some more HPX500 footage

X

xianchi

Active member
Hey everybody!

As some of you know, I have been traveling around the state shooting for the state tourism office to create a B-Roll library for them. The shooting has been pretty much run and gun hitting up to 6 or more locations per day. Lots of driving...

This reel represents about 50 shooting days and I still have about 34 days left.

http://www.seanfrego.com/waLight/HL_FINALweb.mov

Enjoy!



Incase you are wondering...
Fuji XA17x7.6 2X, Miller 25, Solo sticks, Polarizer, simple
 
There's some very nice stuff there. Better than I thought the 500 was capable of. How did you set focus...did you use a monitor?
 
Wow! !!!
Thanks everybody! It's nice to finally get some feedback. I think I should give some credit to my friends, House on a Hill who made the music. http://www.houseonahillband.com

In answer to the questions...
I recently got the panasonic BT-LH80W but it wasn't used on any of the shots in the reel. I had pretty good luck with just the stock EVF and LCD until I did a shoot at the Tacoma Glass Museum. I shot in the hot box there and I think the extreme temps knocked the back focus out of whack? so, everything shot after that was soft. I couldn't tell while shooting in the EVF but when I got home many of the shots the appeared to be in focus where actually quite soft.

The jib? It's my shoulder combined with a tad of Smooth Cam in FCP. It works great for taking the edge off of hand held stuff.

I didn't have much time before the project started, 1 day, and I wanted the footage to be fairly neutral so the settings are pretty basic.

-2 chroma
+2 vert detail
+2 horz detail
-7 master ped
-1 temp
 
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Some great images. But I have to disagree, the music was pretty bad in my opinion. They sounded like a garage jam band. Nothing special, your images however, were. That's why it didn't work for me. But really nice stuff. Great shoulder jib too..
 
Great, great imagery!

BTW, watched it with sound off, the music doesn´t connect at all with the images IMHO...
 
I just watched it again and the shot that blows me away is the one that has the waterfall and what looks like a mini par3 golf course. And then those people walk into the frame upper right. that just looks like a fake shot it's so perfect. Where is that?

Also, I don't want to bag on the band. I'm a musician myself. I'm sure they work hard and do their best, but I thought maybe some orchestral sounds might work better in your shots. But the editing to some of their ramp up dynamics are spot on. It's a fun montage to watch.

I'm considering getting a HPX-500, but also considering the Red Camera. I know they're totally different cameras, that's why i'm taking my time. Your stuff looks second to none though, I gotta say.
 
That putt putt shot is from Leavenworth WA, a bavarian themed town at the base of the Cascades. It was shot around noon, you know when the light is perfect for shooting... I mostly use the the tiny B&W EVF so I am often amazed when reviewing footage. The color reproduction and dynamic range allow you to get good results in almost any lighting condition... even shooting at high noon.

There are a couple of clips that I reset the white point on but other than that the footage is untouched straight from the camera. My settings are listed on the first page of this thread.

Last year when this project first presented itself I had the HVX200. In fact, the reel that got me the job was made up of HVX200 and XL1s footage. I had been drooling over the Red 1 for quite some time. If I had another 10k or so and there wasn't a waiting list I may have gone with the Red. I felt like the 200 was too noisy/not light sensitive enough for this project, even though I already had the gig. The HPX500 had just come out and I was lucky enough to find the last one available on the west coast.

Since then my 500 has been in just about every shooting condition, rain, snow, hot dry dusty desert, ocean sprayed beach, out the window of a Cesna. Last week I shot a time-lapse of fog filling the meadow I was in. Condensation kept forming on my filter so my wife was constantly cleaning it. The next day we were shooting in super dry desert conditions along the Columbia River. No problems... this camera is solid.

Thanks again for all the comments, they're very inspiring.
 
Very nice work! The client must have been thrilled when you handed that stuff over.

And I have to say that I am continually impressed by the images created with that stock lens. I almost held out for a more expensive lens, but we purchased two 500's so the budget wasn't there for the big-boys. I have no regrets.
 
Excellent work Sean. I can appreciate the smoothness of your tracking on that bird shot. Wow! Gotta love the Miller :)

Are you still out on this gig? I may have an offer for you to test out a few filters and a mattebox from Formatt.

You'll have to stop by the new studio so we can check out these clips on the 17" Panny via HD-SDI.

I have the new KATA glove here too if you want to check that out on an HPX. Protection baby!
 
Yeah man! The Miller rocks! That Osprey shot was shot from a small boat on Lake Quinault.

I am still out when the weather doesn't suck. They want all sunny shots... I hoping to to be mostly wrapped by the end of the month.

Does that mean I have the old Kata Glove? Or is it the CG-12?

I would love to check out some footage on the 17" and try out some mattebox/filter action. I'll bring my cam so you can check out the Zacuto rig I just got. I think you'll like it! I'll PM you to arrange something.

I really appreciate all the comments. It's nice to finally get some feedback... I had been a "All I can see are the mistakes" bubble for the last year.

Thanks everybody!!!
 
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