Does someone know some good resources to learn the process of making a movie with a DSLR (in my case 6D) ? From recording video, sound, mixing all together and finally generating a movie file with the proper codec ?

@AndyM yes someone can know ;)

@AJHenderson Gna gna gna :)

@AndyM a modern comprehensive resource in written form, not so much :(

all the materials I learned on were from the mid 90s

and are more than a little outdated now on the technical side

the artistic and planning sides are still valid I suppose

but honestly, at this point I don't even remember what most of them were

obviously for specific questions I highly recommend video production

I see... I don't really know where to begin... That's my main trouble...

first tip though, it's the process from planning a shoot, to setting up the scene, to recording video and sound, to mixing it together and then generating a movie file

but if we're going to have a conversation on video we may want to jump to the video production chat room

← 12 messages moved from Photography Chat

long time no see

:)

and look, our convo followed us

that's wicked... I never used another chat on stackexchange :ü

:P

I moved it manually

but it is a nice feature

anyway, yeah, the biggest thing is planning

it is super easy in the digital NLE age to go at it very scatter shot

and then wonder why your work doesn't flow

the best thing for my development as a videographer was my HS video teacher that made me learn to use a linear video editor (deck to deck)

forced me to stop and plan my video

how does it start, how does it progress, how does it end

once you conceptualize the video, you can figure out what shots you need

so then shooting becomes a matter of simply collecting things off a list

lighting itself isn't that much different than photography

main thing is just that it has to hold up from multiple angles if you are going to have a moving shot

so the scene setup kind of thing you'll probably have the least trouble with

for recording the video and audio, big thing is to try to make as few adjustments within a shot as possible

focus pulls or zooms are hard to execute with precission

so expect multiple takes to be needed and review them closely

or avoid them if you can, especially early on

sound, generally best to use an external recorder and sync in post

two main options, LAVs (lapel mics) or shotgun mics on boom poles

lapels require less crew, but may get movement noise and you have to figure out where to stick them

(or not mind them in your shot)

@AJHenderson I've found a recorder called Zoom z4n

shotgun mics can be used from a distance, but you need a boom op to keep them on target

People say it's good to start with

h4n

yes

oh sorry

I use that one

personally, I'm an h4n/Lavs guy

I don't want to make a big production... Just to be able to use properly my video mode on my 6D

but a shotgun mic and boom is on my to get list eventually

yeah, video by definition is a bit of a production to do properly though. You can do it with a one man crew, but there are lots of pieces

but I started with lav's to be able to do a one man crew

even if I prefer working with at least 2 or 3

if you've planned the shooting well, then editing is actually one of the easiest parts

I normally use Premiere. I start with a source timeline for each clip

this is where I sync and apply any cleanup to audio

as well as where I apply any initial color corrections

then, once I have my clips in, I use those as sources for actually editing together the video

based on my earlier plan

first pass is normally to make a rough cut

which basically means getting things laid out in the proper order, but the edges are ragid, not exactly timed and no transitions

once you have the basic flow you want, you revisit the edges, fine tune the timings of cuts, add transitions where approrpriate

then I normally finish with a color grading pass to make sure color matches from shot to shot

and has the overall feel I want the video to have

don't be afraid to stray from your plan too

sometimes I realize when rough cutting that things don't flow quite right and will reposition or cut stuff out

and then for the final output, it depends on what you are outputing to. I generally just use Adobe Media Encoder as it does a sufficient job

and they have preset for common things like YouTube and Bluray that are pretty decent

2 pass VBR is the best quality to size

Do you think I can make decent movies with a 6D ? I've bought it for its picture quality, but since I have a movie mode, I feel like giving it a try...

I guess it's better to buy a dedicated camera

I shoot on my 5D Mark iii just fine

I don't know specifically how the 6D does, but I'd expect it to be pretty great

since it is FF

I also highly recommend ML for video

Yes, for what i've read the 5D Mark III is awesome for videos

what is ML ?

magic lantern

using DSLRs in general is becoming the way that most independent videographers go if they can't get something like an ARRI

DSLRs do the best video under $50 grand or so

but they have some limitations, such as lacking AF in video shooting (the T4i and t5i correct for this, but the 6D and 5D Mark iii do not)

Magic lantern is amazing... I didn't know I could flash/update/modify my camera firmware (except for canon releases obviously)

hehe

yeah, it is

I don't know if it supports RAW video on the 6D or not, but on the 5D Mark iii, it makes it competitive with the ARRI Alexa. The Alexa is still the winner, but the 5D Mark iii raw video gets 90% of the way there at 1/12th the price

and you can also do things like focus pulls with it

(where you start a shot focused on one thing and have it adjust focus to something else

focus peaking is also highly recommended

that makes it so that edges that are in focus get highlighted

when doing a manual focus pull

zebras is also helpful

that will highlight any area that is getting over-exposed or near over exposed

as you get more experienced, histograms is a useful feature as well

also, make sure to use a tripod

and not a ball head unless the shot is pure static

ideally, you want a fluid head tripod

they allow for smooth control of resistance and smooth motion in general for pans and tilts

they can be a bit pricy for decent ones though

But does this firmware replaces totally the current EOS firmware ?

Or is it an add-on

it's an add on

it runs on top of it

So you have your basic menus + those of ML

so it's a bit of a misnomer to say it is a third party firmware

yeah, the delete button is taken over by ML

and brings up an entire additional menu system

but it is literally just running on top of the unmodified OS

but it still has some risk because it can alter parameters to values they normally wouldn't be

including some features that alter settings that don't reset every time you turn the camera off

but problems are pretty rare, I'm using the experimental build for firmware 1.2.3 on my 5D Mark iii and have had no permanent issues

a couple of crashes where I had to pull the battery to reset, but nothing major

and that was with a very early experimental build playing with a feature that was marked as not being ready yet

it also adds a bunch of new UI elements to live view

the top and bottom of the screen get entirely new sets of UI

audio metering, sensor temp monitoring, much smaller displays of ISO/shutter speed/aperture, adds focus distance and focal length

(it has a built in DoF calculator)

and it is easy to install and uninstall

you copy it on to a memory card, put the card in, do a firmware update and restart the camera when prompted

looks very sexy to me... I might give it a try... I'm worried about messing my brand new 6D

to uninstall, same process, but leave it on the update screen for thirty seconds

and it removes the boot flag

I haven't looked at what builds are available for the 6D, there are sometimes "safe builds" that don't write to any permanent storage.

those builds are pretty much incapable of causing problems

but given how widely magic lantern is used, if you stick to actual release builds, you should be fine

oh yeah, and if you do try it, note that some features are not on by default

I'll give myself some time to master my camera... A few things changed from my 450D and I need to get used to them !

there is a modules screen that lets you choose which modules of features to load

yeah, welcome to FF in general

yeah :D

it's a different world

It's brilliant so far !

took me a couple months to really get used to

The ISO handling is purely amazing

Images looks so sharp !

did you see the video Esa posted?

for the a7s

erm nope

check it out and then check out the link I posted to the Canon one

the a7s can shoot clear video at ISO 100,000

and canon made a new sensor that will shoot clearly in less than .01 lux

dpreview.com/articles/4906955512/…

How does it work with ISO compared to photography... I mean, on photography, when you want more light you need longer exposure or higher ISO...

that's the canon one

exposure is the exact same

In a movie, it means that basically your exposure time is fixed ?

just you can't go with a shorter shutter speed than your frame rate

but you can go faster

what if you go fas....

you can shoot 24 fps video with 1/1000 shutter speed

:) what happens when you go faster ?

it takes each frame in the given time, but spreads them out

all right

so same as if you were using burst shooting

makes sens

what about DOF

basically video is just burst shooting at low res with an electronic shutter

does it work the same ?

exact same

optics and exposure are identical

That's a good news, what I learnt for photography are still there for movies :)

yeah

it's good and bad

how come ?

the good is that you are familiar with the concepts, the bad is that there are some departures in how you have to approach things

(like the lack of AF)

oh yeah... I've seen that on my 6D

or the fact that when shooting video, you have to maintain a good shot

I wanted to follow my cat................

it's similar enough to help you, but different enough in the situations you have to handle to frustrate ;)

I moved in the opposite direction

I have a button to call for AF... but it takes about 5 minutes to get it -_-

I started in video

it's more the how you shoot. Photography is concerned about getting the right moment perfectly

video is about getting all moments well enough in an interesting way

Yeah that's a different approach

you can't pursue perfection as much because it is much more technically complicated to get perfection in a dynamic shot

just look at all the extra things going on to get the audio and the lighting having to deal with a moving subject and the camera needing to potentially move in shots

so I guess it is most accurate to say that the technical aspects are the same, but the way in which they are applied is subtly altered

I see yeah

and you get some new options like focus pulls to express a change of focus

the language changes a little

(artistic, not technical, for the most part)

ANyway, if I really suck at movie creation, I'll create stop motion :)

some technical language also changes, though generally the video guys know the photo terms

video is just stop motion without stoping the motion ;)

ahah yeah

for example, aperture is also called iris

T stops are sometimes used rather than F stops

(T stops actually have a subtly different meaning)

T stop is the actual light that makes it through

based on if it was a perfect lens

so like an f/2.8 lens might actually be a T/3.1

because a perfect f/3.1 lets through the same light that makes it through the f/2.8 lens

and again that comes from the subtle difference that in photography, depth of field is most key where as in video, the amount of light making it through is most key

especially when trying to match multiple shots

possibly shot on different cameras or different lenses entirely

it's those subtle little things that are why you don't see a huge number of cross over people. We are out there, but a lot of people prefer one language or the other and don't jump between a lot. Personally, I love both

Yeah, I feel someone has to master one before jumping to the other... Or you get only mixed

I love the use of time to tell a story though video and I love the elegance of composition and color used in telling a story though photography

I think you can pick both up at the same time, but it may help to focus on one at a time

my own progression is kind of hard to chart

I guess everyone has a very unique progression...

A technique that works on somebody might fail completely for another person

I know I learn a lot by reading a reproducing

I know lot of people just try

I need some guidelines or I get easiyl bored

I started with playing around with point and shoot film cameras and consumer video cameras around the same time, going back and forth a bit. I touched on film SLRs briefly before moving in to digital P&S for a while. Video was my first professional work and I did that for 5 or 6 years before seriously getting back in to DSLR photography

and then another few years after I got back in to DSLR photography casually before I jumped in at the true professional level

what kind of movie do you make ?

wedding, ads ?

as far as how I learned, I started out shooting my own stuff for fun but mostly developed when I started volunteering with people and working along side other video guys

and my HS video class was really formative for my artistic visualization ability

and starting in late HS and going through college I was a professional wedding videographer, did some conference work, ran an entire E3 DVD production and produced/directed distance education class production at my college

gotta go... talk to you soon

bye

later

oh, and I'm also technically formally trained. Half of my major covered electronic arts, which included a lot of video stuff, but mostly I had already developed my skills by that point, though I'm sure the work I did helped me personally develop

working with others is really good for video

you can learn from others strengths

and it makes the projects a lot easier too

cloud.ajhenderson.com/…

that's an example of a shoot I recently did where you can see how much it helps to have more people