remote control, DOF, and my first film

S

snowdog

New member
Hey all,

Just hoping that i get some luck from you all as i embark on my first day of filming this weekend. Script is done, cast is set, locations, etc......i guess i'm the X-factor at this point.....:) But, i have the shots in my head, and wrote down, so we should be good to go. Keep in mind, i'm a rookie at the camera, but feel i know a "fair" amount with it from reading, and being a wolf on this website....which, once again, Thank YOU all!!

A couple of questions:
1. I'm going to "try" to do a DOF shot...actually, i have to make it work. Is there a way to use the remote to manually focus in and out on the camera (DVX 100B) so that i don't have to touch it while it's on the tripod? If so, how....i've been monkeying with it all day and can only seem to adjust the zoom and record with it.

2. DOF in a smaller room. Although i think i can get it with the Iris at 2.8 and full zoom, is there any tricks you all employ? The main star of the movie will probably be 10' in front of me and i'll be focusing behind him say 20' (total of 30'). Any ideas that can help with this, please let me know!!!

3. any last minute settings that i may not have, please let me know. Action-horror movie. Should be good! Using auto white and auto focus (for most), and i'll be setting the iris manually, depending on the situation. My editor requested 30p, which i have no problems with, scene is set at F5 (is F6 better?)....most everything else is set at factory or from the "DVX book" recommendations.

Thanks guys (and gals)
--Jason Hull
www.snowdogstudio.com:dankk2:
 
Do you mean shallow depth of feld in a small room...?

uhmmm... welll unless you have the proper tools i doubt it..
you could probably achieve something similar with full zoom at 1.7 lense aperture, but then again if you can't put camera away from subject and subject away from background... no way..! in a small room...never.
of course it will be another thing with an adapter for different lenses like brevis, or M2 etc.

Do it in post. in FCP
you duplicate the layer
in the upper layer mask your subject, and in the lower layer apply gaussian blur

good luck..!
 
Hello snow dog!

I don't have all the answers for you but here are some of them-

(Also, you posted in the HVX forum, you might want to keep these posted to the DVX forum as you are using the DVX100B)


snowdog said:
2. DOF in a smaller room. Although i think i can get it with the Iris at 2.8 and full zoom, is there any tricks you all employ? The main star of the movie will probably be 10' in front of me and i'll be focusing behind him say 20' (total of 30'). Any ideas that can help with this, please let me know!!!
Click to expand...

That is the basic approach when using the standard lens, so you have that down ok. My only concernis the size of the room - you may not have enough room, especially if there is any movement by the actors. I would suggest you test out the shot in the room, or a similar sized room before you shoot to make sure that you can get what you want in terms of DoF. In a small room - 10'x10' - you will not be able to get the shot at f2.8 and Z99. Test it out before hand so that you are not surprised on the day of the shoot.


snowdog said:
Using auto white and auto focus (for most), and i'll be setting the iris manually, depending on the situation. My editor requested 30p, which i have no problems with, scene is set at F5 (is F6 better?)....most everything else is set at factory or from the "DVX book" recommendations.
Click to expand...

Why did your editor request 30p? it seems that the look of your production should be decided by the producer & director, rather then by the editor. Not that there is a huge difference between 30p & 24p, but there is enough of a difference that you can tell - 30p is smoother then 24p in the reproduction of movement.

Also STAY AWAY from AUTO anything. The auto white balance will change the color of your scene mid shot. And auto focus will change the focus point of your scene mid shot as well. Both settings continue to be updated by the camera and the camera guesses at what white it, and at where you want the focus. You will create less problems for your editor if you white balance correctly, and pull focus correctly. Also for your DoF shot, if you have it on auto focus, you could run into problems if you let the camera decide to focus for you.

Hopefully thoise suggestions help, as I want to help you avoid as many problems as possible.
 
thanks.....i'll go play with that now! Thanks for your help, as it will be interesting on Sunday...

JXN...thanks for the advice to have that done in post. I'm getting on the phone with him now. :)
 
I agree on not trying to use auto focus - however, for rack focusing when you
don't have a lot of experience, try this , if you are going from background subject to foreground:

Manually focus on background subject. When time to rack focus, hit the "push
auto" button. If the foreground subject is prominent in the frame and well lit, , the auto focus will immediately focus on him, and make you look like you have a pro focus puller. All this is assuming you have the room size and low aperture required for shallow depth of field. Experiment with this and let me know how it works.
 
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