Hi,

We have been shooting some video in school to help kids with their Maths.
Using a camcorder we have fixed the camera on a A4 piece of paper whilst the
teacher draws various mathematical diagrams. Our first attempt produced too
dark an image on the A4 paper so we borrowed a light from our Drama
department and used that to illuminate the paper.

The result was a much brighter image but as the hands moved around drawing
the diagram on the paper the brightness of the paper changed. I have tried
the colour balance filter in Liquid Edition which has improved the footage
but it's not brilliant.

Is there something that we haven't done correctly or at all?

All our footage was shot indoors using a Canon MV 500i camcorder.

Thanks,
Andy.

Andy schreef in bericht ...
Hi,

We have been shooting some video in school to help kids with their Maths.
Using a camcorder we have fixed the camera on a A4 piece of paper whilst
the
teacher draws various mathematical diagrams. Our first attempt produced
too
dark an image on the A4 paper so we borrowed a light from our Drama
department and used that to illuminate the paper.

The result was a much brighter image but as the hands moved around drawing
the diagram on the paper the brightness of the paper changed. I have tried
the colour balance filter in Liquid Edition which has improved the footage
but it's not brilliant.

Is there something that we haven't done correctly or at all?

All our footage was shot indoors using a Canon MV 500i camcorder.

Andy,

Filming white paper is bound to let the exposure control change the white to
a neutral gray. It doesn't help putting a light on it. If the camera has a
manual exposure control, I would open up the lens until the image looks good
in the viewfinder and then leave it at that setting.

By the way, this doesn't have anything to do with white balance, which is a
colour rendering issue.
--
Lou van Wijhe
Website: http://home.hccnet.nl/jl.van.wijhe/
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In message , lid
writes
Hi,

We have been shooting some video in school to help kids with their Maths.
Using a camcorder we have fixed the camera on a A4 piece of paper whilst the
teacher draws various mathematical diagrams. Our first attempt produced too
dark an image on the A4 paper so we borrowed a light from our Drama
department and used that to illuminate the paper.

The result was a much brighter image but as the hands moved around drawing
the diagram on the paper the brightness of the paper changed. I have tried
the colour balance filter in Liquid Edition which has improved the footage
but it's not brilliant.

Is there something that we haven't done correctly or at all?

All our footage was shot indoors using a Canon MV 500i camcorder.

The way to go is to use a lightbox, and use OHP water-soluble pens
(Staedleter Lumocolor or clone). Shoot in a darkened room.

A variation on this is to use an overhead projector (being a school you
might have one of these). With this as well as the above, you can use
prepared OHP film transparencies pre-marked with the prep work. Use a
proper screen, but a white wall will do, and shoot the screen or wall.

Another option that works very well is to use Camtasia, in conjunction
with a graphic tablet, but that software is expensive. With this method
you don't see the pen (and hand) writing, just the writing. Camtasia
comes with a video editor that allows voice-overs and call-outs.

--
Tony Morgan
http://www.camcord.info

On Tue, 22 Feb 2005 22:36:43 -0000, Andy wrote:

Hi,

We have been shooting some video in school to help kids with their Maths.
Using a camcorder we have fixed the camera on a A4 piece of paper whilst the
teacher draws various mathematical diagrams. Our first attempt produced too
dark an image on the A4 paper so we borrowed a light from our Drama
department and used that to illuminate the paper.

The result was a much brighter image but as the hands moved around drawing
the diagram on the paper the brightness of the paper changed. I have tried
the colour balance filter in Liquid Edition which has improved the footage
but it's not brilliant.

Is there something that we haven't done correctly or at all?

All our footage was shot indoors using a Canon MV 500i camcorder.

Thanks,
Andy.


The silly but best answer is use a colour ed paper. You can get light gray paper
which will appear white on screen.

In the old B&W days (maybe it was colour, my memory is going!!), newsreaders etc
used yellow paper as straight white would always burn out even on the then
broadcast cameras.


Stuart

www.mckears.com
www.oldfart.tv - have you say about the state of UK Television

In message , Stuart McKears
writes
Snipped...

In the old B&W days (maybe it was colour, my memory is going!!),
newsreaders etc used yellow paper as straight white would always burn
out even on the then broadcast cameras.

Ditto with shirts.
--
Tony Morgan
http://www.camcord.info

"Tony Morgan" wrote in message
...
In message , lid
writes
Hi,

We have been shooting some video in school to help kids with their Maths.
Using a camcorder we have fixed the camera on a A4 piece of paper whilst
the
teacher draws various mathematical diagrams. Our first attempt produced
too
dark an image on the A4 paper so we borrowed a light from our Drama
department and used that to illuminate the paper.

The result was a much brighter image but as the hands moved around
drawing
the diagram on the paper the brightness of the paper changed. I have
tried
the colour balance filter in Liquid Edition which has improved the
footage
but it's not brilliant.

Is there something that we haven't done correctly or at all?

All our footage was shot indoors using a Canon MV 500i camcorder.

The way to go is to use a lightbox, and use OHP water-soluble pens
(Staedleter Lumocolor or clone). Shoot in a darkened room.

A variation on this is to use an overhead projector (being a school you
might have one of these). With this as well as the above, you can use
prepared OHP film transparencies pre-marked with the prep work. Use a
proper screen, but a white wall will do, and shoot the screen or wall.

Another option that works very well is to use Camtasia, in conjunction
with a graphic tablet, but that software is expensive. With this method
you don't see the pen (and hand) writing, just the writing. Camtasia
comes with a video editor that allows voice-overs and call-outs.

--
Tony Morgan
http://www.camcord.info

Firstly I want to thank everyone who has posted replies in this thread. I
have found all of your information extremely useful and when we have our
meeting tomorrow (Friday) to look at the footage I will be passing on the
recommendations made here.

We do have a graphics tablet which we haven't used as we wish to capture the
hands setting the compass, measuring the distance etc. The process is more
important than the result. Could we use an old OHP base as a lightbox,
drawing on OHP's filmed from above looking down towards the OHP base? Not
that we have many around these days, 72" Interactive whiteboards in 1/3 of
the classrooms.

I will post back after we have tried your suggestions.

Thanks once again.

Andy.

In message , lid
writes
Snipped....

We do have a graphics tablet which we haven't used as we wish to
capture the hands setting the compass, measuring the distance etc. The
process is more important than the result. Could we use an old OHP base
as a lightbox,

I suspect that the high power of the OHP lamp would be too great (and
might even damage the camcorder's CCD).

drawing on OHP's filmed from above looking down towards the OHP base?
Not that we have many around these days, 72" Interactive whiteboards in
1/3 of the classrooms.

You might remember that you can edit in from all sources, e.g. a picture
of the hand/compass drawing onto one of your whiteboards. In fact now
you've explained that you want the compasses to be shown, that is the
solution I would suggest. You'd need very flat lighting onto the
whiteboard, and the camcorder positioned so as to prevent any parallax,
and far enough away to prevent shadowing (use a tele zoom setting). Once
set up, the "demonstrator" could stand to the side while watching
his/her hand in the camcorder's LCD (reversed towards the demonstrator
of course). I'd also be inclined to dub in the voice-over after you've
done the video.

I will post back after we have tried your suggestions.

I'd be interested to hear how it turns out.
--
Tony Morgan
http://www.camcord.info

"Tony Morgan" wrote in message
...
In message , Stuart McKears
writes
Snipped...

In the old B&W days (maybe it was colour, my memory is going!!),
newsreaders etc used yellow paper as straight white would always burn
out even on the then broadcast cameras.

Ditto with shirts.
--
Tony Morgan
http://www.camcord.info

Tony,

We are going to use a transparency on a OHP base with the camera mounted
where the lens would normally go. We will also try using yellow paper with
the camera set to record in black and white. Won't be able to do this till
next Friday.

Thanks.
Andy

In message , lid
writes
Snipped...

We are going to use a transparency on a OHP base with the camera
mounted where the lens would normally go. We will also try using yellow
paper with the camera set to record in black and white. Won't be able
to do this till next Friday.

Look forward to hearing how you get on :-)
--
Tony Morgan
http://www.camcord.info