Merantau feature film - HPX500 & pro35

mattflan306

mattflan306

Member
Hey all,

Thought I'd quickly post a link to a trailer for an Indonesian martial arts film, Merantau, that I recently DoP'ed
We used two HPX500s both with P+S Technik Pro35 adaptors. Overall I was very happy with the equipment, though we did suffer some matching problems with the two adaptors we used - nothing that grading didnt handle though.
Anyways, enjoy!

Direct trailer link:
http://vimeo.com/4439506

Official website with trailers, and behind the scenes production videos
www.merantau-movie.com

Matt
 
Fantastic work my friend! What sort of lenses did you have in front of those adapters? Had you ever considered using digiprimes or cine zooms? What led you to run with the 500's?
 
This looks really good - I was actually watching earlier today on Vimeo and found this post afterwards. The rooftop chase/jump scene is fantastic. My favourite would have to be the BTS Blog.
Good Job and good luck with everything.
 
Thanks for the kind words everyone, glad you enjoyed. The film is to be released on August 6th in Indonesia, and we'll be showing extended scenes and promo material by invitation at Cannes, so hopefully a wider release will be on the cards. I will update if/when this is confirmed.

We ended up using zeiss ultra primes with the adaptors - I had looked at the digiprimes, which look very nice, but give a different look. After some discussions with the director we decided on the Pro35, and the ultras, as they matched what we wanted the look to be, seemed to be a good combination, and fit in with the budget of the shoot.

The adaptor was very easy to work with and came out very nicely. The light loss was tricky in some of the low light situations, but wasn't a breaker.

The differences we encountered with the adaptors was interesting - we had a malfunction on one of the adaptors midway through shooting, and had to get a new adaptor quickly. However this new one gave the image an extra "magenta bastard" as it became known. We worked through in-camera to try and minimise it, but ultimately decided post grading would be the better solution. If this had been apparent during testing and pre-production, I'm sure we could have worked out the reasons and best course of action, but because we were midway through an insane schedule when the problem occurred, we had to make do.

One really small small point that was an irritation on the adaptors, was that they need to actively be switched on everytime the camera is powered off. It did become part of our camera procedure, but it would have been nice to have a power switch rather than the button. We were lucky that we had a decent production hd monitor so it was easy to spot if the glass wasnt spinning, but without that it would be very easy to shoot with the adaptor off!

Glad the video blogs are interesting, our BTS team did a great job, and we really wanted to give a good insight into the production

Thanks again all for the comments, they are much appreciated
Matt
 
mcgeedigital said:
Fantastic execution!
Click to expand...

Indeed!

So much of that was tricky stunts, but the cinematography really bought it out in spades! I haven't been this impressed with martial arts in years and it is probably in part due not to the same stunts being repeated over and over, but due to the lack of imagination to go along with a fresh stunt to make it that extra pinch even more unique. I feel you need to work WITH the stunt men, and that if you are not part of that chemistry then you might never get something like what you guys did so very well here.
 
Nice.

Big claim to introducing the world to action like this. Thought Mr Panna did that about four or more years ago? =D Action lover just sparking some action conversation.

Visually pretty friggin' awesome, man.
 
Matt:

I don't even like martial arts films and I want to see this. Major props to you for your compelling photography. Really impressive work. Can't wait to see more.

Dan
 
dolph2000 said:
it's absolutely great. My big question is why the HPX500. Who's choice was that and why?
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I had used the hvx200 on a documentary with the director in Indonesia, and we both fell in love ,with the p2 workflow in particular. The feature was always going to be a digital project - the style of shooting, (long complex takes of heavy choreographed sequences), meant that film would bump the cost up significantly, so it seemed the natural choice to use its big brother for the feature, with the addition of the adaptor (I did like the look of the letus but the release date wasnt forthcoming from them in the lead up to the project so we decided on the P+S). And I have to say I didnt regret the choice at all.:grin:
 
Kholi said:
Nice.

Big claim to introducing the world to action like this. Thought Mr Panna did that about four or more years ago? =D Action lover just sparking some action conversation.

Visually pretty friggin' awesome, man.
Click to expand...
haha well you'll have to ask the promoters and producers that one!
Though I have to say, that the style of Silat, and the Harimau style used in the film, is pretty damn cool, and hasnt been used in any major way before, certainly not in the last 20 years, and not in any polished way. And the choreography has been incredibly well done, and I do think its different to anything else around.

I'm a big fan of Ong-Bak, and to a lesser extent Rittikrai's other stuff, but I honestly think this film offers something different. Not least a better story and acting! And there is a whole world of killer stuff in the movie that the trailer doesn't show, believe me :grin:
 
Fair enough! I like your response and the honest respect you have for Action!

Can't wait to see what it brings to the table for the genre and cult.
 
This has to be some of the best 500 footage I've ever seen, as stated by others before, just beautiful!(and a reminder of how good the 500 can be in the right hands...):dankk2:
And what kind of distribution will it get in Europe? I would love to see the entire film, but kind of stuck in Norway....whit probably not the most open cinemas in the world..
 
Christian m said:
And what kind of distribution will it get in Europe? I would love to see the entire film, but kind of stuck in Norway....whit probably not the most open cinemas in the world..
Click to expand...

Distribution wise I believe the producers are looking at proposals outside of Asia, and materials - promo trailer and a few extended scenes - are being shown this week at Cannes, and from what I hear there has been some great interest from distributors etc. to attend the screenings. So fingers crossed.

I am just starting to set myself up in the USA, having have just made the move across the pond, so I for one am hoping for a good distribution of the movie here and Europe. But from what I've seen coming out of the ongoing post process, I think it has an excellent chance, biased as I am :grin:

Matt
 
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