Love Hexagon - short film I'm DPing
 

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.

Re: Love Hexagon - short film I'm DPing
 

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.

Re: Love Hexagon - short film I'm DPing
 

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.

Re: Love Hexagon - short film I'm DPing
 

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.

Re: Love Hexagon - short film I'm DPing
 

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

Re: Love Hexagon - short film I'm DPing
 

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?

Re: Love Hexagon - short film I'm DPing
 

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.

Re: Love Hexagon - short film I'm DPing
 

More, from last week.

Re: Love Hexagon - short film I'm DPing
 

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

Re: Love Hexagon - short film I'm DPing
 

More, dudes. There, that was 10 characters.

Re: Love Hexagon - short film I'm DPing
 

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.

Re: Love Hexagon - short film I'm DPing
 

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.

Re: Love Hexagon - short film I'm DPing
 

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.