Re: Calling all you video cam people who will be out for the 4o'th anaversary activities

Older camera gear, like the stuff we used in the 80's had tubes instead of the newer chips, etc. We had to not only white balance, we had to register the tubes(align them). These two things we did at the beginning of the day, and that was it generally.

I agree that with todays stuff, just set it to Auto white balance. You can do more harm than good otherwise, if you forget to white balance when its on manual. I would also recommend auto iris for the same reason. I once had set mine on manual for a photo special shooting something weird.
Then I got a cab ride and wondered why everything was so dark inside. Half way through the cab ride I realized it was set on manual. I flipped it to auto and the cab interior lit up nicely. The outside was kinda overexposed, but you have to make choices.

Not sure I am sold on this 60 fps stuff. What is the advantage of shooting at 60 fps when the final product is to be 29.97 on the dvd?

Greg Scholl

PS. One mistake I have made in the past is on the audio. If you have an external mic(usually better than the camera mic), they usually have a battery. Make sure you have a new battery in there, and a spare just in case. This bit me earlier in the year as I forgot to change an old one. Also some mics have a switch to turn on and off so remember to check that sort of stuff.

Also remember if there is footage with bad or no audio, and the video portion is really good, sometimes it can be used as a secondary insert shot or overlay when someone is talking. For example, say you are doing an opening for the dvd and narrating, and you want to show a shot of xyx engine, and shooter B has a great shot, with no audio, you could insert that scene there. The point is, sometimes you can still use items that are not perfect if the content is important.

Good luck. Look forward to hearing how things go.
Greg Scholl