Canon Xl2 Digital Camcorder - Do Pro's Really Use A Minidv
By Mark Sturge, Fri Dec 9th

Canon xl2 digital and a chance meeting as I was on alunch break.

Did you know that you can get fed & paid to learn about videoproduction? Picture this:

You're down the street at the local shops when you hear a lot ofscreaming from up a side street.

"What the heck was that?" you think to yourself and make yourway around the corner to see what all the commotion is about.

To your surprise, you see twenty or thirty people screaming andcarrying on as they chase a New York City taxi-cab, only to haveit stop after twenty yards and back-up, ready to do it all overagain.

You hesitate for a moment and contemplate if it would be betterto turn around and walk in the other direction.

It's then you notice the traffic control personnel, the lights,cameras and huge number of support people. You have stumbledacross a location shoot for a television commercial.

"Ahaaa", you say to yourself "perfect opportunity to learnabout 'the business'".

So you hang around and study the camera angles, positioning ofthe lights and how it is all controlled by the director. Theplacement of screens and reflectors, the use of microphones andthe roles of the support crew.

It's when you speak to the 'extras' (the rowdy 'mob') that youdiscover they are being paid $20 an hour and the whole event isfully catered!

Now if you want to learn more about the business of film andvideo production with the added bonus of being paid to do so,sign up as an extra and learn from the inside. If you are unsurewhere to start, just type 'movie extra' in a search engine likegoogle.

Now this is a true story and as my luck would have it, wastaking place right outside my office window for most of the day(the

screaming and yelling did get a bit tedious after a while).

It was good to speak to the cast extra's, but this was a betteropportunity to talk to the technical crew on aspects of filmingand production. Just had to pick the right moment.

And that I did and picked up some good info to boot!

The production house was not a large firm so they had developedsystems and procedures to control costs while providing qualityoutputs. One of these was using a Canon xl2 digital asthe secondary camera.

The size and weight of the Canon xl2 compared to the betacamunit allowed it to be placed in unusual locations quickly andeasily (thus saving time, which equals money) and the imagequality showed no discernable difference (you would need to viewon a new digital system to notice a difference and even thenyou'd have to be looking closely.

I even managed to get a word in with the main productioncameraman so I could 'pick his brain' on the Canon xl2 digitalcamcorder. He loved the unit but did say he found it'sperformance questionable when filming vertical stripes and offgreen colourings (the types of situations you might find infilming catwalk models). Other than that he said the xl2 was agreat asset for a pro or semi-pro operator.

So if you'd like a whole lot of fun while getting paid, sign upas a movie/production extra. And if you want a great camcorderand have the experience to use it get yourself a Canon xl2digital camcorder.

About the author:Mark Sturge is the owner of KMS Productions and webmaster atvideo-production-mastery.com. A site where visitors can find digital reviews such as the canon xl2 digital camcorder as well asuseful hints and tips to better their filming techniques.