View Full Version : Seinfeld/Amex short films (shot on XL1) to air on NBC this week


Charles Papert
May 18th, 2004, 12:36 AM
This Thursday the 20th, NBC will air a special between 8:44 and 9 p.m. including the currently viewable Jerry Seinfeld/Superman mini-movie and premiering the second installment, as well as the behind-the-scenes documentary. It's a notable event because the whole thing is one big infotainment commercial for American Express, and it's 15 minutes of primetime ("Must-see TV", no less).

The spots were shot on the XL1s using the Mini35 adaptor last fall. They were intended for the web, so the DV format was considered acceptable at the time--who knew that broadcast TV was in the works? It will be interesting to see how the format holds up under this level of scrutiny.

Folks who have been around this board a while may remember that I was the camera operator on these, and in fact wrote an article especially for the Watchdog on the shoot (which will hopefully be back up shortly).

I'm actually off to Florida tomorrow to shoot some more spots with the exact same setup, with the same DP. I'll post some thoughts on that shoot when I return.

Norman Woo
May 20th, 2004, 07:32 PM
Charles

Just saw it. Looks great!!!!

They only showed part 1 and 2. There were no behind-the-scenes stuff. It referred the viewers to the AMEX web site ....

Chris Hurd
May 21st, 2004, 03:25 AM
Actually they showed Part One and just a teaser for Part Two. But I agree, it looked terrific in my living room!

John Steele
May 21st, 2004, 04:19 AM
lol, just been on the amex site to take a look at these, they were brilliant. You really got the best from the XL1 charles it looked awesome. Was it frame mode or filmlooked in post? What about grading/colour correction was there much done to it?

John.

Robert Knecht Schmidt
May 21st, 2004, 07:12 AM
If I recall, Charles said it was all shot Frame Mode except for a few shots of skyscrapers used for when Superman was flying.

Chris Hurd
May 21st, 2004, 07:15 AM
We have a couple of "making of" threads already going on this topic, where Charles is answering questions -- please take the discussion to either of these:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=23742

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=17353

Thanks fellows,

Charles Papert
May 21st, 2004, 04:01 PM
Sorry Chris, I wasn't really thinking when I posted this announcement in multiple places...my bad.

John Steele, I'll be reposting and answering your question in the second of the two links Chris provides below.

Ken Tanaka
May 22nd, 2004, 11:09 PM
Just for reference, the actual Amex Seinfeld shorts that Charles shot can be found here (http://www.jerry.digisle.tv/room.html).