Monday, September 14, 2009

Lil' Buster Shoots Disney Wedding

FTC Disclosure
In compliance with the FTC rulings, I state that I am the Panasonic AVCHD Evangelist. As such, I am a paid consultant to Panasonic, and I get free use of the AVCCAM products.

September 10, 2009
Walt Disney World

Today, Lil' Buster (The Panasonic HMC40 camcorder) got all dressed up and made his working debut at a fantastic Disney wedding.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I teamed up once again with my friends at Bruno White Entertainment, the pros who shoot Disney Weddings. Last year, when Ole Besty (The Panasonic HMC150) first came out, they did a fantastic job of shooting a couple of weddings for us, so I was very curious as to their reactions to Lil' Buster.

I was able to provide them with two HMC40's for the event and I actually documented them shooting the event with my Lil' Buster. I hope to post some videos later.
The wedding and the venue were spectacular. We shot pre-ceremony shots in the lobby of the Grand Floridan Hotel. Then the bride and her father climbed into Cinderella's coach (really!) and rode to the Disney Wedding Pavilion. This pix of the castle at the top of this post was taking thru the window of the pavilion by Lil' Buster. Yes, remember in addition to great HD footage, this camera also shoots 10.6 megapixel stills.

The crew at Bruno White did their usual amazing work and are delivering a Blu-ray disc for us to play in the Panasonic booth this week at WEVA (Wedding and Event Videographers Association) here in Orlando.

In this pix, the HMC40 is equipped with the Pro Audio Rig, which gives 2 XLR inputs and an external microphone .

On the other HMC40 they were able to rig their Sennheiser wireless receiver.
Pretty ingenious.

Ok, so how did Lil' Buster and his brother and sister perform? Flawlessly. The Bruno White shooters were very familiar with the HMC150 and so they had to get acquainted with the HMC40 touch screen menu controls. However, they loved the light weight of the camera (only 2.2 lbs) and the flexibility it provided to them during the shoot.

And as you can see, I finally have proper camera support.
A great help, as you can tell from my rather innovative camera support stands for the time lapse in earlier posts. My friends at Libec have supplied me with a great light weight tripod, the H22DV. It arrived just in time to cover the wedding, thanks, Libec.

If you are in Orlando and coming to Weva, please stop by the Panasonic booth and say hi. If you will be at DV Expo in Pasadena next week, look us up again in the Panasonic booth.

More to come,
The Road Warrior

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Lil' Buster at Disney World

Sept 9, 2009
Lake Buenva Vista, Fl

No, Lil' Buster and I are not on vacation, but as you can see even Mickey wanted to hold the camera.

We are in Florida to supply Lil' Buster's brother and sister (2 new Panasonic HMC40 cameras) to Bruno White Entertainment. Bruno White Entertainment is responsible for the high end video recording for weddings at Walt Disney World. More on this in a later post.

But, the wedding was a late afternoon date, and the Florida sunshine was beckoning, so Lil' Buster and I went to Disney World to see what we could shoot.

However, every where we went someone else wanted to hold Lil' Buster. It was certainly a crowd pleaser. This guy told me he loves it to his very bones.

One of the key features of this HMC40 is the ability to shoot time lapse.
So, go to the following link to see footage shot in the interval mode with 1 frame every 10 seconds. Disney Balloon Time Lapse
Pretty cool!
And here is a behind the scenes shot. Once again, notice the great camera support system. Hey, it worked.


More to come, including details on the Disney Wedding Shoot.
The Road Warrior

Monday, September 7, 2009

In The Morning, In The Evening, Lil' Buster Does Time Lapse


August 24, 2009
Bryce Canyon National Park
Sunset
Lil' Buster (The Panasonic HMC40 HD camcorder) and me at Bryce Canyon setting up to shoot the sunset in time lapse. Notice the way cool camera support.
(Photo by Erin Mitchell)

Ah, Bryce Canyon. Now, this is a magical site, especially at sunset and sunrise. I shot both.

If you want to see the result, click on the following link to YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQ7HboBgZmQ

With Lil' Buster it is a snap to shoot time lapse. Just touch the LCD viewfinder menu button. Then pick Record Set Up and then Interval Record. Now you have to decide what effect you want. This is where you can choose to shoot one frame every 1 second, or every 10 seconds, 30 seconds, 1 minute or 2 minutes. Remember shooting time lapse requires good camera support and lots of patience. Just think of all the applications for this feature. Imagine shooting traffic, sunset on the beach, a concert load in/load out, or even a building being constructed. It would be awesome.

On one of my many airport waits, I was bored, so I pulled out Lil' Buster, sat him on a chair and recorded this time lapse footage.
Again, click on the following link to see this footage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1viUNSGk0I

I can't wait to shoot more time lapse with Lil' Buster, a most amazing camera. And I am happy to report that the HMC40 is shipping from Panasonic now! So, you can get your own!

More to come,
The Road Warrior