Jani Sourander

As I meantioned in previous post, I was given a Canon 7D for test purposes. Above you can watch an Youtube HD clip (which is nothing compared to real Full HD quality of the film). 

The short film is now at post-production phase. All the sound will be narrated or otherways recorded afterwards. 7D has an internal microphone and a stereo jack for external mic, but this project needs more. Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work, and so on.

Editing 1080p video can be a real pain in the ass. Even if your computer is “good enought for everything normal”, you’ll probably find yourself realising that you’ve run out of nerd power. But don’t worry, there’s a remedy called editing with proxy files.

Editing with proxy files means that you shrink your 1080p clips. Then you use these small files as “placeholders” for the real videos while editing.  Then, right before exporting the media, you just replace the placeholders/proxy files with the BIG ones.

This link contains more specific instructions for Adobe Premiere.

Now someone might ask, why anyone wants to shoot Full HD at all? Well, cause it looks great. And I really mean it. 7D is a still camera, but its video quality is ansolutely stunning. At least when you are not panning. While panning, the image staggers a bit. You can see it in the video above, but better example can be found from here. 

NOTE: Youtube seems to add some staggering effects. Well encoded H.264 staggers so little, that it is hard to notice. The rolling shutter effect, which makes the vertical lines to wobble, is visible only with really fast panning.

I’ve used Canon EF-S 15-85/3.5-5.6 IS USM for filming. The 7D itself is very sturdy, so the lens feels a bit rickety compared to the camera. If you aim down with it, the zoom will slowly slide out. I had to use tape to lock the ring while shooting from a bird’s-eye view.