I’ve been meaning to have a bash at a technique called ‘kinetic typography’ for ages now, but only just got around to my first attempt.
The Brief
Basically, my boss asked me to create a quick birthday message for a colleague with the following brief “I want her to think that we’re going to tell everyone her age”. (Yes – HE is the little bird mentioned in the video.) So I suggested that we use this as an opportunity for me to try out kinetic typography to see whether it was suitable for some other projects we’ve got coming up. I wrote the script, recorded the VO and got cracking.
I didn’t finish until about 2am. Man this stuff is laborious. I thought rotoscoping was a pain in the royals, but this is something else! It’s entirely possible that there’s a simpler way to the one I’m using, but sadly, I have no idea what that might be. If you have any suggestions, I’d really love to hear them.
If I haven’t put you off the idea, I’ll be posting a tutorial on the techniques I used to create this video soon (probably starting with a quick tip on how to avoid using Lens Blur).
Stay tuned!
:l
Anyone who’s worked in video production for a while has probably tapped into their inner Magyver at some point. We’re never far from a roll of duct tape, and always ready to use any available equipment in ways that the manufacturer may not have planned.
If you’ve already read my previous article on how to combine a RotoLight RL-48 with a Microsoft LifeCam Studio, you’ll know that I already think that this funky, inexpensive ringlight is a really handy piece of kit. And today, I found another reason to love it.
Autocue / Teleprompter
Shortly after the first iPad was launched, I bought one – it’s a flawed product and I particularly resent the way that iTunes acts like a surly-faced nightclub bouncer whenever I try and copy content across, but it makes a really useful teleprompter. I said as much in this article in the Sydney Morning Herald.
You still need a kit with a one-way mirror to use it inline (so your talent is looking directly at the lens as they read), but there’s a bunch of these solutionsavailable. In a pinch, though, placing it close to the lens will do – just as long as the camera is far enough away to give the illusion of eye contact.
Working to a tight deadline
Unfortunately, there are still one or two pieces of studio kit that I’m waiting for, and an inline autocue kit is one of them. But deadlines are deadlines, and I’ve got a production that requires an autocue now. I used to carefully balance the iPad on the lens hood of my HVX202, but the XF300 I’m currently working with doesn’t have the same gap between the hood and the internal mic. So this isn’t an option.
Looking at what I had available, I had a flash of inspiration – the hotshoe mount for the RotoLight has a stem with a flat disc at the top, so I screwed it into place, and hooked the flap on the back of the standard iPad case over the top. It’s almost like it was made for the job.
It sits at an angle, but still pretty close to the lens.
It couldn’t fit more perfectly.
A couple of points
The XF300 mic has a huge overhang, which lets me tuck the rest of the iPad cover out of the way. Most cameras don’t have this, so you may end up needing to cut the front flap off to avoid covering the lens. Your call.
This example uses the iPad version 1 – I have absolutely no idea if the fancy new case for the iPad 2 can be adapted to this technique.
So now I can fire up ProPrompter and get cracking!
Hope you found this useful,
:l
Before I get started, let me just say that the RotoLight RL-48 is not designed to be a webcam light – it’s a really versatile ringlight for use with D-SLRs and camcorders. One of the unique things about its design is that it just squeezes onto the foam windbreak on your camcorder’s shotgun mic (I use it with my Rode NT-G2), and it runs off three AA batteries, making it very portable and really simple to deploy in the field.
It’s not without its limitations, though – the range is pretty limited, so it’s not going to match a fresnel like this one for punch, and the only way to dim it down is to dismantle it and insert one or more of the included ND filters that are stored in the body.
But like all video equipment, you find out what the limitations are, and work to its strengths instead. As far as I’m concerned, the RL-48 is a seriously handy addition to my off-site kit bag, allowing me to quickly rig up a light source for vox-pops and interviews in seconds. But that’s really not what I wanted to talk about here.
Webcam lighting
Generally speaking, there’s not much to like about webcams. They rarely have decent manual controls, which means that they’re impossible to lock down, and you’re likely to experience all sorts of fun stuff like noise, focus-hunting and exposure/colour balance shifts during use. But let’s be honest – they’re not designed for serious video work. They’re designed to let you see people who are sitting in front of their computers.
The Microsoft LifeCam Studio isn’t without its faults, but it’s safe to say it’s one of the better models on the market. You can, at least, lock the focus, the exposure and the colour balance (assuming you turn off TruColor, which I’d strongly recommend). Interestingly, it’s also one of the only ones I know of that supports a 4:2:2 YUV colour space, which theoretically brings it in line with semi-pro camcorders like the HVX202 and XF300 that I currently use. But the merits of this are debatable given that much of the colour fidelity will be stripped out during its use as a web-based communications device.
A different approach
About my biggest beef with webcams is that they’ve never addressed their biggest shortfall – and that’s lighting. Because you’re sitting at your computer, it’s highly likely that the main light source is going to be the eerie blue light cast onto your face by your monitor. Either that, or there’ll be a window right behind you that causes massive backlighting problems.
So when I was asked to come up with a low-cost solution that would allow non-technical operators to set up a live broadcast that didn’t look as though it was shot in their bedrooms, I knew that I had to address the thorny problem of lighting. And this is what I came up with.
With a bit of lateral thinking, you can break down the Rotolight’s camera mount and attach it to the LifeCam Studio to provide about the best close-range fill light that you’ll find at this price. It does mean that you’ll need to employ a stand or clamp to mount it (and if you’re clamping it to your monitor, I recommend that you don’t overtighten the clamp – this may break your screen), but overall I’m pretty happy with the end result.
The video was shot in an entirely dark room with the RL-48 as the only source, so you can see that there’s more than enough light for night work. Even if you’re shooting in broad daylight, it’s still good practice to use a fill where you can.
Now you just need to find a better microphone solution – but that’s another article!
If you have any tips you’d like to share – post them in the comments section below.
Cheers!
:l
