Comments on: Canon DSLR interview workflow

By: Paul Joy

Paul Joy — Wed, 18 May 2011 00:45:52 +0000

I’ve not used one to be honest John but I know a lot of people do and get good results.

By: john

john — Tue, 17 May 2011 17:49:45 +0000

Great article Paul.

I currently work with an EX1 but like everyone I am looking for the SDoF for interviews. Haven’t got the budget for an F3 or 101 yet, so for a gentle (and cheaper) transition away from ENG I was thinking of the Canon 550 jus to cover SDoF when I need it.

What are your thoughts on the 550 ?

Cheers

John

By: Elin

Elin — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 19:11:42 +0000

really helpful thanks/ my only criticism is that plant competing with the subject ;)

By: Paul Joy

Paul Joy — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 21:03:24 +0000

I use a small manfrotto ball head designed for stills. Re the zoom, yes I just plug the mini jack from my wireless pack into the mix input on the back of the zoom.

I only use the xlr’s if using two wireless packs or a boom mic.

By: Flavio

Flavio — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 14:06:59 +0000

Thanks for the article Paul.

I have a couple of questions.

You mention that you use the 2nd camera on a glidetrack. Which head do you use on the glidetrack for this? I need a lightweight one to take on a job that does not cost too much!

Zoom h4n: Is it relatively straightforward to use? I use a Sony lav mic – do I just plu the receiver into the Zoom h4n?

Thanks,

Flavio.

By: Paul Joy

Paul Joy — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 02:30:11 +0000

I’m a little bit confused about what it is you’re trying to do, it’s pretty straight forward lining everything up in the NLE using the waveforms from the cameras audio and that of your external recorder if that’s what you mean?

By: Michael Tapp

Michael Tapp — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 14:00:53 +0000

Thank you for writing such a thorough article!

I’m an avid guy and I am a DSLR noob too. I shot an interview that is one 10 minute clip. I would like to manually sync up the audio and video and then log the interview. I don’t have the $ for PluralEyes.

Is there a way to create sync up the video & audio without generating any new media? Thank you for the great post!

By: Paul Joy

Paul Joy — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 11:42:50 +0000

Thanks Tyler

It’s a tricky one. So far very few of my interviewee’s manage to get to five minutes without pausing or making a mistake, but for longer runs it would be a big problem. I instinctively reset both cameras at every opportunity and haven’t had a problem so far, although there have been a couple of times when I’ve started getting nervous about that. Same thing with batteries & cf cards though, if it happens it happens I guess.

If I had a shoot where I felt it would look unprofessional for something like that to happen I probably wouldn’t go with DSLR’s.

By: Tyler Gates

Tyler Gates — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 21:10:02 +0000

Great article Paul! One question, what is your strategy for dealing with the 12 minute recording cap on the 7D? Are you just cutting people off, or keeping your interviews really short?

I do a lot of human-interest docs that require people telling long drawn-out stories (then I usually have an intern log them), but I’m new to the DSLR world so I’m curious as to how you’ve dealt with that.

Thanks!

Tyler Gates

By: Paul Joy

Paul Joy — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 09:40:22 +0000

Hi. If you need to transcode to 4×4 after the edit stage then the best way is probably to run the sequence through compressor. I’m not sure why you would want to do that though, the footage will not gain in quality over the codec you’ve edited with (assuming you’ve used ProRes 422 (LT) or similar.