One for Mikko... HVX + M2 + Flyer

wow, it looks really nice. I like the lighting and over all color palette of the clip. Very nice steadicam work too, great stuff. Is the movie a comedy? that scene looks halarious.

I have a question, how did you keep things is such good focus while you were moving with the Flyer and using the low DOF on the M2 lens. It looked really professional. There was only one moment where I noticed it went out of focus, but it was only for like 1/2 a second. (i think it was when you pulled really close to the kid wearing braces)


I Can't wait for more clips!
 
http://www.haakondazs.com/clip.mov[/QUOTE]

Haakon,
That shot was awesome --- the essence of cinema! No sound was needed, you just told the story with that terrific shot. I can't begin to say how much I liked it. Great work! And, GO TONGUE GUY!!!

P.S.: I realize that there is sound in the shot. I was just praising the visually powerful camera work.
 
I don't know how I missed this thread.

HVX+M2+FF+FLYER is amazing. The clip looks great!

What equipment did you rent and what do you own? I'm thinking about getting and HVX but I don't know if the Panasonic 8" is worth the investment. I could always bring it along to AC on other HD gigs.

How long have you been doing steadi-cam work? Are you the DP or the operator on this feature?

How was measuring focus with the M2? I need to re-calibrate my M2 so its as close as possible.

Cheers.
 
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Hey guys,

Just wanted to say thanks for all of the wonderful comments about the clip! It really does feel good to hear such kind words after pouring my soul (and a lot of blood, sweat, and tears!) into this production. We started preproduction back in January and just wrapped up Sunday night, so it has definitely been a consuming process! I haven't even come close to reviewing all of the footage yet (I think we shot a total of 72 4GB P2 cards worth of material... whatever that comes out to), but the stuff I have seen so far I am really happy with. I've personally done mostly short form stuff in the past (music videos, short films, corporate material) and this is my first real attempt at putting together a longer "short feature" narrative piece. Because of my own investment in the film and the fact that it's completely a labor of love and not created for someone else or with someone else's money, the project is really special to me and all of your comments mean a lot. So thanks again!

The clip I posted is actually on a dolly, not the Flyer - I put it up first because I just thought it was particularly good at showing off some of the results when using the M2 adapter. There is a ton of Steadicam work in this film as well though, so I'll try to get a new clip with some of the Flyer stuff soon. We shot in a myriad of ways, including on Steadicam, on sticks, on dolly, on a jib, handheld, and on a remote head at the end of a crane, so there are lots of different kinds of shots to see. Essentially, it all just came down to whatever tool the director and I thought would most effectively tell the story for each particular shot. I do love to operate Steadicam but I also very much like to shoot on a dolly as well - they're just two different ways to get the camera to be where you want it!

I'll try to answer some of the questions that were posted... if anyone wants any more "in-depth" information, you can certainly feel free to PM me. Now that we've wrapped I have a little more time on my hands (though the cycle of postproduction is about to begin!!)

casey warren said:
wow, it looks really nice. I like the lighting and over all color palette of the clip. Is the movie a comedy? that scene looks halarious.
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Thanks for your compliments! Although I'm sometimes outspoken about technical stuff on the forums, it's always harder to post your own stuff on the web for the world to critique and I really appreciate what you've said. The movie is somewhat of a comedy/drama - it's hard for me to pigeonhole stuff - but I think we'll be able to tell if it leans more in one way or the other when we start cutting. There are both some very funny and very serious moments in the film so I'd say it's a bit of both. The content lends itself to being more of a family film (in that it's probably a "PG" film) and the story revolves mostly around kids, but I don't feel that it's "light" or "Disney-ish." The actors were all terrific, and I think we are going to have a really solid, touching film to present to everyone. There will definitely be a DVD release when we're finished (we're aiming for July) with tons of extra features, and if anyone's around the L.A. area, we will be having a premiere on a big screen in Hollywood around that time as well. It's too early to have exact dates for that stuff, but I'll definitely post some updates when that gets closer.

casey warren said:
I have a question, how did you keep things is such good focus while you were moving with the Flyer and using the low DOF on the M2 lens. It looked really professional. There was only one moment where I noticed it went out of focus, but it was only for like 1/2 a second. (i think it was when you pulled really close to the kid wearing braces)
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It's definitely not easy - and a good 1st AC is worth his/her weight in gold! Generally speaking, you rehearse the move several times and get several focus points down for the duration of the shot so that when you do the move it's as accurate as possible. In that sense, all of the moves are very carefully thought out and choreographed, and it's important for both actors and camera to hit their marks precisely to ensure sharp focus. We shot this movie almost entirely at f1.4, and when doing that (especially when you get very close up on actors), your DOF can shrink to literally an inch or less! Given that none of us are uber-experienced focus pullers, I really feel that my 1st AC Danny Grunes did a superior job on clips like the one I posted (you can see him next to me holding the FF transmitter in the picture on the very first post in this thread). It is not an easy thing to maintain an inch of focus on an actor's face when you're charging at him full speed!

As I mentioned earlier in the thread, all of the focus pulling was done with a wireless Bartech follow focus device, which allows you to dial into tack sharp focus without even having to touch the camera. If we were doing a longer Steadicam shot and I wasn't tethered to video village, he would just walk behind me and pull focus by looking over my shoulder at the 7" Marshall monitor mounted to the Steadicam. For all of the shots where we were plugged into the 17" Panasonic monitor directly, he could literally stay in VV and pull focus from there - 50 feet away from the camera! Technology certainly is amazing!

darwinandpaine said:
That shot was awesome --- the essence of cinema! No sound was needed, you just told the story with that terrific shot. I can't begin to say how much I liked it. Great work! And, GO TONGUE GUY!!!
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Thanks a bunch! :) I know exactly what you were trying to say about the "no sound" thing, no worries. As a DP, that's probably the best kind of compliment to get, so I really appreciate that.

There is method to the tongue licking mayhem - I promise it's not some weird fetish thing! :laugh: Ironically, that shot actually took the most takes of any shot of the film and I don't know who felt more uncomfortable - the girl getting her face licked repeatedly or the guy who had to swallow about an inch of makeup in the process! Although, even though they pretended that it was torture, I think they secretly liked it. :-P

escozooz said:
What equipment did you rent and what do you own? I'm thinking about getting and HVX but I don't know if the Panasonic 8" is worth the investment. I could always bring it along to AC on other HD gigs.
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We had a lot of gear on this shoot, and I'd say we rented about half of it. I own a lot - I like to have my own stuff so I can shoot whenever I want (and renting means you don't end up with any concrete investment when your money is gone), but there are just a lot of things I don't have the money for. I personally own the HVX, the M2, the lenses, the Flyer, and most of the other camera gear. We rented the Bartech follow focus, both of the HD monitors, and other grip gear like the dolly and the crane. The 17" monitor actually came from a fellow DVXUser named Brad Stonesifer; it's awesome that we have this community of people to learn and share with!

On a personal level, I'm really not a great model to follow when it comes to filmmaking-related money issues. I shoot because I love it, not because I want to make money... which I know probably sounds weird (I see all kinds of posts on the forums like "no one buys a RED camera if they don't have the intention of using it to make money!"), but I guess that's just me. I have a bug and I gotta keep scratching!! :)

escozooz said:
How long have you been doing steadi-cam work? Are you the DP or the operator on this feature?
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I've been operating Steadicam for about two years now (which makes me a baby in the field!), but I operate with it every chance I get. It takes a lot of time to perfect, but at the same time I find it tons of fun. I'm obsessed with the visuals of cinema more than anything (I know most people say that story trumps everything - but if that's all I cared about, I'd buy a book!) and I love experimenting with camera movement and new ways to get shots. I am very fortunate to have some wonderful and passionate friends to work with, including the director, Jacob Chase, who also wrote the story. He has a fantastic visual mind as well and I love working with him to create shots and devise methods to most effectively get the message of the film across.

I was both the DP and the operator on this movie. I love to light and shoot equally and I think they're very integral... I find it extremely difficult when I'm asked to pick between the two jobs on a shoot. Although it's obviously a lot more work to take on both, I like to be responsible for the visual frame in its entirety - good or bad. There's probably some statement about "art" in there somewhere, but I try not to philosophize about it too much. :-P

escozooz said:
A Wireless FF is a good investment because I could stick it on a 435 also, but I hardly ever work with steadicam.
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The wireless FF was absolutely indispensible on this shoot. We literally could not have made the film without it. That being said, the M2 adapter was the thing that made it critical. The HVX alone puts just about everything in focus unless you're zoomed way in and stopped completely open, so I'd definitely say that it's not the most important thing even on a Steadicam if you're just operating the camera bare. With the M2, however, precise focus was imperative and we couldn't have gotten the shots we did without the Bartech.

I would LOVE to own one, but the unit with the motor is about $4,000 and I'm barely going to be able to scrape enough money together for RED as it is. You get what you can afford! :) Renting it wasn't entirely too costly, however. I can't say enough good things about that FF.

escozooz said:
All the M2 features need to keep a list becuase I want to buy all of them when they go to DVD.
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I will definitely post updates on how to order the DVD when it's finished. We're packing it full of stuff - it's not going to be a "barebones disc," so hopefully it will be something you will enjoy very much!
 
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Excellent work ! and i can see why you are so impressed with the Bartech.. I've added it to my very long lust for list .
Aloha
-A
PS. are you liking the HVX more now than you did a couple of months ago ?
 
Haakon, nice work man! Very nice steadicam work. Can you give me a rundown on the lens assortment you had for the shoot?
 
Please keep us all up-to-date. I'd definitely drive to LA for a screening, and you can count me in for a DVD purchase as well. I suspect that I speak for everyone when I say that it's great to have someone so talented on these boards and willing to share. Your time is greatly appreciated! Thanks for all the feedback! D&P
 
Loved the push through then the swish pan at the end. Definitely needed the wireless for that fast of a camera move. Sweet stuff amigo.
 
If you have time you should post some more pics of the shoot + close ups of the gear.

I hope the editing turns out good, it looks like you have a very interesting and exciting movie going on there, nice work.

regards,
 
This is one of the best shot clips from the HVX that I have seen. Not only from a technical perspective but from an aesthetic perspective as well.

I would love to know your settings.

The colour has lost all of its hard edge video quality. Could easily be mistaken for 16mm. I think the tonal range of the hallway and the clothes the actors are wearing also help to achieve this look.

Kudos to yourself and all the departments.
 
The wait time to get the M2 is torture !!! If they didnt charge my CC until they ship atless !!! Im paying atless 1 month interest now on my credit card even before I get it !!
 
Poi Boy said:
Haakon, nice work man! Very nice steadicam work. Can you give me a rundown on the lens assortment you had for the shoot?
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Thanks Alex! Sure thing... I had the following lenses for use with the M2, all manual Nikons:

28mm 2.8
35mm 1.4
50mm 1.8
85mm 1.4

I probably would've used the 28mm in a few more shots had it been a little faster, but as it was, I needed the low light capabilty of the 35mm's 1.4 quite a bit of the time and thus used it more frequently. I also preferred the shallower look of the longer and faster lens in many situations. I know there are faster 28mm and 50mm lenses out there, but I did a considerable amount of research before the shoot and this set of lenses repeatedly came up as the sharpest and most well-constructed of Nikon's manual line so they were the ones I went with. The 85mm looks absolutely stunning for DOF purposes, but we didn't use it as much since it's too long of a lens for most any kind of prolonged moving shots and we rarely shot on sticks.

darwinandpaine said:
Please keep us all up-to-date. I'd definitely drive to LA for a screening, and you can count me in for a DVD purchase as well. I suspect that I speak for everyone when I say that it's great to have someone so talented on these boards and willing to share. Your time is greatly appreciated! Thanks for all the feedback! D&P
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I definitely will! And thanks for saying all of these wonderful things... really, I can't express my gratitude enough. It would be awesome to see you in L.A. - I'm hoping we can get as many SoCal DVX users as we can to come see it projected on the big screen! We are thinking of organizing a little Q&A afterward with the principal cast and crew as well, so I'll keep everyone informed. Since we literally just wrapped the shoot and we're still "debriefing" as it is, there is still a ton of work ahead of us - the movie has to be edited, the sound has to be tracked, the score has to be written and recorded, and the DVD and all of the supplimental material has to be authored - so it's gonna be a couple of months (and that's working really fast!) to get everything done. But we're really pressing to have everything finished by July, so if you can hang in there for a couple of months hopefully we'll have something really cool for you to see!

holditnowfilms said:
Loved the push through then the swish pan at the end. Definitely needed the wireless for that fast of a camera move. Sweet stuff amigo.
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Haha, thanks! That "push" shot was actually something we came up with while working on something else completely unrelated, but we liked it so much that it made its way into the film. The actors were actually quite close to the camera and had to jump out at the very last second to avoid smacking into it. You're right about the wireless FF as well... with the camera whipping around so fast at the end, pulling focus on the three actors on the stairs would've been next to impossible without it. With the wireless, my AC was able to do it from the comfort of a chair!

casey warren said:
If you have time you should post some more pics of the shoot + close ups of the gear.
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We actually have a decent amount of that kind of stuff and I will post it as soon as I can get it somewhat organized. I'm going to set up a website for the film so there's one central place with all of the information about the movie and our progress so it's easy to get to. Just gimme a couple of days to get something together. :)

peter orland said:
This is one of the best shot clips from the HVX that I have seen. Not only from a technical perspective but from an aesthetic perspective as well.

I would love to know your settings.

The colour has lost all of its hard edge video quality. Could easily be mistaken for 16mm. I think the tonal range of the hallway and the clothes the actors are wearing also help to achieve this look.

Kudos to yourself and all the departments.
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Thank you so much. I'm truly humbled by comments like these. The credit goes to our entire crew; everyone worked so hard and there is no way that any film like this could be put together without the help of many people. Our production designer did a fantastic job with the set design and really helped me to get exactly the look I wanted. It definitely wouldn't have been anywhere nearly as cool without her help.

As far as the settings on the camera go, they're still saved in the camera (I don't recall every individual level off the top of my head), so I'll write them down for you tomorrow. I know that some people had been compensating for the M2's "softness" by dialing up the detail on the camera, but I had it down to -3 before I even put the adapter on to try and reduce some of the camera's noise. When we put the adapter on, that inadvertently helped to give a really nice smooth look, and I think that helped a lot to get away from the "video" feel. It's definitely a "soft" 720 image, but in SD it looks fantastic. Since all we have is DVD for the next couple of years anyway, I'm fine with that. The downconversion really helps to smooth out any noise or compression and the final image is very clear and clean.

mochouinard said:
The wait time to get the M2 is torture !!!
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Yeah, that it is. We actually didn't get the adapter until 7pm the night before our first day of shooting, which left us with absolutely zero time to test and the shoot literally became a "trial by fire" scenario. I had to beg Redrock to ship it overnight so I'd get it in time (this just happened to be the week of NAB, which made matters even worse), but despite the 6 week wait, they did get it here in time. We were all really sweating bullets near the end. All I can really say is that yeah, the wait time totally sucks, and yeah, they do charge you right away... but then again for $1,000 it's just about the most cinematic tool you can add to a 1/3" chip camera and for my money it was worth every penny.


Lots to come - stay tuned! Thanks again for all the love! :)
 
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Excellent shot, and

Excellent shot, and

love the sig. few people care to use correct english syntax :)

re: your lens choices, agreed - I actually owned an M2 briefly, sold it. build quality was excellent, I had a project I thought I was going to do with it and it didn't happen.

I'm waiting to see what the cinemek looks like before I buy a 35 adapter.

Too bad panasonic didn't make the leap with the HVX, but cinema freaks are not their only market and an interchangeable lens _mount_ isn't exactly a normal thing to put on a repackaged ENG camera :)

The M2 also doesn't have a BNCR adapter available, and there's a reasonable amount of serious BNCR cine glass with gearing sitting around because there are virtually no cameras that take the mount anymore - I have heard that the cinemek will offer a BNCR.

whee, I kind of like sitting on the bleeding edge. at least it's interesting.

;)

_a
 
Hey guys! A lot of people have been asking for a clip from the movie shot on the Flyer, so I've managed to upload one for those who were interested to see that. I cut it up so you can see how it might appear in context in the film, but just know that this is still uncorrected, raw footage that's far from finished. We haven't sunc up the audio yet (we recorded that externally), so I added some music to make it a little more interesting, but this isn't music that's going to be used in the film either. So just watch it knowing that it's very preliminary and just for sharing purposes! :) All shots in this clip were shot on the Flyer.

Hope you enjoy it!

http://www.thefaithfulmovie.net/clip2.mov

The clip is a bit larger this time, ~36MB, so give it a little bit to download if you're on a slower connection. Cheers!
 
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mandycastro said:
Haakon,

Loved the first clip, but this link doesn't seem to be working...."FILE NOT FOUND"
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My bad! I had capitalized the "C" in the filename and these case sensitive servers are quite picky!

WORKING CLIP 2

Should be all fixed now. :)
 
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