One for Mikko... HVX + M2 + Flyer

Haakon,

Great job bro! Looks real nice.

That rig sure does the job (not taking anything away from you, of course).

MC
 
pushin to whip

pushin to whip

Hey I noticed at the end of Haakons clip the right side of the image of the boys at the bottom of the stairs was kind of out of focus. Is this the issue that everyone is talking about? Were you able to correct it later? Because I know you said you were kinda learning by trial and error...
 
korepsych said:
Hey I noticed at the end of Haakons clip the right side of the image of the boys at the bottom of the stairs was kind of out of focus. Is this the issue that everyone is talking about? Were you able to correct it later? Because I know you said you were kinda learning by trial and error...
Click to expand...
There were some edge softness issues with the M2 that we weren't able to overcome. I've heard the same things from many other users and perhaps it's a limitation of the adapter. Some have said that maybe the new "HD" achromat would be a help in this case, but it wasn't around when we shot the film. We noticed the problem right away and did everything we could to fix it, but we weren't able to eliminate it completely. We decided in the end that it was worth some slight softness of the edges to get all the extra shallow DOF we did from the adapter. It's definitely not perfect, and I can't wait until RED comes and we'll have a true s35 sensor to use once and for all. That being said, I think the results with the HVX and the M2 are pretty darn good considering.
 
Haakon,

Sorry to bother you again, but I keep looking at that licking shot, and every time I do, I have another question. Given that you were using lenses that open up only to f2.8, how the hell did you light that scene so well? It's obviously not a set, so my head is spinning trying to figure out how you lit that thing. Dying to know.

EDIT: Whoops. I went back through the post and realized that you had f1.4s and 1.8s at your disposal. Still, it seems like a difficult scene to light. True?
 
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Haakon said:
There were some edge softness issues with the M2 that we weren't able to overcome. I've heard the same things from many other users and perhaps it's a limitation of the adapter. Some have said that maybe the new "HD" achromat would be a help in this case, but it wasn't around when we shot the film. We noticed the problem right away and did everything we could to fix it, but we weren't able to eliminate it completely. We decided in the end that it was worth some slight softness of the edges to get all the extra shallow DOF we did from the adapter. It's definitely not perfect, and I can't wait until RED comes and we'll have a true s35 sensor to use once and for all. That being said, I think the results with the HVX and the M2 are pretty darn good considering.
Click to expand...

Haakon- I got the new HD acromat about a week ago. I have not done fomal testing, but a couple of quick shots seem to indicate there is a distinct difference (between the old 55mm and the new 72mm). I'm very satisfied.
 
dregenthal said:
Haakon- I got the new HD acromat about a week ago. I have not done fomal testing, but a couple of quick shots seem to indicate there is a distinct difference (between the old 55mm and the new 72mm). I'm very satisfied.
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Thanks for the heads up. I'd love to check one out... it's just pretty costly and I've already done my biggest project I was planning to use with the adapter at this point. Now I'm looking forward to RED to get that wonderful DOF without any hassle of having to calibrate external adapters. Still, I'd love to see some of the footage you've shot with the new achromat - it's definitely frustrating not to be able to get the edges in focus!

darwinandpaine said:
Haakon,

Sorry to bother you again, but I keep looking at that licking shot, and every time I do, I have another question. Given that you were using lenses that open up only to f2.8, how the hell did you light that scene so well? It's obviously not a set, so my head is spinning trying to figure out how you lit that thing. Dying to know.

EDIT: Whoops. I went back through the post and realized that you had f1.4s and 1.8s at your disposal. Still, it seems like a difficult scene to light. True?
Click to expand...
You'd be surprised how much light is necessary for some situations with the 35 adapter even with a 1.4 or 1.8 lens. I ended up shooting a lot of this movie at 1/24th shutter just to get that extra stop of light for proper exposure. The HVX is also a pretty slow camera to begin with, so that didn't help the situation. Remember that every stop is twice the amount of light - so going from a 1.8 lens to a 2.8 is a huge difference. I shot on the 35mm (1.4) lens many times simply out of necessity.

The school was pretty difficult to light, but mostly just because there was a lot of area to cover. The director loves moving shots - almost nothing in the film was on sticks - and because we're often shooting in 360 degrees and many of the locations are actual places and not sets (like the school), overhead track lighting isn't possible and the shot becomes a lot more difficult to light. The licking shot is all facing pretty much the same direction, so there was a lot of space to put light and not have it be seen. For those scenes I used lots of soft light and just highlighted key areas. I like to have subtle contrast on people's faces even if the source isn't hard, so most of the light is fairly side-driven.

I'm working on a trailer for the film with lots of new scenes, so hopefully I'll have that up within the next few days and you'll get something new to look at. :-P Our big L.A. screening is only about two months away!
 
M2 edge to edge softness

M2 edge to edge softness

Hi Haakon,

Another user on the M2 board used the new 72mm achromat and hard mounted it to the M2 adapter - he reported that it immediately cleared up the edge to edge softness. I'll try and find the thread. Haven't tried it yet myself.

cheers,
 
I have the HD acromat, but had a problem initially (not with the acromat) --- I was having to zoom in too much because the motor was set too far up. Brian Valente (the undisputed king of customer service) helped me out and after one small tweak (moving the motor down), the edge-to-edge sharpness is SOOOOOO much better.

Having never had the SD acromat, I can't tell you if there's a huge difference, but I'm very happy now with what I'm getting.
 
Hi Shred,

First of all, I'm very sorry it took so long to respond to your question; I haven't been on DVXUser for months as I'm now a RED owner and have been very busy on the sister site (I'm a moderator on REDUser).

Unfortunately the web host that had all of the photos on it went out of business, and instead of giving the customers any warning, they just closed up shop and no one was able to get any of their content back. Believe me, I fought them hard on this but in the end a lot of us just got screwed.

I do have the original photographs, of course, but not the ones that were cropped, shrunk down for web viewing, etc. handy. I will go back through the thread if I have a chance and try to replace what I can find, but it may take me a few days or so.

Shooting this film feels like an eternity ago, though it was only about 1 1/2 years. It's amazing how fast technology is changing these days. I was literally one of the very first people to get an HVX, and my M2 was shipped to me overnight the day before we began shooting this film. I'm very proud of it, but it's crazy to think that we've gone from 720p to 4K with 35mm DOF built-in in a matter of a year or so. I can't wait to share with you all my next big project!

For those who are interested, the Faithful DVDs are still available; they are very comprehensive dual layer DVDs with full-length audio commentary, a 30 minute behind the scenes featurette, storyboard comparison, deleted scenes, and more. The data layer of the DVD (playable on a computer) even has a 720p version of the film so you can watch in high definition.

For information on how to purchase a copy, please see this thread:

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=91635

Thanks again for your everyone's continued interest in the film; it really means a lot!

Häakon
 
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