"Untertow" Trailer - Brevis MP.1 + LOMO

Dennis Wood

Dennis Wood

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Congratulations to Piotr Skowronski and company for receiving the "People's Choice" award at the Bay Street Film Festival with "Undertow". The piece was done using professional actors and a crew of 18 over about 2 weeks. Camera used was the HVX200, with our CF1Le imaging element, and three vintage 28, 50 and 85mm LOMO cine lenses.

I've just uploaded the trailer:

720p: http://www.cinevate.com/images/undertow720p.mov (80MB)
640x360: http://www.cinevate.com/images/undertow.mov (39MB)

Discussion, bts shots etc: http://www.cinevate.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2225



Enjoy.
 
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I'll pass your comments on to Piotr and Dave (the lighting guru). The two of them make a pretty amazing team. Our EX1 fix was a bit late coming for this piece..and that was the camera they had wanted to use, both for it's lower noise, and increased resolution over the HVX200. The decision to shoot it at 720 24p over 1080 24p was pretty much dictated by that decision. Another compromise was the decision to shoot using our vintage LOMO lenses which are definitely not as sharp as our Zeiss glass, but they've got the look and low breathing behaviour that Piotr fell in love with.
 
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A fair bit of that is compression ... but yes, original HVX200. Piotr learned a lesson in terms of shooting HD in this piece. He has worked extensively with film, and lighting for the HVX200 (original) is much different. If you want it clean, then you need to expose a stop or so hotter than the monitors are telling you. Another slight issue on set was the fact that the DP refused to shoot with this particular HVX200 under f4 after doing resolution tests with it in our lab.

My overall impressions of the footage on our 42" monitor is that it is some of the sharpest we've seen from the HVX200. Sure the LOMO's aren't perfect edge to edge, but Scott (the DP) was militant with regard to back-focus, primary focus and shooting in the optical sweet spot for both taking lens and camera lens. The down side is that there's more noise there than I'd like to see. The next project will likley end up being shot on the HPX500 with our dedicated B4 relay lens which would make a huge difference in terms of noise.

I'm pretty picky when it comes to footage, but on the big screen (projected SD), this was right up there with the pieces that were shot on film.
 
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Wow. I say good move going with those LOMO cine lenses, the images produced are absolutely gorgeous. Great DP work too. I would be lying if I said that wasn't some of the most aesthetically pleasing film like footage I've ever seen. I loved it.
 
I am saying this in complete honesty and not in a mean way at all, but that Trailer did nothing for me, I watched it three times just to make sure no emotions where triggered. Now this is just my opinion, when I make a trailer or see a trailer, I feel that I am selling the movie for people to go see it. For me, that trailer did nothing to sell the movie for me. That aside it looks visually great, good focus and lighting, still doesn't have a film look but I dont know if he was really trying to push that look that hard. I hope you see this as constructive criticism, I am more inclined to see the film because of the use of the adapter and the amount of respect i have for it and for you. Man, we need some more films going on here... good to see someone is making progress.

Cheers,

Jon
 
Fair enough Jon...thanks for your input. This project was an interesting one from my perspective as Piotr really had his mind in the impressionist mindset with the result that folks respond to it more like a painting. Some love it while others were looking for the story to be more realist in nature. In that context, I had a more visceral response to it as a series of images, most of which could stand alone as portraits of a variety. That's what I love about 35mm film/adapter work.
 
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