Trailer for Act of Valor (feature film shot on 5D2, DP Shane Hurlbut ASC)

I'm confused as to how much of the movie was shot on 5ds. On imdb the camera specs are

Camera
Arriflex 235, Panavision Primo Lenses
Arriflex 435, Panavision Primo Lenses
Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Panavision Primo, Canon L-Series and Zeiss ZF Lenses
Canon EOS 7D, Panavision Primo, Canon L-Series and Zeiss ZF Lenses
Canon EOS-1D Mark IV, Panavision Primo, Canon L-Series and Zeiss ZF Lenses

Even in the interviews they have about using the 5ds in the movie in different magazines and online blogs they are really vague about how much was shot on dslrs.
 
Yeah, I'm wondering if now it's not just some POV stuff and specialty shots that would have been a pain to use the Arri for.
 
he had an interview some time ago stating that with the use of the 5D2 he had been able to cut the budget for the film from 147 million to 60 million, because of the reduced footprint (less lights, less equipment, less everything)
http://www.freshdv.com/2010/05/conversations-bandito-hurlbut.html
(second video, min 15 onwards)

in order to get such big savings, at least the plan had to be to use the 5D2 extensively

edit: sorry, it seems that was a different project, the production budget for act of valor is estimated at $15 to $18 million
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Act_of_Valor
but watching the interview, I doubt the 5D2 was not the main camera for this movie (though maybe not in the most spectacular bits, which should be the ones found in the trailer: for sure, that ultra-slow motion explosion can't come from a 5D2)
 
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Yeah, I don't know how much of the final movie is going to be footage originated on the DSLRs. I would imagine relatively little, mostly confined to the action scenes. From the WSJ article below, it seems that there are several incarnations of the film, starting with a bunch of training footage that was put together to show to investors, which was probably mostly shot on the DSLRs. When they went to shoot the final film I bet they stuck with 35mm for the bulk of the film. My question is, when seeing the film in a theater, will the DSLR footage cut seamlessly with the stuff shot on 35mm?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904787404576528293606172306.html
 
Of course, you know when the film comes out, there are going to a plethora of threads on forums like this and in blogs all over the internet that will play the, "Guess the DSLR Shots" game.
 
David G. Smith said:
Yeah, I don't know how much of the final movie is going to be footage originated on the DSLRs. I would imagine relatively little, mostly confined to the action scenes. From the WSJ article below, it seems that there are several incarnations of the film, starting with a bunch of training footage that was put together to show to investors, which was probably mostly shot on the DSLRs. When they went to shoot the final film I bet they stuck with 35mm for the bulk of the film. My question is, when seeing the film in a theater, will the DSLR footage cut seamlessly with the stuff shot on 35mm?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904787404576528293606172306.html
Click to expand...

The question of if it will cut seamlessly has be has been answered already from movies like Captain America, Black Swan, Iron Man 2, Drive, the upcoming movie Red Tails and plenty of others. While I think they will never be the front runner in huge films such as these, for the little specialty shots here and there they will work well. I think a quote from American Cinematographer Magazine about the use of the 5d in Drive somes up how Hollywood feels about DSLRs in serious films.

Sigel notes that he also “set up my [Canon EOS] 5D in a fixed-camera position to get more coverage. Every time I pulled out my 5D, it ended up being used, just because you can put that camera where you wouldn’t dare put an Alexa.” However, the cinematographer adds, “in prep, focus puller Nino Neuboeck and I tested the 5D, 7D and Iconix cameras, thinking they would come in handy for the car work, but the quality of the Alexa outdistanced the other cameras by so far, we kept them to an absolute minimum.”
 
David G. Smith said:
Yeah, I don't know how much of the final movie is going to be footage originated on the DSLRs. I would imagine relatively little, mostly confined to the action scenes. From the WSJ article below, it seems that there are several incarnations of the film, starting with a bunch of training footage that was put together to show to investors, which was probably mostly shot on the DSLRs. When they went to shoot the final film I bet they stuck with 35mm for the bulk of the film. My question is, when seeing the film in a theater, will the DSLR footage cut seamlessly with the stuff shot on 35mm?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904787404576528293606172306.html
Click to expand...

From the wiki description, the Navy SEAL who was involved with the original recruitment project, indicated at that time the Canon 5D and 7D's were used. He was at a couple of Final Cut user group meetings locally. He had examples from ship-to-ship action, ship boarding, helicopter robe deployments, and a few of the 'beach campfilre scenes'. There was some discussion about the 5D's 'better' low light response, relative to the 7D. In any case, his main goal was to create a recruiting film to depict 'seals' both in action and at home, to give a more rounded indication of who the Navy is looking for in such men (i.e. not Rambo...).

The down rope from the helicopter shots at that time were 7D's mounted to the helmets of the men. Also at that time all the 'actors' were SEALS, since it was intended for the recruitment. There was some discussion about a bigger project, and apparently the filmmakers eventually got funding for such.

Here's a different trailer which has more of the shots I recall being presented at the time, and were shot with the Canons, in particular the beach party scenes, the ship-to-shop action. I think some of the ultra wide areal shots of the boats may have been as well, but I could be wrong on that. Or, they could have had Canon shots at that time, and reshot them later.



 
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j1clark@ucsd.edu said:
From the wiki description, the Navy SEAL who was involved with the original recruitment project, indicated at that time the Canon 5D and 7D's were used. He was at a couple of Final Cut user group meetings locally. He had examples from ship-to-ship action, ship boarding, helicopter robe deployments, and a few of the 'beach campfilre scenes'. There was some discussion about the 5D's 'better' low light response, relative to the 7D. In any case, his main goal was to create a recruiting film to depict 'seals' both in action and at home, to give a more rounded indication of who the Navy is looking for in such men (i.e. not Rambo...).

The down rope from the helicopter shots at that time were 7D's mounted to the helmets of the men. Also at that time all the 'actors' were SEALS, since it was intended for the recruitment. There was some discussion about a bigger project, and apparently the filmmakers eventually got funding for such.

Here's a different trailer which has more of the shots I recall being presented at the time, and were shot with the Canons, in particular the beach party scenes, the ship-to-shop action. I think some of the ultra wide areal shots of the boats may have been as well, but I could be wrong on that. Or, they could have had Canon shots at that time, and reshot them later.



Click to expand...
Final Cut user meetings? meaning Final Cut Pro?
He said in an interview that he used Premier Pro CS5 : http://tv.adobe.com/watch/shooting-and-editing-hdslr-video-using-adobe-tools/shane-hurlbut-on-using-adobe-premiere-pro-cs5-to-edit-act-of-valor/
Wiki might be a little off :)
 
Yeah, PPro/AE all the way. I asked if he used Warp Stabilizer and there was one scene which he had to use it after all the hand-held/shoulder type rigs he used.
The story behind that one shot was memorable but he had to go through some crazy scenarios/elements with the film.
 
JoeJITSU said:
Final Cut user meetings? meaning Final Cut Pro?
He said in an interview that he used Premier Pro CS5 : http://tv.adobe.com/watch/shooting-and-editing-hdslr-video-using-adobe-tools/shane-hurlbut-on-using-adobe-premiere-pro-cs5-to-edit-act-of-valor/
Wiki might be a little off :)
Click to expand...

My reference was to a Final Cut Pro user meeting in San Diego, several years ago, and the person who attended was the Navy SEAL liaison whose main interest originally was the 'recruiting' film. He mentioned there were plans to make a full length feature. But at that time it had not yet gotten funding, or was in the process of being funded...

Some of the shots from the several 'trailers' look like they used the original Canon 5D/7D clips, but may have done something different from the 'bulk' of the feature film production.
 
dtjohns1 said:
I'm confused as to how much of the movie was shot on 5ds. On imdb the camera specs are

Camera
Arriflex 235, Panavision Primo Lenses
Arriflex 435, Panavision Primo Lenses
Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Panavision Primo, Canon L-Series and Zeiss ZF Lenses
Canon EOS 7D, Panavision Primo, Canon L-Series and Zeiss ZF Lenses
Canon EOS-1D Mark IV, Panavision Primo, Canon L-Series and Zeiss ZF Lenses

Even in the interviews they have about using the 5ds in the movie in different magazines and online blogs they are really vague about how much was shot on dslrs.
Click to expand...

Here are a couple of other threads that might help shed light on the "what camera was used" question:
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?271867-Mark-2-on-BIG-screen&

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthrea...aping-up-to-be-an-incredible-year-of-cinema.&
 
The breakdown for Act of Valor is about 70-75% 5D2. A few 7D 60fps shots (the camera was not released until the film was almost complete), Sony 950 for Aerial shots mostly because it was too time consuming and expensive to have to bring the choppers down for reload of film or memory cards, and the rest was 35mm film. After the film started it was decided by Shane and the directors that they would shoot all mission scenes with the DSLR's and use the 35mm for the scenes that evolved the family and essentially home life (non mission). There is also 35mm in the action scenes where slow motion was needed.

Having seen this a few times now on the big screen I can tell you that it just holds up great. To think that this film began when the 5D2 was brand new and still 30p, no manual mode, etc it's amazing what Shane was able to pull out of this little camera. What is pretty funny is that I've read some of the reviews from those in the industry that have seen the film and the shots they point out as weak shots are actually the 950 shots, not the 5D.

I hope everyone goes out to see the movie. It's a roller coaster ride and the amount of work the team put in to shooting this film is amazing. The final cut is the best yet, the credit song written by Keith Urban just for the movie is moving and so appropriate. The Seals put their life on the line for all of us and this movie is a great tribute to them.

If anyone has more questions, please feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer them and If I can't I'll shoot them over to Shane.

Tim -
Elite Team
Hurlbut Visuals
 
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