Questions about Feature Film being shot on HMC150

N

noam

Well-known member
Hello,

I am looking for some advice as I am currently in pre-production for an independent feature film set to shoot this december.

I have been using my HMC150 for over a year now, and absolutely love it. I shot a recent short of mine on the camera, and was extremely impressed by it's capabilities especially when seeing how it held up being projected in a theatre. Here is the teaser on vimeo: http://vimeo.com/12414899

While I was very impressed with how the camera help up on that shoot, I didn't use a lens adapter. I did all of the DOF in post with after effects and magic bullet. I was very happy with the results and am considering using this method on the feature. Which brings me to my first question:

1) I am relatively inexperienced with lens adapters, and am worried about noise. Is there a particular adapter that someone can recommend that will minimize the negative effects of using an adapter? I'm planning on playing around with some before the shoot, and if nothing else I will shoot with no adapter and once again do the DOF in post.

2) For low light situations - can someone recommend the best standard scene file on the camera? Or does anyone have some custom settings that are ideal for low light?

3) I like to do a lot of color correction on my films. Can anyone recommend camera settings/scene file settings that would be ideal for allowing me to push the colors as much as possible in post?

Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Noam
 
Nice. It looks far more like a music video than a narrative short film. Pretty heavily stylized. Hopefully the viewer doesn't grow weary and distracted by it.
 
1) Letus Ultimate with Zeiss primes. Does everything advertised, offers full frame 35mm still capability (no crop factor), and with an HMC150 you're getting CCD imaging -- absolutely no "jello." Half stop of light loss, and with quality lenses as sharp as anything less than twenty thousand dollars.

The DVXuser crowd has declared adapters dead and that the AF-100 is the answer to all the woes of the universe. They may be right (and it may be worth waiting), but I doubt it.

2) Low light is always not ideal. Movie productions that look like low light -- aren't actually filmed in low light. True low light is something event guys deal with -- never something you plan for in pre-production.

3) The theoretical answer, and I emphasize "theoretical," is Cine-D, that in theory offers the most dynamic range of any of the default scene files. The reality is that Cine-D is extremely noisy -- the most noisy scene file -- and when you're stuck with it in post you'll find yourself wishing you shot with a variation of Cine-V or F3 "Spark."
 
2 = good point!

Referring to point 3 regarding Cine-D, AGMedia you say, "when you're stuck with it in post you'll find yourself wishing you shot with a variation of Cine-V or F3 "Spark."

I thought the whole purpose of Cine - D was to get the most latitude and soft contrast (as others have said here and elsewhere), for a film--like look and the widest range of options for possible distribution, and Noam IS shooting a feature film (I do like the teaser by the way).

I'm sure that others have used this combined with software to remove noise when necessary or have I misread this information?

Regards
 
I dont find Cine-D all that noisy but then again I'm usually shooting with detail level and chroma level cranked down a good bit and MP dialed up a tad basically the BBC film settings carried over from the HPX300. YEs there maybe a tad bit more noise then the other gammas but I've been going for a nice low contrast look lately and feel Cine-D is the best for it. Its always important to have a good range of exposure as well in your scenes to help combat noise. I will shoot CineV as well but really dont care for any of the other gammas too much. Always Cine gamma and Cine matrix .
 
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Thanks for the input everyone. AGMedia, Based on your advice I am likely going to shoot with a Letus Ultimate with Zeiss primes.

I'm going to play around shooting some tests with Cine - D today and see how it holds up in post. There seems to be some discrepancy as to the amount of noise that it will produce - Does anyone have recommendations of scene file settings I could tweak within Cine - D that would reduce noise? would I mainly just reduce the detail level?
 
i would reduce chroma and detail. wouldnt worry too much about coring as it really only helps when you boost detail level.

I remember reading a post on the HPX500 forum by hunter richards who had discovered that boosting the master ped to around +5 helped him reduce noise when using Cine-D. Do some tests and see what you think. I ve adapted the BBC film settings for the HPX300 to the 150 and really like the results from it. It too uses CineD and boosts the MP to +3.
 
Thanks Matt. I just did a quick test and found your settings to work quite well. Just curious, do you see any major downsides to shooting with the detail and chroma turned all the way down? and would you recommend reducing v. detail as well?
 
AGMedia - One more question for you. Why is it that you don't see the AF-100 replacing DOF adapters on a camera like the HMC150? I don't know much about the AF100 outside of the fact that it uses interchangeable lenses, which seems in theory to be the obvious advantage.
 
No Its all up to you but personally I wouldnt turn the detail or chroma all the way to -7. Detail wise its a little too soft for me. Same with chroma unless you are going for a more desaturated look. Also remember that using the CineD & CineV gammas already produces a softer image than the other gammas. I believe its something like this. BlackPress at -2 detail is equal to CineD at 0.

I usually keep vertical detail at 0.
 
Might I add if you are shooting with an adapter you may not want to turn your detail level down as the adapter and lenses will add some softness to the image o a slight boost may be in order.
 
Mate the quality that you are getting out this camera is great. I too have the hmc and use magic bullet looks etc, but man I cannot get it looking like you.

HOW ARE YOU DOING THIS? What settings and lighting method? Is there something I am missing with looks? I just cannot achieve anything as classy looking as this.
 
There's nothing like actually testing your settings with the kind of shoot you do. F3 works for me. But you should come to your own conclusions based on the scene you want to achieve for the viewer. take the time to find out what's right. Then maybe go talk to your local art film house that may have a projector and go project your video onto a room size screen. You might be either ready to give it up or cheer. Your lighting is what will separate you from the pros. Correct that low light in the movies is rarely 'low light', but faked low light. Most campfire scenes or candle lit scenes (the ultimate in real low light) are neither. Try faking it sometime for fun. it's harder than it looks! And then add the ability to shoot multicam with as few cams as possible. Don't forget to get great audio. Fail on one leg of these and your tripod of support falls. Best of luck!
 
Thanks again for all of the input from all of you.

GRIMWORX - In terms of camera, I don't really have any specific settings that I always use when shooting - I like to try out different scene files and custom settings. With that said, all of what you've seen on my demo was shot at 1080/24p or 720/60p. For the 60p stuff I slowed it down using compressor. I usually use prores when exporting footage, but will use H.264 from time to time, depending on what I'm doing. They're both great options, depending on what you're doing with them.

As for Magic Bullet, my biggest suggestion would be not to use any of the presets as they are. Typically those presets are a nice starting point, but none of them will be perfect with any footage. If you are going to use one than find one that is close to the look you want, and then go in and adjust the settings, remove things, or bring things in to get the image exactly how you want it. Alternatively, I would highly recommend just building your looks from scratch and avoid using the presets completely. If your shot is well lit, well framed and corrected properly in magic bullet, or any other color software it should look great.
 
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