Here is the techie scoop on how I did it.
The video was shot with a single 4 Mpixel Canon G3 digital still camera to one 256 Mb CF card. The video clips 18 in all were done from about 7 floor positions throughout the entire performance medley. The frame size was 320x240 with 32K audio sampling and I upconverted it to 720x480p 48Khz resampled in both Sound Forge 7.0 and the video in Windows Movie Maker to make the clips avi compatible with Sony Vegas 6.0 codecs using a batch process.
Next I ported all the clips into Vegas6.0, about 18 minutes worth, for editing.
Since I didn't have multiple cameras running iso or a location mix console, I used an editor's choice of shots MOS ( without audio) as alternative camera positions to make the illusion of a multiple camera shoot, live switch. The choice of which shot to use was made based on the tempo of their music. I divided their stage performance into three categories, fast, medium and slow. Simple eh? Then I made an editor's choice of which numbers to use as a base layer for actual sound and video. On top of that I went to my library of similar tempo numbers they did that I shot from different positions around the stage and searched for basic dance moves by them that were similar although actually performed for a totally different sound track. There was no effort to hide lip sync since the entire shoot was intentionally avoiding extreme facial closeups.
I grouped the insert b-roll shots just based on the choreography and the tempo category.
I also had seen their routine last year so I had a good idea what they do. I guess the hardest part was the Harmonica because it was mixed with singing and that added one more factor into choice of inserts. In some cases I actually repeated the shot because I felt it was more important to break up the single camera look if held too long. When I had to do that I compensated to hide that by pushing in and reframing in the virtual camera mode in Sony Vegas so it hid that scene repeat.
Upconverting to 720x480P resolution prior to editing from the Canon 320x240 mode aids in this as it forces a sub pixel imaging for the effect, thus preservibg the quality as long as you don't push in too far. If you do, just keep the scene short and it should fly by and only a few would ever see that. Obviously, I also knew that my final output was going to be 320x240 at DSL resolution bit rate so I could get away with more than if I knew I needed to maintain the upconvert for a DVD dub. This video clip will not be done to DVD! At least not by me.
All the sound was captured by the tiny onboard mic in the Canon digital still camera I learned not to finger the camera when live! Otherwise it does pretty good. The final output was volume compressed and maintained in typical stage performance volume in post.
I picked out my opening sound talking and ending sound talking and accompaning video and then built the center.
Time wise- I spent about an hour just watching and listerning to the clips about 3 times making notes on where stuff was that I needed. Then I did the opening number, shortened it for time using audio fades and same for base video. Did same with the ending number and closing comments. Good opening and strong close are most important in any video. Then I knew what I needed time wise to fill in the middle for a 5 minute video. This process took a little over an hour of time line editing after about 30 minutes of batch upcoversion in Windows Moviemaker. Put in a few graphics and rendered to windows Media 9 converting the video to 320x240 29.97 fps and the audio to 44Khz 16 bit mono resampling in the wm9 build. I was hoping for about a 12 Mb file which is where it ended up. (experience)
Finally checked it for intollerable errors, found one but decided to let it go. That may be where you thought the sync was out because he doesn't quite get the Harmonica to his mouth and the Harmonica sound begins.
For fun stuff like this I like using the little Canon still camera because it is simple and not much room to get too creative, but more importantly, shooting tape and digitizing in the field properly just requires too much extra stuff, Firewire cables and external hard drive. This way I just stick the CF card in the slot and begin to work on the video. The advantage of mini dv would have been already in Native DV format and I could save time with the upconversion and have better quality but the time to upconvert was equal to the digitizing, almost. A tradeoff so I pick quick and easy.
Well, that's how it was done. If you do not have the wm9 codec your windows XP should make an automatic upgrade assuming you are connected to the internet. If you are still on something older then you may need to go to the website and see what they have to play wm9 video. I understand that MAC OS10 has an updated codec for wm9.
. I got in my car at the Venetian at 6:15, and moved 1 floor down by 7:15. Since I was on the 8th floor of the garage, I decided there was no way in hell I was leaving that garage by 9pm. So we just reparked and ate at Venetian.
