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This video will probably bore you. DISCLAIMER: THIS VIDEO IS LONG, TEDIOUS, MONOTONOUS and not for fun. This is learning time. If you don't want to learn, go read about how far the latest antenna gets you. Sorry didn't mean to sound condescending but if you don't want to learn this, then just don't. It's only fun if you are excited to become an actual pro and not be told you will be one by "hitting this".
Not the best sentence to pull you in but there is something you guys must know and I've said it before. If you ever hear someone say "Here are the settings so you can look like a professional", you should not listen to that person any more, tell them thank you and move on.
There is one way to look like a pro and that is to practice. Ahhhh, but what to practice? Of course there are the things that separate us aerial photographers from everyone else and that's how to do cool maneuvers, how to fly the thing and make it not just go up, down, left and right but to really know how to strafe, roll, curve, pivot and every other cool trick like that. Tilt shots, panning shots, tracking shots, mixed focal lengths, depth of field play, and so much more. Putting this button on 4k, that on 30fps and -1 on sharpness will NEVER EVER EVER make you a pro.
With that I will stop on what won't make you a pro and start on the basics. IMPORTANT: There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting a prosumer camera for non-professional needs like just bringing it to the park and shooting your family or maybe a step up and bringing it with you to Joshua Tree just to get better pictures than a point and shoot but if you really want to step up your game and make this barely prosumer camera (its a pro bird, consumer camera) and make it look prosumer or even professional, you need to do some work. Even if you have a professional camera (like the Zenmuse X5R), you still need to know these things so you can't just buy a professional camera and be a professional artist. That's like buying a paint brush and calling yourself an artist.
In our craft, there is a small hurdle before you can get paint on that brush (at least the paint you want), sorry for all the analogies. Don't worry though, once you get past this initial what's what phase and have a good understanding of what you are doing, you will be able to take your vids and stills and make so much more with them.
I promised that I would give you guys my "prosumer workflow" as it pertains to shots shot with a prosumer camera that spits out h.264 video (in either QuickTime or Mpeg-4 [mp4]) which are only containers carrying in them the EXACT same ones and zeros but with different interoperability with the machines. Mp4 is usually good for PCs while Quicktime is good for all. It can get confusing as Quicktime is considered a format but people call h.264 and WMV formats when in actuality those are really codecs (compressor/decompressor).
I am not going to go over all that here because I made a video already (a boring one) explaining the differences between the different resolutions and formats that are afforded us on our Phantom 4s (and 3s and some other birds). The process is the same if your original master is not an uncompressed or at least a very lossless codec such as Avid DNxHD 75/150 etc.
Well I am not going to say the whole thing here because I already said it on the video.
My credentials: I have been working in the film and video business for decades in some fashion (usually VFX). If you want to see some of my work, let me know and I will show it. If you have questions, ask them here and if it's off topic, PM me. I am happy to help anyone I can, if I can. I was also an instructor at USC for a couple years and a small stint at Full Sail which has lead me to be, I believe, a fairly good teacher but it's a lot easier for me to teach face to face than like this. In fact, I am still trying to find an identity teaching using digital tutorials.
The information here that I am presenting, I could show you how to do in literally 3 minutes but that's not what I am trying to do. If I was to tell you how to get to the goal, but not give you a reason, or some other things that I go on tangents on, it's pointless. You need to be able to take it and apply it to other things because there are literally 100s if not 1000s of codecs, 10s of worthy editors and 10s of worthy birds.
The reason I am made this video is because I once said that you CANNOT (well you can but SHOULD NOT) use h.264 to edit with EVER, NEVER EVER NEVER EVER. There are so many reason but the two you should care most about is 1) the editor (no matter what editor be it Avid, Premiere, Final Cut X or 7) or any other editor HATE h.264 and WMV (WMV is the PC version of h.264 which eventually just became h.264). 2) Because if you don't, you will lose at least ONE GENERATION of quality (explained in video)
Disclaimer: I am a Mac user and I am not at all a fan of PCs. I used to use PCs exclusively and felt the inversion of that but the Macs in my opinion work better simply because the software designers know exactly what hardware you are using (in general) when with a Windows machine there are literally millions of configurations and the SDK people knowing what you are using is huge for speed.
So here we go:
This is how we take h.264 and with an automated process, blow it up to a useable file (set it and forget it, come back and edit). I had no idea that would rhyme! Nice little jingle.
All video that you see in here is D-Log and un-color corrected and seen through the QuickTime screen capture so don't think you are looking at a final product. Please make sure you switch the resolution to the highest that is available to you, they are both in 4K, but 1080P and below are also all available.
Here is the new video and below that is the video that you should WATCH FIRST if you haven't already. Without the knowledge of what the different formats are, you will have trouble understanding what exactly is being said in the new video. Believe me when I tell you that if you think you know it and you just learned it, you don't. It takes years to really understand encoding, encryption and their counterparts but it's a necessary evil that hopefully one day, your assistant editor will take care of for you but even if he is, you need to speak his language, your DPs language and just to know how to do it.
HOW TO MAKE AN H.264 OUT OF A BIRD TURN INTO A USABLE ITEM (Formats and resolution video link below it)
FORMATS AND RESOLUTIONS (should watch this first if you haven't)
Not the best sentence to pull you in but there is something you guys must know and I've said it before. If you ever hear someone say "Here are the settings so you can look like a professional", you should not listen to that person any more, tell them thank you and move on.
There is one way to look like a pro and that is to practice. Ahhhh, but what to practice? Of course there are the things that separate us aerial photographers from everyone else and that's how to do cool maneuvers, how to fly the thing and make it not just go up, down, left and right but to really know how to strafe, roll, curve, pivot and every other cool trick like that. Tilt shots, panning shots, tracking shots, mixed focal lengths, depth of field play, and so much more. Putting this button on 4k, that on 30fps and -1 on sharpness will NEVER EVER EVER make you a pro.
With that I will stop on what won't make you a pro and start on the basics. IMPORTANT: There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting a prosumer camera for non-professional needs like just bringing it to the park and shooting your family or maybe a step up and bringing it with you to Joshua Tree just to get better pictures than a point and shoot but if you really want to step up your game and make this barely prosumer camera (its a pro bird, consumer camera) and make it look prosumer or even professional, you need to do some work. Even if you have a professional camera (like the Zenmuse X5R), you still need to know these things so you can't just buy a professional camera and be a professional artist. That's like buying a paint brush and calling yourself an artist.
In our craft, there is a small hurdle before you can get paint on that brush (at least the paint you want), sorry for all the analogies. Don't worry though, once you get past this initial what's what phase and have a good understanding of what you are doing, you will be able to take your vids and stills and make so much more with them.
I promised that I would give you guys my "prosumer workflow" as it pertains to shots shot with a prosumer camera that spits out h.264 video (in either QuickTime or Mpeg-4 [mp4]) which are only containers carrying in them the EXACT same ones and zeros but with different interoperability with the machines. Mp4 is usually good for PCs while Quicktime is good for all. It can get confusing as Quicktime is considered a format but people call h.264 and WMV formats when in actuality those are really codecs (compressor/decompressor).
I am not going to go over all that here because I made a video already (a boring one) explaining the differences between the different resolutions and formats that are afforded us on our Phantom 4s (and 3s and some other birds). The process is the same if your original master is not an uncompressed or at least a very lossless codec such as Avid DNxHD 75/150 etc.
Well I am not going to say the whole thing here because I already said it on the video.
My credentials: I have been working in the film and video business for decades in some fashion (usually VFX). If you want to see some of my work, let me know and I will show it. If you have questions, ask them here and if it's off topic, PM me. I am happy to help anyone I can, if I can. I was also an instructor at USC for a couple years and a small stint at Full Sail which has lead me to be, I believe, a fairly good teacher but it's a lot easier for me to teach face to face than like this. In fact, I am still trying to find an identity teaching using digital tutorials.
The information here that I am presenting, I could show you how to do in literally 3 minutes but that's not what I am trying to do. If I was to tell you how to get to the goal, but not give you a reason, or some other things that I go on tangents on, it's pointless. You need to be able to take it and apply it to other things because there are literally 100s if not 1000s of codecs, 10s of worthy editors and 10s of worthy birds.
The reason I am made this video is because I once said that you CANNOT (well you can but SHOULD NOT) use h.264 to edit with EVER, NEVER EVER NEVER EVER. There are so many reason but the two you should care most about is 1) the editor (no matter what editor be it Avid, Premiere, Final Cut X or 7) or any other editor HATE h.264 and WMV (WMV is the PC version of h.264 which eventually just became h.264). 2) Because if you don't, you will lose at least ONE GENERATION of quality (explained in video)
Disclaimer: I am a Mac user and I am not at all a fan of PCs. I used to use PCs exclusively and felt the inversion of that but the Macs in my opinion work better simply because the software designers know exactly what hardware you are using (in general) when with a Windows machine there are literally millions of configurations and the SDK people knowing what you are using is huge for speed.
So here we go:
This is how we take h.264 and with an automated process, blow it up to a useable file (set it and forget it, come back and edit). I had no idea that would rhyme! Nice little jingle.
All video that you see in here is D-Log and un-color corrected and seen through the QuickTime screen capture so don't think you are looking at a final product. Please make sure you switch the resolution to the highest that is available to you, they are both in 4K, but 1080P and below are also all available.
Here is the new video and below that is the video that you should WATCH FIRST if you haven't already. Without the knowledge of what the different formats are, you will have trouble understanding what exactly is being said in the new video. Believe me when I tell you that if you think you know it and you just learned it, you don't. It takes years to really understand encoding, encryption and their counterparts but it's a necessary evil that hopefully one day, your assistant editor will take care of for you but even if he is, you need to speak his language, your DPs language and just to know how to do it.
HOW TO MAKE AN H.264 OUT OF A BIRD TURN INTO A USABLE ITEM (Formats and resolution video link below it)
FORMATS AND RESOLUTIONS (should watch this first if you haven't)
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