Hvx - B&w - M2

Beautiful works in colour and b and w can you give us some production breakdown lights lenses grip etc. Very curious, once again beautiful!
 
wawaweewa

wawaweewa

That was very artistic. I am not quite sure that I totally understood the storyline.

QUESTIONS
1) Is the man that was carrying the ax, the same guy running with the girl in the beginning?

2) The ending had a touch of irony. What were you trying to get across in this scene? I think I have an idea but I would like to know from you instead.

3) Did you use a Steadicam? A crane? Or a tripod?

4) Did you use a M2 adapter? If so, what lenses did you use?

:dankk2:
 
doublearon727 said:
That was very artistic. I am not quite sure that I totally understood the storyline.

QUESTIONS
1) Is the man that was carrying the ax, the same guy running with the girl in the beginning?

2) The ending had a touch of irony. What were you trying to get across in this scene? I think I have an idea but I would like to know from you instead.

3) Did you use a Steadicam? A crane? Or a tripod?

4) Did you use a M2 adapter? If so, what lenses did you use?

:dankk2:
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Hi - The film was actually directed by Michael Fisher, I was the DP. I can give you my best understanding of the answer, though Michael has somewhat of a reputation for his films being sometimes dificult to understand or at least being too subliminal.

1 - Yes that man is the same. He is daydreaming about running away with a the girl, who is a witch that he is bound to kill. All the daydream stuff is extremely soft focus.

2 - I really can't answer this, as I'm still not totaly sure of Michael's intention. Though I think it has something to do with the female being freed of inprisonment by men.

3- Tripod and dolly mostly. Then a small jib for the shots that "scale" the stake.

4 -M2 adapter with nikon lenses.

50mm 1.8
24mm 2
35mm 2.8
135mm 2.8

50 - 70mm zoom 3.5 - also usedthis lens with macro
 
Pretty decent composition for black and white images. Some shots, such as the one where the guy leaves the house for the first time seem to blownout but otherwise pretty good.

The problem I had was with the use of the adaptor and the control of the DOF. DOF should be used as a tool to focus the audience's attention on important actions in the frame. Here there were many instances were the focus was on an object in the foreground and not on the action or actors in the background. I found it distracting as opposed to intriguing. I kept trying to focus on the actors but they were blurred out.

Oh, I know you were only the DP but what actually happened in the story.

Overall, pretty good composition.
 
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Wow. What a dick. I thought the composition was fantastic. I loved how crushed the blacks were and your use of selective focus to drive the viewer's eye.

Did you just desaturate, or did you use just one channel of color to get the B&W?
 
Looks terrific, I wouldn't have placed it for digital if you hadn't said so. I figured out that she was a witch and that he had to burn her at the stake, though the ending was a tad confusing. I loved some of those transitions between shots - were they pre-planned? Did you edit it yourself Nathan?
 
what is the DOF rule?

what is the DOF rule?

mjjason said:
.

The problem I had was with the use of the adaptor and the control of the DOF. DOF should be used as a tool to focus the audience's attention on important actions in the frame. Here there were many instances were the focus was on an object in the foreground and not on the action or actors in the background. I found it distracting as opposed to intriguing. I kept trying to focus on the actors but they were blurred out.
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Is that really what DOF should be used for? Please tell me, who wrote that rule?

Dude the are no rules in Art film. You don't even know what the story is about, neither does the DP, if you felt distracted then the director is truly remarkable, because that right there was some of the best work I have seen from this camera. very good work.
 
Looked very nice, although I really liked the color version of many of the shots that are in your demo reel. Was the short intended to be in b+w from the beginning? If so, I might have expected to see the use of red filters for sky shots.
 
Fantastic! I think you did a wonderful job of masking the fact that you were shooting digital, which I am very impressed by. I really liked the use of DOF not for DOF's sake, but to tell the story, or as a convention of storytelling.

As for the story, I though it was pretty clear what was going on. I understood that the out of focus running was in the main character's head, and that she was a witch. For me, the ending was the man finally getting the guts to free her because he couldn't bare to go through with burning her, and she murdered him. I loved it.

And bravo again on the photography!

-DES
 
beautiful cinematography - shot selection and composition.

great actors.

great locations.

nice realistic lighting.

cool story. very open. very interesting. forces you to think.

The sharp foreground/soft background shots make the audience want to know who the people are and set a dream like mood. I liked that choice. This is not a 30 second commercial, but art.

great music.

Did you like working with the HVX200 and the 35 mm still lens system? Any challenges?
 
I wrote, directed, and edited "To A Flame." Nate, the DP, posted it to the site and has been doing a good job answering questions. He's kind of out of it with allergies today so I just signed up to chime in. Wanted to thank everyone for taking a look and for the detailed feedback. I think the film would normally be seen, for example at a festival, with a synopsis beforehand to get you headed in the right direction. But it's always more interesting to have people take a look cold. I know you're largely interested in the technical but it's been helpful for me to read the different interpretations. Thank you. In response to "thefilmaddict," we shot "To A Flame" the day after taking the M2 out of the box. I know that's foolish but scheduling with the location forced us to do it. The biggest challenge was dealing with my initial anxiety over not having time to test and become familiar with the M2. I kept expecting to encounter a technical issue that could derail the production. We had two days to shoot it. Over 40 shots involved. Some with fairly elaborate moves. For me, that's a lot. Maybe not for others. But in the end, it was pretty smooth. Obviously there are things that I would've liked more time on. We had to move so fast by the end that a number of shots only had one take. But in terms of the M2, I was pleased with the performance. I believe Nate has commented on the quirks of incorporating 35mm still lenses into videography and I would second that. The film style M2 mount and lenses are the way to go if you can afford it. I can't.

Question for David Carstens. I have shot film in the past and incorporated a red filter for b&w a la "Paper Moon." Amazingly shot film. I wasn't aware that the red filter had a similar effect with video. Have you had success with it?

Best,

Michael Fisher
 
Grug said:
Looks terrific, I wouldn't have placed it for digital if you hadn't said so. I figured out that she was a witch and that he had to burn her at the stake, though the ending was a tad confusing. I loved some of those transitions between shots - were they pre-planned? Did you edit it yourself Nathan?
Click to expand...

Thanks!
I did not edit, Michael did.

The last film I edited is potentially the worst film ever made and I'm almost embarassed to say I had anything to to with it. It was Anna Nicole Smith's last movie "Illegal Aliens." I will say that I didn't have much control as far as final say on it wether the edits were good or bad and we didn't have **** to work for footage. In fact of of it was stick footage that was purchased from "Red Heat". I'm very sorry if any of you had to sit through that film. I still hear her nasly mind burning voice when I close my eyes at night sometimes.
 
dcarstens said:
Looked very nice, although I really liked the color version of many of the shots that are in your demo reel. Was the short intended to be in b+w from the beginning? If so, I might have expected to see the use of red filters for sky shots.
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It was intended to be b&w from the beginning. We didn't use any red filters buy we did use some colored grads, a couple different degrees of sunsets, and blue as well. They seem to transistion more sublty in B&W.
 
danny damah said:
Is that really what DOF should be used for? Please tell me, who wrote that rule?

Dude the are no rules in Art film. You don't even know what the story is about, neither does the DP, if you felt distracted then the director is truly remarkable, because that right there was some of the best work I have seen from this camera. very good work.
Click to expand...

No, you are right, its not a rule. Its more of how I like to see it used so my comment stems from what I like. Not everyone has the same thoughts, which is a good thing otherwise we would all make the same stuff. But to me I found it distracting. I like the first few times it was used like focusing on the stump early on, but the scenes where the focus is on the horseshoe and when the two men are struggling in the background just didn't work for me.

Like I said, I liked the look but not other parts.
 
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