A Magical Fall

Re: A Magical Fall

Hey Dsjecta...Here's your x back (X) thanks for lending it to me. What's up with the x man? Anyway Awsome stuff as usual. You have a wonderful way of capturing the beauty most of us miss while we're caught up in our daily routines. Always look forward to your work... It's kinda like four minutes at IMAX or something.
 
Re: A Magical Fall

Nevermind about the "x" I read it all in you "NEW WIP" post. Good idea hans. Let us know if it works Disjecta :)
 
Re: A Magical Fall

Hard to believe you have topped yourself again. Gorgeous imagery coupled with a perfect soundtrack.
I guess the only thing that might make it better, for me at least, would be if you could mix in *some* natural sound. That area may have too much civilization though, don't know.

As always, very solid craft from start to finish. Congratulations!

[edit]
Well, I just watched it for the third time, simply amazing...
I spent some time in Tacoma in the '60s, wonderful part of the country.
I saw disturbing news last week that Mt. Rainier may be coming back to life. If that dude goes up are you or this location close enough to be in danger from ash or mudflows?
 
Re: A Magical Fall

Jeez...that's amazing. I'm one of the newbies here and look forward to seeing more of your work.

how long did it take you to complete that?
 
Re: A Magical Fall

Wow, I think the title should be MAGIC BULLET :) you just made my day men. Did you use mb? great film.
 
Re: A Magical Fall

That was beautiful D-Man

I was going to say 'hey you can't pass that last film shot off as digi :)' when I saw some white specks, but I guess Magic Bullet adds those. They're very realistic, is there an option to add those and nothing else? curious as I've never used it and have toyed with the idea of creating specs in photoshop and manually applying them to a clip

Also, your compression is brilliant - I resized the video full screen and that close up of the bird looks as sharp as DV footage out of the camera... how do you do it?
keep it up,

B
 
Re: A Magical Fall

Watching your nature flicks is very useful to me as it saves money on stress therapy bills!

Brilliant stuff as always, Mr. D - have you ever thought about selling this stuff on DVD (Y'know, making an hour-long feature for the rest of us to chill out to who live in the big smoke?)

I think you should unsettle us in your next film by having a huge explosion and turning it into an action movie half-way through! ;D
 
Re: A Magical Fall

Hey thanks for all the comments.

As mentioned in my other post, I am working towards creating a DVD that I can sell on the board. I'll have to work out how feasible this is as the music is definitely not cheap when it goes over to the commercial side. Sometime next year is what I'm shooting for...I'll keep you posted.

Rainier has shown some signs of life but I am up on a plateau and in the safety zone.

The only shot I used Magic Bullet in was the last one, everything else has some mild color correction, mainly levels and some hue adjustments. I use the Enriched matrix and it gives very warm and vibrant colors. I just started using that setting so most of it is shot using Normal. The leaves shots were done using Enriched.

Magic bullet does allow you to just add the white specks. It gives you an enormous amount of control over how much and the intensity of its effects.

EnterdCable, I haven't shot anything on film except for Super 8, which I have exploited substantially, way beyond its "home movie" intent.

This piece actually only took about 3 days to post produce. The footage has been accumulated over the last couple of months. The most difficult thing, sometimes, can be finding suitable music. I used to use movie soundtracks but now I'm part of a music library. This allows me to potentially enter competitions, festivals, and sell my work without the hassle of tracking down and trying to secure the rights to music that would cost me my life's savings.

Regarding adding in some ambient sound, I'm really not set up for that right now, mainly because there is a lot of "interference" in the background like a very distant drone of traffic, etc. Nothing I couldn't remove in post. I try to add occasional location sound where it's appropriate, like in my Marymoor Park piece but most of the scenes in this particular film were mostly silent so I opted not to put anything in.

I think I answered everything. If I missed something, let me know.

Thanks again for looking.
 
Re: A Magical Fall

Dis,

Maybe you cover this already but did you giveyour camera settings? Also Enriched matrix which you spoke of, what is that.. It seems that only DVX100a may have it.. I already looked on the DVX100.

Can you provide more info on the Enriched matrix..

thanks,

Rob
 
Re: A Magical Fall

Settings varied over time but I have pretty much nailed what I regard as ideal settings for my style of shooting and subject matter:

Detail Level: +2 (I dial this way down if I'm shooting something with a lot of thin detail, like branches of a tree, for instance. Otherwise the interlace flicker is way too much)
V Detail Level: 0
Detail coring: 0
Chroma Level: +5
Chroma Phase: 0
Color Temp: 0 (I usually play with color temperature by either white balancing or in post)
Master Pedestal: -5
Gamma: Cine
Skin Tone DTL: Off
Matrix: Enriched (DVX100a-only setting) This setting pushes all colors towards the warm end of the spectrum. If you have a DVX100, you can approximate this in post by removing some of the blue channel.
V Detail Freq: Thin
All settings are used in F6 mode

I edit on a native 24p timeline in Premiere Pro 1.5.

I shoot in letterbox mode and then uprez to widescreen when my edit is close to complete for eventual high rez widescreen anamorphic master. This technique is documented in the following post: http://www.dvxuser.com/cgi-bin/DVX2/YaBB.pl?board=Events;action=display;num=1097870435

I use a 516 Bogen head and 3046 Bogen legs - these are pretty heavy duty and really give me a lot of stability.

I also use the Century Optics 1.6x teleconverter and have doubled that occasionally by adding a 2x teleconverter from Century from my other camera (Sony DSR-250 which has now become a hat rack :D ) which has a 58mm thread. I use a step-up ring to attach the 2x directly to the DVX and then add the 1.6x in front of that and hold the whole thing together with my Cavision 4x4 bellows mattebox. You can see an example of a shot using this setup in the film (the otter on the dock). There is significant softening around the edges using all this glass but I use it in rare cases where I can't get close to my subject.

I also own a Glidecam 4000 with a Bogen 3273 Quick Release Adapter with 3272 Plate to keep the balance intact. I bought the arm brace because, without it, your arm goes dead in a matter of minutes.

Own a Cobra Crane II from Promax.

I think that's it. Lately I have been finding creative ways to use the tripod (for example the first shot of the leaves in this film was done by just tilting the camera and tripod down on one leg). Sometimes setting the crane up is too much work.

I occasionally use ND grad filters to avoid getting blown-out skies. I also have a .6 ND filter so that I can control the depth of field in my shots.

I think that covers it. Let me know if you have any other questions.
 
Re: A Magical Fall

disjecta,

thanks for the info.. I will save it to a stickies. I must save I love the surroundings you have. I'm looking for places like that to in LA to shoot. But it so hard finding something...

Thanks,

Rob,
 
Re: A Magical Fall

WOW!

Not sure how it's even possible but your stuff just keeps getting better. Outstanding.

You should really contact Panasonics marketing team. If Panasonic put this up as a promo vid the DVX sales would go through the roof.

Again, Bravo!
 
Re: A Magical Fall

Disjecta sir,

I watch your movie every morning now when I wake up to harness my Chi, no kidding. It's my alarm clock on my computer.

It's a song that I can't get annoyed at. It's like Christmas (I don't know why, maybe it reminds me of the Nutcracker or something when the toys come out and play at night.... something magical, dunno.)

What sound libarary are you a part of, I'd like to know more as I am shooting and am now at the last stages of pre-production for my small budget short.

Have thought of becoming a DV editor? I'm jealous I don't have you as a teacher or something.

Are you interested in narrative? (sorry for the personal questions but I just feel like you're talent that's going places- if not already there, sorry.)

Cheers!
 
Re: A Magical Fall

Enterdcable,

The otter shot you are referring to was shot with double glass. It was a double up on 1.6x and 2x teleconverters. I rarely use that combo because the quality of the shot gets compromised with all that glass plus the only true area of focus is dead center and I hate that kind of restriction.

I have thought about doing some narrative work but I never seem to be able to get enough time to work on a more elaborate project. So, in the meantime, I am putting together these little vignettes. It's something I am seriously considering sometime in the next year.

DV Editor? Not sure...I'm afraid it would take the passion I have for what I do away. The thing that I love so much about filmmaking is that it is a way to center my creative energy and it is a dramatic contrast to my day job. I'm not sure if I would have the same desire to go out and shoot and edit my own stuff if I was doing it all day long for someone else. You know what I mean?

Thanks for the kind words, btw.

I'm off to take a look at your post. The aerial shots I will be getting are from a helicopter, btw.

Here's a link to the music library I use: http://www.bmgmusicsearch.com/us/home.asp
 
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