FEATURE: DEUCE OF SPADES - How I made a period full feature film all by myself on ZERO budget

[Deuceofspades]

I have to say Faith, the gent on the left of the last picture posted REALLY looks like the kind of guy I'd expect to see in a period film in this era.. He just has that kinda ramblin' tamblin' country boy look that not many people have.

I'm UBER excited to see the final product and even though we don't know eachother I feel quite proud that a little lady like your self just posting on an internet forum can make such a masterpiece like this pretty much all on your own!


Amazing work Faith, keep us inspired!

Greg (I assume your name is Greg ) - Thank you so much. It really makes it all worth it when the hard work is appreciated... Saturday I was up at 6AM and filmed in 105 F heat, in full sun, for 8 hours straight wearing thick Levis 501 jeans and combat boots (that was my wardrobe for that scene) ouch. We had to move a 1940's statue of Jesus that weighed over 100 Lbs and there were only two of us, a 115 pound woman and a 65 year old man with a bad back... Ouch X2.

Sunday I edited all day non stop, then at 8PM we were shooting again, one pick up shot that took no less than five hours to do, and went to bed at 1AM, now back up and editing until I go to work (in 2 hours) to my day job so I can pay my bills...

Ouch X3

This week-end I have a back to back 3 day shoot which will complete the bulk of the filming. I then will only have a few minor pick up shots and two tiny scenes of mine left to do, at my leaisure, during editing phase. So principal photography, after one year and a half of filming every single week-end, WILL BE COMPLETED.

:beer:

 

[Deuceofspades]

Meanwhile, here are a few screengrabs from a modern day scene filmed about 2 months ago. The two actors look like father and son, and in the film they are supposed to be, but are not related in real life. I think I did well . I really like the dark, moody feel of this scene. YOu can read the details on how that shoot went, on my filmmaker's blog posted here:

http://deuceofspades.bravejournal.com/


SCREENGRABS:

For the record, this is the same character, in the flashbacks when he was 19:

Now over 70 years old...

SOME BEHIND THE SCENES PHOTOS OF ME WORKING:

I had a crew of three that day, I was styling!! :thumbup:

 

[Deuceofspades]

Wanting to execute a shot showing my actor (in focus) standing alone in the background, extras passing before the lense, in the foreground, in slow motion, blurry. Camera is pulling back on a dolly track.

How can this be best achieved? I have never done this shot before but have seen it in music videos etc...

Any help / advice / tips appreciated!!

thank you!

 

[Ted Spencer]

Overcrank your HVX to 60fps (play it later at 24 fps), use a wide f-stop on your adapter lens (f2 - 2.8 maybe) for shallow DOF, use NDs if needed to correct the exposure, dolly it up, and you should be good to go. The HVX won't give you extreme slo-mo, but you can probably get enough more if you need it in post. Not sure about Vegas, but FCP has a pretty good slo-mo filter.

 

[Deuceofspades]

It's not so much slow mo, it's extreme blurr I am after - how about slowing down shutter speed below 1/24? if I remember right there is a way to hack into the HVX and do that. (or was it frame rate?) I read about it a long time ago but never tried it... I seem to have lost that link though...Does anyone know how to do this? Or can anyone post the link to Barri's instructions on how to hack into HVX to slow shutter speed?
I think if I could slow my shutter speed a lot, and keep my main actor still and have the others walk, they shoud leave a "motion blurr / trail" when they move?

Not sure how the dolly shot will react to that though... Hmmmmm....

Wish I had time to experiment, but I have been too busy building a set in my garage, and boy it looks very good, supposed to be a bookstore . So tonight my deuce is parked inside a bookstore LOL. Funny!

 

[ChipG]

If only others worried about content as much as you do

Soooo refreshing to hear a director focused on story structure so much they forget about the camera.

I can not say enough about how highly I think of what your doing and your achievements!

Go Faith!

 

[Postmaster]

Why don´t you do it in post?
You have much more controll over the look and all.

Shooting the actor and the other guys seperate in front of a green screen would make things much easyer.

Frank

 

[Ted Spencer]

It's not so much slow mo, it's extreme blurr I am after - how about slowing down shutter speed below 1/24? if I remember right there is a way to hack into the HVX and do that. (or was it frame rate?) I read about it a long time ago but never tried it... I seem to have lost that link though...Does anyone know how to do this? Or can anyone post the link to Barri's instructions on how to hack into HVX to slow shutter speed?
I think if I could slow my shutter speed a lot, and keep my main actor still and have the others walk, they shoud leave a "motion blurr / trail" when they move?

Not sure how the dolly shot will react to that though... Hmmmmm....

Wish I had time to experiment, but I have been too busy building a set in my garage, and boy it looks very good, supposed to be a bookstore . So tonight my deuce is parked inside a bookstore LOL. Funny!

You can't slow the shutter more than 1/24 unless you're shooting at a lower frame rate (which would result in the final footage being sped up). At 24 fps, the shutter (at 1/24) stays open all the time. Can't get any slower than that!

Like Frank says, it sounds like you'll want to get this effect mainly in post. I don't know a whole lot about that.

But Frank does!

Gotta love this place... : )

 

[Deuceofspades]

RATS! So 1/24 is open all the time? can't slow it down more? How about I give my HVX a valium, will it slow it down then? LOL

So what if I slowed down my frame rate, had the main actor stand still and the other actors move very slow (basically ask them to move as in slow motion) so when I speed things back up they dont look like they are moving fast.

I know this souds weird but I have done it myself many times for my shots, to make it look surreal, slowing down all my movements and it really works. not sure others have as much control over their body movements as I do, but I have a bit of a ballet background, so that helps me.

So let me see if I get this right: If i put shutter speed (or lack thereof LOL) at 1/24 and frame at low rate (how low?) - it will create more motion blurr? Why is that?

I'm gonna experiment with it thsi afternoon a bit see what it does

 

[Deuceofspades]

Why don´t you do it in post?
You have much more controll over the look and all.

Shooting the actor and the other guys seperate in front of a green screen would make things much easyer.

Frank

Mmmmmm... I know NOTHING about green screen. I'm gonna have to pass on that for this film...

Doing it in post... how would we go about it Frank... What if my camera is stationary and I film the actress sitting still - and then film just the extras walking by... Could we then somehow merge it in post and make it work? You're the magician, you tell me if it can be done and how?

 

[Deuceofspades]

hey someone in the filmmaking subforum suggested this:

<< Or you record the actor first with no people in it at 23.98fps then WITHOUT moving the camera at all, put a greenscreen up a little in front of where the actor was and make sure it fills a bigger space than the actor. Then have your actors walk through the scene in front of the greenscreen and shoot that at 60fps. Make sure you record enough of both shots to fill your time frame.
Then in post in a program like After Effects you composite the two shots putting the slow motion shot on top and key out the green. Add motion blur to the slo-mo shot and your done. >>

I think I'm with him on all above. But never used a green screen before and I understand you have to light it right otherwise it won't key out properly.
Not sure I can secure a green screen for tomorrow either... Short notice... OUCH.

Maybe EVS rents some? What about lighting it? Tips?

 

[Ted Spencer]

Greenscreen isn't quite as intimidating as it may seem. The key (ahem) is evenness of the lighting of the screen, but less than ideal situations can still be managed in post. I'll leave it to bigger experts than I to advise you further, but I wouldn't be too scared of it if I were you. I bet with a little tutorial you could do it just fine.

Hell, you've been practically walking on water as it is... : )

 

[Postmaster]

<< Or you record the actor first with no people in it at 23.98fps then WITHOUT moving the camera at all, put a greenscreen up a little in front of where the actor was and make sure it fills a bigger space than the actor. Then have your actors walk through the scene in front of the greenscreen and shoot that at 60fps. Make sure you record enough of both shots to fill your time frame.
Then in post in a program like After Effects you composite the two shots putting the slow motion shot on top and key out the green. Add motion blur to the slo-mo shot and your done.

Exactly how I would do it.

Easy greenscreen: shoot outside (overcast is fine) and let the sun light the screen for you. Cine-D or Cine-D preset on te HVX. Make sure the screen has no wrinkles and the extras dont cast shadows on it.

Frank

P.S. Downloaded the scene of Vimeo - works.

I´m of to merry ole England for a week now. But I can take care of that scene too when I´m back. Should be no problem to get the look you want.

 

[ChipG]

Sharpness all the way down to -7 and raise it in post if need be.

 

[Postmaster]

Not if you doing greenscreen. Pulling a matte from blurry footage is a PITA.

Frank

 

[fixitinpost]

I agree with ChipG. If doing greenscreen, you want sharpness, detail, and detail coring all the way down (-7, -7, and -2 respectively). Any higher and you start to introduce ringing and sharpening artifacts that can really mess up the edges of your key. At least in my experience...

 

[Postmaster]

Oh...THAT sharpness uuh oh, yeah.

Frank

 

[ChipG]

LOL Frank

 

[RemyRadio]

Looks awesome!!! Great work, Faith!

 

[Deuceofspades]

If only others worried about content as much as you do

Soooo refreshing to hear a director focused on story structure so much they forget about the camera.

I can not say enough about how highly I think of what your doing and your achievements!

Go Faith!

Hey ChipG, I never had a chance to reply to your post last week, I was so frazzled with prepping for the shoots... But I wanted to say that your post put a big smile on my face and a little wind in my sails... And I needed it!! Thank you for the support.