latest "Instant Film" shot on DVX/Mini35

[CharlesPapert]

My 10th Instant Film (www.instantfilms.tv) is up for viewing here (http://homepage.mac.com/chupap/Film/iMovieTheater28.html) (http://homepage.mac.com/chupap/Film/iMovieTheater28.html).

As part of the Instant Films festival, the scripts were written by 8 writers on a Friday, then 8 directors plucked a script and their cast out of a hat the next morning and had 36 hours to make the film before the screening Sunday night.

This festival had a timely "election year" theme (and I urge you to also watch "The Swidge", an outrageous entry that swept the awards that festival and is up on the front page of iFilm). I myself drew a humble entry about a pol who will do just about anything to get a vote. I shot with the DVX100a, the Mini35 and a set of elderly Zeiss speeds and had a great time. Well, if you can call working for 34 hours out of the 36 a great time...!

[Chayse_Irvin]

I liked it a lot!

Great Cinematography.

[Policar]

Solid. How'd you pull off that cool shot in the office? Looked like a combination jib/dolly.

Also, did you use ND filters to get the windows exposed correctly? That was pretty well done. The script is pretty cute and the acting is good, too, but the cinematography strikes me as themost impressive (it's taking an hour to load so I've only seen 3/4 of it so far).

[mrbimmer]

AWESOME...the shots were great...nicelyt lit...thank god for the Mini35! What was the budget, and some of the equipment used as well? ie. dolly, jib, lighting kit...etc.. ;D

[CharlesPapert]

Sorry about the big file! I had a smaller one up but the compression during the moving shots bugged me.

The first two shots (title sequence) which were done on a Losmandy Spider dolly and Flextrak. All other moving shots were on Steadicam.

None of the windows were gelled. The office (actually a basement and home office in a lovely house that I had procured for the shoot) was mostly ambient lighting, with the venetian blinds carefully set to limit exposure to the outside. The second location (Katie's house) was shot later, after the sun went down so it had to be lit for day.

The primary lighting for this film were a 1200 and 575 watt HMI par, two Gyoury lights (small dimmable fluourescents) and a couple of Kinoflos, plus one or two small tungsten units.

The opening scene was the two Gyoury's, one as backlight, the other as the TV light (working the dimmer to create flicker), plus a wall bounce for fill on the actress. The walk-and-talk through the office was ambient daylight plus existing MR16 ceiling spots, with a daylight/tungsten China ball Gyoury setup that was handcarried alongside the camera for fill.
The second shot of the office had one Gyoury flying above the window on the right as a key for the aide character, and the other down below the frame on the right as the candidate's key light. The rest was ambient.

For Katie's house, (again, shot at night), a 12x12 grifflon frame was put up outside the sliding doors that you can see in the background, and the 1200 was bounced into the griff to create a white blowout to simulate daylight. Normally this would have been dressed with some sort of blinds to break up the solid white panel, but we didn't have anything on short notice. A 4x4 daylight Kino was set as an edge light to continue the window light feel onto the actors. The window above the sink had a 4x4 frame of 216 diffusion placed against it, and the 575 illuminated it from behind to glow that window and create a key for most of those scenes. A Gyoury was used for different setups as a fill light to taste, and highlighting various other bits of the kitchen.

Overall a pretty simple lighting plan--we had a lot to do without the lighting taking over! The shoot itself lasted close to 16 hours, after which I got two hours sleep and then blasted through the edit, finishing just in time to make the screening.

The budget of this film ended up to be much more than I usually spend on an Instant Film, as I am generally able to borrow or get a good deal on the lighting package. I had to rent a 1-ton grip/electric package with gaffer which came to about $550 for the day, plus we had a little boo-boo during the Steadicam walk-and-talk where a picture frame was smashed, which is costing me $100 to replace. Food cost about $75. So I'm up close to $800 for this film--again, much higher than I usually spend. I already owned the camera, the Mini35, the dolly, sound gear etc. so that helps!

[J.R. Hudson]

Abe Froman? The Sausage King of Chicago? Rooney? Bueller? Anyone? Frye? Sloan Peterson? Great job. The cinematography as expected, was 5 STAR and the talent was top notch. Would of liked to have seen the dialg picked up (more snap) but nonetheless, great job. Where's Ferris? :(

Ive been thinking about getting the Losmandy Spider dolly and Flextrak this coming TAX RETURN season! Thanks for the DEMO!

[CharlesPapert]

Hee hee! Yeah, the writer (who is one of the writers on "Will and Grace") stuffed all those Ferris names in there. I was planning on changing them in case it was distracting, but we forgot.

I absolutely agree about the pacing. I was riding them to pick it up (it's one of the things we encourage to Instant Films directors) but it still didn't play as fast I'd like. I tried to pull it up as much as I could in the edit, but there's only so much you can do. Good note, John.

The Losmandy/Flextrak is a really great system. Make sure to buy a bunch of the channel pieces that make it run straight, they are only $10 each but I highly recommend them. Any time you are planning a straight move (which I find to be 95% of the time) they are critical.

[Dan_Lahav]

<drool> gyoury lights </drool>

wow that was awsome. good job!

[Arcburn]

very nice. Looks great

[HorseFilms]

Quite impressive. The lighting was all extremely natural looking. Killer sax solo, by the way (I've been a sax player for about 18 years).

[taubkin]

Loved the cinematography. When I read this was going to be a mini35 flick I though "it's going to be a selective-focus-palloozza", it wasn't. It was beautifully used.

My only complain (since the pace was fastl enough for me to understand with my rusty english) is about the script. He just remembers he forgot to register? Shouldn't we have at least a plant/payoff situation here? it's the main puch line and have absolutely no reason to happen?

But I understand it's an instant film, and for that, it's already very nicely done. One of the most professional looking in terms of cinematography, and one of the pieces that actually makes us see what this camera can do when we light for HER.

[Isaac_Brody]

Nice work. The lighting and compositions are solid. It's amazing what really good glass can do in front of this camera. Also, really good work with your sound and music. Can you tell us some details about how you recorded sound and the music? Again, solid work.

[theos]

Nice work, not sure the story was grippin enough for me as I dont relate to American politics but the cinematography was lovley, good work . . . truly excellent!

[CharlesPapert]

Thanks everyone! And I appreciate all of your understanding of the time constraints in terms of the material and execution.

<,<drool> gyoury lights </drool> >>

Yup, they are some of my favorite lighting units ever. Really flexible and having the ability to dim up and down with constant color temperature makes them super-fast. I first worked with them on "Mr. 3000" (movie which is about to be released) and bought a pair right afterwards. They are by no means cheap, but they have come through every time, and I have started to pay them off here and there!

<<Killer sax solo, by the way (I've been a sax player for about 18 years).>>

<<Can you tell us some details about how you recorded sound and the music? Again, solid work.>>

The location sound was a mix of a Sennheiser 416 and a Sennheiser Evolution 100 wireless which was placed on different characters as needed for the wider shots. If the 416 was used alone, we set one of the channels of the DVX about 5 db lower than the other to accomodate the louder dialogue, since we don't use a mixer (both mikes go straight into the camera).


As far as the music side, I've played for something like (ugh) 24 years? Much more seriously in my 20's (played in a bunch of bands), not so much any more. The composer, Jim Jones, was the guitarist in a fabulous ska band out of Boston called Bim Skala Bim. I played with them briefly about 10 years ago. He lives out here (LA) now and I was delighted to be able to work with him on this project.

Jim came to the first readthrough on Saturday morning and we talked about some themes and general places where I thought music cues would be needed then, and he wrote the rough ideas during the day.I turned over a fine cut of the final scene to him at noon on Sunday, and he scored the music to match specific hits over the next few hours. He came over to the edit around 4 pm that day with a CD that was mixed down from his keyboard and a digital 4-track, and kept working on stuff while I finished up the edit and color correction. Around 6:30 pm I had to record my sax track (in the bathroom of my office!) onto 4-track. After being up and working feverishly for two days at that point, I was more than a little frazzled and not in a great place to be playing music, but I bore down and churned something out regardless!

He mixed down the 4-track to stereo and handed over a CD, which I slugged in at around 7:30. (the one track that we hadn't planned for, during the initial Steadicam walk-and-talk through the office, was a pre-recorded buyout track from Sonicfire Pro). Then I recorded the v/o for the newscaster at the beginning of the film and output to tape at around 8:15; the screening had nominally started at 8! But I made there in time to show the film (and one of the other ones came in even later).

[aryk]

Great reverb on the sax, nothing like a bathroom! The story was really well done, and there were some edits I thought were just beautiful.

[CharlesPapert]

The complete set of films from that festival is finally up on our site: www.instantfilms.tv, click on "watch films". I highly recommend "The Swidge", "Folksy" and "The Perfect Candidate".

[robeditor2003]

Hey Charles,

Good film.. I was wondering how did you find your actress to play the parts? A writer friend of mind is finishing up on a script & we both think that Johari would be could for the part if you could please pass my email address to her, or maybe PM me.

2nd Question you live in LA?

thanks,

Rob

[CharlesPapert]

Rob:

With Instant Films, you don't get to pick your actors, it's all up to chance! I pulled three names out of a hat right after pulling the script itself and started shooting a few hours later. I think I was pretty blessed with that cast...

Johari was great, and a delight to work with. And incidentally, if you have seen the article at the Pro/ section of Apple's website about a film called "Able Edwards"; she's in that too.

I will contact her about your project.

(and yes, I live in LA)