Sci-Fi short feature shot with HD200 at Babelgum.com

[Jose L. Martínez Díaz]

A short feature I dp'ed with the HD200 has been uploaded to the babelgum film festival. You can view quite a nice H264 version trought the site' software.

We had a small budget, 6 days for shooting and a ligthning kit consisting basically on kino flos and dedolights, apart from a 575 HMI Fresnel with chimera for fill. There are some nice moves also, done with a custom made jib arm.

The short will be transfered to 35mm anamorphic at deluxe (was shoot with stock fujinon lens) and what you can see is a temporary color correction, but would like to hear your opinions.

And if you like it... you know ;-)

http://www.babelgum.com/download/?ak...&clipId=110487

Jose

[Brian Luce]

Originally Posted by Jose L. Martínez Díaz

A short feature I dp'ed with the HD200 has been uploaded to the babelgum film festival. You can view quite a nice H264 version trought the site' software.



http://www.babelgum.com/download/?ak...&clipId=110487

Jose

I'd be happy to look at your film and comment on it however it requires a software download, not willing to do that. Try youtube.

[Burk Webb]

Yep, not gonna do the download thing but would love to see it.

[Dan Parkes]

Hi Jose

Enjoyed watching it, some lovely shallow depth of field -was this the film you shot using the SGPro with Nikon primes?... I am curious as we are currently in post on a short comedy shot on the HD201 with the DR-100, SGPro 35m adapter, and Minolta primes... with possible HDCAM or 35mm filmout on the horizon.

Just a couple of questions...there's plenty of low light material..how did the camera hold up under these conditions for you? And what kind of post-production workflow are you using... especially in regard to colour correction and filmout...? Did you simply crop (and hence lose pixels) to achieve 2.35?...

Dan

[Aaron Winters]

Software download and setup took 5 minutes. Though a YouTube version would be great.

Very interesting piece, really liked it. Where do you rent turtles though?

[David Scattergood]

@ Babelgum - Interesting piece of software!

Jose - had a quick look but bit rushed at the mo.
From what I've seen so far though it looks fantastic - the music it well done (usually lets movies down badly) and great macro shots and shots of the city (whichever town/city it's set). Did you use coloured filters for the opening sky shots?
Pray tell the details of the home made jib also!

I'll sit down with it properly later today but so far so good.

[Jose L. Martínez Díaz]

Originally Posted by Brian Luce

I'd be happy to look at your film and comment on it however it requires a software download, not willing to do that. Try youtube.

Hi,

I cannot use other method other than Babelgum due to the festival' restrictions, but I'll try to put togther a short reel in H264 in my website for you to check ASAP.

Jose

[Jose L. Martínez Díaz]

Originally Posted by Dan Parkes

Hi Jose

Enjoyed watching it, some lovely shallow depth of field -was this the film you shot using the SGPro with Nikon primes?... I am curious as we are currently in post on a short comedy shot on the HD201 with the DR-100, SGPro 35m adapter, and Minolta primes... with possible HDCAM or 35mm filmout on the horizon.

Just a couple of questions...there's plenty of low light material..how did the camera hold up under these conditions for you? And what kind of post-production workflow are you using... especially in regard to colour correction and filmout...? Did you simply crop (and hence lose pixels) to achieve 2.35?...

Dan

I shoot extensive tests and had them arrilaser'ed (does that word exists?) both with the SGPRO R2 I own with Nikon - Zeiss primes and the stock Fujinon lenses. Director wanted both 2:40 aspect and shallow focus, so I finally opted for the Stock lens. The Sgpro is a marvellous piece of equipment, and with good lenses you get quite a decent image for upres'- but since I couldn't fit and affordable method to get the desired aspect ratio, and the cropping and upresing already soften the image, we went with fujinon.

I would definetively use Sgpro in a 1:85 project, If I can get good lenses, but sgpro and cropping...too soft for me.

Lowlight... well, the camera is slow. With the CiNELIKE 24 scene file I rated it at 160-250ISO. I could get almost a stop with Paolo's latest truecolor. We didn't have exactly 'low light'. i found a sweet spot at f2.8-f4 and shoot pretty much all the short with this stop, except the night scene (wide open), and put pools of light at key and everything else 2 or 3 (or 4) stops under. In my opinion, lowlight is not exactly a strong point for this camera (or any other 1/3inch camera, by the way).

About the post, we are basically editing with PRORES HQ and using it as an intermediate codec for fx and preliminary cc (with Apple Color, a real pain in the...). Our plan is to export TIFF sequences (uncorrected) to finish with Lustre in log and the arrilaser to 35.

Jose

[Jose L. Martínez Díaz]

Originally Posted by David Scattergood

@ Babelgum - Interesting piece of software!

Jose - had a quick look but bit rushed at the mo.
From what I've seen so far though it looks fantastic - the music it well done (usually lets movies down badly) and great macro shots and shots of the city (whichever town/city it's set). Did you use coloured filters for the opening sky shots?
Pray tell the details of the home made jib also!

I'll sit down with it properly later today but so far so good.

Hi,

Glad to hear you like it. The city is Pontevedra, a small medieval city in the north of Spain. Nice city and nice people.

About filters, I had quite a nice filter package ordered, but due to production problems, I had to go with NDs (3, 6, 9) and Pola. I used a graduated ND in the sea scenes, but the building was shot clean and a grad added in post. (We have to blend it a bit, it's a bit crude in my opinion with the doctor's scene walking in the street).

And the jib, I didn't mean it was a DIY jib, it was a very expensive to rent and own jib, almost 8 feet and with seats for me and assistant, and weight almost a ton (I know it, it drove over my toe and almost lost it!), but it was and old (50 or 60'), custom built, made-in-Spain jib, since till 70-80' film equipment was rarely imported, so was custom built here. Have you ever heard about 'Guillermo Navarro' 'punchin'?. This was probably its sister :-). Have a look http://collect.myspace.com/reloc.cfm...=135149057&id=

Jose

[Dan Parkes]

Thanks for the extensive reply Jose. Its interesting that you went with the stock lens so as to achieve the 2.40 and shallow focus... we have experienced similar issues with SGPro having to crop and upres an already soft image, not made any easier with vignetting due to an anchromat that does not really suit the JVCs...actually Wayne of SGPro has measured up our camera to create a tailor made anchromat to alleviate this issue (its great that SGPro is based in our home city Brighton!).

We also used Paolo's latest truecolor setting (slightly altered, to soften the reds) which worked well, but its true test will likely be when we start to grade the picture this weekend (we will be using After Effects and Color Finesse).

Anyway, the picture looks great! Thanks for sharing.

Dan

[Gavin Owens]

Hi Jose,
I loved your work and am pretty impressed with Bablegum (I wonder if it is based on the fabled Bablefish). Personaly I think you pulled something out of the camera that I didn't think was possible but I supose you did telecine it to 35mm which is a rare commodity for us run'n'guns......
I don't want be OT but I have lived for about a year in Asturias (Of Irish origin) and have just bought a 201. It would be nice to have a like mind to chat with but I have to warn you....... I am a documentary cameraman. I don't have the skills of lighting other the I can predict the next image perfectly.... : )
I'm not sure if my e-mail address is attached so it's gavinowens80@hotmail.com.
Well done again
Gavin