7D Feature - MANDIE and the CHEROKEE TREASURE

Owen

Owen

Photoshop Savant
Starring Lexi Johnson and the legendary Hayley Mills, "MANDIE and the CHEROKEE TREAUSRE" is the second in the "MANDIE" film series based on the popular children's book series.

Having filmed the original "MANDIE and the SECRET TUNNEL" on an HVX200 with RedRock M2 adapter, I chose the Canon 7D for the sequel. We filmed for 20 days in March and April and I finally have a bit of footage online. The film is in post-production now, set for release this Fall.

After a few years of using the HVX200/M2 combo and growing tired of dealing with the light loss I was thrilled with the 7D.

Here's a 60 second teaser:



Some stills are online at http://www.MandieAndTheCherokeeTreasure.com

I'm very pleased with my choice of the 7D. I also used a T2i as my b-camera and was quite happy with that as well.

I actually used the stock zoom lens quite heavily, as well as a mix of my Nikon primes: 28mm F2, 50mm F1.4, 85mm F1.8


*****UPDATE*****MAY 10*****

Here's a full 2:30 trailer that better shows off the 7D!

 
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really nice

still about confused about the % cost that using a red would have added to the total production cost

surely the money went on locatons talent etc

there is one push in shot - how was that done ? montiroed and focuessed ?

S
 
I it looks great, but your score kind of kills it for me. Almost sounds like an intro to a news channel, good morning america or history channel show (not that those are bad in any way, just not for a feature....

The cave lighting & fog shots are very impressive! Nice job
 
yup...looks good! but i agree about the score...didnt like it. I understand its a childrens thing...but still didnt work for me. Is it a place holder or is that what you'll be officially using?
 
The score was the first thing I could dig up that was somewhat upbeat. It's just a piece I wrote for the previous movie... that works fine in the movie but not so great in a teaser. It's more of a placeholder, as we hope to have a full fledged trailer with some new original score in the coming weeks.

I mainly just wanted to get some footage of some sort online to encourage fellow DSLR shooters who are questioning the merits of using one of these cams for a feature.

I actually purchased the 7D as my on-set stills camera, fully intending to shoot this movie on an HPX300. As for the question above re: RED, I feel that it would have slowed us down a great deal. We had a 20 day shoot for a 90 page script in some fairly challenging locations and needed to move quickly. The small camera rig was very beneficial in this situation.

The 7D is not the perfect cam for all projects (no camera is), but I'm confident it was the best choice for our budget, schedule and requirements... and I'm saying this after having initially ruled out the 5DmkII and decided to go with the HPX300.

When I took into account the weight of the HPX (or the RED) and realized what sort of upgrade I would need to our camera support gear (tripod heads, jib parts, slider dolly upgrades, new shoulder mount, etc) the cost of using a larger camera quickly added up. That drove me to seriously re-consider the 7D. Knowing the limitations of the cam (moire and jell-o) very well is essential... and once learned they are often easy to work around.

I do know that I did things with the 7D I would never consider with a larger or pricier cam... such as sandbagging it to the front of a moving steam engine, letting it hang off a jib over the smokestack of the train, hanging over the side of the train and shooting handheld while riding across a train trestle, etc. I was also able to toss it on a hi-hat and cram it into tiny spaces, which was a real neccessity for a lot of train interiors and tight cave / mine locations.

Any slider dolly shots were done with a DIY Igus/ZaZa slider dolly rig. Jib shots are an EZFX jib with extension. Lighting package was two 1200w HMI Cine Pars... and a few Lowells and Moles tossed in here and there. We use a manual RedRock follow focus (1st gen) as well as a Bartech wireless remote follow focus system. I output to a $300 28" computer monitor with HDMI input, as well as a smaller 8" Lilliput monitor mounted on camera. The 28" was used 80% of the time... 5% for the Lilliput... and 15% was just me and the barebones 7D shooting and focusing with the on-board LCD.

That's rather long-winded I suppose... but all the info and experiences shared on these boards really helped me in transitioning quickly to DSLRs and I'm hoping some of it helps other folks in some way.
 
Owen said:
Starring Lexi Johnson and the legendary Hayley Mills, "MANDIE and the CHEROKEE TREAUSRE" is the second in the "MANDIE" film series based on the popular children's book series.

Having filmed the original "MANDIE and the SECRET TUNNEL" on an HVX200 with RedRock M2 adapter, I chose the Canon 7D for the sequel. We filmed for 20 days in March and April and I finally have a bit of footage online. The film is in post-production now, set for release this Fall.

After a few years of using the HVX200/M2 combo and growing tired of dealing with the light loss I was thrilled with the 7D.

Here's a 60 second teaser:



Some stills are online at http://www.MandieAndTheCherokeeTreasure.com

I'm very pleased with my choice of the 7D. I also used a T2i as my b-camera and was quite happy with that as well.

I actually used the stock zoom lens quite heavily, as well as a mix of my Nikon primes: 28mm F2, 50mm F1.4, 85mm F1.8
Click to expand...


A+ , looks great! Can't wait to see the final version.
 
Great job, and good luck with it!

Thanks for sharing the info. For the right situations, the 7D is a great choice!

Where did you shoot it?
 
North Carolina -- primarily Pilot Mountain and Blowing Rock. We also did a few days in Dahlonega, GA hanging out with the bats in a gold mine.
 
Owen a couple quesions if you don't mind?

1. what lenses where used?
2. How do you compare the quality of your past hvx adapter combo with the 7d in terms of resolution, color and overall look?

Excellent footage by the way.
 
reem12 said:
1. what lenses where used?
Click to expand...

I used the stock zoom lens as well as a mix of my Nikon primes: 28mm F2, 50mm F1.4, 85mm F1.8. We have to move very fast on our shoots... we cover a lot of ground (much of it hiking gear to and from remote locations) and the zoom ended up being a real time saver. We also shot in a lot of dusty and wet locations where I really preferred not to be doing lens changes if I didn't have to.

Also, the stock lens is my only image stabilized lens, and it GREATLY helped reduce the rolling shutter effect on handheld / shoulder mount work.

reem12 said:
2. How do you compare the quality of your past hvx adapter combo with the 7d in terms of resolution, color and overall look?
Click to expand...

We've done two "MANDIE" films. The first on the HVX/M2 combo and the second on the 7D. For both films the lighting package basically consisted of two 1200watt cine par HMI's and a few misc 250watt - 1000 watt tungsten lights. The vast majority of locations for these films require that we haul in our own power, so we're limited to 3,000 to 5,000 watts depending on the location.

The HVX/M2 combo ate so much of my available light that I often had to shoot with my focus "as close as it gets" ...meaning that a lot of times the image was just too soft and I was wide open when I didn't want to be.

The 7D wins hands down on the light loss issue, and I doubt anyone will argue that. It was a massive breath of fresh air.

As far as color, I absolutely love that magical Panasonic quality that I've gotten with the DVX and HVX, and I was surprised at the 7D. I filmed in several of the same locations as the first movie, so I had a firm idea of what everything should look like. The 7D pulled the color in where it counted and I really had no complaints. More color space would be great and I'm sure the Canon DSLR line will get there eventually, but it's already quite impressive.

If you point both cams at a resolution chart the HVX will of course win, but when actually on set any loss in resolution never jumped out at me, and we generally monitor the image on a 28" LCD whether filming in a house or shooting on a mountain top. I never once thought "I wish I had the HVX for this shot."

There were some items of wardrobe and a few set pieces etc. that exhibited moire. Some were swapped out, others were moved to a part of the shot that was slightly out of focus. Others were just allowed to do the moire thing.

There were two or three times that I set up for an exterior shot, generally backlit by the sun, and thought "no way we can pull that off." I was, of course, wrong... my head was still in HVX mode and I was pleasantly surprised by the lattitude of the 7D. A shot that would have required an iris pull on the HVX worked flawlessly with the 7D. Good thing too, because you can forget about iris pulls on these old Nikon primes!! :)

We did one jib shot in the middle of a river (part of it is in the short teaser) and I said "Sure, we can shoot that... our actors will just be silhouetted." I was thrilled when I saw it through the eye of the 7D. There's no way I could have bounced that shot (and we bounce a LOT of sunlight), and with the 7D's lattitude I fortunately ended up not even needing to!

I did use the HVX for three very short green screen shots, because the more color space you have the better for doing the keying work.

I am certainly more than satisfied with the overall look of the 7D. I may see the final edit of this movie and decide it looks to much like "video," but if so that's my fault and not the camera. After dealing with the low light and soft images from the HVX/M2 combo we wanted to be sure to get as much crisp, bright imagery as possible on this particular movie, so I tended towards what I would call a slightly overlit look with deeper depth of field than I might normally aim for.

Anyhow... hopefully this info helps some folks. I never thought I'd shoot a feature in HD for with a camera that cost less than the trust old DVX100.
 
looks pretty nice, can you elaborate more on the pro's / cons of dealing with the 7D vs the HVX + redrock adapter?

I am DP'ing a short i wrote, director/producer is pretty insistant on using the HVX, but i do have a 7d that i would love to use.

More than likely it will have to be the HVX with adapter, because they just think its a better camera. (which i know in some ways it is), but i really think its cool /interesting you went with the 7d
 
I am from Dahlonega, and my best friends are part of the family that own the gold mine. They were telling me about how there was a film crew there recently.

Funny how I ran onto your page accidentally and immediately knew it was the gold mine just by looking at your video.

I shot a short myself down there shot on the HVX. Here is a shi*ty youtube version that was uploaded (without my permission) by the film festival I entered it into:

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I AGREE
 
OWens' an OG, man. One of my "senior" peers that totally inspired me. Not with gear, but with his work!

Nice to see you rockin' GA still. I miss home!
 
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