thisiswells
Retired
Thanks Emanuel! Your link worked!
World Exclusive First HVX200 Footage..PART 2
- Thread starter Jarred Land
- Start date
Jay Nemeth
Member
I'm glad most of you liked the footage! I just finished reading these threads and wanted to answer some questions that were asked here and at the Panasonic press conference as well as the Expo. I lit and shot the pool hall / bar sequence, the breakfast table scene, and the desert sequence with the blue Iroc. My background is film, and I was one of the first cinematographers to embrace HD rather than berate it like some of my peers.
I used no filtration on any scenes with the exception of the camera's own ND filters to get the stop wide open on the long lens stuff. In fact, I had to back one ND out for the rack focus of the plant to Marcus walking down the dirt road, because DOF was too shallow. I was at the end of the lens on that one.
Cine Like V was our Gamma set up, Barry and I decided we liked the rich blacks. For a film-out, you would want to stretch that and get as much detail in there.
-3 for detail (I think). The standard procedure when I shoot with the F900 or the Varicam is detail completely "off" when the primary purpose is a film-out. If it will be broadcast in HD with a possible print to film, I add just a smidge of detail. I think -5 is detail "off" for the HVX, but I'm not sure.
I only had the cameras for 5 hours on 2 days, so I had no time to shoot charts or conduct any tests. I had no HD monitor or waveform, and I usually do my own DIT work on HD shoots, so this was frustrating. I wouldn't have put a lot of weight on those tests anyway, since who knows how different the production model will be. I did shoot a Kodak greyscale and color chips that was taped on the back of a slate, but only to get a handle on the blacks.
Focus is hyper critical in HD, and was always checked with the expanded focus button. That's a neat feature that has been on Panavision eyepieces for years in the form of a swing-in magnifier.
I'm still suprised to hear those who don't like the P2 cards. The workflow is as fast as shooting film, even a little faster. The 4gig P2 card holds 4 minutes which is a little more than a 400' mag of 35mm. When a card is full, your 2nd assistant or loader (Barry) takes the card and dumps it in the Laptop. By the time I had filled the other card, I had an empty one ready to go. I never waited once. However, there have been plenty of times on 35mm shoots, where the whole production is waiting for the poor guy who is in the tent turning mags around. No worrying about "was he rushing? Is the loop set correctly? Did he drop the idler arm?" The P2 card is faster than film, and I think most of the people who buy this camera are making movies, not shooting weddings. And for those that need to record for an hour, the firestore box will be the answer for that.
Someone said they thought they saw edge enhancement on the rocks when the Iroc pulled up. I looked at that scene, and while it is possible there was some artificial detail in there, I think it is the shadows of each individual rock that looks like EE. The camera is just so good at resolving fine detail, that you're seeing things extraordinarily clear.
The kitchen scene was shot with one light (well two if you count the one several million miles away). It always impresses the client if you construct a forest of lights and c-stands, but the point of cinematography is to make the best image both technically and artistically. If a room already looks gorgeous, no need to waste time or energy re-inventing it.
We had a 5 ton grip and electric truck with us, but we were in such a rush, that I just kept it as simple as possible.
Everytime I've been to a trade show, the first footage shown from a new camera has always been hokey footage of models in abnormally colorful outfits doing silly things, or test footage shot by engineers. Since this camera will be embraced primarily by filmmakers, I wanted to shoot a narrative set of scenes that was cinematic in content, and represented what most of the users would be doing on their own projects.
The next thing we are doing is a 35mm film-out of this footage to project, and I have a pretty good feeling that it will be outstanding. I've played around with the DVX100 and the HDV cameras, but I'm convinced that this camera is the one that will change the way low budget indie films are made.
It was good meeting Jarred at the press conference, and I wish everyone here huge success with their projects. I'll check in for the next couple of days if there's any other questions I can answer.
Jay
I used no filtration on any scenes with the exception of the camera's own ND filters to get the stop wide open on the long lens stuff. In fact, I had to back one ND out for the rack focus of the plant to Marcus walking down the dirt road, because DOF was too shallow. I was at the end of the lens on that one.
Cine Like V was our Gamma set up, Barry and I decided we liked the rich blacks. For a film-out, you would want to stretch that and get as much detail in there.
-3 for detail (I think). The standard procedure when I shoot with the F900 or the Varicam is detail completely "off" when the primary purpose is a film-out. If it will be broadcast in HD with a possible print to film, I add just a smidge of detail. I think -5 is detail "off" for the HVX, but I'm not sure.
I only had the cameras for 5 hours on 2 days, so I had no time to shoot charts or conduct any tests. I had no HD monitor or waveform, and I usually do my own DIT work on HD shoots, so this was frustrating. I wouldn't have put a lot of weight on those tests anyway, since who knows how different the production model will be. I did shoot a Kodak greyscale and color chips that was taped on the back of a slate, but only to get a handle on the blacks.
Focus is hyper critical in HD, and was always checked with the expanded focus button. That's a neat feature that has been on Panavision eyepieces for years in the form of a swing-in magnifier.
I'm still suprised to hear those who don't like the P2 cards. The workflow is as fast as shooting film, even a little faster. The 4gig P2 card holds 4 minutes which is a little more than a 400' mag of 35mm. When a card is full, your 2nd assistant or loader (Barry) takes the card and dumps it in the Laptop. By the time I had filled the other card, I had an empty one ready to go. I never waited once. However, there have been plenty of times on 35mm shoots, where the whole production is waiting for the poor guy who is in the tent turning mags around. No worrying about "was he rushing? Is the loop set correctly? Did he drop the idler arm?" The P2 card is faster than film, and I think most of the people who buy this camera are making movies, not shooting weddings. And for those that need to record for an hour, the firestore box will be the answer for that.
Someone said they thought they saw edge enhancement on the rocks when the Iroc pulled up. I looked at that scene, and while it is possible there was some artificial detail in there, I think it is the shadows of each individual rock that looks like EE. The camera is just so good at resolving fine detail, that you're seeing things extraordinarily clear.
The kitchen scene was shot with one light (well two if you count the one several million miles away). It always impresses the client if you construct a forest of lights and c-stands, but the point of cinematography is to make the best image both technically and artistically. If a room already looks gorgeous, no need to waste time or energy re-inventing it.
We had a 5 ton grip and electric truck with us, but we were in such a rush, that I just kept it as simple as possible.
Everytime I've been to a trade show, the first footage shown from a new camera has always been hokey footage of models in abnormally colorful outfits doing silly things, or test footage shot by engineers. Since this camera will be embraced primarily by filmmakers, I wanted to shoot a narrative set of scenes that was cinematic in content, and represented what most of the users would be doing on their own projects.
The next thing we are doing is a 35mm film-out of this footage to project, and I have a pretty good feeling that it will be outstanding. I've played around with the DVX100 and the HDV cameras, but I'm convinced that this camera is the one that will change the way low budget indie films are made.
It was good meeting Jarred at the press conference, and I wish everyone here huge success with their projects. I'll check in for the next couple of days if there's any other questions I can answer.
Jay
Contact_Therapy
Well-known member
Since the bandwidth has been exceeded on the server listed in the original post of this thread, and in case anybody still hasn't been able to see the clips officially posted:
Mikko Wilson has them mirrored on his site. You can find the links for all the clips on the first page of the Original "Worldwide Exclusive First HVX200 Footage" thread:
http://www.dvxuser.com/V3/showthread.php?t=40488
If you have trouble running those because you have a crappy PC like I do, then you may want to check out these low powered 480P down-rezzed .mp4 samples of already encoded clips:
http://tinyurl.com/72eh5
They run smooth as silk in the free VLC Media Player @ http://www.videolan.org
Mikko Wilson has them mirrored on his site. You can find the links for all the clips on the first page of the Original "Worldwide Exclusive First HVX200 Footage" thread:
http://www.dvxuser.com/V3/showthread.php?t=40488
If you have trouble running those because you have a crappy PC like I do, then you may want to check out these low powered 480P down-rezzed .mp4 samples of already encoded clips:
http://tinyurl.com/72eh5
They run smooth as silk in the free VLC Media Player @ http://www.videolan.org
Barry_Green
Moderator
The released footage in the booth was edited on the Mac. I used Vegas to piece together this .wmv.HVXguy said:
It is not the best workflow. Converting the files to quicktimes throws away the metadata, and Vegas performs very, very poorly with HD quicktimes. I don't know if it's the integration with quicktime, or the speed of the avid codec, or what -- but it's just painful to use, as compared to watching those apple guys editing two or three or five or eight streams of DV100 in real time!
So I wouldn't say "get by", I'd say "limp horribly". Who knows, maybe using CineForm would make it usable, but right now the avid codec within vegas isn't a satisfactory solution. Well, maybe on a dual-core dual-processor hyperthreaded system, maybe...
Barry_Green
Moderator
Hey Jay, welcome to the boards, and say hi to Harlan!
For those who saw our DVFilm film-out from the DVX100/Anamorphic adapter test, Jay was also the cinematographer for that (the Old West footage and the Matrix footage). Thanks for remembering the details on the scene file settings in the shots, as I obviously didn't!
For those who saw our DVFilm film-out from the DVX100/Anamorphic adapter test, Jay was also the cinematographer for that (the Old West footage and the Matrix footage). Thanks for remembering the details on the scene file settings in the shots, as I obviously didn't!
I just got in from my flight from LA to Vancouver, i will switch the footage over.
Yes welcome Jay.. great to meet you the other day.
Yuval Shrem
Active member
The exterior 1080 stuff looks amazing!!
Where is that 500MB native DVC-Pro-HD file which was mentioned in the beginning of this thread? Is it a different footage or just an uncompressed version of one of the clips we have seen earlier?
Where is that 500MB native DVC-Pro-HD file which was mentioned in the beginning of this thread? Is it a different footage or just an uncompressed version of one of the clips we have seen earlier?
Chris Messineo
Veteran
Jay,
Great information, thanks for sharing your process.
Chris
Great information, thanks for sharing your process.
Chris