We originally were going to shoot this documentary about a heroic gay LA policewoman in PAL with a Sony dsr-250, however, when we couldn't get the equipment in time we switched to a NTSC Canon XL1S. We just shot for two weeks and got outstanding results. More shooting to come...

Pleeeeze keep us advised on this, Chris... given your established track record, I can't wait to see how it turns out. If you have any production stills and/or commentary, I'll be happy to give you some pages on the Watchdog, if you want it showcased.

Transplanted from a different location on the Community. If I did everything right, then all previous threads with their posts are now here intact. The only change is its listing order on the main forum page. Thanks,

The Mini 35 Digital adapter (for the XL-1 and XL-1S to accept 35mm film lenses while maintaining all of the lens's characteristics) is being used more and more.

A Budweiser spot is being shot out on the west coast and two shorts were just completed. One of them was shot by Matt Phillips, DP from Ontario who sent an unsolicited testimonial to ZGC today. See what he says (www.zgc.com) about using the Mini 35 Digital adapter with his XL-1 as well as the other equipment/accessories he used to shoot his short film "Dying Like Ophelia."

I've posted an interesting article (I hope :) in
the other forum Let's Talk About Movies, the
post is titled "el mariachi / desperado (& a bit
on se7en)" and talks about cheap movie making
styles.

Enjoy!

I just finished playing some uncompressed Final Cut Pro movie clips (made with my XL1) I burned on CD on a brand new Apple iMac at the local Apple Store (in Tysons Corner, VA). This is the just announced 800 mhz iMac with the DVD burner and "floating" LCD monitor. I was quite impressed! The iMac played the clips beautifully. The 15" LCD display, equivalent to a 17" crt is one of the best I've seen. It's amazingly bright and sharp. In my opinion it outperformed the 17" Apple LCD display and also the 22" Cinema Display. In fact, It seemed to play my clips as well as the dual 800 PowerMac Tower! You probably could use DVD Studio Pro on this machine, along with Final Cut Pro and a firewire video hard drive. Talk about DV for the masses!!

I just finished playing some uncompressed Final Cut Pro movie clips (made with my XL1) I burned on CD on a brand new Apple iMac at the local Apple Store (in Tysons Corner, VA). This is the just announced 800 mhz iMac with the DVD burner and "floating" LCD monitor. I was quite impressed! The iMac played the clips beautifully. The 15" LCD display, equivalent to a 17" crt is one of the best I've seen. It's amazingly bright and sharp. In my opinion it outperformed the 17" Apple LCD display and also the 22" Cinema Display. In fact, It seemed to play my clips as well as the dual 800 PowerMac Tower! You probably could use DVD Studio Pro on this machine, along with Final Cut Pro and a firewire video hard drive. Talk about DV for the masses!!

one small point......DV is compressed. About 5:1

FILM SHOT ON A CANON XL-1
From: Corey Flynn - www.film4Him.com
Date: 31 Oct 2001
Time: 01:53:50
Remote Name: 65.115.192.234


Comments
My film "Woman at the Well" was shot completely on a Canon XL-1 ... it's a cool camera and the only thing is that the stock lense is a little bit of a pain to deal with. Of course a better choice for something buying a new camera would be the Canon XL-1S, with a bit more lines of resolution and a better lense for the same price as the XL-1 when they first came out that's what I would go for. If you want to check out the film check out the below link some time after Friday Nov. 2nd and you can watch it on ifilm.com ...

http://www.ifilm.com/ifilm/product/film_info/0,3699,2405180,00.html

I've been under the impression (misimpression?) that mini dv video in the form of a Final Cut Pro self contained movie is, in fact, uncompressed. When I burn video footage on a CD I can only get 3 minutes of video on a 700 mb CD. When the video is output to mini dv tape, however, it is compressed 5:1. Surely one can't be editing their dv footage in compressed form. Am I missing something here? If it is compressed in FCP self contained movie form, that means uncompressed would give you less than a minute of video on a CD!

My understanding is that mini-DV is, by definition, compressed 5 to 1. The avi wrapper is a means to decompress the data for display. Anytime data is written to DV format, however it is compressed. I don't beleive there are any desktop systems that are capable of playing truly uncompressed video because the data rates are too high for the hard drive to handle. That's why people spend the big bucks on SCSI RAID devices.

Bill is right about the compression ratio of DV. It originates at 5:1. On a DV based NLE, you have no control over how that 5:1 compressed video is handled. It's at 5:1 going in, and it's at 5:1 coming out. If you digitize the same footage into a non DV-based system (i.e. SDI or analog input), you can control the compression ratio, even take it in "uncompressed." But the final quality will never be any better than the original compressed video. Consider this analog analogy: You shoot something with a consumer VHS camcorder, dub the footage to Beta, and edit in Beta. The final product, even though it's on Beta, will never look any better than the original VHS. The example may be a bit extreme and oversimplified, but that's roughly how it works. DV format compression is perfectly fine, though and it is "broadcast quality," even though it compressed. I hope this helps.

Bill S.

I love stories about hpw XL1's save the day. Sort of ratifies what I have been nagging about all along. Dump your Betacams, boys and girls, we are gonna free the world!

I'm confused... What does her sexual orientation have to do with anything? If she wasn't gay she wouldn't have been heroic? Do gay people have a harder time doing something heroic, and if so.. why?

This is a forum about Dv, lets keep the politics out of it ay? What does it matter the why's or what for's of a project, it just matters that it's being shot in DV and more importantly an XL1. Chris is a guy who's experience we can all benefit from so lets keep the question to DV issues.

Oh, I agree..But, I wasn't the one that brought up the sexuality of the person the video was about. I was just curious how her sexuality had anything to do with the heroic act she performed.
It piqued my intrest. I'll watch it because Chris is good, and I know it'll be quality work. (plus it was filmed with an XL1.. wooo!)

Thanks for the mature reply. You took it as it was intended, it certainly wasn't intended as a dig. Chris works hard to keep this a quality forum and it amazing how easily people get offended even when the question is innocent.

I guess being a gay policewoman even in todays so-called PC society has it's difficulties. Could be an interesting twist from school football hero to hero policeman

becuase this is really just a logline of sorts that quickly targets the suject of the movie/doc. If you're writing to grab someone's attention with a one sentence story, then yes, it does matter as far as describing the plot.

My humble two cents as I've made a hobby at writing loglines.

Deffinately, twists in the plot/characters make for a far more interesting story.

How's the pre production going Wayne?

I went to a movie today and in the previews for a Robert DeNiro movie called "Showtime" they showed at least twice a guy shooting with a XL1. In one scene the Xl1 gets smashed to pieces!!! Ouch! The XL1 is getting to be a pretty good prop on the big screen

If you watched AudilFile last night on TechTV the band Cake revealed that they produced their own music video using a Canon XL-1 and Avid.

At first their distributor said 'how-hum' and then came back to them and said, 'when can you have 6 more?'

Their advice was to get camera, Final Cut Pro and shoot.

Nathan Gifford

hi, please take a look at www.paganiniblues.com that is a documentary shoot with a canon xl1 and gl1 in El paso, tx.-Juarez,Mexico area, about a descendent of the famous violinst nicola paganini, who lives a the street. i did a shoots with my home made crane and steadycam, that you can see in the trailer.

Awesome! Beautiful website. Thanks!!

Yo tambien! Really great. Where/when can we see it?

"Terrence" posted this interesting link over at the DV.com "cameras" forum.

http://www.nextwavefilms.com/ulbp/bullfront.html

paganini blues is now in postproduction, maybe in march will be finished.

Article from the Feb, 2002 NY DV Show:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=794&u=/eo/20020218/en_movies_eo/ethan_hawke_goes_digital

Check out www.findingelectra.com
This guy really knows what he's doing. Terrific look and acting with no budget. Don't miss it.
Well I think it is!

Looks interesting! Thanks!

Excellent! Thanks very much for the link.

Hey guys!

So here's the story. I'm a frustrated screenwriter that's tired of waiting for stuff to happen with studios. I have always wanted to direct and I have a few full length features and a few shorts that I want to shoot. I was thinking about shooting the shorts in NTSC with my 'lil GL1 and maybe shooting my features with a PAL XL1s.

Now here's my question, since money is a huge consideration, is PAL really something I should shoot for? It means I'm going to have to get another four grand or so together to get my first feature lenght off the ground. My other option is to shoot my feature with the Sony and the GL1 in NTSC and just take my chances in post.

Am I just looking for major trouble in post if I go with the latter or what?

(I'm thinking about eventually transferring to 35mm, but currently, it's cheaper to FilmLook the whole thing and project digitally.)

Thanks in advance!

If you use the Search function I'm sure you'll find quite a few threads dealing with this subject; it comes up at least once every few months. In fact I think we just had one of those lengthy discussions at:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1024

In my opinion, shooting PAL (in North America) to get close to 24p is an entirely unneccesary and expensive hassle. I'd recommend spending your energy and capital on lighting your scenes carefully, on planning your shots and scenes extremely carefully, on getting committed talent and, most of all, getting a very good story to tell.

I agree with Ken. Save your money. Or better yet, find out who is going to transfer the video to film and ask what they recommend. There is a good article in "RES" magazine this month that talks about this exactily. They have listings of transfer houses and what they charge and what formats they like and so on. They all do NTSC and PAL and some prefer NTSC. Be prepared for the average $400.00 per minute charge and ask them what they like best. Different houses like different things so you would benifit greatly by finding one you like (or fairly close to you) and asking for their recommendations before you buy more equipment. Then you can rent equipment if you need something different or spend the money on post.

hi there,

I just made a new shortfilm with which I try to apply for filmschool in Germany.

The task was to make a 5 min short about some "confrontation" - no dialogue were allowed.

the version which is online is about 7 min long and a little different from the original one, but anyway I like to hear your thoughts about it.

the direct link: http://www.neo-modus.com/stuntpeople/flatcoin/prediction_dirscut.avi

it is about 20MB and compressed with Divx411.

a long making of articel you'll find at my page.. guess you just have to click the homepage butten at the button, but anyway: http://www.flatcoin.com .. there read in the "Prediction" section.

thanks for all your thoughts, bye and have a nice day :)

Ulrik

Hey there Ulrik!

It was a nice movie to watch, very well done. I especially
like the touch when he lit the fire! One thing I did not quite
follow was the guy out in the field.... It was not clear to
me who he was or what he was doing there. I think the
story was pretty well! Thanks for sharing.

Oh... perhaps I didn't follow it as well as I could have,
I am at work currently with some things on my mind...

Good luck!

thanks .. the guy in the field was the death himself :)

Ulrik

My critically acclaimed documentary "Outwitting Hitler" will be screened at the Holocaust museum in Washington on April 1st & 2nd. For more information, including a clip from the film, go to www.ushmm.org and click on 'spring 2002 film series' I will be introducing the film and answering questions afterwards.

Gonna check it out Chris! Oh.. the direct URL to your page is:
http://www.ushmm.org/museum/publicprograms/programs/films02/outwitting.htm

Just as an FYI, Chris Ward's docu was shot with a Canon XL1, GL1 and also a Sony PD150, and aired nationwide on Showtime last April. It's a powerful piece, and worthy of being made into a feature film, in my opinion. Be sure to check it out!

Just curious how many of you saw this last Sunday:

http://www.cbs.com/primetime/9_11/project.shtml

I time-shifted it to VHS but haven't seen it yet. By all reports it's a stunning piece of work. Shot on a pair of Sony PD150's. I'm waiting for a quiet time next week when I can sit down and watch it.

I did see it and it was, indeed, quite a piece of work. How these brothers managed to keep their mental focus to get their footage was amazing to me. Equally impressive was the editing work required to weave the footage into a compelling story. A true masterpiece.

CBS broadcast the show in what appeared to be 16:9, with the exception of the firemans' tribute at the end of thee program. I wonder if these fellow shot their footage in 16:9 or if this was manipulated to HD.

Also, I thought I saw that one of the cams looked like a PD150 but I caught the shadow of the other cam which looked more like an ENG cam. Maybe a DSR300? Either way, the footage all looked pretty good...in terms of image quality, that is.

You unfortunately need the Realaudio plugin and NOTHING from "REAL Networks" will ever be put on my machine. The amout of spam and intrusive software they put out is ridiculous. If only there was a Quicktime version somewhere. Does anybody know of other places to view this?

I'll ask Chris what rights he has (remember that Showtime is involved to some degree here)... I would be happy to offer server space for a streaming trailer, or something along those lines, in Quicktime format, if my serverchief Jeff doesn't mind too much. But this ulimately is a legal question revolving around distribution rights, I think.

Thank you so much. I understand the whole rights issue, it's such a pain.

Showtime has the rights so there won't be any other clips unless they put one on their website, which is unlikely. We are working on a DVD version that will hopefully come out next year. In the meantime, the screening will have to do.

Thanks for checking on it anyway. I just hate "REAL", in case you couldn't tell.
LOL
Rhett

Any Star Wars fans out there want to watch a 10 Minute short,
shot on an XL1. Check out:

http://atomfilms.shockwave.com/af/content/starwars_prologue

If you could watch the piece in it's entirety and vote on it at the end that would be much appreciated.

P.S. You may notice the fluctuating light. This is the result of my camera being accidentally set to auto gain instead of negative three. Live and learn. Let me know what you think.

Thanks guys- Nori Wentworth

Nori,

Nicely done!!

Perhaps the members of the forum would be interested in hearing about your production experience. (How long did this take to shoot?, What was the edit session like? Did you mic the actors or was the dialogue done in post? Did you use Premier, After Effects, FCP to edit?, etc., etc.)

I'm interested in knowing how you did the light swords.

Keep up the good work.

Bill

Apparently a TechTV aired a feature titled, "Coming Soon to Theaters: Digital Cinema" on Friday, March 15. You might find the accompanying web site article interesting reading:

http://www.techtv.com/news/culture/story/0,24195,3376395,00.html

Nori,

It was nice overall, but I am a bit of a critic and due to my
own feelings of certain things I found it a bit less enjoyable
then otherwise would have been. I'm really not the type of
guy who likes the lets be funny category. So that retracted
from the movie for me. I do not know why you choose to
go down this route, so please do not think of this as a bad
thing, it is not meant to be!

The overal movie was very nicely done! I liked the editing
but I thought it missed some speed at time. The light
sabers were nicely done. You might want to look into color
correction to give it a bit more of a professional look (I am
doing this with my own movie at the moment as well).

I've been critic enough now, I hope you do not take it the
wrong way and I hope my comments help you.

Thanks for sharing the movie with us!