Digital filmmaking handbook

523 Pages·2000·11.521 MB·English

by  Ben Long, Sonja Schenk

D
IGITAL
F
ILMMAKING
H
ANDBOOK
LIMITED WARRANTY AND DISCLAIMER OF LIABILITY
CHARLES RIVER MEDIA, INC. (“CRM”) AND/OR ANYONE WHO HAS BEEN INVOLVED IN
THE WRITING, CREATION OR PRODUCTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING CODE (“THE
SOFTWARE”), OR THE THIRD PARTY PRODUCTS CONTAINED ON THIS CD, CANNOT
AND DO NOT WARRANT THE PERFORMANCE OR RESULTS THAT MAY BE OBTAINED BY
USING THE SOFTWARE. THE AUTHOR AND PUBLISHER HAVE USED THEIR BEST EF-
FORTS TO ENSURE THE ACCURACY AND FUNCTIONALITY OF THE TEXTUAL MATERIAL
AND PROGRAMS CONTAINED HEREIN; HOWEVER, WE MAKE NO WARRANTY OF ANY
KIND, EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, REGARDING THE PERFORMANCE OF THESE PRO-
GRAMS.THE SOFTWARE IS SOLD “AS IS “ WITHOUT WARRANTY (EXCEPT FOR DEFECTIVE
MATERIALS USED IN MANUFACTURING THE DISK OR DUE TO FAULTY WORKMANSHIP);
THE SOLE REMEDY IN THE EVENT OF A DEFECT IS EXPRESSLY LIMITED TO REPLACE-
MENT OF THE DISK, AND ONLY AT THE DISCRETION OF CRM.
THE AUTHOR, THE PUBLISHER, DEVELOPERS OF THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE, AND ANY-
ONE INVOLVED IN THE PRODUCTION AND MANUFACTURING OF THIS WORK SHALL
NOT BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES OF ANY KIND ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF(OR THE IN-
ABILITY TO USE) THE PROGRAMS, SOURCE CODE, OR TEXTUAL MATERIAL CONTAINED
IN THIS PUBLICATION. THIS INCLUDES , BUT IS NOT LIMITED TO, LOSS OF REVENUE OR
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USE OF THE PRODUCT.
THECDWHICHACCOMPANIESTHISBOOK MAY BE USED ON A SINGLE COMPUTER
ONLY. THE LICENSE DOES NOT PERMIT THE USE ON A NETWORK (OF ANY KIND). YOU
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RESPECTIVE PRODUCTS. USE, DUPLICATION OR DISCLOSURE BY THE UNITED STATES
GOVERNMENT OR ITS AGENCIES ARE LIMITED BY FAR 52.227-7013 OR FAR 52.227-19, AS
APPROPRIATE.
THE USE OF “IMPLIED WARRANTY” AND CERTAIN “EXCLUSIONS” VARY FROM STATE TO
STATE, AND MAY NOT APPLY TO THE PURCHASER OF THIS PRODUCT.
D
IGITAL
F
ILMMAKING
H
ANDBOOK
Ben Long and
Sonja Schenk
CHARLES RIVER MEDIA, INC.
Rockland, Massachusetts
Copyright © 2000 by CHARLES RIVER MEDIA, INC.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced in any way, stored in
a retrieval system of any type , or transmitted by any means or
media, electronic or mechanical including, but not limited to,
photocopy, recording, or scanning, withoutprior written permission
from the publisher.
Publisher: Jenifer Niles
Production: Publishers’ Design and Production Services, Inc.
Cover Design:The Printed Image
CHARLES RIVER MEDIA, Inc.
P.O. Box 417
403 VFW Drive
Rockland, Massachusetts 02370
781-871-4184
781-871-4376(FAX)
[email protected]
http://www.charlesriver.com
This book is printed on acid-free paper
All brand names and product names mentioned are trademarks or
service marks of their respective companies. Any omission or misuse
(of any kind) of service marks or trademarks should not be regarded
as intent to infringe on the property of others. The publisher
recognizes and respects all marks used by companies, manufacturers,
and developers as a means to distinguish their products.
Digital Filmmaking Handbook
by Ben Long and Sonja Schenk
ISBN: 1-58450-017-4
Printed in the United States of America
00 01 02 03 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
CHARLES RIVER MEDIA titles are available for site license or
bulk purchase by institutions, user groups, corporations, etc. For
additional information, please contact the Special Sales Department
at 781-871-4184.
C
ONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
WHAT KIND OF EQUIPMENT DO I NEED?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
WHAT IS DIGITAL VIDEO?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
WHY DIGITAL VIDEO?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
WHAT THIS BOOK COVERS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
POP QUIZ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
CHAPTER 2 PLANNING YOUR PROJECT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
BEFORE YOU START. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
WRITING FOR DV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
SCHEDULING YOUR PROJECT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
BUDGETING. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
PAYING AS YOU GO. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
BUDGETING CAN BE FUN. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
CHAPTER 3 PREVISUALIZATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
STORYBOARDING. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
SUMMARY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
CHAPTER 4 CHOOSING A VIDEOTAPE FORMAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
DELIVERY IS EVERYTHING. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
VIDEO BASICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
VIDEO FORMAT FEATURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
VIDEOTAPE FORMATS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
v
vi CONTENTS
SO WHICH ONE DO I CHOOSE? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
OR, MAYBE IT DOESN’T MATTER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
CHAPTER 5 BUILDING A WORKSTATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
FIRST THINGS FIRST. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
CHOOSING A PLATFORM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
CHOOSING A VIDEO INTERFACE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
CHOOSING A COMPUTER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
FORMATTING YOUR DRIVES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
MANAGING YOUR RAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
CONCLUSION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
CHAPTER 6 CHOOSING A CAMERA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
EVALUATING IMAGE QUALITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
CAMERA FEATURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
ACCESSORIZING. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
CAMERAS COMPARED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
CHAPTER 7 NON-LINEAR EDITING SOFTWARE . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
YOU SAY ON-LINE, I SAY OFF-LINE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
WHAT’S IN AN NLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
GETTING MEDIA INTO YOUR PROJECT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
AUDIO TOOLS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
THE FINAL PRODUCT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
NLES COMPARED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
SUMMARY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
CHAPTER 8 LIGHTING AND ART DIRECTING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
LIGHTING BASICS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
TYPES OF LIGHT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
THE ART OF LIGHTING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
TUTORIAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
INTERIOR LIGHTING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
EXTERIOR LIGHTING. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
SPECIAL LIGHTING SITUATIONS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
ART DIRECTING. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
ROLLING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
CONTENTS vii
CHAPTER 9 SHOOTING DIGITAL VIDEO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
SHOOTING DIGITAL VIDEO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
THE TOOL OF THE TRADE—THE CAMERA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
DURING THE SHOOT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
SPECIAL SHOOTING SITUATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
QUIET ON THE SET, PLEASE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
CHAPTER 10 PRODUCTION SOUND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
WHAT YOU WANT TO RECORD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
MICROPHONES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
SETTING UP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
RECORDING YOUR SOUND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
A GOOD APPROACH. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
CHAPTER 11 EDITING HARDWARE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
HARDWARE AND PERIPHERALS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
DIGITAL VIDEO DECKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
DIGITAL AUDIO EQUIPMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
VIDEO MONITORS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
HARDWARE CONNECTORS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
SUMMARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
CHAPTER 12 PREPARING TO EDIT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
WORST CASE SCENARIO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
HOW TO ORGANIZE YOUR PROJECT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
LOGGING. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
TUTORIAL: SETTING YOUR VIDEO LEVELS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
TUTORIAL: LOGGING AND CAPTURING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
TIPS FOR BETTER LOGGING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
CAPTURING ON-LINE QUALITY VIDEO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
TROUBLESHOOTING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
ADVANCED MEDIA MANAGEMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
SUMMARY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
CHAPTER 13 EDITING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
THE INVISIBLE ART. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
BUILDING BLOCKS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
viii CONTENTS
FINE-CUTTING. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
LOCKING PICTURE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
CHAPTER 14 SOUND EDITING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
SOUNDING OFF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
SETTING UP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
DEDICATED SOUND EDITING APPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
EDITING SOUND. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
EQUALIZING IS YOUR FRIEND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
CHOOSING SOUND EFFECTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
MUSIC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
FIX IT IN THE MIX?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
CHAPTER 15 COLOR CORRECTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
TO COMPRESS, OR NOT TO COMPRESS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
COLOR CORRECTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
TUTORIAL: CORRECTING WHITE BALANCE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
PUT A CLAMP ON IT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
CORRECTING COLOR FOR FILM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356
CHAPTER 16 TITLING AND SIMPLE COMPOSITING . . . . . . . . . . . 357
TITLES AND SIMPLE GRAPHICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358
COMPOSITING 101. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364
TUTORIAL: Creating a Luminance Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
TUTORIAL: Using a Chroma Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372
TUTORIAL Creating a Title in Photoshop. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385
TUTORIAL: Variable Transparency. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
MOVING PICTURES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394
TUTORIAL: Creating a Credit Roll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396
TUTORIAL: Adding Camera Shake. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400
SUMMARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406
CHAPTER 17 ROTOSCOPING AND MORE COMPOSITING . . . . . . . . 409
ROTOSCOPING. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410
TUTORIAL: Rotoscoping a Simple Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414
TUTORIAL: Painting an Alpha Channel by Hand . . . . . . . . . 421
TUTORIAL: Color Correcting Part of an Image . . . . . . . . . . 429
TUTORIAL: Exploding Heads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436
CONTENTS ix
SPECIAL EFFECTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450
MAKING YOUR VIDEO LOOK LIKE FILM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453
TUTORIAL: Creating Film Grain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455
RENDERING. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461
CHAPTER 18 OUTPUTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463
MASTERING YOUR OUTPUTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464
VIDEOTAPE MASTERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465
THE FINAL AUDIO MIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478
OUTPUTTING TO CD-ROM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 482
OUTPUTTING FOR THE WEB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 492
DVD AUTHORING. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495
GETTING YOUR 35MM FILM RELEASE PRINT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497
CONCLUSION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 504
APPENDIX A CALIBRATING YOUR NTSC MONITORS . . . . . . . . . 505
SETTING UP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506
APPENDIX B ABOUT THE CD-ROM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509
GLOSSARY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513
INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541