XL2 + Mini35 = SciFi Short in 1 month.

[RichmanDJoseph]

Hello All,

I have been reading a lot of posts and brushing up on my digital knowledge in preparation for a short that I am shooting in just over a month.

I am a cinematographer by trade (the last two years) but have only been shooting 35mm/16mm film. I am a very strict researcher and tester when it comes to my jobs and my hobbies are keeping up on the latest technologies (good luck eh?)

Initially when I was approached to shoot the short film we were going to shoot on the dvx and I jumped at the opportunity seeing as I had access to one at my place of employment. But recently the production has turned to the XL2 (for whatever reason) and I now have aquired the opportunity to shoot with the Mini35 adaptor by P+S.

Science Fiction is my favorite genre and I am raring to go. Thing is I will not have any opportunity to test the camera ahead of time (compared to my testing with the dvx) Now this is something I hate doing. Going into a project without having some sort of test period.

My questions are the following.

1. The mini 35... How much light loss does it really suck up. for ie. If I wanted to expose for a T2.8 (on the Cookes we are using) does that mean I will need to have my key lights at a T4 to incororporate for the light loss or open up a stop to compensate. (ultimately adding more light to every shot?) This question is out there to basically see if I need more punch with my lighting package.

2. Does anyone know of a site with articles/interviews/footage (not wmv)/tests that have been done using the mini35 and xl2? I want to dive in as quickly as possible. Even a shooter's checklist would be great, or problems people have had etc.

3. I have not shot any DV for a couple years now (I have operated on the sony HDW900, Viper, DVCpro50 and numerous other camera's) but I have not been the cinematographer on any of these shoots. My creative involvement has been little in my DV career. So is there any advice you guys can offer regarding shooting my first DV project (professionally) in a long while? Things like, should I have a vectorscope on set or just a prod.Monitor? I usually calibrate my light meter to match the ISO of my camera...so how do I do I incorporate my calibration when the mini35 is involved? (I calibrate my light meter to my camera so that I can light using my meter and not rely on my monitor.)

Anything else you guys can offer up would be wonderful. And no matter what happens I will post up some clips of the production when we finish.

This is a great site and I hope it will be around for a long time.

sincerely,
RichmanDJoseph

[thisiswells]

You might pose your question to Charles Papert, SOC on the DVinfo.net forums.
He is usually in the P+S Technik forum this time of year. :-)

Brian

[Gary_McClurg]

I never had much luck with search but there was a page about shooting with the P&S here.

[johnnyspacecommand]

There is a great site,

http://www.starcentral.ca

that does exactly what you are talking about. Most likely they switched to the XL2 on the basis of resolution in native 16:9. Those jagged stairsteps are a real pesky problem.

From watching people I know, you can do nearly anything to the color these days with all the post-software available. The only thing you can't do is to expand out blacks crushed "in-camera" or uncompress overexposed areas.

[RichmanDJoseph]

Thanks guys I will check out the other site and keep you posted on my progress.

Johnny, when you say expand out crushed black are you referring to my possible adjustments to the gamma/master pedastal in camera so as to keep my blacks black and not noisy?

Thanks.
RichmandJoseph