Man-Hole Part IV

Mark Harris

Mark Harris

Pain in the ass
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For those of you who missed the premier last Sat. night, here you go. Man-Hole IV is now on the web.

Man-Hole IV

We are billing this as the first Man-Hole you can show your mom. No sex, no genitals. Just good clean fun.

We brought TimurCivan on to lense this one, and were so pleased with him, we partnered up with him for HorrorFest.

Also, props to Alex Depew, Steve Boling, Nina Pinchin, FlintMI, Howzr (www.tenpoundstrike.com), and Black Watch Productions, who all worked hard to make this one fly.

And as usual, thanks to the actors for turning in great performances: Dana, Mark, Godfrey, and Sarah.

It's all DVX, SGPro, and Canon lenses. We've put a lot of work into this one and are very proud of it. Let us know what you think.

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Enjoy! And let me know if you have any problems with the downloads/Flash, etc.

Mark
http://www.desperatecomfort.com
mark@desperatecomfort.com
 
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I watched this about 100x last night, and it gets better with each viewing. The god damn thing is just a piece of art that is so intelligently funny.

Also, you don't have to watch 1-3 to get Man Hole 4....
 
Oh one more thing is, this was shot with Timur's SG35/SGPro hybrid 35mm Adaptor. I think it gave us some good footage, though I know Timur has some things he would like to improve upon.

Timur, give us a post and tell which lenses you used on this.

Actually, I found Timur's lenses on the SGPro forum.

CAnon FD lenses.

30-80 zoom
55mm F1.2
200mm F3.5
24mm F2.8

Timur, you should post your thoughts. I know you work with adaptors all the time, and I think it would be cool for people to hear about what issues we came upon, etc.

Where the adaptor really shined in my eyes was the stuff we shot on the Brooklyn Promenade.

Also, there was a thread a while back about shooting in direct sunlight. In Man-Hole IV, you can see some places where we shot in several variations of sunlight, sometimes with clouds, sometimes clear skys, sometimes a mix. Check out the results for yourself. I was pretty impressed with the DVX/SGPro combo under these conditions.

Also, we do have more sunlight footage than appeared in the movie, so we can post some more stuff if people would like to see it.

But in general, you can see the adaptor work under a bunch of conditions in this movie.
 
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the deep DOF was used just as it should have been -- to focus on the characters. I especially love watching the characters appear in focus from out of nowhere, that is an old cine trick, love it!


when the opening starts, you KNOW the production has been upped. MH4 stands on its own as a great short.

did you intend for it to be able to standalone?
 
Yeah its really good - i loved it! IT was funny and it looked great! Great job guys! Where's the manhole series taking you?
 
Well, right now, I think it's taking us to the poor-house! :)

Will post more tomorrow, have to get some sleep, because I am helping another DVXer on his horror film in the morning.
 
Well this series really has potential - send manhole 4 to a couple of festivals or something...or pitch it to a TV network :D
 
MalcolmOng said:
Well this series really has potential - send manhole 4 to a couple of festivals or something...or pitch it to a TV network :D
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Disney/ABC will just love it! gerbils, chocolate, and love, its a family friendly movie! :Drogar-BigGrin(DBG)
 
MalcolmOng said:
Well this series really has potential - send manhole 4 to a couple of festivals or something...or pitch it to a TV network :D
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thats what i said.....
 
Actually i have worked with three 35mm adapters. Sgpro, Letus 35a, and the soon to be released Go35.

The Sgpro and the Go35 recieving my top nod in terms of performance. The Sgpro i have needs some work however. the Achromat is not quite up to par for the quality im looking for because of the fact that my SGpro is a Hybrid model, some thing like a tricked out honda, while technichally as fast as a real sports car, it has its limitations. The Sgpro Hybrid i have has all the SGpro parts with exception of the Achromat. And thats its weak point. but this goes only for my specific copy. I actually have the Very First "Sgpro". I am retro fitting it with a Redrock M2 HD achromat. it will then be unstopable.

AS far as work flow, i really now rely on a Production monitor, and my tried and tested lenses. My favorite being a 55mm F1.2 Canon FD. This is the Jewel of my Lens collection, follwoed very quickly by a Quirky, vingeting, low quality 17-28mm Wide Zoom, that i have fallen in love with. i love its warm organic and visually stunning charachteristics. Immedialtly after this i Trust my 24mm F2.8 CAnon FD, as my stock lens of choice. I love its image charachteristics. Sharp, but still capable of shallow DOF, and wide enough to see everythign and help you compose Visually interesting composition, but without any added lens articfacts ot the image, like barrel distortion or chorma abbrasion, or worse, resolution losss at the corners.

I ahve been shooting Photos since i was 13, and using manual focus SLR type CAnon AE1 Program, running FD lenses. the lenses are second nature to me, and each one has a personality, some like being pushed hard in some situations and others fall apart under certian lighting conditions. My 55m F1.2 gives me the best performance though all its Fstop ranges, and is also the brightest lens you can get for under 1000$.

There were many siuation where i have beeen shooting with candle light though my F1.2, and the SGpro ( which is one of the lowest in light loss) with the DVX at full wide and the Shuter at 1/33 a second. ( FYI set your synchroscan to 1/33 for lowlight, it gives you an extra half stop, and still preserves the motion cadence accuratly.) and still managed to get a VERY reasonable and natural looking picture. its dark, but it looks like candle light with good sharpness and color reproduction. thanks to both the SGpro's secret GG material, which provides a STUNNING trandslation of colors, to the CCD's and the Canon Glass which gives color a natural, yet somewhat nosstalgic look. Similar to the color pallete of Napoleon Dynamite. thats what i think Canon glass looks like. very muted, but very accurate.

The work flow is sometimes complicated, as i am often dolleying Focus pulling, and controling exposure, all while looking at a Monitor Upside down. But for the quality of the image, its all worth it. Look at Manhole IV. this was my first Serious foray in to workign exclusivly with 35mm lenses on DV. I hav made other projects using it but non this laden with it.

Mark harris and i's next project, for Horror fest, is shot EXCLUSIVLY on 35mm adapter, however under the proper conditions. this is careful lighting, proper motivated camera movement, and An extreme attention to detail when it comes to composition and the artistic quality of the Film.

All the work i have put into the visual elements of this Horror fest will hopefully reflect and grow upon the work i provided for my friend JAck daniel Stanley on Bonehand. I ahve grown as a DP, and hopefully it will show thourgh.

Heres our Thread. http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=62077&page=7 Check PAge 5... it provides a clue to our story....... and image flavour.
 
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Congrats, very well done! I love the use of the warm and cool lights. Was this done with gelled tungsten? The audio was exceptional. Did you use the studio mic's we see in the video? How much ADR was done? The dialog looks out of sync 3/4 into it. Could you list the mic's you guys used in the different setups? Nice soundtrack too. I also like the fact that you knew when to take the 35mm adaptor off! Too many shorts are made with the things glued to the front and it gets old.

The only thing I can see it needs is maybe a little more ambient wind/city noises when they are overlooking the city with the wind moving her hair.

Thanks a lot and good luck to you!

Favorite line "Gotcha mother fauker" because it was so unexpected. Also "I laughed so hard I puked".


-Kevin
 
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Kevin Briggs said:
Congrats, very well done! I love the use of the warm and cool lights. Was this done with gelled tungsten? The audio was exceptional. Did you use the studio mic's we see in the video? How much ADR was done? The dialog looks out of sync 3/4 into it. Could you list the mic's you guys used in the different setups? Nice soundtrack too. I also like the fact that you knew when to take the 35mm adaptor off! Too many shorts are made with the things glued to the front and it gets old.
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Yeah, lights geled.

We did record with the studio mics, but I took the audio from the lav mics on the actors.

The last two scenes on the Promenage were all ADR. There are like two or three spots where the ADR is not perfect in those scenes which might make it seem out of sync. But I have asked many, many people specifically to look for that, and some seem to notice and some not. But it looks like there is some more tweaking to be done.

The mics were pretty much all the Senheiser G2 or whatever that thing is, wireless lav, and a shotgun...I have to ask Alex which model.

Kevin Briggs said:
The only thing I can see it needs is maybe a little more ambient wind/city noises when they are overlooking the city with the wind moving her hair.
-Kevin
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Yeah, this scene after he kisses her I wanted to suspend that moment in silence. So that having no sound at all is intentional. But there is ambient under the music in the rest of the scene and in the next scene. But so far, two people, yourself included, have thought the ambient wasn't enough. So maybe some more tweaking to be done.

Kevin Briggs said:
Favorite line "Gotcha mother fauker" because it was so unexpected.
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Yeah, more than one Man-Hole fan has been using that as a catch-phrase in their everyday life...:)
 
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TimurCivan said:
thats what i said.....
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Yeah I will likely send it to some. But ultimately I want to build our viewer base up and start selling ads right on my site, rather than just sell the idea to a network or whatever. I dunno, I still have this hippy notion of the internet as this thing that can put us directly in touch with the audience and allow us to bypass traditional distribution channels...
 
I dont think dvxuser is publicity enough if thats your goal...Maybe try sending it to boingboing or something to get them to consider blogging about it?
 
True. I post here largely to get some technical feedback, cause I know a lot of people on these boards are picky bastids.

I have a large mailing list and afan base in the thousands now. When we screened MH 4 we got a mention in a pretty big media blog. So once the horror fest is over, I want to start a massive PR campaign and try to get into more of those. Also do some more screenings and press kits, etc.

I need to put some time into it once horror fest is up.
 
just for the record, I love your youtubes

just for the record, I love your youtubes

MalcolmOng said:
I dont think dvxuser is publicity enough if thats your goal...Maybe try sending it to boingboing or something to get them to consider blogging about it?
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Mark, why NOT put MH on Youtube and Google Video? Throw the gladiator in with the lions and let 'er rip.

Youtube and Google are too big of distribution mediums to ignore. How many goofy little videos do you see posted here? Tons, so make it work for ya.

I put my stupid little tornado doc on YouTube and it has been viewed 1,012 times in the first 30 days! And favorited by 5 people. A tornado documentary starring my frickin' grandmother?!?! :Drogar-Evil(DBG):

Based on the Man Hole theater audience barely able to breathe during the screening from laughing so hard, Manhole 4 would be spread like a virus on Youtube!

:Drogar-BigGrin(DBG)
 
Flint, the problem there lies in the fact that once you put it on google video or youtube, they own your video. If he goes on to make alot of money from his video, youtube might not want to surrender rights
 
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