Lessons Learned Shooting with the Canon 5D Mark II

Posted by: Zach Wise    Tags:  , , , , ,     Posted date:  July 15, 2009  |  19 Comments


For the Michael Jackson Memorial piece I worked on, we decided before I left for L.A. that we would use the Canon 5D Mark II to try and push the look of the piece, and to try something new. The first thing I did, is call up a freelancer, Patrick Burke, to run sound. Patrick used to be an AC (Assistant Camera) in L.A. so he came with all the right tools, including a film slate that we used to sync audio from a Marantz PMD660 to the video footage of the 5D.

I explain how to sync the audio to the 5DMKII footage after the jump.

We interviewed about 50 people for the piece but could only use a fraction of them in the end for several reasons. Once we synced up the audio to the footage in Final Cut, you really have to transcode to start editing, because every cut you make, you run the risk of de-syncing the audio, plus h264 is not very nice for native editing.

I had a deadline of 5pm EST the next day which meant 2pm PST. Just enough time to slam out an edit… BUT the transcoding was going to take 16hrs!! I had to ditch most of the footage, and pick a couple people to transcode in order to get the piece up.

Also, the piece that is up was compressed for transmission and then re-encoded in NYC for the NYTimes website. I assure you the original footage looks amazing.

Originally Published: “Fan Memories” a Michael Jackson memorial video on NYTimes.com

How to sync audio with 5D Mark II footage

filmslate

The first thing you need to do is make sure that you clap or use a film slate with both your audio recorder and camera recording

Batch conform your 5DMKII footage to 29.97 using Cinema Tools (part of the Final Cut Suite). The reason you need to do this, is because the .mov files from the 5DMKII read as 30fps when in fact they are 29.97fps. This discrepancy will cause your audio to fall out of sync. Luckily, it’s easy to fix.

cinema_tools_screenshot

cinema_tools_screenshot2

sequence_settings

In Final Cut Pro, set your sequence to 1920×1080 ProRes with a square pixel aspect ratio.

Next, line up the audio track in Final Cut so that the peak of the “clap” from your audio recorder lines up with the “clap” from the 5DMKII

Because of the 30fps/29.97 discrepency, you’ll need to change the speed of the audio from your audio recorder to 99.9%. I know, it doesn’t seem necessary, but trust me. If you don’t do this, you’ll notice the tracks fall out of sync after about 5 minutes or less.

finalcut_screenshot_02-270

finalcut_screenshot_03

I set up a sequence for each clip I was syncing audio to. After lining each sequence up, I usually do a batch export and walk away for awhile. When the export is done, you should have a folder full of fully synced beautiful 5DMKII clips ready to edit.

batch_export_01

batch_export

Got some advice on syncing audio up with the 5D Mark II? Share the love in the comments.

About the author
Zach Wise is an award-winning former Senior Multimedia Producer for The New York Times and Associate Professor at Northwestern University.



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  • http://www.multimedia-journalist.com Stefan Sobotta

    Nice work and thanks for sharing the information!
    I use the same combination. Which lavalier mic did you use?

  • Simone Maurice

    This was helpful for syncing. Just curious to know if you’ve ever had the opportunity to try out the Lumix GH1? It seems to be great in run and gun situations.

  • http://burkepost.com/wordpress/?p=51 Outside the Michael Jackson Memorial – BURKEPOST BLOG

    [...] here’s a technical synopsis from Zach, the NYT producer who really made this thing. :Michael Jackson, New York Times, [...]

  • mp

    You are wrong about the 30fps vs 29.97. The camera records at 30. By conforming to 29.97 you are in effect slowing the video down by .01%, which is what you are compensating for when you slow the audio to 99.9%.

    If you set up your sequence correctly (ie. at true 30fps, as opposed to 29.97) audio and video should sync correctly.

  • http://zachwise.com/ Zach Wise

    As far as I’ve been able to determine, the camera actually records at 29.97 but says 30fps in the header for simplicity. I’ve tried using a 30fps sequence with unconformed video and the sync consistantly fell off with/without the 99.9% adjustment. http://blog.planet5d.com/2009/03/5d2-video-really-2997fps-instead-of-30/

  • http://www.picturestoryblog.com Stephen Alvarez

    Bruce Sharp says the the issue with sound and the 5d is in fact a FCP issue. He has a fix thathe describes here.
    http://brucesharpe.blogspot.com/2009/06/dslr-dual-system-audio-999-solution.html

  • http://www.ehrinmacksey.com Ehrin

    No need for a clapper board. Check this great software out. It will save you tons of time on your sync.

    http://www.singularsoftware.com/autosync/

    Here is a tutorial on it from a DP.

    http://philipbloom.co.uk/tutorials/canon-5dmkii-tutorials/part-2-syncing-audio-and-video-with-fcp-and-plurayeyes/

    -Ehrin

  • Grant Slater

    Just curious. What do you transcode to for editing in FCP?

  • http://zachwise.com/ Zach Wise

    Pro-Res 422

  • Przemion

    For audio syncing in FCP – check this out:
    http://www.singularsoftware.com/autosync/

    They have 30 full working demo…

    Peace

  • http://www.multimediashooter.com/wp/uncategorized/dirty-pretty-thing-the-canon-5d-mkii-and-other-dslr-stuff/ Dirty, Pretty Thing, The Canon 5D MKII and other DSLR Stuff – MultimediaShooter

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  • http://www.thomasmcdade.com/lindencs/2009/11/mediastorm-documents-final-cut-workflows-for-the-canon-5d-mark-ii-and-nikon-d300/ Linden Creative Services

    [...] thanks to Zach Wise for his blog post Lessons Learned Shooting with the Canon 5D Mark II. Posted: November 18th, 2009 Categories: Interesting Tags: Comments: No Comments. [...]

  • http://inspiredbylife.pl/2009/12/01/mikrofon-i-dzwiek-podczas-filmowania-lustrzankami/ Mikrofon i d?wi?k podczas filmowania lustrzankami | Inspired by Life

    [...] Synchronizacja w FCP 2 [...]

  • http://www.canonfilmmakers.com Jon Connor

    Unfortunately the camera is the only one I know of that actually shoots 30 fps not 29.97 the firmware update that will give you 24p, 60p etc. will also address this issue and give you the industry norm of 30p which is 29.97. Great site by the way!!

  • http://lamivo.com lam

    Does Pluraleyes work well? I’m about to use it for a short film shoot with many, many clips.

  • http://zachwise.com/ Zach Wise

    I’ve heard it works well, but I haven’t tried it.

  • Stan Alost

    Hey Zach,
    Thanks for giving so much back to the craft. Not only are you doing stellar work, you are lifting others in their work. We need more people like you.
    I must say it reminds me of heated discussion about hypo-clear, fixer, and wash times.

    Thanks man.

  • Joao da Silva

    I have come to the same conclusion from experience. I had this problem working on a music video as I saw the band falling out of sync half-way through the edit using the Apple ProRes 422 encoding on a 30fps sequence in FCP.

    I went back to the original H.264 files and conformed them all to 29.97 in cinema tools first. Converted again to ProRes 422 and Set them up in a 29.97 sequence in FCP, no audio adjustment done. Everything was PERFECTLY in Sync.

    I’m not an engineer by any means but to me there can only be one conclusion: The canon 5D MkII shoots @ 29.97 fps.

  • http://www.eileenmignoni.com/blog/?p=189 Canon 5D MarkII Shooting: Advice – Multimedia in the Hyper South

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