Our DVX100A Feature Production

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This coming Saturday we are starting a 10 day shoot on a feature horror "film". We are shooting with 2 DVX100A cameras and are doing this on $11,000 out here in California. We'll be doing it 24P anamorphic as well. Our cast and crew is about 20.

I'll keep everyone posted on how it goes. So far we have done some test shoots out in the desert with the cam looking at the shutter variables, lighting and squeeze effects. I am very happy with what we are getting as even in the direct to TV monitor from camera, it almost looks like 16mm dailies!

I'll try and keep note of what seems to work and what doesn't as it goes along.

Here is to a little luck and a lot of hard work ;D
 
Re: Our DVX100A Feature Production

Interesting. I'm surprised you will only have to shoot 10 days for a feature!
 
Re: Our DVX100A Feature Production

Good for you guys! Give 'em hell.

Sounds like very low budget. Although it is, you must remember to do production stills. Forgive me if you already know this.

It's so important. My friend was in your situation and actually had people buy his film when finished, but they needed production stills. He had none. He had to do some expensive process in LA, at his own expense, to pull stills from the actual footage! AAHHH!!

Even if you have your own digital camera on set, cover it. Behind the scenes stuff to. Directors directing actors and stuff. Take lots.

Take care!
 
Re: Our DVX100A Feature Production

[quote author=kellyboy link=board=nws;num=1101961863;start=0#2 date=12/02/04 at 07:12:29]Even if you have your own digital camera on set, cover it. Behind the scenes stuff to. Directors directing actors and stuff. Take lots.[/quote]

Or use that second DV camcorder you have. You know...the one you use to import the footage to the computer, rather than wearing out the DVX heads.

:)

Dan
 
Re: Our DVX100A Feature Production

Squid. Sounds cool. With the right crew you can do alot with little $. Best of luck to you.

-T
 
Re: Our DVX100A Feature Production

I like the enthusiam here! Thanks for the well wishes. ;)

Actually, I am in sort of a "reverse" case here with this production. I have either written, produced or directed 6 feature films in the last 2 and half years and all have been on film (super 16mm or 35mm) and have ranged in budget from $150,000 to half a million. This is the first time i have ever done one this low of a budget and on video.

So, I am lucky in that I already know all the ins and outs of what it takes to get a film into Blockbuster and already have distributors open to viewing the film for the markets next year. You are right about the publicity photos, which I learned on my first film very fast (ended up pulling stills from the 35mm negative). We have a digital 20D Canon for the stills so should be okay.

As for the length of the shoot, I have done two films already on a 10 day schedule. I have learned you just have to figure the right way to shoot it to get 9 pages a day in. In most cases it is either long oners or doing a lot of hand held "docu" style to save time on all the camera set ups. We are using almost 90% natural light so that will help too.

Anyway, I luckily have a DP who is very familiar with the DVX100a so I am sure I will learn a lot as we go as I would like to buy one myself one day (I go back and forth between it and an XL2 almost daily but seem to find my way back here everytime). I was impressed with the look of the images when we did some test shots in the desert. We just ran it into a TV monitor without sound and looked as if we were watching MOS dailies on 16mm. Very nice.

I have yet to see what the final image looks like transfered in anamorphic though we did do a test on the squeeze to see how it looked just straight onto the TV. Well, I am back to shot lists and script notes. As the old martial arts adage goes: The more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in the streets!
 
Re: Our DVX100A Feature Production

I like the enthusiam here! Thanks for the well wishes. ;)

Actually, I am in sort of a "reverse" case here with this production. I have either written, produced or directed 6 feature films in the last 2 and half years and all have been on film (super 16mm or 35mm) and have ranged in budget from $150,000 to half a million. This is the first time i have ever done one this low of a budget and on video.

So, I am lucky in that I already know all the ins and outs of what it takes to get a film into Blockbuster and already have distributors open to viewing the film for the markets next year. You are right about the publicity photos, which I learned on my first film very fast (ended up pulling stills from the 35mm negative). We have a digital 20D Canon for the stills so should be okay.

As for the length of the shoot, I have done two films already on a 10 day schedule. I have learned you just have to figure the right way to shoot it to get 9 pages a day in. In most cases it is either long oners or doing a lot of hand held "docu" style to save time on all the camera set ups. We are using almost 90% natural light so that will help too.

Anyway, I luckily have a DP who is very familiar with the DVX100a so I am sure I will learn a lot as we go as I would like to buy one myself one day (I go back and forth between it and an XL2 almost daily but seem to find my way back here everytime). I was impressed with the look of the images when we did some test shots in the desert. We just ran it into a TV monitor without sound and looked as if we were watching MOS dailies on 16mm. Very nice.

I have yet to see what the final image looks like transfered in anamorphic though we did do a test on the squeeze to see how it looked just straight onto the TV. Well, I am back to shot lists and script notes. As the old martial arts adage goes: The more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in the streets!
 
Re: Our DVX100A Feature Production

PRODUCTION UPDATE


We are on our first day off of our quick shoot. Things have been going pretty good considering we are shooting about 9 pages a day out in the FREEZING desert of California doubling for a summer California desert. The actors are pushing forward with a smile but it's painful (in many ways) looking at these poor girls in skirts and tank tops in the cold weather.

Anyway, the only real main problem with the camera we have run into is the anamorphic adaptor became stuck on the camera. After two days of trying to get it off we gave up on using our wide angle lens again until some tech can get it off. It is kind of a strange adaptor as the “correct” way for getting it on and off is almost counter intuitive. I was only able to get off maybe three shots with the wide lens on the first day. But otherwise, working with the adapter has been a real treat though I have not had a chance to view the footage on a 16X9 TV and see the letterboxed version. The vast desert and joshua trees have leant to some very interesting compositions.

Another problem we ran into out there was the amount of dust collecting on the lens. We have lost many nice shots based on the constant collection of microscopic particles that appear on shots that have the sun hitting the lens a certain way.

I have messed around with the shutter speed a bit and have used the 1000 shutter on some interesting shots bobbing in and out of the Joshua trees. We are also using the Magic Bullet feature on all the desert scenes, going with a warmer gold. The last few minutes will take place in the dark so may try another hue then. The result on TV is subtle but I suspect once on Final Cut Pro and a little color correction it should look nice.

We were lucky enough to have a sound guy that brought a van with a 20 foot crane attached. We have been able to get some amazing shots with this thing and considering we only have 10,000 dollars for the budget, the crane would have probably cost us half that in normal conditions.

I will try and post photos in the next week…..
 
Re: Our DVX100A Feature Production

Please post some shots when you're done.. I'd love to see what you come up with: good luck! ;D
 
Re: Our DVX100A Feature Production


We are out in the Palmdale/Lancaster area. We shot a day in Santa Clarita but because we did not have a permit, were hounded by a park ranger who threatened to ticket us even though our crew and cast amounted to about seven people at that location. I can only think it must almost be impossible for people to even video their family outings anywhere in L.A. without getting asked for a permit!

I will get some screen shots as soon as possible. I want to try and get a few downloaded right away. I will also cut the trailer in the next 30 days and try and post that as well.

One thing I do like about the camera compared to all the 16mm and 35mm I have worked with in the past is the much easier set up time. The small and light camera makes getting coverage 100 times easier. Of course, I will balance this out with the image quality once we are done, but it's amazing how fast we can get in and out of some interesting scenes with little set up delays.

We are using all natural lighting so far and shooting outdoors with the exception of about 10% car interiors. Our final shooting "day" will be at night and I am doing a scene that will take place on a deserted highway using only car head lights to light the scene.
 
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