Video Guidance

[RICoder]

Hello fellow videographers! I'm looking for guidance, and hope you can help.

I've been doing photography (above and below the surface) for a long time now, and feel quite comfortable with my skills. I have recently gotten into videography and find myself seriously lacking in skills, in that my videos lack any "grab" to them...and certainly lack that documentary smoothness.

First, equipment:
Canon ZR200 (16:9 mode)
Ikelite housing

Second, what I mean:
Essentially, I find my videos to be a bit shaky and/or twitchy, and I find that when I am filming, say a wreck or a reef shot, even zoomed all the way out, that things are not as wide as they could be.
Color is also and issue, and I'd be willing to hear commentary on lighting systems, as I have none now.
One issue I have is that when I feel I am far enough away from, lets say a wreck, to get that WIDE, slow, move in feel, the water is too dense to get anything on film.

I know this is all disjointed, and sounds like a ramble...but any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Rick Murchison]

Consider that the movement of the camera, the framing, the zooming, the setting of the camera etc... with the possible exception of the video light itself, is the same whether you're rolling or not.
I roll from the beginning of the dive to the end, and save the editing for later. If I think the light needs to be off while I get in position I turn it off, but let the camera roll...
Rick

 

[ronrosa]

....Essentially, I find my videos to be a bit shaky and/or twitchy, and I find that when I am filming, say a wreck or a reef shot, even zoomed all the way out, that things are not as wide as they could be.
Color is also and issue, and I'd be willing to hear commentary on lighting systems, as I have none now.
One issue I have is that when I feel I am far enough away from, lets say a wreck, to get that WIDE, slow, move in feel, the water is too dense to get anything on film.

I know this is all disjointed, and sounds like a ramble...but any advice would be appreciated.

Shaky and twitchy are things all videographers have problems with. You can edit out the really bad stuff and hopefully still have enough footage left. Having good buoyancey and a neutrally buoyant housing will help.

Wide angle requires a special lens. You are probably using a standard flat port with your Ikelite. If you want wide angle for things like wrecks you will need a wide angle lens to attach to your port.

Coloring is improved with filters, lights, white balancing and the quality of your camcorder. Most of us only use lights for close-up or macro work. For standard and wide angle shots, most lights are not powerfull enough to overcome the sunlight. Your Ikelite should have come with a filter. The better camcorders offer better coloring and ability to manually white balance the colors.

Funny you mention wide angle, wrecks and coloring. I just posted a video of a very large wreck. It was shot with a wide angle dome lens. I edited it in B/W for more drama. Sometimes coloring isn't everything. Yes, I still need to edit out the shaky parts.

 

[paulpost]

If you use the camcorder in 16 :9 mode according to camcorderinfo.com review of your camcorder you don't have any electronic stabilization doe to the small size of the CCD. This may be the reason of shaky videos. Just to test switch to 4:3 and compare.
Good luck.

 

[RICoder]

Thanks for the input so far.

Rick, I'm going to start doing this, just let it roll the whole time and do the edit later, that's why god made computers.

ronrosa, gonna have to check out your video (you can post a link, but I'm gonna search too). I do have the orange color correcting filter that the Ikelites come with, always found them affective with my still cams. The wide-angle thing...well, I'll have to poke around and try to find one.

paul, interesting that you say this. I know that if I switch the control mode (i.e. simple -> P) that it will drop the stabalization...but not if I go to 16:9, well, at least the icon for it is still on. I'll do some tests and let ya know.

 

[Mike Veitch]

DO NOT LET IT ROLL THE WHOLE TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Worse mistake you can make, means hours and hours of cutting and editing..

Shoot in 5-10 second clips. Then when you import select the option to have the program automatically make the clips. This means each time you hit stop on the camera the program will make a new clip...

Then you can just trim the front and back of the clip.

If you do what Rick suggests then you need to continually cut one long clip... a big time waster...

 

[paulpost]

Don't take my opinions for granted, the website I've motioned (camcorderinfo.com) is where I've got my info's , please check it out and see for yourself, regarding the wide angle lens in my opinion is a must for U/W video, all you have to do is to know what is the thread diameter for your camcorder and accordingly shop for the right lens, make sure you have enough room inside the housing to accommodate the lens.

 

[paulpost]

I must say that he is right, you can go with what Rick sed but it is more time consuming in front of your computer if you do batch capture (depending on your editing software), but if you have enough battery life for your camcorder go for full time recording you never know what may come up and if your camcorder is off by the time it will get back on the action will be gone

 

[paulpost]

Dear MIke,
I am not a profesional, for me is just a hobby, but acording to the book by Jim Church (god rest his soul) all that you have to do is to run the tape thru your camcorder with the cap on to set a time code on the tape before taping. please let me know whether what I've learnd is wright or not

 

[Rick Murchison]

DO NOT LET IT ROLL THE WHOLE TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Worse mistake you can make, means hours and hours of cutting and editing..

Shoot in 5-10 second clips. Then when you import select the option to have the program automatically make the clips. This means each time you hit stop on the camera the program will make a new clip...

Then you can just trim the front and back of the clip.

If you do what Rick suggests then you need to continually cut one long clip... a big time waster...

I suppose it's a matter of perspective. I find that the "hours of cutting and editing" more than make up for the "missed shots." On a week long vacation I typically take about 18 hours of video, from which I extract about an hour of really good stuff. When I try clips under water I'm forever thinking "aw, ****, missed that one!"
As for duration, that sort of depends on the subject, what it's up to, and how you want to coreograph it...
For example, this, and this...
"Dance of the Loggerhead" and "Backfinning" respectively
Rick