This film was shot with new HV20 and Letus35a. Though I recognize "content is king", thought it might be of interest to many out there who might be contemplating this combo, or the Cinevate with the HV20 I will post a high definition image if any one wants it on megaupload after release of films.....

Yeeah….we can see why Grandpa got cancelled. LOL! Just goes to show my age, though—I’m sitting here thinking, “Did they really bonk those alligators like that?” ;)

Interesting combination you tried there. I’d like to see a picture of the setup!

Let me know if anyone wants me to post at least of portion of this on Megaupload, to see what the HV20 and Letus combo look like in high definition.

Lorinda:

In the first post in this thread,

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=91465


I show a picture of the set up. It has been refined a bit since then, but this is general idea. As it is small, camera flipd easily and this set up give great access to controls...even though everything is upside down. Actually works pretty slick... and avoids a time and perhaps resolution robbing flip of the footage in post...

Funny! I like the faceless grandchildren too. :) The shallow DOF looks good, especially on the closer shots of Grampa sleeping. The lighting w/ the vignetting gives it a surreal quality which is cool. Is the vignetting a side effect of the 35mm adapter, an effect you chose, a little of both?

Nice job!
Bill

Not bad. I have to say that I disliked the music during Grandpa's storytelling. It really didn't seem to fit. I loved the music at the very end of the movie though.

The lighting on Grandpa was also pretty nice.

Good message.

Mike

Bill:

The wide shot was with a 24mm F2.8 Canon. It does fall off at the edges, and did contribute to that vignette look. One of the issues with the Letus/HDV20 combo, as well as with my FX1 is zooming in past the vignette point on some lenses. I have tried adding a second achromat I have on hand from Cinevate, and that gave me better capability, but I haven't tested it for loss of sharpness or resolution yet.

The Nikon 50mm F1.4 I have seems to do fine even into the F 8.0 and more Fstops. My experience is that the bigger the rear element on a lens, the better the issue of vignetting is resolved.

Mike:

Thanks for the input. Like you, had interference of real life things...:). Lucky to get something up.

You got the HV20, didn't you ? How are you liking it ?

Mike:

Thanks for the input. Like you, had interference of real life things...:). Lucky to get something up.

You got the HV20, didn't you ? How are you liking it ?

You did a great job! BTW, where did you get the music for the credits?
I love it!


I'm really enjoying the camera and I'm in the middle of filming a short, that's why I wasn't able to fit this one in.

Looks like we got some great entries though!

Mike

Mike:

I think all music was from SmartSound library. (I will have to get back to you for sure, because also could be from Sony's Cinescore, but I don't think so.) I do like that "Enya" type feel of the last piece. I only have 3.0 version, but there library increases monthly, and 4.0 has mood mapper too, which allows more variation. Cinescore has similar feel...

Those disrespectful little brats. Poor Grandpa. Anyway the whole production value was so good. Camera angles, lighting and the overall look of it. Very niiiice.

Always a pleasure to see your work!

"Damn TV." lol... You had some fun dialog: "Alligator boots for Army boots...you ever heard of that?" lol (again)
Poor Grandpa!

I think you achieved some wonderful looks with your camera/lighting set up. I liked the vignetting and crushed black feel. Very nice indeed.

Mike H posted earlier about the music playing during the story...I agree. It didn't seem to flow with that section of the story. Maybe it fought with it. Anyway, that is just personal preferences and no big deal.

Interesting choice of keeping the girls faceless. I liked it. Care to share more with regards to that choice? Am curious.

Mike: Followup: End music was a Smart Sound track from "Blockbusters", "Beyond Words", is the track....


Bradley: Shot this in a bit of a hurry, and the girls (my grandkids) were a bit balky, and I felt that an anonymous feel would fit anyway, so it just developed that way... They were watching a movie on the tele, and didn't really want to be pulled a way, so it all kind of fit right in anyway.. Edit: Just to make it a tad clearer, the scripted plan was to have them get up and walk out, but during the shooting camera operator and I considered lighting them, but I decided on them being silohuetted to keep them anonymous....


Both: Re Music: In retrospect, did want something "perky" to move it along, but better selection could have been made...

Nice idea, and it's all true, I think...

The graphic at the end reminds me for some reason of the old 1970 William Holden film "Network". I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore" with the VO running on about ratings and how Howard was canceled and all that.

Overall: Good show man.

Good short! It had a nice look to it too...

My kids don't listen to me over the TV and I don't even have to tell stories... Dad was cancelled years ago... I blame barney; that purple $&#$!!! :)

chris, man, what can i say? thats a damn fine submission!
i'm so jealous of that setup you had, it had nice shallow depth of field going, nice lighting too!

really great stuff!

I loved the lighting but I wish you had varied the camera angles a bit during his monologue. I almost left with the grandkids! :-) I did feel a bit nostalgic, however, since I have an uncle who regaled us with stories like that (my Godfather, actually). Oh, and we dared not get up and leave before his story ended!

Thank you!

Chris,

I liked the way the light falloff framed Grandpa's isolation in this new high tech world...very nice. I agree with Hugh though on the monologue. I understand time was short and actually filming a re-enactment would be impossible. But I would have liked to see some ECU's of Grandpa's mouth from profile while talking, and maybe his fingers fidgeting with his glasses. I feel it would have made a more artist use of your DOF setup, and would have been more sentimental for his age (close-up on wrinkled hands and such).


Where can I buy me some alligator army boots?!

Chris,

Your movie was really sad! I nearly cried at the end! Good message!

I can definately relate to the never-ending grandpa stories, but then being older I think they're facinating and don't find myself walking away...lol he doesn't have any about beating alligatos with paddles to make army boots though! :)

I too really loved the sillouette look! I think I'm with Hugh & Brent about adding in some cutaways of Grandpa, though...Although the more I think about it not changing the camera at all sort of adds to the bored feeling the kids must've been experiencing...so it actually could work as is.

Overall good entry!
Jamey*

OK if nothing else you made me chortle (not quite guffaw) with "alligator boots for the army"

I was ready for you to break into the "Battle of New Orleans" by Johnny Driftwood...

"Well, we fired our cannon til the barrel melted down,
so we grabbed an alligator and we fought another round.
We filled his head with cannon balls and powdered his behind,
and when they tetched the powder off, the gator lost his mind."

Nice DOF stuff.

I really like this on two levels. First, the look of it was really striking to me. It seemed much more like film than video, between the shallow DOF and the lighting effects you had. It was really enjoyable just watching it.

Second, I really liked the message. The text at the end was sort of like being hit over the head with the implications- sad but I think a good and important message.

I have mixed feelings on what others have suggested on varying the camera angles. To me, the way it was shot- both literally, and with a fairly constant camera angle, exaggerated the way he could be perceived as boring by the grandkids. So in the context of this film, I think it worked to create that mood.

This was a great film, with an important message.

Ruth:

Thanks for the kind comments. Happy about the film look, as that was where I was trying to go.

This story has some family background. My father used to tell an alligator hunting story to his grandkids, my kids, and my sibs kids.... Got to be quite a story as he embelished it.... They knew it was a story, but at the same time, had fun with it... And we his kids knew he never had anything to do with hunting anything.

Anyway, fast forward to today, and he is a lot like the guy in the movie, nobody is really listening to the stories anymore...it hard on him and us.....

Cutaways, etc: I did do some CUs at beginning, of movie, and did consider adding more during editing. Ultimately, decided to treat it the same as if we were behind the kids on while they were watching to TV....

Interesting looks and felt the intended boring aspect of it, poor grandpa, the TV took over :)

I really loved the lighting on the grandpa, he seemed to glow...really cool. I also enjoyed how you framed him (the kids as the frame and him in the middle), nice look.

Great writing, very rich story telling. I think it would have been funny to add more of the time passing type editing cuts and maybe have him go off on more tangents etc...

Cool work...and great concept.

Chris,

I liked the look and feel of it. Like others have said you had a real filmic look to it but beyond that, the lighting and focus seemed to me to add to the growing isolation GrandPa was obviously experiencing.

I'm a Grandpa myself, last year my 17 yr old went with me to a military reunion in San Antonio. The "Society Of Old Backenders" (those of us who operated electronic equipment riding in the "back" of specially configured recon aircraft) met in a small meeting room and began to "swap stories" of outrageous mischief and "bawdy house" visits.

Grandson's eyes got wider and wider as it became apparent that I had been a party to some of what was included in the tales. No boredom there...

But I did remind him that what happened in Tokyo, Tachikawa, and other places mentioned needed to stay there.