HVX200 + MPIC 35mm Imager

[Brian Petersen]

Steev,

Your stuff looks amazing! Thanks for the great footage!

What is your process in FCP for color. All your stuff looks so good and I'm wondering in you have a general process. Certain filters, certain settings, etc. I know you adjust for each shot but do you have a general list of favorite settings? Do you use Magic Bullet?

Thanks

[Steev Dinkins]

Originally Posted by Brian Petersen

Steev, Your stuff looks amazing! Thanks for the great footage!

Thanks Brian, much appreciated.

Originally Posted by Brian Petersen

What is your process in FCP for color. All your stuff looks so good and I'm wondering in you have a general process. Certain filters, certain settings, etc. I know you adjust for each shot but do you have a general list of favorite settings? Do you use Magic Bullet?

Amazingly enough, a lot of this material is stock HVX200 (with Cine setttings) with no color correction at all. White balance is crucial for accuracy, but some wrong white balance has come out interesting too. On other shots I'll correct for incorrect white balance with the 3-way CC filter in FCP to taste. I had a bunch of fun with the green foliage shot with throwing the blacks to violet and I was amazed that it didn't all fall apart. That shot I emphasized the green on shadow as well - cranked over to green as much as possible without destroying the image, then took the highlight color into some blue. I'm blown away with DVCPRO HD 4:2:2.

Regarding Magic Bullet, actually I have yet to put any Magic Bullet Editors Look Suite stuff on any of this. Can you imagine! :) I'd probably go there for white and/or black diffusion for sure. And I'd choose to do that in post instead of ProMist filters on acquisition most likely. The camera already looks gorgeous and not overly sharp and video-ish.

[Nikial Kabel]

Man that is a mean looking setup you have there sir. Love that Marshall and the 35 adapter.

[Shivuya Konban]

Originally Posted by Steev Dinkins

Yes, go raise $200k and buy the Red camera. Or go shoot film for christ's sake. This is indie stuff here. Sounds like you are hard to please in general, so good luck man. Sour grapes or a god send?

I'm a Buddhist, man.

[Brian Petersen]

Thanks Steev,

Thanks AMAZING color for the camera without much tweaking.

Another question. You were using primes on the 35mm adapter stuff, right? I noticed a fair amount of breathing when you pulled focus. I thought that lens breathing only occured with a zoom lens. I'm not a photography nut, so I don't know a ton, but I thought there was no lens breathing when pulling focus with prime lens. I guess I'm wrong though? You need cine lens?

[Steev Dinkins]

Originally Posted by Brian Petersen

I noticed a fair amount of breathing when you pulled focus. I thought that lens breathing only occured with a zoom lens. I'm not a photography nut, so I don't know a ton, but I thought there was no lens breathing when pulling focus with prime lens. I guess I'm wrong though? You need cine lens?

Brian, yes, these are Nikon still camera primes. As has been beat to a pulp in the Alternative Imaging forum, Cine lenses come closest to having no breathing while racking focus. I say "come closest" because even these lenses breathe to some degree. Still camera lenses have no reason not to breathe really. And I'd argue that's why they cost $500-$1000 each, instead of $14,000-$20,000 each. More points of reality for the indie aspect of all this. The can of worms is dense when trying to climb up the state of the art cinematography tree. The mini35 was the first to allow both high end Cinema mount PL lenses as well as less expensive lenses like Nikons. RedRockMicro had followed suit by allowing use of PL, which opened the door to getting used older cinema lenses like Angenieux and Lomo. Someone correct me if I'm wrong on that. I've never seen or used any cine lenses.

My thoughts are:
A) My shots in an edit won't last longer than 3 seconds
B) So the audience won't care
C) I can dolly or jib the shot to add overall movement that would make the breathing look intentional
D) As we get into this, we start wanting the whole real deal, but remember, this is indie stuff; dunno about you, but 2 years ago I was only putzing around with a Canon GL1. So all of this is a Quantum Leap ahead.

[Alexandre Lucena]

Steev,

Your demos has had a huge impact in my decision making of buying this cam. I found however the slow motion demo way too steppy *basket ball match*. I hope it has more to do with codec issues etc. Great contribution.

[Steev Dinkins]

Originally Posted by Alexandre Lucena

Your demos has had a huge impact in my decision making of buying this cam. I found however the slow motion demo way too steppy *basket ball match*. I hope it has more to do with codec issues etc. Great contribution.

Thanks Alexandre. Regarding the slow motion, I must admit I'm surprised to hear you describe it as "steppy". Certainly the footage earlier in the clip run at normal speed is steppy due to fast shutter speed. However, we all have different perceptions. So, I can think of this. As you see the normal speed had fast shutter speed, then I switched over to over crank and left the shutter the same. If I had slowed down the shutter speed for the slow motion, you'd get some motion blur happening, which may be the look you're after.

In short, I'd say, if you have enough light, or not too much light, or the means to control it through filters or light control, you can get the look you're after with the HVX. It's amazingly variable. You'll notice a number of tests so far with high shutter speed, since I was curious how it looks, and how DVCPRO HD handles highly unique frames that high shutter speed results in.

[Steev Dinkins]

Another test for how DVCPRO HD handles complex motion:

http://www.holyzoo.com/content/hvx20...ock_Test09.mov

[Barry Green]

Steev... dude... did the polar bear get ahold of your camera or something? :)

[Steev Dinkins]

Originally Posted by Barry Green

Steev... dude... did the polar bear get ahold of your camera or something? :)

Ha ha ha.. Yes, Barry, that's exactly what that looks like!

So I had my mill master friend Warren intrigued enough to make a prototype skater dolly, yes indeed, and he just finished it today!

The stock HVX lens was a breeze to work with:

http://www.holyzoo.com/content/hvx20...ottleDolly.mov

The 35mm MPIC proved to be very very challenging as I expected, but I think I got some good shots dollying and pulling focus. My back freakin hurts now.

http://www.holyzoo.com/content/hvx20...5mm_Test11.mov

Now I need to get Warren to fashion a bowl mount for this thing now, so I can use my Bogen 519 head on it.

-steev

[Steev Dinkins]

Pic of the skater prototype.

http://www.holyzoo.com/content/hvx20...s/IMG_4355.jpg

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Nifty.

And the dog seems to like it too...

[Vincent Rozenberg]

@ Steev: That footage of the skater dolly is looking good! Are you just making it for yourself or planing to take it in production/sell it?

[Steev Dinkins]

I'm working with Warren to fine tune things and get to a finished device. Any one interested, please private message me for details on the how, when, how much, etc. After this he may be tackling a steadicam-like stabilizer as well.