"Corrado" - A production blog
- Thread starter taormina
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taormina
Hates to Rent
I wanted to thank Hien Le for graciously loaning me a demo version of the Letus Ultimate for my reshoots.
I had already sold my two extremes, and needed an adapter for two scenes that we needed to pick up. The scenes were different enough from the source material to permit having a different look 1) a flashback scene and 2) some night scenes.
Either way, I needed an adapter so I called up Hien.
Two days later, the Ultimate showed up in it's own custom carrying case.
This thing screams professional. You open up the case and neatly packed within is every accessory required to run it in any configuration.....the Letus itself, mounting bracket, power cord, Nikon F mount, PL mount, and allen wrenches.
This is obviously designed for rental houses as the whole package is tight....
The Ultimate itself has been covered pretty thoroughly in Kholi's thread, so Ill leave that alone, but this version had a new blue anodized front focus adjustment on the taking lens side. Pretty slick!!!!
Picture wise, it's way sharper than the extreme. I don't even know how that is possible, but it is. Way sharper.
We used it for two days, and the thing worked flawlessly. I had an issue with the battery indicator light not telling me when the battery was low, but Hien said they were aware of the issue and production versions wouldn't have this problem. My 2nd AC was testing batts with a volt meter and wouldn't have trusted the indicator anyways, so it was no big deal.
You should see the mounting bracket. It's a work of art, by the way.
Hats of to Letus for their amazing work, and thanks Hien for the loan of the Ultimate!!!!!
I had already sold my two extremes, and needed an adapter for two scenes that we needed to pick up. The scenes were different enough from the source material to permit having a different look 1) a flashback scene and 2) some night scenes.
Either way, I needed an adapter so I called up Hien.
Two days later, the Ultimate showed up in it's own custom carrying case.
This thing screams professional. You open up the case and neatly packed within is every accessory required to run it in any configuration.....the Letus itself, mounting bracket, power cord, Nikon F mount, PL mount, and allen wrenches.
This is obviously designed for rental houses as the whole package is tight....
The Ultimate itself has been covered pretty thoroughly in Kholi's thread, so Ill leave that alone, but this version had a new blue anodized front focus adjustment on the taking lens side. Pretty slick!!!!
Picture wise, it's way sharper than the extreme. I don't even know how that is possible, but it is. Way sharper.
We used it for two days, and the thing worked flawlessly. I had an issue with the battery indicator light not telling me when the battery was low, but Hien said they were aware of the issue and production versions wouldn't have this problem. My 2nd AC was testing batts with a volt meter and wouldn't have trusted the indicator anyways, so it was no big deal.
You should see the mounting bracket. It's a work of art, by the way.
Hats of to Letus for their amazing work, and thanks Hien for the loan of the Ultimate!!!!!
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CRProductions
Active member
I don't understand the conversation from a couple pages back about not compromising your work in order to please distributors. Everyone seems to want Distributors to invest 2 million into a movie that only about $30k worth of people are willing to see. Plain and simple the reason Distributors want you to have a name or promotable face in the average movie, is because there are about 8000 DVDs made every year, you need to seperate yourself from everyone else. I would LOVE to make a film for lower than the price range I'm gonna be making my first one for (hopefully). Using the SAG minimum actors salary of 2500 a week for 3 weeks. Use the other on whatever else I needed, and then sell my film for 1million, which would hopefully be 10 times my investment. But realistically I know I I have to meet the distributors halfway, so I can get my investors money back, and get them their money back as well as making me a profit.
Anyway, congratulations Adam, it's nice to see someone working on a movie and actually posting their diary of sorts, on the internet for his fellow aspiring filmmakers to see and get a feel of the real world. Hopefully in march I'll be working around the same budget you reportedly got to work with (as per IMDB)..and I hope to have the same type of success as yourself. (Finding distribution AND getting people interesting in your second film is MAJOR...I don't think people realize the SCALE of this achievement because we are all pretty much on the same level of filmmaking.
I don't agree that horror is dead, nor over done...it's tried and true, and it's one of the few, infact the ONLY genre where you don't NEED a name talent or big budget to find distribution. But if you get both of those, distribution is almost promised...It's crazy how that works man
Anyway, congratulations Adam, it's nice to see someone working on a movie and actually posting their diary of sorts, on the internet for his fellow aspiring filmmakers to see and get a feel of the real world. Hopefully in march I'll be working around the same budget you reportedly got to work with (as per IMDB)..and I hope to have the same type of success as yourself. (Finding distribution AND getting people interesting in your second film is MAJOR...I don't think people realize the SCALE of this achievement because we are all pretty much on the same level of filmmaking.
I don't agree that horror is dead, nor over done...it's tried and true, and it's one of the few, infact the ONLY genre where you don't NEED a name talent or big budget to find distribution. But if you get both of those, distribution is almost promised...It's crazy how that works man
amillionfast
Member
I started on this thread a week ago and I'm finally caught up! So you guys can imagine how stoked I am right now!
HDkilledFILM.
Burnin' down the House
That being 100% true I believe what Adam was saying was that the horror market was over flooded with product therefore driving the average selling price of horror features down. Remember distribution does not mean that you will turn a profit, or even recoup your inital investment for that matter.
taormina
Hates to Rent
Speaking of markets, A little distribution update:
I received a call today from another huge distrib looking to talk about Corrado. That brings my list up to four companies that I am sending material to.
It's important to realize at this stage that you'll get dozens of calls and e-mails about rights to your movie, but most of these are small insignificant companies that don't have the horsepower to pay the kind of dollars I am looking for. I don't even return those calls. I just look them up on IMDb and if all they have released is nobody movies with nobody in them I immediately pass.
The four that I have now are pretty large distributors, both for foreign and domestic. They have all released films straight to DVD and theatrically, and the budgets of these movies are way more than mine. They also contain name actors in their movies - in short, movies you and I have seen - real, reputable distributors.
Right now it's a hurry up and wait game. I'm not showing anyone a rough cut or trailer. They get the finished movie to watch since I really want to get top dollar and I don't need anyone to "see past" anything that isn't finished and prevent me getting the maximum amount.
As soon as Corrado is done post, it's out the door to find a home!
I received a call today from another huge distrib looking to talk about Corrado. That brings my list up to four companies that I am sending material to.
It's important to realize at this stage that you'll get dozens of calls and e-mails about rights to your movie, but most of these are small insignificant companies that don't have the horsepower to pay the kind of dollars I am looking for. I don't even return those calls. I just look them up on IMDb and if all they have released is nobody movies with nobody in them I immediately pass.
The four that I have now are pretty large distributors, both for foreign and domestic. They have all released films straight to DVD and theatrically, and the budgets of these movies are way more than mine. They also contain name actors in their movies - in short, movies you and I have seen - real, reputable distributors.
Right now it's a hurry up and wait game. I'm not showing anyone a rough cut or trailer. They get the finished movie to watch since I really want to get top dollar and I don't need anyone to "see past" anything that isn't finished and prevent me getting the maximum amount.
As soon as Corrado is done post, it's out the door to find a home!
Brandon Rice
Distributed Producer
Cool update Adam... keep up the good work :thumbsup:
Brandon Rice
Distributed Producer
Awesome shot dude!
amillionfast
Member
Thanks for posting that dude. Cool to see your work flow.
taormina
Hates to Rent
I would have had to maximize the track layer to show them all - there are four video tracks in total.
Besides the main vid, I use one track for effects like muzzle flashes, another for compositing, and in one case where three guys are firing at the same time, more muzzle flashes.
Besides the main vid, I use one track for effects like muzzle flashes, another for compositing, and in one case where three guys are firing at the same time, more muzzle flashes.
Hard Drive Storage
Hard Drive Storage
Which drives are you using? and how much space does your footage take up?
Hard Drive Storage
Which drives are you using? and how much space does your footage take up?
taormina
Hates to Rent
I've got the project spread across about 1.75 TB of drive space. This is comprised of one internal and two external drives. There are two more externals for backups.
The footage itself is about 950GB - almost a terabyte. Most of the edit is done on my 1TB WD 7200 RPM external drive.
The footage itself is about 950GB - almost a terabyte. Most of the edit is done on my 1TB WD 7200 RPM external drive.
egyptianboxer104
Well-known member
1.75 TB??! that's ridiculous!
of course i wouldn't know what's normal since i've only worked on shorts. my largest short - 1.5 hours of footage (9 min short) = 60 GB
of course i wouldn't know what's normal since i've only worked on shorts. my largest short - 1.5 hours of footage (9 min short) = 60 GB
taormina
Hates to Rent
Well we also shot in 1080 - not sure what others here shot their films in, so yeah, we are like 1GB per minute of footage shot.
There is quite a bit of waste though....each clip has everything that occurred from the "roll camera" command, everyone calling "speed" and"rolling" and then the 2nd putting in the slate and finally "action!"
So there really is about 20-30 seconds of waste on each clip which adds to the size of the files. Necessary, though.
There is quite a bit of waste though....each clip has everything that occurred from the "roll camera" command, everyone calling "speed" and"rolling" and then the 2nd putting in the slate and finally "action!"
So there really is about 20-30 seconds of waste on each clip which adds to the size of the files. Necessary, though.
Horncastle
Well-known member
Adam
Thanks for a fascinating and very informative thread. Good luck and please keep up the good work.
Jason
Thanks for a fascinating and very informative thread. Good luck and please keep up the good work.
Jason
taormina
Hates to Rent
You're very welcome!
Brandon Rice
Distributed Producer
Most of the time I edit I use only one video layer... I used to use 2, 3, 4... etc. but I realize now using one keeps things nice and tidy... I always do it when I can
Maximumshow
Member
What are the specs on the system you're using with Vegas?
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