nicer version again 2.35:1 with new structure on blog and main page

is anyone interested in a 1080p version?

is anyone interested in a 1080p version?

Well what do you think? (That'll be a "Yes please" then!)

Stunning. Almost makes RED seem, well, unnecessary!

will stick a 1080p version up shortly!

1080p version online on the trench page and blog

Phil...

I'm still waiting for my LEX. Once I have it, I'll run some new PP's and post. The CINEMA matrix I sent you is rather "experimental" Use it with care.
Best of luck on your trip to the colonies.

Thanks Bill. Off tomorrow.

I am hearing that a firmware update will be out potentially within a week. Although the only feature I have had confirmed is support for 32gb cards.

It will be done by connecting the camera to the computer via USB, the downloaded firmware will include a utility that will detect the ex1 is connected and update like that.

We are shooting a feature doco in many global locations and for 3 nights next weekend we will be in Las Vegas.

If anyone is available to help us out that would be great! We are a low budget small team consisting of me the DP, a Director, a Producer and a Sound Recordist. We could do with an assistant. Someone keen to learn and hang out with a bunch of very laid back people.

We are in LA at the moment and we may need someone here too, but the producer thinks he has found someone.

We are shooting on two EX1s, one of them with a Letus Extreme 35mm adaptor. We are also shooting at night!

Ideally you need to be local as all we can offer is the food expenses and the experience, but if you are interested drop me an email @ philip.bloom@mac.com

Thanks!

it's the component one. Need an sdi one. Need a true HD one. The Clarion looks like my next purchase. One guy makes them. they look great

Hi Phil,

Do you have more informations about the Clarion ? Can't find anything on google.
I had a look on B&H, and there seems to be no good panel for under 2500€ with HD-SDI.
The Marshall seems fine, but are only 800x480, where the Astro are 1024x768.
I also noticed that those LCD are around 30 watts, where cheaper one are 30/35 watts....

I have never used on field LCD other than Astro or BT-LH900. I'm about to start a new thread to ask for comments, but maybe you have advices ?

Thanks.

Phil...I've actually had pretty good luck on Craigslist posting for AC's and PA's. You might want to post a listing on there in advance of the Vegas trip.

Good luck.

Just posted 2 blog reports about my trip to Prague with EX1 and Letus footage.
Check it out @ http://web.mac.com/stevecahill/Steve_Cahills_Blog/Blog/Blog.html

hey Cahill,

stop hawking your blog on my page!! Dirty trickster!

Did you just chat up those young Czech girls to pose for you?!? Very nice!

Someone has to hawk. Mr. Bloom get blogging! Looking for a installment state side.

Steve, you said "I used Magic Bullet but I found going back and forth from MB to FCP showed the applied grade different from the two applications on the laptop must be a graphics card thing." Do you mean the rendered clip was different then what you set up in the preview? If so I've seen the same thing, and I don't think it's a graphics card issue. I've noticed that if you use the presets things usually match, but if you really customize the settings the rendered file can be quite different from what you expect. This from within both FCP and AE on a Mac Pro.

Just posted 2 blog reports about my trip to Prague with EX1 and Letus footage.
Check it out @ http://web.mac.com/stevecahill/Steve_Cahills_Blog/Blog/Blog.html

Nice shoot. Nice girls :)
On the 2nd article we see you macbookpro with 3 hard drives. Are they alone, and you copy data 2 or 3 times, or are they in RAID ?
Are they firewire (400/800) or usb ? auto-power ?

Isn't the EX1 + Letus + rigs + matebox a little heavy and hard to manage alone ?

It seems the edges are really blury... is it because you don't have the EX1 special part or does it comes from your lenses (or MB ) ?

many thanks.

Magic Bullet Looks, yes on the Mac Book Pro the model I have puts about a 3x effect more in FCP than in Looks. This seems to be a common issue with other people as well with the laptop that I have read on http://toolfarm.com/phorumNew5/list.php?14

This is NOT a issue on the MacPro I have tried to compensate in Looks but I need to tweak some more or just do the grade on the Mac Pro vers the Mac book pro.

The drives I used for this were G- Technology drives http://www.g-technology.com/Products/G-RAID-mini.cfm I used their firewire 800 ports. Power supplied via the 800 port but beware you will need the power adapter to use two of them @ the same time. The Macbook Pro cannot power more than one at a time when using firewire with them. I copied the SXS cards 2x for backup, and another drive for the transfer of the SXS cards data to Quicktime for editing.

The EX1 + Letus + rigs + matebox are a bit I would say akward and challanging to manage alone at times, but welcome to the business. There is a advantage to work alone and quickly.


"It seems the edges are really blury."
I do have the EX fix, but welcome to DOF unless the object you are shooting is flat and you are aligned to that object like photographing a painting or a dollar bill, square on, (see my blog on "Critical Focus" )then you will get areas out of focus. That being said the DOF is extremely shallow when the lens is wide open and or stopped down one stop. With the 85mm lens and with a tight shot the difference of 1/2 inch in the subjects surface can make the difference of that being in focus or not. I think MB might of added some softness with some of the grades I used.

This is a area I need to do more testing with stopping down, I have generally found 2 stops is the max you can stop down, however with these DOF adapters stopping down too much can result in the grain of the DOF adapter showing, so more testing is needed here. I use the 85mm lens allot as I love the DOF that it produces. It is a difficult lens to use wide open.

You will be challanged with critical focus at every point with DOF adapters and even more so when on location and when shooting in HD and the subject is moving!

will be blogging as soon as I can catch my breath on this shoot

Meanwhile as Philip catches his breath, take a look at a new short using the Zylight for interviews I did on my overseas trip.

http://web.mac.com/stevecahill/Steve_Cahills_Blog/Blog/Entries/2008/3/12_Shot_with_Zylight.html#

New EX1 Letus Short shot in New Mexico done, the first of two. Am currently building its page, but it is now viewable on my blog.

Managed to squeeze them in between filming the doc.

heheheheh. My best to ya

My best thoughts on your blog...if it gets what I wrote..

too late, eh?

I KNOW you get it. Like the WW1 footage you shot...only this is real...not staged, is it? LOL

As usual, great shots Phil, and I particularly like the way you select and edit to a particular piece of music for each piece. You obviously have familiarity with and quick access to a wide range of music.

Did you find the sun hard to work with and what about the sand? Using the Letus means ND filters on the front of the cam via a matte box. I didn't see one on the pics of the shoot?

I knew what music I wanted so I bought it off of itunes.

I didn't have a Matte Box with me but for the sun shot I held a 4x4 ND in front of the lens. The Matte Box was all packed up for the flight to LA.

I shot with ND2 on the camera all the way through. It was bright, certainly brighter than England, but no more than places I have shot in before like the Middle East.

It was cut in a bit of a rush, I will tidy it up soon!

heheheheh. My best to ya , ya brit

My best thoughts on your blog...if it gets what I wrote..

too late, eh?

I KNOW you get it. Like the WW1 footage you shot...only this is real...not staged, is it? LOL

Bill,

Are you drunk. Am confused!!!!! Anyway am off to get drunk myself now!!

New EX1 Letus Short shot in New Mexico done, the first of two. Am currently building its page, but it is now viewable on my blog.

Managed to squeeze them in between filming the doc.

Hi Philip, on your site ( which I very much enjoy visiting btw ), the link for a couple of the films jumps to "my autumn's done come" including your Tent Rock page. I was able to find it by manually entering the page that I guessed (correctly) was it. Just an FYI.

Dave

site fixed! Cheers

now if anyone in LA is free tomorrow afternoon an going down to Venice beach to make a short. Drop me an email if you fancy it. Am staying at the custom hotel near LAX so I hope a taxi wouldn't be too much

Not to knock Venice Beach-love the place, but be carefull down there. Make sure someone minds you stuff!

Phil...

yesterday was a long day....i had a bit o' cheer, yes.
Nevertheless...tentrocks is an awesome place. I believe John Wayne filmed more than a few westerns there.
Now my curiousity is piqued. Will your work in the US be screened anytime in the near future?

Not for a while. We are only a fraction through filming!

I filmed a short on the trolley in Albuquerque too. Will edit it in next few days I hope!

question:
some shots were nice color balanced skies...that deep blue so typical of NM sky, other shots the sky appeared rather green. Are you using TC2? Did that result in those green skies? or is there some CCing going on?

crazy colour grading!

question:
some shots were nice color balanced skies...that deep blue so typical of NM sky, other shots the sky appeared rather green. Are you using TC2? Did that result in those green skies? or is there some CCing going on?

What is TC2? I did a serch but got references to pany true color. Don you mean CINE2?

whew! ;o)

scared me

i was going for other worldly. I used a preset in Magic Bullet looks called mishandled negative, then just tweaked that slightly.

I knew what music I wanted so I bought it off of itunes.

!

Does buying a piece of music of iTunes give you a license to use it in a distributed video?

absolutely not. It is commercial music. If I were to use it commercially I would have to pay. As long as it is on my website for non commercial use I should be fine. Normally I put an amazon link or something next to it. I must do that!

http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughtsonmusic/

http://www.ascap.com/weblicense/

http://www.emimusicpub.com/worldwide/licensing/for_limited_video_projects.html

Phil: On you shorts with the beautiful soft scenes and no fast action like "Dungeness" and "Kew Gardens", what frame rate do you use?

My second short from New Mexico is now online on my website. Info about it can be read on my blog. It's called "The Tramway"

Michael, just 25fps for most of it, some shots are 60fps 720p

Phil,

Great as always but a few question for us students regarding Tramway.

What Picture Profile setting?

Are you shooting 1080p and editing 720p to keyframe moves?

Did actually use tripod on the tram?

Are you punching up the chroma (saturation) in Magic Bullet or is that a Picture Profile?

I notice the image washes out (and seems to become very orange) as the tram leaves the dock and then the exposure changes again. How did you execute the exposure change smoothly?

On tram, focus from woman with still camera (out of focus) to man's face with still camera (in focus). How did you execute that without "rehearsing" it?

I don't see a music credit. Who's is it?

And the last question, being from NYC, I can't fathom how you shot the people on the tram with an EX1 without having the stare at you the whole time and/or telling you to bug off. What did you say to them?

My second short from New Mexico is now online on my website. Info about it can be read on my blog. It's called "The Tramway"

Michael, just 25fps for most of it, some shots are 60fps 720p

Craig: I would not dare to ask a busy guy like Phil so many questions, but I have been wondering exactly the same things about the people. So maybe we will get a bit of inside info.

The picture profile settings on my blog, with Cine 4 I think for gamma instead.

Shooting 1080p, but normally I do what you said about keyframes moves. What I did here was edit in 1080 zoom in to 130 percent track left to right and add a little sharpen.

I used the tripod the whole time for every shot.

The colours are from a Magic Bullet Film stock preset.

The exposure was controlled by using the EX1 iris as we left the dock, I was a little slow on that to be honest.

The man taking photo is actually a reversed shot, that's why when he comes into shot he is so fast, hence I got the focus when he was taking the photo.

I need to update the music credit. James Newton Howard again, this time from Signs.

I said absolutely nothing to the people on the tram. We were in tram for 15 minutes and I didn't start taking shots of them until 10 minutes in, normally I would have asked but they seemed chilled and fine!

Am looking for an assistant to help me out on a short film drama shoot this Sunday in Folkestone in Kent.

I am shooting on the Sony EX1 using the Letus Extreme. If anyone is interested let me know ASAP.

Thanks

Phil

Phil,

Do you find the IR problem (where with artificial lighting, the black fabric turns brown, the dark-blue looks more like magenta, etc.) a problem? How are you dealing with it?

not seen it

I consider my PP settings as open source. Which means, any publication of my PP settings are required to be posted with a reference to the source. My legal advice is already working on this issue. Any reference to my setting MUST be accompanied by a reference. Thank you for your co-operation.

The latest entry on my blog concerns my first ever proper drama shoot. A short film, about a powerful subject. I am very proud of it and really enjoyed shooting it.

Quite fancy doing more narrative work now!

Stunning Phil, it looks very, very good and the performance are spot on a quality piece.
Well done! great behind the scenes photos too!