"MODEL / PHOTOGRAPHER" - an ELOQUENT GRAFFITI prelude – a film by SABI

thanks C2V,

really appreciate the kind words. and this is a good opportunity to show short filmmakers that opportunities are out there to monetize your work to some degree.

typically, my going rate for sales to the "educational market" is $200 per copy, $300 for features and often sold with a lesson plan. but seeing as your intent for its use is for a youth group rather than a university, I will happily donate a DVD to you and your diocese to use however you see fit. in fact, i'd be honored. please PM your address to me and I will send it to you as soon as they are ready. shouldn't be long. probably in a week or two.

thanks again!
 
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Hey Zak, hows it hanging?

I was wondering if you could help me make a decision. I come to you because i love the work you've done with the D90 and thought you would be the best person to answer my queries.

I'm shooting a feature at the moment with the Canon XH A1 + Letus Elite and nikon lenses. When this bad boy is finished, i want to sell my camera and adapter and pick up something that is a bit better in terms of light loss. My first choice was going towards the HMC150 with the blade, due to the more sensitive nature of the camera, plus the lack of grain when the gain is popped on which would give me an extra stop.

Naturally, i saw the D90 and thought, hmm, i can use my nikons, and i won't have to deal with tape, or have to deal with light loss.

Now that i'm investigating more in detail, i am reading about potential problems with the camera, but am wondering if these are worth over looking.

Number one issue for me, was the jello vision, but from seeing your stuff as well as "switch" it seems that it's more a quesiton of learning how to properly handle the camera in specific, more than it is a drawback.

Number two issue, was the quality of the image. From what i've seen, it delivers exceptional latitude and very nice whites/skin tones. The bokeh leaves nothing to be desired and gives the most film accurate image i have seen.

Number three issue, which is more a question. What is your work flow? Are there issues editing the D90 video footage in, let's say, PP CS3? Is it easy to edit?

Number four: The image, from what i've seen and read is quite soft and is only offerend in 720p. What are your thoughts on this? I don't seem to mind terribly But... brings me to issue 5

Number 5: Compression? I have read that there is quite a huge amount of compression to deal with in video mode. I don't know what you used to shoot on, but how do you feel the compression in relation to your previous camera? The XH A1 with HDV compression is fine for me, but suffers from too much light loss with the adapter, mind you, it's sharp as all hell, which is nice.

Number 6: How are you recording audio, and what is the process like to have to sync your footage in post? Is this cumbersome or very easy to adapt towards?


Would it be at all possible to get your views and opinions on these subjects? I would greatly appreciate it. Also, if possible, i would love to see some full resolution stills from the camera's video mode to assess it's abilities, dynamic range, compression and detail level before i make up my mind and take the plunge into the world of DVSLRs.

Thanks Zak!

-Jon
 
Hey Zak... I'm having trouble really getting on board with this one. You've got a great look going on with the film and a style that you can definitely say is yours... a beautiful style that is VERY visually engaging. This was the only one of the group I exported out to my Apple TV so I could watch it on my HDTV and it looked awesome. Loved the score too.

But with all that going for it, I just felt like it was uninspired... or rather, I wanted to be inspired by it... but wasn't. Perhaps it's because it's just a piece of something larger (I gather a feature is in the works), or maybe the story was just so intimate, so private, that as a viewer I just didn't feel like I was aloud to participate in the film. I get that that is intentional, I'm just not sure it works. There's not enough there for me to invest in the characters, and in the few minutes that I get with them, they say a couple of lines and whisper the rest.

I dunno... I'm curious to see how it plays out as a feature. I'm even more curious to know what the feature is about. I checked out your site, but couldn't find a synopsis. I would hope that within a 90-120 minute feature, your characters do more than gaze introspectively off into the distance with colorful lights behind them while whispering inaudible dialogue to one another.

Anyway, congrats on making the finals and good luck placing in the top! Regardless of my negative review of your film, I did enjoy watching it and thank you for sharing!

-m
 
haha! now that is the reaction I was expecting from the beginning! surprised it took this long. either way, thanks for checking it out, I appreciate hearing your reaction. oh, and i'll tell you right now: do not watch the feature. you'll be tempted. you'll be curious. but don't do it. it's not for you. it will be a quiet film. no playing the subtext, no over the top declarations of emotional or psychological needs. just a gentle, quiet humanity laid out truthfully.

edit: PAPA, i'm going to get to your questions soon, but i'm concentrating on my interview with Filmmaker Magazine about this short/feature. I promise as soon as that is out of the way, i'll give you some answers. hang on!
 
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Great news on the interview and the theatrical run.

I watched it a couple more times and I'm really impressed with the editing/script. Looks like really only the neccesary shots made it into the film, but you still have a beginning middle and end. All the fat was cut out, which is hard to do for first time filmmakers (not that you are one, just saying) becuase you spend so much time and effort on the shots you cut out. This short is told almost all with subtext and very little dialogue, which is great and how it should be done.

Just curious, how much did you shoot that didn't make it into the film?
 
good question. the biggest cut was to the door scene. about 60% of that scene was dropped and all of John's dialogue was eventually taken out. Jamie, the editor, went thru a number of variations on that scene until she found the version that sang. this was shot a few different ways -- from a more conversational tone to an extreme economy of words.

what else? there is a shot of John's character swapping a suit jacket for his army jacket that was going to open the film. there is about two hours of driving footage of which we used less than a minute.

on the flip side, the roof scene was worked and worked and worked until we got exactly what we wanted. so we shot a lot of takes, but all the beats of the scene are there except a very wide shot intended to open that sequence. another shot, that revealed the blue light source was also cut, but you can still see it glowing at the top of the building in the distance as he's driving in the beginning.
 
Zak Forsman said:
haha! now that is the reaction I was expecting from the beginning! surprised it took this long. either way, thanks for checking it out, I appreciate hearing your reaction. oh, and i'll tell you right now: do not watch the feature. you'll be tempted. you'll be curious. but don't do it. it's not for you. it will be a quiet film. no playing the subtext, no over the top declarations of emotional or psychological needs. just a gentle, quiet humanity laid out truthfully.
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Hey hold on a sec! I didn't say "I didn't like it" nor would I discount the possibility that I could enjoy a feature. I was just asking "What is it about?"

Regardless of how simple or even non-existent the plot might be... your film is still ABOUT something. Presumably, model/photographer is about loss. So, my question remains, what is Eloquent Graffiti about?
 
blindbuzta said:
Hey hold on a sec! I didn't say "I didn't like it" nor would I discount the possibility that I could enjoy a feature. I was just asking "What is it about?"

Regardless of how simple or even non-existent the plot might be... your film is still ABOUT something. Presumably, model/photographer is about loss. So, my question remains, what is Eloquent Graffiti about?
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it's about deciding to cut your losses and move on, examined in two interweaved story threads. one thread is a path toward getting to that decision, the other thread follows the ramifications of it.
 
Zak Forsman said:
edit: PAPA, i'm going to get to your questions soon, but i'm concentrating on my interview with Filmmaker Magazine about this short/feature. I promise as soon as that is out of the way, i'll give you some answers. hang on!
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When you get to that stuff can you not send it in a pm? I'd be interested to hear it as well.
 
PaPa, I thought I'd cut and paste the article I wrote for NEW BREED. Should address your questions...


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Eloquent Graffiti is being shot with a DSLR from Nikon. The D90 has a 720p HD “D-Movie Mode”. While far from perfect, it is one more step toward what i’d consider the ideal camera — lightweight, unassuming, and with the aesthetic characteristics of 35mm. Key issues unique to the D90 are due to its CMOS sensor and a slow read reset (which is how fast the sensor scans the frame top to bottom. This slow read reset causes what is commonly referred to as “skew” or “warble” or sometimes “Jellovision”. It is impossible to miss on panning shots with defined vertical lines from doorways, etc. Generally, there are two ways to minimize this effect.

First is to stay with wide lenses like a 28mm. Occasionally I’ll go to a 50mm but this requires a very steady hand by the operator, or a stabalization device such as a shoulder mount, assuming a handheld shot. The second is to avoid horizontal camera moves with the exception of “anchoring” the pan to an actor crossing through the set. Having a subject in motion but framed in the foreground of a panning shot draws the viewers attention away from the “skew” occuring in the background of the frame.

The other issue is the potential for overheating. I’ve only experienced this once, but I’m also in the habit of turning off the LCD display when not shooting. When the camera becomes too warm, a 30 second countdown will appear in RED on the LCD and when it hits zero, the LCD is automatically shut off. And because it has to be on for the D-Movie Mode to record, your take ends too. I generally don’t shoot fast enough for this to be a serious issue and turning the LCD off between takes goes a long way toward avoiding it. That being said, I can hear the voice of Kevin K. Shah (Sabi’s co-founder) insisting to always have a back-up. So having a second camera on set will prevent this issue from shutting you down while the camera cools.

And one last issue is that of “line skipping”. To achieve a 1280×720 frame, the camera apparently captures a frame that is 800 pixels tall, but removes every 8 or 9 pixels to retain the correct geometry instead of scaling the image. This keeps actors from looking squashed vertically, but also introduces “stair-stepping” artifacts into the image. Fortunately, an enterprising young man has written a plug-in for Final Cut Pro that separates the frame every 8 or 9 pixels bringing it back to the original 800, fills in the gaps with a blending technique, then scales it back down to 720 pixels tall, retaining the correct image geometry. It sounds dubious but it works very well, and I have toggled back and forth in amazement many times.

D90 Rescaler plugin


CAMERA SPECS

The camera’s video mode is called D-Movie Mode and it is essentially an HD recording of the video one monitors on the rear LCD display.

FRAME SIZE: 1280×720 square pixels
FRAMERATE: 24fps (not 23.98, but TRUE 24fps)
CODEC: Motion JPEG
AUDIO: Mono 11khz (usable as reference for sync only)
FILE SIZES: 5 mins = approx 600mb (8gb card will hold about an hour of footage)
MEDIA: Class 6 SDHC Cards

There is a 5 minute limit on recordings. Thankfully a countdown is displayed on the LCD so you can track how much time is left in the take.


PRODUCTION

The camera is nearly fully automatic in D-Movie mode. You cannot go in and manually set ISO or shutter speed and the exposure jumps as the frame changes from bright sources to darker ones - and yes, its very noticeable and it looks as bad as it sounds. However, despite the lack of manual control, you can LOCK in the the ISO and shutter by tapping the AE-L button.

The singular issue is that on a bright day or in a bright location, the shutter speed is ramped way up, giving you a sports video or saving private ryan look. So you need to trick the camera into using a slower shutter speed closer to 1/48 by doing the following….

1. Turn the camera ON
2. Rack the f/stop on your manual lens to approximately an f/8 or f/11
3. Point the camera toward a low-light area of the set. If outdoors partially cover the lens with your hand.
4. Press the AE-L button to lock the shutter and ISO.
5. Turn on the LCD (aka LiveView)
6. Rack the f/stop back to wide open (between between f/1.2 and f/2.8)

I do this before every shot and sometimes don’t cut, opting for a series of takes because once you turn off the LCD, you lose the locked exposure. The operator should practice this routine until it becomes second nature, otherwise there will be a delay before each take until they get it set correctly.

Sound - Double system. I use a Zoom H2 for ambient recordings. And a separate kit for dialogue (Sound Devices 702, Sennheiser 416 on a boom). Will often rent wireless packs for the actors when we need to be a little more incognito/guerilla. It is important to provide a sync mark before each take with either a slate or clapping hands, something.


PREP FOR POST-PRODUCTION

My goal for post is to get the captured media into a form where the image quality is protected from subsequent renders and the format meets broadcast specifications. This means two things, transcoding to Apple ProRes and retiming the framerate from 24fps to 23.98fps. I have created a droplet in Compressor that does both and will amend to this article shortly. before using the droplet, you must open the AVI files in QuickTime Player and “Save As” to give them the QT wrapper so that Compressor can handle them properly. Not fun, but necessary.

Drop.io -> D90 to PRORES 23.98 Droplet

Syncing Sound - As with any double system shoot, dailies need to be synced in post. There is no timecode here to automate the process so one has to go through, using the slate or an alternate means of a sync mark such as clapping hands. My editor prefers to merge her clips so that the audio is forever tied to the picture. But in this instance, there seems to be an element of “drift” that I have yet to solve other than to pull up the audio where it needs it or to apply a 99.9% speed change.
 
what a beautiful movie. and not just visually. you have a skill for showing us a snapshot of life and keeping it interesting, with some kind of arc, but without any plot. that's something that is not easy. i watched Old Joy a couple of weeks ago and it reminded me of your stuff. Very good work, you continue to impress me (and make me very jealous)!
 
I don't know, I guess it means something when all the guys in the room were scratching there heads, and the girls were all, "Ahh, that was so good" I liked the music, and you obviously have some great gear to shoot with. I guess I don't have the taste for melodrama that I did when I was younger. Pretty movie though.
 
Chad_from_Chad said:
I don't know, I guess it means something when all the guys in the room were scratching there heads, and the girls were all, "Ahh, that was so good" I liked the music, and you obviously have some great gear to shoot with. I guess I don't have the taste for melodrama that I did when I was younger. Pretty movie though.
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cool, thanks chad from noho (i used to live in north hollywood, how do you like it?). your use of the word "melodrama" would imply you felt the emotions were exaggerated and/or unearned. care to expand on that?

i dont know if you actually watched it in a roomful of men and women but if so, i find the psychology at work pretty interesting -- with the men largely looking to process the film thru logical thinking and the women processing it intuitively. that's a gross oversimplification but thought-provoking nonetheless.

btw, that "great gear" costs less than $900. :)
 
Not to be a gimp hehe, but i think the context of his paragraph makes his use of melodrama a criticism rather than the simple choice of the word.

Technically i think your film is a melodrama too (by its definition a drama to music) at least (if i recall) but yep, 'bad' melodramas hehe have made the use of the word a coin of criticism for which it was never intended. Meh.

I think its a case where easy observation becomes lazy critcism Zak, if it was that melodramatic in a negative connotation then surely the mighty audio review would have picked up on it hehe ;)
 
A little late here but I just saw this short film.

I really did enjoy this. Visually, and the buildup to that moment. All very nice. Love the style of film. Someone mentioned Sofia Coppola and I got the same feeling watching this film. Nice music, the track suits the visual very much and enhances the atmosphere you have going. The acting was also very nice. Great job all round.
 
Extremely good cinematography and acting. I enjoyed this one. It seems to me that the emotional conflict between couples, to loose each other or to stay together is really your theme. Compliments :beer:

Susanne :bath:
 
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