Mario Warfare: Episode 1 (Shot with FS100 and 7D)

Rick Burnett

Rick Burnett

Section Moderator
Well, it's finally released after a long and bumpy road. I felt it was important to put this in the FS100 category because this was the first project I did with the FS100 where I was very very satisfied with the camera operation. There were two shooters for the whole film, half being me and the FS100 and the other half being the 7D shot by the editor/writer, Micah Moore.

If you look closely at the credits, you will see our thanks to Frank Glencairn who came up with the color profile I ended up using for the whole thing. For indoor shots, it was fantastic and I plan to utilize his other color profile for outdoor shots for episode 3 and on. One thing I have learned on the FS100, treat your light temperature with different profiles, not white different white balance. You get more out of your camera for doing this. Not that I don't still change my white balance inside especially if I have some natural light mixing in, but whichever light source is dominating for a shot, that decided which profile I use overall.

Most of the shots were done handheld with the onboard LCD. The weight of the FS100 is just right to me in being heavy enough to offer stability but yet light enough I can carry around. For tricky shots I used a Blackbird Stabilizer when needed. With the 7D, the Blackbird Stabilizer almost NEVER left the camera. The only time was if the camera needed to get close to the ground. I cannot say enough good things about the blackbird, it's such a great product. I used the smallHD DP6 when doing any crane or monopod shots. For lighting we had a combination of Lowell lights and a nice huge panel from Cool Lights. I have to say, in the past I might not have been 100% on using LED lighting due to my inexperience with them, but the Cool Lights panel was absolutely great. The fact I could easily dial in the light temperature I wanted and how much light it put out, it was really really nice. I will say I really like doing green screen work with the LED panel. Given the huge number of light sources, I felt like I got a better distribution of light without having to heavily diffuse it and lose some of the intensity. LED lights are definitely different than conventional lighting, but at least in our experience, it definitely feels like a complementary thing for us. Given the ease at testing out light coloring ideas without having to mess with gels, it really opened up our options. I'd say one interesting use was when working with found light, which is something we like to do, you can easily augment a light not producing enough in a particular area and hit the same color SO easily.

Moving forward with episodes 3 and on we will continue to use the FS100 and 7D. We'd like to try a C300 at some point as well but we will see how things go. Yes, that is me playing Bowser. All CGI work was done in Maya and was done by me and by brother. (He is a better animator than I am, I am a better compositor / modeller ).


In any case, enjoy. As always, if you have any production questions please ask. I love to share our experiences in doing projects to help others. I will say this, we are NOT your typical film makers. We have a very different style that is really working with very small crews. Like anything, this presents different challenges and shortcomings, but, given we do this on the side, it was a necessity we had to learn to work around.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AHfj0uDrf0&feature=youtu.be
 
That was fantastic! I couldn't see anything to critique there, everything looked great, concept, performances, action sequences, the whole look, all great. Of particular note the costume design really elevated this. The balance was perfect in the nod to Mario, the adaption to live actors and a well defined look that bound the cast together in a homogenous look and perfectly trod the line between cartoon/plausible live look. Thanks for sharing.
 
Thanks! It was a lot of fun. I put myself into the film (Bowser) so I could learn more about being an actor so I can understand being a better director. I help out with the directing, but mostly, I am the technical director moreso than the creative director.

Can't wait to get Episode 2 out the door (completely filmed) so we can start on Part 3. Part 3 is EPIC.
 
That was fun... looked pretty good imo. And loving the Equilibrium references, that had the best close combat fights in modern time :D
 
Yeah, we are huge fans of equilibrium, the professional, the matrix, etc. One thing fun about doing parodies is that we like bringing a bunch of different things together that just add to the silliness of the whole thing.
 
Well done Rick, that was a lot of fun. I'm surprised you don't have nintendo breathing down your necks though - you'd have thought they'd be protecting their 'no violence' brand. Has it been cleared legally? I'm thinking having a kickstarter running makes it more of a commercial project.

Nevertheless good fun!

cheers
paul
 
Superb! I loved everything about this. Great costume design, too. That's always an easily overlooked piece of the puzzle
 
Thanks everyone! Just so glad to have it out the door. (Well episode 1 anyways). Parodies are protected in this country, think SNL. The kickstarter will probably never cover all the costs we've had doing the series. But, it will allow us to add more into it, that's why we decided to do it. We'd love to add more, but at this point, we think people would rather see something quicker then wait for us to save up more to do it.
 
Thoroughly engaging, and I have no interest in Mario Bros aside from 80's Nintendo and my son's Wii games.

Top notch work, nice use of the FS100. I like the arrival of the ships. My only critique (unless I'm missing something) the brothers should have been rocking real 'staches!

Looks like cool stuff is on the way.
 
Haha, thanks! I am so glad I am done with that rendering. Had 3 machines, 12 processors, doing all of that.

There is a running joke now with Beat Down Boogie. We try and get the CRAZIEST fake staches we can find given we used them in our first series, Modern War Gear Solid. Now, it's like a trademark. Hahaha. And believe me, we would rather use real ones. Those things are an absolute pain in the neck to work with. They constantly get out of control. I think we have a box of like 30 of them!!!
 
I was describing this video to a co-worker this morning. Guess what….he'd already seen it & enjoyed it.

So Rick, I guess you're like famous now??? :happy::Drogar-BigGrin(DBG)
 
Haha, man, we hit a million views already! Getting ready to do more ADR on part 2 in like an hour. I can't wait to get filming on part 3, we've already got the story hashed out.
 
Very cool, nice job throughout. Kudos to you and your group for tackling an epic production like that. Maybe you can bring Donkey Kong into the mix at some point to take Mario full circle.
 
It's funny how much exposure Toad is getting, we never anticipated that. He (the actor) certainly is enjoying it given he was in a mask the whole time for Modern War Gear Solid! And photochris..... :) Just wait till episode 3...hehe.
 
My girlfriend sent me a link to this the other day, and I was blown away from the get go. You guys did a fantastic job and huge congrats on your success. I love seeing people come together and dedicate the time and effort to produce creative work that also has fantastic cinematography and acting.
 
Rick. Saw this before I found it posted here. Glad to hear it was someone from the DVX fam that did this. Well well done!
 
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