The Water's Edge

Re: The Water's Edge

That was absolutely beautiful! I live at 'the water's edge' also, so I have extra appreciation, aside from how well crafted your piece is.
How did you get such tight shots on the ducks? Thanks for posting.
 
Re: The Water's Edge

Some great footage, very well composed. Some of those tight shots of the ducks are incredible. It makes me want to become one with nature ;)
 
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That is truly some of the nicest footage I have ever seen with a great choice of score (who was it?) and editing transitions. Wow. Very very calming.

The cinematography was wonderful; great comps and the colors were stunning particulary on the shots overlooking the lake with the house and sky. There were so many nice pieces to this. The shots of the 'bugs' floating in the air backlit by the sun, the ducks running but coming to a slomo edit, the rain drops on the leaves.

Dude. I look very forward to more of your work. Awesome.
 
Re: The Water's Edge

I agree with John. This really shows the quality of the camera. At first I thought I downloaded the wong clip and was watching a 35mm intro to a movie. It's perfect.

Can you share what settings you used and what you used to color correct? And did you use letter box with the anamorphic adapter?
 
Re: The Water's Edge

Thank you for the compliments guys.

For the crane shots I used a Cobra crane...got it at Promax a few years ago.

The settings varied depending on the shots I was taking. I go to great pains to get the best shot possible and it was really worth it because, believe it or not, aside from some levels tweaking here and there in post, there was no color correction done to this entire piece.

I shoot 24pa exclusively. I do not own an anamorphic adapter because I don't want the depth of field to be limited. So I am using the camera's squeeze mode exclusively. I use ND filters extensively much like they do on movie sets to set a mood or just to control depth of field exactly how I want it. I matted it in Premiere Pro to a 'scope aspect, I just love that cinematic feel.

I have shot extensively with Kodachrome and love that look so I cranked up the chroma to about 4 and used a pedestal of, I think, -5. I also used the thin setting. This gives me a look that is very similar to Kodachrome and makes nature come to life like nothing else.

The close duck shots were shot with my Century Optics 2x Teleconverter that I formally used on a Sony DSR-250. Although it is threaded for 58mm lens, with a step-up ring, I can get the full 2x but cannot be zoomed at anything other than 100%, otherwise the barrel of the lens is visible. It's a temporary fix for me because there is a very visible softening on the edges of the shots.

I have spent a lot of time with the wildlife in my surroundings so they are quite comfortable around me and my camera. It's something they see every day.

I try to experiment with all types of looks and settings with the DVX whenever I can :)

I think that answers everyones' questions but if I missed one, let me know.

Thanks again for the comments, I appreciate it.
 
Re: The Water's Edge

awesome. the pedestal at -5 really makes a special image. sometimes almost too dark on the PC but i am sure it looks stunning on TV.

where all moving shots by a crane or also some glidecam/steadycam?

great choice of image, music and editing. i will soon make stuff here in the austrian mountains and hope i come close to your cinematography....you just set a high limit for me ;)

p.s.: i got a 2.0 tele for a 52mm lens....gotta try if i can use that. but doubt it if on the 58 you are already at Z100....
 
Re: The Water's Edge

Very very nice! Real filmic look. What where the details setting?
 
Re: The Water's Edge

Thanks for the kind comments. There were no Glidecam shots in this piece (I didn't actually own one then) just the Cobra crane and a tripod.

Oh, and I did use a dolly and tracking for a couple of shots...

Detail setting was unchanged from the default, which I believe is 0
 
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you were saying that the anamorphic limits the depth of field? are you saying that it makes it hard to get a shallow depth of field, or that it makes it difficult to get a good crips overall focus?

No matter what though the clip was absolutely beautiful.
 
Re: The Water's Edge

Generally speaking when you add an anamorphic adapter to a camera it will broaden the depth of field....there are also focusing issues with the adapter that I don't care to deal with...especially when I need a shot quickly.

The adapter is just not for me, but there are many others that swear by it. It's just a personal preference. The footage looks stunning on a 50" plasma and that's about as big as I'm going with this. I have no aspirations to transfer to film.
 
Re: The Water's Edge

[quote author=disjecta link=board=Clips;num=1087699633;start=0#11 date=06/20/04 at 09:21:51]Generally speaking when you add an anamorphic adapter to a camera it will broaden the depth of field....there are also focusing issues with the adapter that I don't care to deal with...especially when I need a shot quickly.

The adapter is just not for me, but there are many others that swear by it. It's just a personal preference. The footage looks stunning on a 50" plasma and that's about as big as I'm going with this. I have no aspirations to transfer to film.[/quote]

Toot toot--- Im on the same train as you my friend.
 
Re: The Water's Edge

So, you have leave all the setting at default?
And that shot with really dark clouds, is it a real cloud? How did you shoot that? Is it a timelaps?
If you use this kind of shots in a fiction movie, then the real fun starts.
 
Re: The Water's Edge

As I stated earlier, I have changed the chroma and pedestal settings and for some shots, other settings were changed, depending on the shot.

The cloud sequence is a timelapse shot using the 2x teleconverter mentioned earlier. I saw that cloud coming in and had to shoot it...  :) Nothing fake about it at all (aside from the fact that it is a distortion of real time) but it definitely looks cool.
 
Re: The Water's Edge

That cloud shot was not only perfectly done but the manner in which you composed it was wonderful. Damn nice.
 
Re: The Water's Edge

Fantastic work! Natural light seems the hardest to control imo and you've done an excellent job, these are some of the best nature shots I've seen with this camera.

(Nice house btw)
 
Re: The Water's Edge

Yeah, I really like the cloud shot!
But about settings, the -5 ped, is a default says the dvx-100 guide... Is that true?

Whatever, it creates something nice.
 
Re: The Water's Edge

Yes, you are probably right about the ped being the default. It's hard to answer the question "what settings did you use"...sometimes I just tweaked the color temperature, maybe I adjusted the pedestal slightly depending on what my lighting conditions were...

A dark pedestal works well for certain shots but will completely suck up detail in other shots...

Here's what I suggest to people just learning....do a bunch of test shots in all kinds of light and use a field monitor or even the built in LCD to mess with the settings...I just talk into the camera explaining what I am doing so I can just listen to the audio and concentrate on the visual when I view it on my studio monitor. When I see something I like, I make a note of it and know its exact affect on a shot in a particular circumstance.

If you do this enough times, not only will you get familiar with all of the settings on your camera but it will also become instinctive to you when you have to make a quick decision.

Asthetics vary for everyone...there are no perfect settings...light will dictate what the final recorded shot looks like.

I hope I'm not preaching here but I believe this is good advice and something that has worked for me over the years.
 
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