Making movies out of a backpack
with the Canon 70D and the GoPro Hero 3+,
July , 2017
In late 2005, I was in Maluku, Indonesia where I filmed interviews with these
children. Afterwards, they asked if they could pose for a picture.
Background
In November of 1999, unbeknownst to most of the world, a major technological breakthrough occurred: Sony quietly released a portable computer that YOU COULD EDIT MOVIES ON. A few months before that, Hewlett-Packard had released a portable CD burner and Sony began making video cameras with a built-in "Firewire" port that could be linked directly to a computer without having to pass through an office full of translation devices. Mankind thus reached the new millennium with the potential for putting a functioning movie-production studio into a backpack and I started my movie-making career.
A Decade of Cameras
For years the Sony PD150 and 170 were industry work horses. I carried this camera all over Asia.
The VX 2000 was another camera that I lugged all over the place. It was about like the PD150, but with consumer quality sound.
The PDX-10 never achieved the legendary status of the 150 and 170. Nevertheless it was smaller and still took great movies with professional sound.
I loved the Sony HVR-A1E because it was smaller than the PD150 and took better movies. It is still sold.
The Canon 5D Mark II has turned out to be a game changer.
The Canon 5D Mark III took things to a new level with better sound tools and a better movie picture.
The game changed when Canon released the 70D. Now, at least, there was a DSLR with auto-focus.
I never wanted to own one of these until I actually owned one of these. It's fun and serious at the same time.
Here they are together -- I took this with my cell phone.
All was well with the 70D until the world shifted with the release of Panasonic Lumix GH4. 
Read the reviews and do the math: this lady is, in the opinion of many of us, the hottest girl on the dance floor.
She does 4K, takes beautiful pictures, is lightweight, has adapters for sound coming in and out and all kinds of other bells and whistles.
In 2017 I bought the next of the LUMIX GH series, the GH5. This is also an astounding camera. I made two movies about this camera that deal with two features: slow motion and the ability to take up to 60 pictures a second.
This one is 7 minutes long and is kind
of boring:
This one is not two mintues and it's kind
of exciting:
My story:
In 2001 I bought the Sony DSR-PD150P and then the Sony VX2000. Those was replaced by the Sony PX10, and then, in 2005 the Sony HVR-A1E. So far so good. Then, in late 2008 the world turned upside down when Canon released the 5D Mark II. This was a full-frame 35 mm DSLR still camera that had a movie function. But not just any movie function — this guy could take full high-definition movies in lower light than virtually any camera ever. People started using it to make remarkable movies in low light and in dramatic quality. I had purchased the 5D Mark II to replace its predecessor, the 5D which had been my stills camera for years, but soon I, like the rest of the camera world, concluded that this was an amazing movie camera as well. Shortly after that I sold my Sony HVR-A1E. For me, the days of shooting on tape were over.
Back to our story.
My love affair with the Canon 5D series ended in mid-2013 when the world changed again as Canon released the first DSLR with auto-focus in movie mode that actually worked. The 5D Mark III took great videos, but if your subject moved much, you usually lost the focus. Now those days are gone.
All was well with the Canon until Panasonic released a little camera that had the features that just a few years ago were available only on the $25,000 cameras (really). How could I resist? The Panasonic Lumix GH4 is everything that you've heard it is even if the menus are kind of a total mess. (The menu problem was fixed with the GH5.)
But wait! Didn't you always want a camera that you could swim underwater with, tie around a post and suspend off a bicycle, and stick on top of your hat? If you did, then the GoPro Hero 5 Black is for you. You can see a movie that I produced with it here.
Here the GoPro Hero 3+ is set up to film part of my bike.
So that's the story of my cameras. And it has a happy ending: after all of this, my equipment can still fit into my backpack for production anywhere.
I edit my movies on the PC using Adobe Premiere Pro CC. I once taught Final Cut on the MAC. I was amazed at how similar it was to Premiere Pro. I don't claim that Adobe makes the best movie editing software, but I would say that the race is neck-to-neck with Final Cut. Some people who know both programs prefer Premiere Pro; others Final Cut. Most professionals who can afford it, would prefer to use an Avid, a computer designed solely for digital movie editing. 
If you want to learn movie making, it's a little bit like learning to write. You need to stop thinking about it and actually do it. Classes don't hurt either. For a few weeks every year for five years, I attended classes at San Francisco's Bay Area Video Coalition. The school is dedicated to teaching hands-on digital movie making and apparently they have had some success—the walls of the hallways of BVAC are lined with movie posters advertising the movies of former students. Two of my fellow students had graduate degrees in cinematography, but felt they had missed something in their more academic classes. Studying there was a very good experience.
If you or your organization is interested in learning more about this technology, e-mail me at Thomasriddle at gmail.com.
FAQ, Frequently Asked Questions
What's the big deal about your camera?
Picture and sound quality. Professional camera have color depth that consumer cameras generally do not. Additionally, the GH4 does amazingly well in low light. The picture below is a still from a movie that I made in a place where no movie camera should have to go.
I use a variety of mics. I NEVER use the on-board mic of my cameras for professional work. I really hate it when I hear on-board mics. Drives me cuckoo.
-------------------------------------------
I would be delighted to hear what you think of this.
Making movies out of a backpack
with the Canon 70D and the GoPro Hero 3+,
July , 2017
In late 2005, I was in Maluku, Indonesia where I filmed interviews with these
children. Afterwards, they asked if they could pose for a picture.Background
In November of 1999, unbeknownst to most of the world, a major technological breakthrough occurred: Sony quietly released a portable computer that YOU COULD EDIT MOVIES ON. A few months before that, Hewlett-Packard had released a portable CD burner and Sony began making video cameras with a built-in "Firewire" port that could be linked directly to a computer without having to pass through an office full of translation devices. Mankind thus reached the new millennium with the potential for putting a functioning movie-production studio into a backpack and I started my movie-making career.
A Decade of Cameras For years the Sony PD150 and 170 were industry work horses. I carried this camera all over Asia.
The VX 2000 was another camera that I lugged all over the place. It was about like the PD150, but with consumer quality sound.
The PDX-10 never achieved the legendary status of the 150 and 170. Nevertheless it was smaller and still took great movies with professional sound.
The Canon 5D Mark II has turned out to be a game changer. The Canon 5D Mark III took things to a new level with better sound tools and a better movie picture. The game changed when Canon released the 70D. Now, at least, there was a DSLR with auto-focus.
I never wanted to own one of these until I actually owned one of these. It's fun and serious at the same time. Here they are together -- I took this with my cell phone. All was well with the 70D until the world shifted with the release of Panasonic Lumix GH4.
Read the reviews and do the math: this lady is, in the opinion of many of us, the hottest girl on the dance floor. She does 4K, takes beautiful pictures, is lightweight, has adapters for sound coming in and out and all kinds of other bells and whistles.In 2017 I bought the next of the LUMIX GH series, the GH5. This is also an astounding camera. I made two movies about this camera that deal with two features: slow motion and the ability to take up to 60 pictures a second.
This one is 7 minutes long and is kind of boring:
This one is not two mintues and it's kind of exciting:
My story:
In 2001 I bought the Sony DSR-PD150P and then the Sony VX2000. Those was replaced by the Sony PX10, and then, in 2005 the Sony HVR-A1E. So far so good. Then, in late 2008 the world turned upside down when Canon released the 5D Mark II. This was a full-frame 35 mm DSLR still camera that had a movie function. But not just any movie function — this guy could take full high-definition movies in lower light than virtually any camera ever. People started using it to make remarkable movies in low light and in dramatic quality. I had purchased the 5D Mark II to replace its predecessor, the 5D which had been my stills camera for years, but soon I, like the rest of the camera world, concluded that this was an amazing movie camera as well. Shortly after that I sold my Sony HVR-A1E. For me, the days of shooting on tape were over.
Back to our story.My love affair with the Canon 5D series ended in mid-2013 when the world changed again as Canon released the first DSLR with auto-focus in movie mode that actually worked. The 5D Mark III took great videos, but if your subject moved much, you usually lost the focus. Now those days are gone.
All was well with the Canon until Panasonic released a little camera that had the features that just a few years ago were available only on the $25,000 cameras (really). How could I resist? The Panasonic Lumix GH4 is everything that you've heard it is even if the menus are kind of a total mess. (The menu problem was fixed with the GH5.)
But wait! Didn't you always want a camera that you could swim underwater with, tie around a post and suspend off a bicycle, and stick on top of your hat? If you did, then the GoPro Hero 5 Black is for you. You can see a movie that I produced with it here.
Here the GoPro Hero 3+ is set up to film part of my bike. So that's the story of my cameras. And it has a happy ending: after all of this, my equipment can still fit into my backpack for production anywhere.
I edit my movies on the PC using Adobe Premiere Pro CC. I once taught Final Cut on the MAC. I was amazed at how similar it was to Premiere Pro. I don't claim that Adobe makes the best movie editing software, but I would say that the race is neck-to-neck with Final Cut. Some people who know both programs prefer Premiere Pro; others Final Cut. Most professionals who can afford it, would prefer to use an Avid, a computer designed solely for digital movie editing.
If you want to learn movie making, it's a little bit like learning to write. You need to stop thinking about it and actually do it. Classes don't hurt either. For a few weeks every year for five years, I attended classes at San Francisco's Bay Area Video Coalition. The school is dedicated to teaching hands-on digital movie making and apparently they have had some success—the walls of the hallways of BVAC are lined with movie posters advertising the movies of former students. Two of my fellow students had graduate degrees in cinematography, but felt they had missed something in their more academic classes. Studying there was a very good experience.
If you or your organization is interested in learning more about this technology, e-mail me at Thomasriddle at gmail.com.
FAQ, Frequently Asked Questions
What's the big deal about your camera?
Picture and sound quality. Professional camera have color depth that consumer cameras generally do not. Additionally, the GH4 does amazingly well in low light. The picture below is a still from a movie that I made in a place where no movie camera should have to go.
I use a variety of mics. I NEVER use the on-board mic of my cameras for professional work. I really hate it when I hear on-board mics. Drives me cuckoo.
-------------------------------------------
I would be delighted to hear what you think of this.
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