of their prevailing electricity supplies (50 Hz, 60 Hz), which in turn dictated television receivers’ frame rates. See “Frame Rates” section below.

Recording Format and Load Time

This lists the camera’s storage medium and maximum run time before it requires a reload. Notice how run time declines with reduced compression or increased frames per second. All listed cameras record progressive scan, and this permits easier transfer to film for cinema showing. The industry is rapidly moving toward tapeless recording, which means that cameras and recorders have fewer moving parts. Flash memory is a form of digital memory that, once activated, requires no power to maintain its storage. See “Codecs for Picture Compression” section below.

Bit Depth Recorded

This refers to the number of bits (units of digital information) used to represent each pixel’s color and tonal range. More is better.

Weight

Listed camera weights range from 5.3 to 29 lbs, with the ENG workhorse cameras ranging between 10 and 18 lbs.

Power Draw

This rating in watts (a range of 13 to 106 watts for the given cameras) lets you estimate how many batteries you need per working day and what power or recharging arrangements you may have to make.

Viewfinder (VF)

This specifies the viewfinder (not the LCD flip-out screen, if the camera has one). Many viewfinders will display zebra highlight stripes. These, known colloquially from their appearance as “marching ants,” warn the operator that areas of highlight are burning out through overexposure. Often you can set the threshold where zebra stripes start to display; this matters because this is your only reliable warning, viewfinders being unreliable for this. See http://thedvshow.com/faqpro/?action=article&cat_id=002&id=2&lang= for a movie illustration.

Highlighted Positives

These are the camera’s most valued features. 1080p represents a high pixel rate. Variable frame means you can set the camera’s fps setting and shoot fast or slow motion. A P2 is a flash memory (Figure 26-2) that permits tapeless workflow, but notice that “established workflow” implies there are unestablished workflows—to be shunned like the plague. 4:4:4 refers to the highest possible chroma (color) sampling. Most professional cameras sample at 4:2:2. Raw data is data that is uncompressed in any way and necessarily humungous in quantity.

Average National Rental

This dollar amount is a useful starting point for budget calculations. Often you can hire a basic shooting package, but hiring equipment is not simple and quick like hiring a car. Read the hire house’s terms extremely carefully long in advance of hiring, since you’ll need to satisfy, among other things, their credit conditions and apply for

FIGURE 26-11 Three common picture aspect ratios.

equipment insurance coverage. Both take time to arrange. For typical conditions, see those of Fletcher Camera at www.fletch.com/termsandconditions.html. The good news is that a week’s hire is normally computed as three times the daily rate.

Aspect Ratio

This expresses the width of the frame in relation to its height, which has changed during screen history (Figure 26-11). The aspect ratio and video format you choose will have consequences for equipment and postproduction processes and even how you shoot, since the wider screen demands that you compose a little differently. The cinema and television ratio was traditionally 4:3—that is, a screen of four units wide by three units high. In the 1950s, cinema adopted various wide-screen formats (1.85:1, 2.35:1, 2.39:1, 2.55:1). For a short illustrated history, see www.dvdaust.com/aspect.htm. HD video at 16:9 approximates the cinema format of 1.85:1 and is the preferred aspect ratio for HD television. Consumer camcorders mimic this format by using the middle of the imaging chip, leaving an ugly black band of unused video top and bottom. The picture you are left with has fewer pixels (individual picture cells, Figure 26-12), more grain, and more artifacts (jagged lines or jaggies in the image where there should be straight, sharp edges, as shown in Figure 26-13).

FIGURE 26-12 Artifacts or “jaggies” in a magnified digital image.

As HDTV takes over, 1.33:1 is disappearing. Inherently wide pictorial matter, such as landscape shots and anything making horizontal movement, fills the screen more satisfactorily. Vertical pictorial matter such as head shots and tall buildings are more difficult to accommodate, but everyone feels that widescreen allows for more interesting filming on balance. The world’s archives, however, remain mostly 1.33:1, so postproduction must either show it with black bands at the sides or, content permitting, magnify the original and pare slices from the top and bottom.

FIGURE 26-13 Picture elements (pixels) enlarged.

Frame Rates

Because of differing electrical supplies, American analog NTSC (National Television System Committee, who years ago formulated television standards) runs at 30 fps, and the European PAL (Phase Alternating Line) system runs at 25 fps. Which you normally use depends on where you live. NTSC constructs each of its 30 fps from two “i” (interlaced) fields. PAL does the same but records 25i, which in practice is compatible with film’s 24p recording. As noted earlier, the “p” stands for “progressive scan,” meaning each frame is recorded progressively and in its entirety, rather than being cobbled together from odd and even interlaced frames. Many camcorders now offer variable frame rates so you can over- or under-crank to achieve slow or fast motion at the camera level. Postproduction software allows you to slow footage or speed it up, too, although slowing action footage shot at 1/50th shutter speed is often marred by blurring.

Pixels

More pixels means more picture elements and thus finer detail. Take the standard-definition (SD) NTSC 720 480 image: it contains 720 pixels per line and 480 horizontal lines per frame. Its high-definition (HD) siblings do far better and rival 35 mm film in acuity. Video currently used in North America comes in three main formats:

• 1080 24p HD, which records 1920 pixels × 1080 lines at 24p and transfers to film straightforwardly
• 1080i HD, which records 1920 pixels × 1080 lines at 30i
• 720p EDV (enhanced-definition video), which records 1280 pixels 720 lines at 30i

Enhanced-definition video is currently favored by cable companies because it makes less stringent demands on their transmission systems. Cameras using 720p and 1080i commonly use widely available and inexpensive mini-DV tapes. The trend is to get rid of tape and its associated transport systems and to record straight into P2 memory cards or portable hard drives. Soon you can rejoice in using a camera having almost no moving parts.

Codecs for Picture Compression

When each frame has more pixels and more lines, your camera, postproduction equipment, and television transmitters all have to process a torrent of digital information. Because much of the information in each new frame repeats what was in the last, engineers have invented compression codecs that, like shorthand, reduce what must be written to the recording medium. A high-compression, “lossy codec,” however, will visibly intrude its economies onto the screen, particularly during image movement. For examples and further explanation, see www.cybercollege.com/tvp047.htm. For sound codecs, see the next chapter.

Shutter Speed

Shutter speed is an old term, left over from photography. It signifies the time during which a digital camera records one full image. Because of interlaced video’s 60-fps shooting speed, you can normally shoot a shutter speed of no slower (that is, longer) than 1/60th of a second, but you can select faster shutter speeds—of up to 1/1000th second or faster. When you see whirling helicopter blades that are sharp and moving in an odd, jerky movement, it’s because the camera used a fast shutter speed. From cinema feature films we are accustomed to seeing the slight motion blur you get in material shot at 1/50th second or so. If, however, you plan to slow down a racehorse in postproduction, then you must first shoot using a fast shutter speed to get a crisp image.

Timecode

In NTSC you must make a choice concerning timecode (TC), the unique time identity assigned to each video frame (Figure 26-14). In NTSC (apocryphally “Never The Same Color”) you must choose timecode that is either drop frame (DF) or non-drop frame (NDF).

FIGURE 26-14 Timecode—every frame has its own identity number. Generated by the camera, they are vital to an editing program’s functioning.

Drop frame removes a digit every so often to keep timecode in step with clock time. Whether you choose DF or NDF doesn’t usually matter so long as you stay consistent throughout production. Try to use a camcorder with addressable timecode (meaning you can set your own starting numbers and letters) so it always writes unique timecode. Some camcorders reset to zero when you change recording media, with the result that every media item (cassette, hard drive, flash memory) has the same range of numbers, leaving fertile ground for confusion during postproduction. Use addressable TC to write a new hour number for each new tape or other media so you have no duplicate numbers to confuse the editing process later.

Camera Height

FIGURE 26-15 Camcorder fitted with a matte box able to carry a range of filters. Notice the movable flag, used to block any strong light arriving at a tangent from hitting the lens. (Photo courtesy of Chrosziel GmbH.)

Directors often accept the tripod as a given and fail to alter camera height. The old adage says that a high camera position suggests domination and a low angle, subjugation, but there are other, less colonial reasons to vary camera height. A high or low camera angle may better accommodate objects or persons in either background or foreground, or may facilitate a particular camera movement. In On Screen Directing (1984, Focal Press), the veteran Hollywood director Edward Dmytrykmade a persuasive case for avoiding shots at characters’ eye levels simply because they are dull. There’s also a psychological reason to avoid them. At eye level, the audience feels itself intruding into the action, rather like standing in the path of a duel. Being a little above or below eye-level position gets us out of the firing line.

Adapting to Location Exigencies

There are no reliable rules for camera positioning and movement because every situation imposes its own demands. Limitations are usually physical: windows or pillars in an interior that restrict shooting in one direction or an incongruity you must avoid in an exterior. A Victorian house turns out to have a background of aerial power lines and must be shot from a high angle to reduce sky. Often you must shelve your expectations and unforeseen. For the rigid, linear personality, this constant adapting is frustrating, but for others it poses interesting and never-ending challenges. Nonetheless, you must plan, and sometimes plans even work out.

Backgrounds

Deciding what part background must play in relation to foreground is an issue of lens choice and camera positioning. For a depressed and hungry character there is a nice irony in showing a huge Ronald McDonald watching her from behind a bus stop. The composition highlights her dilemma and suggests she might blow her bus money on an order of large fries. Sometimes the subject is in the middle ground as in Figure 26-16, where a man looks into the abyss of a giant canyon. The foreground tree branches and the misty depths in the distance help create the third dimension, which is missing from two-dimensional imagery; you use composition, lighting, or perspective to create it.

Camera as Instrument of Revelation

Shots should reveal not just the subject but also the subject’s context. Looking down on the subject, looking up at it, or peering between tree trunks all suggest different contexts and different ways of seeing—and therefore of experiencing—the action central to the scene. You could use dialectical editing to make us see that ugly riot police are near a nice bed of tulips, but how much more effective to make the point in a single well-composed frame. Aim to make every frame you shoot contain significant juxtapositions. This will build irony and dramatic tension into every aspect of your filmmaking.

Making the location a meaningful environment and responding to the actions and sightlines of participants in a scene create a more vivid, spontaneous sense of the scene’s unfolding dynamics. Why? Because that way we share the consciousness of someone intelligent and intuitive who picks up all the contextual tensions and ironies.

FIGURE 26-16 Compositional elements and textures in foreground, middle ground, and background help create the all-important sense of depth.

Compromises for the Camera

Movement within a frame can look 20 to 30% faster than in life, so you may need to ask participants to slow their movements when shooting action sequences, especially in close-up shots. Even the best camera operator cannot keep a profile in tight framing if the person moves too fast.

How much should you compromise participants’ spontaneity to achieve a visually and choreographically polished result? This, of course, depends on the comfort of those you are filming. Sometimes you can ask for changes; other times you’ll have to loosen the shot (that is, go wider).

Occasionally, when panning across a repetitive pattern such as a picket fence, you must vary the speed of the camera movement to stop the subject strobing. This happens because the frequency of the railings’ movement interacts with the camera’s frame rate. This is how they won the West with wagon wheels that appeared to turn backwards on the screen. Film camera operators of the day could not see strobing, but those using today’s video cameras can. Sometimes patterns in clothing, such as stripes or checks, will cause similar stroboscopic effects.