Stills for Feature Western -- HVX & M2

J

jisham

Member
Here are some stills from my upcoming feature. We shot on the M2 and the HVX ( I don't think I'll ever use this camera again -- Yes, blasphemey on this site, sorry. -- even with P2 we lost a good deal of footage for the camera not recording properly or at all.)

Redrock did give us a few back focus issues but I think that was to it not being set up properly. Also, I would will probably use cinema lenses next time instead of Nikon lenses.

Hope they are cool.

sunsetws.jpg


sunsetts.jpg


smokinggun.jpg


boots.jpg


jarretsaloondark.jpg


michellecry.jpg


jarretbeat.jpg


jarretend.jpg
 
not that I dislike the camera - it could have been the ACs, but we are missing a great deal of our footage - it cuts out on a lot of takes right after our slate.

Anyway, glad you like the stills.
 
I like the gun shot. You haven't said why you lost footage. Fs-100 ? (joke) . you said P2, you mean the cards? Those things are bullet proof. Are you the producer? Director, writer? Either way, I don't think there is really much reason to blame the camera unless the project was badly produced, directed, writen and acted. Never mind the director of photography and his assistent. I think if you are shooting feature naratives you should stick to film. Chances are if you can't get the money to shoot a narrative film, then the film is probably not worth shooting. Shoot me I'm a cynic
 
Nothing is bulletproof, sh!t happens, especially when you factor in the human operator. I would say 95% of my HVX/P2 issues have been operator error.



ash =o)
 
jisham said:
Redrock did give us a few back focus issues but I think that was to it not being set up properly.
Click to expand...

Did you check the flange focal length? Thats what kills the M2 the most. Once you fix that, its not a terrible adapter, my only beef is with the whole pin cushion focus effect, I think the SGPRO Rev.2 is supposidly better for edge to edge sharpness....
 
Wow. was the camera used a badly abused rental? i cant imagine why an HVX short of masive electronic problems would be self ceasing recording.

( also dont forget to ALWAYS make sure the remote controll reciever in the cmaera is set to OFF..... it could have been picking up a "stop" recording signal from something else.)

cardmaverick said:
Did you check the flange focal length? Thats what kills the M2 the most. Once you fix that, its not a terrible adapter, my only beef is with the whole pin cushion focus effect, I think the SGPRO Rev.2 is supposidly better for edge to edge sharpness....
Click to expand...

Also Dont for get to chekc that the Camera itself is focused on the GG. Theres 3 points of failure on a 35 adpter system. The 35mm lens, the back focus distance on the GG, and the Video cmaeras focus on the GG. three thigns that can ruin the shot. Also the Sgpro rocks...... :)
 
ah, yeah, thats right Timur, I forgot to mention that one, the FFL is just the real mysterious one people usually don't know about. How good is the SGpro for edge to edge sharpness? If I ever get an adapter, I've always seriously looked at that one. I usually have to put the hvx at like f/2.8 ish to get decent GG focus :( just kills me and my lights!
 
jisham said:
not that I dislike the camera - it could have been the ACs, but we are missing a great deal of our footage - it cuts out on a lot of takes right after our slate.

Anyway, glad you like the stills.
Click to expand...

Man, cutting out right after your slate.. someone was hitting the record button again. I have had problems with the P2 store not recognizing all the clips so some dont get imported but a Good AC who knows the camera can make sure that does not happen, I have never heard of just getting the front clip and nothing more. I seriously think someone was hitting the record button after the fact. Nioce stills though.
-Tizzy
 
I don't care how good the adapter is, If I'm loosing footage I prefer using the stock lens for the job. Ash G, I said the cards were bullet proof, not the humanoids operating them.
 
dogcat said:
I think if you are shooting feature naratives you should stick to film. Chances are if you can't get the money to shoot a narrative film, then the film is probably not worth shooting. Shoot me I'm a cynic
Click to expand...

What the heck does this mean...
 
Great stills..
Bad assistant..

I have been using the HVX almost since it came out.. Never lost a clip.. How can it not record the clip? and often? ever hear of PLAYBACK? I mean sheesh, after maybe the 10th clip went missing you would get a little concerened and check playback, no? Its not like you have t REWIND?!?! It's like a few clicks of the button.. (I hate people that use things they dont know how to use, then bad mouth it because something got screwed)

Operator error 100% (obvious with the slate)

Make sure you have someone that knows how to use the camera before your next job, and always playback your clips/video to check.. It's VIDEO 101..

Good luck, and lets see some footage..

YEEEE HAWWW!! :-)
 
wow, so these threads take off quick.

some history on things. we did check the clips on set and then transfered to a hard drive. - so yes, we did utilize playback. Unfortunately we have been editing up to these scenes was when I noticed things. I assume it was most likely error on our part - mainly because our first two weeks of shooting we never had problems.

One thing I did learn, though, is never have more then one P2 card in the camera at a time. I'm not a big fan of having to find the tail end of clips. The strangest part of the whole thing is we only had two cards for our last days of shooting where everything happened. 8gig and 4gig. the clips that had the problems were recorded on the same card right after each other. so something happened in the recording to have all those takes missing and only be left with the head of them.

Hopefully we will figure it out. All in all - if the workflow is worked out and you can verify footage on set in a quick manner without using the camera then you will be much better off then we were. gotta love low budget filmmaking. prep will always save you.


maybe we will have video availble soon.
 
Again... I really liked the stills...

jisham, a question... I can't find where I read it but... it said that you can't use gamma settings in the camera... been trying to find an answer...

Can you give us a rough idea of your settings or your color correction, etc. in post...

Thanks...
 
all of these stills have NOT been color corrected.

all of the outdoor shots were natural light (except for a bounce here or there). Indoor we tried to keep things simple but that would be a question for my DP. I'm pretty sure we just blasted light through the windows and shaped it from there.

hope that helps.
 
jisham said:
One thing I did learn, though, is never have more then one P2 card in the camera at a time.
Click to expand...

That is one of the key features of the cam. To be able to hot swap cards so that you have, in essence, never ending recording time. To say that you would never do it means that your crew is not fully comfortable with the camera and its workflow yet.
 
no, because in post I spend way too much time finding the broken clips and connecting them. Not very convenient when you have to do that for 15 days of footage.
 
Using FCP? EASY--Go to Media Start tab and sort by Media Start. It will layout all your clips in order in list view then you are set.
 
jisham said:
no, because in post I spend way too much time finding the broken clips and connecting them. Not very convenient when you have to do that for 15 days of footage.
Click to expand...

I shoot with 2 cards in my camera all the time and to show that you'd rather have the camera cut off your clip and not record it at all versus transferring to another card pretty much says you've got a problem either in camera operation, workflow, or post production.

My workflow is retardedly simple, but I've never lost footage: When a card fills up, I put it into my powerbook and save it to the desktop, P2 cards, then P2 1, P2 2, P2 3, etc. I go in order.

Then when I get to FCP, I create matching bins for each card. P2 1, P2 2, etc. Then I import the P2 card into the bin (or into the main folder than immediately drag it into the bin). If P2 3 runs over onto P2 4, I know that the first clip in the P2 4 bin is the other half of the last clip in the P2 3 bin.

Never had a problem.

To me, it looks like whoever was offloading your cards wasn't paying attention as to whether or not they actually offloaded them. They probably opened up a folder, went to copy the card, figured it was doing it, then brought the card back. I've seen this happen before (not on my shoots, but on shoots I've been on) and this can and does happen. I'm going to call this PEBCAL - problem exists between camera and laptop.
 
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