[plug] Video cameras and video editing

[Bernd Felsche]

Tim Bowden <tim.bowden at westnet.com.au> wrote:

>I'm going to be hiring a video camera for a conf I'm going to
>(FOSS4G2008 in Cape Town: http://foss4g.org/) for doing interviews etc.
>Not something I've done before.  Any tips as to what's what with cameras
>(digital v analogue etc), and the process of getting the content into my
>laptop and editing it?

Camera:

A cheap digital camera with DV tapes and USB or Firewire (IEEE-1394)
can be bought for under $400 at many discount stores. I prefer those
with IEEE-1394 because they tend to work better for data transfers.
Quality is "good enough" with the cheapies. You're probably not
going to be able to rent much of anything. at that price.

High-definition digital video camera with DV tapes such as a Canon
HV30 with full 1080 resolution are selling on eBay for under $1200.

If you're going to be doing interviews and the like, and you're
doubling as camera operator, then make sure that you get one with a
remote control. Be aware that the infra-red's sometimes don't work
well in bright sunlight.

Stick with the cameras that record onto DV tape. They are much more
versatile and the digital tape is useful archive media. I have
standard def. tapes recorded back in 1997 that play back without a
hitch.


Editing:

When it comes down to editing, the best video editing package for
Linux appears to be Cinelerra. It's a non-linear editing package.
I've used it quite a bit.
	<http:http://www.vimeo.com/berndfelsche>
As well as producing online versions, I'm using Cinelerra with
SubtitleComposer and DeVeDe to build DVDs. There are other DVD
building GUI; most drive DVDauthor in the background.

I tend to output for DVD from Cinelerra and then transcode to lower
online resolutions using ffmpeg. NB: Cinelerra doesn't handle
changes in resolution well after you've started the project. I've
learnt how to hack the XML that it produces to repair the damage
that i've unwittingly inflicted upon myself through past
transgressions.

But before editing, you'll need to transfer the digital data to
your hard drive. Estimate 20 gigabytes per hour of raw, standard
resolution video. A striped RAID works best. External USB drives can
be used at a pinch.

Set up whatever you use capture to auto-split on the recorded
scenes, with a maximum of say 5 minutes per scene.  Use the
timestamp as filenames for the scenes. IIRC, I used Kino for most of
the captures.


Video recording:

A tripod with a fluid-stabilised head gives moving camera motion a
professional look.

Use an external microphone or a "wind screen" on the camera when
recording outdoors.

"Backup" your recording by using a media player that has built-in
microphone to do a digital recording in case the camera's sound is
garbled.

Set you digital camera to UTC date-time and leave it like that
regardless of where you're recording. Your video will be date-time
stamped consistently.

If you have a spare, charged battery, then it's unlikely that you'll
need to use it. If you don't have one, you'll almost certainly wish
that you had! :-)

Play with the camera before going "live" with it. Practice the
handling; make sure that you know when it's recording or off.
-- 
/"\ Bernd Felsche - Innovative Reckoning, Perth, Western Australia
\ /  ASCII ribbon campaign | Science is the belief in
 X   against HTML mail     | the ignorance of the experts.
/ \  and postings          |  -- Richard Feynman