Check the equipment you'll be using on your shoot and you'll see only instructions specific to that equipment. Uncheck "Background Info" if you just want a quick, uncomplicated guide to the exact button presses.
If there is a director, talk to them and make sure you know what they want (ie. who is in the shot, where the motion is, if they want tracking, etc).
Wait for the director to set the scene and place actors in their positions ("blocking"). Important: lighting MUST be done before continuing
The lens selection will affect how much of the scene is visible in the shot, as well as how much light will be captured (i.e. how bright it will look).
The
GH4 has interchangable lenses. To unmount a lens, depress the
button just to the right of the lens mount, and twist the lens
or body cap counterclockwise to remove. To mount a lens, line up
the dots on the body and lens, push them on, and twist the lens
clockwise until it clicks.
Many of the lenses Student Cable owns are Nikon F-mount lenses. The GH4 is a Micro 4/3-mount camera. This means that you CANNOT directly mount a Nikon lens on the GH4. Instead, use an adapter called a Speedbooster. This will mount on the GH4, and then you can mount a Nikon F-mount lens on the front of the Speedbooster.
The XA20 has a built-in lens (26-676mm equivalent). Just flip the lever on the side of the lens to raise the lens cap.
Mount the camera on a tripod. If you are using the Speedbooster, make sure you mount to the Speedbooster and not the camera body. Turn the camera on and ensure it is in the “movie-M” mode on the top dial. Set your resolution and frame rate by pressing Fn2, tapping the frame rate on the top of the screen, and then tapping the desired setting. Unless you have particular requirements, you should film at FHD/100M/30p (aka 1080p30).
Mount the camera on a tripod. Make sure the mode switch on the top rear right of the camera is set to “M”. Turn the camera on by sliding the power switch on the top rear left of the camera to “CAMERA”. Set your resolution and frame rate by touching FUNC > MENU > Recording mode. Unless you have particular requirements, you should film at “24 Mbps” (aka 1080p30).
Your eyes automatically adjust to the color of light (think blue fluorescent light vs. yellow incandescent light), so to avoid odd color tints, you also need to tell the camera what color is “white”. To do this, hold up a white piece of paper in the scene’s lighting, zoom in on the card so it fills the frame, and activate the “Set White Balance” function of the camera. If you are shooting with multiple cameras, make sure they all have the same white balance.
Press the "WB" button near your right thumb. Scroll to the end
of the list and select
. Aim at
solid white (e.g. paper) and press MENU/SET (in the center of
the dial).
Press the "FnXXX" button. Choose "Set 1" or "Set 2". Aim at solid white (e.g. paper) and touch "Set WB".
The “gain” represents the sensitivity of the camera’s sensor, as measured in dB; increasing the gain will make the image brighter, at the cost of more noise in the image. Start at 0 dB while you initially adjust the aperture, and try to keep the gain below about 12 dB for a relatively noise-free image.
Set the gain by pressing the "ISO" button just behind the shutter button. Use the thumbwheel to adjust it up or down. Start at 0 dB and try to keep it below 12 dB for less image noise.
The aperture is the size of the opening between the lens and camera. Smaller numbers (as low as f/1.0) mean a larger opening and thus a brighter image and a blurrier background/foreground. Larger numbers (as high as f/32) mean a darker image and a background/foreground that is more in focus. Generally, try to keep the f-stop set as low as possible to produce cinematic bokeh.
For Nikon lenses on the Speedbooster, adjust the aperture by adjusting the ring on the Speedbooster and/or the rearmost ring on the lens (if it has one). If the lens has an aperture ring, the actual aperture will be the brighter of the two settings. When using a native Micro-4/3 lens, adjust the aperture with the front dial just behind the shutter button.
Whenever possible, your shutter speed should be set to twice the framerate. Normally we shoot at 30 fps, so the shutter speed should be 1/60th of a second. A faster shutter speed can be used if the scene is too bright, but beware as it will reduce motion blur and make the video look unnatural.
Adjust the shutter speed using the rear dial near your thumb. The ideal shutter speed is 1/60th of a second.
At this point, if the scene is relatively bright, you’ll find that you can’t meet the suggestions above for all three settings. Tweak all three settings until the image is properly exposed (look at the exposure meter - it will show if the image is too bright or too dark on a bar graph). The tradeoffs: making the aperture smaller (higher f-stop) will reduce bokeh, the gain can only be reduced so far, and increasing the shutter speed will cause the video to seem unnatural, like a time-lapse or stop motion.
Look at the camera’s screen to help get the exposure right;
there are several tools to help you:
Areas of the image that are too bright will have diagonal lines called zebra stripes; if these areas of the image are important, then you must adjust the gain, aperture, or shutter speed to make the image darker. The exposure meter indicates that this scene is too bright. The histogram shows that most of the image is dark (to the left) but there is also a spike of very bright areas (to the right) - the light bulbs.
Enable focus assist. This will draw a colored outline around everything that is in focus. Make sure all of your subjects are in focus; if you can’t do this, go back to set aperture and stop your aperture down (higher f-stop), which will reduce blurring. If the camera/lens combination supports it, you can tap the screen to focus on a particular object. Zooming in can help to get focus perfect. You can see focus peaking in the image above; areas in focus have a green halo around them.
Ensure the GH4 is set to manual focus by turning the focus switch to "MF" on the rear of the camera. Adjust the focus by turning the ring on the lens. The GH4 will highlight in-focus areas with green outlines. Press Fn3 on the rear of the camera to zoom into the image to help with fine-tuning the focus.
With recording engineer: Ensure they are ready for recording, and make sure any booms/mics are out of the shot
While recording, pay close attention to the camera screen. Are the actors still in focus? Is anything showing a zebra pattern? Has the microphone become visible in the shot?
After all the cameras and audio recorders are running, make a clapping sound - either with a clapper board or your hands. Make sure you can be seen in all the cameras. This will help later when trying to line up the video from multiple cameras!
