Work on the Intro continues. Sadly, I haven’t been able to do the final shots due to snow. The last shot was supposed to be outdoors and I really couldn’t shoot in snow as it wouldn’t fit to the other outdoor shots I had. So I returned the camera and I wait for better weather.
The camera I’ve been using for the shots was the Sony XDCAM. It’s a semi-pro HD camera. My impressions were mixed. I like the file-based work-flow. No need to digitize stuff. No tapes. No rewinding. I love that. The lens on the camera is quite good with a descent makro and generally good results in daylight conditions. Still, the camera itself has some weird usability issues. Mostly, everything is straight-forward but than BAM – how do you set white-balance? Turns out you can’t really. There is an auto setting but no way to tune the actual temperature. Most inconvenient when shooting at night. Also, the fact that everything is in such high resolution makes shooting so much more difficult. It’s difficult to see what’s in focus and what not. I underestimated the impact of hand-held shaking has on the resulting quality. Finally, I thought that using HD and scaling down I could get rid of the noise associated with low-lighting conditions. Didn’t work either. *sigh* For my next project, I’m SO working with at least a camera man if not even a film director.
Sony XDCAM
So the camera is gone but it’s not that I sit around and do nothing. That last shot wasn’t actually required for the intro so I started getting the footage in After Effects and cutting away. Again, the fact that I’m doing all this on a 4 years old notebook rears it’s ugly head. Using HD footage I simply have no ability to preview anything in After Effects. I’m cutting blind. Especially inconvenient since most of the footage needs special treatment due to noise or shaking. Looks like nothing in this project is EVER easy. I was hoping to get the intro done for the IGF judges but I won’t make it. Still, I’m aiming to get this done this Month. After all I’ve been through, this won’t stop me now. *grr*
