My First XL2 Short...

[John Locke]

Bravo Matthew!

Great job, and hard to believe it's a first attempt. The lighting and composition remind me of the Kirk Douglas films of the 50s. I agree that a bit more contrast will improve things...especially in the venetian blind scene. Don't forget the eye candy shots of things like a high contrast close up of a sweaty cocktail glass or billowing cigarette smoke appearing from a silhouette.

I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with next.

So how many times did you have to do the robe shot to get it just right?

[David Slingerland]

great shooting for a first attempt. You do have a natural sense for lighting. My only comments would be that the shots on the glass/door handle would be a little shorter for timing purposes. I would not have used the zoomshot, but would have used a static shot. Rack focus shots rarely work well, I think, or they have to be extreme subtle....and you can wonder about its purpose in this short...
You definetly have talent and I if I where you id pursue a career in shooting...

greetings

[Matthew Cherry]

Wow, thanks guys!!

John,

I really appreciate your comments. I have used this footage (although I may reshoot it) as the basis for a short 15 min film which we recently finished the script on. I have drawn all the storyboards and have been lining up cast and am now trying to lock in a few locations. Hopefully, I will shoot after the new year (everyone will be away for the holidays) and will go into post on it by the end of January. It probably seems stupid to be going through all of this for a dumb little short (I've actually filled most of a 1" binder on pre-production stuff) but I look at it like school (even though I'm 37). When I get it finished, I'll post it again. Oh and the robe shot took many, many takes... It's hard work, but someone had to do it... ;)

Can you say more about adding contrast, "especially in the venetian blind scene"?

David,
Thanks for the advice! I've already started editing this footage down to see just how short I could make it - the rack focus is out. Since this started out as an experiment rather than a short, the rack focus was there simply to see if I could pull it off by myself. Other than that it served no purpose.

When you mention the zoomshot I assume you mean when the girl puts on the robe? I actually took static shots first, but since the whole thing was static up to that point, I thought the zoom might be neat. Can you explain why you don't like it or why you would have preferred a static shot? Also, I'm in the process of building a small track and dolly. Would a dolly shot be better/best, or do you still think static is the way to go?

I selected a film noir style for a variety of reasons one of which was that they traditionally used a lot of static shots (since I was working alone this was pretty critical). Also, they tend to have a large DOF which works well with DV and then there's the main reason - the lighting.

Thanks again!!

Matt

[David Slingerland]

my personal feeling is you should stay away from zoomshots unless you would like to reveal something when you go out? There is got to be some purpose for a zoomshot. Take your opening shot, its a tilt but its also a slight zoom. If you want to zoom you should 'hide' it. It works well in the openingshot. If you want to zoom by all means, but then you ought to make it the style of the film, as you have chosen for static shots I think you should stick to them. And in general zoomshots are difficult to pull on a dv-camera because the quality of the zoom is poor. You should try a broadcast lens and then pull a zoom, its one hell of a difference. But even then the zoom can start abrupt.. I have the canon xl1, its zoom is not half as good as the new canon and I never use it unless I am doing docu/style something because then you sometimes need to reframe... Oh and tilts pans and a dolly shot could work but its difficult to keep focus if you move away from the subject. It is very difficult to do that kind of shoot without a focuspuller. Sideways movements or other movements where your focus is not a really big issue are adviseable if you are shooting alone.

greetings and keep up the work!!!

[David Lach]

<<<-- Once you turn 2:3:3:2 footage to 24p , what do you sabve it in ? Since DV codec (good quality) can't handle 24p. What is a good quality codec to keep the 24p footage in for editing ?

Thanks !

Frank -->>>

You don't need to save it in a different format. It will remain 60i DV, but some NLE softwares, such as Premiere Pro 1.5 for example, which I'm using right now, will recognise the 2:3:3:2 mode and recreate the true 24p sequence. But all your source DV files will be standard DV files, readable with your WM player or QT player as a 60i sequence.

When your project is done, if you want to save it as a 24p sequence, you can compress it to 24p MPEG2. But this should not serve as a master. Just a file to put on a DVD for example.

[Frank Aalbers]

<<<-- Originally posted by David Lach :
You don't need to save it in a different format. It will remain 60i DV, but some NLE softwares, such as Premiere Pro 1.5 for example, which I'm using right now, will recognise the 2:3:3:2 mode and recreate the true 24p sequence. But all your source DV files will be standard DV files, readable with your WM player or QT player as a 60i sequence.

When your project is done, if you want to save it as a 24p sequence, you can compress it to 24p MPEG2. But this should not serve as a master. Just a file to put on a DVD for example. -->>>

Thanks for all the info everyone ! ;-)

Planning to get my XL2 in february . That's why I'm asking so many questions ! :-)

Frank

[Rob Lohman]

<<<-- When you create a 24p mpeg and author it to DVD. Will the resulting DVD file be 3:2 pulled down data , or will the DVD player do that ? -->>>

The DVD player does that on the fly if needed (usually the case)

[Dmitry Kichenko]

Nice little film. The only flaw I think is the way too long shot with the woman lying on a bed (without no sound being heard) and the music in the end which just doesn't go with the plot. It's kind of intense while the woman just wants to make sweet love :), therefore a sax solo would be preffered (IMO).

[Jeff Geissler]

Originally Posted by Pete Bauer

I actually have a similar problem with a lot of old home Reg 8mm films that I had converted to miniDV. Hopefully someone knows of a practical way to split the fields back into their original progressive frames -- I sure don't! It has been driving me crazy!

Did you ever figure this out?

I have 8mm and 16mm I'd like to capture to mini-dv via my Canon XL-2... any suggestions for best frame modes to use? Ways to capture?

[Kalil Jalili]

Hi,

I can't download the file, there is an error message from mac when trying to load the page.


thank you

[Joe Winchester]

I would like to see it as well. Please check the link to the page! It doesn't load! Looking forward to seeing it.

[Matthew Cherry]

Thanks for the interest. I'm not sure what's wrong as it plays fine for me. Later tonight I will put each movie on it's own page. Hopefully that will help. Bear with me, I'll post when it's done.

Matt