I have jsut finished making a short film, which was shot on DV. I managed to achieve quite a convincing film look. Please email me for info.

www.pixelloft.com/riddle.htm

email: nicholasbartleet@hotmail.com

Great stuff Nicholas! I really enjoyed watching that, the DOF was awesome looked like film to me. One question, how did you make your "Mini 35" system?

Thanks,
Chris

Thankyou very much!! I housed a ground glass disc inside an industrial bearing, and had an engineering shop machine me a nylon pulley which fixed to the internal ring on the bearing. Not sure if this is a common design. I did try rotating a large glass disk, with a center hole, around a central bearing, but this design was fragile, and the glass prone to cracking, not something you need on a long shoot. Hope that helps.

Thanks, Nick

Thankyou very much!! I housed a ground glass disc inside an industrial bearing, and had an engineering shop machine me a nylon pulley which fixed to the internal ring on the bearing. Not sure if this is a common design. I did try rotating a large glass disk, with a center hole, around a central bearing, but this design was fragile, and the glass prone to cracking, not something you need on a long shoot. Hope that helps.

Thanks, Nick

Hi Nick,

What is the specification of the industrial bearing? Any url link?

TIA
Leigh

just phone any bearing manufacturer and ask for one with a high RPM tollerence, preferable not sealed, for speed reasons, and with an internal diameter of the ground glass you are using. I am in the uk, so i'm not sure I could offer you a supplier.

that stuff really looks awesome. If you hadn't told me it was DV to begin with (and i hadnt seem the XL1s), i prolly wouldnt have known the difference. What sort of color correction etc did you do?

just phone any bearing manufacturer and ask for one with a high RPM tollerence, preferable not sealed, for speed reasons, and with an internal diameter of the ground glass you are using. I am in the uk, so i'm not sure I could offer you a supplier.

Hi Nicholas,

Thanks for the answer.

May I ask what is your speed of your bearing while your device is working? Is it rotate really fast or really slow? What motor you are currently using? Where you got your motor from?

TIA
Leigh

Just explained this here. Cant remember the RMP im afraid.

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?p=328760#post328760

Just explained this here. Cant remember the RMP im afraid.

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?p=328760#post328760

Hi Nicholas,

Thanks

Regards
Leigh

I loved the look Nicholas! It was nicely done and very filmlike. The footage was a bit soft though, but the overall look was great.

Did you do anything in particular besides using a 35mm adaptor?

Hey Nic,
That was an awesome film. Great job.

Now you are making me have high hopes with my new XL2. I have taken enough panadol to reduce the amount of head aches I have developed trying to get the sort of film look you have right there.

Could you please state what camera (Canon XL) settings you used?

What was your lighting set up?

I am not clear about the 35mm adapter. Did you buy it or you made it?. If
you made it you self, how much will it cost you to help bulld one?

The Gun you use, is it real or do you know where/link on how to get those kinds film Guns?

Sound: How did you make the sound?. Did you record the sound during filming or you did that on a seperate post audio production? What mic did you use?

Thankyou very much for your comments.

To be honest, me reading off a load of settings I used for the film would be useless, as they were adjusted, depending on the lighting etc, and would be no use for you. Playing around with the camera, and learning good shooting principals for film and video from a book such as 'Cinematography, theory and practice' by Blain Brown, is the best place to start(I learn't a lot from this book). I can point out that the camera was in frame mode and I always shoot with -3 gain to reduce the noise as much as possible.

In tearms of lighting, what you don't see is 5000watts of background light, and the three redheads for foreground.

The sound was all adr and Sound effects, none of it was captured on location.

The device cost me a lot of money to develop. I would have been better off buying a used mini35 I think. The cheapest bet is to buy from www.micro35.com, I think at the moment.

The guns were blank firing Glocks, which have the weight, feel and action of a real glock. You can buy them from many places.

So how exactly did you do the sound. Could you please explain, because it was so clear and definitely made the movie a MOVIE!~.

Ok Nicholas, I have an XL2 and what I need to get a better movie look is to get a mini35, right?

I checked the website you provided and I wanted to know, which of these exact products do I need for my Canon XL2. Also do you have links to where those Blank Guns can be purchased?

http://www.redrockmicro.com/p_wizard_1.htm

http://www.redrockmicro.com/p_wizard_2.htm

Any help is highly appreciated!.

you need an adapter and some rails to mount it on. You aso need a set of prime lenses, preferrably fast ones. I use nikons, which used will set you back about £200 -£400 each. You also need to understand the whole filmaking process, and tailor that around your idea or own style of filmaking, but the basics rarely change, so learn them.

All the sound was ADR, and i used a rode nt3 mic, but that doesn't mean you have to, that is just what I used because it was cheap, readily available and reccomended by a few people.

What program and hardware did you use to edit?

This was impressive and imparts confidence in the ability of DV with some time and talent.

Awesome awesome awesome. So, 35mm is another key to "that film look"?

Absolutley Brilliant! You have tallent. If I was at it full time, I would have hired you. Great work!

just wanted to offer my congrats on a very well made short film... as many others are saying its awsmoe to know that our canon Xl's with a few modifications can produce such high standards of final product..
job well done"

in some other thread you have said to have used the frame mode, but, I am, may be, wrong me, you have never spoken of the color correction in post production that may be it is the element that makes your videos same to a 35mm.
do you explain us as then?

I love how people are asking about camera settings, thinking that is the reason for the quality look. As it was said before, you need to learn the ins and outs of cinematography and the film production process to get a quality piece like this. Learn how DV handles contrast ratios and how to light for it. The 35mm adapter with rotating groud glass adds to the look just as much as color correction and finishing process.