FS7: Feature film shot on the Sony Fs7- "Summer of '67"

mainstreetprod

mainstreetprod

Veteran


Just completed the trailer for one of only feature films shot on the FS7. "Summer of '67" is a Vietnam era story that follows the lives of 3 couples as they deal with the war and it's effects. Shot in 4K, SLOG3, graded in Resolve. Any questions or comments fire away.
 
Wauw... looks like you guys put a lot of effort into this. Can you talk a bit about why you ended up with the fs7 and your choice of lenses?
 
legrevedotcom said:
Wauw... looks like you guys put a lot of effort into this. Can you talk a bit about why you ended up with the fs7 and your choice of lenses?
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My progression of cameras was HVX200 (2006), to AF100, to FS700, to FS7. This is my second feature shot on the camera. I was very pleased with the FS700 but wanted to shoot 4K, strictly for the purpose of being able to reframe and for the extra real estate needed when stabilizing in post. I used the FS7 on a Movi M5 gimbal for several shots in the film, one of them an orchestrated long shot that takes place in 3 different rooms.

The first film, Providence, got a limited AMC theater release so I was able to evaluate the footage on a huge screen. Of course I wasn't viewing it in 4K since virtually no theaters in the country have 4K. The footage gets converted to 2K when it is put on a DCP for projection. I was 100% happy with how the footage looked on the big screen, with the exception of a couple of focus errors that are not noticeable on an Imac, but are noticed on a 40 foot screen if you are looking for them.

Lenses were Rokinon 85mm, Rokinon 50mm, Sigma 19mm and 30mm, Toshiba 11-16, and an uncoated Russian 40mm for intentional lens flare. I probably shot 80% of the film with the 85 and 19. Very pleased with the Rokinons in general- a lot of lens for the dollar.

We bit the bulllet and hired professional sound for this one. Previous procedure would have been a film student with a boom pole going directly in camera. This time we had a dedicated, pro boom op and a pro sound mixer using a Zoom F-8. Worth every cent I paid them.
 
Very cool! Some great shots in there, and definitely shows lots of effort in the art department! Great work!

Would be curious to know about your budget, schedule, crew, etc! Maybe you don't want to speak about those things in a public forum, which I respect, but definitely curious, since I'm thinking about producing a feature in the coming years.

Thanks for sharing!
 
abreu-canedo said:
Very cool! Some great shots in there, and definitely shows lots of effort in the art department! Great work!

Would be curious to know about your budget, schedule, crew, etc! Maybe you don't want to speak about those things in a public forum, which I respect, but definitely curious, since I'm thinking about producing a feature in the coming years.

Thanks for sharing!
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Thanks for the kind words. Obviously can't discuss budget at this point, but can say the average size of the crew was 7 (myself, director,PA,grip,gaffer,sound mixer, boom op). That should give you an idea. We shot it over a 5 week period, May- June 2017. Typically 6-8 hours a day, 4 days a week. Not exactly a grinding schedule. My wife wrote the script and directed. Rather than having an "art department", we spent a few months shopping at estate sales and found the items needed to turn our 1899 Victorian home into a hodgepodge of '60's decor (later we had an "estae sale" and resold everything, negating the cost, and getting a front page newspaper article about the unique sale of props). Than we found a nearby museum that, for a small fee, allowed us to shoot the "train station" scenes at their restored train on tracks (we added some "steam" in the background). Local car clubs contributed probably 20 vintage cars, including GTO's and Mustangs, sprinkled throughout the movie. I bought , repaired and decorated the VW bus myself, then resold it afterwards. I already owned the red '66 Thunderbird seen in one shot. Much of the expense of the movie will be in Errors and Omissions insurance, MPA rating for theaters, attorneys fees for clearances, etc. Glad to answer any questions about the process of making the film.
bus on trailer.jpg
 
Now that's creativity and resourcefulness. Very impressive!!
I think that tweaking the color will go a long way to keep the viewer in the story. The grading between the scenes is a bit all over the place with some magenta, some green, some warm yellow (for me that's the one) and some blue tinted. That , unless intentionally done to transport the viewer in time and space, tends to distract and remove the audience from the story IMO. If that makes sense....
 
mainstreetprod said:
My progression of cameras was HVX200 (2006), to AF100, to FS700, to FS7. This is my second feature shot on the camera. I was very pleased with the FS700 but wanted to shoot 4K, strictly for the purpose of being able to reframe and for the extra real estate needed when stabilizing in post.
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Did you consider buying a Atomos Shogun to shoot 4K with the FS700 for a fraction of the cost of buying a FS7?
 
IronFilm said:
Did you consider buying a Atomos Shogun to shoot 4K with the FS700 for a fraction of the cost of buying a FS7?
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Considered it, but wanted the improved dynamic range of the FS7 and also the simplicity of shooting on internal media. A lot less to go wrong. That, and I had the new camera bug.:laugh:
 
That was really awesome, I have to agree with IronFilm about the color grading though. Especially the narrator at the end but I am guessing he is in the present telling the story?

I always wanted to see someone put the FS7 to real film work and this almost does it for sure. Great job! Cant wait to see the final product
 
mainstreetprod said:
Considered it, but wanted the improved dynamic range of the FS7 and also the simplicity of shooting on internal media. A lot less to go wrong. That, and I had the new camera bug.:laugh:
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Ah yes, G.A.S. is a tough disease to fight! I succumb to this all the time.

mainstreetprod said:
We bit the bulllet and hired professional sound for this one. Previous procedure would have been a film student with a boom pole going directly in camera. This time we had a dedicated, pro boom op and a pro sound mixer using a Zoom F-8. Worth every cent I paid them.
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Good to hear! Of course I "might" be biased, but I reckon every dollar invested in sound is a ten fold investment over it being anywhere else ;-)

Although, I was looking at the IMDB listing for your film, and in the sound department it seems like Nick Price was the only one with any relevant credits of note whatsoever?
 
IronFilm said:
Ah yes, G.A.S. is a tough disease to fight! I succumb to this all the time.




Good to hear! Of course I "might" be biased, but I reckon every dollar invested in sound is a ten fold investment over it being anywhere else ;-)

Although, I was looking at the IMDB listing for your film, and in the sound department it seems like Nick Price was the only one with any relevant credits of note whatsoever?
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I called Nick because I had just watched a film he ran boom on and was impressed. The budget didn't allow both a boom op and mixer with equal experience, and I felt boom op was most important of the two. I had already talked with Karl about doing post audio, and he was looking to get more experience in field sound. I purchased a Zoom F8 for him to use and was very happy with the final results. He programmed it to record a second track with 6db lower level for safety, but we never needed that track.

Nick elected to use his own boom pole and mic (a Sanken CS3) over the MKH50 I had purchased for the project. He tried using it and my Ktek boom with internal cable and got a ton of cable noise. I thought the Sanken did a fantastic job both indoors and out.
 
Viscount Omega said:
A+ for effort, man but don't you think this is too sharp? For 1967?

A little diffusion, maybe?


The final version of the film is rendering out as we speak (a 40 hour process) and has "Emulsion 4K 35mm coarse film grain" added, which softens up the digital sharpness a bit. We'll add that to later versions of the trailer.
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Congrats! It looks great. I thought the costumes, set, makeup, etc. looked top notch. Also though the color looked nice. You could have told me it was shot on an Arri and I wouldn’t have second guessed you.
 
BarryLichtner said:
Congrats! It looks great. I thought the costumes, set, makeup, etc. looked top notch. Also though the color looked nice. You could have told me it was shot on an Arri and I wouldn’t have second guessed you.
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Thanks for the kind words Barry, it means a lot. We entered only 3 film festivals, much higher level ones than we've entered previous films in, and just found out we have made the second round of the LA based festival we really wanted to get into. Will know in a few weeks whether we are in for sure, but if so, we will be one of only 16 features to be screened.
 
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