Seeing is Believing - short film

C

cinemasteve87

Active member
Hello everyone! I love this forum and I am usually just an observer. This thread inspired me to buy the HMC-40 and I had a lot of fun with it. I eventually sold it and bought a GH2 instead, which I love.

This film was something I wrote, directed, shot, and edited along with the help and support of a skeleton crew. This was shot earlier this year, and I have grown a lot as a filmmaker since then. My grandfather who lived in North Carolina at the time, passed away while I was filming this short. I wanted to go to his funeral, but my family knew how important this film was to me, and my grandfather, who loved watching my films over and over, would have wanted me to finish this. I put my heart and soul into this production, and I hope you folks enjoy it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uKbMOeF-OE&NR=1

also on Vimeo
http://vimeo.com/29719701
 
It was pretty good, Left a lot of unanswered questions but I enjoyed it.

My only real criticism would be an editing issue, when they were dancing in the garage. It kept jumping to the same camera angle. I think you really needed a second camera to switch between views.
 
Hi -- I liked your short film. My HMC40 question is one I have myself: the sky (especially in your opening shots) has a greenish cast. I viewed both your Youtube and Vimeo versions on two separate monitors and it is always there. I shoot a lot of aviation and it's there, also. I believe I shot with the default scene files, but maybe with the chroma cranked up a little. I'm certain I white balanced before shooting. So, if anyone has any similar experiences and remedies, please let me know. Otherwise, before long I'll be doing a series of test shots of sky and clouds so it comes out correctly from the camera (and I don't have to keep tweeking it later while editing).
 
Most of the outdoor shots in that piece were moderately to heavily overexposed. I get the impression that's pretty much the look Steve was deliberately going for, so it's not bad per se -- but it isn't the way one would shoot most subject matter. Also, shooting in bright sunlight without any kind of fill (lights or reflectors) makes it difficult to get good detail on the faces without blowing out the sky. My hints from using my HMC80 outdoors would be:

1) Avoid overexposure -- get to know the zebra and WFM indicators well
2) Use a neutral density filter (around 0.9 density, 3 stops) to keep the aperture in the middle of its range and avoid diffraction problems
3) Use fill when called for
4) Dial down the chroma to -2 or -3 for more natural colors and to minimize color shifts in overexposed skies and highlights
5) Obey the old Kodak "shoot with the sun behind you" rule whenever possible

- Greg
 
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