Internal clapper/slate.

[noisyboy]

Here's a whacky idea incase we don't get internal sound and metadata on cameras other than 5Dmk3

Is it possible to create a template which you enter your shot details into (f stop, focal length, shot, take etc) and it draws it onto the screen in a similar layout to a slate?

Then - you could have it so that when you record, it draws this on screen for a frame and uses the screen capture utility to capture this information on the the first frame of a video (DNG frame in raw?). At the same time the camera could beep loudly which would be picked up by the external recorder and could be used for syncing?

Then when you record the next take, the take number increases by 1 until the slate is changed?

What do you think?

[1%]

Internal sound? You already have wav and can usually record audio on.

[noisyboy]

Ah! When shooting Raw?

[noisyboy]

Feel free to ignore my last question. I have my answer.

Still... Like the idea though

[a1ex]

Well, beeping on first frame isn't hard at all.

Burning a BMP image in the raw video is also possible. Not sure if it's worth the effort, but anyone with some C skills can try it, no hacking needed for this.

[noisyboy]

Ah cool! So this Bitmap could be generated by the camera and can contain the data that is entered custom to your shot (either by yourself or by reading Exif annotation)?

Sounds fun!

Might ask around and see if anyone wants to play on this little project

[electronicwomble]

This would be really useful. Kind of like the Blackmagic camera onscreen metadata.

Could the video/raw filename also be generated based on this metadata? eg. SHOT003-TAKE002.raw

I shot a film over the weekend with most of the shots out of sequence, and one of the most time-consuming editing tasks was putting it all back into correct order. If the shot and take numbers had been in the filenames, it would have been as simple as ordering the files by name!

I presume this is possible for raw since the filenames are different to standard Canon filenames, but is it possible for classic H.264 files as well?

[a1ex]

Yes, it's possible for H.264 too. I've burned a "magic zoom" window in the H264 footage just to check if that one is the H264 input buffer.

So, if anyone wants to implement it, hook into vsync function and copy the bitmap overlay into the HD one. Tip: use BM2HD macros.

[electronicwomble]

And changing filenames to reflect scene/shot/take? Is that straightforward?

Is there a good page somewhere (on the wiki?) with instructions for getting set up to work on the code?

[a1ex]

Renaming image or movie files is hard, you also have to update the file catalog (otherwise you'll get err70 on playback). Don't know how to do that.

See sticky topics.

[noisyboy]

Nice to see additional interest in this. Anybody fancy a go at this with me then? I would really appreciate any help as my C skills are none existent.

Things to display could be:

First frame:

Roll (card) =
Scene =
Take (which automatically ascends in number sequentially) =
Director =
Prod =
DP =
FPS =

Second frame:

ISO =
Apature = 
Shutter Speed =
White Balance =
Lens =
Focal Length =
Camera Height =
Angle =
Distance to subject =

[Colemar]

good suggestions noisyboy.  I would add "Reel" to come before "Scene" and change "Camera Height" to "Lens Height".  I'm not sure what it means by "Angle"

[noisyboy]

good suggestions noisyboy.  I would add "Reel" to come before "Scene" and change "Camera Height" to "Lens Height".  I'm not sure what it means by "Angle"

Yep I agree

 As in angle of camera for example pointing 10 degrees down. Would be great for matching perspective of height and angle on VfX shots. Clinometer is a great app for getting this information.

[Colemar]

As in angle of camera for example pointing 10 degrees down.

ML devs, any idea how accurate the level is in-camera?

[AnotherDave]

I would settle for 1 simple red frame, and a 1 frame synced beep from the headphone jack.

I don't think we need anything fancy.

[noisyboy]

ML devs, any idea how accurate the level is in-camera?

Oo! Forgot about the Accelerometer! Good call!

[noisyboy]

I would settle for 1 simple red frame, and a 1 frame synced beep from the headphone jack.

I don't think we need anything fancy.

Hey man. I can appreciate that some might not need anything fancy and to be fair - I don't exactly need this feature as such but I can see how this would save me a tonne of time in post and also make for a very handy VFX tool when it comes to matching shots for 3D/chroma work etc.

[noisyboy]

If anyone is at all bothered by this thread anymore then this might be real useful for implementing this feature:

http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=6899.0

[aliksend]

May be I will make that, but I will need a some help, because I'm newcomer in ML and programming on DSLR, etc. But I really want to make it! 

[electronicwomble]

Ditto, but would love to be involved.