Really love the clip Phil. Agree the b&w works perfectly, and gives a real feel for what the place is like. Just one little shot in it that seems out of place and that's the coach. Remove that out and it could be from the 40's/50's.

By the way what is the music? Very familiar. Sounds like something from "The Others".

it's Neptune, from Holst's "The Planets"

Ray- any particular page, Mac or PC and what browser are you using? I was updating blog so that could of been issue can you try again.

http://web.mac.com/stevecahill/Steve_Cahills_Blog/Blog/Archive.html

Steve, not sure what it was but your site is working for me also...
I'm on PC

Thanks

it's Neptune, from Holst's "The Planets"

Durr! Of course! I have known The Planet Suite since I was a youngster and soon as I heard it I recognised it but couldn't place it.

Quick question for you guys. I am on the Sony stand at this Broadcast forum thing and all my work will be playing on the screen there BUT on Thursday I have this debate panel that I am part of. I have been asked to show one of my shorts...now which one do I show. I am leaning towards the South Bank, any thoughts?

My vote to Piccadilly Furs. It has more movement. The stillness of the other films (although excellent as well) make them less cinematic and more photographic to me.

B&W Dungeness. Definately. It has a feel about that the others don't. It feels like the start of a movie, somthing like Great Expectations.

That one will WOW the audience. I am there on Thursday. Hope the weather is not too stormy!

nobody agrees! maybe 2 minutes of Dungeness and 2 minutes of South Bank...

South Bank

South Bank!

south bank

with the exception of the flickering lights in the opening shot, I loved "My Autumn's Done Come" The detail in the close-ups is one of the things that really sold me on the EX1.

sorry.

my site is down currently as it is being revamped. My upload connection is a bit slow, but hopefully be back up in about 4 hours.

My vote goes to the Dungeness footage. Exceptional. Not to mention inspirational - now I want to make stuff like that!

Simon

Difficult choice - luv'emall!
Kew Gardens?

my favourite is Dungeness but I am certain Sony will like me to show a bit of colour!
by the way site is back up with re design. A little less messy and all the letus stuff is organised

Good to meet all the guys from the forum today and yesterday.

Been hard work standing up all day talking to everyone about the ex1, also because I am wearing a Sony exhibitors badge I had to explain to everyone that I don't actually work for Sony, just been hired by them for these three days as a broadcast EX1 cameraman. Been enjoyable, i think most people have been impressed by what they saw with it. They have a circle of about 12 cameras pointing at a bloke doing wood sculpting (!) all the way from the a1 to the f23 and the ex1 really shines!

Yesterday a guy from a big FX house in Soho was looking at the cameras, mainly at the pricier ones, then someone mentioned the ex1 to him so he was sent to me. He looked at it, saw the specs. Said thats pretty impressive. looked at the picture and said nice but as usual you can see noise in the dark parts of the image. I said really? I then looked closely and yes it was noisy as hell, so I looked on the camera and someone had stuck on full auto so it had AGC on. I turned it off and he was blown away by the clean image. When I told him it was 4:2:2 out of the HDSDI i think he was sold!

by the way, just booked my flight and hotel for NAB in April in Vegas. Was tempted by the Hooters hotel but though the taxman wouldn't be impressed!

Good to met you too Phil. I really enjoyed the show today, it's great to get to play with some of the top end gear. After a 17hr day though I'm glad to be home, it's surprisingly tiring taking in all that hardware goodness!

Paul.

Phillip,

What days will you be at NAB, full week? My associate and I will be there and would love to chat with you if you have a moment.

Peace and Blessings
Hidalgo

yep. the whole week!

About half way through this thread Phil mentioned he would make a list of some of the "neutral" Picture Profiles he uses. Has that materialized or did I miss it?

I actually shoot pretty much at neutral. I think for the letus on i shoot at sharpness 0, cinegamma 2 and saturation up 1 notch. This is something I need to fiddle with.

I think someone somewhere has posted some very nice recipes. Anyone know where they are?

I think someone somewhere has posted some very nice recipes. Anyone know where they are?

http://dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=110902

Bill Ravens TC2 on p7 seems to work really well.

regards

Paul.

Phil, Hi:
I know you have said you shoot neutral and color in post and I'm wondering if you color correct and or use Magic Bullet on EVERY take.

on everything. i am going to start using Bill Ravens picture profile settings from now on , but I will always grade.

Phil...

Glad you like the PP settings. I set these up for inherent grading in post, maximizing the dynamic range during capture but, I'm thinking I was too aggressive on the gamma level settings.

really good work Bill. You make things easier for us all!

new entry on my blog that shows ex1 rolling shutter skew, but also how nice the footage can look handheld running around a lot!

As ever, inspiring work, very filmic. I enjoyed something more dynamic for a change.

Presumably the vignetting was added in post.

yep! graded with magic bullet looks

Phil:

To add to the blog coment left for you regarding your Vegas trip: (based on a number of my trips to Sin City with big video cameras over the years)

1. Don't take your camera in any of the casinos without prior arrangements. They have zero sense of humor about this. Most of the security guys will run you off even from being in proximity to the hotel fronts, even if you're on the sidewalk, so set up off to the side.

2. The median strips always seem to have the best views, but the kindly police officers will remove you. And if you come to their attention, they will start asking pointed questions about video permits. This can be a bad thing.

3. Look for the pedestrian overpasses along the strip. Almost every one has a pretty good vantage point right at the top of the stairs.

4. There are a billion people walking on the strip on fairly narrow sidewalks. Keep your camera footprint small, and watch your gear carefully.

5. The lighted fountain show at the Bellagio is great, but you need to stake it out early, pretty much right after the prior show ends, if you want a ringside vantage point. Most of the other big roadside shows (like Treasure Island or the volcano) are tough to shoot from the street without making advance arrangements with the casino for camera access.

6. A pretty good video excursion is to start with the classic Vegas sign, then get a ride to the Luxor Pyramid. From there, you can walk the length of the strip in a couple of hours, shooting most of the big resorts along the way.

7. It's a desert. Take some water with you!

Have fun...

I have been to Vages half a dozen times and its very ture what Bill has said. I got asked if I had a permit and I was a tourist! It didn't go down to well when I asked the copper "are you for real"? It was because I was on a small tripod and an FX1 at the time, compared to everyone elses little handycams.

If you have the balls, sit at the front of the roller coaster on top of the Stratosphere. Or the other ride which pings you up the final bit on top of it.

Also the New York roller coaster is pretty cool. The interior of the Bellagio is nice, as is the Venetian, where I stayed. They were filming Get Carter with Stallone whilst I was there and I got to watch a bit of it being filmed. Rubbish movie though and not a patch on the original.

So much to see and do. Food is great and very cheap in certain places. They want to keep you in their casino so almost give it away.

Food is great and very cheap in certain places. They want to keep you in their casino so almost give it away.
Not so sure if that's really true anymore, at least in the mainstream hotels on the Strip. That used to be the cliche: $5 prime rib buffets, so you'd feel like you could spend more time at the tables, because you were virtually eating for free!

In the last few years, though, almost every casino I've stayed in has instead gone to the competing chefs and high end restaurants as a way to draw diners and make even more money. Most of them have little sandwich bars or one "family" restaurant that's less pricey, but it's still not cheap!

Fair enough. Last time I was there was 2002. We ate at the Golden Nugget in the big seafood bar and it was great. Loads of food on the buffet. Lobster, oysters, crab, help yourself!

Times change though.

And, if you get away from the newest and fanciest casinos, the food prices seem to go down in direct proportion to the distance from the Strip...

Received the Letus EX1 new acromat that fixes the edge to edge. Did a quick test showing the fix with a sample movie @ http://web.mac.com/stevecahill/Steve_Cahills_Blog/Blog/Blog.html

Results are excellent!

Steve,
thanks for the demo on the new Letus acromat for the Extreme that fixes the edge-to-edge softness.

This just turned this package into quite the 35mm setup.... unreal.

I'm looking forward to hearing and seeing more from you and Phil.

Received the Letus EX1 new acromat that fixes the edge to edge. Did a quick test showing the fix with a sample movie @ http://web.mac.com/stevecahill/Steve_Cahills_Blog/Blog/Blog.html

Results are excellent!

Just the results I had hoped for!

I did some food cinema on the ex1 last week. Mostly shot 1080p with some 720p overcrank stuff.

You can see some of the shots cut together for the hell of it (the clients have given me permission to post this, the actual footage is being edited, graphically played with then stuck on hd plasmas in movie theatres).

but best of all, i am posting for the first time UNGRADED!!! some of it is underexposed and it pains me to do it, but what the hell!. Also look under the rolling shutter section for the finished lithuania news item. mostly shot letus free and handheld.

all on my blog

anybody see any reason why i should have two ex1s?

Yes bro...
One to give me when you swing though Arizona! LOL

Event shoots. Of course you would need another camera operator.

sorry has problems with the compression. forgot to do it in h264 and it looked bad. uploading again now, about 5 mins for the sd version. little longer for 720p version

been offered an ex1 at a very very good price that i would be crazy to turn down. maybe keep one permanently letused up and the other naked?!

maybe keep one permanently letused up and the other naked?!

Now there's an idea!

Hey, did you get the new Letus achromat for your Extreme that fixes the edge-to-edge focus?

so tempted by that z7, but i think keeping the second ex1 makes more sense. especially as so much work i am asked to do these days is with the ex1. I can even do two camera interviews now with two ex1s and two letus extremes. now thats pretty cool

My shoulder mount test for the ex1 is now online on my blog. Enjoy!

Oh and don't forget to listen to my interview with Larry Jordan for Digitalproductionbuzz.com here: http://www.digitalproductionbuzz.com/LiveThisWeek/

it says 6pm, am assuming that is a USA time of some sort!

Phil,the cheap shoulder mount on your blog,i've got the same one,does work well.Best of all,i got mine on ebay,£18 plus £14 p&p.It came from china and got here in about 3 days.The translated instructions had me in stitches.
So if anyone else wants a stupidly cheap shoulder support that works well,get on ebay,it's well worth 32 quid.

get it. you can't go wrong for that price!

get it. you can't go wrong for that price!

can't pass up a good deal!

I did a ww1 drama shoot using 2 ex1s yesterday for Blackbox Media based out in Wales.

Some was shot with Letus Extreme, some without. Here are some screen grabs.

Doing an edit together of some footage today

here are some behind the scenes photos. thanks to mark dawson!