Tribute to DIY Dolly, Disjecta, & Vertigo

235 Studios

235 Studios

Veteran
Well, who would have thought that you would see those word in the same sentence?

I've put together a quick 20 second, 3.7MB clip of some dolly tests that I did last night. And this is what I learned - inorder to get good solid camera moves while moving the dolly you DEFINATELY need someone else pushing the dolly. (What a night mare trying to control the dolly and the camera at the same time! [I need to get one of those small lightweight dollies for when I have to do it myself])

Anyway, check it out and let me know what you think.

http://www.waltersindustries.com/wiDollyTest.html

Thanks Disjecta for the tips on 2.35:1. ;D
 
Re: Tribute to DIY Dolly, Disjecta, & Vertigo

Looks good. A little shaky though, but a good test. Can you point me to a post that shows how to get 2:35:1 footage?
 
Re: Tribute to DIY Dolly, Disjecta, & Vertigo

Thanks, The shakiness comes from my attemps to control the camera and the dolly at the same time - not recommended. As for the thread you can do a search on widescreen or here is a summary of what I picked up from Disjecta:
To get 2.35:1 footage
1. Shoot in 16:9
2. Create a widescreen mask and mask off the top and bottom by12.5%
3. When exporting for the web crop off the top and bottom leaving what remains.

(I also found that in FCP the widescreen filter has a setting to mask off 2.35:1)

Here is another idea that I had, but have not teasted it (I think that this would yield a higher resolution image.)-
1. Use the Anamorphic adapter on the camera
2. put the camera in 16:9 setting.
(I think that this might work better on camera that are native 16:9
Has anyone tried this??
 
Re: Tribute to DIY Dolly, Disjecta, & Vertigo

Tried to load your test, but the quicktime file didn't come down the pipe. The other stuff on your site loaded fine, but for some reason this didn't.

RE: anamorphic
I did something like this in my first film. I used the DVX-100 (not A) with the anamorphic adapter and used the crop setting in camera (the faux 16:9). This gave me almost a 2:35:1 frame. I say almost only because when I put that same 2:35:1 FCP mask over my anamorhic footage, it still cropped just slightly more of the image I framed for.  Bear in mind, however, the black bars you record by cropping in camera are recorded as pixel data and depending on the post work you have in mind, it could limit your choices.

My suggestion: Use the anamorphic lens, crop in camera to find your frame on the LCD screen. Mark off where the bars are using low tac tape, then turn off the cropping feature to record the full frame. This will give you more options in post. You never know when you want to alter a frame composition later and you can't do that if you have black bars recorded as pixel data.
 
Re: Tribute to DIY Dolly, Disjecta, & Vertigo

Weird... I can't get the video to play. Either with Firfox or IE. And, I can play other sites QT files correctly.

Is your site really really slow?
 
Re: Tribute to DIY Dolly, Disjecta, & Vertigo

I'll check my code - but it should load, try letting sit for a couple of minutes - when i access it in IE it takes a minute for it to load the entire clip before it will play. The other clips will stream fine, but this one seems to have to be completely loaded first. I'll see if I can get it to stream ...
 
Re: Tribute to DIY Dolly, Disjecta, & Vertigo

You're right, I had to let the whole thing load before I could view it. Was that how you set the compression to work?

About the test. Not bad at all. Loved the shallow depth of field you got in the shot. You're right that the shakes will smooth out if you have someone else moving the dolly. Hell, I have a hard time walking and chewing gum at the same time! ;D

But I'm curious about your camera settings. Was this 24p? It looked like 60i to me in terms of temporal movement.
 
Re: Tribute to DIY Dolly, Disjecta, & Vertigo

Thanks!

I'll check the compression - but I thought that I had it set to streaming - guess not.

Your right it is 60i not 24p - everything was just shot straight, no adjustments, exposure wide open.

As for the DOF - I set everything up in my garage, the dolly was on one side, the monty python characters were roughly in the middle, and then I zoomed in as much as possible and kept the exposure open all the way.
 
Re: Tribute to DIY Dolly, Disjecta, & Vertigo

What are you editing with? I can't figure out how to get it to crop the top and bottom off with Avid Xpress Pro to make 2.35:1.
 
Re: Tribute to DIY Dolly, Disjecta, & Vertigo

Editing with FCP (Final Cut Pro)

Avid should have some kind of mask or matte filter that should do it. But it is Avid Xpress pro, so maybe it's not included in the scaled down version? I don't know as I'm not familiar with that platform.

Actually, this question would likely be better answered for you if you post it in the NLE section of this site for Avid.
 
Re: Tribute to DIY Dolly, Disjecta, & Vertigo

Couldn't say about Avid, FCP has it as a standard filter you can choose. (You could also create a mask in Photoshop and apply it as a layer above your video, this is what the filter is doing to the footage) As for the web version, when you export the final clip (for the web) you have to crop off the black area, leaving just the 2.35:1. If you export it to DVD you'll want to leave the black bars, as they will give the same feel as the DVD's you watch that are in this aspect ratio.
 
Re: Tribute to DIY Dolly, Disjecta, & Vertigo

Avid has a bunch of film mask filters in the FILM category of the effects pallete. then you cna adjust the cropping if need be.
 
Re: Tribute to DIY Dolly, Disjecta, & Vertigo

FYI regarding the "it used to stream, now it doesn't" problem:

Just do a "save As..." and save it somewhere else (or with a slightly different name) and select "make movie self-contained" and voila... the return of fast start!
 
Re: Tribute to DIY Dolly, Disjecta, & Vertigo

Thanks Doug, that worked great - and a lot easier then trying to fix code! :D
 
Re: Tribute to DIY Dolly, Disjecta, & Vertigo

And how do us Vegas user do the 2.35:1?!!!!! :o
 
Re: Tribute to DIY Dolly, Disjecta, & Vertigo

Good question. I'm just quessing because I don't use vegas - but check under filters and look for something called widescreen or maybe mattes and see if it is there. Will vegas let you import photoshop files? if so, so into photoshop, open up a comp that is in widescreen (I believe that the dimentions are 864 x 480 - but you'll have to check) and create a layer of black that masks off 12.5% of the top and 12.5% of the bottom. Then bring this file into vegas and put it on the track above your footage. and you've got it.

I hope one of these methods works for you. These are just guesses on my part. Maybe someone else will chime in.
 
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