Canon XL1 Nightmare - solutions and observations

[David Thrasher]

Thanks for the warning about XL1's. It's good to know about potential problems before you drops a few thousand bucks.

>shooting. Even if an XL1 is tricked out to accept pro level >field audio, there are several potential problem areas in the >audio chain concerning the mics, the mixer, and the audio >connection itself which are prone to variability - and far more >critical when the destination ......

Wouldn't the quality of the picture drop because you're throwing out image area? If you are going to shoot 16x9, perhaps high-definition would be a better idea.

>What it comes down to:  if you want 16x9, shoot 4x3 and later >take the EXACT slice of 16x9 you want for your widescreen show. 

Might I add to the following, have someone take responsibility for making sure the clapper is at the beginning or the shot (and even better at the end too). Just finishing shooting a piece where I did it all my self, I can tell you that it sure would have made things smoother had I had someone to remember to do this and do it for me.

>3) PLEASE use a well marked (Scene and Take) slate, INCLUDING >clapping the clapper. That's right, even in video... Our film >has no slates, sync issues, and 45+ hours of footage to, well, >DE-CYPHER the best we can, adding a huge amount of uncreative, >unnecessary maintenance time to the edit. A slate would have >saved the day, and our (or your) sanity.

I saw an article in a recent American Cinematographer (the one that included tributes to "Road to Perdition" cinematographer Conrad Hall) about the long hours that camera crews often are required to put in. It brought up a number of concerns and information about this: The quality of the work goes downhill after 12 hours. (So it may go past take 3 into 4, 5, 6 and beyond.)

It becomes a very definite safety issue if there isn't layover time allowed to recover  sleep. In fact it told about how an Assistant Cameraman on the movie "Pleasantville" lost his life after a 23 hour shift when he fell asleep at the wheel of his automobile. I don't think any movie benefits from excessive all-nighters.

>4) If you are going to pull all-nighters and do the low budget >thing, learn about a) caffeine and b) L-Tyrosine (which, if you >don't know, is your "second wind in a bottle." Take 3, trust me.

-Dave