Film Shot with the Letus35 in Holland at DVinfo.net

Michael Dominic · May 9th, 2006, 01:03 AM

I'm a filmmaker from New York City. I got a job to write and direct a short film in Holland. The time from when I got the job, wrote the script to final edit was less than three months.

I could do anything as long as I showed Holland in a good light. I decided to employ a 35mm adapter and settled on the Letus35. I'm not going to go into a review of the device here, but am glad to answer any questions.

The end result is "Tulips for Daisy". I hope you enjoy it.

The link below link is to a Quicktime file. It is around 88 megs and runs 11 minutes.

www.frankieboots.net/TFD_SMALL.mov

Bill Porter · May 9th, 2006, 03:27 AM

Wow, great stuff! I hope the moderators keep it here rather than in "DV For The Masses," as it shows the Letus in actual use.

Tell us all about it: the purpose of the film, what lens(es) you used, what camera you used, how much color correction, what other equipment, etc.

Terrific job, and keep up the good work!

Yasser Kassana · May 9th, 2006, 03:57 AM

Very good work, but the letus is performing very badly indeed. Vignetting, very soft like 8mm.

Bill Porter · May 9th, 2006, 06:19 AM

I get the impression it's partically incorrect focus on the subject and partially just an extremely shallow depth of field (maybe intentionally, maybe to increase the amount of light), since in some scenes the subject would pass through a very focused plane.

Ben Winter, for example, produced some videos with a much sharper image out of his Letus, as have many others with their test footage. So, it remains to be seen what caused it in this case.

Michael Dominic · May 9th, 2006, 06:50 AM

Thanks.

I used a Nikon 50mm 1.4 lens. With the letus it seemed as wide as you can go. The grain of the ground glass becomes too prominent above 1.8 or 2.

The Focus is actually very very sharp, just very very shallow. I wanted the focus that way. If you look at it back you will see that I often rack focus from one subject to the next.

I also like the vignetting here. I think it lends itself to the look of the film. Having said that, I would not want vignetting in other circumstances. I could have zoomed in more. ALSO, you need to remember that that this vignetting is NOT in TV safe and cannot be seen on a TV. I also had to crop this file in order to get rid of the edge of the ground glass. These are only "internet" problems.

I shot on he PD150. We did do a pretty intense color correction in FCP. Using the built in filters as well as Magic Bullet editors in places. I de-interlaced using TMTS. I had a huge problem with Quicktime Bright?Con. It caused a flicker in many shots where the lighting was uneven.

Frank Hool · May 9th, 2006, 07:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael Dominic

I'm not going to go into a review of the device here, but am glad to answer any questions.

You're very close of that if You going to answer all those thousend question appear here.

here are mine:
1. Did you plan use different lens but because of problems some of those were dropped? I mean here fisheyes in first place...
2. Did You use follow focus?
3. Was it letus35flip?
4. How much You had to zoom in?
5. How it worked with different iris sizes?
6. What You think, was it exactly same(as in real 35mm) FOV was it bigger or smaller?
7. How large was edge fall off by real 35mm image size?

Zulkifli Yusof · May 9th, 2006, 08:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael Dominic

I shot on he PD150.

Finally a footage of a PD150 + Letus35 which I can view lol! Your short has got great looks!

Michael Dominic · May 9th, 2006, 08:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frank Hool

You're very close of that if You going to answer all those thousend question appear here.

here are mine:...

1. Did you plan use different lens but because of problems some of those were dropped? I mean here fisheyes in first place...

Yes. I wanted to use a 24mm, but at 2.8 the grain was to great.

2. Did You use follow focus?

I focused by hand.

3. Was it letus35flip?

NO!!! I bought the flip first and returned it. The flip is far from ready for proffessional use.

4. How much You had to zoom in?

Very little.

5. How it worked with different iris sizes?

Above f2 it was too grainy.

6. What You think, was it exactly same(as in real 35mm) FOV was it bigger or smaller?

Smaller.

7. How large was edge fall off by real 35mm image size?

I don't understand the question.

David Delaney · May 9th, 2006, 09:20 AM

Interesting film. I know it sounds strange, but I think like the medium and long shots with deeper DOF the best, it has a nice soft film-like quality to them.

Frank Hool · May 9th, 2006, 09:31 AM

First, Michael, thank You very much answering my other questions.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael Dominic

7. How large was edge fall off by real 35mm image size?

I don't understand the question.

I'll try to rephrase and split:
7. How big is target area(answer 6 tells actually it's smaller than 24x36)?

8. Did You zoom because of to get edge of GG behind the corner or did You zoom to get free some vingetting as well?

Mike Oveson · May 9th, 2006, 10:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael Dominic

5. How it worked with different iris sizes?

Above f2 it was too grainy.

So, even though the Letus utilizes a vibrating GG it still has grain problems without a fast lens? I hadn't heard this before, but I haven't been paying close attention to the Letus for quite some time.

Michael Dominic · May 9th, 2006, 10:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frank Hool

First, Michael, thank You very much answering my other questions.

I'll try to rephrase and split:?

7. How big is target area(answer 6 tells actually it's smaller than 24x36)?

I don't know.

8. Did You zoom because of to get edge of GG behind the corner or did You zoom to get free some vingetting as well

Both

Michael Dominic · May 9th, 2006, 10:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike Oveson

So, even though the Letus utilizes a vibrating GG it still has grain problems without a fast lens?

Yes, big time.

Rob Lohman · May 9th, 2006, 11:39 AM

Funny to see a movie shot in my country by a "foreigner". Some good shots
in there! Liked some of the looks of the sea, tulips and the trams.

Did you guys have a good time here? Looked like you had some great weather
(especially for Holland)!

When were you here? A couple of weeks ago I was in the USA myself.

p.s. the two tips in the first part of the movie look very strange to us Dutchies... :)

Francois Poitras · May 9th, 2006, 11:40 AM

Very nice film, very well done.

How many people were involved in the production?

May 9th, 2006, 01:03 AM	#1
Michael Dominic Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: NYC, NY Posts: 52	Film Shot with the Letus35 in Holland I'm a filmmaker from New York City. I got a job to write and direct a short film in Holland. The time from when I got the job, wrote the script to final edit was less than three months. I could do anything as long as I showed Holland in a good light. I decided to employ a 35mm adapter and settled on the Letus35. I'm not going to go into a review of the device here, but am glad to answer any questions. The end result is "Tulips for Daisy". I hope you enjoy it. The link below link is to a Quicktime file. It is around 88 megs and runs 11 minutes. www.frankieboots.net/TFD_SMALL.mov

May 9th, 2006, 11:39 AM	#14
Rob Lohman RED Code Chef Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Holland Posts: 12,514	Funny to see a movie shot in my country by a "foreigner". Some good shots in there! Liked some of the looks of the sea, tulips and the trams. Did you guys have a good time here? Looked like you had some great weather (especially for Holland)! When were you here? A couple of weeks ago I was in the USA myself. p.s. the two tips in the first part of the movie look very strange to us Dutchies... :) __________________ Rob Lohman, visuar@iname.com DV Info Wrangler & RED Code Chef Join the DV Challenge \| Lady X Search DVinfo.net for quick answers \| Buy from the best: DVinfo.net sponsors

May 9th, 2006, 11:40 AM	#15
Francois Poitras Regular Crew Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Québec (Canada) Posts: 133	Very nice film, very well done. How many people were involved in the production? __________________ François

May 9th, 2006, 03:27 AM	#2
Bill Porter Major Player Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Ventura, California, USA Posts: 751	Wow, great stuff! I hope the moderators keep it here rather than in "DV For The Masses," as it shows the Letus in actual use. Tell us all about it: the purpose of the film, what lens(es) you used, what camera you used, how much color correction, what other equipment, etc. Terrific job, and keep up the good work!

May 9th, 2006, 03:57 AM	#3
Yasser Kassana Major Player Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: UK Posts: 223	Very good work, but the letus is performing very badly indeed. Vignetting, very soft like 8mm.

May 9th, 2006, 06:19 AM	#4
Bill Porter Major Player Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Ventura, California, USA Posts: 751	I get the impression it's partically incorrect focus on the subject and partially just an extremely shallow depth of field (maybe intentionally, maybe to increase the amount of light), since in some scenes the subject would pass through a very focused plane. Ben Winter, for example, produced some videos with a much sharper image out of his Letus, as have many others with their test footage. So, it remains to be seen what caused it in this case.

May 9th, 2006, 06:50 AM	#5
Michael Dominic Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: NYC, NY Posts: 52	Thanks. I used a Nikon 50mm 1.4 lens. With the letus it seemed as wide as you can go. The grain of the ground glass becomes too prominent above 1.8 or 2. The Focus is actually very very sharp, just very very shallow. I wanted the focus that way. If you look at it back you will see that I often rack focus from one subject to the next. I also like the vignetting here. I think it lends itself to the look of the film. Having said that, I would not want vignetting in other circumstances. I could have zoomed in more. ALSO, you need to remember that that this vignetting is NOT in TV safe and cannot be seen on a TV. I also had to crop this file in order to get rid of the edge of the ground glass. These are only "internet" problems. I shot on he PD150. We did do a pretty intense color correction in FCP. Using the built in filters as well as Magic Bullet editors in places. I de-interlaced using TMTS. I had a huge problem with Quicktime Bright?Con. It caused a flicker in many shots where the lighting was uneven.

May 9th, 2006, 09:20 AM	#9
David Delaney Trustee Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Niagara Ontario Canada Posts: 1,121	Interesting film. I know it sounds strange, but I think like the medium and long shots with deeper DOF the best, it has a nice soft film-like quality to them.