New Zombies Feature shot on XL-H1
 

Hey guys,

I just finished my Zombie feature, and we shot it on the XL-H1.
I think it turned out really well, and the HDV 24f footage looks pretty darned good for the most part. We just finished shooting about 2 weeks ago, but we did throw together a quick trailer to give people a feel for the movie.

You can check out the trailer on our myspace page:
www.myspace.com/zombiesmovie

Let me know what you think. :)

Do you have someone to do color correction, effects ect.?
Darrell
FIRST CINEMA PICTURES

Just me :) ...feel free to contact me via my site: www.itdentertainment.com

You've got some good looking footage there. My favorite line: "Crack whores? Them bitches is crack whore zombies!"

Jason,

That's wild. You may have created a new genre; 'whorer movies'.

Congrats on the project and good luck!

LOL...I may have to use that! ;)

I checked out your trailer. Cool. It looks like quite a production. Can you divulge your budget, crew size and gear?

I have been advised not to get into detail about the budget. We have some distribution offers coming in already, so we don't want to discuss that part in public. Sorry.

We had a pretty decent sized crew...Awesome DP, Camera Op, Camera Assist, Script Sup, Sound mixer, Boom op, Gaffer, and about 5 Grip/Electrics.
Small-Medium sized lighting/grip package depending on the day.

Shot with the Canon XL-H1, stock lens @ 24f. Usually as wide open as possible. Mostly sticks or handheld, but a few steadicam shots.

Wow, just...wow. Strippers vs. Zombies! Inspired.
Congrats.

I bet you guys had a blast shooting that, good job.

Great Zombie!
 

Great trailer. Pictures look amazing.
What kind of set up do you have on the H1?

Not sure what you mean by Setup?

You mean like custom presets?
I made my own custom preset when I first got the camera...I would have to look and see what I did. Plus, I did some color correction in post. :)

Zombire Pictures!
 

Yup. I guess I mainly meant custom presets. Although, I'm interested how you controlled exposure (and the problems associated with highlights etc - not to mention the viewfinder that seems to make people underexpose!) - and the apertures you like to shoot at. Also do you shoot with polariser or other filters - or rely on post entirely.
A.

Keep up the good work.

We set the zebra at 90 and had 2 monitors on set...a cheap 19" HDTV, and a 9" professional SD video monitor. We tested it, and figured out that we could fairly accurately use the SD monitor to judge exposure. Eventually, we stopped even bothering th pull out the HDTV.
I was the director, so I only actually operated the camera about 5% of the time...but after a while, you get used to what the proper exposed levels look like in the viewfinder...and having someone else checking the monitor is a good safety.

We didn't use any filters on camera...but our entire shoot was INT or EXT NIGHT.

Aperature, we tried to keep all the way open (or close to it) as much as we could. Having a good lighting crew, and the right tools to control the lights is key in this part...it is different when you are using available light where the light controls you instead of the other way around. :)

transfer to film
 

I'm looking into hdv cameras to shoot a feature with, and i've read at some video to film transfer houses, that they say not to shoot in 24F with the canon hdv cameras, are you transferring to film? if so how are you conforming it to 24fps? and if you had it to do again would you do it the same way (24F, xl-h1 etc...)

thanks

I've read in the past that with the old XL1 you should not use the 24f mode because it was so soft, but I haven't seen that at all in relation to the H1 or A1/G1. However, you can even shoot interlace if you want, and the lab can do the 24p conversion for you.

DEFINITELY shoot in 24F mode for a transfer to film. 24F is identicle to 24P from a workflow perspective. The transfer house will want it as 24 true frames and that's what the H1, A1 and G1 records to tape.

Agree! I've shot in the "f" mode and did film-out - no problem att all. I sent my footage in tiff-sequense to post.