HVX to do a feature film..

Benvention

New member
I love this camera, and I purchased one. I was very curious to see what the footage looked like filmed out to 35 mm after being color corrected. So I called Post Logic and asked them if they have any experience with this camera in a feature, and if they have either seen or performed a film out with the footage. The person I spoke with said they had no experience with the camera, but they would ask around to everyone there. I got a call a few days later and a very nice woman named Heather told me that this camera couldn't be used to make a feature film. When I asked why, she said she didn't know, she was just told that was the case. So that seemed very odd...

So, has anyone here used the camera for a feature, and if so, has anyone done a film out to 35 mm and how did it look...?

Thanks!

B-
 
The HVX has been used to make features.

People have done film outs to 35, keep looking and you may be able to get someone to screen something for you.
 
There have been a couple of 35mm film outs. Barry did some tests recently but has yet to find a place to project last I heard. Those who have done film outs seemed to indicate the footage was comparible to pretty good Super 16mm. If that's good enough for you, go for it.
 
Benvention said:
..I got a call a few days later and a very nice woman named Heather told me that this camera couldn't be used to make a feature film. When I asked why, she said she didn't know, she was just told that was the case. So that seemed very odd...

quite honestly, thats one of the stupidest things ive ever heard. they obviously have no idea of what they are talking about. you can shoot a feature on whatever video camera you'd like to. theres plenty of features being shot on the HVX right now. even right here.. just check out the HVX footage section.
 
Guy in the screengrabs section who did a short called "the wine bar" I think he may have ultimately done a film out, although he was screening on digi beta. You can do a search and PM him.
 
darwinandpaine said:
Heather is a complete idiot.

No, she is an account person. That means she smiles when you walk in the door, asks you if you want coffee, juice or a cola, then escorts you to your reserved telecine suite and introduces you to you colorist and tech. She comes back several times during your project to make sure things are going great and then brings you a bill.

So she has really no idea about the technology involved. Ask to speak to one of the Final Cut techs there. They do know what they are doing. The big problem is that they may not be willing to take the time to educate you about their process.

That being said, Post Logic really serves the 35mm film and commercial industry, so they are probably too big for indies with small budgets.

Oh, and the HVX is perfectly suited for filmout.

--

Rob
 
filmout test

filmout test

Thanks guys. I should say, I called Post Logic cause they are usually great. I agree they just didn't want to deal with a small issue.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!

B-
 
We used it on some pickup for Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. Don't know really what Heather was talking about. It's been used for inserts, vfx, pickups, and other elements for movies like Munich, Spiderman 3, and others. I don't know of a big budget freature to purely use the camera though.
 
dvInsight said:
So she has really no idea about the technology involved.

Right. And in my book, only a complete idiot speaks with conviction when he/she is ignorant. The proper response should have been, "I really have no idea." Look at how much time and energy has been expended correcting her error.
 
darwinandpaine said:
And in my book, only a complete idiot speaks with conviction when he/she is ignorant.

In fairness to her, though, she was just relaying what she was told and said as much.
 
contact Nice Shoes in NYC.... they are awesome. They do tons of trandsfers.


However , i was lucky enough to meet with a couple heavy hitters in the industry the other day. They are responsble for "the highest grossing Documentary of all time"... that should be clue enough. they said the HVX didint hold up too welll in a film out. it did "ok". the Xlh1 was much better in their opinion.

Im sure the HVX would look good to you and me however, these guys are sensitive to like a loss of 3% in resolution thorugh the film out process. They said the HVX looked good in terms of color and Latitude, it jsut wasnt as sharp (big surprise).
 
The trouble with alot of those comparison tests is you don't know what the detail settings were on the HVX. At first most people figured you set them low like a DVX. Then the opposite idea came into fashion.
 
Lenilenapi said:
The trouble with alot of those comparison tests is you don't know what the detail settings were on the HVX. At first most people figured you set them low like a DVX. Then the opposite idea came into fashion.

I completely agree, assuming that one setting works best for all cameras and that one should try to make the cameras look alike is just not a good way to go about stuff. If I put my HVX200's detail to +4 it produces a quite sharper and detailed image that I'm quite happy with. If you put a JVC HD100 at +4 detail it produces a noisey mess with tons more edge enhacment and a very digital look.

We need to be evaluating these cameras at their highest potential. My suggestion would be to get the best HVX200 DP, best XLH1, best HD100, and best Z1 DP (if there is such a thing) and get them to do their own tests seperatly. Have each do a landscape, a figure, a close up, a low light shot, and an over exposed shot.
 
i think you need to remind heather that there have been feature films using much cheaper cameras than the hvx.. (blair witch project?)
 
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