new 35mm adapter short

Rodney V. Smith

Rodney V. Smith

DVXFest Promo Guru
So I finished building my 35mm adapter with follow focus, rails, etc (all DIY) aad did a field test on a short movie. We filmed saturday, edited sunday and now i'm working on the FX shots and the polishing of the film.

callwaiting-poster.jpg




Let me know what you guys think.

http://www.flyinmonkey.com/videos/CallWaiting.mpg
 
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Looks good.

Static or moving gg?

Would you be willing to post some pics of your adapter?

Thanks.
 
it looks pretty good full screen. taking it to the big test tonight and showing it to the actors in a theater, so that's going to be an eye opener. No chromatic abberation.

When I used 3 macro lenses (10+ 4+ 3+) or even 2 (10+ 10+) there was some abberation, but I tested the look on that before I shot the film. Also with my 28mm lens I found that 2 10+ macros worked great, but when i put my 50mm on there, definitely some vignetting going on.

I'm quite pleased with what I have so far and I'm planning the next shoot with a longer shoot time (8 hours instead of the 4 hours i had to shoot this one)
and that should give me some field testing on the other lenses.

Shoot schedules and fully planned shot lists really help with that, exspecially when you have to switch lenses.
 
so passed the big test. it looked great tonight projected on the big screen and everyone involved was happy, so I'm feeling good. No major flaws in th epicture, only where I was too slow in focusing, but 'm going to add a 7" LCD to my rig so I can focus better on the fly, and you only get better with practice, right?
 
okay, i added my FX shot to the death scene ad think i actually pulled it off well,thanks to Photshop and Premiere. Didn't use After Effects this time around.

instead i first shot the entire scene on location. once backat my house and editign was done i realized that we needed to see the blood to make it more believable.

So out came, camera, lights and of course,the condom filled with blood.

I heartily can now endorse Trojan as a good brand of condoms. I shot the hell out of the condom with a gas powered bb gun (which hurts like hell), but nada. The condom refused to break.

plan b came into effect. I took the condom and with my hand just slightly into view on the camera, squeezed the comdom.

two things happen when you squeeze a condom full of fake blood. THe first thing is that you get a great explosion of blood right on camera.

The second is that you get a great explosion of blood all over the garage.

the third thing (which i neglected to mention) is that your girlfriend attempts murder becasue you just doused her AND the garage full of blood)

Anyway i finally got the shots into Premiere, synced them up and exported all seven frames fo blood exploding. Twohours later after a lot of tweaking,we had instant movie magic.

Shocked the sh** outta the actors too who wondered where the hell the blood came from.
 
Holy Jesus, I recognize your actors. I actually went and saw some stuff they were featured in (I am from the area). I guess it is a small world after all. The footage looks great with the adapter. Acting was good, as well.

A couple of things I did notice:

The orange ring around the tip of the airsoft gun is still visible. I have heard of others being able to take this off (you may just need to repaint it).

Second, there were some audio issues toward the end.

Overall, very professional looking! (Much better than the short I have up here. I am still trying to learn)

See you around!
 
yeah thats the final part i have to take care of before i release it. I'm trying to get some feedback right now on the film itself.

On the day of the shoot,the paint was nowhere to bre seen, we had 4 hours to shoot,so i pretty mush said the dreaded words "we'll fix it in post" and proceeded to shoot. never say those words on a shoot,especially when you;re editing. I'm still counting frames where I have to remove the red tip and its very very depressing.

I think Ill put it on a shirt "No worries! We'll fix it in post!"

Good to know that I'm not the only Atlanta on here.
 
camera-with-rails.JPG

My rig (without handles and shoulder support). The follow focus, rails and mattebox are all DIY

IMG_4951.jpg



on the set of "Call Waiting" with actor Carlette Jennings
 
Well, if I had said that on the set for this last short, all I can say is that the film probably would have turned into an animated feature after all the stuff I would have had to do to it. :p

Congrats!
 
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Thanks! I'm editing slowly right now, taking care of every single frame of red tip... think i'm going to be up all night.

Fixed the sound issues on the last scene.. that was me being little overzealous and cocky at that point so i deserve a solid spanking for that.

We're planning a series of shorts in the next few months, so I think I'm gonna make sure all guns are painted and picture ready. ugh.
 
What kind of lights are you using? I am shooting my second short in March, and all I have are a few 250 watt halogen lights and a few 150 watt tungsten clamp ons. I saw some 1500 watt halogens at home depot for pretty cheap.

If you are making so many shorts and features, are you still only using the DVX? Have you looked into the HVX200, RED, or even film?
 
still the DVX. can't afford the HVX yet and right now i'm getting a nice film look from my 35mm adapter. the only reason i can see for switching to the HVX is to get a better resolution for if we ever have to up-rez to film. Right now the whole 35mm adpater experience has taught me that I really have to learn how to shoot all over again and be more of a cinematographer than a video shooter. You should try it out sometime if you get the chance. I found with just the DVX i'd do things like zooming and spend less timesetting up and that woudl show up when i got to the edit, Now i have to take more time and care and really set up the lights, light for mood and not jus to make sure we can see the actors.. shadows are so important andyou learn touse them all over again.

As for lights, I used my 250w Smith Victor lights, a 75w Kino (DIY), and a variety of smaller lights (50w to 100w) placed around the room, even under the table because the spill of the light coming up from under the table and onto the wall, created some depth... I almost overlit but then pulled myself back by really taking a look and asking myself what kind of mood i wanted to create. And then I also asked myself: "if I was sketching this on paper or painitng this,how woudl I want it to look?" and i took it from there...

thankfully it was a small set and I at least didnt have to gelthe windows. no spill from the outside light so that was kind of nice....
 
Yeah man, the lighting looked great! I can't describe to you how amazingly weird it was to see this. I actually met Brent to do some work for him, and I met Randy (you may know him) through Brent, so I have been bugging Randy lately on tips and such. I thought I recognized the actress when it opened, but when I saw Brent, I completely flipped out!

I am using a Panasonic GS300 right now (60i, 3CCD), but I am planning on saving up for a 16mm camera this summer, while continuing to shoot shorts and such throughout the year. I even have a sitcom planned out for the summer, lol.

It is way cool to see someone else doing and succeeding in the same things I am interested in from my area.

Maybe I will run into you sometime!

Thanks for the post!
 
Okay, I just got a new composer on board and we're working out some alternate music for the film now. Locking down music rights is so important... argh...
 
New music is coming today. I can't wait to hear it. My original score was from Kevin Saunders Hayes and I had hoped to use his music, but that particular piece was from another movie, so I'm SOL on that score (pun intended). Hoipefully the new guy is gonna be as effective.

Damn music rights.. they hold up or kill projects most of the time, but the right music adds so much to a movie...
 
Awesome clip! I really liked it...
Carlette Jennings was AWESOME! Very well acted and professional looking.
That is some serious equipment you have.

I'm new to this (as you know) and I'm planning on picking up the Canon HV20. Not anything like what you have but a big improvement for me.

Please post your new clip when you get the score finished. Can't wait to watch it all over again.

Mike
 
Thanks for the feedback. I get lucky with my actors.. or maybe I'm just really picky... anyway, usually the peopleI do manage to get are just suited for the parts.

Fred Deer has just finished composing the score for the movie and now it is updated and uploaded. Any feedback at allwould be appreciated you guys.
 
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