Sci-Fi Feature (DVX + M2)

Phil H.

Phil H.

Active member
Hi Folks.

After two years of planning, I was able to shoot my sci-fi feature last summer/fall. We're in the final stages of post-production now.

We have several stills posted from the film, a trailer and some other stuff. All were shot with the DVX100B, Redrock Mirco M2, and Nikon lenses.

http://www.homeworldthemovie.com/

Peace,
 
Some of the music and titles are a little cheesy IMO. But the images are pretty amazing. Nice composition and great lighting, nice CC too.

That alien looked insane. Looking forward to updates.
 
Yeah Phil, certainly the images I saw looked great, but have to agree with janusz.
 
looks pretty cool! it's a full feature? nice work. alien at the end- 3d graphics or costume? any relation to the video game of same name?
 
I am in the process of trying to get a grant to make a sci-fi feature. Can you get a good key with a ag-dvx100 using the m2 or would you suggest using the stock lens?
 
Looks good! but yeah, the music and titles are a bit cheesy. I am also pretty sure you could cut a trailer thats better, judging from the material i have seen. Might be worth to think about it, when you want to get a distributor interested for a screening.

But i am deninitely interested in seeing the full thing :), also the alien looks great.
 
major typos in the titles. "Before it's too late" is the second half of a question, so it needs one of these: ? and probably one of these ¿ at the beginning of the question if you are gonna have alternate language tracks. And watch where you capitalize certain things "And wage a Hidden War" should be "and wage a hidden war"

Structurally, I think it would be stronger if you modeled it like a horror trailer. The action music and pacing doesn't work with people walking around a forest. You should have some dialogue from the movie that kind of sums up their mission and outlines their characters. The footage looks great but the edit is not so hot.
 
Hi guys,

Thanks for the feedback. Tough critics here, lol. That's fine though. In art things are very subjective.

We love that score, but this is just the trailer, not the film. The score for the film is underway atm and has a very unique sound.

janusz:

Glad you liked the cc. There are so many different ways you can go with CC it took us several weeks to figure out the colors we liked. CC was done in AE pro 7 using Color Finesse.

ColorCorrect(InPost):

Yeah, I love that show, Space Above & Beyond. I'm afraid to buy the DVDs now and watch it. Don't want to ruin the fond memories I have. It might be too cheesy when compared with things like Firefly or the new BSG now.

markcheng:

Glad you guys like the alien. It's a professionally made mask and costume. A big chunck of our budget went into that.

I know fans of that game "Homeworld" have been hoping for a live action film, but alas, our film is unrelated.

mainframe311:

Good luck with your sci-fi project. As for keying with SD it is more difficult than HD, but this website has some great tips for keying and many other effects in After Effects: http://www.videocopilot.net/

As for keying with a 35mm adapter vs the stock lens of the camera, I did both. What I found is that it doesn't matter which you use as long as you have a deep enough depth of field to keep the actor entirely in focus. If your focus is so shallow that say, their eyes are in focus, but the back of their head is out of focus, then you're blurring the back of their head against the green screen and the green creeps into their body. This is harder to key out. Keep them in focus and you should have success. If you look at the picture of Captain Dolen on the website, you'll see an example of my keying with the M2 adapter and a Nikon 50mm lens. I used AE 7 Pro and the Keylight plugin to do my keys.

DerrickTempleton:

Ah yes, there should be a ? after "Before it's too late". Thanks for pointing that out. "Hidden War" should be capitalized though just like you capitalize "World War II". It's a proper noun.

Thanks everyone! I welcome all feedback, good and bad. The "good" is always an ego booster, but the "bad" actually helps make the project better.

Cheers.
 
LloydC said:
looks great!

the shot at 0:14 is stunning
Click to expand...

Ahh thanks so much LloydC. Yes, that is my favorite shot from the film.

It was shot with an 80-200mm (at 200mm) Nikon lens using the M2 adapter. We were chasing the light as the sun was setting behind the actors.

It was a difficult shot to pull off because the actors were walking in knee high grass over lumpy ground all the while carrying a member of their team.

I got a few takes out of them and was very happy with the result.
 
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LloydC said:
what was the budget and shooting schedule like for this?
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Between cast, crew, pre- and post-production teams, I was fortunate to enlist the help of over 30 people. All of them donated their time.

I own my equipment so we only had to pay for hard costs: food, props, sets, costumes, locations, etc. In the end, out of pocket cash was under $25k.

Production took place during three 5 day stretches and then another 15 days on sets and locations over various weekends for a total of about 30 production days.
 
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