Trailer for AF100 feature "Mandie and the Forgotten Christmas"

Owen

Owen

Photoshop Savant
Direct link: http://vimeo.com/22454372

Photography wrapped about a week ago on the third "MANDIE" film, "Mandie and the Forgotten Christmas." I am pleased with the AF100, having shot the first movie in this series on an HVX200+RedRock M2, and the second installment on a Canon 7D. The AF100 was like having the best of both worlds.

This trailer is an early look at the footage and was a VERY quick turnaround. Minimal color correction was done here... mostly just slight tweaks to the black levels. The Vimeo encode ended up rather contrasty, which I think is a Quicktime gamma issue that I'll deal with later.

Lenses used were various Nikon primes (28mm f2.8, 50mm f1.4, 85mm f1.8) and the Lumix 7-14mm as well as the Lumix 14-42mm.
 
THE best footage I've seen from this camera - amazing. The lighting was superb as well. What a fantastic production. I am a Nikon primes man myself so delighted to see them working for you. This would make an amazing sales tool for the camera!
 
Did you shoot entirely clean or did you have any filtration like BPMs or CS in the package? Incredibly clean images. Nice to see a production with proper lighting!
 
Nicely shot and well done.


If yu have time: Did the AF100 have or cause any issues during the production?

Conversely... any areas that the AF100 excelled in compared to any other camera you may have shot this production with?
 
Thanks for the comments everybody! :cheesy:

Erik Olson said:
Did you shoot entirely clean or did you have any filtration like BPMs or CS in the package? Incredibly clean images. Nice to see a production with proper lighting!
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Totally clean, though I ended with a few interior medium shots where I opened up and used the built in ND to get what I would have sworn was a dreamy pro-mist if I were judging just by what I saw on the monitor. I just did it for fun when I knew the talent didn't need to move, as it gave them about a half inch depth of field. Heh!

groveChuck said:
Gor-geous! Love the light on the woman at :45!
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Thanks! My lighting package is basically two 1200w LTM Cinepars, a 1k Mole Fesnel, and some random 250w and 500w Lowels.

Shooter said:
Nicely shot and well done.


If yu have time: Did the AF100 have or cause any issues during the production?

Conversely... any areas that the AF100 excelled in compared to any other camera you may have shot this production with?
Click to expand...

I have one major issue with the AF100 that became a serious pain, and it isn't even related to the image. When plugged into a monitor via HDMI or composite I get an audible hum on the audio feed. This does not happen over SDI, so luckily I could use my SmallHD 100% of the time.

However, that meant everyone else who needed to see picture basically had to hover over me most of the time, and my focus puller was not able to use a large monitor for reference during takes (I typically feed HDMI out to a 28" monitor for everyone else). I tried various power sources and various monitors and the buzz would always crop up either immediately or within 5 - 10 minutes. I even swapped XLR and bought a new microphone. Now that we've wrapped I will get in touch with Panasonic to see what they suggest, but I couldn't afford to be without my camera during the month of shooting so I just had to work around the issue. I'm sure that's an isolated issue regarding my particular unit, so it isn't even a problem with the AF100 in general.

As far as comparing the AF100 to other choices, I was fully intending on shooting this project on the 7D until room in the budget was found for the AF100 at the last minute. We are a small crew and move fast, so a big draw was being able to record our audio directly to the camera (as we have done on the majority of our projects since the DVX100 days). This might sound crazy, but we hate the time lost to slating shots and waiting for sound speed, so the ability to ditch the field recorder and the slate is great. We handle 100% of our production and post-production so we really don't have much need for a slate if it isn't being used to sync sound. It's also nice not to have to assign the job to someone, since everybody has multiple positions anyway (out of the three grip/electrics, one of them also doubles as the boom op and the other as AC/focus puller).

Having the waveform monitor in the camera is obviously fantastic! After a year of eyeballing the 7D and not having any proper metering to speak of (when using the old Nikon primes) it is very nice to have zebras, waveform etc back! Not worrying about my sensor overheating is also welcome.

I do miss being able to quickly pop off 18MP production stills! That was a nice bonus to shooting a movie on the 7D.

At first Focus In Red was iffy, but once we got used to it the tool became quite useful. I basically like to use it with the highlights in the talent's eyes. It is usually spot on and more trustworthy in that case as opposed to facial features or soft fabrics on clothing.

I felt much more confident in pushing the ISO higher in a pinch than I did with the 7D. I'm very glad for the ability to choose my exact color temperature. I didn't want to give that up when switching from the 7D.
 
Sparky874 said:
THE best footage I've seen from this camera - amazing. The lighting was superb as well. What a fantastic production. I am a Nikon primes man myself so delighted to see them working for you. This would make an amazing sales tool for the camera!
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This is what Panisonic should be using to market this camera. By far the best footage I've seen from the Af100, This is stunning! I didn't think this camera was capable this quality. very impressed.
 
Owen said:
Thanks for the comments everybody! :cheesy:



Totally clean, though I ended with a few interior medium shots where I opened up and used the built in ND to get what I would have sworn was a dreamy pro-mist if I were judging just by what I saw on the monitor. I just did it for fun when I knew the talent didn't need to move, as it gave them about a half inch depth of field. Heh!
Click to expand...

Additional vote for using ND indoors if you can, or some sort of filtration. Naturally, to fit the content.


Thanks! My lighting package is basically two 1200w LTM Cinepars, a 1k Mole Fesnel, and some random 250w and 500w Lowels.
Click to expand...

Small, light, impactful. That's what I'm talkin about. Litepanels in that kit would be killer.
As far as comparing the AF100 to other choices, I was fully intending on shooting this project on the 7D until room in the budget was found for the AF100 at the last minute. We are a small crew and move fast, so a big draw was being able to record our audio directly to the camera (as we have done on the majority of our projects since the DVX100 days). This might sound crazy, but we hate the time lost to slating shots and waiting for sound speed, so the ability to ditch the field recorder and the slate is great. We handle 100% of our production and post-production so we really don't have much need for a slate if it isn't being used to sync sound. It's also nice not to have to assign the job to someone, since everybody has multiple positions anyway (out of the three grip/electrics, one of them also doubles as the boom op and the other as AC/focus puller).
Click to expand...

Been trying to figure out if the RED's audio is good enough for the job, because I don't want to run a completely seperate second system next time around. I do want a Mixer on the job feeding audio into the camera, but I don't want to spend the hours upon hours of syncing and I don't know if I trust Plural Eyes to do it. Good tip here, man.
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Thanks for sharing your experiences, Owen. How many features is this for you and your team?
 
Kholi said:
Small, light, impactful. That's what I'm talkin about. Litepanels in that kit would be killer.
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Yeah they would! I was playing with some not long ago -- would love to eventually add them into the mix on a shoot.

Kholi said:
Thanks for sharing your experiences, Owen. How many features is this for you and your team?
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This is feature #8... 7 of which have been shot on Panasonic. It has been an interesting technological adventure from the launch of the DVX100 to today, has it not?!
 
maranfilms said:
This is what Panisonic should be using to market this camera. By far the best footage I've seen from the Af100, This is stunning! I didn't think this camera was capable this quality. very impressed.
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That was my thought. I may have to give the AF100 another look.
 
I went to Vimeo and watched some clips of the other Mandy films you have produced. I may be wrong, but it looks as if you shot the first Mandy film with the hvx and redrock combo, then the 7d for the second film, and last was the Af100. The footage looks beautiful from every film. WHy did you stray away from the dof adapter camcorder combo for your films. I know their light hogs, just curious.
 
Very nice. :) I've been doing lots of DVD Covers for Bridgestone Multimedia Group so I wonder if they'll be having me do this one? Do you have distribution completed?

Either way very nice footage. Definitely some of the best AF100 footage I've seen so far.
 
Owen said:
Yeah they would! I was playing with some not long ago -- would love to eventually add them into the mix on a shoot.

This is feature #8... 7 of which have been shot on Panasonic. It has been an interesting technological adventure from the launch of the DVX100 to today, has it not?!
Click to expand...

Man, is there any way I can convince you to pop over to the User Films section and start a thread? So that we can get some of your experiences to users who are interested in doing features.

Eight is a nice amount, and a wealth of knowledge for people. You started out on the DVX and today you're at the AF100, still kicking rump. And, you're in Georgia make this happen.

I want to read some chronicles!
 
This is absolutely the most impressive thing I've seen come from an AF-100 -- and I'm trying to figure out why. I suspect that 80%+ relates entirely to your actors, costumes, scenery, action, editing, sound, and lighting, and I suspect less than ten percent of it relates to your camera.

That being said -- what was the scene file setup you used?

Really -- fantastic footage. I'll go from here to your web site.
 
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