We got the m2 adapter, went right out and started shooting. This is a quick edit of all the stuff we shot.

lenses: nikon 50mm
nikon telephoto 70-200mm
nikon Micro (macro) 105mm

Buying the HVX-200 and the M2 is the best thing Motivity Pictures could have done... Now I can't wait to get in to the studio and take the time to light someone, rather than just shooting off the hip... still, great results I think. Nothing beats natural daylight.

http://motivitypictures.com/m2footage/

I forgot to ad, this was compressed with the h.264 codec.. it's a rather large file but i wanted everyone to see the image quality with clarity...

Cassidy,

I had to just sit back in my chair, breathe deep and re-acclimate to reality after watching that. Nice work.

Cassidy,

I had to just sit back in my chair, breathe deep and re-acclimate to reality after watching that. Nice work.

Thanks Derek, hopefully you can acclimate many more times..

the part with the construction and the crane part in the water, hot hot hot.

Damn you guys are good. Good job Cassidy, excellent editing. Would have been nice to see some un-cc'd footage though.

Damn you guys are good. Good job Cassidy, excellent editing. Would have been nice to see some un-cc'd footage though.

thanks.. yea, i'll post some raw footage soon...

Yes the construction shots were serendipitous.. he walked outside and there they were...

Nice to see how much talent this forum has! Great stuff Cassidy - and I really like that you guys really get into "play" with work. How forutnate we all are to actually have a "job" that's more like play!

Those guys at Motivity are HOTTT Shooters.....

thanks.. yea, i'll post some raw footage soon...

Cassidy, do you guys at motivity have any film projects (shot with the HVX) planned ? I would really PAY to see what you guys come up with... I sincerely would like to see your results on the Big screen. I'm sure people would be fooled to think they where watching film...

Nice to see how much talent this forum has! Great stuff Cassidy - and I really like that you guys really get into "play" with work. How forutnate we all are to actually have a "job" that's more like play!

Yes. Work hard play later, or play hard work later... which is it in this business?

Cassidy, do you guys at motivity have any film projects (shot with the HVX) planned ? I would really PAY to see what you guys come up with... I sincerely would like to see your results on the Big screen. I'm sure people would be fooled to think they where watching film...

Sergio... Yea, there are a few spots where it fools me.

No film projects yet, just coporate things here and there... as soon as we come across a great script we'll think about it.

Really nice editing of great footage.

I noticed the post/mount you have on top of the HVX for the Marshall LCD. Did that work out well? What kinda mount is that? Just a threaded post?

Yeah, it appears to be just a headless bolt. I'm more interested in the battery you're using with that Marshall. I've been using Vmounts with the Marshall on a tripod, but they'd be too heavy to use with your setup.

Yeah, it appears to be just a headless bolt. I'm more interested in the battery you're using with that Marshall. I've been using Vmounts with the Marshall on a tripod, but they'd be too heavy to use with your setup.


I use the Bescor battery...it was recommended by Steev Dinkins. I have had semi-good results with it. It's very convenient and not as heavy as those other V-mounts. However, it's hard to find a place to attach it to. Also the batter life doesn't seem to be very good. Sometimes it last for a while and other times it just seems to fizzle out and die. I don't know. But recently I have been contemplating getting a new battery or at least a back up for this. It's just not that reliable in my opinion. I am also going to get a new mount for the Marshall. Like you guys mentioned its just a headless bolt...but it's difficult to use it that why especially on location when you need to adjust it around. It's just temporary.

what type of matte box do you guys have? thanks!

hey Motivity,
fun footage to watch and great quality...
i too am looking into the Redrock M2, but the only major reservation i have is the flipped image - although to unflip in post is easy enough, my concern is it's at the cost of a render, and since every single friggin clip goes through the render and possibly a CC and what not... i have reservations... but i must admit on a little window, watching your footage just now, was nice...

would you please elaborate on whether you noticed any loss in quality with the render-flip and was any deterioration noticeable (and would you mind letting us know what format we watched - guessing 720pn)

great job and thanks for any info,
Lonnie

what type of matte box do you guys have? thanks!

Hey Jason, we use this one...

http://www.indiesnap.com/?gclid=CPfNqMPs8IYCFQfsSAodFg2VDA

hey Motivity,
fun footage to watch and great quality...
i too am looking into the Redrock M2, but the only major reservation i have is the flipped image - although to unflip in post is easy enough, my concern is it's at the cost of a render, and since every single friggin clip goes through the render and possibly a CC and what not... i have reservations... but i must admit on a little window, watching your footage just now, was nice...

would you please elaborate on whether you noticed any loss in quality with the render-flip and was any deterioration noticeable (and would you mind letting us know what format we watched - guessing 720pn)

great job and thanks for any info,
Lonnie

I didn't notice any quality loss, when flipped in the final cut pro timeline you do see a green render line if editing with a powerbook or slower g4 processor, with a G5 your system is fast enough to display the flipped (180 degree) image in realtime. Logically it doesn't make sense that your image would lose quality if you flipped it. It's just an effect attribute to your clips turning them upside down, not decreasing quality. I'm kind of confused.

And yes that was 720pn... if anything I would say our quality increased!

We were only using my Nikon lenses, although good lenses... I am curious to see the results of what a really great lens would yield... like some ULTRA PRIME LENSES.

I´m realy impressed of what you guys are doing.. wow!!

Hey Jason, we use this one...

http://www.indiesnap.com/?gclid=CPfNqMPs8IYCFQfsSAodFg2VDA

Although we've all been wishing for more affordable matte-boxes like this one mentioned, it has two very (and in my opinion, serious) limitations that should be pointed out for those who've never owned/used a matte box:

Most matte boxes allow you to change the opening/angle of both the french flag and sidewings so that when you're shooting from wide to tele you can close down each side as much as possible to prevent any stray light hitting the front lens element.

The Indie Snap doesn't allow for any changes in flag/wing angle as they are all in a fixed position. Take a look at the image of their matte-box, second one down from the top on the matte-box page; this clearly illustrates the point - unless the stray light source is coming from a completely oblique/side angle it will easily hit the front of the lens - and you have no way to close the side wings to prevent it.

It's second major limitation is that is has no rotating filter stages - you must roatate the entire box to accomplish that. It's obvious that they did this so that you could reach in front and rotate screw-on type filters instead of the 4x4 drop-in type, however if you've purposely flagged out stray light and then have to rotate the box to accomplish a filter rotation then you've also ruined your flagging setup and rendered the flags useless.

If you look in the Image Gallery here on this forum, I posted pics of the HVX with the Century Optics/Vocas matte-box. You can clearly see that it allows for changing angles of all the sides, and it's not plastic, it's composite which has held up perfectly in Arizona mid-day summer heat. And it has one rotating and one fixed filter stage.

Yes, the Century/Vocas system is much more costly than the Indie Snap as are any of the well designed systems, but in my opinion the Indie Snap has no more usefulness than the standard lens hood supplied with the HVX.

Although we've all been wishing for more affordable matte-boxes like this one mentioned, it has two very (and in my opinion, serious) limitations that should be pointed out for those who've never owned/used a matte box:

I agree with Robert. All of his points are valid. And should listened too.

Cost was the big factor. I have forked out "a lot" of money already and this was one area where for me a Matte Box was take it or leave it. And if this is where any of you are at then go with an Indie Snap.

It was funny reading an article about how Keifer Sutherland couldn't perform in front of a camera unless it had a huge matte box. It had nothing to do with any filters being used. The matte box was simply attached to the camera. This was a psychological thing for him. He needed it to feel like a professional actor. And I will tell you how much credibility whether warranted or not a nice big ole' matte box lends. Sorry if people don't believe me but I get jobs because it makes the camera look professional. Especially with the M2 attached.

For me, I am confident in how my footage turns out. I don't need an expensive matte box to make a huge difference.

All that to say, if I felt like paying the money I would have definitely purchased a Chrosziel or century optics.

David

cassidy and those in the know,

it has been explained to me, and please correct me if i'm wrong, that any effect, transition, most anything other than a simple straight cut edit, involves a renderering (although today's g5's do it faster than real time), there's still mathmatical computations and truncating of data or rounding off of data - thus a minor loss in quality...

now my question is, cassidy's footage looked terrific, and obviously every frame went through the above mentioned hoops, bells, and whistles, so is the quality loss just negligible of this type of "effect" (an image flip)...

any Redrock Micro people care to chime in...

your thoughts would be appreciated,
Lonnie

now my question is, cassidy's footage looked terrific, and obviously every frame went through the above mentioned hoops, bells, and whistles, so is the quality loss just negligible of this type of "effect" (an image flip)...

Lonnie


Well I can't imagine that the loss in quality is anything to be worried about. If you are compressing video that is one thing for quality loss. But color correction, you would never be able to notice it with the human eye. Or else people wouldn't do it. So I don't see why it matters.

The image flip doesn't do anything to the quality. It's just upside down. The truth is that since you are shooting in HD you have so much more information to work with when it comes to color correcting etc. And it's wonderful how all effects hold up after filters etc.

All that to say, don't worry about quality loss. It's very very very small price to pay for the look you want.

Yes, I would say using the Magic Bullet filters actually make it look better...

http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/mabusu.html

The magic bullet filters in After Effects 7 actually use a 32 BPC (Bit Per Channel) renderer. It's HDR (High Dynamic Range) Which allow for more realistic lighting and deeper & richer blanks, plus whites aren't as blown out.

You can actually even use 64 BPC, but that would be for uncompressed 4:4:4 compression ratio.

cheers

I agree with the crane/scoup section. That was some nice footage. The editing was nice with the slow-mo to speed up transitions too. Good stuff guys.

Is the vignetting due to the M2? Or was that a post effect you guys used?

I'm looking into picking up one of these but I need to find a sturdy monitor solution first. Also, I heard that they are coming out with a version that auto flips the image so it's correct from the get-go. Have you guys heard anything about this?

Does Magic Bullet have to be used with After Effects or can it be used as a stand alone with FCP?

I agree with the crane/scoup section. That was some nice footage. The editing was nice with the slow-mo to speed up transitions too. Good stuff guys.

Is the vignetting due to the M2? Or was that a post effect you guys used?

I'm looking into picking up one of these but I need to find a sturdy monitor solution first. Also, I heard that they are coming out with a version that auto flips the image so it's correct from the get-go. Have you guys heard anything about this?

Thanks... no i haven't heard anything about the flipped monitor solution, are method seems to suffice for now though... but if our battery on the HD monitor went out we'd be screwed.

The vignetting was magic bullet vignetting, with the gamma up to help create a burn effect...

Does Magic Bullet have to be used with After Effects or can it be used as a stand alone with FCP?

No it doesn't have to be used with AE, can be used with FCP...

Ken,
Just so you're prepared hardware-wise, I found out the hard way that the new universal binary for Intel-based Macs DOES NOT support Magic Bullet Editors b/c it is based on Adobe's After Effects Plug-in, which has not been ported to a universal binary. Thus, unless Magic Bullet ports the software as a Final Cut Plug-in or Adobe updates their AE plug-in you won't be able to use those filters.

toolfarm suggested this, but I haven't been able to get it to work:
http://toolfarm.com/pluginfinder/index.php?Mac%20Universal%20Binary
Solution: A New Version of Magic Bullet Editors 2 for Motion Red Giant Software CANNOT provide After Effects plug-ins for Final Cut Pro on Intel if there is no support from Apple. However, we will update our plug-ins to work in the Motion 2 FX Plug API for Intel Macs. That means that all plug-ins that currently run in Final Cut Pro will instead run in Motion 2.1 including Misfire plug-ins. To use the tools on a Final Cut Pro sequence you will need to export the sequence to Motion and apply the plug-ins to the clip(s) in Motion and then use the Motion sequence in Final Cut Pro before you output a final file or print to tape. This is the only solution to the current compatibility issue that Apple has created. Full workflow details and availability will be posted in May.

Thanks for the info Cass. I'd love to see what this setup shoots like without any effects/filters/post applied. Just a nice sunny day with bright colors in view. Do you guys have anything like that, that you're willing to post?

yea, i can try and upload a short clip of 1280/720 clip so you can see it nice and big...

Thanks for the info Cass. I'd love to see what this setup shoots like without any effects/filters/post applied. Just a nice sunny day with bright colors in view. Do you guys have anything like that, that you're willing to post?

Fellas,

is it possible to use the M2 adapter on a steady cam? Or because it's long and the heavy is prolly heavy you cannot or should not?

beautiful clip, wonder how much that adapter costed?

Thanks,
Joey

I would assume anything is possible... we have not used a stedy cam..


Fellas,

is it possible to use the M2 adapter on a steady cam? Or because it's long and the heavy is prolly heavy you cannot or should not?

beautiful clip, wonder how much that adapter costed?

Thanks,
Joey

Here is some macro photography we took... we actually got some footage of a spider attacking an ant on the web, but i haven't gotten to that yet...

http://motivitypictures.com/m2footage/insect_macro.mov

Are you looking for something like this joey?
http://www.zacuto.com/hand_held.htm
http://www.zacuto.com/camera_support_7.jpg
http://www.zacuto.com/0301_small.jpg
http://www.zacuto.com/redrock.htm

Great Footage once again and a great choice of music as well. Motivity has done quite a job making the HVX200 look good. Keep up the good work.

Great Footage once again and a great choice of music as well. Motivity has done quite a job making the HVX200 look good. Keep up the good work.

Hey Rogelio, I think we have sold a couple more HVX's just from footage uploaded here... they played some of the footage at N.A.B this year, a big time director saw it and contacted us, he then bought the camera and is using it for some lower end commercials. He said we fooled him because he thought it was 16mm film.

Cool. But even cooler if we got commission. Yea right!

Did you use a 35mm lens with the M2? If you did, what lens did you use? Congrats on the exposure and the comission.

Well we didn't get commission. I thought i said that below.. and the lenses that we used which i posted earlier were:

lenses: nikon 50mm
nikon telephoto 70-200mm
nikon Micro (macro) 105mm

I think the M2 would be useless if we didn't use 35mm lenses..

????


Did you use a 35mm lens with the M2? If you did, what lens did you use? Congrats on the exposure and the comission.

Sorry about that Cassidy. I misread the comission portion. I'm sure you have convinced at least a few people on this board to invest in the HVX200. It would be nice if Panasonic had a referral program.

Sorry about that Cassidy. I misread the comission portion. I'm sure you have convinced at least a few people on this board to invest in the HVX200. It would be nice if Panasonic had a referral program.
I am sooo impressed by Cassidy's footages - that I am planing to buy the HVX200 - the only thing I am afraid of and I guess i need some help here is this... with technology coming up every day, should I go and spend 8G's and get this camera with a few gig storage or wait maybe a year and spend that 8g's on the latest technology @ that time?

But i am absoletly blow away with Cassidy's 35mm's and lenses well done mate... great job!!!!

Joey Dee

I am sooo impressed by Cassidy's footages - that I am planing to buy the HVX200 - the only thing I am afraid of and I guess i need some help here is this... with technology coming up every day, should I go and spend 8G's and get this camera with a few gig storage or wait maybe a year and spend that 8g's on the latest technology @ that time?

But i am absoletly blow away with Cassidy's 35mm's and lenses well done mate... great job!!!!

Joey Dee
But if your going to wait that long why not wait another while to get the NEXT greatest thing?

Honestly you can't think like that. If you do you'll wait forever because there is always something new around the corner.

I am sooo impressed by Cassidy's footages - that I am planing to buy the HVX200 - the only thing I am afraid of and I guess i need some help here is this... with technology coming up every day, should I go and spend 8G's and get this camera with a few gig storage or wait maybe a year and spend that 8g's on the latest technology @ that time?

But i am absoletly blow away with Cassidy's 35mm's and lenses well done mate... great job!!!!

Joey Dee

Gene's right. Technology continues to improve day by day. What's great now will be even better later. The key issue is when you will be needing the camera. If you need it soon, get it. If you don't need it for a while, then just wait. I am doing the latter. I don't need an HD camera at the moment. When the time comes, then I'll invest in one. For example one camera I am interested in is the JVC HD100, but I am really glad I did not invest in one, because the Motivity guys have made me think about the HVX200, and the HD200 will be coming out later this year with 60P capabilities. To have either one of these cameras would be a blessing.

Thanks alot fellas on the comments...

You're both right, I shouldn't think like that, to wait and wait for the next best thing I guess... it's just 8g's is not pocket change for me... the question is do I need HD or not that I need to think about...

Again the more I see the many of you working with this camera the more I am blow away by the capabilites this cam can do!!!

But most likely I will pick up this cam by spring/summer 07... I'll save a bit and get the FS100 drive as well because having 2 8gig slot cards is pretty useless if ur going to shoot HD...

So I guess the future is HD - I've read an article that many directors now are starting to work with HD (digital technology) because its very convinent and mobile...

again fellas, thanks for the comments and best wishes,
Joey

... because having 2 8gig slot cards is pretty useless if ur going to shoot HD...

One can record almost 40 minutes of 720PN DVCPROHD, I don't think that's useless. Also ALL of that footage can be good if you choose to erase the bad takes etc...

Nice work guys. What filters and plugins are you using for color?

Well I do the shooting...and all I have to work with is one 4 GB card. And you say 2 8GB cards are useless. That would pretty much be concluding that my footage is worthless. Take a look at how long 35 mm film stock last. About the same amount of time as my 4 GB card. 10 min of record time. I have trained myself to be a very selective shooter and I would suggest that all of you who shoot with MiniDV do the same. It's very easy to get into the habit of just shooting everything and then deciding later. Try and do that with film and you'll get fired pretty quickly.

I'm glad I only have a 4 GB card. It's called discipline.

Hey Fellas,

What "wide" or "ultra-wide" lense would you suggest with the M2 adapter? I have been searching and unable to find an idea of what which I should get. If you fellas wouldn't mind just to give me a hand in letting know me what wide lense you suggest (brand & mm) I'd truly appreciate your help. Ohhh and what Matte box would recommend - I know some are pretty pricey!!!

my best,
Joey Dee