We just wrapped our feature film "The Blackout" last week. It was an intense 27 day shoot (6 day weeks) in and around downtown Los Angeles. We shot in loft apartments, dank and dirty basements, rooftops with cranes and finished with stage work in Hollywood.

Wow, what an experience.

We shot with a fully outfitted XLH1. We bypassed HDV tape altogether and tapped into the camera's HD-SDI output and ran the feed directly to a Kona LHe card in a quad-core MacPro running Final Cut Studio 2. We captured everything using ProRes 422 HQ. The capture station was setup and configured by Promax in Irvine and performed flawlessly throughout the entire shoot. We never dropped one frame or crashed once.

From the Kona card we ran a loop-through feed to a Blackmagic HDLink converter which fed the 1080P picture to a 23" Cinema Display with a Vesa mount attached to a c-stand. We setup the HDLink with a custom LUT. Plus we used a modified version of the Disjecta custom camera preset.

We did not use any DoF adapters. We used primarily the Canon 6x HD lens and the 20x lens. Because of the nature of our film (taking place primarily during a power blackout at night) we knew we'd always be pushing the exposure envelope. So keeping the iris fully open and using longer focal lengths when applicable kept our depth of field relatively shallow. Additionally we couldn't really afford to lose an additional 1-1.5 stops with an adapter. Also our shooting schedule was so aggressive we couldn't afford any additional time futzing with back-focus and spinning ground glass.

We did have one critical camera failure half-way through the shoot. The mounting sleeve was accidentally ripped out of the base of the camera. Thanks to our friends at the Canon repair center we had a replacement camera within two hours and were shooting the same morning. Thank you Canon!

All of our behind-the-scenes video was shot with a Canon XH-A1 camera in 60i, HDV, and a custom preset applied. We also used Canon's wide-angle lens adapter, which surprised us to it's picture quality. We shot 30-hours of BTS! All photography was shot with a 5D, 30D and RebelXT (nearly 2000 photos).

So this was a pretty big Canon show. That was not our intention, but it ended up that way. Both XLH1 cameras performed very well. Both exhibited the same strange Viewfinder issues. Canon's replacement camera displayed slightly better low-noise performance than our camera, but both cameras inter-cut flawlessly.

Also, the A1 is a remarkable little gem of a camera. I often found myself using the A1 as a director's finder. It's so small and so light weight that it was very easy to use the flip out LCD, find my shot, show it to the DP and AC and they'd setup the H1 accordingly. And now I'm thinking about picking up an HV20 for this exact purpose.

Frame grabs and BTS photos to follow.

Congratulations Robert, looking forward to seeeing some of the rushes!

All of our behind-the-scenes video was shot with a Canon XH-A1 camera in 60i, HDV, and a custom preset applied.

Is there any chance you could make this preset available? Thanks!

Sounds awesome. Will you be using Color to grade it?
which fed the 1080P picture to a 23" Cinema Display
How did you remove the pulldown to make it 1080p? Or did you mean 1080i?

WHat do you mean by 'strange viewfinder issues"?

Is there any chance you could make this preset available? Thanks!

Sure. I'll have to pull the preset off the camera when I get a chance. I'll work with Chris to help add it to the master list as well.

Off the top of my head the preset is the same as the Disjecta (Stephen Dempsey) preset with a little more blue added.

Sounds awesome. Will you be using Color to grade it?

How did you remove the pulldown to make it 1080p? Or did you mean 1080i?

Yes, we will definitely be using Color. We've already done some sample grading using Color and we're very happy with the power Color provides. It's a great tool (a dangerous tool).

The 24F HD-SDI stream coming out of the camera is 60i. We're using Cinema Tools to properly remove the pulldown. I've heard that the new Compressor has a good "guesser" and can do batch conversions, but we've been having some problems with Compressor and 10-bit codecs such as ProRes.

WHat do you mean by 'strange viewfinder issues"?

There seems to be a short or loose connection somewhere within the viewfinder. Whenever the viewfinder is handled or touched the display suddenly exhibits strange chroma smearing, a complete loss of color information altogether, or a loss of the entire signal. If you tap/thump the viewfinder it corrects itself.

I found it funny that the AC would bring up how nice it will be to have Canon fix the viewfinder after we sent it in and then to find that the viewfinder of the replacement camera exhibited the exact same problems.

Congratulations Robert, looking forward to seeeing some of the rushes!

Thanks Nick. I was just getting ready to post some images when the producer stopped me. Hopefully we'll get something up soon.

Looking forward to the theatrical release of "The Signal".

Sure it just wasn't the exact same viewfinder? I hadn't heard of this problem.
Working with my partners xlh1, we are using the FU-1000. No color of course, but much sharper and easier to focus. Using a monitor for color checking.

I believe the viewfinder issue is one that I've run into several times. the cable actually works itself out of the port on the camera body. If you fully remove it then slowly push it back in , then feel for the snap of the internal locking ring it usually fixes the issue for some time. The main problem is if you look at an XL2 and H1 side by side you will notice that they have the 90 degree cable coming out and going slightly forward on the XL2, the H1 has the 90 degree going straight up, then turning another 90 degrees back out the front. This produces extra stress on the cable under normal use and works the cable out. causing weird viewfinder issues.

Otherwise congrats on the feature, love your work flow. thanks for adding all the details.

I believe the viewfinder issue is one that I've run into several times. the cable actually works itself out of the port on the camera body. If you fully remove it then slowly push it back in , then feel for the snap of the internal locking ring it usually fixes the issue for some time. The main problem is if you look at an XL2 and H1 side by side you will notice that they have the 90 degree cable coming out and going slightly forward on the XL2, the H1 has the 90 degree going straight up, then turning another 90 degrees back out the front. This produces extra stress on the cable under normal use and works the cable out. causing weird viewfinder issues.

Otherwise congrats on the feature, love your work flow. thanks for adding all the details.

Huh. That's something I'm going to try tonight when I get back home. Thank you for the heads up on that.

Sure it just wasn't the exact same viewfinder? I hadn't heard of this problem.
Working with my partners xlh1, we are using the FU-1000. No color of course, but much sharper and easier to focus. Using a monitor for color checking.

I really wanted to upgrade to the FU-1000 (worst product name ever), but that money was better spent on makeup and wardrobe.

Robert,

did you use any filtering? And was a matte box and follow focus used also ?

looking forward to the BTS and some clips....

Congrats !

Also...what kind of budget did you have for the production ?

Robert,

did you use any filtering? And was a matte box and follow focus used also ?

looking forward to the BTS and some clips....

Congrats !

Also...what kind of budget did you have for the production ?

We used a Chrosziel matte box and follow focus, base plate and iris rods by Birns & Sawyer. No one makes a focus gear for the 6x lens so we bought a gear strap from Zacuto and it seemed to work well.

We used .3 and .6 ND, a polizer for exterior daytime shots, and a black Pro-mist.

Here are some downrez'd JPEG's of some shots from the movie.

Love the screen grabs!
Very nice night-look colour grading :)

I'm curious as a HV20 owner with real 24fps/1080p - what would you say is the ballpark resolution you get with 24F matted to 2.35:1?

I just hope the next generation of Canon prosumer gear features chips at least as good as the HV20 :)

Good times!

Love the screen grabs!
Very nice night-look colour grading :)

I'm curious as a HV20 owner with real 24fps/1080p - what would you say is the ballpark resolution you get with 24F matted to 2.35:1?

I just hope the next generation of Canon prosumer gear features chips at least as good as the HV20 :)

Good times!

I've seen a couple different resolutions. I personally use 1920x816. I've also seen 1920x814.

Great lightning, Robert!
Those screen grabs look very atmospheric!
Is it a thriller or a horror movie?

I've got the first of a couple Teaser Trailers posted on our website. You can watch the embedded Flash version or you can download Quicktime HD versions.

I'm in the middle of a more in-depth Feature Trailer, but it was taking too much time away from editing the feature. Again, this is only a small sampling of the movie itself. Because we're in the middle of finishing a ton of FX shots, some of the more bad-ass stuff can't be cut into any of the trailers yet.

http://www.starwaypictures.com/theblackout/trailers.html

Enjoy!

Rob

Congrats Robert! Looks Great!

Jim Martin
Birns & Sawyer Inc
"At the ArcLight"

Thanks Jim. You guys sold me the camera package!!!

Yes, I remember when young Bobby Sanders came in to get his first camera. But that was a long time ago when I had more hair and the girls still looked at me. He came in full of wonderment and..........

Jim Martin
Birns & Sawyer Inc

Robert,
the image quality is great! I saw it in 720. Amazing shots of the buildings!
One thing, IMHO the gamma(CC), color treatment in various shots
looks like it's from different movies, thus somehow the emotional flow is
diminished...

Regards, Oleg.

Robert it looks Fantastic !

Thanks for your thoughts Oleg. I'll take another look at the grade on some of those shots.

Thank you for the kind words, John.

Robert:

What settings did you use in camera to cut down on video noise in the many low light shots?

Or was the low-light look done more in post.

Nice job - very tense and mysterious look.

Robert:

What settings did you use in camera to cut down on video noise in the many low light shots?

Or was the low-light look done more in post.

Nice job - very tense and mysterious look.


We took Stephen Dempsey's custom preset (disjecta) and futzed with it a little to our own liking (a little bluer). We didn't use too much noise reduction in-camera. We basically over lit all sets, stopped down in camera, and then dialed down the blacks in post.

At first my DP and gaffer were lighting specifically to the Cinema Display on set. But the Cinema Display had no LUT applied and appeared too bright. So I loaded a custom LUT on the HDLink converter box so that the image appeared 1 to 1.5-stops darker. This basically "fooled" the gaffer/dp into over lighting slightly. Which is fine because I'm basically serving as colorist also.

Got any news or new movie grabs?

Hey Alain - for the time being I don't have much more than the teaser trailer. We just locked the cut and we're handing it off to the composer this week. We're beginning to tackle the 221 visual effects shots now. With a little luck we'll be done in a couple months.

I'm also working on another teaser trailer and a full-length trailer. But I can't guarantee when those will hit. It's tough doing all the post-production work pretty much solo.

Hey Alain - for the time being I don't have much more than the teaser trailer. We just locked the cut and we're handing it off to the composer this week. We're beginning to tackle the 221 visual effects shots now. With a little luck we'll be done in a couple months.

I'm also working on another teaser trailer and a full-length trailer. But I can't guarantee when those will hit. It's tough doing all the post-production work pretty much solo.


Thanks for the info and good luck with the production.

I've just posted a new trailer for our film THE BLACKOUT. It is a more traditional theatrical trailer.

WATCH THE TRAILER HERE (http://www.starwaypictures.com/theblackout/theatrical.html)

You can also download a 480p and a 720p version.

Looking really good Robert!
Nice to still have the XLH1; it rocks.

Good luck

Carl

That looks really good robert. I'll be excited to see it when it comes out.

Thanks Carl, thanks Nick.

We're in discussions with distributors now. Which is a relief considering that it took a year to get this sucker through post-production. One thing for sure, I'm finding out that bypassing HDV and going straight to hard disk is turning out to be a blessing. I'm finding out that distributors are increasingly weary of accepting projects originated on HDV and will not accept anything on MiniDV. In their opinion (erroneous as it is) HDV is not "true" HD. All we said was, "We shot straight to disk like Fincher did on Zodiac" and they responded, "Fantastic."

I think HD-SDI to IOHD ProRes (or equivalent full raster codec) is the "safest" workflow for smaller 1/3" and 1/2" cameras.

We have tickets available for the premiere at The Landmark in West. L.A. if you're interested in attending.

The trailer looks great, too bad not showing in Moscow, Russia!

Awesome trailer, and great music... is the score in the preview an original piece or stock music?

Awesome trailer, and great music... is the score in the preview an original piece or stock music?

Most of the music in the trailer is from the library. However, the score for the movie was done by Justin R. Durban. He did an amazing score for the movie.

Robert,

I'm totally impressed with the trailer on your site. I'm awaiting my XL H1a which comes in on the 23rd and can only hope to some day create something that awsome looking.

The lighting created an intense feel. I shoot with an XH A1 now and had no idea it could produce that clean of an image at low light.

Garrett

Robert,

I'm totally impressed with the trailer on your site. I'm awaiting my XL H1a which comes in on the 23rd and can only hope to some day create something that awsome looking.

The lighting created an intense feel. I shoot with an XH A1 now and had no idea it could produce that clean of an image at low light.

Garrett

And it looks amazing projected 2.35:1 on a theater screen! ;)

Robert,

I'm totally impressed with the trailer on your site. I'm awaiting my XL H1a which comes in on the 23rd and can only hope to some day create something that awsome looking.

The lighting created an intense feel. I shoot with an XH A1 now and had no idea it could produce that clean of an image at low light.

Garrett

Garrett, keep in mind that I believe Mr. Sanders used a workflow that incorporated the data stream out of the HD-SDI connected to the HD-SDI input port of a capture card and recorded near uncompressed to a computer hard-drive or raid array. That being said, the well lit HDV out of the H1a and A1 can look pretty darn good in many situations.

Garrett, keep in mind that I believe Mr. Sanders used a workflow that incorporated the data stream out of the HD-SDI connected to the HD-SDI input port of a capture card and recorded near uncompressed to a computer hard-drive or raid array. That being said, the well lit HDV out of the H1a and A1 can look pretty darn good in many situations.

Yeah, that was one of the things I wrestled with in getting the H1a, but after long analysis I figured I would not be lugging a computer or deck that could take an HD-SDI feed. I've gotten some pretty good results with my A1 in low light but seeing what Robert was able to capture just shows how good the CCD's in the XL/XH series Canons are.

Garrett

Robert,

Can you tell us a little about sales of the picture? Domestic? International? I'm sure everyone who supports you on this board wants to know how the picture fared in the marketplace, given how difficult the current climate is for independent movies.

Can you tell us with what territories you have sold or got distribution deals? And what problems you have encountered?

Best wishes to you and your cast and crew.

Harry

We're in the final leg of a worldwide rights deal with a reputable distributor. So we haven't had to resort to selling the film territory by territory even though we were fully prepared to do so.

I have, however, been hearing two schools of thought regarding DVD sales. The distributor I'm doing business with is actually quite excited about the future. As far as he's concerned DVD sales/rentals goes up and theatrical box office takes the biggest hit. However, I've heard from a separate international distributor that DVD licensing deals for independents in many European countries has dried up.

Because our film is a science-fiction/disaster film (Cloverfield type) we're being told our market sub-genre is currently under served and is expected to do well. I have definitely heard that independent dramas, comedies with no names, holiday themed, and romance pictures with no names is dead, dead, dead. Certain types of creature features and traditional slashers are not doing very well either. Buyers ARE paying attention to the Friday the 13th reboot, though. If that does well it might be a good time to sell a similar film.

Another thing we've learned is that if you plan on producing an independent film with no names (or barely recognizable names) is that you shouldn't let your budget exceed $500K or you risk not earning it back. If you have a couple decent names then you want to limit your budget to $1M to $1.5M.

Sci-Fi Channel, Showtime, Pay-per-View, and closed circuit hotel chains are still pretty good areas to earn some coin. You WILL NOT get rich on any of these cablers. But they are still buying content. However, they all want names in the cast. If you don't have any names then your execution and production values need to be really high.

Here's my last little piece of wisdom I've learned through the course of making this picture: make sure you have some fees for yourself in the budget. I know it's tempting to forgo fees or to defer all of them in order to help get the picture made. Don't. Get your fees once you're funded. If you don't then it may take a very long time before any deferrals kick in. In other words, if you think you're going to make some fat cash when the film gets sold, you're not. In todays market it will take a year or two before you see all your residuals trickle in. Bottom line: the only way to earn a living making independent films is via your fees. It is NOT on the back-end. Not right now, anyway. So do yourself a favor and pay yourself first (especially considering you're the one doing all the work, getting the ulcers, pulling your hair out over all the legal details and contracts).

Thats a great film Robert, I saw it at Birns & Sawyers a few months ago....keep up the good work!
SW

Awesome Robert. Finished post on our 84 min SCI-FI / Horror feature called "Bio-Dead" a month ago. We haven't officially sought distribution yet (yet two reps have contacted us via AFM). Can you PM me with advice on agents reps? Did you rep the film yourself?
Thanks,
-C

And it looks amazing projected 2.35:1 on a theater screen! ;)

Hey Robert,

Didn't you mention that it was actually projected in 4K? If so, what was the process? Did you upres the material yourself, or was it all done by some hardware system? Also, did you screen from HDCAM, HDV, computer QT/WMV, or even Blu-ray?

Just curious, and congratulations on all your success so far.

Barlow

Hey Robert,

Didn't you mention that it was actually projected in 4K? If so, what was the process? Did you upres the material yourself, or was it all done by some hardware system? Also, did you screen from HDCAM, HDV, computer QT/WMV, or even Blu-ray?

Just curious, and congratulations on all your success so far.

Barlow

We encoded the film to a DCP package using the QuVis Wraptor software plugin for Compressor. There were several bugs we needed to resolve. The Sony servers required different file extensions. So we had to manually convert the file extensions and then we had to edit the Assetmap file to reflect those extensions. Otherwise the Sony server wouldn't properly load the package.

The movie needed to be pre-prepped for the QuVis software. The software is limited to 2K. So for a 2K "Scope" presentation we had to scale the film to 2048x858, which is a 7% scale increase. Once loaded onto the Sony server the projector scales the 2K footage to 4K on the fly. Plus the six channels of audio needed to be properly ordered (L R C LFE Ls Rs). I learned that in a theater auditorium the surround channels needed to be about 3db louder and the overall mix needed to be "brightened" to compensate for horn loaded tweeters.

I was really worried about how all this image manipulation would have on the movie. But man it looked GOOOOOD. I was floored. The black levels were spot on perfect. The color rendition was perfect too. The movie looked sharp. The noise looked natural and film like. The HDV footage that was mixed in looked really good. I'm almost pissed off I went through all that trouble to shoot the film straight to disk, that's how good the HDV footage looked. Of course, it was properly exposed daylight footage. But nonetheless, there was no macroblocking present.

So...the big lesson learned is that 1080p is "good enough" for theatrical presentation. I'm not sure how well it will scan out to 35mm. I've never tested it (particularly anamorphic scope). But for digital projection 1080p scaled to 2k looks great. Don't get sucked into the "4K is the only way" hype. Yes, 4K is amazing. Yes, James Bond was jaw dropping in 4k. Yes, 4K RED footage projected in 4K is amazing. But 1080p looks goddamned good too! LOL!