Update on my feature, shot on T2I

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odonnelly99

Active member
Hey guys, we just shot over the past 4 days on my T2I (with a 7D as well on 2 of those days) and I haven't had one complaint whatsoever. Didn't run into any overheating with the T2I- 7D got a little hot at times- but the T2I was fine, probably because we followed the advice I got on here to shut the cam off between takes.

Other stuff-

We easily made it through each day (10-12 hours) with 2 batteries, charging one while using the other.

The 100mm macro lens made me giddy.

Some of the actors seemed to have a "this is not a professional shoot, they're using photo cameras!" look on their faces when they saw the cams. Yet once they saw some of the footage, that attitude changed fast.


Hopefully the next 10 days go as well as the last 4. Thanks to everyone for the advice on here. If anyone has any questions about my experiences with the cams or the shoot in general, just ask.



P.S. discovered something interesting- take the # of extras who say they're going to be there for the first day, and divide that by 4. That's how many will show up. Now take that number and divide it by 2, and that's how many will show up the second day.
 
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Nice work man! It's always great to hear from people who are out there shooting. Looking forward to more news - congratulations!
 
I'm curious about the 100mm Macro. Do you find that the lighting setups are more intricate or can you knock off a couple of the same setups and just change lenses. I ask just because we are getting ready to do a spot - and they are really skimping back on who's lighting etc. etc.

Good luck man. Would love to see it!
 
odonnelly99 said:
P.S. discovered something interesting- take the # of extras who say they're going to be there for the first day, and divide that by 4. That's how many will show up. Now take that number and divide it by 2, and that's how many will show up the second day.
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That sounds about right LOL

Can't wait to see what you guys are up to, maybe some quick clips or screen shots :)
 
odonnelly99 said:
Some of the actors seemed to have a "this is not a professional shoot, they're using photo cameras!" look on their faces when they saw the cams. Yet once they saw some of the footage, that attitude changed fast.
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That's what I love about using the t2i. They see the cam, and expect something less than great, and their expectations are instantly lowered. When the see the final product, however, they are often blown away.

I shoot weddings with it sometimes and when I point it at people, they actually pose like a photo :Drogar-Thinking(DBG
 
Reysta- We're recording sound externally (which you most likely assumed)- didn't even consider for a minute recording it in camera. As to what recorder or mics, no clue. I'm directing it, and I let the sound guys do their thing. All I know is that its 1. an expensive recorder 2. pretty big and 3. the boom hasn't dipped into frame yet. Haha.

EditFoster- We didn't have to change lighting setups at all when using the 100. I think the lens we used most the past few days were the 50mm, 10-20mm, and the 100. Everythings looked fine from what I've seen so far.

Rakesh- I know, right? It seems like the ones that do show up for the first day are confused, because they expected a glamorous Hollywood shoot with a director in a chair with a bullhorn, but they're sitting in a bar with bright lights and the air conditioning turned off, with a director pounding cup after cup of coffee and twisting his body to weird angles to look at shots (me)

Shigeta- My DP mentioned to me that he would like to buy a 7D or T2I for weddings, and I warned him that people might get crazy worked up at first when they see the cam. And if I have to explain to one more person what a DSLR is, I'm going to write a description out in Word and print em, and hand em to anyone who asks.

I will definitely post stills, clips, audio, all that jazz as soon as we get something presentable ready. I'm taking classes two days a week in the summer (thanks GI Bill!) in addition to shooting, so tomorrow will be my first free day since we started shooting so maybe I can work something up.

Thanks for the encouragement everyone!
 
Update: Everything has been going good as gravy until today, when we realized that we couldn't find some of the shots from our Saturday shoot. I just found out today, for reasons totally confusing to me, my overworked and stressed out second AD let a guy with no clue what he was doing dump one of the cards onto the hard-drive. Now, gee whiz, golly, gosh damn, we can't find the shots. It seems that he only saved the Alias files.

Now, I'm a director who was an actor/performer first, so I'm cool with directing actors and telling a story, but I still have a TON to learn about the tech side of digital filmmaking. Yet even with my being a neophyte on the tech side, I realize HOW HORRIBLE this is. Am I pretty much screwed? It was a big scene, with around 20 extras, and we can't find a ton of crucial inserts and a chunk in the middle of the scene. Worst comes to worst, we can beg everyone to come back, "everyone" being a bunch of kids under the age of 10 and their parents, while wearing the same clothes, with no haircuts, and ask them to show up with the same enthusiasm, without pay- (yes, this is most likely impossible) and hopefully recreate the parts we lost.

I can think of a million things we should have done- first, we shouldn't have had this guy dump the cards. We should have put the files on two hard-drives, we should have checked to make sure it was on at least the one hard-drive before we wiped the cards, we should have slowed down, took our time and made sure we were doing things right. But we didn't, so now we may have to reshoot scenes from the most complicated day of the shoot.

Moral? I learned my lesson about making sure the job is done right and not just done quick, and hopefully anyone reading this can learn from my example and not make the same mistake we did. No, its not the end of the world if we lost the stuff, it just sucks. Really bad.
 
I always take my time and transfer all of my material to at least two drives. If both drives lose the footage then there is nothing I can do, but I always have at least another backup.

Second you as the director need to take charge, forget 20 people I have done scenes with 100 people and when I say cut because I need to dump footage or check the tech side of things then everyone stops and waits for me.


Take your time, you as the director are in charge!
 
odonnelly99 said:
so now we may have to reshoot scenes from the most complicated day of the shoot.

Moral? I learned my lesson about making sure the job is done right and not just done quick, and hopefully anyone reading this can learn from my example and not make the same mistake we did. No, its not the end of the world if we lost the stuff, it just sucks. Really bad.
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Dang, dawg. That really really suck eggs. I feel for you. But... you gotta bite that bullet and shoot it again. You're a whole lot wiser now.
 
Cieloent said:
I always take my time and transfer all of my material to at least two drives. If both drives lose the footage then there is nothing I can do, but I always have at least another backup.

Second you as the director need to take charge, forget 20 people I have done scenes with 100 people and when I say cut because I need to dump footage or check the tech side of things then everyone stops and waits for me.


Take your time, you as the director are in charge!
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100 people's a lot. What'd you shoot? Where can we see?
 
The process is actually quite simple.
Don't re-use the cards. Dump them to a HD, then archive the cards.
 
odonnelly99 said:
Update: Everything has been going good as gravy until today, when we realized that we couldn't find some of the shots from our Saturday shoot. I just found out today, for reasons totally confusing to me, my overworked and stressed out second AD let a guy with no clue what he was doing dump one of the cards onto the hard-drive. Now, gee whiz, golly, gosh damn, we can't find the shots. It seems that he only saved the Alias files.

Now, I'm a director who was an actor/performer first, so I'm cool with directing actors and telling a story, but I still have a TON to learn about the tech side of digital filmmaking. Yet even with my being a neophyte on the tech side, I realize HOW HORRIBLE this is. Am I pretty much screwed? It was a big scene, with around 20 extras, and we can't find a ton of crucial inserts and a chunk in the middle of the scene. Worst comes to worst, we can beg everyone to come back, "everyone" being a bunch of kids under the age of 10 and their parents, while wearing the same clothes, with no haircuts, and ask them to show up with the same enthusiasm, without pay- (yes, this is most likely impossible) and hopefully recreate the parts we lost.

I can think of a million things we should have done- first, we shouldn't have had this guy dump the cards. We should have put the files on two hard-drives, we should have checked to make sure it was on at least the one hard-drive before we wiped the cards, we should have slowed down, took our time and made sure we were doing things right. But we didn't, so now we may have to reshoot scenes from the most complicated day of the shoot.

Moral? I learned my lesson about making sure the job is done right and not just done quick, and hopefully anyone reading this can learn from my example and not make the same mistake we did. No, its not the end of the world if we lost the stuff, it just sucks. Really bad.
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Please don't take this the wrong way, it's not meant as a jab at you, but more so this whole "do it yourself filmmaking" thing that's supposed to be taking over professionals jobs.

This is exactly why people get paid 750/day minimums to do their jobs.

Again, that's not an attack on you, personally, as I am sure you now TOTALLY get it. The toll of this on your production can mean reshoots triple the day rate of seven-hundred and fifty dollars. The emotional toll is much greater, because now you're going to have it in the back of your head for the rest of your shoot, thus decreasing your ability to perform as a director.

Good luck with the reshoots. Dont' feel bad, either. I shot some kids a few months ago for a friends short and due to the size of the crew, I had to micromanage everything. Well, at the end of the day we lost all of the kid stuff from a borrow ice cream shop location and more than you'd ever want to hear about.

I'm still recovering from it.

Good luck, man.
 
Kholi said:
100 people's a lot. What'd you shoot? Where can we see?
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Music video, entire Band that consisted of at least 50+ musicians , entire parking lot filled with at least 30 cars and around 75-100 people.


I was only using the kit lens and got back at least 50 feet and still couldn't get everyone in the shot, I would have loved to have the 10mm lens or even the tokina 11mm.

So yes that was one of the biggest scenes but at any given time there were always 15+ people in front of the camera. Music video is in post and then will be submitted to major tv networks.
 
Hey everyone, finished with principal photography last week, now we're heading into the editing process. As soon as the editors whip up something presentable, I'll post it on here.

But before we begin this magical journey of constructing a film, does anyone have any solid advice, tips, or warnings about dealing with T2I footage? I know this a broad question. I'm not asking how to edit a film, just if the guys who have worked with T2I footage have any sage advice that will either make me smile OR save me any headaches.

Oh, and we're going to be editing in FCP7. I'm also forcing everyone in the editing room to either go "shirts" or "skins."

Thanks everyone.
 
Pookie said:
The process is actually quite simple.
Don't re-use the cards. Dump them to a HD, then archive the cards.
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Yea, these cards are so cheap now that I just shoot, copy to HD and archive the cards at least until the project is over.

maybe I'm just used to that from working with tapes all those years. I never reused tapes (I know people who did) it's a much smaller cost to buy new media compared to having to reshoot because of lost footage.
 
odonnelly99 said:
Hey everyone, finished with principal photography last week, now we're heading into the editing process. As soon as the editors whip up something presentable, I'll post it on here.

But before we begin this magical journey of constructing a film, does anyone have any solid advice, tips, or warnings about dealing with T2I footage? I know this a broad question. I'm not asking how to edit a film, just if the guys who have worked with T2I footage have any sage advice that will either make me smile OR save me any headaches.

Oh, and we're going to be editing in FCP7. I'm also forcing everyone in the editing room to either go "shirts" or "skins."

Thanks everyone.
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I've been using premiere CS5 for that, it's built in support for HDSLR is pretty good.

one thing I saw here is that you should convert to a better codec before editing (like prores), this doesn't make a lot of sense but they claim it makes a big difference
 
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