Question about live performance captation

Hello everybody,

Here we are, I finally made my live system for my project.
Now It’s time to test it, and to film it.

I come to you, to have advices, I have a canon 600d with a 50mm.
I know how to use it, but I never made a live captation.

It’s, I think, a little particular, there is a low light (only machines and projection, so a lot of dark locations on the final image).

I come to you not to have artistic ideas, but just to have advices, to keep the best possible quality…

perhaps, some of you have you already made something like this?

Thank you!

Hey one thing I found is the most important one:
Tell the camera guy what to film.
If you expect filiming the performer is too dark, tell them to focus on the projection. I played incredible amazing visuals projected on a mapping surface and the footage was only about me in the dark with a lot of noise because the cam guy did not film the visuals at all.

So set it up to film the projection as good as possible if there is no light for the performer.

And also important is to make the shutter speed synchronised with the projector.

cheers :)

hehe thank you teckor, but we will be alone for this, so it will be fixed shots only.

We want to concentrate the movie on the projection, and machines, not us.

But you’re right, my biggest fear is the grain, so I think the best solution is to have a low DOF, to decrease ISO no? ho, the shutter synchronised, you’re right I didn’t thought about this!

Thank you!

I saw, for my projector is 120 Hz x 100 kHz, so 100 frames is enough?

  • check for wb, especially when using additional lighting. then you will have to decide which temperature you want to go for

use 2 cams!! one for master, and a closer one.

dof… for the master set focus to 1/3 upstage, if you use a short lens. if you go closer adjust manually.

edit: 600d can’t do 100 frames. go for 50… best thing is you simply check with a short test before performance.

The Plastic Fantastic (50mm, 1.8 Prime) is 3 stops faster than than the kit lens. Means it is better in low light conditions, and it is less than 90 euros. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uNzQG0kf3w

Thanks for these responses guys, Westbam, I have exactly this lens! So is perfect!

drehwurm, sorry I was not talking about frame, I did an error, but about the shutter.

My projector, NEC VT49, have a 100X120 Hz Shutter.
I can calibrate my shutter on 100/1 this is good, but if I want to conserve a high quality (1080p) I can’t have much than 25 frames/sec.

In cinema we said “You must have a shutter two times rapid than frames per sec”…

The question is, do you think can I keep a 100 shutter with a 25 frames/s?

Or maybe I’m completely mistaken?

When you have a higher shutterspeed than framerate*2 you’ll get a sharp, crispy effect. Like if you remember the beginning of the movie “saving private ryan”. Less Motion-Blur.
The problem I see is that you simply might not just get enough light for that thing. When you use the f1.8 50 mm (*1,6 with your 600ds APS-C Chip), and you go for open aperture, you might also want to care about focal lenght.
With my performances (where I also have stage lighting), I usually end up with 400 - 1600 ISO. I always try to stop down at least 2 f-stops.

also check out this: http://www.magiclantern.fm/

Yeah ethermammoth, I tried this software is awesome.