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Production
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Time to get ‘Serious’
DV Rack provides engineering assistance for location shoots
Mar 31, 2005
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by Chuck Gloman
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Smaller DV productions just got a lot easier, thanks to Serious Magic’s DV Rack. Instead of wondering if your video and audio levels are where they should be, you now can accurately determine that everything is perfect — without having to rely on your camcorder’s LCD screen.
Although the name sounds like a medieval torture device, DV Rack is a welcome addition to your equipment list, because it gives you a complete production studio at your fingertips. Its toolkit includes a real (and accurate) field monitor, waveform monitor, vectorscope, DVR, audio spectrum monitor, video analyzer, still image grabber, and more. All this is contained on a CD-ROM that makes your computer or laptop an engineer’s dream.
I’ve done hundreds of productions where it has been just little old me, a camcorder, and a tripod. Now with DV Rack, I have an engineering assistant that constantly monitors the video and sound output for me — in the field.
An Accurate Monitor
I loaded the CD-ROM onto my Dell Inspiron 8200 Pentium 4, 1.2 GB laptop. The software is happy with Windows 2000 or XP (there is not a Mac version). My laptop is a little dated, but I thought it would be easier to lug along to shoots than my Sony VAIO desktop. The manual is very easy to understand and it takes you through each step as if you were new to video.
Once loaded, the first “exercise” is to adjust your computer’s monitor so that it accurately portrays color. The first thing I teach my students in production class is how to accurately adjust the monitor (with blue gun) and the DV Rack’s procedure is just as simple.
I’ve never adjusted my laptop color balance (although I’ve used it for editing) and was surprised how far off-color it was. Whoever wrote the manual should be commended for making this the first priority. If your monitor isn’t accurate, what good are the rest of the features? Well done, Serious Magic.
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| With DV Rack, it’s like you have an engineering assistant in the field constantly monitoring your video and audio. |
The camera I used on my shoot with the DV Rack in tow was a Sony PD170. I’ve used the flip-out LCD screen, but there’s no way to adjust color on that monitor. With DV Rack, I now have a large field monitor on my laptop with all of the features (blue gun, underscan, overscan, phase, chroma, contrast, zebra, TV safe, zoom, freeze, and 16:9) of a high-end video monitor.
Another welcome feature is the waveform monitor and vectorscope. When I worked on corporate videos, our director insisted we lug a massive waveform/vectorscope on shoots with us to connect to our light-sucking antique camera. Before the days of flip-out LCD screens, these tech monitors were the only way to determine how to properly adjust the camera’s iris.
And let’s not forget audio. The audio signal is displayed under your field monitor/tech monitors as a green waveform. If you prefer pretty colors, the audio spectrum analyzer will more accurately portray your sound.
With all of the same features as rack mounted equipment, any engineer would be delighted. Even the enclosed focus card and white card are handy to drag along to your location (they now reside in my laptop’s carrying case). With the test and measurement gear found in your studio, DV Rack let you get the most from your camcorder in the field. Attaching the camera to your DV Rack setup is as easy as connecting a IEEE-1394 cable.
More Modules
One other feature that saved me eons of time was the digital video recorder feature of DV Rack (the DVR-1000). I recorded my footage on a DVCAM tape in the camcorder, but I also recorded the entire interview on my hard drive. Immediately after the shoot, I had all of the footage already digitized — without spending over an hour to complete the process. In the future, I probably won’t even use tape, I’ll just let the hard drive do the capturing. With each capture file you have time code, the duration of the shot, the date, notes, and a thumbnail image.
Click on the scroll bar on the right and pull it down to reveal the Automated Quality Monitor DV-QM. This little joy lists your video clipping level in percentage, area, and duration. To its right it also alerts you to where your audio may have “popped.” It truly is like having a detail-oriented assistant along to watch everything for potential problems (without having to pay for their lunch).
In case your video image gets jealous, to the left of the quality monitor is the Spectra 60 Video Analyzer with values for RGB and lumina. Detailed instruction for camera setup is also available if you continue to scroll in the southward direction.
While its $495 price tag is a little steep, this is a must-have for anyone shooting DV on location. (Serious Magic also offers DV Rack Express, a $150 solution that offers limited field monitor and DVR functions, but doesn’t include waveform monitor, vectorscope, or many other modules.) Your images will look better, you’ll be alerted to problems immediately, and you can use your hard drive as storage for your footage. Serious Magic has a winner here that’s easy to use and will make you a better shooter.
Every product has its drawbacks, but my list for DV Rack is very short. I now have a little more to carry along with me on shoots (a laptop with DV Rack installed), and I find myself looking at the DV Rack too much — instead of focusing on my shot. I figure the novelty will wear off soon, but DV Rack will be part of my production package for a long, long time.
Chuck Gloman is an award-winning producer/director of photography with more than 800 commercials to his credit. He is also a member of the faculty at DeSales University. Contact him at chuck.gloman@desales.edu.
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