An Editblog DVD review
By S Simmons. Filed in Editing |
There is a wealth of tutorial DVDs out in the retail world for those of us involved in digital video and postproduction. Many of those attempt to cover a wide range of subjects and succeed in being a bit too broad. 24P Digital Post Production with Final Cut Pro and the DVX100 is a new tutorial DVD from Noah Kander and Call Box that has a more narrow focus, teaching on the 24P aspects of Panasonic’s ubiquitous DVX-100 and its integration with Apple’s Final Cut Pro.
This narrow focus is a good thing. Noah doesn’t attempt to teach the viewer the technical controls of the camera or how to better compose a shot with the DVX-100’s unique gamma settings but rather the focus is more on the “24P†operation of the camera. There are usually two reasons to shoot in the framerate of 24P with this particular camera. Usually everyone wants the more film-like look and motion of the frame-rate but there are also those who are shooting 24P because they are planning (or wanting) to output to a film print, or at the very least finish the project for a 24 fps DVD. Noah tackles a number of specific questions related to the 24 frame progressive nature of the camera including outputting to film or DVD but more importantly the differences between the 24P advanced mode and the standard mode. This latter difference is worth the cost of the disc alone, as I would venture to guess that most people shooting with this cam really don’t know the difference. They have just been told to shoot in Advanced mode so that’s what they do. The basic technical explanation of how the DVX-100 shoots 24 frames, instead of the NTSC standard of 30 frames per second, is also covered on the DVD. Noah mentions over and over how one must capture all footage from the DVX100 in a 29.97 timebase as the tape coming out of the camera is 29.97, not 24P, as there is an in camera telecine process. The reiterating of this particular point is important as a lot of people shooting with this cam (at least from my experience) don’t really understand how this process works and they are confused when you tell them that the tape is really 29.97. It is my belief that the camera user should know as much as possible about the equipment they are using. This would seem like a no-brainer but that is not always the case. If you are a camera operator or owner just learning the DVX100 then an investment in the DVD is well worth it. I would also recommend it to the director or producer who wants to shoot with this cam but doesn’t have extensive knowledge of why shooting 24 progressive frames might (or might not) be important. There are also lessons on exactly how to tell that your footage is 24P, what the “pulldown†is and how to see it and how to see the interlaced frames in-between. If one has worked with film and the telecine process then pulldown frames are nothing new but to the many video professionals (as well as amateurs and hobbyists) who never have shot film, this concept of adding pulldown to produce a 29.97 frame rate is probably foreign and the lessons on how to “see†the pulldown makes it much more understandable.
Throughout the lessons Noah touches on a number of important technical issues that are usually overlooked, like choosing tape stocks, how and why to use a slate and what options you might have after the shoot when you see dreaded tape dropout on your footage.
The DVD is quite professional though quite bare bones. There’s not a lot of music to distract and only the occasional animation or title card between segments to break things up. When showing screen captures, Noah uses a handy green circle to highlight the cursor and make it easier to see. The only technical information that I took issue with was the mention that for dv capture you need a 4 pin to 4 pin firewire cable. This is dependent on the deck or camera as to the type of connection one might need and while most decks do use a 4 pin connection there are a number of them that use 6 pin as well. And I got a little confused while trying to navigate the DVD to a specific section as the DVD buttons are arrows and they seem to point the wrong direction. But those are just small things. The $75 price tag might seen a little steep at first but when you consider the specialized nature of the content then it is worth the price. And those looking for general DVX100 operational instruction should look elsewhere as the DVD assumes the user has a working knowledge of the camera and its controls. I would recommend this disc to anyone who is using (or plans on using) the Panasonic DVX100 for anything other than the most basic shooting in 29.97 standard DV mode. And any tutorial geared toward postproduction where the teacher stresses the importance of clearly labeling tapes for is worth a recommendation.
