maximpactphotography

This is an optional feature I added in order to enable smooth vertical clips in motion, using a Black & Decker hand drill as the ‘engine’ and connecting to the slider with a length of cord (thanks to Eric Ortlieb again, for inspiring this design). The pre-existing Matthews clamp and spud were used to attach the drill to the Konova slider at its top.

This system will yield clips of about 5 second duration moving up, and about 7 seconds with downward camera motion. I like that it’s easy to assemble and break down, as well as the price: about $20 for the drill and $10 for 25 yards of cord.

For many near-horizontal camera motions, I simply employ gravity by slightly raising one end of the Konova or my 4ft aluminum custom slider and fine

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tuning the resistance on the slider ‘s ball head.

There are two Dotline LED lighting panels mounted on either side of the HD-DSLR (in this case the D5100 due to its articulated screen, so I can use the 5″ HDMI monitor on a separate camera). The ends of the slider are equipped with stopper arms to permit smooth termination of sliding shots.

Many thanks to Eric Ortlieb of Classic Video Productions in Aliso Viejo, CA for custom-building this aluminum slider. If you have this type of dolly and want to obtain the slider, please contact him at (949)-362-9737.

I generally prefer to use wireless lav microphones for this setup

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, in order to put the mic as close to the athlete or other talent as possible. The corresponding receiver is seen on the hot shoe of the camera with its output directly into the camera- avoiding having to sync the audio file in post. I could also accomplish this with a Sescom -25 dB cable as explained in a prior post, running XLR hifi sound through the Zoom H4N digital audio recorder.

Note the wide to normal, fast zoom lens (17-35mm f/2.8 D), which is what I would ordinarily use as a default for a medium shot.

During my DVD burn session, this evening I wanted to relate what I’ve learned about Premiere Elements 9 (PE9) as a way of sharing my videos.

First, I ‘ve observed that it’s straightforward and easy to accomplish IF your computer in FACT meets the stated requirements posted by Adobe’s website for PE9. This applies to their full program, Premiere Pro CS5.5  as well- and it requires a great deal more computing power than PE9, even without considering optional linked applications such as AfterEffects for motion graphics and Audition for high-end audio editing /output. I’m able to burn many DVD’s containing approx 30 min content in about that same time (half hour).

Second, be careful to correctly specify what DVD format you ‘d like to use such as Dolby Widescreen vs Dolby regulation format while setting up the burn in the program. It’s very helpful that you can easily arrange to burn multiple copies at this stage.

Third, it becomes clear why full HD (1080p) is preferred for DVD while 720p is fine for web output, as full HD is also suitable for Blu-Ray and looks excellent at large viewing dimensions. I prefer to produce video in 1080p unless I’m sure that I will not need more than 720p file sizes at the preproduction/production stages of the project.

Fourth, pay close attention to the quality of your audio during production as you may have relatively little fine-tuning control of this aspect with your DVD player system.

I currently use Memorex DVD-R 16x (120 min) 4.7 GB DVD’s. Please refer to my equipment page for more on what notebook I use.