What’s important to understand here is that, at last, hardware is not the issue anymore. If you go back even just 1-2 years in time, shooting a film that looked even remotely like a serious indie production was a big deal, because renting all these high-end cameras was expensive and had a big learning curve. But now, a dSLR like the Canon T2i (which has the same video abilities and quality as the 7D), costs just $800, plus the cost of lenses! Hardware is not the issue anymore! Now filmmakers can easily create their vision without hardware being an obstacle!

And this is only the beginning. The two directors of the new Yeasayer music video “O.N.E.” told me that while the bulk of the video was shot with the RED One, a few scenes were shot using the Canon 7D.

I expect that the next big crop of dSLRs by Canon will be able to do 3k or 4k at 24p/25p, 30p/50p/60p at full 1080p, have absolutely no rolling shutter artifacts, full HDMI output, and possibly go towards continuous auto-focus too. When such cameras hit the market for less than $2k, you can imagine the even bigger impact they will have in the filmmaking community.

1. Install the software

I will be using Sony Vegas Platinum in this article, because it’s the only consumer video editor that supports 24p editing — a key feature that these dSLRs have is 24p recording. Platinum is in my opinion the most powerful consumer video editor, and costs ~$75. Yes, I could suggest a professional editor here, but honestly, Platinum does most of what you’ll ever need to do, for a fraction of the price.

2. Shoot the footage

There are three things you should setup in your camera: frame rate, exposure, picture style. If you’re shooting a music video or film go for 24p/25p, if you’re shooting sports go for 50/60p, and if you’re shooting daily random stuff go for 25p/30p. Either use manual exposure to setup your shots, but if you’re not very accustomed on how to do that, just use automatic exposure, but make sure you actually “lock it” (so the brightness doesn’t jump in the footage every time your scene changes). Finally, go for a flatter picture style, or if you prefer more punch, use the built-in “Neutral” style. Definitely don’t go for the over-the-top “Standard” default style though, it’s color-ungradeable. Looks too video-y.

If you’re using a plain HD digicam from Canon, also ease-up the colors, and always lock exposure (read the manual on how to do that).

When done shooting, create a folder on your computer that will host all the project files. Copy the MOV files in there from your flash card.

3. Transcode your footage

PC editors just don’t deal fast-enough with the Canon MOV format. Some editors do better than others, but if you want 24p, you’ll have to stick with Vegas Platinum — and in that case you’ll have to transcode to an easier-to-decode “intermediate” visually-lossless format. I would suggest Cineform NeoSCENE ($100), but if money is an issue, you can go with the freeware AVID DNxHD. Here is a comparison between the two:
– Cineform is much faster to encode during transcoding,
– Cineform is much faster to decode/playback,
– AVID DNxHD has slightly better quality (not noticeable usually),
– AVID DNxHD is free.

You might also hear others suggesting the Huffyuv or Lagarith intermediate formats. I’d suggest against them, since they’re slow as molasses, even on the fastest PCs. Others, might suggest you go with the Proxy method, but again I’d suggest against it, because when you do the final switch to the original MOV files, you will get more frequent crashes than usual during exporting (especially on more complex projects). So, once you’ve made your decision between the two intermediate formats, here’s how to use each:

  3a. Cineform NeoSCENE
Download and install NeoSCENE (use the trial version first, to make sure it works on your system, and if it does, uninstall properly before installing the purchased version). Load the utility, load its preferences, and make sure you’re using the AVI format, the path to the folder you created on step #2, “High” quality, and the “maintain source format” option. Then, load the MOV files to the utility, and start the conversion. This will create AVIs on the same folder, typically at double the filesize (it’s normal for intermediate formats to create large filesizes). Conversion will be rather fast.

  3b. AVID DNxHD
Here’s a step-by-step tutorial on how to install the codec (need to be done only once), then batch-convert dSLR footage into AVID DNxHD. Just make sure you select the right frame rates/resolutions in the dialogs, depending on how you actually shot. Also, create these DNxHD MOV files into a sub-folder in the main project folder, because otherwise you wouldn’t know which MOV files are what format.

4. Load footage into Vegas

Load Vegas. After the initial screens go away, load the Cineform AVIs or the DNxHD MOVs into Vegas’ “project media” tab (you can drag-n-drop them). IF you are using Cineform, you must do a one-time check. You must check if Vegas recognizes these AVIs as progressive or as interlaced. Because the AVI format does not have a field for field order, it’s up to you to instruct Vegas what kind of files these are. So, follow this tip on how to do that. When you do that, come back to read the rest here.

5. Setup Project Properties

In Vegas, it’s very important to have the right project settings before you start editing. From the main menu select “Project Properties”, and a new dialog will pop up. In there, click the right outmost icon called “Match Media”, the one that looks like a yellow folder. From there, select one of the files you will be editing with (Cineform AVI or DNxHD MOV), and click “open”. Vegas will now automatically fill up most of the project settings for you, after analyzing the video file you picked. After it does that, you need to do a few changes manually to that dialog: For the de-interlacing option select “none”, and for the Quality option select “Best”. You can save a new template with these settings, so each time you start a new project with the same kind of resolution/frame-rate, you can just pick it from the list! So, after your project settings are set, click “Ok”, and edit as you would normally do. Save often. Here is my Vegas getting-started guide.

6. Ensure visual quality

After you have edited, select ALL clips in the timeline (e.g. by using the SHIFT key), right click, select “Switches”, “Disable Resample”. By disabling resample we ensure no ghosted final image (especially if you used slow-motion). I have more such cool tips here, that you should read.

7. Export

Export your final for YouTube/Vimeo/PS3/AppleTV/XBOX360 from this tutorial, by just using its step 3 (or step 4 if you have access to the SONY AVC encoder via Platinum version 9+).

If you’re after DVDs, then use the right MPEG2 widescreen template on the “RENDER AS” dialog. This will export video only. For audio, use the AC3 template. Then, bring both files into DVD Architect (companion application to Vegas Platinum), and DVDA will put the two back together.

If you’re after Blu-Ray or “AVCHD disks”, just use the option from the main menu. If you get crashes with the Sony AVC encoder when burning HD, change the burning encoder setting to “Main Concept”.

This was the longest project I’ve been involved into so far, with 7 hours of shooting in the first batch, and another 4 hours for the re-shoots. We actually re-shot half of the video again, with a different location & female lead. If I had my way, I’d use different locations for the scenes shown from 1′:12″ to 1′:25″.

Shot with a Canon 5D Mark II at 30 fps, and then it was slowed-down to 24p. Majority of footage was shot with the Canon f1.4 50mm lens. My own “ExtraFlat” Picture Style was used (minimum color grading was done in post, it just came out exactly as I wanted it to).

1. How did the Album Leaf music video happened? Did you approach Sub Pop, or they approached you etc?

Matthew Brown: I made a random art video for my video journal on Vimeo called PETAL showcasing the tulip farms in Washington State, and the band saw and liked my style of shooting and editing and immediately wanted to do something with me. After a few months of no contact I get a message from Jimmy Lavalle (the lead singer of The Album Leaf) saying that he’s watched all my videos and really wants me to do a music video for his upcoming album. The next thing I know, Sub Pop Records says hello.

2. How was the idea for the music video evolved? Did you story board, or you filmed in a free flow way that you put together later?

Matthew Brown: When Sub Pop contacted me, they basically gave me a budget and wanted to have something within two weeks or so. I had a nice conversation with Jimmy on the phone; he told me he wants four things for sure in the video…children, an elderly person, tall grass, and aerial shots (which were chosen because those were some things in my past videos he liked a lot). So, with the time restraint and those four items, I came up with a little idea. The evolution of the actual story and full idea came while shooting. We basically made up everything as we went. We were in the middle of one shot and said, “Wait, what if we did this?”…then that would take us to another moment of the same thinking. The ideas were definitely all over the place. We kind of knew what we were doing, but I think with the weight of the deadline on our shoulders we couldn’t really think about it, haha. I think the editing created the story for sure. It shaped it into something tangible and not too abstract…luckily. We made a simple shot list, but even that wasn’t concrete. I don’t think we even looked at the shot list after we had come up with it. It was just floating thoughts in the back of our minds. I’m a very visual thinker, so I kind of knew what felt right when we were doing it.

3. How different, if at all, is to shooting+editing an actual music video compared to your other videos?

Matthew Brown: I get the same feeling when shooting both a little fun artsy video and an actual music video. With one of my artsy videos I have more leverage to allow it to be abstract, maybe not go anywhere by the end, and with a music video (in most instances) you have to at least “go somewhere” with the concept…it’s got to hook in some way to make the viewer want to watch. My artsy videos are my way of documenting the world around me in a beautiful, emotional way. With music videos, there’s a lot of fiction being told…I think the documenting aspect has to often leave the scene and let something strange and wondrous in. To me, music videos are WAY more fun and challenging. As far as editing, the only difference would be that in music videos I’m a little more hesitant to be experimental, because as everyone knows, they call them experiments because they don’t know what is going to happen or whether or not they’ll even work.

4. What gear did you use exactly to shoot the video? Did you have a crew?

Matthew Brown: We used three cameras, a very bunch pair. The Canon 7D, the Canon HV40, and the Panasonic HVX. Unfortunately, we were only able to use the footage from the 7D and HV40 because there wasn’t enough time to gather and “convert” the footage from the HVX. I was shocked that the footage of the 7D and HV40 was very seamless through the video. I’d say it was 60% 7D footage and 40% HV40 footage. I don’t think people would be able to tell to much. We had two camera rigs for the 7D, one was the Zacuto Gunstock Shooter (that I was privileged to get from my Zacuto award last year), and then another, bigger, rig compiled of both Zacuto and Redrock parts…pretty much a shoulder mount with handle bars in front, hehe. As you can tell, I’m not a very technical person. We had a little DIY dolly with us for a couple of shots. Other then that, it was all handheld. No tripod in sight. For crew, I had the amazing Nate Miller. He’s definitely been my partner in crime on my bigger projects. He played role of cinematographer/assistant director/producer. He knows exactly what I want. Definitely my key person. We had another producer (Ian Todd) acting as the spider web connectors to keep everything together. He was doing the paperwork/emailing/phone call stuff to make sure we were actually getting things done. We had a very talented shooter with us as assistant camera (Christian Hansen) with us as well. HUGE help. During the birthday scene we had a lot of random people show up along with the actor whom I’ve never met before, so we had three coordinators and a couple production assistants.

5. What’s next for Matthew Brown, the filmmaker? Are you interested in directing an actual short movie?

Matthew Brown: Right now I am wanting to get jump started on music videos, and really hone in on my craft and grow creatively, but narrative storytelling is definitely what I’m eyeing at. I am planning a short film where we see the world through the eyes of a little autistic boy as he witnesses his family crumble around him because of his disorder. It’s a very surreal, emotional film that I don’t have funding for right now. I have been trying to raise money to make this project, but it’s been very difficult. I have a couple hundred dollars saved up from generous people so far along with bits of my paycheck, hehe. We are also currently auditioning children with autism to play the roles in the film to make it a more genuine story and to raise awareness easier by showing the true reality of the issue. For now, though, I’ll make music videos and keep experimenting and evolving into more complex and interesting currents of creativity.

Solomon is now selling the new NOKTOR lenses in the US. These are new, Japanese, ultra-fast lenses designed for the micro four thirds cameras, like the Panasonic GH1 and GF1. My guess is that they are probably not the sharpest lenses around, however by the moment the camera resizes down to 1080p, and if you actually need lots of shallow DoF, or to be able to see better in the dark, they do their job.

1. PC
I found this DELL model being the best in terms of features and price. I configured it with the basic PC speakers, Intel Pentium dual-core E5400 (2MB L2, 2.7GHz, 800FSB), 64bit Win7 OS, 4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz, 21.5″ Dell ST2210 Full HD 1080p Monitor with VGA cable, 500GB SATA Hard Drive 7200RPM. Price: $718.

2. PC Extras
A. You need to buy a few extras here: a cheap GeForce PCIe card that has PureVideo HD support (VP2+). The cheapest you can find that can do some good PureVideo will do (Purevideo CUDA is starting to get very good support for h.264 acceleration from many applications, including Flash). You can find such a card for about $60-$70 in other stores, like Geeks.com.
B. An SDHC reader. Must clearly mention SDHC (plain SD won’t do). Price: $10.

3. Camera
If you’re serious doing some video art, then there’s no better buy than the Canon T2i. Smokes any other camera at that price range. Price: $800.

4. Lenses
Start off with 3 lenses. While it’s true that the more expensive ultra-sharp lenses do offer better quality, starting off with some basic Canon lenses will also be acceptable (don’t go for non-EOS lenses). I’d suggest a somewhat fast prime, a longer prime or zoom lens, and a wide-angle one. Overall, depending on what you’re buying and where, these can cost between $350 and $500.

5. SDHC card
Buy a 16 GB SDHC card, Class 6 (slower Class SD cards might get you buffering/skipping problems). Don’t buy no-name flash cards, you might regret it. Price is at around $100.

6. Tripod
Something like this is good enough. As long as its head is “fluid”, and of somewhat good quality, you’re good to go.

7. Sony Vegas Platinum 9
The most advanced non-pro video editor, with full 24p support. You can also configure Vegas Platinum for full-screen 1:1 size preview on the HD monitor mention above (1:1 size preview helps with editing). Price: $75

8. Cineform NeoSCENE
Unfortunately, you can’t edit the Canon dSLR h.264 footage without transcoding it to a faster codec. This is the fastest “intermediate” HD codec of all. Price: $100 (at Videoguys.com).

[Optional]
Buy an ND filter at 0.6 (4x). It will help you get more shallow depth of field outdoors on a sunny day (when the aperture tends to shrink — think of ND filters as sunglasses for your lens). These usually cost between $50 and $70 at the size that your lenses would require it at.

Downloading the original WMV file looks great. Here’s a re-sized still from that WMV:

One very interesting tidbit that I was made aware of just a few moments ago: even the cheapest Canon new digicams now, like the A490 that costs $100 (announced last week), do 29.97 fps instead of the traditional 30.00 fps. This shows a change in the mentality of Canon regarding video, and how they feel that their digicams can play a role in the video market. Happy times ahead for us video geeks. I wouldn’t be surprised if their near-future models also do 24p (23.976 fps), selectable to 25p and 30p.

I’d like the thank the band for their kind words though. Meant a lot to me. We’ve already discussed shooting a new music video for their new EP, so I hope we will be shooting soon!

If you’d like to watch the show, here are the re-runs of the specific episode #5. Our segment is on the second part of the show. Check out first if you have access to the MYX channel btw (Channel #368 on Comcast, I believe):

- Feb 19, Friday at 1730 PT/ 2030 ET and 2100PT/ midnight ET
- Feb 20, Saturday at 2000 PT/ 2300 ET
- Feb 22, Monday at 1200 PT/ 1500 ET

Image quality
Panasonic uses better lenses in most of their HD sub-$300 models, and worse in few others. However, Canon uses 24 mbps bitrate, while Panasonic uses 17 mbps (the format internally is essentially the same, AVCHD-Lite or not). Winner: Canon for footage with more movement, with possibly Panasonic being the winner for static scenes. So it’s a bit of draw here, it highly depends on the model in question.

Low light
Panasonic wins. While the sensor size is the same in the modern crop of P&S cams, Canon has been quite bad in low light lately. That Digic4 chip wasn’t all that it was hyped out to be.

Zoom while recording
Only one model from Canon, the SX210 IS, supports optical zooming while recording. However, as I have explained in the past many times, if you’re doing artistic and not random family videos, then you should not be zooming while recording. It’s a home-video tell-tale sign. Anyways, this goes to Panasonic.

Color Controls
Canon wins hands down. They offer sharpness, contrast, saturation, skin color, and even individual R, G, B manipulation, which can help you get the film look right out of the box! Shooting “flat” also has extreme value when color grading. Panasonic’s color controls pale in comparison. And even their most “flat” mode is not flat enough. It’s high-jacked on saturation and contrast like a 50-year old hooker.

Exposure and lock
Both Panny and Canon have exposure compensation support, but Canon goes one step beyond, by letting you lock exposure. Without locking, your video will look like amateur home video. It’s the No1 feature I personally look into a camera. Without this feature, there’s no sale for me. Even if you give me such a camera for free I wouldn’t touch it.

Manual Focus and lock
Some Canon cams, like the SX200/SX210 IS, have the ability to precisely control the focus (rather than just “macro”, “normal”, “infinity”). For these cams, Canon wins, for the rest, it’s a draw I guess.

Now, if you count the wins and the draws, the two manufacturers almost even out. However, except the zooming while recording (which is a feature that as a filmmaker I couldn’t care less about), Panasonic didn’t win anything with a big lead. Canon on the other hand gets ahead with its color controls and exposure locking (which as I explained is the No1 feature for me). So for the kinds of videos I shoot, and the kinds of videos I encourage people to shoot, Canon has a clear advantage, even if they don’t do everything right. It’s all about what kinds of videos you shoot, so different features have different weight. And I can only speak for the kinds of videos I do.

Now, if you just want to shoot the cat tormenting your dog, or your grandmother putting her teeth back, then a $70 Kodak Zi6 will do the job too. No reason to spend more in that case.

The next step for both manufacturers would be to offer selectable 23.976, 25.00, and 29.97 fps. Full manual control is almost impossible in video mode in these digicams (various hardware constraints), but frame rate selection is not. An adapter hook for a filter thread wouldn’t be a bad idea either, so this way we could somewhat control the outdoors high shutter speeds by using ND filters.