finishing HVX + M2 Adapter feature (Thoughts)

V

Vincent Pascoe

Well-known member
heres footage from a feature Im just now finishing shooting called Yesterdays tomorros.

www.myspace.com/vincentpascoe

I cut it my self Love to know what you guys think about it.


Definitely do camera tests and prep all lenses before shooting:
(just like a bigger Production would)

we got the M2 adapter one week into Production..lucky its a multi Story film so using the stock lens for one look and the m2 for the rest worked well.. the first time i got the adapter I had not looked at the online material..(It may take a day to get registered try to do this as soon as possible) it took us 15min to get the adapter up with no instructions....but there was horrible vignetting and the lens wasn't matching up with the Camera...(we put shims in the wrong place) luckily the seen was a girl doing coke so the look worked

as we continued using it we got used to the Lenes and how they worked with the M2, If I wanted more vignetting and soft corners Id go with one lens if I wanted a sharper Image I'd go with another...

I upped the Sharpness on camera a little just to compensate for the m2 wonder if anyone else is doing this?

we did have my AC wile adjusting the Ground glass not secure back on the nut. making the ground glass come off on a take... it rattled inside the adapter and got scratched but still works fine.

and sometimes the ground glass would stop moving....grrr

but all of these problems are probley because we haven't had the time to set it up Properly... We can't even mesure for focus its usually like 10 feet off....

but the director loved the look that he wanted me to do the rest or the film on the M2......problem is my AC had never racked focus in his life let alone WFO on 35mm! so we have had to re-take a lot more because of Fucus. sometimes we have to have our 19" monitor on the Dolly for the AC. making it not great for Run and gun/ Documentary stuff...making the JVC MAgic super 16 adapter make sceene for run and gun stuff...

the director wanted a lot of slow motion and we had a very small Lighting package (2x 1200w hmi biggest guns) there was many times in the middle of a scene he'd want 60fps and I couldn't give it to him because most of my lenses where F/2.8.

ever day I would go back and forth but in the end for feature work I think the M2 is a must have.

the Cartoni Focus was perfect even with the 200mm lens on balanced great. sometimes we would flip the plate for better Balance. the Sticks held up great except for one shot we put a Cobra crane on it and for 2 weeks the Ball head would get stuck when you Loosened it.

I had 2 hard Drives go Bad on me (one segate and one Maxstore) and one wasn't backed up. I had them in Pelican cases but I think the Moving them around beat them up. can not stress enough if the P2 cards them selfeves are raided you should back them up right out of the Cards..

having 3 cards really helped us. we where doing 12minute takes on one day and the AC would slide them 2 me and I would pop them in during a CAmera move to hide the Shake of puting the Cards in.

the camera behaved great we did lots of over cranking and even some 2fps...I'll post more when the shoot is done.


Vincent Pascoe
www.vincentpascoe.com

HVX-200
1x 8GIG card
2x 4 GIG cards
Cartoni Foucus
centry .6 wide angle adapter
varizoom

NIkon mount
28mm F/2.8
50mm Macro f/2.8
50mm F/2

28mm-105mm F/2.8
70mm-200mm F/2.8
70mm-300mm F/5.6
 
I think it looked great. Its good to see some footage along with some feedback on the M2/HVX combo. I'm looking to make that same purchase myself. Which lens did you feel gave you the crispest image? Also you mentioned the inablity to shoot 60P at 2.8 stock lens was that even with the 2, 1,200W HMIs that seems like that would have been plenty of light. Overall did you run into any setups where you where unable to achieve the look you wanted due to the cameras performance in low light. I own a HVX and have an upcoming project that I'm trying to figure out what kind of considerations I need for lighting.
 
Vincent,
I noticed this is your first post. Welcome! The stuff looks really nice --- very filmic (both of the video posts). I really like your camera work. And thanks for the report. All of that stuff is reall good to know.
I love your Myspace motto: "We made that with pennies. Imagine what dollars would look like."
 
G'day Vincent.

The edit and the shots look good from a technical perspective - although after downloading stacks of HVX clips the almost plasitcky colours are starting to get to me.

As a trailer for a feature however - sorry mate - but for me it just ain't working. It's not as bad as some of the low budget trailers that I have downloaded, but it falls into the same trap. Evocative music, slow-mo's of people looking pensive and concerened, and not one indicator of what the film is about, what the story is about, or even who it is about.

If you can't find a way of telling the viewer what your film is about with images only then you have to use some of the dialogue to set the scene...or, naration. Just because you know every detail about the film after having spending X amount of time living with it doesn't mean that you can just give us the emotional thrust of your picture.

Your trailer, whether it is a teaser or the full blown extravaganza, has got to do what it designed to do - create a stong desire to want to see your film. I wan't more.
 
peter orland said:
Your trailer, whether it is a teaser or the full blown extravaganza, has got to do what it designed to do - create a stong desire to want to see your film. I wan't more.
Click to expand...
Yeah, Im not sure about wanting to see that particular film, but it did defintely make me want to see more stuff you'd shot.

J
 
Hey Vincent. Welcome aboard.

This is Jason ex Big Brain Pictures guy. You shot the Mini commercial for me. I was wondering what you've been up to. Technically your work is looking really, really good. I really wish that we would have had more time to work together in a less frantic environment, but maybe sometime in the future.

I checked out both the clips and have to say that it's looking really polished. I learned a lot from you about putting the camera in motion and you seem to be able to integrate that nicely.

Hopefully, our paths will cross again since we're in the same town. I hope to see you posting on here more ofthen now. Keep up the great work and I can't wait to see more.

Later,

Jason Francois
 
So the 1.2 through 1.8 nikons are the the way to go with the M2? What's so wonky about the set-up?
 
Light loss

Light loss

m2 = 1stop loss of light

F/2.8 = 1stop loss of light

60fps = 1 1/4 stop loss of light

useauly I'm working WFO at 1/24th of a shutter on night Ext allready loseing 3 1/4 stops hurt me

shure teh 1200s are plenty if there only 10-15 feet away but I also whanted to do some higher Shutter Angle too. but we where lighting a large tunnel and industrial area at night so my little 1200's where like my big guns so at 30-50ft I just didn't have the power to do 60fps

at the same time we did some car mount stuff Downtown no M2 at 2fps 350 degree shutter that looks great...

vp
 
yes not a true trailer

yes not a true trailer

yes I am I DP trying to cut a montage for my reel, wich is at www.vincentpascoe.com

I'm not an editor so yes I agree a true trailer ...even Teaser should have some thread of story, concept, or at lest some reason to want to watch the movie...

now if my teaser does make a potental client say something like:

"Yeah, Im not sure about wanting to see that particular film, but it did definitely make me want to see more stuff you'd shot."

thats not to bad.. same time I wish I had trailers for every movie I've shot...in fact I've been trying to get Editors to cut me Trailers for several for the Films I worked on. I'm very happy to have raw footage for my reel..

This all brings a point...

as DP only does everybody keep all of the raw footage like I do? this helps the reel and the CLients love it because theres a back up of the footage in case catastafe happens...but just last year with 3 movies = 1.6 Terrabytyes ... and thats only DV resolution... this movie at 720p = 600 GIGS alone. and now I have over 16 External HD!

VP
 
Beutiful work! But gosh, where is all the noise in the dark areas?

I'd love to see more as you complete it. So would my wife. I dragged her in here to show her how good footage can look shot from my camera.
 
dude, looked smoke'n good, really enjoyed watching your trailer, any way of getting a high rez version for download?
 
(any way of getting a high rez version for download?)

my web guy for my web site is out of state so it takes a while to get him better stuff plus Im not shure my Edit is that good... I also have another week of Footage to add.



(Beutiful work! But gosh, where is all the noise in the dark areas?)

Where is all the noise? liike where did it go?

or you meen why is there so much noise....its compressed twice once to a 320x240 Avi that was 34mb..then agian to a 80mb Quicktime to fit the myspace qutoa...yeah not realy an editor....

BTW I only Color corected 2 shots barley just bringing up the Pedistal or something..I still belive in Agreeing to what it should look like on set... and on Video get it 90% to the look you want.... I belive this makes the Color timer/editor job better because they can spend more time makeing good stuff look great insted of just fixing mistakes.....

If I stay up affter my wife goes to bed and get no sleep before tomorros shoot I can cut another "teaser" tonight :)
 
Looked nice Vincent, very nice indeed. I loved the light streaming through the windows on one of the earlier shots.
 
Beutiful work! But gosh, where is all the noise in the dark areas?)

Where is all the noise? liike where did it go?

or you meen why is there so much noise....its compressed twice once to a 320x240 Avi that was 34mb..then agian to a 80mb Quicktime to fit the myspace qutoa...yeah not realy an editor....

BTW I only Color corected 2 shots barley just bringing up the Pedistal or something..I still belive in Agreeing to what it should look like on set... and on Video get it 90% to the look you want.... I belive this makes the Color timer/editor job better because they can spend more time makeing good stuff look great insted of just fixing mistakes
Click to expand...

Hi Vincent:

I was being a little sarcastic. Your work looks great.

If you look back over the last months postings, there have been a lot of people complaining that the HVX has a lot of noise in shadows. Turns out that LCD monitors make the picture much more noisy than it really is.

A buddy and I bought our cameras sight unseen and we both lamented when we saw the noise on our cheap 700 dollar hi def monitors. Then we took the bootcamp and saw how good the footage really looks.

My comment wasn't a jab at your work, it was a jab at those folks (some were trolls) who always bring up the noise issue.

I don't see the noise in your stuff. It looks fantastic. Sorry if my comment through you for a loop.

I've had my camera and M2 for almost two months and my only gigs so far have been in standard def. I'm dying to stretch my Hi Def muscles like you have and I still haven't used the M2 at all.
 
shapness

shapness

the 2 shapest lens where the 70mm-200mm F/2.8 its ED glass and the 50mm 1:1 Macro f/2.8 also ED glass both Made4 from Nikon...
 
Vincent Pascoe said:
the 2 shapest lens where the 70mm-200mm F/2.8 its ED glass and the 50mm 1:1 Macro f/2.8 also ED glass both Made4 from Nikon...
Click to expand...

"Made4 from Nikon...? What does this mean? Who makes these lenses? Nikon, or someone else?
 
loved it! The images were mystrious... and their sequence made them even more puzzling. That's why I'd want to see that film! kinda had the same effect the trailer for 'Garden State' had on me...
 
I'm with you all the way on the need for light vincent. I never used my zoom because it was too slow a 3.5 35-105mm. I used almost too slow 1.8's and had to switch to 24 shutter several times.

I only had 3 x 650's and 2 x 500w softboxes for the most part and a bunch of 100w scoop lights and flourecents. We did have 2 x 2k's which I think dated back to the 1950's from the looks of them but they tended to blow breakers so we could only use one at a time if at all.

Another interesting note was with the M2 on the HVX it was really hard to see smoke. We fogged a room until the set photographer couldnt get a shot but we could barely see the fog on the monitor. It's like the thing had sonar vision or something the way it cut out the fog. Take off the M2 and it was better but not exactly Bladerunner.

Your stuff looks good. Keep on rockin it.
 
A lot of poeple where asking for a Higher rez verison so here’s a new Teaser I cut for Yesterdays Tomorrow.

Large 160mb 640x480

http://files.filefront.com/YT_HI_Rezmov/;5077945;;/fileinfo.html


Medium 60mb 320x240

http://files.filefront.com/YT_for_Myspacemov/;5079547;;/fileinfo.html



Small Streaming off my myspace page

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=766063772&n=2


VP
 
Hey, Vincent,

I only now had a chance to look at this, and congratulations, it's looking beautiful! I see you used a lot of other tools, besides the HVX and the M2, like smoke, some pretty string HMIs, nice cranes/dollys, I mean, the whole shabang!

It looks, oh, so sweet. Brilliant! Congratulations. And thanks for demonstrating what we all knew: The HVX+M2 combo is freakin' awesome!
 
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