Great screen grabs and trailer, Kyle. It really shows the range the A1 has. I'm assuming you're shooting 24F?

Also, did you have a budget for this feature? Looks like a decent one.

Thanks for the kind words. Yes 24F. (it would be foolish not to take advantage)

The A1 is truely an incredible camera for its price. The only downside I really see in using it so far is the lack of audio options and having to deal with tape. Its image is nice and sharp, and the range of the HDV codec is much better than most know. Canon really used the codec to its best implimentation in their HD cams, no other HDV cam can match this thing!

The budget for the film (if you want to call it a budget) is right now around $35,000.

New Blog Entry: Standing Firm Blog: Web, Video, & Publicity Updates!

New Grab:
http://www.standingfirmmovie.com/prod/80_a.jpg

New Blog Entry: Standing Firm Blog: The Funeral #2 (W20:D1)

How much of a hassle is it to move that rig around for different shots and stuff?

Also, you said the budget so far was $35,000. I'd very interested in knowing what kind of things led to that price...just general ball park numbers.

New Grabs:
http://www.standingfirmmovie.com/prod/48_h.jpg
http://www.standingfirmmovie.com/prod/65_d3_2.jpg

It's a hassle to move the thing around but honestly if you want to go for the kind of quality the setup gives you, you'll get used to it. If you go higher into dollars for quality cams anyways they always get bigger and heavier and more complicated. It can be annoying b/c it is heavy and monsterous...but it gives me what I want and I can't really get what I"m getting with any other setup without spending loads more.

The budget was somewhat broken down like this: (as best I can gestimate)

Food - $5000
2 Letus Extremes - $2400
MacBook Pro - $3250
MacPro - $3500
15in. SD Production Monitor - $500
Canon A1 - $3250
Redrock Shoulder Support - $300
Nikon Lenses - $500
Bogen 519 w/Cartoni Legs - $900
Web Space - $300
Graid2 - $300
Backup Internal Drives - $250
Canon HV20 - $900
Tapes - $150

That was the meat of the technical equipment and the rest of the budget was from things in the sound department and lighting department, a dolly, then all the smaller things that come up.

There is more money to spend for Post Sound so I can mix the film. Nothing special, just a decent set of prod speakers with an audio interface but even those things will be 1500 or so. Just buying what is needed to make the film of quality and at a minimal level still costs a fortune. Thank goodness everything besides the tapes and food is invested :)

http://www.standingfirmmovie.com/prod/53_rob_wide.jpg
http://www.standingfirmmovie.com/pro...stor_wide1.jpg

New Screenshots.

http://www.standingfirmmovie.com/prod/macro_1.jpg
http://www.standingfirmmovie.com/prod/macro_2.jpg

Looks Awesome Kyle

What format are you shooting in?

Rob

Re: Previous Post - We are shooting 1080 24F with a 1/48th shutter almost exclusively. I've done a few shots in 60i with a higher shutter to process for slow motion. We are also using the Panalook preset which gives us some excellent colors and filmic footage without Color Correction. Most of the correct that will be done to finish the film (none has been done yet in these grabs) will match shots more than alter or correct them.

I have some more grabs from shooting the past few months. It's been a long road folks but we are doing pretty good:

http://www.standingfirmmovie.com/pro...ouse_f_all.jpg
http://www.standingfirmmovie.com/prod/31r_1.jpg
http://standingfirmmovie.com/prod/38_eric_grandpa.jpg

Updates: http://standingfirmmovie.com/blog

More Screenshots from today's shoot. I have a feeling this film could be one of the "go to examples" for what the A1 is capable of. Here's hoping! :)

http://www.standingfirmmovie.com/prod/75a_outside.jpg
http://www.standingfirmmovie.com/prod/75a_cu_both.jpg
http://www.standingfirmmovie.com/pro...c_wide_all.jpg
http://www.standingfirmmovie.com/prod/75a_ab_med.jpg

I'm happy to report that after editing what we shot last Saturday we have some really great sequences :) I showed the rough cut to a few friends and the response was extremely positive. I think it's also worthy to note that we added about 3minutes to the film with Saturdays shoot, which is pretty remarkable considering we shot some of the most complicated stuff of the film. For the first time we had 4 characters in a scene that all had specific pieces that needed wide, med, cu, reverses on everything, and other options. I'm happy to say it all worked out very well! I'm very excited to see these pick up shoots filling in the gaps within our edit, and filling them so well. It's a thrill to see this thing coming together!

We'll be shooting at a local coffee shop in a few hours, pray everything turns out great!

Cafe Shoot went well.
The STANDING FIRM Blog Reshoots & Pickups - Day 6

Shot from Cafe: http://www.standingfirmmovie.com/prod/84_cafe2.jpg
Interview Grab: http://www.standingfirmmovie.com/pro..._interview.jpg

Reshoots & Pickups - Day 7

http://standingfirmmovie.com/prod/84_hug2.jpg
http://standingfirmmovie.com/prod/aaron_interview.jpg

The STANDING FIRM Blog Reshoots & Pickups - Day 8
The STANDING FIRM Blog Reshoots & Pickups - Day 9

Grabs from the past few days:
http://standingfirmmovie.com/prod/31r_dresser_dave.jpg
http://standingfirmmovie.com/prod/74a_dave_85mm.jpg
http://standingfirmmovie.com/prod/74a_steven_50mm.jpg
http://www.standingfirmmovie.com/prod/14r_dave.jpg

The A1 never ceases to amaze me :) Incredible what you can do with a 3500 dollar cam, an adapter setup, and some elbow grease!

We'll we're heading towards edit lock, and have a Sony distrib company looking at our 3rd cut which is great news.

We've released a new trailer and website recently as well as one BTS interview regarding the films message. Here's hoping for a DVD release in the Summer of 2010! :)

Standing Firm | Official Website

Excellent post and updates along the way.

Reading about projects like this is very inspiring. I cant remember if this was an original screen play or adaptation?

Regardless, good luck with the distribution and release!

Original screenplay... :)

Shot a few pickups yesterday...tied up some loose ends after a few small preview screenings.

http://www.standingfirmmovie.com/pro...ffort_rob1.jpg
http://www.standingfirmmovie.com/pro...kbook_rob2.jpg
http://www.standingfirmmovie.com/prod/74b_phone.jpg

We have our release date! :)

Standing Firm - On DVD August 24th, 2010

It's been a long time coming.

Who says you can't make a feature film on an A1 and get it into stores eh! ;)

Looks good. Really good. 5 secs in...I became interested in what the movie was about and not about how well the camera performed. It think that means you guys did a job well done.

Hey Kyle,

I just finished watching Standing Firm. I must say that you surpassed my expectations. The story, cinematography, music and editing is much better than most films of this budget.

How has distribution gone for you? Are you selling more copies than you expected?

Are you planning on making another feature in the future?

Great job!

KYLE AND KRIS....great job to both of you! I have to admit you guys are pretty far apart on your subject matter. haha.

Have either of you posted any footage showing your equipment setup while taping these movies. Id love to watch those clips.

Good Luck to you both,
Jeff

duh...........just found Kyle's blog.........anymore anywhere let me know.

Thank you Mitch for the comments! :) I'm still blown away we pulled off what we did with the money we had. Distribution has gone very well for a film of this size and we've had the pleasure of being featured in many catalogs, stayed in the Top 10 lists of many websites in our market (#1 on one of them for over a month straight), and even still after Aug 24th sales continue to go strong and actually increase over time which NEVER happens so God is good!

I'm really looking forward to doing another. I have the itch already, and it's driving me insane.

I cant add much to what others have said about your movie....a super job all around.

One added benefit for me personally is...
When I think about buying another camera or some other expensive attachment, I pull out my "Standing Firm" DVD and watch it. Doing this keeps me grounded and reminds me I "already have" the right equipment. I just need to learn how to use it better..

Thanks and kudos to you and your crew,
Jeff

I'd love to help you out out on your next film, but I live halfway across the country in central Nebraska. I'm a senior in high school this year, spending much of my free time learning filmmaking and working on projects.

Thanks for the flattering words Jeff, I appreciate it.

I look forward to shooting another film. It's driving me nuts that I currently have no specific idea I can grab onto and throw myself into again...

Just like this time, I'll be shooting to make much of a little but I wont' be looking at the same budget. I hope to have a larger crew and some more resources. If I can come up with something special I want to shoot a short this summer but unless I get a great story in mind, I'm not doing anything.

I just finished watching Standing Firm for the second time...the first was to "drool" over the quality of the shoot.
the second time........was for the story.

I must say this old boy had a few tears throughout...it hit home to me.

You did what you set out to do..........!!

Thanks so much,
Jeff

I'm glad you like it Jeff :)

Hey if you haven't already become a fan on Facebook...we've passed 60,000 recently. Be sure to invite your friends to the page as well. http://www.facebook.com/standingfirm

Thanks again for the compliments. I just realized today this thread has over 12,000 views on it. :O That's insane!

Standing Firm on sale for $9.99 on FamilyChristian.com...get it while it's hot! 50% off! Standing Firm - DVD - Rob Reisman, Eric Stevenson, Bridgestone Group/ Alpha Omega - Family Christian Stores

Also, lots of great new press on the way! :D

Re: Standing Firm - Feature Film shot on A1+LetusEX
 

Just looked at some past footage from this film today while I was researching some new cameras. I gotta say I'm still blown away by what the A1 and 35mm combo can give you. The XF300 seems like a great step up from the A1 and will right some of the wrongs (or limitations rather) of my previous films image. Mostly noise, the codec being 422 and 50mb/s not HDV 420, audio uncompressed, LCD, etc. But even so...the images from my old film are crazy to me sometimes.

Anybody who tells you DSLR's can do everything and 35mm Adapters are dead...well...they're wrong LOL.

http://www.kyleprohaska.com/rob2.jpg

Re: Standing Firm - Feature Film shot on A1+LetusEX
 

As of today, Standing Firm is now available on Netflix Streaming! :D http://bit.ly/sfonnetflix