Second Hand Smoke

Not much running and gunning for this short. I use an iMac to capture, so it's a pain in the ass to go out on location.

As for editing, I only rendered out at uncompressed (Apple Tiff codec) NTSC resolution. I then linked the sound and rendered those into uncompressed AVIs which play pretty well in Sony Vegas, good enough to edit with.
 
I used the DVX Lcd for framing, but I use the iMac [I lug around an intel imac for capturing] monitor for exposure (histogram data gives much better idea of a good exposure than going by eye since everything looks incredibly washed out).

If anybody is interested I can post uncolor corrected stills after the film is available online. (not supposed to post footage)
 
so that's what it looks like when you're monitoring? so what's the next step after you;ve got footage that looks like that?
 
Yup, but you can apply different monitoring look up tables (LUT) so that you can get an idea how it'll look when you are ready to do color correction. It can help, but i usually keep it off.

Juan at reelstream is working on a LUT editor, so in theory you could set up your shot, create a LUT that color corrects the footage to what you want it to look like, and then capture using that LUT....so when you render out everything is already color corrected.

Of course, this makes the footage harder to change in post later, it kinda locks what you can do with it.

Or you can still capture this really flat footage, and monitor with the LUT you created....that way you can monitor and see how it looks but still have the option to change it later. You can also render out with different LUTs, so you can render out with that same LUT so you still have the option of rendering out color corrected footage.

Juan isn't done with this program yet, although he's supposed to be releasing a beta version this week.
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As for me, what I did for this project was capture that really flat image and I rendered it out like that as well (at the above resolution). I then brought it into Sony Vegas, color corrected, matched the audio up using the clapboard (I record audio separetly using an Edirol FA66 into the same imac) and then I rendered that out as an uncompressed AVI....Vegas likes those better than uncompressed .movs.

Then I edited those uncompressed files.
 
thanks for the detailed info, man. i really want to get an andromeda. are you happy with it?
 
oh yeah, another stupiud question: does it take a really long time to render out the tiffs??
 
I do think it's better. I've never used an HVX though so I can't say for certain, but I really do like the andromeda workflow.

(As long as I'm in a studio. :D )

Outdoor shots can be a pain if there isn't an electrical socket nearby.

If you want to do a lot of run and gun, andromeda isn't a good idea.
 
luster said:
oh yeah, another stupiud question: does it take a really long time to render out the tiffs??
Click to expand...
Not too long, but it's not quick either. At that resolution it took 15-20 minutes for about 5 minutes.

I usually batch it up and go watch a movie or sleep.
 
a lot of comments about the andromeda, and while I am looking foreward to seeing that in action, looking foreward to your actual film too, lol :thumbsup:
 
Larry R was a sport and replaced the bad version with the correctly compressed version. What a guy. :)

Looking forward to hearing some feedback on this.
 
Here's my honest assessment on this film. You've got an interesting story/script here but it suffered in two big ways for me, through the cinematography and acting. First off, every shot is so static when they are sitting in the car. It's very easy to tell that the car isn't moving; in fact I was totally thrown off guard when the car swerved to a halt as if they had been driving that whole time. I think it would have been great if you could really see the outside moving through the window (either shooting greenscreen or have them really driving). I couldn't help but imagine how different this would feel if it had been handheld CU's; like something out of a Tony Scott film, 'Man on Fire' or something. With the acting, I think it was a little too much which came from the dialouge more than anything. Again, I like the story/script and dialouge but there is just too much of it. I'm spending so much time absorbing line after line that I'm not feeling any tension/anxiety from the situation itself. I think I'd get more from this film if there was 50% less dialouge and more non-verbal acting/beats taking place.
 
I ll start by saying you had some really nice cinematography going on there. Nice image, crisp, warm and you framed it ok.

The acting was better than most in here and that tells a lot, however the oh my god is that a knife was not natural and it was forced out of you.

The story was simple I guess...just a guy that got loose from a mental hospital and killed another guy, the dialogue though was not really meaningful....my opinion.

The blood was not that good...I ve seen some great blood in here and this one looked like paint....but blood is something you learn to make easily so I dont take it as a big negative even though its a horror movie.

Sound and score were ok, nothing special nor bad.

In the incar scene you can totally tell they're not driving around...not because you get a glimpse of the road but it shows....maybe you could get away with something else....how come you didnt do a real driving - shooting thing?

Overall, nice one, entertaining!
 
Well the score was written before the girl even saw the movie, so she deserves mad props for that imho. Fits well I think.

As for the cinematography/acting. Hah. Yeah. Dad was working graveyard at the time so he was running on only a few hours of sleep and the grease/oil stuff on his face was annoying him. So we didn't do too many takes. (I need to get real actors next time haha).

But yeah, mainly this was all "no time" sufferage. We tried to green screen, but we couldn't get it to work quite right. We didn't have a frame to mount the green screen on and when we had put it over the windows a green light was cast inside the car, and if we put something solid behind the green, the green wasn't well lit inside the car.

And goddamn, it's hard to fit anything inside a Fiero. This includes lights.

As for why we didn't do it driving around for reals, we didn't have a car rig. And we shot this Friday - Saturday - Sunday. Also....hooking up andromeda to a car rig could be really hard. I haven't perfected my non-studio workflow.

As for "oh my god is that a knife" - he's not really scared....it was supposed to sound forced. He's just working himself into a frenzy. (btw I'm Joshua Nitschke btw, not Jon - only my voice is in the movie. :) )

Thanks for replying. I didn't expect many people to rave about it, we shot and edited in three days and Jon spent maybe 6 hours writing it. No line rehearsal. It was pretty rushed.
 
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