Technology and Innovation

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Where the ElipZ battery really shines is its efficiency. Not only does this single battery take the place of more than 2 camcorder batteries, it’s also your battery for other accessories. The ElipZ uniquely supplies up to 6 amps to power both your camcorder and light, using its proprietary plug. This design makes for a really clean setup that doesn’t leave extra battery packs in your pocket or cables running everywhere.

Which locks into the battery when you activate the long blue release switch. Anton/Bauer includes a few “sticky pads” for the small plate, to make a rock-solid attachment. However, we had to re-tighten the plate before we got a good fit. There is a small amount of play where the battery meets the camcorder. We think this is quite acceptable for general use, but it may be a turn-off for the discerning videog-rapher.

Automatic Gain Control (AGC) is the bane of audio purists the world over. It’s one of those ideas that looks great on paper but sounds bad in the real world. AGC in your camcorder works by listening to the incoming audio and raising or lowering the gain in response to the signal level. In theory, this should make the soft sounds louder while keeping the loudest sounds under control. In practice, AGC tends to pump up the background noise when there is no dialog or other sound. Once the sound resumes, the AGC pushes the volume back down, usually overcompensating for the ing on the phone, but the caller never greeted the other person. The only way to fix this error was to create the dialog from other bits of his performance. Since the segment was short and the caller could be off-camera, it seemed easy enough. Unfortunately, that two second audio clip took almost an hour to assemble, edit and massage. Start by timing the empty section, and then go through the recorded performances to find individual words or phrases that can be repurposed. You can do a rough edit of the new dialog in your video

Don’t just edit it, improve it – with slick sound editing tricks to make your audio come alive. igital audio editing has been around longer than digital video, and pretty much everyone has edited some kind of audio at one time or another. Those who have know all the standard tricks: normalizing, trimming and basic EQ. But what do you do when the tried and true isn’t enough anymore? How do you solve those complicated audio mysteries on time and undeDr budget? This month’s Sound Advice looks at four audio situations and the advanced editing techniques required to move your project forward.

When using reflectors, mirrors and bounce cards, you have to treat them just like lighting instruments. This includes the distance they are from the talent. To increase the intensity of the light coming off of a reflector, you need only to move it closer to the talent. To decrease the intensity, move it further away. As in lighting, the way it works is double the distance from the subject and it reduces the intensity of the light four times. Cut the distance in half and the light becomes 4 times more intense.

Setups – The Sun
Let’s start with the easiest setups and take advantage of the beautiful spring or summer sun. First of all, think of the sun as a very small, very intense light. The sun is best used during the morning and late afternoon hours to take advantage of its color, as well as the angle of the light. But, believe it or not, you can also use the sun at high noon!
If you do have to shoot at noon, place your talent in the shade of a tree with a shaded background. Place a smooth surface reflector in the sun at the 3 o’clock position and reflect the sun towards another smooth surface reflector or mirror positioned above and at the 11 o’clock position behind your talent. Focus this reflector onto the back of the talent’s head and shoulders. Use another soft gold reflector slightly above and at the 5 o’clock position and bounce the light from the back reflector into your talent’s face for a very nice soft warm light.

Back to the Basics
There are a couple of things about light you need to remember when trying to create beautiful lighting using one or no lights. They are: 1. Light moves in a straight line and 2. The bigger the light
source, the softer the light will appear on screen.
Using the fact that light moves in a straight line is easy. All you need is a reflector or mirror. If you use a smooth surface silver reflector or mirror, you will get an exact duplicate of the light minus a bit of intensity, depending on how far the reflector is from the subject. Keep in mind that the smooth reflector or mirror is reflecting the light and will be quite bright. Treat it just like any other light. Using a silver reflector with a bumpy surface will decrease and soften the light by spreading it out directionally. A pebbled gold reflector will add a soft warm color to the light.
Keeping in mind that the bigger the light, the softer the effect enables you to decide what kinds of light or reflectors you will need. To create a soft-edged light for interviews and single shots of your talent, you will want to use large lights and textured surface reflectors. If you want your lighting to be very dramatic and hard-edged, use a small, intense light or a selection of smooth-surfaced reflectors or mirrors.

Non-NTSC Monitors
If you are using an ordinary television set, make sure you turn off any automatic color correction controls. With an ordinary television set or an NTSC monitor without the Blue Only option, you can make these adjustments by viewing the monitor through a Wratten 47B dark blue photographic filter, which can be purchased at any well-stocked camera store. Adjust the same way as if you had a Blue Only button. Lighting is about finesse, control, and knowing how to use the tools at hand to create beautiful, well-lit images. But what if you have only one light – or maybe no lights? How do you design good-looking images? How can you create three-point lighting with only one light? All you have to do is run around the house, grab a few mirrors, dig in to your lighting kit for some reflectors and you are on your way! In this column, we will look at different ways you can use one or no lights to create beautifully lit scenes using mirrors, reflectors and solid lighting techniques.

Next, we will set the white level for the monitor by turning up contrast .control (a.k.a. picture) all the way. There is a white bar, almost square actually, in the lower left of the color bars. With the contrast turned all the way up, this bar should bloom into the neighboring bars. Turn the contrast control down until you see crisp lines around the white bar. This bar will represent the brightest white seen in your video.
Chroma and Hue
Now we’ll set the color controls using the chroma and hue. Good professional monitors have a blue only button. Clicking this will turn off the red and green colors, leaving only black and blue bars or black and grey bars. Some monitors ship with individual

The GLIDGCAM SMOOTH SHOOTGR is the World s most sophisticated and affordable Body Mounted Camera Stabilization System designed for Cameras weighing up to 6 pounds when used with the Glidecam 2000 Pro. or for Cameras weighing from 4 to IO pounds when used with the Glidecam 4000 Pro.

Let’s say you’ve decided to suck it up and drop the dinero on the pro NTSC monitor. You would think that sacrifice would be enough, but now you need to calibrate it. Just having the hunk of
glass and plastic is not enough. Don’t worry, it is like anything else: after you do it enough times, it becomes second nature. Let’s look at all the factors that will make your evaluation of your picture with an NTSC monitor ideal.
How to Set Up a Monitor
Check your user’s manual or help menu within your program to find your Bars and Tone-NTSC. This is a standardized test pattern, also known as 75% color bars, that needs to be displayed on your monitor while calibrating. If,
Synthetic Aperture has a host of color correcting tools in addition to a free, downloadable color bar image.
Synthetic-Aperture
Color Finessed
Advanced Color Correction
Color Finesse 2 gives you the high-end color correction and enhancement tools you need both as a plug-in for your favonte application—including After Effects, Final Cut Pro, and Premiere Pro—and as a standalone application Because the standalone Color Finesse is not limited by restrictions imposed by a host application, it offers Improved workflow, video handling, and project management.
No special video card or second monitor needed. Color Finesse works on systems from laptops to mufti-processor workstations. Plug-in or application, you choose the workflow that fits your style.
The Color Finesse 2.1 plug-in is now shipping for Macintosh OS X and Windows XP. The Color Finesse 2 1 standalone program is currently shipping tor Macintosh OS X.
• Now available as both a plug-m and a standalone application
• 32-brt floating-point color space for incredible resolution and latitude
• Performs corrections in HSL, RGB, CMY, and YCbCr color spaces.
for whatever reason, your editing program does not ship with color bars