July

July 4

HAPPY INDEPENDANCE DAY!

Shooting the fireworks display with two XDCam EX's has got to be the penultimate fireworks video experience. I finally pulled it off yesterday in THIS video. It was one of the easiest videos I've ever done, thanks to tapeless workflow and DAT-quality audio on the XDCam (not having to bring the laptop and MotU interface along for the ride).

At dusk, there were antique airplanes circling the mall parking lot and adjacent air field. What a spectacle!

People were camped out all over the place, waiting for the Big Show.

Even on the roof of SUVs!

I shot the entire event with two PMW-EX1s, and all of the scaled-down images on this page are frame grabs from the video that I shot.

Here's a few of the fireworks show:

and:

Great stuff, and got great audio this time, too, thanks to careful understanding of how the XDCam's audio system works.

The ExposureRoom.com video is comprised of two reels, one shot at 60fps and the other at 24fps. This was used to fill in the 'dead' periods between rocket launches. The end result is quite a dense display, with fast and slow moving pyros, which gives the viewer a great glimpse of this show, up close and personal.

HAVE CAMERA, WILL TRAVEL: JULY 5 CONCERT IN TOWN

Great sound & picture open opportunities for bringing richer, more immersive experiences to people.

Case in point, last weekend, our town had a series of concerts, of particular interest being the Sonny Carroll Orchestra, a Big Band Jazz group that's famous in the tri-state area.

The wife and I went to the downtown "green" because she wanted to have a piece of America's birthday cake that the Women's Auxiliary was presenting; we ended up staying for the music.

Take a look at this:

All of this on a hand-held video camera! I recorded for an hour and 12 minutes, catching most of the more familiar Jazz numbers and then a few minutes of a "biker rock" band calling themselves "Whitewood." The high energy rock music sounded visceral when played back here at the Lair. Even at low volume late at night, I could sense that this would be a hell of a pounder when cranked up. That XDCam is the ultimate reality capture machine. With the Rode NT4 stereo mic mounted to it, it's ability to capture sound and picture un-matched is just unbelievable. The recordings I made from 35' away sound like a damned CD album. Amazing.

And for you rockers, how about this one:

Amazing impact, eh? All recorded as a bystander/observer who just happened to stroll into the park and whip out his XDCam. I should make a point of bringing this camera to more places. It brings in all sorts of exciting content so easily. Twenty years ago, I needed a van full of equipment to do a fraction of what 9lbs of camera/microphone did here last Saturday.