Martial arts project -HVX200

no problem Patrick. It's actually called a kuen in Kungfu... or in our case.. a hot womb like dungeon for training. Love the kungfu. Been doing Martial arts for 10 years... 4 in Karate and last 6 in kungfu...

No problem... This definitely has some good lucking potential.... I really can't wait to shoot my next kungfu piece....


In closing? Do you bring a laptop onto the set to see if the punches and everything "sells" before you move on? This is the greatest aspect to the HVX when it comes to martial arts films. You can shoot it, drop the footage into a laptop and make sure your hits are right on and that you have everything. If you haven't yet, I'd highly recommend it... Such piece of mind when you know you got it all working and can edit a rough cut on the spot...


Keep it up and hope to see more.... When you get into locations with more light, the high shutter stuff looks so sweet with this kind of stuff...


Anyone see Crank yet? Looks like everything was shot with a super fast shutter!... can't wait to see that... hope it's better than Transporter 2. That was a turd....
 
Looks great. I think the problem lies not in the shots but in the editing. The first shot with the push in is great but just as the camera is almost in to a tight two shot you cut to a two shot from an angle slightly to the left of the first camera position. This is what is kind of jarring to the viewer as the shots a too close in composition. I know you said you couldn't get the camera around to the left too much more. Did you shoot a close up (2 shot) from the 3rd camera angle postion? If you did I would cut to that as the guy hits him, that way you would have the guy getting hit, turning his head toward camera as he reels back and it would sell that last punch a lot more and you would still see the reaction on both guys faces. Just my opinion!
 
Justyn said:
Actually... best to shoot the stuff at 22fps and play it back at 24.. so it's slightly faster, but not too noticable....
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I was going to suggest the same thing, Justyn. (I'm glad I read the entire thread first. ;))
 
Justyn said:
Anyone see Crank yet? Looks like everything was shot with a super fast shutter!... can't wait to see that... hope it's better than Transporter 2. That was a turd....
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It'll be nice to see Statham in an R rated movie for a change. Not that the R rating is necessary. Both Transporter movies seemed to be missing something.

:kali:PG-13
 
You are right there corey.... Although I did enjoy the first one a lot more.. Same thing with the first Borne movie... 2nd was terrible.


It's hard to read the thread... only after I did re-read it did I see that someone else recommended the kungfu powder... lol.

Can't wait to see a full fledged martial arts feature shot on the HVX. I have an idea.. but not quite the desire to jump through the hoops again... unless a giant sack of sweaty money fell from the sky.... ahhhh.


we want some more footie...
 
Hey everyone, thanks for the feedback. In a few months my friends and I are going to take on doing a short martial arts film when my RED camera comes in. Depending on how the workflow goes, I hope to shoot it in 2k. I have a few locations (including the one in this scene) that I think will work. With better planning I think we can make a decent short flick (maybe full feature if it starts of well). this particular cut was created to promote a local film festival. I have a good solid 60 seconds of footage that i have to trim down to 60. I hope to finish mini-trailer tommorow for you guys. using the footage I have.

slightly off topic but relevant to martial arts films. i just checked this magnificent trailer..
http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony/curseofthegoldenflower/hd/
 
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I apologize if someone suggested this and I missed it. My internet is not working all that well, and pages don't always load proper.

For the lighting, you could try shooting early in the morning or later in the day when the sky is still bright, but the sun is not out. Just manually white balance with both light sources hitting the scene equally. You might have to re-white balance for each different angle.

Or set up your work lights far enough back, or reflect off a white sheet. something to just bring up the fill, but without washing out your shadows completely.

This way your scene is overall brighter. and you can adjust in post to get the mood you are going for. If you are using FCP, just use the 3 way colour corrector, and play with the 3 horizontal bar levels. You might want to try dropping the saturation a little as well. But that's just more my taste.

Your girlfriend did a great job on the clothing. and feel free to donate your HVX once your RED shows up. You're killing me man.
 
"For the lighting, you could try shooting early in the morning or later in the day when the sky is still bright, but the sun is not out. Just manually white balance with both light sources hitting the scene equally. You might have to re-white balance for each different angle. Or set up your work lights far enough back, or reflect off a white sheet. something to just bring up the fill, but without washing out your shadows completely. This way your scene is overall brighter. and you can adjust in post to get the mood you are going for. "

Thanks for the EXCELLENT advice. I will definitely utilize this next time out. I will be re-using the same location.. I also will rent a jib.

"If you are using FCP, just use the 3 way colour corrector, and play with the 3 horizontal bar levels. You might want to try dropping the saturation a little as well. But that's just more my taste."

I'm going to play with these settings tonight. Sweet advice man.

"Your girlfriend did a great job on the clothing."
I'll let her know!

" and feel free to donate your HVX once your RED shows up. You're killing me man"
Financing is the magic word. As I mentioned in another post in the Red Forum.. I'll be driving my current car til it completely falls apart....new car or RED. Red wins hands down. At least with RED, I can work on getting a nice ROI. =)
 
Justyn said:
Actually... best to shoot the stuff at 22fps and play it back at 24.. so it's slightly faster, but not too noticable....

I've shot a lot of martial arts fights, classes, tournaments and film/stagged fighting. This looks pretty darn good for a start. The only thing is that it looks telegraphed and on a rhythm... like the counting and acting is stagged a little bit too on point. You probably could use another cut-away... maybe the fist impacting and feet and all of that. You have to break it up and take away the choreography and make it more natural and frentic.. othewise it looks like a dance... Kind of like the 70's kungfu flicks.


Another couple of things to add to this would be the ability to make serious contact with the people and use padded shoes and or body pads. Putting some baby powder on the hands and clothes.... really also sells the hits... especially on the slow-mo shots.. Just don't overdue it.

I'm going to doing another kungfu project next year. My cousin has made a few films and has been quite successful. I'm opting to do something different and make it a close-quarters wing chun film.. Might be quite a nice niche' there.


Looks like a good start....
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Wing Chun eh ? Cool! If you need any info let me know seeing as how I take wing chun and all.
 
Cynic821 said:
it would look better if it was in a real 24fps timeline imo, the slow mo punch didnt do it for me, something was missing and i cant pin point it, but that set is kick ass! guys look great too.
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A noble production. The fight choreography was pretty well done. I think what was missing for the slow mo punch was a solid sound effect that adds power and weight to the impact. Take a look at some of the overcranked shots in a demo reel clip from a movie called "Demon Hunter" that I cut the sound effects on a couple years ago. I used a jet passing by on one of the whiffed slo-mo shots to give the demon some kind of supernatural power.

http://www.distortionproductions.com/dhreel.mov

As for the outdoor nighttime lighting (or the absence of it), I think that a nice blue rim light and bounced fill would've helped establish the moon as well as making it easier to see the choreography.
 
Nice 2nd bit of footage. Where did you shoot this? What country? Is this for a client? The beer bottle was really kind of out of place.. unless they are paying for it.. and/or product placement.


That demon hunter trailer looks and sounds pretty good. Was that a straight to video thing? Low budget/Medium? The chick was super hot.... indeed. Some stunts looked really impressive.... The head grab kind of looked a bit cheesy... but overall very nice indeed.


As far as a blue rim light... I had a DP friend and teacher who's biggest... or I should say.. hugest pet peeve was blue nighttime exteriors. He would fail people for that as it wasn't natural. I personally kind of like it, and have done it myself... but I know that a lot of old time DPs might cringe at that... Personally whatever makes a mood is what I like.


Thanks for showing!
 
Justyn said:
Nice 2nd bit of footage. Where did you shoot this? What country? Is this for a client? The beer bottle was really kind of out of place.. unless they are paying for it.. and/or product placement.

That demon hunter trailer looks and sounds pretty good. Was that a straight to video thing? Low budget/Medium? The chick was super hot.... indeed. Some stunts looked really impressive.... The head grab kind of looked a bit cheesy... but overall very nice indeed.

As far as a blue rim light... I had a DP friend and teacher who's biggest... or I should say.. hugest pet peeve was blue nighttime exteriors. He would fail people for that as it wasn't natural. I personally kind of like it, and have done it myself... but I know that a lot of old time DPs might cringe at that... Personally whatever makes a mood is what I like.

Thanks for showing!
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Demon Hunter was a straight to DVD feature. A stuntman was involved with directing, which is why it has more ambitious physical scenes than your average low budget film. It was like a 2.5 mill project.

As far as using blue nighttime exteriors, a blue rimlight is not going to make the entire scene look unnatural unless you end up choosing the most unsubtly blue gel out there. I think for a low budget film, you should be more concerned about being able to see the action. Without any additional lighting, the image quality will suffer from underexposure and a low luminance range. So if you push the contrast, it'll uniformly increase the noise as much as the two guys fighting. Underexposure is a tangible factor that should be more of a reason to "fail" for a professor than personal color preference. I guess your professor would've failed Ang Lee and Peter Pau for Crouching Tiger's nighttime exterior lighting.
 
Well we must not forget that EVERYONE has their own opinion. And some people just are not going to like it. Like for me, EVERYTHING that does not produced my motion picture, or motion pictures's independent division, is to me considered an ART FILM.

I think that your lighting is YOUR lighting. I actually liked the warmer look on the fighting scene. The wight seems to blan out the image.

I will admit you have some MAJOR talent in that eye of yours. And future shoot to what Justyn, Chuck Norris' only real competition, Shoot in 22fps or gratter :) It's you film, Create it so you can be 100% happy with it, and if you move someone, your job is done. Good Luck and great stuff!
 
definately great potential there. I agree about the sound effects. you really want to invest in those for the best quality... Sony has a good library for fight scenes. choreo was pretty good. more speed and intensity to really sell it.
 
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