Just before the turn of the calendar year, Panasonic released the much-anticipated AF100 camcorder, featuring a large 4/3″ 3MOS image sensor, interchangeable lenses, plus all of the pro-video features that come standard on Panasonic professional camcorders. Many heralded the arrival of the AF100 as an answer to those DSLR enthusiasts who bemoaned the various issues associated with DSLR shooting — image wobbling due to the rolling shutter, moire effects, no support for critical audio controls and monitoring, etc. Digital cinematographers wanted the beautiful images and sexy shallow depth of field that the DSLRs offered, but they missed actual professional video features too.

Last Wednesday, VCAM staff and other video pros in the area were treated to a demonstration of the AF100 here in the VCAM studio. Bill Kennedy, Panasonic’s New England sales manager, kindly brought the camera up from Albany to show off for us. So what did we think? Is it a “DSLR killer?”

Well, no. Not really. But maybe sort of, depending on the sort of work you’re doing. Let’s break it down:

Image sensor: the micro 4/3″ image sensor on the AF100 is larger than image sensors you’ll find on other Panasonic video cameras (like VCAM’s HMC150 and HVX200) and there is a corresponding ease with getting a shallow depth of field, as you’d expect. But a 4/3″ sensor is only about 50% of the size of the full-frame 35mm sensor on the Canon 5DmkII, resulting in a 2x crop factor where lens focal lengths are concerned (by contrast, the Canon T2i’s APS-C image sensor yields a 1.6x crop factor). So a 50mm lens on the 5D will act like 100mm lens on the AF100. That’s a pretty big jump. And getting a shallow depth of field (if that’s your bag) out of the AF100 is easier than it is on, say, the HMC150, but it’s not the crazy-beautiful shallow focus of the 5D.

Lenses: Of course, depth of field isn’t just about the image sensor size — f-stop and lens focal length have a lot to do with it too, so being able to swap lenses is a really important feature on any camera that’s going to be used for cinema-style shooting. The lens mount on the AF100 is a “micro 4/3″ mount (I know, I’d never heard of it before either). The bad news is that there are at present, precious few micro 4/3 lenses out there on the market. The good news is that lens manufacturers are selling adapters for just about any kind of lens you might already have. We have a lovely set of Carl Zeiss f-mount primes that go with our HVX200/Letus adapter rig and we were able to throw those onto the AF100 on Wednesday (using the f-mount adapter that Bill K. brought up with him) and they looked great. Bill had brought a Lumix 14-140mm micro 4/3 zoom with him as a basic lens for the camera, but it was slow and didn’t really show off the camera’s ability to produce nice images. Once we threw our Zeiss lenses on, the camera really started to shine.

Here’s the tricky part for people who own their own glass and are considering the AF100: lots of basic video camera features, like iris control, auto-focus, optical image stabilization, etc., require a data connection between the lens and the camera. Unless the lens was made with the AF100 specifically in mind, that data connection won’t exist and all of those things will have to be handled manually. That’s not such a big surprise, but if you want to use, for example, your Canon EOS lenses, you’re in trouble. EOS lenses don’t have manually-adjustable aperture controls on the lens. You can put the lens on the AF100 (with the proper lens adapter), but you won’t be able to change your f-stop.

Other stuff: as video camera functionality goes, the AF100 is pretty great — XLR audio inputs, built-in waveform monitor and vectorscope, ND filters, adjustable shutter speeds, various focus assist gizmos, adjustable ISO/gain, a host of progressive and interlaced frame rates and the important ability to take a video feed straight off the chip set via an SDI-out on the back of the camera (for those who want to avoid compressing via the AVCHD video codec on the SD cards). This is a professional tool that offers the user a lot of manual control.

Conclusions: Don’t think of the AF100 as a “DSLR killer.” Think of it as a halfway point between a DSLR and an HMC150. It tries to give you the best of both those worlds and it actually comes pretty close. Right now, if I have to go out and shoot a spot for VCAM (like this Access 101 piece or this Fit & Healthy Kids PSA, for example — both shot by me on these cameras), I bring both the 5D and the HMC150 to give me a wide range of shooting options. Perhaps with the AF100, I could just bring the one camera and get everything I need.

In terms of depth of field, I actually want a middle ground. For years I shot with the DVX100, HVX200 and HMC150 and constantly stayed at the longest end of the lens and wide open on the aperture in order to force the camera to give me some shallow focus. With the 5D I have the opposite problem. Sometimes I need to have more focus options other than “super shallow,” and I don’t want to have to travel around with a 5-ton grip truck to get the shots I want. The AF100 might just be the Goldilocks camera I’ve been waiting for.

Swiped from an idea by west coast videobloggers Casey McKinnon and Rudy Jahchan, New Media Office Hours is an attempt to bring new-media pros together somewhere out in the world (away from their monitor-lit caves) and get them to interact with members of the public who have questions about filmmaking, videography, digital editing, A/V compression settings, copyright issues, content management systems, how to get good audio, compositing, or anything else that’s even vaguely related to digital A/V media.

In an email, Casey McKinnon described NMOH this way…

New Media Office Hours [is] a way to reach out to new media creators and help answer questions, build the community and work through problems (technical, business, creative, whatever).  In a way, it’s similar to combining the Yahoo Videoblogging Group with the old Apple Store “Meet the Vlogger” events.

It’s especially about building the community. We want content creators of all sorts to come together and network and learn from each other and even to collaborate. If you’re a filmmaker or blogger or radio DJ or podcaster or TV producer — if you produce and/or distribute A/V content of any kind in any medium, this meet-up is for you. No experience necessary — this event is completely n00b-friendly.

So we’d like to officially announce that the first New Media Office Hours (east-coast) gathering will be this coming Monday evening at The Sapa coffeehouse in downtown Burlington at 5:00 P.M. A small group of new-media pros and arm-chair enthusiasts will be on hand to chat with anyone who stops by about whatever is on their mind (related to new-media, that is).

So stop on by on Monday, have some coffee or tea, and talk shop with some new-media folks! Hope to see you there!

BHS teen filmmaker Graham Raubvogel has written and directed a short film for the high school filmmaking club that met at VCAM on Fridays during the last school year. We shot the film at VCAM with a cast and crew made up of professional filmmakers and film club students, resulting an a veritable master class in filmmaking. Eat your heart out, Maine Workshops!

Art Lovers from Graham Raubvogel on Vimeo.

If you click through to Vimeo you can watch the film in HD.

On Saturday students in the Burlington High School after school film club shot a short film in the VCAM space. The film is called “Art Lovers” and is the brain child of BHS sophomore (and award-winning filmmaker) Graham Raubvogel. Graham and fellow students Keith LaFountaine, Steven Jaramillo and Michelle Martinek were joined by a team of professional filmmakers, actors and technicians for the production day, which was a hands-on master class in filmmaking.

One of VCAM’s security cameras caught all the action, one frame per second. Below is all 12 hours of shooting — from the minute the first crew walked in the door at 8:00 AM, until the last staff person shut out the lights and left at 8:00 PM — compressed into a single minute of video. Enjoy…

VCAM Production Manager Bill Simmon will be running a 4-week long multi-session workshop on videoblogging and podcasting beginning next Thursday evening, February 19. The sessions will run for four consecutive weeks from 6-8 pm. This workshop is open to any VCAM member who can demonstrate basic computer competency skills (file management, web searching, cut/copy/paste, etc.). There is an enrollment limit of five. (Not a VCAM member yet? Call 802-651-9692 to get involved!)

If you would like to reserve a spot in the class, email bill (bill@vermontcam.org). Please only enroll in the workshop if you can attend ALL FOUR sessions. The workshop description follows…

This 4-week course is intended for people who are curious about making their own podcasts and/or video-blogs.  Throughout the 4 weeks, students will build a blog, produce their own podcast or video-blog episodes and publish them online with subscribable RSS feeds.  No prior blogging or podcasting experience necessary.  Only basic computer/web-surfing skills are required.

Open to any VCAM member (basic computer skills required – if you’re not sure, ask the instructor) – 5 students per class.

NOTE: VCAM will provide the computers, software and cameras for this course, but we recommend that students have their own gear as well so that they can continue to explore the world of social media beyond the class.

Want to use your own gear?  Here’s what you’ll need, at a minimum:

•    A late model PC or Mac with firewire and/or USB inputs.
•    The latest version of Apple Quicktime Pro ($30 from apple.com).
•    A digital video camera with firewire or USB outputs.

Cross-posted from Candleblog…

So only half of my intro to filmmaking class showed up last night and it was the week I was to introduce their documentary filmmaking assignment. I went over the process for making a documentary film that I wanted them to use in class, but because so many students were absent, I wound up writing it all down as a step-by-step process in an email to them. So I figured, as long as I’m typing it out, I might as well share it broadly.

This is by no means how every doc filmmaker makes films — I don’t even follow these steps exactly in my own filmmaking — but it’s a good process that works and is easy to follow for first-timers. Were I to write a longer piece or a book on this, I would include tips about getting good picture and audio and on conducting interviews and on different doc forms and techniques.

This process assumes that the filmmaker has access to a digital video camera and a computer-based editing system.  It further assumes the doc you’re making is interview-based. Many documentaries contain no interviews at all. This may not be a very useful process for those films.

1. RESEARCH – What do you think the story is? What’s the conflict? Who is the main character? Who is the audience for your film? Conduct pre-interviews by phone with potential subjects. Who will you interview on camera? What other visuals or archival materials do you have (photos, video, film, documents, etc.)?  If you’re making an argumentative piece, try to understand all sides of the issue as best you can.
2. SHOOT INITIAL INTERVIEWS – Get your main subjects talking on-camera. Make sure they answer in complete sentences — get them to say the things you want in the way you want them to. Don’t be afraid to ask them to rephrase their answers. Make sure the audio is clean and get all subjects to sign a release (MS Word doc)! Shoot targets of opportunity as you interview the subjects. If you’re interviewing an academic expert, get shots of the degrees on his/her office wall, items on the desk, etc. Does the subject mention items nearby that are easy to shoot? Don’t make yourself have to come back later to pick up missed shots. Also, allow yourself to follow unexpected paths. You may have started out wanting to make a film about an upcoming city council vote, but if you discover evidence of government corruption in your research and interviews, be willing to change the focus of your film.
3. TRANSCRIBE YOUR INTERVIEWS – Type, type, type. Include timecode information on your transcripts so the words relate to their location on the tape(s). On average, you want at least 3 or 4 references to the TC on each single-spaced page of transcribed interviews. I like to use a two-column table in MS Word with the first column containing the TC and interview questions and the second (larger) column containing the text of the responses.
4. MAKE A “PAPER EDIT” – sit down with your transcriptions (and a highlighter and a hot cup of cocoa) and select the quotes that support the story you want to tell, then arrange them in the order that best tells that story. You can literally cut them out and arrange them on the floor or you can copy and paste them — but remember to keep the TC info handy for each bit you use. This is how you make the skeleton of your film.
5. CAPTURE YOUR INTERVIEW FOOTAGE – Focus on capturing the selected parts from your paper edit using the timecode info you wrote down with your transcriptions.
6. EDIT A ROUGH CUT – Edit together your interview footage in skeletal form, making sure the audio of the interviews is clean and sounds natural — don’t worry about the picture yet. There will be some ugly cuts in your footage that you’re going to cover up with the footage you shoot in the next step. As you edit, consider the form of the finished film. Will you include voice-over narration, titles, music? What’s your hook? Are you using narrative techniques like reveals? How will the pacing work? Feel free to include placeholders for footage you have not acquired yet — usually blank frames with text describing what will go there eventually.
7. SHOOT “B-ROLL” – Listen to the what the interview subjects are talking about and make a list of “b-roll” footage to go out and shoot. If your subject is talking about the shop where she/he works, go shoot the outside of the shop (an establishing shot) and some footage of the subject doing his/her job. B-roll footage will make up a significant amount of your doc, so shoot lots of it! Make sure it relates to the things your subjects are talking about in the rough edit you made. NOTE: it’s important to shoot your b-roll AFTER you make your rough cut. Before the rough cut, you don’t know which interview bits you’ll use and you may wind up shooting b-roll that is irrelevant to your film.
8. GATHER YOUR ARCHIVALS – Shoot other targets of opportunity and gather your archival materials. Is your film about an event? Go shoot footage of the event. Are you making a film about the history of zombie culture in VT? Make sure you shoot the Church St. zombie walk tomorrow! Scan any photos or documents that may be relevant. If your subject talks about scoring the winning goal in his high school hockey championship game, does he have a photo of his team? Is there video of the game? You get the idea. Gathering these items can happen at any point in the doc-making process.
9. EDIT! – Assemble your film. Remember you’re telling a story just like in fictional narrative films. What’s your hook? Where is the conflict? Who are the main characters? Always ask yourself these questions. Does your film succeed at the goals you had when you began making it?