short films / commercials done with the HC1 ?

[Holger Leonhard]

If anybody has links to trailers, short films, commercials or whatever done with the HC1 please post a link here!
I searched in google and also some forums, the only HC1 footage I found was crappy hand - held and shaky. My Interest is to see how the camera performs on a "professional job".

[Evan C. King]

The camera is pretty new man, it might be a while before you find what you're looking for. Also, the HC1 is a conumer market cam so people may not use it for professional jobs. But keeping your eye on these forums might be a good start.

[Holger Leonhard]

o.k. I mean more semi - professional ..
The thing is the cam might perform close to an FX 1 but has several advantages:
- It´s small, so you can do easily shots within a car or other narrow locations
- you can mount it on a mini jib
- it´s a perfect cam to carry it always with you because of light wight and size
- you can do filming and nobody takes care with such a small cam. Sometimes a big advantage.
To do more serious work, the cam could be mounted on a rig with additional weights to get more steady images. Even you can mount a 35mm DOF adaptor and a mattebox while getting the whole rig not too big.

[Fredrik-Larsson]

Check out this thread: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=51351

The first post I did contain links to my videos. In the video there is an outdoor scene where I say "it ends today, it ends to-#"¤#%¤#-day!". These are done with the HC1. Rest of the shots are done with a Canon XL-2. There is one other HC1-take but it's much harder to detect (it's one of the window scenes). Actually, the first shot where you see my feet are also HC1 pictures.

[Holger Leonhard]

Hi Fredrik,

you´re also from Germany ? :)
I saw the film, but everything looks very dark for me, not only the story -maybe a bit more light ?
The compression is much too high to evaluate anything due to image quality or so.
what is your impression XL2 compared to HC1 - Can the Canon deliver similar resolution or is HDV definitly better ? which cam makes the "better", more beautiful or filmic look ?

[Fredrik-Larsson]

No, sweden... but germany is very close :)

Well, XL2 is better on picture/color quality but the HC1 produces very good quality as well. The HC1 needs light more than the XL2. No lights were used here. I think that being able mix it without any huge difference prooves that the HC1 isn't that bad for that price.

[Laurence Kingston]

Well I'll say this much: the footage I've taken with my HVR-A1U is simply stunning. I have nothing content-wise of interest to anyone outside of my family and friends, but boy does it look good! The simple home stuff I've shot so far looks orders of magnitude better than a 10 minute DVX100a project I worked on several months ago, even though we were all "oohing" and "aahing" over the DVX footage at the time! That footage still looked like video. The A1 footage looks you're peering through a window!

As far as the shaky handheld footage problem with HDV: yeah it's a problem. I've taken to using a monopod for shots I would have gone handheld with. As soon as the Steadicam Merlin comes out I'm going to get one. With HDV, camera shake and focus problems just kind of jump out at you.

[Jason Chang]

Fredrik,

If you ever do another chase scene or running scene, it might be a good idea to have the camera follow your actor down the stairs as he is running. The shots will be a bit shaky, but it'll only add tension to your scene, which is appropriate for this type of movie.

Try to mix some extreme close-up shots in there ,if you can. The acting and the swedish accent actually made this movie really funny. Judging by the background music you have on your trailer, I think that's the effect you were going for.

White balance with Warmcard if you ever use the HC1 to shoot a movie. This will give you richer skin tone color. That's all for now. If you have any technical questions, feel free to ask.

Jason

[Fredrik-Larsson]

Thanks Jason. I am quite new at this so I have a lot to learn. I will definately try it out when I get the chance.

[Robert Kirkpatrick]

Originally Posted by Laurence Kingston

The simple home stuff I've shot so far looks orders of magnitude better than a 10 minute DVX100a project I worked on several months ago.

I hope I'm not threadjacking, but does the HC1 look better than the DVX100a even in SD downconversion? I'm honestly curious. I hope to upgrade to the HC1 or A1U, but most of my projects will be delivered in SD for a while. I think that on an HDTV screen, the HC1 will look better than the DVX100a, but on a standard tv or screen, I'm not what the comparisons will be.

My other concern is lowlight of the HC1 compared to say the DVX100a.

[Laurence Kingston]

To my eyes, Sony HDV footage downconverted to 24P SD looks noticably better than DVX100a footage shot in 16:9 stretch mode.

[Bill Porter]

Somebody who has access to both a DVX and an HDV camera ought to post screencaps (maybe with a small section magnified) for comparison, it would be very interesting!

[Stu Holmes]

Originally Posted by Jason Chang

White balance with Warmcard if you ever use the HC1 to shoot a movie. This will give you richer skin tone color. That's all for now. If you have any technical questions, feel free to ask.

Jason

Hi Jason. - one quick question: i use white-paper to white-balance currently but i am aware that you can use slightly 'off-white' cards to achieve a warmer or cooler effect.
Am i correct in assuming that your 'warm card' got a blue-ish tinge to it ?

thanks in advance
rgds

[Jason Chang]

Stu,

You are absolutely right. The Ward Cards is a set of powder-blue, laminated cards. You may use a powder blue T-shirt to achieve warmer skin-tone.

[Fredrik-Larsson]

How do you whitebalance HC1 without a manual whitebalance? I mean, if you put a warmcard in front it balance to that one. But doesn't it re-balance when the card is removed?