Rootclip

I've had a couple people ask me about what equipment we used to produce the "root" video on Rootclip so it seemed appropriate to just write this blog entry outlining what we used and why we used it.

So first off, the camera. We used a Panasonic HVX-200, which is defiantly my camera of choice. I love it because it shoots straight to solid state memory cards instead of tape and this really opens up a lot of possibilities. The advantages you get from using memory cards on a video camera parallel some of the advantages photographers experienced when digital still cameras we introduced and film was abandoned. You are able to non-linearly sort through clips and delete bad takes right in the camera. Also, instead of "capturing" the footage, you are able to simply copy files off of the camera, which happens faster than real time on a nice computer. The HVX also offers variable frame rate, which allows you to do in camera slow motion and in camera time lapse. Also, the HVX allows you to shoot standard definition video in progressive scan, and for the web this is often preferable to high definition 24p or 1080i. At around $5,000 base cost for the camera it is quite pricey, but it's worth it.

You will also need to buy a couple P2 memory cards to shoot with and that will most likely run you a couple thousand.

For a tripod we used a Manfrotto setup with a 501 head. This is a great tripod that provides smooth pans and will not weigh you down too much. It also sturdy enough to support some extra gear on the camera if you have it. Such as a red rock micro lens adapter and HD monitor.

For audio we used a wireless Sennheiser Evolution G2 kit with lav mics. We just used a Sennheiser stick mic to record the voice overs because we already had it in our camera kit, but the shotgun mic that is built onto the camera probably would have been fine. We recorded the voice over in my apartment, which is concrete and lacks furniture so this is really bad for acoustics. To fix this we put a blanket over Erik and Kevin's head when they recorded the voice over to avoid bad reverb and echo (see image). Surprisingly, it ended up sounding pretty good.

When we shot in the Crown & Goose restaurant, we used some lighting as well as many trash bags to block out the light. Because we shot it while it was still light outside, daylight was pouring in through big windows and it really did not give us the dark and mysterious look we wanted. The trash bags did a great job of blocking out the sunlight, and we used a Lowell Rifa 88 to light the scene.

I edited the video using Final Cut Pro on a MacBook Pro. I used After Effects and 3D Studio Max to do all the graphics on the freeze frames where the name of the character pops onto the screen.

The final piece of equipment in our arsenal is a Losmandy Spider dolly with FlexTrak, which allowed us to do some camera moves. This thing is awesome and it enables you to get some really nice looking smooth shots, but it's somewhat hard to setup and pretty costly. Still really cool though.