JVC HD100U & Mini35 400 (30min Short Film)
 

"Four Thorns For Aidan"

Shot this in June of 2007. Learned a lot about the mini and how terrible the JVC viewfinder is for telling focus.

JVC HD100U
Mini35 400
Zeiss Super Speeds
Final Cut Studio 2

Director: Josh Smith
DP/Editor: Dustin Carpio

Currently in a number of festivals.

www.fourthorns.com/fourthorns.html

WoW...you have such a great image here....how did you get that ?

CQ.

CQ...

The JVC HD100U combined with the mini35 and Zeiss super speeds is one of the best 35mm adapter set-ups I've ever used. The image is super clean and resolution loss is minimal when using the super speeds. Although the raw camera data that we imported in final cut pro was amazing to begin with, the real wow factor of the footage was obtained using Color in the new final cut studio 2 suite. I've never had so much control on a desktop color correction program. Admitadly, I could have done a whole lot more with secondaries if we were originating on a RED or Viper, but the level of control with the HDV 720P footage was well beyond what i expected.

One thing I did learn with the JVC camera....underexpose by atleast 1.5-2 stops when using the mini35! The camera does not handle highlights well. Since this film I've religiously underexposed and pulled up the image in post with amazing results.

WoW....great work....congrats !

We have the Mini35 300 Series along with Xl-H1 but till now we haven't been able to get such a great image like yours, maybe the glasses we are using are not helping much.

Well, keep it up.

Take care,

Carlos Quinones
www.carlos-quinones.com
www.youtube.com/itswrittenproduction
www.myspace.com/itswrittenproductions

...yup, the day i started to do this was the day i started to really love the HD100. when she clips, she does it quickly. its really amazing how much you can retrieve in post. this looks really great, but i wonder if the lighting was too high key for the intensity that the script was trying to go for. the inciting incident could have been coupled with more powerful reversals, but perhaps it was the intent of the writer and director to communicate a lighter mood throughout to correlate with the positive message at its end- therefore the higher key? Either way, great work. very impressed.

Dustin, Hi!
A nice film you have!
I still felt some shots were overexposed for my taste, overall great work!
Do you mind telling which lenses you've used and if you remember at what F Stop you've shot for the most part,
CHeers, Oleg!

I learned to underexpose once I saw this footage in post. It was our intention to have everything look semi high key to go with the positive message, but not this much. The viewfinder and lcd on the HD100U is terrible, so it looked nicely exposed in camera. Once we got it into final cut though we saw just how overexposed and clipped everything was. Not that it wasn't usable, because as you can see it looks good. We just wish it wasn't so blown out.

There are plenty of times I wish we had more powerful reversals in the film. The only problem is we shot this entire 30 minute film in 4 days. We moved so quickly that I had to get something I knew would work.

I feel the same way about the overexposure. They didn't look overexposed when we were shooting. Since then I've learned not to trust the viewfinder or lcd and underexpose by a at least 1.5 stops from what my light meter says. It has worked out beautifully.

I used Zeiss Super Speeds in order to make up for the 1 stop loss the adapter produces. I tried to keep the lenses one stop below wide open. So around a f/2 or f/2.4. I controlled the exposure through the camera's built in ND filters and the iris on the mini35's relay lens.

wow! that is doubly impressive then. we shot a 50 min short in nine days (primary photography) and that didnt include pickups. in the end we were still wishing for more time. i feel you with the viewfinder and lcd- but once you know how to "read" them and set them up the way you want, its easier to get predictable results. this is where a nice on cam HD LCD comes into play- and is worth the extra expense when a lot of money and time is involved.

in case anyone is interested, here is my current reel. It's badly out of date, as I have an entire year's worth of work to add to it, but it has a lot of mini35 footage in it.

www.dustincarpio.com

What is good about your film is that after 2 minutes of watching it
I forgot that I was on the forum of dvinfo.
Much better than watching tv, and I don't think the average viewer
will notice overxposure or other problems once they are viewing it.

Thanks Martin.

One of the best things about editing this film is that I had the opportunity to let the actor's act, instead of constantly cutting them off for length and trying to cut around bad acting. While the acting isn't amazing in this piece, I felt as though it wasn't terrible like most indie films. One of the most frequent comments we get at screenings, besides praise for the film, is that people felt like it was only 10 minutes long instead of 28 minutes long. I can't tel you how many times I've been watching an indie film and couldn't wait for it to end.

As far as the overexposure...only the purists ever actually say anything about it, and they usually say it's not bad enough for them to care.

Dustin, can I ask....How much was your budget for this film?

Thanks,

Carlos Quinones
www.carlos-quinones.com
www.myspace.com/itswrittenproductions
www.youtube.com/itswrittenproduction

We budgeted 3k, but ended up spending around 4k. Obviously we pulled in a lot of favors for this one.