Workflow, shots and takes

[ReadyKilowatt]

Sorry for all the nubee questions...

I'm starting to get the hang of making the most of limited flight time. When I was trained in shooting video (back when dinosaurs and 3/4" tape machines roamed the Earth), we rolled tape, got the take, then stopped tape. If we needed to do another take we usually would stop tape, restage and repeat.

Since at most the longest take will be about 25-30 minutes, I'm thinking even though it might be more hassle to scan through the whole video, the odds of missing an important step while shooting will be minimized if I set up the camera, start rolling, then take off and fly. It will also help color correction if I use a card like the X-rite color passport before takeoff. Besides, a 32GB card will hold plenty of flights and if it gets full there's always the backup.

Keep in mind at this time I'm not passing footage along to a post production pension, just working in house. I'm sure that would open up another can of worms...

 

[Skydog]

I too remember the 3/4" days - Yikes! Poor quality, expensive tape, clunky recording devices, 5 sec pre-roll, Chyron graphics, time base correctors, drop more than one generation and everything falls apart -
Technology has come a long way!
That being said, I only shoot the pre-planned shots I want - continuous filming creates a long, long search time to pick out the good stuff. I plan out each shot I want and do re-takes until I get it right - then when I go to edit I can usually go straight to the last shot for that scene and know that is probably the one I will use. When flying/recording I always replay the first couple of shots right away to make sure everything is working properly. If something fails or is corrupted I don't lose all of that time and footage.

 

[The Editor]

Sorry for all the nubee questions...

I'm starting to get the hang of making the most of limited flight time. When I was trained in shooting video (back when dinosaurs and 3/4" tape machines roamed the Earth), we rolled tape, got the take, then stopped tape. If we needed to do another take we usually would stop tape, restage and repeat.

Since at most the longest take will be about 25-30 minutes, I'm thinking even though it might be more hassle to scan through the whole video, the odds of missing an important step while shooting will be minimized if I set up the camera, start rolling, then take off and fly. It will also help color correction if I use a card like the X-rite color passport before takeoff. Besides, a 32GB card will hold plenty of flights and if it gets full there's always the backup.

Keep in mind at this time I'm not passing footage along to a post production pension, just working in house. I'm sure that would open up another can of worms...

Are you talking about the I1 or I2 (or something else) as you have posted in the Photos and Video section?
Also, you will not be able to record any one shot longer than 30 minutes (due to how still v video cameras are taxed for import purposes) - threads on this already on the forum.
30 mins continuous max recording time to circumvent taxation laws.

 

[ReadyKilowatt]

Are you talking about the I1 or I2 (or something else) as you have posted in the Photos and Video section?
Also, you will not be able to record any one shot longer than 30 minutes (due to how still v video cameras are taxed for import purposes) - threads on this already on the forum.
30 mins continuous max recording time to circumvent taxation laws.

I1 pro with X5s camera. Interesting about the 30 minute hard limit. When that happens on my Canon cameras I just figured it was because some buffer filled up. But given the battery life and time needed to set up a shot I didn't figure it being much of a problem with the Inspire 1, in fact it never occurred to me that it might be possible to record longer than 30 minutes.

But I wasn't asking a specific question about a type of hardware, just what works for people. With all the things to keep track of when flying I thought it might make sense to just keep rolling and that way you know that one thing is taken care of before takeoff.

 

[ReadyKilowatt]

I too remember the 3/4" days - Yikes! Poor quality, expensive tape, clunky recording devices, 5 sec pre-roll, Chyron graphics, time base correctors, drop more than one generation and everything falls apart -
Technology has come a long way!
That being said, I only shoot the pre-planned shots I want - continuous filming creates a long, long search time to pick out the good stuff. I plan out each shot I want and do re-takes until I get it right - then when I go to edit I can usually go straight to the last shot for that scene and know that is probably the one I will use. When flying/recording I always replay the first couple of shots right away to make sure everything is working properly. If something fails or is corrupted I don't lose all of that time and footage.

Thanks for the response. At this point, I'm just thinking about the strange things that seem to change between shots, especially if not in full manual mode (which I'm learning is really the only way to go anyway). Even using manual white balance it seems like I get a slightly different look between batteries, even when the histogram looks the same as before. What seems strange to me is the camera on the Mavic seems to be much better at getting a good shot without a lot of fuss. One would think that a lot of the programming would be similar, much like other camera manufacturers have similar "look and feel" to them, even if the sensors are wildly different.

It helps to practice with the Osmo handle since there's only the camera to work with, adding aircraft control is another complex variable. And given the 20 MPH winds this afternoon (and predicted 40+ MPH winds tomorrow) I might be grounded for a few days anyway.

 

[Skydog]

I always shoot in full manual mode - and even then ISO and aperture settings sometimes revert to different settings between shots - not every time, but often enough that I have to check each time to make sure.