http://www.finalcauseproductions.com/downloads/montage_web.wmv

Some clips from a short I've just completed--comments and criticism welcome!

I am totally impressed by the quality of the lighting and your image. Give us the low down on your technique!

Hi Keith,

We used the xl1s with the 35mm adapter--with 7 Zeiss prime lenses. The entire short was shot in a studio--I built the set myself--and we had Northern Lighting and Power out of Chicago, to do the lighting. I wish I could give you the details on the lights we used--my DP took care of all that! We used "bouncers" and sheets of paper, all sorts of strange things :) It was my first project--sorry I can't be more desctriptive!

Which adaptor? Do you mean the Mini?

Good f'n set, man. Totally made it. The lighting through the window - very nice.

Yeah, that looked very good. The DOF was nuts, heh.

Whats the entire short going to be about though? Is it all just them 2 in the room or something?

Yup, it's a 20 minute short--just the two of them in the room. Here's the screenplay, if you're interested in hearing what goes on--

http://www.all-story.com/issues.cgi?action=show_story&story_id=10

Very impressive, indeed. My hats off to all involved. Congrats and good luck.

Tell your DP he did a very nice job on lighting and shooting it.

Are we talking about the mini35 adapter here? The one with
the spinning ground-glass?

Sorry to get off topic here...but this is really getting irritating. Lately, I'm not able to see the video on any WMV files. I can only hear the audio. Anyone have any suggestions about what's up?

Sounds like this isn't a must-see...I don't want to miss it.

(How I wish this were a Mac/Quicktime world)

<<<-- Originally posted by Rob Lohman : Are we talking about the mini35 adapter here? The one with
the spinning ground-glass? -->>>

I'm not sure if it's the "spinning ground-glass" one--it's the adapter from P&S Technic

<<<-- Originally posted by John Locke : Sorry to get off topic
(How I wish this were a Mac/Quicktime world) -->>>

Thank god it isn't, otherwise I would be out of a job.

...Seems to only be possible on OS 9.x with the Windows Media Player. Microsoft has choosen to not support OSX so far.

(And John I agree that QuickTime is a better format - files are smaller and cleaner, even on a PC.)

Guess I'll miss this clip just like I've missed "Sex and Lucia". :-(

funny you mention "Sex and Lucia"--that's the "look" we were going for.

The quicktime clips, IMHO, aren't even in the same league as windows media series 9 clips. They just don't compete--for quality, or size. I have both available to me--and the only reason I would make a quicktime file now, is for someone that can't view windows media files. I'll see if I can come up with something--

I am impressed with the quality of the clip. What WM settings did you use for the output and what NLE did you use My player was set to 200% and it looked great.

How are you guys using WM9, is it by using the WM9 Encoder or do you encode straight from your NLE. I want to do it straight from premiere but can't seem to figure out how. Any ideas? What do I need to install?

John.

The big difference I think is whether the viewer can't or won't view the film. I can't think of a situation where anyone...PC or Mac...can't view a Quicktime file by simply downloading the most recent update of the free player. If they choose not to, then "won't" is the reason. But in the case of Windows Media 9, Mac OSX users simply "can't" download anything to view it. True...the percentage of Mac users is tiny compared to PCs...but I think you'd be surprised how large a number of people that tiny percentage translates to. Also, Mac users tend to be more media hungry users...whereas the percentage of PC users includes quite a few users that use them for business purposes only and don't care about media capabilities.

Sure...Windows Media 9 is good as is Quicktime. Which is better is subject to debate. And either way, both are excellent so any debate is splitting hairs. What isn't subject to debate is the fact that one excludes viewers while the other doesn't.

Anyway...I'd be very grateful if you'd also offer a Quicktime version, if at all possible. Or at least a fallback version of the Windows Media version that doesn't require 9.

I used a bitrate of around 500kb -- you should see the clip at 5000kb! I resized the clip in half, and also deinterlaced for playback on computer. That's about it, really.

I made a quicktime file to post--but it ended up being 133mb--and I don't have any bandwidth left for the month--though I'm thinking of getting a site to stream with. Also, the quality of the 133mb quicktime file pales in comparison to the 12mb windows media player 9 series, if you can believe that. I'm sure I could get it to look better--as the movie trailers at quictime.com look fantastic--just don't know how--though I choosing the best quality switches on the quicktime export.



<<<-- Originally posted by John Locke : The big difference I think is whether the viewer can't or won't view the film. I can't think of a situation where anyone...PC or Mac...can't view a Quicktime file by simply downloading the most recent update of the free player. If they choose not to, then "won't" is the reason. But in the case of Windows Media 9, Mac OSX users simply "can't" download anything to view it. True...the percentage of Mac users is tiny compared to PCs...but I think you'd be surprised how large a number of people that tiny percentage translates to. Also, Mac users tend to be more media hungry users...whereas the percentage of PC users includes quite a few users that use them for business purposes only and don't care about media capabilities.

Sure...Windows Media 9 is good as is Quicktime. Which is better is subject to debate. And either way, both are excellent so any debate is splitting hairs. What isn't subject to debate is the fact that one excludes viewers while the other doesn't.

Anyway...I'd be very grateful if you'd also offer a Quicktime version, if at all possible. Or at least a fallback version of the Windows Media version that doesn't require 9. -->>>