Month: September 2020

New Cameras, YouTube, and Potential Upgrades

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This week’s post is a little different. I apologize for missing last week’s post here on the website, however it was meant to be a text re-post of the tutorial I created about delivery settings for YouTube which you can find here. You can find all sorts of DaVinci Resolve and Video Production tips and tricks on the channel, if that is your kind of thing please consider subscribing.

It was two weeks ago when I produced the first YouTube tutorial on the Sword & Shield Studio channel. Since then we have heard some pretty interesting camera news. For one, Sony released the A7C, one of the smallest full-frame cameras now on the market. It is certainly an intriguing little camera, it does make me wonder where Sony’s APS-C camera line is headed in the future…bigger tech in smaller packages always means bigger better things to come though, doesn’t it?

In addition to the Sony camera we have seen the Canon EOS C70 cinema camera come to light, an entry-level cinema camera at an intriguing price point (in the world of cinema cameras, that is). It does make you question how the R5 and R6 ended up with the video capabilities that they did since they were developed in concert with the C70…but I will not dive into that. The C70 in and of itself seems like a capable cinema camera for those who are in the market for one. As a solo video freelancer, however, I can simply relish in its existence from a distance.

While I have been dreaming about cameras above my pay grade, I have been making some considerations about what I should upgrade to myself within the $1000-$2000 price range. You see I am using an a6000 I got in 2015 and it still serves me as a great multi-purpose camera. I have picked up a couple high quality lenses for it over the years and in 2020 it is an excellent 24MP stills camera, just wish it had a little more power in the body for professional video work.

My most natural upgrade path would be to get a Sony a6600. This way I can keep my same Sony E-Mount APS-C lenses, upgrade the body, and have better image quality when I take video without spending much…plus I would have money left in the budget to potentially get another lens. Another tempting consideration has been Blackmagic Design’s Pocket Cinema Camera 4K. It seems like I would be able to get higher fidelity video with it than the a6600 and of course Blackmagic Design’s BRAW files would play nicely with my main editing suite DaVinci Resolve…but the lack of continuous autofocus and a flip screen make it less appealing for my YouTube work where I do have to record myself from time-to-time. Not to mention the high fidelity BRAW files will require me to upgrade my data storage solution. Still, it seems like a great consideration for capturing professional looking video without breaking the bank.

Well that is what has been on my mind. Dumped here in text form on the Internet for everyone to read. What about your plans? Are you thinking about upgrading cameras soon? What do you have your eyes on? Do you have a YouTube channel that you have just got started? Let me know in the comments, I would love to Subscribe and support a fellow YouTube noob. Have a great one.

Trim Edit Mode | DaVinci Resolve 16 Tutorial

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This week we created a video on our YouTube channel on how to effectively use the Trim Edit Mode in DaVinci Resolve to speed up your editing workflow. Using this mode you can achieve Ripple, Roll, Slip, and Slide edits as you would in other nonlinear video editing software. MediaCollege.com has uploaded a great explanation of each of these types of edits and how they affect your footage if you are unfamiliar with the concepts. While their instructions on how to access these tools are written for Premiere Pro the idea behind these types of edits and how they will impact your footage remains the same no matter what software you are using. If you want to know how to utilize these functions specifically within DaVinci Resolve, however, check out the video below:

As always thank you for watching and/or reading. It is our goal to put out at least one DaVinci Resolve related tutorial per week, and if things pick up some steam we will be expanding to produce content about general video tips & tricks also. So keep an eye out for that.

Source Tape on the DaVinci Resolve Cut Page

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Source tape is one of those features that has perhaps gone under the radar since the release of DaVinci Resolve 16. It is unfortunate too because it can simply save you a bunch of time when putting together your rough cuts. Check our video on the topic below:

If you don’t have three minutes to watch the video I’ll give you the summary here. That is, if you think you can read faster. It’s a small icon at the top left of the viewer in the DaVinci Resolve Cut Page that looks like a film strip. It allows you to cut your footage shot in chronological order in a proxy source tape timeline as though it were on a single reel of film. This allows you to quickly go through, cut, and insert clips from your footage into a rough cut timeline very rapidly.

Sounds cool, right? I thought so when I first discovered it at least. Let me know what you think of this feature, if you like it, how often you use it, or if you even use the cut page in DaVinci Resolve. As always, thanks for reading.

August Drone Flights

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The month of August was great for flying drones. That is, if you could stand the 100+ degree weather and the occasional wasps there were plenty of clear days to take advantage of this past month in North Texas.

At the beginning of the month I made the investment to get a DJI Mavic 2 Pro. Admittedly I was a bit nervous about buying it since it is about a two year old aircraft, “How well could it hold up?” I thought. After a handful of flights with it however I have no regrets about the purchase at all. It does up to 4K video @ 30 FPS in the D-Log M color profile and the 20MP 1” sensor inside just gets the job done amazingly well. You get sharp, usable footage in a variety of situations that has solid dynamic range for color grading. Take a look at what I captured around some local parks and an urban development here, sorry it’s not the most exciting settings I know, but you can get an idea of what the drone is capable of:

All-in-all it has been a treat to fly with the Mavic 2 Pro, hopefully I will get to share some more interesting locations with it as I pursue commercial jobs and more adventurous flight paths with it in the near future. Have you conducted any fun drone flights recently? What are your thoughts on the Mavic 2 Pro? What is your drone of choice? I’d love to talk about it in the discussion. Keep flying!

A New Era | Sword & Shield Studio

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It is with great satisfaction that I announce today a complete rebrand of this video production company. Sighthound Media is now Sword & Shield Studio. It was time for a change to better differentiate the work we do in the marketplace, as well as bring a fresh perspective to our approach to video work

The Sighthound Media name and branding will always have a special place in my heart, it is the name I began doing contract video work under in 2014. I will always remember the name that got this company started and think well of it. Sword & Shield Studio is the future however, and I am thrilled about it.

Things are going to remain consistent in the short term for plans, it is still my plan to share weekly blog posts here on the website. In addition I plan to carry on and keep you—the World Wide Web—up-to-date about my commercial work. Thanks as always for reading, I look forward to the future.