going professional with a gopro

TwinCities

TwinCities

Is it possible? We've been trying to find a nice microphone that can be atatched to it, but we could use some help.

With a glide rig, could it be possible to make this camera a professional filming camera?
 
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The GoPro cameras do not have a mic input. You can record audio with a
nice microphone and an audio recorder. While the GoPro has many limitations
it can be a "professional filming camera". It would be a challenge to make a
narrative feature with one, but it could be done. A creative, talented group
of filmmakers could do it.
 
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It would be fine for web distribution, but if you exhibit on theatre screen it would be painfully obvious the quality difference. Also, it is very hard to do any type heavy color correction without sacrificing image.
 
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It would be fine for web distribution, but if you exhibit on theatre screen it would be painfully obvious the quality difference. Also, it is very hard to do any type heavy color correction without sacrificing image.
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Even after converting it into a 35mm print?
 
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punee said:
Even after converting it into a 35mm print?
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Yes. GoPro records in mpeg or H264 formats which are highly compressed. You can convert it to a 35mm print, uncompressed or ProRes 444, but the fact is, when you uprez it doesn't fix what compression destroys. Again, no biggie if it is for web or even broadcast (it's great for adventure and sports programs). You really feel it when you start doing heavy color grading and onlining for theatrical release. Film formats and workflow are very different than (some) TV and Web.
 
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Nothing's impossible. There are people who have made films with just your average handicam (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Camcorder_films) -- I guess it depends if you can find a reason why to use a GoPro instead of a camera for film. Even having bragging rights to be the one of the first to do it is a legitimate reason. ;)

Not sure about original but Hero2 does have a mic input and there are people who buy special mics to record better sound
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQsOE04JITc

But if I were to do it, I'd use proper audio gear to record sounds separately or in post.

Also, I have heard of news network crews who use the GoPro to record some of their "on the scene" reports... I can't verify this particular claim but I really wouldn't be surprised.

And H264 and mpeg are just compression methods. GoPro Hero2 records in WVGA (50fps, 100fps), 720p (25fps, 50fps), 960p (25fps, 50fps) and 1080p (25fps) and can take 11MP photos (including photo burst which does 10 consecutive photos) which can get pretty sharp results but like any digital camera, still doesn't compare to film.
 
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bellabell said:
It would be fine for web distribution, but if you exhibit on theatre screen it would be painfully obvious the quality difference.
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punee said:
Even after converting it into a 35mm print?
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But seriously....

How many of you are making your movies for the big screen? How
many of you have done a 35mm transfer? If a filmmaker is sure (or
seriously hopeful) that their film will see a theatricla release then the
project should be shot with that in mind. I've seen SD MiniDV
projected on the big screen looking great so HD 1080p should look fine.

Interesting that the Hero 2 has a mic input. Thanks for that info. I
imagine for narrative filmmaking having a mic attached to that tiny
camera would create even more challenges.
 
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FWIW those are used a lot in those TV shows, like Alaska Gold, etc.. great cheap cams for sticking risky places. Also, for low depth underwater shots, its the best least expensive thing going for us indies..
 
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If you are just shooting action footage with the GoPro and the rest with something more traditional (there's a can of worms for ya), I think the audience will be reasonably forgiving about the quality.

If you look back at something like Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman's "Long way round" you can see the vast improvement with onboard footage that you get with a current GoPro. Not sure what they were using but it looks crap now but seemed OK at the time as it was only a small part of the show.

On the audio issue, the GoPro suffers badly from wind noise and vibration noises if used on anything moving at a reasonable speed. I would use an external recorder for sound in that situation.
 
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I'm kinda guessing that the audio inputs on the gopro 2 will more than likely end up going through automoatic gain control, making them next to useless except for guide audio, whatever mic you plug in. Be useful for synching in post though.
Can anyone confirm this??
 
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Chrisk said:
I'm kinda guessing that the audio inputs on the gopro 2 will more than likely end up going through automoatic gain control, making them next to useless except for guide audio, whatever mic you plug in. Be useful for synching in post though.
Can anyone confirm this??
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You are correct, there is no usable audio control for an external mic on the Hero 2. The internal mic is pretty much useless for anything but wind noise. The Hero 3 looks to be a bit improved, but there is still no 24fps or audio gain control, even on the $400.00 "Black" model. One significant improvement on the Hero 3 Black is that there is now 60fps in 1080p, 120fps in 720p and it now has 1440p resolution with up to 48fps.
 
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BlueBomberTurbo said:
The GoPro 3 has 24p available in almost every major resolution (even 2.7K) and field of view, or at least a multiple of it. 4K is the only res that doesn't have a standard frame rate.
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It seems that they have updated the specs listed on the website since I got the e-mail about it. The newest specs actually look quite good. I may change my order from 1 to 2 or 3.
 
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