Love Hexagon - short film I'm DPing

[Josh Bass]

Hi all. I'm DPing a zero budget short film for a writer/director for whom I've also shot another short (which morphed into a feature) several years ago. I was going to wait 'til we were done with it to start posting stills, but I figured what the hey. Unlike the other movie, I'm trying to get fairly close to our final look in camera this time, though I still plan on jazzing it up with grading.

So we're doing this with my girlfriend's graciously lent 5DM2 package (so far, except for one shot, staying exclusively with the 24-105 f4 canon L lens), and my small lighting package (four fresnels, tota/2x3 chimera, china balls, etc.

I will include screens each week (we're shooting about one day a week), and behind the scenes stills, as long as the material isn't too sensitive (i.e. spoiler-y). Today will be our seventh shoot day, I believe.

[Josh Bass]

More screen caps:

PS, if you're thinking, "Basshole, you said you were shooting with a 5DM2, but I see nary a shallow focus shot in the whole bunch! I cry foul and throw down mine glove!" Well, we're literally a two man crew, the director and I. So I'm trying to avoid dealing with focus pulling. As such, I run each setup through a depth of field calculator program to figure out where optimum camera placement (distance-wise from subject) and focal length is for each shot to give us appropriate DOF so I don't have to pull focus. Sometimes this ends up with me stopping down to F8 and upping the ISO to gain a mere 2-3 feet of focus with the relatively low powered lights I have.

PPS - - I realize how dark some of these look. After converting them to Prores HQ using 5DtoRGB, and dropping them in an FCP timeline, and calibrating my monitor to FCP bars, I think they're fine. I may bring some of them up in grading if I don't feel that way when the time comes. If we get a little noise, we get a little noise.

[Josh Bass]

Just for fun, I'm not going to tell you anything about the story. Let's see if your guesses based only on the provided screens result in any degree of accuracy.

[Josh Bass]

More screencaps. I think I'm going to forget about the behind the scenes/production stills. If anyone has a question about a setup, just ask and I'll do my best to recall how we did it.

[Josh Bass]

A little something different. . .yesterday we were outdoors on a bright sunny day.

[Charles Papert]

So let me ask you, Monsieur Bass; if you are having to work so hard to work the hyperfocal with the 5D, resulting in a pretty deep focus result, why not just use a camera like the EX's which is so much easier to work with and doesn't have the rolling shutter and moire issues of the 5D?

[Josh Bass]

The simple answer is: the 5D is the camera I can use for free. It belongs to the girlfriend and has been generously loaned to us when needed.

[Josh Bass]

More, from last week.

[Josh Bass]

Had a hiatus, resumed a few weeks ago. This is two weeks' worth of material compressed into these next few posts

[Josh Bass]

More, dudes. There, that was 10 characters.

[Josh Bass]

Yes, still at it. The last several times we've shot, it's been "spoiler material", so you don't get to see any of that. Today I finally have something I can show.

[Josh Bass]

Ok, so back at it.

Q: What do you do when you forget crucial insert shots while at one of your location?

A: After severing an appendage in the honored tradition of self-punishment, you fake the location and shoot the footage in Bass' tiny, crappy apartment!

Also, see our exciting montage of a coffee maker.

[Josh Bass]

Last update, as shooting is done. Trailer and whatnot (SOOOOOOOO much whatnot) to follow. Notice my cinematographic attempt/nod to the new BBC "Sherlock" in the stills below.