We're shoting the second installment of the HICK TREK series of films on a Canon XL-1.

The first HICK TREK was shot using an 8mm film camera... but times have changed!

HICK TREK is a Star Trek satire, distributed by United American video, and is available in all major video stores, including Media Play, Sam Goodies and others.

To find out more, go to www.HICKTREK.com

Thanks!
/S/
Tony Trombo
Director

5 ALARM SHOWCASE-call for entries
Fellow filmmakers.

5 ALARM FILMS Inc. brings you the 5 ALARM SHOWCASE.

Here's your opportunity to get your work seen by your peer filmmakers and industry professionals.

5 ALARM FILM Inc. is holding a networking / fundraiser event to help finance our independant feature film "Bigger Than Life" All proceeds will go directly to the production of the film.

The event will be held at the luxurious "Le Classique Nightclub" in Toronto, Ontario in early december and on a monthly basis thereafter. Info on specific dates and location will be posted on the website shortly.

We will be showcasing various SHORT works from Canada and around the world followed by a networking afterparty.

We are accepting SHORT FORMAT indie films, music videos, docs, and student films form any country of origin and the final monthly selection will be made by our creative team.

The 5 ALARM SHOWCASE is a NON-COMPETITIVE event but is however a great opportunity to have your film seen and to meet and speak with other of the industry. Networking is key to success in this industry and this event will give you the opportunity to meet people that you may collaborate with in the future. You do not HAVE TO attend the event in order for your film to be showcased. However if possible it would be a great idea.

For more info, guidelines and a submission form, please visit:
http://5alarmshowcase.tripod.com

Help support the cause of independant filmmakers.

Regards,
5 ALARM FILMS Inc.
http://5alarmshowcase.tripod.com

Hi. We're shooting in Spain the fist Ci-Fi film make it with XL1.

Not much people on this country knows the XL1's frame mode . Lucky I'm not one of this.

Please feel free to visit our web and enjoy:

www.shinc.f2s.com


Sorry, only avaible on Spanish, but you can translate it with any utility like www.google.com Search for words: SHINC PELICULA

Hope you like it

For some comments charlie@rendium.com

Well, I am doing a film, that for now at least looks like it will be shot on DV. I am hoping to move it to HD though.

It is called the Hunter's Prey. Here is the preliminary web site:

http://www.zenera.com/huntersprey/

Howdy from Texas,

Check this out: http://www.thekwoon.com/

"An online series about the misadventures of five kung-fu students struggling to survive in... Silicon Valley."

Many thanks to Norman Woo for turning me on to this. I've never been much of a kung-fu junkie, but I'm impressed with how these folks are executing their vision. Hey... follow your dreams and make 'em real... these guys did. Go take a look! Shot with an XL1.

Just copped this from DV-L:

"Jeff Cochran's digital feature mocumentary was shot on an xl-1 and cut with FCP 1.2.5. "The Disappearance of Baron Dixon" was shot in AZ and is a terrific, funny look at Phoenix and the extreme desert lifestyle... and UFO's. If you're from around here the shows are at 7 & 9 PM at the Phoenix Center 1202 N. 3rd Street, Thursday Friday and Saturday."

Is DV in your neighborhood kino?

Hey,

I was wondering if you know any movies made on dv or any other digital video format(hd,dvcam,dvcpro) which i can find at blockbuster or similar video stores for rent.I want to make a feature movie w/ my xl1 but i never saw any dv movie before and was wondering how it look like.I tryed to find "The celebration" but i couldn't. "The anniversary party"(shot in digit-beta)just came out last july but just in LA & NY theaters.I hope it come to video.Also "Jackpot" ,the Polish brothers(twin falls Idaho) new movie(shot in HD) is still not released yet(i guess).
So,if you guys could give me any suggestions of movies made in dv(whatever it was shot w/ the xl1 or not) which i could rent ,i would really thank you.I've already seen "The blair wich project"(hi8/16mm)but i want to see something entirely done in video.

Thanks a lot.

you may want to check out a movie called "Last Call" it was at the toronto film festival and I THINK it won best digital feature. It got video distribution from Alliance Atlantis and is available at Blockbuster. I'm not sure if it got U.S. distribution however. If you can't find it at your blockbusters, check out the website and you may giet info there as to how to acquire it: http://www.buckproductions.com They are a toronto based film company.

The plot is not the greatest, neither is the acting (in my opinion atleas) but the DP did a great job. Not trying to knock the film however, atleast they made a film.

Anyways, check it out. It's pretty good overall.

Keep your eye out for "Bigger Than Life" my digital feature. It should be out end 2002 early 2003. This one will blow your mind!!

I think that Bjork movie, Dancer in the Dark, was mostly shot on DV.

You might also check out- Chuck& Buck,Time Code,Bamboozled,The Cruise,Julian Donkey Boy,and The Idiots-all but Time Code were done w/prosumer cams.

yeah!I saw Spike Lee's Bammbozled yesterday.The story is a little confuse and too long,but most of the times you can't tell is dv.I also looked for Timecode but it was out.I didn't know The cruise was DV.It was all shot in DV or just some parts? I'll check all the other sugestions.
Thank you very much for all the sugestions guys.

Adam

I posted this in one of the other sections. Since I'm new here, I'm not sure which one is the most appropriate. I see this forum is full of posts on features being shot on DV. Mine is about a client who wants us to shoot on DV because "it's cheaper." I'm not so sure of that but I'm prepared to be set straight if I'm missing some obvious points.

I'm looking for opinions from video professionals who have encountered this problem - which I suspect is rather common among clients.
------

We shoot mainly with Beta SP and Digi Beta although we do a good deal of Mini DV shooting. We've even mixed the two with no noticeable differences. Our productions are distributed over the air, on VHS, DVD and CD-ROMs as QT movies. We edit on Avids. Okay, that's the background, now for the dilemma.

A project just walked in through the door. The budget can't go over $300k. The material consists of 48 dramatic vignettes mostly shot indoors with 4 exteriors, a max of 4 actors with sync dialog sound. Total runing time is 90 mins approx. The material will end up on the Internet and CD-ROM. Production time: 12 days!

Here's the "problem" -- the client is demanding it be shot on Mini DV thinking that's the only way to come in on budget, on time and no better quality is needed. Of course we can do that but we've done the math and the difference in cost between mastering on BetaSP and MiniDV is roughly $5000 (camera rental and raw stock). The client is adamant we don't need any more than MiniDV quality for something that will end up as QT movies on the Internet. I agree BUT the thinking that Mini DV will save tons of money is wrong. Although the cold number yields a $5k difference, work tends to slow down when shooting with Mini DV - to yield good results more attention has to be paid to lighting; depending on the camera used, moves have to be planned with delicate care; handholding is not as good with small, unbalanced cameras; sound monitoring can be a nighmare; rack foucusing is next to impossible, etc.

Still, we're going along with DV because the client seems to be demanding it. We'll be shooting with an XL1 (which we own) with the new lens that's sharper and can track a zoom (can someone tell me the lens model? we have the old one) and we'll be using a SONY TRV900 for pickup MOS shots.

Shooting on DV can yield a profit IF I'm the director AND the DP AND camera operator which I love to do but can be counter-productive with dramatic scenes. The crew can be reduced by one - a great grip is all I need and an film school intern can be my AC. Audio is no savings at all. I wouldn't do that any differently, especially when mics need to me mixed live and dialog must be crisp.

There's a question here somewhere - I guess I'm looking for a strong argument for NOT mastering on Beta SP. I'm looking for strong arguments why shooting high quality dramatic material can be achieved with Mini DV. Quite frankly, shooting drama with Mini DV scares me a little. I see David Lynch and a number of feature directors are shooting with Mini DV for aesthetic reasons but are the savings significant (between Beta and Mini DV) when the crew makeup remains largely the same?

Any opinions are most welcomed.

Your client is right -- DV can look as good as betacam when professionally shot and lit. It should also be much cheaper because you can't be charging the same amount for a betacam package as you would for a Canon XL1. The only argument you have is that the chips in the XL1 are much smaller than your betacam so you'd have to spend extra bucks to rent an outside camcorder like the Sony dsr-300 or JVC gy-dv700. But they won't wash if your client knows what how well the XL1 can perform.

Of course, DV is a capturing format only. You should output to beta, digibeta or DVCAM.

I meant to add that knowing the limitations of cameras like the Canon XL1 will keep you from spending extra time on moves and shots that are really beyond the XL1's capabilities. This can be taken care of in your pre-productin planning sessions. I've never had any audio problems with Canon.

Thank you for the reply Chris.

As I said there is a difference between the rental costs of a Beta SP cam and the XL-1. The Beta rents for 300/day, the XL1 for 175/day. True, we own the XL1 and not the Beta but we need to base the budget on the possibility of rental. One never knows when we might have to resort to renting a backup camera. Of course this doesn't include all ancillary equipment - tripod, extra lenses, etc. But the difference comes out to $5k - nothing to sneeze at since that pays for an extra day of shooting and a few extra days of editing. One cost I'm not including is the necessity of making Beta SP backups of the DV. We've found the transport mechanisms and the physical nature of the thin DV tape to be more prone to mechanically induced damage than Beta tapes. So we need to include the time and cost of backing up all the DV tapes for security.

Although the client has only asked for QT movies to be delivered, we'll be making Beta dubs of evreything. Clients are prone to returning in a year requesting copies of the material for broadcast.

<<<-- Originally posted by Chris Ward : I meant to add that knowing the limitations of cameras like the Canon XL1 will keep you from spending extra time on moves and shots that are really beyond the XL1's capabilities. This can be taken care of in your pre-productin planning sessions. I've never had any audio problems with Canon. -->>>

I tried using the XL1 for another project we did last year. I hired a well-known DP to work with it and gave him time to get used to the camera. He did a very good job but at a much slower pace than with a Beta. Lighting - contrast range - was a big problem and we had to do a lot more lighting control and re-staging of scenes to accomodate the shortcomings. The original zoom that came with the XL1 was near useless for zooming. (We'll now be using the new lens.) We used the XL1 for the pilot but continued with the regular Beta setup for the rest of the series.

I've never had any problems with the audio on the XL1 either but it does take careful attention. The "vu" meters are not easy to keep a constant eye on. The audio, as with everything else, will be on "manual". Since we'll be using either a boom and/or a few RF mics, the sound mixer will be monitoring the sound. It's happened even with Betas that the cable connecting the mixer to the camera has come lose and the only thing recorded is off the camera mic. With the XL1 the sure-fire way is for the sound mixer to monitor off the camera's mini plug for the headset.

<<<-- Originally posted by ozziealfonso : (We'll now be using the new lens.) >>>

By the way - what's the buzz on the new lenses? I'm looking at the all manual 14X, the improved 16X, and the wide angle. The wide is appealing since some of the scenes we'll be shooting are in close quarters.

What's the general opinion on the new slew of optics? I've read the "skinny" but not enough is mentioned about the lenses.

Why don't you archive to DVCAM, which is a more durable format, and less expensive than beta. As for the rest, why not level with your client. They must know something about production if they want you to shoot on DV. Maybe you can persuade them that your way is the better way, even though others may not be convinced.

BTW - We shot with the new 16x lens and had no problems. Can't really say it was that much better than the old standard lens...

<< I've read the "skinny" but not enough is mentioned about the lenses. >>

What would you like me to add? I'll be happy to expand it.

Okay. Okay. I lived in Austin for a while, long enough to recognize hill country sly sarcasm. I'll go back to the web site and see what I glossed over. <g>

<<Posted by Chris Ward: Of course, DV is a capturing format only. You should output to beta, digibeta or DVCAM.>>

There's really that much of a difference from editing with a Mac (Final Cut Pro) then exporting back to VHS or DVD? Is ithe difference clearly visible for TV viewing? Or are you referring to large screen viewing?

Preserving resolution and color matching can be tricky. We just finished a project for TV viewing where we had to insert some QT movies. If done properly - and it takes a bit of experimentation - the difference is negligible. But, of course, we released on Beta SP.

Outputting directly to VHS or DVD from Final Cut is a function of Fianl Cut, not the media exported into. I'm not familiar with Final Cut but with AVID we have a nuber of compression ratios. We usually digitize at a high compression ratio (low-res = smaller files) for our rough cuts and then re-gitize as per the EDL at low compression or no compression at all (large files eating up lots of drive space). This yields an output that ready for prime time.

I'm not sure I've aswered your question.

That's exactly what I wanted to know.

Thanks, Ozzie.

The Cruise is all DV, shot on a Sony VX1000.

need an actress- will trade work for lessons on my new sony pd150-Toni Naples

<<Keep your eye out for "Bigger Than Life" my digital feature. It should be out end 2002 early 2003. This one will blow your mind!!>>

Mastermind,

Keep us posted on that project. I'm interested in seeing how that develops.