6 min student short shot on D90.

H

HovelNaTurnip

Member
Wanted to add to the forum.
Student project shot on D90. Some snaps I took closing the Live View mode during a take.
Vimeo link: http://www.vimeo.com/2582228
Comments would be appreciated. Thanks for looking.
ry%3D400


ry%3D400


ry%3D400

This one's just a long exposure still.
Vimeo link: http://www.vimeo.com/2582228
 
You need to match the exposure levels in the "cuddles" and escalator scenes. There's also a couple of parts where the exposure isn't locked and it's jumping all over the place.

The escalator cuts need some work.

Try and find a better gunshot sound effect.

Some of the beach footage is too dark. I like dark but I can't see anything. Even a candle might have worked OK. Or if allowed a fire.

Overall there's some nice shots and with a bit of work it will look really nice.
 
harsh by squig, but honesty is the best policy and have to agree w/the comments. but i mean, it really is the best he can do, i think he pushed the d90 to perform at its best
 
you can't sugar coated...it's not about being harsh...it's about giving an honest opinion and taking it in and making your craft better
 
bronxjragon said:
harsh by squig, but honesty is the best policy and have to agree w/the comments. but i mean, it really is the best he can do, i think he pushed the d90 to perform at its best
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I'm not trying to be harsh, just critical......and I hope you guys rip my footy to shreads and serve it to me if there are lessons to be learned. But my honesty does offend people sometimes, no offence intended.

The D90 tends to over expose by about 2 stops so you need to compensate. The exposure level at the end inside the train looks really nice.
 
The D90 tends to over expose by about 2 stops so you need to compensate.
Click to expand...

This comment makes no sense as the D90 offers ZERO information on shooting details like ISO and shutter speed, as well as aperture for those using non manual lenses. In order to determine if a camera was overexposing you would have to be able to set all the variables and compare them next to another model, be it a still image or or motion source. This is like saying "my cellphone camera underexposes by two stops. Well, how can you tell when you don't have any clue what the camera is shooting at?

I use my DSLRs all the time to do exposure checks when shooting film. I set the DSLR to the same ISO, shutter speed and aperture, and can get a pretty accurate look at exposure.
 
Andrew Brinkhaus said:
This comment makes no sense as the D90 offers ZERO information on shooting details like ISO and shutter speed, as well as aperture for those using non manual lenses. In order to determine if a camera was overexposing you would have to be able to set all the variables and compare them next to another model, be it a still image or or motion source. This is like saying "my cellphone camera underexposes by two stops. Well, how can you tell when you don't have any clue what the camera is shooting at?

I use my DSLRs all the time to do exposure checks when shooting film. I set the DSLR to the same ISO, shutter speed and aperture, and can get a pretty accurate look at exposure.
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OK let me explain. It might not be precisely 2 stops but if you look through all the footage on vimeo where the D90 has been left to it's own devices you find that practically everything is over exposed. Somebody else noted this in a previous post suggesting that the Nikon engineers may have done it on purpose so mums and dads can point and shoot and get clean footage of their kids faces everytime. Which makes sense, given no manual controls they certainly didn't have have our needs in mind.
 
To reply to Andrew

Thats not what he means. In auto, it always puts you about 2 stops over the right exposure.
A lot of video cameras do it too. Thats why if you had the zebra function, like I do on my HV20, you would develope a good eye for it. Because of that, I can tell (even without the zebra function), what the D90 is doing, and it IS overexposing for EVERY occasion. But that is okay. It would be worse if it always underexposed because like it is now, all you have to do is lower the exposure, which means less noise. If this camera had the zebra function to look at on the video portion, it would be clipping EVERYWHERE. Dial it down a couple notches and you get a great exposure.
I'm going to try a few things with that in mind too.....
 
The Nikon engineers probably had it set to expose perfectly until someobody from marketing took it home and shot their kids in less than ideal lighting conditions.

Also the "DVX user D90 manual exposure setting instructions" suggest to close down the aperture, lock it and open it up a few stops to get the right exposure level.

btw 2nd take lookin good rick
 
Aside from technical issues (focus, exposure, etc). . .

I know this is an issue in a lot of films, including major studio productions. But your's was particularly bad in this respect. If you are going to portray guns onscreen learn a little bit about them! I know even most major studios show people with the finger on the trigger when it wouldn't be, but it was obvious to me, and would be to most any other gun owner, that neither the talent nor you knew the first thing about firearms. EG, (aside from having the boogerhook on the bangswitch when it shouldn't have been)- the part where she rides the slide forward... Doing that on some guns could result in an out-of-battery discharge, thats an occurance that would likely damage or destroy the gun and probably also injure the shooter... most good guns won't fire if not in battery, so no knowledgable shooter would have handled the gun that way. Also, the gutshot that instantly kills the guy without him flinching? In reality he'd have not yet died as she was walking away... again Hollywood does this too, but not so extremely as you did. Watch something die, then you might better be able to show what death is like.
 
bronxjragon said:
harsh by squig, but honesty is the best policy and have to agree w/the comments. but i mean, it really is the best he can do, i think he pushed the d90 to perform at its best
Click to expand...

Eh, it could be better in some of those shots as far as image quality is concerned. It's an unfortunate side-effect of the camera. If you have the settings spot on with the right lens, you can get the shot perfectly. But if you don't have things just right or you simply aren't using the right lens, you can get bad results, such as the extremely dark beach scene.

As far as the escalator scene goes, I think you were fine with just the long or medium shot. I know what you were trying to do with that edit. You were trying to do the "punchy" chase scene we've all seen in movies today. But the only problem with the way you edited it was that it wasn't in sync. In that style, the movements have to match, at least in a logical way. For example, the guy is starting out on the escalator, then halfway, then getting off, and then the girl pursues him in the same fashion. This came off as more of an awkward stutter of shots with him starting on the escalator, fumbles back and forth, and then gets off and with the same awkward fumbles occurring with the girl. The focal length doesn't have to match, necessarily, but it has to be balanced if you're going to be popping in and out so that the audience won't get taken out of the film.

Other than that, the film was good. You had pretty closeups and not the unmotivated Frankenstein forehead and lower lip "closeups" you normally see in student films.

Good way to start off as a film student as well. Anybody jealous of your pretty 35mm DOF compared to their 1/3" video?:beer:
 
Thebes said:
Aside from technical issues (focus, exposure, etc). . .

I know this is an issue in a lot of films, including major studio productions. But your's was particularly bad in this respect. If you are going to portray guns onscreen learn a little bit about them! I know even most major studios show people with the finger on the trigger when it wouldn't be, but it was obvious to me, and would be to most any other gun owner, that neither the talent nor you knew the first thing about firearms. EG, (aside from having the boogerhook on the bangswitch when it shouldn't have been)- the part where she rides the slide forward... Doing that on some guns could result in an out-of-battery discharge, thats an occurance that would likely damage or destroy the gun and probably also injure the shooter... most good guns won't fire if not in battery, so no knowledgable shooter would have handled the gun that way. Also, the gutshot that instantly kills the guy without him flinching? In reality he'd have not yet died as she was walking away... again Hollywood does this too, but not so extremely as you did. Watch something die, then you might better be able to show what death is like.
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Hehe, We don't have a lot of hand guns here in Australia so I didn't pick up on any of the technical flaws, just the reverb of a gunshot in a canyon rather than on a beach . But it's important to do your research on such things. Here you have to have a licensed firearms handler on set at all times. Some film students here were recently arrested for shooting scenes in an apartment with a replica handgun.

Good explanation from Jack about the escalator cuts. You probably have the footage you need to get it right, if so it will just take some time to get it to sync right.

Who needs film school when you have dvxuser.
 
i must not know much about film and composition because I though it was great....

I just got a D90 yesterday and coming from strictly video I tend to find myself using it more as a still camera rather than video as I intended. Either way I am inspired with this thing when I use it....I love it despite its flaws..

If it was perfect and had no flaws I prob would never take it out of the case for risk of damaging it....but knowing its up to me to make the shots right I find myself using it WAY more than my HF11 or XHA1
 
Thebes said:
Aside from technical issues (focus, exposure, etc). . .

I know this is an issue in a lot of films, including major studio productions. But your's was particularly bad in this respect. If you are going to portray guns onscreen learn a little bit about them! I know even most major studios show people with the finger on the trigger when it wouldn't be, but it was obvious to me, and would be to most any other gun owner, that neither the talent nor you knew the first thing about firearms. EG, (aside from having the boogerhook on the bangswitch when it shouldn't have been)- the part where she rides the slide forward... Doing that on some guns could result in an out-of-battery discharge, thats an occurance that would likely damage or destroy the gun and probably also injure the shooter... most good guns won't fire if not in battery, so no knowledgable shooter would have handled the gun that way. Also, the gutshot that instantly kills the guy without him flinching? In reality he'd have not yet died as she was walking away... again Hollywood does this too, but not so extremely as you did. Watch something die, then you might better be able to show what death is like.
Click to expand...

haha that was awesome
 
Thebes said:
Aside from technical issues (focus, exposure, etc). . .

I know this is an issue in a lot of films, including major studio productions. But your's was particularly bad in this respect. If you are going to portray guns onscreen learn a little bit about them! I know even most major studios show people with the finger on the trigger when it wouldn't be, but it was obvious to me, and would be to most any other gun owner, that neither the talent nor you knew the first thing about firearms. EG, (aside from having the boogerhook on the bangswitch when it shouldn't have been)- the part where she rides the slide forward... Doing that on some guns could result in an out-of-battery discharge, thats an occurance that would likely damage or destroy the gun and probably also injure the shooter... most good guns won't fire if not in battery, so no knowledgable shooter would have handled the gun that way. Also, the gutshot that instantly kills the guy without him flinching? In reality he'd have not yet died as she was walking away... again Hollywood does this too, but not so extremely as you did. Watch something die, then you might better be able to show what death is like.
Click to expand...

hmmmm :huh::huh::huh::huh::huh:
 
squig said:
You need to match the exposure levels in the "cuddles" and escalator scenes. There's also a couple of parts where the exposure isn't locked and it's jumping all over the place.

The escalator cuts need some work.

Try and find a better gunshot sound effect.

Some of the beach footage is too dark. I like dark but I can't see anything. Even a candle might have worked OK. Or if allowed a fire.

Overall there's some nice shots and with a bit of work it will look really nice.
Click to expand...


This is exactly 100% correct and is constructive criticism.

None of this in any way what so ever seems harsh just good observations and tips.

All in all you this is a very commendable job and shows promise.

Keep up the good work!
 
Thebes said:
Aside from technical issues (focus, exposure, etc). . .

I know this is an issue in a lot of films, including major studio productions. But your's was particularly bad in this respect. If you are going to portray guns onscreen learn a little bit about them! I know even most major studios show people with the finger on the trigger when it wouldn't be, but it was obvious to me, and would be to most any other gun owner, that neither the talent nor you knew the first thing about firearms. EG, (aside from having the boogerhook on the bangswitch when it shouldn't have been)- the part where she rides the slide forward... Doing that on some guns could result in an out-of-battery discharge, thats an occurance that would likely damage or destroy the gun and probably also injure the shooter... most good guns won't fire if not in battery, so no knowledgable shooter would have handled the gun that way. Also, the gutshot that instantly kills the guy without him flinching? In reality he'd have not yet died as she was walking away... again Hollywood does this too, but not so extremely as you did. Watch something die, then you might better be able to show what death is like.
Click to expand...


Kinda yes and kinda no.

Some good points.

1. Keep your finger out of the trigger well until it's time to shoot.

2. Never point any gun at anything you do not want to immediately destroy or kill

3. Double taps are what the pros use. At least. If it is a hit it is almost always two to the head and two to the chest. What order depends on range and purpose etc...

4. Guns are tools. Nothing more. Nothing less. But they are very powerful and destructive tools.


The one thing I would take issue with Thebes is that different things die differently each and every time.

Sometimes it is a horrific struggle.

Others it is simply and quickly lights out dead before you hit the ground.

And some seem like the person or animal is only grazed and bleeding a bit and then they go night night...

All depends...



I feel compelled to add again, guns are not toys they are tools. Very powerful tools that can visit swift, catastrophic, and irreversible destruction upon recipients of their fury.

They should not be glorified or toyed with.

They are what I would call a most necessary evil for the greater good and the balance of the Universe.
 
NJ3118 said:
i must not know much about film and composition because I though it was great....

I just got a D90 yesterday and coming from strictly video I tend to find myself using it more as a still camera rather than video as I intended. Either way I am inspired with this thing when I use it....I love it despite its flaws..

If it was perfect and had no flaws I prob would never take it out of the case for risk of damaging it....but knowing its up to me to make the shots right I find myself using it WAY more than my HF11 or XHA1
Click to expand...
Just watch it again, don't pay any attention to the actors or story just pay attention to the shots. You will notice how the cuts particularly during the "cuddle" scenes have different levels of brightness. This prevents a fluid look to the cuts.

In regards to the HF11, I was seriously considering buying one with a DIY DOF adapter and some prime lenses to make my film until the D90 came out. Once I saw what the D90 was capable of and joined this forum and learned about the workarounds to it's quirks I forgot all about the camcorder.

The D90 footage is more compressed than the HF11 but the D90 far surpasses the HF11 in low light and film like depth of field.

If you have a look at the zacuto shootout stills ttp://dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=154365&page=3 and pay close attention to the brick wall you will notice that the D90 and 35mm film are quite close in their depth of field. The camera's with DOF adapters have a blurred background. So for me the D90 has the closest film like look on a minimal budget.
 
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