David_M_Payne
Well-known member
In my film Holy War I'm doing a bit of satire among other things on some movies and one of my crew is worried that I might be sued by the "W" brothers of the Matrix films for using the names Larry and Andy Smith as the names for the agents in my movie. Of course Hugo Wearvering is not in the movie, I have a local actor playing twin agents. He wears a black trench coat, and dark glasses but different ties and glasses when he switches between roles. He looks nothing like Hugo, or the "W" brothers, he says no lines that are a copy of the Matrix lines and the story is nothing like the Matrix except it is Science Fiction. Now I admit I'm poking a bit of fun at the "W" brothers but I'm pretty sure that mild satire/parody is allowed in the movie biz, isn't it? Also he is doing regular agent stuff, no sex with sheep or other things that could be deemed as patently offensive or crude are involved.
Second thing is some thoughts on my experiences so far shooting the film.
1. I can't be a porn star. I had three hot nude (Well they had G strings on) actresses in a hot tub, on my lap and straddling me in bed and I didn't get it up once! Now if there had not been a film crew and all those lights, I'm sure my performance would be up to my usual standards when it comes to naked women and sex.
(And no, no pictures yet for you voyeurs out there, maybe later after its released and I try and make some money on it.)
2. I have had very good luck with the lighting array I'm using, which is multiple 5100K screw in (Dairy queen bulb) 27W/100 lumens florescent light bulbs in standard shop light single clamp on lights, as well as standard tree type 3-5 light fixtures like you use in your home. No heat problems, great color and lighting of the set and a lot of flexibility in light placement. You can put the tree type fixtures in your scene to light it up and you get the light you need where you need it and it looks like what it is, a household light fixture, so even though it is in the scene it isn't out of place. Did I mention no real heat so you can turn them off and put them in your plastic tub and go when the shoot is over?
3. This is harder work that my day job, but I'm loving it, frustrations and all.
4. And I love the HVX200, it is so much better than the DVX for this work. We are getting great shots/pictures using the camera in 720/24p and 720/24pn when using the P2 cards. I'm also glad I bought two old/new apple G4 powerbooks, you just pop in the P2 cards and download to the remote HD (I use two OWC RAID 500g HD.)
5. The fig-rig is one handy tool for doing moving shots. With a little practice you can get real smooth motion shots and unlike any of the steady cam/counter balance systems you can do all kinds of motions and camera angles as well as approximate a bit of crane work, only limited to how tall you are etc.
6. Get a Varizoom PZFI rocker for each camera, It's a real big help in zoom, focus and iris control and it is a real necessity for the fig-rig and very handy for whatever tripod/head you use.
David
Second thing is some thoughts on my experiences so far shooting the film.
1. I can't be a porn star. I had three hot nude (Well they had G strings on) actresses in a hot tub, on my lap and straddling me in bed and I didn't get it up once! Now if there had not been a film crew and all those lights, I'm sure my performance would be up to my usual standards when it comes to naked women and sex.
(And no, no pictures yet for you voyeurs out there, maybe later after its released and I try and make some money on it.)2. I have had very good luck with the lighting array I'm using, which is multiple 5100K screw in (Dairy queen bulb) 27W/100 lumens florescent light bulbs in standard shop light single clamp on lights, as well as standard tree type 3-5 light fixtures like you use in your home. No heat problems, great color and lighting of the set and a lot of flexibility in light placement. You can put the tree type fixtures in your scene to light it up and you get the light you need where you need it and it looks like what it is, a household light fixture, so even though it is in the scene it isn't out of place. Did I mention no real heat so you can turn them off and put them in your plastic tub and go when the shoot is over?
3. This is harder work that my day job, but I'm loving it, frustrations and all.
4. And I love the HVX200, it is so much better than the DVX for this work. We are getting great shots/pictures using the camera in 720/24p and 720/24pn when using the P2 cards. I'm also glad I bought two old/new apple G4 powerbooks, you just pop in the P2 cards and download to the remote HD (I use two OWC RAID 500g HD.)
5. The fig-rig is one handy tool for doing moving shots. With a little practice you can get real smooth motion shots and unlike any of the steady cam/counter balance systems you can do all kinds of motions and camera angles as well as approximate a bit of crane work, only limited to how tall you are etc.
6. Get a Varizoom PZFI rocker for each camera, It's a real big help in zoom, focus and iris control and it is a real necessity for the fig-rig and very handy for whatever tripod/head you use.
David
Last edited: