High School Music Video shot with Letus35

[Jun Tang]

Hey Ben,

You took words out of my mouth...excellent. I'm a very opinionated person myself. Just say whats on your mind...so you don't have to hold it in and develop ulcers.

I went to University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee...major avante garde film school. I once saw a 45min film of a guy un-knotting a "bird-nest" on his fishing pole. I say we use those films in prison for punishment. Or "straight and narrow" is another waste of celluloid.

However, I did like Pollock's work. Ironic, yes. But I guess in any genre or art form there are Great work and there are g*daweful ones. There are bad and good hollywood films. Likewise in "Art" films. Unfortunately...there are more a much higher ratio of aweful art films than narrative films.

I guess whatever choices you make, as long as you make it work is all that matters. If someone can make an art film that works, great. But that does take talent...

[Aaron McMath]

Was that the standard Letus, unmodified?

[Ben Winter]

Yes, this Letus was unmodified, although the car headlight steadicam shot as well as a couple others were actually shot with my static Optosigma adapter which I've since sold. Static adapters work without a flaw but only if you have gobs of light available.

I've since replaced the ground glass in my Letus, replaced the battery pack with a 3-cell deal, made the battery pack unpluggable, and replaced the macro with a Century Optics +7 achromat. I'm looking to make the bayonet mount metal.

Yes, I agree, there are good abstracts out there, but the ones we can't stand are the weird brainfarts with no purpose.

[Graham Bernard]

Brilliant work Ben.

You told a story.

You used techniques that WORKED as the story was being told and unfolded.

And mostly each new change and edit had purpose.

Thank you for sharing - you give me courage!

[Aaron McMath]

What did you replace the GG with? Also, what battery pack? Did your Letus exhibit any grain problems before modification? Does it now?

[Ben Winter]

I replaced the GG with the same type, no difference, only because I ordered a replacement from Quyen since I had broken the original. The battery pack is from Radioshack, their enclosed 4 AA battery pack wired to work with only 3 batteries. The letus never really had grain problems but I used a very high shutter speed for the One Headlight video and discovered I needed some extra oomph.

[Stefano Sgambati]

Hey man,

you did a really good job there. Especially the photography, those color are seriously awesome. The only thing I didn't really like was the CGI of the leaves, it looks a little bit fake.

I was wondering, did you use ReTimer to get the slowmotion done?

[Ben Winter]

The only thing I didn't really like was the CGI of the leaves, it looks a little bit fake.

Haha...sorry but I don't exactly have ILM at my disposal. If there's anything I'd say in my defense, I'd be that we were going for a surreal look. I'd also mention that I'm not surprised many other people can do that leaf a lot better. I'm only 17 and still learning...

Actually I used MotionPerfect (www.dynapel.com) to get the slow motion. That and making sure I shot at a high shutter speed.

[Lloyd Choi]

Hey Ben, aweomse video...

that Motion Perfect tool you used... what NLE do you use?

[Ben Winter]

Premiere Pro 1.5. But MotionPerfect is a standalone program.

[Sarena Valilis]

nice work.... especially considering what you had to work with...
(if it werent for some of the dust specks in the adapter it would look
very professional)

.....

i will say this,---- you might want to re-read the post by Charles Papert...

he is a very talented person and paid you a high compliment.

your youth was obvious in your response, along with your pride in your own intellect...

sometimes it is better to just say, "hmmmm" when a master has spoken... give your brain a chance to absorb the entire concept...


or NOT, its up to you....

[Ben Winter]

Sarena,

I think you may have misinterpreted my response. Charles made some very good points and I recognized that. I admitted that there was hypocrisy in the nature of my website because of the new video. I also felt it was neccessary to reword my stance on the subject because perhaps I did not explain it thoroughly enough. You might want to re-read my post, because it seemed to me like Charles was posing a question that I felt obligated to answer.

"Pride in your own intellect..." I'm not exactly sure where this was inferred, because two posts down I recognize that my nature of thinking will most likely change as I mature. I am confident in my own intellect, not proud. I don't enjoy boisterous filmmakers any more than you.

I highly respect everyone on this site, being that the majority, if not all, of you have more experience at videography, filmmaking, electronics, what have you. I'm sorry if you misinterpreted my response but I meant no disrespect. Although you went so low as to call me youthful in my response (oh no! :) ) I will take your comments in jest and use them to improve my work to the best of my ability, as any good filmmaker should. Thanks.

Ben

[Leigh Wanstead]

Hi Ben,

Can you tell me the direct url link to your video? I want to download the clip and watch locally.

TIA

Regards
Leigh

[Ben Winter]

Sure. It's http://media.frozenphoenixproduction...eheadlight.mov

[Leigh Wanstead]

Hi Ben,

Thanks

Regards
Leigh