Clips from five features I shot on the DVX

Owen

Owen

Photoshop Savant
:cheesy: ***UPDATE*** :cheesy:
The vids at the previously posted link were small and probably like 12fps, so here are updated links to larger QT files -- right click and save as:

Movies #1 and #2 (first shot flying over river = stock footage. Everything else = DVX)
Movie #3
Movie #4

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Hey all,

This site has been a fantastic resource for me over the past year, so I figured folks here would want to know about yet another successful venture shot solely on the trusty DVX100.

My big endeavor, a five part family movie series entitled The Sugar Creek Gang, is now being released to retail (currently available at all Movie Gallery rental stores) and the response to the footage (in regards to the "film-look" of this camera) is quite positive. The movies run approx. 70 - 75 minutes each.

:grin: CLIPS!
Some trailers are online for the first four movies at: SugarCreekGangMovie.com

The first two movies in the series premiered on a 55 foot wide screen at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta, GA and the footage looked awesome on the big screen!

:cheesy: EQUIPMENT!
The camera rig consists of:
DVX100p
Panasonic 16x9 lens adapter
Chrosziel matte box with two 4x4 filter stages
And of course the excellent money-saving batteries from DVXUser.com

I can go into details about other equipment used if anyone is interested. It was definitely minimal, as was the crew size. All five movies were shot simultaneously over the course of about three months.
 
Yeah, we did have insurance... but REALLY didn't want to have to file any claims or jeopardize the rest of the policy.

There were two or three VERY close calls (which I guess were inevitable with seven child actors present). The row boat we used as a camera boat had a small hole in it, which was rather nice in the scorching heat of summer. Whenever the water rose to more than 9 or 10 inches we'd bail it out with a pail. Sometimes chewing gum on the bottom of the boat would help for a bit too. Intial plans were to put everything in a canoe... not recommended.
 
well i liked the trailer. The acting was good, the camera work was very pro. I ordered a couple DVDs to show some support! :laugh: Keep up the good work!
 
Thanks strancali! Any thoughts you have after viewing a complete episode are very welcome. Feedback from kids so far has been quite positive -- not that they make comments about the technical side of things. (wouldn't THAT be something)
 
Hi, Owen. My first post here - been lurking for awhile as I'm quite interested in the DVX100. Felt compelled to speak up though as I was quite obsessed with these books in my younger days. In fact, I had been by your movie site before I saw the thread here. Working on that project would have been fulfilling a dream for me. Haven't ordered a DVD yet, but probably will. And thank you to you or whoever was involved in setting the films in the past instead of modern times.

Are there any more installments planned?
 
Congratulations! Some of the most professional footage I've seen posted. Very impressive. Wish I could get my DVX, actors, and computer to do that kind of stuff. :(

Good luck and hope you have success with the series. You deserve it.
-pk
 
Hey, Owen. Just checked out your site. Showed my wife the trailers, and we ordered episode 1. So, obiviously, we think the project looks really nice. Technical question: What did you use to get the opening shot in the first trailer (the moving arial shot over the creek). Also, were you using glidecams or dollies? Apart from the technical stuff, it looks like something our 11 yr old son would really enjoy. My compliments on your work.
 
Oops! I forgot that I'd stuck that flyby shot of the river in there. That is the ONE AND ONLY shot that didn't come from the DVX. It's stock footage from the Artbeats starter kit. It never appears in the movies, but I thought it'd be fun for the trailer.

I used a glidecam and a dolly (home built skateboard wheel dolly with 50 feet of track, no curves). However, due to time crunches I often just went hand-held in order to stay on schedule. I would have loved to use the dolly more, but with minimal crew (usually only 2, sometimes 3 people) there just wasn't time to set the thing up. I can post a few of the better results if you're interested.

Your 11 year-old is the perfect age for this, so feel free to post his reaction (good or bad) once he sees it!
 
Hey Owen,

I really enjoyed the trailers and I think I'm going to buy the DVD's to see what the DVX can do. I think ideally for most of us who own a prosumer camera DVX or otherwise would like to be able to make a living doing what we love, making films. So, I have a few questions for you on the business end.

How did you get to the point where you were confident enough to spend 3 months shooting these DVD's. Did you ever attend film school?

Did you fund this whole project yourself? If not how did you manage to reel in finances?

How did you audition for your young actors?

Once the project was done how did you go about getting it onto the shelves of stores?

Has this project been a hobby from the start or a venture to produce a viable children’s DVD to sell and make a profit? Have you gotten in the "green" yet from sales?

How long did it take you to come up with the story/script? Did you do any shot logging?

Did you use the anamorphic adaptor on 100% of the shots? If not, why not? Did you run into any problems when using the adaptor?

How did you go about your white balance while on set? Did you ever use any gels or lighting? If so, what kind?



I know most of these questions are not one line reply’s, so thanks in advance for spending your time to answer my questions.

The reason I ask is because I just sold my business, and I'm looking to make a living in some sort of film career doing something I've always enjoyed, even if I have to do some weddings along the way. I plan on doing a bunch of internships this summer to learn the skills necessary. I plan on going to Africa to do a documentary within the next 2 years. In the meanwhile I've been cramming my brain full of info from this site and others.

Thanks a lot

-Kevin
 
Very impressive stuff Owen. The production values are very high and it looks like a very good series. Would also love to hear technical/production details as well.
 
Kevin Briggs said:
How did you get to the point where you were confident enough to spend 3 months shooting these DVD's. Did you ever attend film school?
Click to expand...

No film school... I have a BA in Journalism, my focus being broadcast journalism. I also minored in film studies, which is more along the lines of film theory than production. Throughout high school and college I always did little projects and even had a public access show for a bit, so I've always been itching to get a bigger production rolling. (I never could understand why a bunch of 16 year-olds were allowed to have a tv show, even if it was just public accsess, but it sure was fun!)

Kevin Briggs said:
Did you fund this whole project yourself? If not how did you manage to reel in finances?
Click to expand...

I have one partner in this project. We each directed half of the series and funded the the entire thing ourselves. The production costs ran around $20k in order to get from concept to footage in-the-can. I already owned about $5k worth or equipment, so all we really had to buy was the camera rig. This does not include later costs like DVD manufacturing and certainly could not have been kept to that number without actors accepting deferrment.

Total cost for the series once all salaries etc. are paid is going to run around $80k.

Kevin Briggs said:
How did you audition for your young actors?
Click to expand...

The audition process was much easier than I thought it would be. We put out a casting call to a few key web sites that actors from this area usually go to in search of auditions. They were instructed to sign up on our web site for an audition slot, so it was all clean and automated. We blocked out 15 minute slots and allowed two sign ups per slot. Within a few days we had filled all available spaces and ended up seeing 200 - 300 actors. All auditions were video-taped and we narrowed it down to 1 or 2 potential kids for each role. One round of call-backs was held. Total audition time was approx. 4 days. 18 months later I still get e-mails asking if people can audition and/or send in head shots! I even had to get the audition site removed from the google cache.

Things had to be fast-tracked a bit. It took so long to secure the movie rights to the book series that we either had to get going QUICKLY or put the project off for another year. This is due to the fact that we needed to shoot over the course of the summer because of the child actors and their school conflicts.

Kevin Briggs said:
Once the project was done how did you go about getting it onto the shelves of stores?
Click to expand...

This is currently an ongoing process with a few different contacts involved. I can't say a lot about it right now as some things are still up in the air, but I will say that it started with a copy of the Hollywood Distributors Directory (purchased from half.com because after all, what indie filmmaker can pay retail?!). E-mails and phone calls etc. were made and screeners sent out.

Some retailers are carrying the movies without me needing a distributor. In order to raise awareness and portray the movies as a viable product we rented the largest movie theatre in Atlanta, the Fox Theatre in order to premiere the first two movies. It seats 4,600 people and is used for Broadway shows etc. That was an instant attention-grabber locally and enabled us to get a ton of press coverage that would have been otherwise impossible. We were able to fill about 2,000 of the seats solely through the free press coverage and word-of-mouth. Once local stores heard about this premiere they were more willing to give the movies a chance on the shelf. (at this point I'm referring to independtently owned stores where the manager can actually decide what goes on the shelf... the national chains are another ballgame).

Also, the books that serve as a basis for the movies are still on some retail shelves, so those stores that are familiar with the series are more inclined to accept the movies as well.

Tomorrow I'm doing it again to an extent. The 3rd and 4th movies are finished and will be screened in a 3,000 seat church. The event will be free and hopefully generate some good buzz. I'm currently making free screening offers to other churches and community centers around the country in order to spread the word.

Kevin Briggs said:
Has this project been a hobby from the start or a venture to produce a viable children’s DVD to sell and make a profit? Have you gotten in the "green" yet from sales?
Click to expand...

This project has been targeted for retail from the start. I graduated from college in 2003 and began looking for a project that I could do on a small budget. This series involves a lot of outdoor locations (no need for many lights or a sound stage) and is targeted at kids, an audience that can look beyond the technical issues of DV etc. This isn't to say that sacrifices in quality were made because of a younger audience, but there wasn't as much worry about the viewers not giving the series a chance just because it doesn't look exactly like what they're used to seeing on a movie screen. There also is not enough good stuff out there for kids to watch with mom and dad, so I truly hope to fill some of that need as well.

In order to get the movie rights I shot a short concept trailer on 16mm and sent it to the publisher of the books along with production stills of that shoot. I figured that the more serious things looked the more willing they'd be to discuss the rights.

While I'm not in the green just yet, things are looking good. If the plans for the rest of the year pan out I think the series can break even by early 2006.

Kevin Briggs said:
How long did it take you to come up with the story/script? Did you do any shot logging?
Click to expand...

Since it's based on a series of 36 books, coming up with story/script didn't tak long at all! Another reason I chose this as a first project was that there is already a lot of stuff to draw from.

As a first project there are enough challenges to deal with in just getting everything going, much less convincing people to come work on a script they've never heard of. Even if people hadn't heard of these books, the truth is that they are out there and have been for over 50 years. Three of the screenplays are based directly on particular books in the series. Two of the screenplays are original stories that my partner wrote and that draw upon the books in general.

Because there were mainly only two people working on this, it's hard to say how long it took to put together a script or how long it took to secure a location etc etc. All five scripts were put together over the course of 4 - 5 months, but were certainly not worked on every day.

As for shot logs, I tried it for maybe 3 days. There were usually only 4 or 5 of us on set: me, my partner, and two or three crew members. Mix in seven kids age 8 - 12 and shot logs just get in the way. I did shoot with a shot LIST, so I could cross things off as we got them. Other than that I just used call sheets in post to remind myself what day certain things were shot. We ended up with about 55 tapes by the end of the summer. Each tape had the date on it, so it wasn't too hard to pull everything.

Kevin Briggs said:
Did you use the anamorphic adaptor on 100% of the shots? If not, why not? Did you run into any problems when using the adaptor?
Click to expand...

I ALWAYS used the anamorphic adapter. I used the Panasonic one... had no choice as it was the only one available at the time. Also used the Chrosziel 4x4 matte box. Had to get on a waiting list for that, and it showed up JUST in time for the first shooting day.

The adapter/matte box combo definitely means you can't be completely wide. The zoom always had to stay at 16 or greater. I also feel like it made the shots more difficult to focus, though I don't have much experiece with using the DVX without the adapter, so that may just be the way it is.

My main complaint about the adapter is getting it OFF the camera! I didn't cut the pelican case with that in mind, so the adapter ended up staying attached most of the summer and the camera lived outside of the case.

(Text limit reached... see next post)
 
Kevin Briggs said:
How did you go about your white balance while on set? Did you ever use any gels or lighting? If so, what kind?
Click to expand...

White balance was always done with warm cards. I had 4 diffent blue cards used to balance from so that the footage always came out nice and warm. This was tweaked in post of course, but I'm really happy with the way that even the raw footage looks.

As for lightning, most of the interior scenes were shot using a 4 light Lowel kit consisting of a 250w DP light, a 1k tota, a 250w soft box, and a 500w omni. CTB was used to match daylight in some scenes, and to simulate night in others.

For about 3 of the roughly 45 shooting days I was able to borrow a couple of Arri HMIs. Those things were AWESOME.

While it's not light-related, the question may come up, so: ALL audio in the series was acquired through ONE boom mic. Sennheiser ME66K6 with wind screen and blimp. Sound was recorded direct to tape in the DVX.

Kevin Briggs said:
I know most of these questions are not one line reply’s, so thanks in advance for spending your time to answer my questions.
Click to expand...

No problem! This board has been a source of good advice for me along the way and if there's anything I can do to help others then all the better.

Kevin Briggs said:
The reason I ask is because I just sold my business, and I'm looking to make a living in some sort of film career doing something I've always enjoyed, even if I have to do some weddings along the way.
Click to expand...

For me I just had to take the plunge and sink everything I had into this. If nothing else, it certainly gives you a massive amount of determination.

I'd like to see a poll on weddings here, because I'm betting a TON of folks here have done the wedding thing! But hey, that's some good money and the way I (and I'm sure others here) managed to pay for my first camera (not counting my VHS days).

Well, I'm sure I left a lot out, so further questions are more than welcome, both on and off-board!
 
"text limit reached"...lol

Hey Owen,

Thanks a lot. This thread puts a lot of things into perspective. It will be a great resource for lots of people. Thanks again for taking the time to reply in depth to my questions. I think in general it's hard for people to imagine creating a product with such a small crew/budget. It's great to see things like this being distributed. It gives people goals to shoot for.

How did you choose your business partner? Did you have any speed bumps along the way in terms of creative differences with two different minds working on the same project?

Thanks again, I appreciate it.

-Kevin
 
Kevin Briggs said:
How did you choose your business partner? Did you have any speed bumps along the way in terms of creative differences with two different minds working on the same project?
Click to expand...

A mutual acquaintance introduced us to each other when I started looking into getting the project rolling. As far as two different minds, we just had to decide who had final say on which particular movies. I think that the individuality of each movie's particular director comes through, as each of the final products certainly has a different feel.

I went out to pick up a few inserts this afternoon and remembered that I forgot to mention REFLECTORS in the lighting paragraph above. No new revelations or anything, just a reminder that they are definitely worth the investment. With the contrast ratio issues of DV vs. film there's nothing like being able to quickly and easily add some fill to the shadowy side of an outdoor shot.

Also, while the Glidecam and dolly are great, the best added production value (visually) I think I had was the use of a crane... or rather glorified jib. It really doesn't take all that long to set up and it can REALLY help keep things interesting. I put it on the dolly once for a moving crane shot. Lost a lot of time that day but ended up with a neat tracking shot from way up high.
 
Owen, thanks for providing so much information to us. Tell us a little about the audio post production. The dialogues sounded very pro. What did you do to achieve that?
 
All audio was acquired through a single boom mic. Sennheiser ME66K6 with wind screen and blimp on a low-end $100 boom pole. When there was someone available to hold the boom we did that, otherwise it was mounted on a c-stand. Sound was recorded direct to tape in the DVX. I would always record channel 1 a bit lower than channel 2 in case the louder channel clipped. This worked well, but the day I can afford good wireless mics for the actors I will definitely do it.

In post I did the best I could to tweak the audio in the NLE (Avid Xpress DV), usually by dropping the highs a bit and occasionally tweaking the lows to clean up those darned airplanes. I also laid in A LOT of tone.

Most of the series was shot beneath the air traffic lanes of Atlanta's Hartsfield Int'l airport -- a very bad situation to be in unless you plan to ADR everything in post (NOT an option!)

In situations where noise was REALLY bad (here's where it gets VERY indie) I set all the problem areas aside until I'd collected a bunch of stuff that needed extra special attention, then I installed the 30 day trial of Sound Forge with the 30 day trial of the noise reduction plugin and went to work cleaning dialogue. It worked like a charm, even cleaning up some really awful highway noise behind several minutes worth of dialogue. Now that the trial is long gone I would consider buying it, but I have a few issues that I need to research. When cleaning clips longer than 4 of 5 seconds I would get blips and pops in the cleaned version. They always appeared at different times, so I usually had to render 3 clean versions of a clip and then piece it together to avoid the blips. (I hope that makes sense!)

Music also helped to blend audio together and disguise somewhat noisy backgrounds. I bought about a dozen Sony Acid Loop libraries and constructed scores from them. At $40 - $50 each it's the cheapest way I've ever seen to get such a quality soundtrack. I spent 1 - 2 weeks per episode on the music.

I'm sure workflow is similar for others who do their music this way, but I don't really know (so I may as well describe it). Once locked, I export a scene or group of scenes (2 to 5 minutes at a time) as low quality QT files that can be imported into Acid. Once the QT file is on the Acid timeline it's just a matter of jumping in and finding the best little loops to string together and manipulate. If you're willing to sit and really dig into the loops as far as altering them and trying to create new stuff out of the same material over and over it's a great way to go. The Orchestral/Cinematic libraries have some really good stuff in them.

Since the movies are family-oriented the soundtrack gets away with being sort of "Mickey Mouse." A lot of the music is timed to the cuts or the actions of the characters in ways that really bring the music to the forefront at times. While drawing attention to the music is not the goal of most film composers, fortunately it worked for this!
 
Great looking stuff. Reminded me of the recent Tim Burton movie.... something Fish? Can' think of it right now.

But please, give us better trailers! Quicktime is capable of so much more than these tiny postage stamp trailers!
 
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