Updating the Camera, Computer and Software

Updating the Camera, Computer and Software

There are always lots of questions about filming of the layout, many are too complicated to answer within the small confines of the comments section of a video on YouTube. This article is an update about the latest films and the equipment used.

The filming of Trenholme Junction is as important to me in this project as the designing, building and operating the layout. There have been many experiments with different cameras, software and computer equipment along the way, each one achieving better results than the previous one. 

Inevitably, there has to be some technical details here and computer speak, but I will try to keep it simple for those not so well versed.  

By far the longest period of production has briefly used a Sony HDR-AS10 1080p Camcorder and editing was carried out using Sony Movie Studio Platinum Production Suite version 11. The computer was a seven year old 32 bit machine. 
The arrangement produced about 300 videos and generally the quality was satisfactory to very good. 

1080p is the quality you would see on the generally available flat screen televisions widely used today.  

In the wings is a new generation of video standard called 4k. Already, television and films are being produced in 4k as well as live television broadcasts. You do need a 4k television to get the full benefit of this new standard, but, you can watch the same 4k production on a 1080p monitor or television. The quality is superb however you see it.

If follows, if you want the same quality to watch, then you need to record it at the higher quality.

To this end I needed to upgrade my equipment. A new camera with 4k recording capablilites. Editing 4k videos are extremely heavy on computer resources and a multi processor 64bit with lots of memory was required. 

The new setup

Gopro Hero 5 Session

Dell Precision with Six Zeon 2.8Ghz Processors, 48Gb RAM, 1.6Gb Video RAM, Windows 10 Professional

Vegas Movie Studio Platinum version 14

All the films produced from now on (October '17) will be produced in 4k format. Youtube shows the videos in all the lower formats so they will be available to view on older equipment.

Notes on the new setup

Camera

The Gopro is a super camera which is very small, so can fit into places none of the previous cameras would go and opens up new possibilities.

The sound qualities of this camera are a little disappointing compared to my previous ones. It doesn't pick up the sounds that I took so much trouble create on the layout as well as the Sony camera did. I have decided to live with this slight annoyance as it is my intention (as I have previously said) to re-visit all the videos and put authentic sound tracks on them.

One of the down sides of the Sony camera is no view finder so trying to get the perfect shot was always difficult, I had to shoot the scene and then put it in the editor to see if it was right and then re-shoot it again if it was not. The Gopro also doesn't have a view finder, but, it allows you use your tablet as a view finder, its absolutely brilliant.

Software

I've used the Vegas software throughout all the productions and like it very much. My previous version (11) was good and produced very good 1080p videos. It was the 32bit version which was always running at the limit.

There are four parts to producing a video.

• Filming. This is recording the scene onto the camera. The video is stored on the memory card on the camera.
• Editing. This part involves moving the video from the camera into the editor and then removing the unwanted pieces and enhancing the remainder.
• Rendering. This part is compiling the edited version into a finished file which can then be uploaded to the internet.
• Uploading. Once the finished rendered file is complete, upload to YouTube.

I have mentioned these parts for those who've never done this before and is a most asked question, but also because each stage can take a long time to execute, more especially with 4k productions. 
Moving these large files from the camera to the computer can take a serious of amount of time therefore the need for a fast computer is almost essential.
Once on the computer, the files need to be prepared for editing and again the time thing comes up again.
Once edited, another machine hungry operation is the rendering of the file into the finished product. 

The new version (14) together with the higher power machine handles these processes with ease and makes production much quicker. Some of the highlights (in comparison to 11) 

• the video can be viewed live without leaving the editor giving a view which is almost as good as the finished product  
• the video can be rendered on the video card cutting down rendering time dramatically
• produces a much smaller file to upload to YouTube although the quality is significantly better than the 1080p version

The latest version is superb   

Internet Speed. We are out in the sticks so our BT internet was appalling, 1.8 Mbit was about the best we could get, and, it went off regularly.
We now have mobile internet from EE and no land line, typically get 70 Mbit speeds and the new files take around 10 minutes to upload a 10 minute video in 4k, a far cry from the BT days when it used to take between 10 - 12 hours to upload a 1080p of similar duration.  

These notes are about telling you what you need if you want to do a similar thing to me. There are many very good tutorial videos on YouTube which will give you an idea of the capabilities of the software if you would like to give it a go and you can trial the software free for a month as well.