The Shootout- HD10u and Letus35a
 

Hi everyone,
I just finished my newest short The Shootout
Shot using my very old and very out of date JY-HD10U with the Letus35a and a Nikon 50mm 1.8 lens.
http://www.inthemind.com/modules/sho...heshootout.mov
Edited in Premiere Pro1.5.1 with cineform codec
CC in Premiere Aspect HD

It's also playing at http://medialab.ifc.com
if anyone is already registered there and would like to vote for it...that would be appreciated.

I've decided to continue using this cam until it either breaks into little pieces or until RED comes out.

Thanks for taking the time to watch it...if you did. :)
E.

That looks quite decent but I didn't really like the gunshot sound fx. Several shots were also overexposed - I guess this is because of the lack of full manual control.

Regarding the Letus35A, the DoF looks great but it doesn't seem to increase latitude at all. Did you notice less noise in the HD10 image?

Also, in the Letus website they say that the adapter will mirror your image upside down, how did you deal with this issue while shooting?

Erick

this is great.

i will shoot something with this exactly setup. B&W hd10.

can you tell us what filters did you use on this short?

anyway, what's your private e-mail or MSN, i would like to send you something in private.

thanks ciao

We shot this in about three hours and I didn't use any filters. As far as shooting upside down I used a magnet to flip the image right side up, but the image was still inverted horizontally so that took some getting used to. Also I was shooting, I think anyways 1/500 shutter speed to get that saving private ryan look so yeah it's over exposed in places. Also, I also went a little crazy with the CC.

Dave, the sound fx are a bit on the cheesy side, I googled sound fx and found a website that had a huge catalog of sounds, so I used the ones I found there. Next time I'll get some actual gun fire SFX, I have a friend who has a couple of 9mm's.
Daniel email sent

http://s87055845.onlinehome.us/uploa...outcompare.jpg
Here's a comparison between original footage and the final CC.
I lost a lot of detail now that I look at it this way. Doh.

Nice job, Eric! You can see quite a bit of color loss in that JPEG, however. I also liked the extra widescreen effect you chose by letterboxing the video.

Good job on the commercial too..chroma key job quite presentable!
scott

Can you post a pix or a detailed explanation of HOW you place the magnet.

And, what kind of magnet.

Hey Steve,
I believe it's called a rare earth magnet and I got it from a friend that I work with. Google has lots of info n these.
The placement went on the side of the LCD but there is definetly a sweet spot. You kind of have to tilt the LCD up and down while sliding the magnet around to get it to flip. And when it does flip the image is still flipped horizontally. So pan left, on screen it goes to the right.
That messed me up pretty good.

Thank you!

I'm debating the difference between the Letus Flip and non-flip.

As I remember, the non-flip costs about 1.5 stops and the flip almost double that. (I assume I'll use a 50mm F1.4 lens.) That's a lot of light lost, although outdoors I guess it simply replaces ND filters. :)

Also, I've heard, that the flip needs rails -- which I don't want to get into.

I wish the Letus site had real documentation. For example, perhaps a lightweight 50mm lens can be put on a flip model without rails. That would be great.

Any advice?

Quyen is frequently checking the Alternative imaging section of DVi, it might be a good idea to do a search there or shoot him an email.
I have used the Letus 35a without rods before and that seemed to work ok but it still made me a bit nervous about the threads on my camera busting off. So I made some rods for it.
http://s87055845.onlinehome.us/uploa...port/index.htm
The flip looks a lot bigger.
I'd suggest rods.

WOW! Your project looks great! You should sell it!

Great storyline in your film -- something very few folks get right.

Some questions:

1) Can I use some of your photos (with credit) in my HD1/HD10 Guide that's currently in my HD100 Handbook?

2) Since one is still using the camcorder's lens:

a) We know any lens loses quality at full-wide or full-zoom. What zoom setting do you use?

b) We know that with a 1/3-inch CCD -- the optimal aperature is f/4. Any more open, and quality drops. Likewise, any more closed than f/5.6, and quality starts dropping fast.

Since I want a 1/30th or 1/60th shutter-speed -- that means the light falling on the GG must be correct for a range from 1/30th at f/4 to 1/60th at f/5.6. That's only a 4-stop range! Do you find you can keep the camera in this range?

c) How any stops of light are lost by the adaptor?

d) Do you use ND filters in bright sunlight?

e) Of course, one can adjust the 35mm lens aperature -- but if you don't stay at f/1.4 to f/2 -- you will start increasing DOF. What do you typically set this lens to? What lens are you using? (Still the Nikon 1.8?)

3) How do you get focus without being able to zoom your 35mm lens to get a CU on which to focus? Is that why you added the side monitor?

4) I assume you mounted the monitor upside-down. Correct? Which one is it?

5) Did you find a short-cable to feed your monitor?

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Thanks Steve, I'm glad you liked it. Some people I know didn't like it much because of the language. But hey you can't please everybody.

I don't know how much help I'm going to be with most of your questions, because I'm still sort of a newbie when it comes to shooting. Well shooting with anyhting but a consumer camcorder.
I didn't even know you could check to see how much you zoomed into the GG.

Here are tons of behind the scenes pics of the shoot and you'll notice that I'm not using the 7" LCD. It was a really cheap and older LCD from ebay and the resolution was awful so I ditched it.

http://s87055845.onlinehome.us/uploa...tout/index.htm

I used the JVC's LCD to focus and some of the shots were out of focus but most of them were pretty right on. Plus I knew that this would be shrunk down for the web so I wasn't too concerned about having a couple of shots be out of focus. I had the clapper/loader (my brother) hold the slate right next to the actors face because focusing on the black and white bars made it easier to tell if I was somewhat in focus.

I don't remember what aperture I had on the camera but the shutter speed was really high, around 1/500 or higher. I was going for that juddery look.
I also didn't use any ND filters and was forced to close the iris down on the 35mm lens a bit. (Nikon 1.8) I did notice that I gained some DOF. Also once I watched the footage on my HDTV I noticed a swirling pattern from the GG. Annoying in HD but almost non existent in DVD or the web. That’s mostly because I had been having trouble with the GG in the Letus….I had to move it around a couple of time in order to correct the back focus and in doing so I scratched it. Luckily it was in the top right hand corner and I just added black bars and went from 1.78:1 to 2.35:1.:) The swirling pattern must have been from too much light…I don’t know…newb.
I like the Letus but I wouldn’t dare shoot anything at night with this setup. The HD10 is so bad in low light and I have no idea how many stops I lose with the adapter but it’s too much to shoot in anything but great lighting.

Sorry that’s the best I can do for your questions but If you still want to use some of the pics feel free and shoot me an email if you need higher res ones.

E.

The lanuage was natural and funny. This country is bizarre in what it has problems with. The audio was also well recorded.

I'd suggest if you are going to use shakey-cam;

1) you keep shutter-speed down at 1/60th. (Or, use high shutter-speed and use smooth steadycam moves.)

2) I know this sounds strange, but try to plan more "movement" and less "shake." For example, if you cut from person A to B, swing the camera from the B side through and past A. Now you can cut in & out anywhere along the fast pan. Or, go past the subject, and swing back based on dialog point.

3) If your characters are running, you can keep the camera more static. Conversly, if the characters are static, the camera can move more.

My suggestions come from watching my HD1 video on a 6-goot screen. Movements ADD and when projected they seem to MULTIPLY.

Keep writing clever plots, because I really had no idea how it was going to turn-out. Very nice ending!

This was the first time doing the shaky cam thing and after trying it...you're suggestions are right on. Towards the end of the shoot I started to plan the shaky-ness better. This shoot was a learning experiment. Learning the Letus, focus pulling, shaking camera and so on. The amount of things (little and big) that one learns by doing can't be beat by a class room and text books or all the theory in the world. Plus we shot this thing in a little over three hours. Three hours of crash course learning and it was a blast. Definetely something I'll do again...with a few of your pointers of course.

One more thing on the story and the direction of the actors...
We did a read through and thats where we cleaned up and improved some of the dialogue/gags. I was able to direct their performance a week before the actual shoot and that helped us get the production done so quickly because the performances were there and all I had to worry about was capturing them.

Thanks for the nice words Steve
E.

The swirling is the interaction between the high shutter speed and the oscillation of the GG. Sufficient oscillation to hide grain at 1/500s is very,very difficult to achieve without shaking the $%$^ out of the adapter.

Trying to get both amplitude and frequency high enough to hide grain, while maintaining a GG with sufficient diffusion at 1/500s is extremely challenging.