If you're going to get fancy with your podcast and shoot with multiple cameras, you'll probably want to buy a video mixer. Video mixers, like audio mixing desks, take multiple video inputs and allow you to switch between them. They also offer special effects like picture in picture and cross fading between sources (see Figure 1).
Tip Of course, you can get the effect of a multiple-camera shoot by being clever with your editing. This common technique is used in news gathering, where the interviewer asks questions off camera while the interviewee is taped answering the questions. Then, when the interview is finished, the interviewer is taped asking the questions, and the result is edited to look as if two cameras were used during the interview.
Most cameras used for podcasting applications are camcorders, so they record the signal to tape. The video signal can also be recorded directly onto your computer via the FireWire output. It's always a good idea to record to tape as backup even if you're recording directly to your computer. If you're using multiple cameras and a video mixer, you also may want to consider recording the output of the mixer to a video tape recorder (VTR). Otherwise, you must digitize the tapes from all your cameras to recreate the live edit if something goes wrong.
Of course, you can purchase a stand-alone video deck, or more interestingly, you can now record straight to an external drive such as Focus Enhancements' FireStore (see Figure 2). These units record digital video from a FireWire cable so you don't have to digitize later. You just attach the FireStore to your video editing station, and it appears as an external drive.
Monitoring
Even though many cameras come with flip-out LCD screens that allow you to monitor your video, these screens really aren't good enough for quality control. You should buy a small monitor (which in the video sense is a small video display) so you can check the lighting of your subjects. If you aren't shooting on location, you can use a television with an auxiliary input, but be careful: Televisions are built to flatter the video image and often are far out of alignment from the broadcast standard. If you go this route, buy one of the kits that help you calibrate your television display.
Video interfaces/capture cards
At some point, you have to get the video signal out of the camera and into your video-editing workstation. If your camera and workstation both have FireWire, you're in luck: All you need to do is connect them with a FireWire cable, and you can import the video data directly. If your workstation doesn't have a FireWire card, you can pick one up for less than $50 these days.
If your camera doesn't have a FireWire output, you can get a digital video converter box that takes an analog video signal as input and outputs a DV signal via FireWire (see Figure 3). The nice thing about having a digital video converter is that you can plug any video signal into it, such as a DVD player or old VHS player. Alternatively, you can buy a video capture card. Video capture cards take analog video as input and digitize it to your hard drive. Video capture cards range in price from under $100 to many thousands of dollars. For the most part, however, the convenience of DV cameras with FireWire outputs is hard to beat.
No comments:
Post a Comment