DAY BY DAY - 720p, P&S Teknik, Panavision Super Speed II

[SUPPATIME]

If I'm posting too much and annoying anyone, let me know.

Tonight is Day 2 of an 8-day shoot for a short entitled "Dearheart's Bakery". It's a fairy tale gone wrong, essentially.

I'm working with the following:

HVX-200
P&S Teknik
Panavision Super Speed II Lenses (14, 24, 35, 50, 75, 100)
Ultrascope Mark I Gear Head
Chapman-Leonard Super PeeWee II Dolly
Hollywood Rentals 3-Ton Grip Truck (specifics available if asked)

I'll be posting day-by-day screen grabs of the stuff we've shot. Because I've been having trouble with getting the pixel-aspect ratio right for the HD stuff... these are grabs that have been downconverted to NTSC DV spec.

Enjoy, and comments/critiques are appreciated.

 

[SurJones]

I dont mind hearing, maybe keep it to ONE thread so people will be happy Make sure there are some FRAME grabs, and some set fotos, and maybe some footy. So that it makes it appropriate to haev in this section. Everything sounds good thus far.

 

[Erik Olson]

That's a gorgeous set of lenses, definitely post what you can.

e

 

[SUPPATIME]

I dont mind hearing, maybe keep it to ONE thread so people will be happy Make sure there are some FRAME grabs, and some set fotos, and maybe some footy. So that it makes it appropriate to haev in this section. Everything sounds good thus far.

Point noted.

I figured I'd start a new thread because the other stuff was just camera tests... this is now actual footage from the set with the Panavision lenses.

We don't have a set photographer yet... or, at least we didn't have one all of yesterday. Once principal photography has been completed, I'll get some of the raw footage up here (though I'll need help figuring out how to compress it) and then some color-corrected stuff later on.

 

[Barry_Green]

Production diaries are always welcome, just (as said before) keep it all in the same thread and I'm sure you'll find lots of people interested in what you're doing and how you accomplish it.

 

[Justyn]

nice. You are in Orlando. So am I. I'm going to have a screening of my HVX project on Sunday of next week. Send me a PM if you want to check it out


like to see some footie of this. Looks nice. Great deal on the Hollywood truck. I've used it before.

 

[SUPPATIME]

Day Two: Exterior Night of the Village Market and escape sequence

 

[Kholi]

It's extremely dark. Have to see footage to judge. But, I really can't see anything in any of the most-recent grabs.

 

[SUPPATIME]

Well, it is night time... and supposed to look like it was only lit by candle light...

The HVX eats more light than I thought it did... the night exteriors were lit with a 12K HMI into a 20' Griff, a 4K HMI with 250 over it and 2K zips, 1 and 2K Moles and flicker generators. We were wide open the entire time, but was still a stop or two below where I thought we would have been.

Even though, it looks OK on my calibrated monitor... you looking at it on a CRT? Are you calibrated?

 

[NOMADIC]

do you go to full sail?

 

[LighthouseMedia]

I love the look...feels like it has very high production value!!! Was this a practical location or a a set piece? Bravo again looks very well done.

 

[khmuse]

Knowing the sensitivity of the HVX and the fact that you are adding an adapter, its no wonder you need to throw that much light at it! I would think that you would need well over a 100 footcandle key to get proper exposure with that combination.

Despite being a tad underexposed, I think you have some great looking frame grabs here! The production values in terms of set dressing and wardrobe looks great.

Do you have any BTS production stills that show any of your setups? Post more if you got it and congratulations on what looks like a great project.

 

[SUPPATIME]

do you go to full sail?

Nope... I'm a super-duper senior at UCF in the BFA Film program. I'm sticking around for only one class.

Knowing the sensitivity of the HVX and the fact that you are adding an adapter, its no wonder you need to throw that much light at it! I would think that you would need well over a 100 footcandle key to get proper exposure with that combination.

I knew I was going to lose SOME light with this combination, but I never imagined that blasting a 12K HMI Fresnel into a 20x20 Griff would yeild so little light. Even with the Super Speeds (the 50mm going all the way down to T1.0), we were still nearly 2 stops below where I wanted to expose for some of the fire effects.

Despite being a tad underexposed, I think you have some great looking frame grabs here! The production values in terms of set dressing and wardrobe looks great.

Brent Fasen and Mike McGinty run our Art Department and Set Decoration. These guys are the best in Orlando... they've made my job easy and anything I've asked them to do, they've figured it out and done it right away... including building walls to make the alley look different. These guys are hardcore and have been working the past 40 hours straight. Production value is incredible. Aside from shutting down Mideaval Times' village, Brent and Mike have located thousands of dollars worth of props and greenery for this location. I couldn't do it without them.

Our Lighting and Grip team, headed by Derek Vass, is also invaluable. We've only got 5 guys on a given night for Grip, but even so, they can set up a dozen or so lights and take any BS I can throw at them (for instance, last night, I asked them to suspend a 4-Bank Kino about 5 feet above talent's heads... and the only mounting point for anything was between two roof-tops about 20 feet up). They are all amazing at problem solving, and when they can't figure something out, I offer suggestions and we colaborate.

Do you have any BTS production stills that show any of your setups? Post more if you got it and congratulations on what looks like a great project.

We actually don't have a set photographer and that's pissing me off, because every night is an elaborate setup that takes roughly 4-5 hours. The stills below I will go into detail for really quickly... fill was done with the 12K HMI bounced into a 6x6 Griff. The key / backlight (depending on angle) was done with a 4K HMI on a highboy about 30 feet up in the air. Fills were completed with PARCANs on flicker-generators with full CTO over them. Lastly, we illuminated the main action sequence from an overhead source (the 4-bank Kino) with Opal diffusion... the lightest we had on the truck... and 1/4 CTB over already-Daylight-balanced bulbs.

Here some of the stills from the lighting set-up described above from Day 3 of production:

 

[Zack Vohaska]

The first of the new grabs looked very nice... the lighting looks beautiful. While the rest of your grabs look great, they seem to lose a lot of detail from the crushed blacks. I'd have to see the footage in motion to decide whether or not I like the look.

Either way, very nice work - can't wait to see more updates on the production.

 

[khmuse]

Another set of great grabs! I love reading about other peoples setups, it really is too bad that you didn't have someone there to photo document it. I have no doubt that you spent 4 hours to setup these shots, that isn't too bad at all for the size of sources you are dealing with. Running distro and big gennys is real work and set dressing to the extent that you have done is no small task either.

Frankly, with this type of budget and prep I would have shot S16, but that would have added to the costs and may not have been possible.

I did have one question, you mentioned using full CTO on the PAR cans. Were these tungsten sources? Seems like you would have been close to daylight balanced with the HMI sources and full CTO and tungsten would have been a hell of a shift down in CT for this type of gag.

By the way, great framing on many of these shots. I particularly like the one with the character approaching camera with all the smoke / fog behind him.

So... who owns the footage when this is finished?

 

[SUPPATIME]

For the "day" portions of the shoot, I've dropped the Master Pedistal to -3... but all of this night-time stuff is only at -1. The blacks aren't really crushed that much... it just really is that dark...

 

[Erik Olson]

Depends on if the pars are fays or tungsten. Suppatime, are you shooting every shot with the adapter or is some of it stock HVX?

I cannot imagine being the focus puller on that rig with that amount of light. Must be a lot of blocking and spiking goin on!

Good luck, keep it coming.

e

 

[SUPPATIME]

Another set of great grabs! I love reading about other peoples setups, it really is too bad that you didn't have someone there to photo document it.

I just talked to my roommate (the director of the film) and we're bringing his Canon 20D to set tomorrow. Finally, set photos!

I have no doubt that you spent 4 hours to setup these shots, that isn't too bad at all for the size of sources you are dealing with. Running distro and big gennys is real work and set dressing to the extent that you have done is no small task either.

We have a 500 amp generator, and the first thing I have these guys do is run cable to where we're going to need it.

Frankly, with this type of budget and prep I would have shot S16, but that would have added to the costs and may not have been possible.

We were actually going to go with a Panavision Gold II package and shoot 200T, but I didn't think we'd have enough light for the night exteriors (what a laugh, at this point... 200 ISO would have been better!) but our big concern at that point is that our EZFX jib wasn't going to be tough enough to deal with that camera... plus, we wouldn't have had the money for video assist. None of us had shot HD before, so we all wanted to give it a try anyway.

I did have one question, you mentioned using full CTO on the PAR cans. Were these tungsten sources? Seems like you would have been close to daylight balanced with the HMI sources and full CTO and tungsten would have been a hell of a shift down in CT for this type of gag.

The PAR cans, fresnels and zips are all tungsten balanced. Even though we used HMI lighting, the camera's white balance was set at 3200K. I wanted orange from all of the practicals to replicate small flames, and the white/yellow that all of these sources emitted just wasn't cutting it.

So... who owns the footage when this is finished?

My roommate, Jeremy Sims, and his production company, Promethian Entertainment.

I do, however, have the right to use sections of (or in its entirety) this film for my demo reel.

 

[khmuse]

We were actually going to go with a Panavision Gold II package and shoot 200T, but I didn't think we'd have enough light for the night exteriors (what a laugh, at this point... 200 ISO would have been better!) but our big concern at that point is that our EZFX jib wasn't going to be tough enough to deal with that camera... plus, we wouldn't have had the money for video assist. None of us had shot HD before, so we all wanted to give it a try anyway.

Yeah you would have been way ahead shooting 200T. Hell, you might have been ahead if you shot 50D!

Keep em coming, great production notes and post some BTS stills from that Canon!

 

[SUPPATIME]

Suppatime, are you shooting every shot with the adapter or is some of it stock HVX?

There are three sections to this film... it starts off in an art gallery with a jaded man observing some paintings of a mideaval village. We then go into that village for this section of the film (the bulk of it)... and then end as the main character (a girl in the village) slowly falls out of her fairytale world and into real life.

The village section... the most cinematic... is all going to be done with the adapter and Panavision lenses. The opening sequence in the art gallery will be done with the adapter and Nikon lenses (at least, this is the plan so far). The "real world" stuff at the end is supposed to be more flat and muted... I think we'll shoot with the HVX clean for that.

I cannot imagine being the focus puller on that rig with that amount of light. Must be a lot of blocking and spiking goin on!

Last night, I only had one AC... we dollied in and out with the walking characters, and much of the rest of the sequence was handheld while being wide open on the HVX (0dB gain) and wide open on the Super Speeds...





...it was hell on Earth.

The good news is that this scene... the near-rape scene where the dark prince rescues Abigail (the main character) is supposed to be very fast paced. We go in and out of focus a lot, but the director is OK with that, as he will be using very very quick cuts. Or so he tells me.