Speaker 1: This week on Indy News, an amazing robot for perfect slow motion shots, how to green screen with Final Cut Pro X, a DIY air cannon, the best SD card for videographers, helpful gear for shooting outdoors, and I compare two popular audio recorders, the Zoom H4n versus the Tascam DR-40. Hey Indy Mogulers, you know I always love a good super slow motion video, but this German studio takes it to the next level. Called the Marmalade, they specialize in incredible slow motion shots. Their team includes cinematographers, digital effects artists, and engineers, even going so far as to build a high speed robot to add precise movement. A lot of mogulers ask what editing software I use, and today is my one year anniversary of editing with Final Cut Pro X, but I realize I still haven't tried chroma key or green screening with this new software. Fortunately, last week former awesome director Zach King posted a simple tutorial for keying out a green screen in Final Cut Pro X. On Friday, Sam and Nico posted their latest SYNC behind the scenes episode, featuring their handyman Spencer building a DIY air cannon, perfect for simulating an explosion with flying debris. Last week I purchased some new gear, including a couple extra SD cards. I've always really liked these Transcend 16GB SD cards. They are class 10, which means they transfer data fast enough to record HD video. They always seem to work pretty well, and I really like the price. But this month, The Wirecutter reviewed several SD card options, and determined the best choice may be the SanDisk Extreme 16GB. For only $5 more than my SD cards, you can get double the transfer speed. Let me show you the other gear that I got this week that helps me capture better video outside. I've said before that sunlight is great for amateur videographers. The sun is way more powerful than most indoor lighting, so usually video quality looks a lot better. But shooting outdoors can be challenging, in part because the sun can be too bright. My camera has three ways to correct an overexposed image like this. I can lower the ISO, or gain, or I can stop down the aperture or shutter speed. But aperture controls depth of field, and shutter speed controls motion blur, so I can only adjust ISO when I want shallow depth of field and normal motion blur. But even at my lowest ISO, it's still too bright. That's where an ND filter comes in handy. It's like sunglasses for your camera. And I just got this cool fader ND, which instantly drops my exposure by one stop. But it's also adjustable. I can turn it to block up to 10 more stops of light. So now I have a lot more control over my camera in direct sunlight. One of the biggest problems with shooting outside is the wind. A basic windscreen helps reduce breathing noise, like, but not windy conditions. That's why I got this fuzzy windscreen, often called a dead cat because of what it looks like. Sorry, Andy. The artificial fur helps diffuse wind noise, and I even got one to protect the stereo onboard mic on my portable audio recorder. Here's how they compare. And here's how they handle 30 mile per hour winds. This fuzzy windscreen can't entirely eliminate wind noise, but it muffles it quite a bit. In that last segment, you may have noticed my new Tascam DR-40 portable audio recorder. I got it recently because my Zoom H4n has been acting up. Even when I put fresh batteries in it, it thinks they're running low, and it shuts itself off. It still works perfectly fine on AC power, and I hope to get it fixed soon, but I thought this would be a perfect time to compare the Tascam DR-40 with the Zoom H4n. These similar products are both pretty good. They each record four channels simultaneously, an onboard stereo mic plus two combo jacks, XLR or quarter inch. My DR-40 shipped with firmware version 1.02, so I upgraded it to 1.20, and now both recorders can set independent volume levels for each input. Here's a tip. Always double check that you're recording audio. Pushing the record button once activates ready mode, and when your camera's rolling, it's easy to forget that you're not yet capturing audio. Push it a second time to really start rolling. Out of hundreds of shoots, three times I've forgotten to roll audio. Unfortunately, one of those was an interview with US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. Here's where the Tascam DR-40 shines. I picked it up for only $150. Right now, that's $85 cheaper than the Zoom H4n. I also like the metal guards around the stereo mic. On my first shoot with the H4n, my mic stand fell over and I bent one of the mics. The DR-40 also has a dual recording mode, which is cool. You can capture the same input at different audio levels. It also uses three AA batteries instead of two, and includes a 2GB SD card. Downsides? It feels cheap. The H4n has more heft, with a metal body covered with plastic, but the DR-40 is all plastic. I thought I'd prefer the locking XLR connectors, but they feel loose compared to the H4n's snug ports. They each have peak indicators, but unlike the H4n, the DR-40 doesn't let me know at the end of recording if I clipped. Audio-wise, they sound about the same. Right now, you're hearing my shotgun mic plugged into my H4n. And now, the mic is plugged into my DR-40. The only weird thing is, when the input level is high, I hear this helicopter noise. Strangely enough, if I navigate away from the home screen, it goes away. Really weird. And annoying, but I'm glad there's some workaround for it. So here's what the extra cost gets you with the H4n. An included AC adapter and hard case, an extra external mic input that replaces the onboard stereo mic, and no weird helicopter noise. But for the money, the Tascam DR-40 may be the better option. On Indie Mogul's Friday 101 last week, Russell shared an excellent tutorial for finding royalty-free music for your videos. And I actually use a lot of his recommended sources in my personal videos. But this last week, I was working on a highlight video from the Warrior Dash that I ran, and I had a very specific song in mind, by a local artist. So I simply asked them, and they gave me permission to use their song in my video. So I want to give a big thank you to the Devout Sinners. You'll hear their awesome bluegrass music in my Warrior Dash video. Right now, if there's a yellow box around the video, that's because it's not done yet, and you can subscribe to my channel. But if you see a green box, it's ready to go, you should watch it. But if you don't see any box, that's because your annotations are turned off, or you're watching this on a mobile device. And that's why I always include links in the description as well. Also on today's playlist, I have the Slow Motion Professionals at The Marmalade, Zach King's Chroma Key tutorial for Final Cut Pro X, and Sam and Nico's DIY Air Cannon. Thanks for watching Indy Mogul, where we feature original programming every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and we feature your videos Tuesdays and Thursdays. I'll see you later. Bye bye. Bye bye.