Grabs from Failed Sci-Fi Fest Entry

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Policar

Carbonite Member
My dvx broke during a shoot (going in for service tomorrow, hopefully only a $250 repair) and I accidentally recorded over most of my footage. This happened to coincide with everything else in my life going wrong all at once. Oh well.

So anyhow, here are a few frame grabs. They didn't come out too well because I didn't have enough light. Apparently, even at f1.4, you need your key light to be at least a 1k even in medium close ups when using a 35mm adapter. I'd say shooting a traditionally shot night interior would require about 5k of light for f1.4. You get the grain of 500ISO stock with the sensetivity of 100ISO stock. But...you get your DOF. It's a tradeoff for sure, but possibly worth it.

These images have been through a ton of compression cycles so they are a bit soft/artifacted.

Anyhow, stuff wasn't going well anyway so maybe it's okay that this shoot didn't work out. Oh well.

1.jpg

2.jpg

3.jpg

4.jpg

5.jpg
 
Me too! What a bummer. The nice thing about a bummer low in life, is that is ALWAYS comes back up, and usually higher than before. I love the captures. What compositing effects program did you use for the first capture? I would love to recreate an effect similar to that in an upcoming project.
 
Thanks for the support; it's appreciated. As for the effects, it's just a simple lightning effect in After Effects used as a texture for an elongated sphere (with a random displacement noise modifier) in 3DSMax. Then I went back to After Effects and composited it in with glow and some other stuff. It was surprisingly quick and looks good in motion, too.

To be honest, this isn't as devestating as it could be since the project was doomed to failure in the first place. Shooting at f1.4 limited camera movement and figure movement to nothing, the location had echo-issues, and I couldn't get enough light to shoot even at f1.4 without blowing fuses.

To me, the promise of low cost 35mm adapters is looking more and more limited the more I use one. Sure, you get your precious depth of focus, but you have to light a ton more, have a focus puller, rehearse camera moves and figure movement like crazy, shoot upside down, etc. etc. I still dream of a 2/3'' HD camera that takes c-mount lenses. To me, that would just be incredible. (I'm sure the Red will be that and more, but at $20,000 I don't think buying one is an option for me.)
 
Great looking effects, man, keep going forward... Definitely looking forward to seeing what you turn out next.

SmithHouse
 
it looked like it was going to be really good. When you get your DVX fixed are going to finish it even if it'll be late for Sci Fest?
 
more importantly now that you're out of the race I have a better shot!
Yours looks way better than mine!

:)

But seriously, you should try to finish the rest as soon as possible!

So uh just curious, howd you do those effects? :D
 
I have to echo everyone else's comments - the grabs look really nice and the look of your characters are intrigueing. Definitely finish this thing if you can find the time!
 
The images should work fine. I hosted them on my Comcast account, which is pretty reliable.

I appreciate the support but there's no way this would have won. It would have been cool to finish it up, though, but oh well.
 
<<<<<To be honest, this isn't as devestating as it could be since the project was doomed to failure in the first place. Shooting at f1.4 limited camera movement and figure movement to nothing, the location had echo-issues, and I couldn't get enough light to shoot even at f1.4 without blowing fuses.

To me, the promise of low cost 35mm adapters is looking more and more limited the more I use one. Sure, you get your precious depth of focus, but you have to light a ton more, have a focus puller, rehearse camera moves and figure movement like crazy, shoot upside down, etc. etc. I still dream of a 2/3'' HD camera that takes c-mount lenses. To me, that would just be incredible. (I'm sure the Red will be that and more, but at $20,000 I don't think buying one is an option for me.)>>>>>> Polıcar


Ahh welcome to world of real Professıonal film production.

Dont be dıscouraged Policar. Now you know what to expect, so next tıme yo wıll be ready to kıck ass. infact we all expect you to.
 
looks good policar hope you get to finish it when you have the chance. I won't finish in time for the contest as well, but that is because the only available time for the talent and crew to meet up was a little too late. I will still finish mine as well and actually more ideas came from this project :) .
 
Jeez, Policar. Tough break. Couldn't you have edited something together anyway? I haven't shot sh!t yet, but I'm GONNA turn SOMETHING in!
 
sorry about what happened -- man that's awful -- sorry.

echo others in saying those look pretty cool -- especially the first one - nice composition in addition to effects.

As for the light thing -- I shot in a powerless abaondoned warehouse with a few holes in the wall and a bounce board up until 4:45 pm (sunsets at 5:30), using a 35mm adpator. We got pretty good low noise footage by setting our gamma to Normal and having the auto gain/exposure adjusted so the gain wouldn't come on. We used a Nikon f1.4 lens. The f1.8 is supposedly sharper, but went with the f1.4 for more light ... or maybe I'm on crack and our foortage looks booty -- but the loss of a stop didn't seem to be a major issue, the uspide down thing is not an issue if you have a bag of mini magnets, otherwise the only issue is keeping up with the damn things!
 
yeah man, i haven't even finished shooting yet, but i'm going to turn in something.
you look like your way further along than i am.
 
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