Shot Core On Camera Remote
We need a small remote control that mounts on a camera rig. It communicates with a remote system over wifi. The remote has 3-5 buttons: Record, Next Shot, Previous Shot, and Impromptu Shot, and Star. The display shows three main pieces of information: Current Scene, Shot, and Take number. It could also show recording status, and errors that the remote system is alerting.
Sketch of Device:
Video of Case Design: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3RSc0_Mwc4
We are making a movie. We are shooting a complete version of the movie with almost no crew as a "beta test" - we call it "proto production". This requires us to create software and hardware tools that help us automate procedural and organizational tasks that are normally done by multiple people. We are sort of building a "one man band" system for shooting a movie.
We have storyboarded the entire movie, shot for shot, using software we've created called Storyboarder. The software allows us to set up shots in 3D by placing characters, objects and cameras to easily create shots.
Screenshot of Storyboarder:
Now that we have all of our shots storyboarded, we need to shoot each of those shots so that we can edit it together into a movie. Typically, a movie has ~100 scenes and ~2,000 shots. With around 2,000 shots that need to be photographed, we essentially have a 2,000 item "todo" list. Additionally, multiple takes of each shot are collected. So if there are 3 takes on average for every shot, this will result in 6,000 video clips.
Organization and management of all these video clips is a nightmare.
OLD SOLUTION: Someone called a "Script Supervisor" is in charge of making sure all of the shots are gathered and organized. They log every shot on a paper notebook. Additionally, there is another person called a "Second Assistant Camera (2nd. AC)" that writes shot information on a clapper board and claps the board in front of the camera, so metadata is permanently tied to the clip. This is prone to a lot of human error, delays, and high cost.
Oldschool clapperboard in front of camera:
OUR SOLUTION: Because we have rich metadata from our digital storyboards, we are able to import those boards into a system we call: "Shot Core". Shot Core's job is to make sure we shoot all the shots we need, and keep them organized. First, shots are ordered into a schedule, which is really simply a single ordered list of shots. This allows us to reorder shots in case we want to shoot scenes or shots out of order. When in production (shooting), Shot Core is running, letting the small crew know which shot is the current shot, and performing automatic tasks like logging takes, shuttling files off the camera onto a NAS. As we shoot, the takes are incremented and logged automatically, but we need a way to advance Shot Core to the next shot once we are done. We are shooting with a camera that has full API access, so we can control every aspect of the camera remotely from Shot Core.
Overview of Shot Core system:
Screenshot of an on set monitor:
INITIALLY, AND INCORRECTLY, we started creating a large device called "Slater". It is a digital clapper board that mimics similar features and functionality of an oldschool clapper board. It had an E-ink display and would display all of the metadata for the shot. Buttons on the device would advance the shot, tell the camera to start recording, and tell the camera to stop. It was designed to be shown in front of the camera for every take. The camera is very heavy and the same person operating the camera would also have to put the Slater in front of the camera. That is very annoying, and actually not even needed.
Slater prototype:
WHAT WE ACTUALLY NEED, (and this is where you come in :D), is a small, easily accessible device that allows the operator to start recording, stop recording. A star button to rate takes after a take. After some takes, when the shot is complete, an ability to go to the next shot in the schedule. (Additionally an additional button to go to the previous shot if accidentally pressed). Also, rarely, we need to add an impromptu shot that wasn't scheduled. So an additional out of the way button that can be pressed when we need that. As far as display, we need to be able to see the current scene, shot, and take. This device will only interact with Shot Core. The buttons will send information to Shot Core over wifi and it will get its display information from wifi.
3-5 Buttons:
- Record (Very commonly used)
- Star Take (Very commonly used)
- Next Shot (Commonly used after a few takes)
- Previous Shot (Though we might be able to remove this button with a double click)
- Impromptu Shot (We might be able to remove this button with a super long press)
Key Information:
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Scene
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Shot
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Take
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Dialogue line
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Recording status
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Error status
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Storyboard Thumbnail (Depending on screen)
I was thinking about .49" 64x32 OLED display. It's tiny and can display the essential information nicely. https://www.winstar.com.tw/products/oled-module/graphic-oled-display/micro.html [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTSgDLIUP0A]
There is a newer greyscale OLED display that is .96" 96x64 which could be interesting and might allow us to show an actual storyboard image. https://www.winstar.com.tw/products/oled-module/graphic-oled-display/96x64-oled.html
The camera rig has a battery that can be tapped into. It outputs 18v-12v depending on the battery charge. I think we need to step down the power to 5v or whatever is appropriate.
Communication can be sent and received via WIFI built into the ESP8266/32 Chip. We can either set it up as AP only (little configuration), or connect to WIFI hotspot (using some esp wifi connection middleware library)
Should mount to handle cold shoe. Metal cold shoe adapter screwed into case body.
This might be interesting to grow into something more versatile. Bigger screen to display more information, more buttons, rotary encoders for changing iso/nd/aperture values?