lightingyoung Posted December 31, 2006 Posted December 31, 2006 Hi in my local panto they are doing jack and the beanstalk. the director wants the giant to be projected, the actor will be in the wings but I would like to have control on what you see . I was trying to work out how to do this?. I have a laptop,projector,wirless PC and a camcorder. cheers now
CPlater1 Posted December 31, 2006 Posted December 31, 2006 Do you mean you just want to see the actor and none of the stuff around him? If so you would have to do green/blue screening software, which generally isn't free/cheap. That also means you would need a constant colour behind the actor.
lightingyoung Posted December 31, 2006 Author Posted December 31, 2006 its not the image I am concerned about its that the actor is backstage and all the crew and equipment (except camera) are front of house. Any Suggestions?
CPlater1 Posted December 31, 2006 Posted December 31, 2006 You could record the actor. If your run is short, you could use 1or 2 recordings with the actor doing different things in both. The problem with this is if people need to talk to the actor and get the response. Another way of doing it involves long cables.
lightingyoung Posted January 1, 2007 Author Posted January 1, 2007 I don't mind having long cables if thats the answer.
Toxopholist Posted January 1, 2007 Posted January 1, 2007 sorry I might be being a bit dense here, but are you trying to control what what is projected remotely, or do you just want a preview of what is happening at the camcorder in front of you? charlie
lightingyoung Posted January 1, 2007 Author Posted January 1, 2007 yes I would like preview what is on the screen before I put it live. if that makes any sense.
Toxopholist Posted January 1, 2007 Posted January 1, 2007 a relatively cheap option I have used before was to split the video feed at the camera, one to the projector, the other to a cheap usb video capture device, then set up an m5n video call between the two c0mputers usig the capture device to take in the video... a bit rough but as long as both machines have a connection to the internet it is a cheap and relatively reliable, it also meant I could send text messages to those at the camera for cues... HTH Charlie
lightingyoung Posted January 1, 2007 Author Posted January 1, 2007 there is no Internet in the venue so that idea is out of the question. Any other ideas anyone?
Rikio Posted January 1, 2007 Posted January 1, 2007 An even cheaper option is to just split the signal, put one to your projector and one in to a tv infront of you.
JCoster Posted January 1, 2007 Posted January 1, 2007 This kind of thing has been discussed several times on the BlueRoom but basically here's how I'd do it... (Admittedly it's not the best method and the quality could be greatly improved but it sounds like you have a relatively small budget so...) Take the composite video out of the camera and run it to FoH or wherever you want to control it from. Now put the feed into the laptop or PC (I'd assume PC is more powerful and is probably easier to install a tv-input card), although some laptops have these built-in. If you use the PC, I use Hauppage WinTV which I picked up for about £13 off eBay back in February. Install the VFW (VideoForWindows) drivers rather than the WDM drivers. I cannot recall where I got them from but as always, :) is your friend! I then use a software programme called 'ArKaos' which comes with a very handy 21 day fully-functional trial and many more features such as adding effects to the image and then text overlays etc. Assuming the PC also has two video outputs (maybe one VGA, one S-Video as I recall is generally what you get now) then convert the S-Video to composite and run it to your projector. Then use the VGA as a monitor. Depending on your graphics card you can then configure a 'DualView' mode which allows one computer to output different images to two different screens. You are then able to use ArKaos to output the preview box fullscreen onto the second monitor (which is, in this case the projector). There are several differnet tutorials on how to configure and run ArKaos and if you need more help I'd recommend the ArKaos Forums. Hope this helped. Post back if you need anymore help.
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