Fight Scene with DVX

[povfilms]

Please check out a fight scene I recently shot with the DVX100 and cut on Vegas 4. It's available on our site for download, look for the one called 'Hamlin Fight' (it's a 27 meg download in WMV9 format). Thanks.


Bao Tran
http://www.pov-films.com

[J.R. Hudson]

Bao

That was excellent. Well done! The camera work was perfect; lots of movement and cuttting. Really, I am very impressed. God, someone give this guy a MOLE lighting kit and a soundstage....

:D

The fight choreography was top notch; better than most of the crap I see on tv, serious, very nice. I could go on and on; but theres nothing more to say than:

A++

:o

Gives me something to aspire to. Keep us in the loop on future projects.

;)

[SirAllen]

Bravo! That was excellent!

Which mode did you use? And did you use the anamorphic or just crop? It looked great not to mention the fight scene was top notch!

[Norm_Li]

YOOO!

I have to agree!! Very cool :) Very "Jet Li" like!!

Great editing and fluidity of the sequences. The image quality and motion also kicked major ass!

What settings?

F5 or F6? What Shutterspeed did you use? What type of mic did you use for that? It was pretty good sound quality. Also... was that the Panna Anamorphic lens with the letterbox mode on for the 2.35:1 look?

Good work!

Norm Li
Q Productions

[J.R. Hudson]

Good call Sir Allen and Norm...

I think for future reference; all FRAME GRABS AND/OR FOOTAGE submitted for our viewing pleasure should come with a complete breakdown of the settings and techniques used.

Is this a good idea?

JARED --- You the man, what do you say?

[Norm_Li]

I second that thought!!! (unless we forget the specific settings somehow!)

[povfilms]

I'm glad you all liked it. The camera was actually a rental (I'm definitely saving up for one now!), so I had to learn the ins and outs of the camera the night before we shot. I think the setting was on F6, and kept it on 24pA with Cine-gamma and the other cinema setting (I forgot).

The shutter speed was 1/50, except for a few shots in the stick segment, which was at 1/24.

The lighting was all natural sunlight. It was a one-day shoot, so I kept adjusting the fstop and ND throughout the day as the sun (and we) gradually moved.

Sound was all from the camera mic, but I did record sounds of yelling from each of the actors with the camera after we wrapped to use in post as needed.

I shot with the 16x9 matte on, but then decided that the 2.35 matte worked better for it and adjusted the framing accordingly. So it was really an afterthought.

I tried to shoot as clean as possible and fix up colors in post. But aside from brightening a few shots, no adjustments were really made from the original footage. I've shot with a GL1 and had to color correct a lot from that, but the DVX gives great footage straight 'out of the box'.

Bao Tran
www.pov-films.com

[J.R. Hudson]

Again, well done!

And thanks for the 'tips'.

[Norm_Li]

THANKS!

:)

[Zoomforce]

who was your DP.. this obviously isnt the first time you did this as it is very very good... I mean it actually has timing and style that matches the choro. The angles are also very dead on and I love the pulls into the hits with the camera.

Very well done, And I will add you to the rolodex :)

[J.R. Hudson]

Good call on the Rolodex............ 8)

It's not what you know, but...

[SirAllen]

Wow. I'm actually more impressed that it was all 'out of the box' so to speak. One more question. Did you use a steadycam or was it all handheld/tripod?

[povfilms]

I 'shot and chopped' it myself ;)

The shot that moved in on Adam (the main guy) right before they start fighting was done with a homemade $15 steadicam. The other shots were either handheld or on a Sachtler tripod. The shot that moved in on Adam before he tosses the stick was on a PVC dolly. I think you can see some pics of it in the photo gallery.

Zoomforce, thanks for the rolodex addition. I'm in Seattle, so if you have anything planned or just want to chat, feel free to drop me a line.

Bao Tran
bao@pov-films.com
www.pov-films.com

[Flintstone]

This is very good. Congratulations! Can't wait to see more. Did the storyboarding of the fight take a long time, or did you just adhoc it at shoot time? I don't know if it was intentional or not, but an interresting detail that I noticed was the dust cloud after some of the punches and kicks... nicely done.

Fred

[J.R. Hudson]

I agree. My favorite shot was when he had homeboy between the trees and kicked him in the head. Nice. Only thing missing was some CGI teeth flying out.

[Guest]

I tried to shoot as clean as possible and fix up colors in post. *But aside from brightening a few shots, no adjustments were really made from the original footage. *I've shot with a GL1 and had to color correct a lot from that, but the DVX gives great footage straight 'out of the box'.

Hats off on your choreography, editing, effects and choice of music. Well done.

Unfortunately, I had some difficulty viewing your work on a more technical level for the following reasons:

A) You pushed exposure limits of the camera. The contrast range was exceeded as evidenced by overblown highlights in your actor(s) faces, clothing and ground reflections.

B) Inasmuch as you color corrected in post, the greatest difficulty I experienced was STRAINING to see more detail in subject areas. The overall blue color cast was totally unflattering to the scene and left me wondering why the characters looked more like "Smurfs" than humans with natural skin tones. Additionally, foliage appears overly blue - very unnatural.

Considering you haven't had much experience with the camera, you did very well in conveying the action. Congrats on your planning and camera execution.

[Guest]

Jason:

Your comments made me take a second (really 10th) look. I didn't experience any of the problems you had with this clip. The skin tones were natural and the foliage was green. The only blown out scenery was a bit of sky and ground which were all to brief to be a problem ???

[Guest]

http://www.2pff.com/cgi-bin/more.cgi?107

[SirAllen]

In that still the skin tones look correct, the foilage green, and the sky blue. Maybe your monitor is off? I even projected it out on my NTSC monitor. Looked great to me.

I thought the colors and mood were first rate. It wasn't warm, maybe a hair on the cold side but the skin tones were dead on. I watched it again a few more times since your comments. You may have a slight point on the exposure, however the first shot of his face I really liked even though the side of his face and neck were clipping. It fit the look and mood and added to it IMHO. A few other shots had a few blown highlights, but nothing I'd bring up even if I was trying to nitpick.

But in way of the colors, I couldn't disagree with you more. Everything looked beautiful and natural. Skin tones were dead on. And in way of detail it's hard to have detail in high action sequences, and although breif there were a few detail face shots.

[Zoomforce]

Looks good to me as well, and I also previewed it on an external NTSC monitor... (your titles are really pushing the edges of TV safe lol )

The only thing I would partially agree is the highlights get clipped on an NTSC.. but this can be corrected to a degree in post, but I understand why it was shot overexposed, as if you would of lowered the iris to compensate in camera you would of underexposed the talent, it appears there was no reflectors used so the backlight was necessary.

[J.R. Hudson]

I have watched this a couple times on the basic DELL flatscreen and it looks great. Hmmm...

Jason did you by any chance take acid prior to viewing it? No, wait, I got it. Take off the 3D glasses from the SPY KIDS movie. :D

[povfilms]

Before the shoot, I choreographed a majority of the fight and then storyboarded. I adjusted some of the choreo as I was storyboarding so it would flow better filmically. The boarding took a few hours. When we started shooting, I actually ditched a few dolly shots because the grounding was too uneven for the PVC dolly so I opted for handheld. I tend to like a good mix of both preparation and improvisation.

Some of the dust from the hits were enhanced with weightlifting chalk, it's a classic Hong Kong trick. But some of them were from the ground itself.

The first shot with the clipping on his face was an aesthetic choice. So judge it on that level. ;)

I admit the highlights in the background and clothes could have been better. I forgot to bring the bounce for the shoot. Short of bringing in lights, what could have been done with the DVX to compensate for it. In hindsight, I wonder if raising the master pedestal along with stopping down with the ND would have made it any better. Thoughts and comments appreciated.

Bao Tran
www.pov-films.com

[Guest]

Jason did you by any chance take acid prior to viewing it? *No, wait, I got it. *Take off the 3D glasses from the SPY KIDS movie. * :D

OH, BOY!!!!!!!!! :o :o :o :o

No need to take acid. Just get a little monkey (translated daughter) to mess with your monitor settings prior to viewing. Talk about embarrassing!!!!!!!!! :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[

My apologies to all for a HUGE faux pas.

Sir Allen, thanks for the tipoff. John, I'll try to get my daughter to replicate the settings for those that are interested in tripping out or using 3D glasses on the cheap. ::)

Humbly eating crow :-/,

J

[J.R. Hudson]

:D :D :D :D :D :D :D

Sigh...

Yes, I too am aware of the lil' monkey (my son who is 3.5, yeah, I said 3.5) and even too funny, I refer to my son (Jared) as my lil' monkey.

I often sit down and try to write w/ MM2000 and in comes my boy who has to touch everything (saving is a minute to minute procedure)

No need to eat Crow ;)

[Zoomforce]

Has anyone actually tasted crow?

[J.R. Hudson]

I haven't. I hear it can leave a bitter taste in your mouth.

::)

[X3M]

Very nicely done

-the fights are very dynamic
-the stunt work is incredible
-the sound effects and music is right on
-The camera work incredible
-the quality of video is amazing
-the fight choreography is good

Two comment, normal viewers probably want even notice but when you do a martial arts movie your target audience is going to be mostly martial artists which are very picky. And the main goal in every martial art movie is to make a fight look as realistic as possible. The two comments are; the elbow looks like it does not go through, it stops dead on before it hits the stuntman. Suggestions: Go slower or change the angle. Another one was the stick takedown. It just does not look right. Here I would use different camera angle or zoom it out little bit more. It was a nice move all together.

When it comes to the look, I think one of the guys above was right, there is a little bit too much of a blue. It is hard to tell and I would say that it works well in this case. I would not change it. Actually, I really love the look they had in Matrix and Underworld and that was way bluer...

Which Martial Art was it? It had looked a lot like Filipino Martial Arts. Am I right? Me my self, I have 23 years of experience in 30 different systems, mainly Jeet Kune Do, Filipino Martial Art, Wing Chung, Chi Na, Chi Gung, Aikido, Thai Boxing, Savat, ...
I had purchased recently my DVX100 mainly to shoot fight scenes. Did not get much chance yet, but I am working on it...

[J.R. Hudson]

Me my self, I have 23 years of experience in 30 different systems, mainly Jeet Kune Do, Filipino Martial Art, Wing Chung, Chi Na, Chi Gung, Aikido, Thai Boxing, Savat,...

I've seen alot of Jackie Chan movies...

:D

[X3M]

I've seen alot of Jackie Chan movies...

:D


How about Adam, from the way he moved... Again good job, I wish I could borrow your stuntman. :D

[povfilms]

Adam practices Shaolin gung fu. But there wasn't really a specific style we were trying to express, just what felt right for the scene.

Bao Tran
www.pov-films.com