Short Film for Vimeo Contest with 7D

Hello everybody, I want to share with you my entry for Chapter 2 of "The Story Beyond the Still" Vimeo and Canon contest.

If you haven't seen chapter one, here is the link.
The Story Beyond The Still: The Cabbie - The Story Beyond The Still on Vimeo

And here is my version of the story titled: "New Message"
New Message - The Story Beyond The Still on Vimeo

It was shot with the canon 7D, cinevate gear, spider dolly and kessler crane. I used a canon 17-33m IS 2.8 and Canon 70-200 IS 2.8 lenses.

Hope you like it.

[Jason McDonald]

Absolutely loved it. Amazing what the 7D can produce in the right hands.

May I ask what aperture you were using? ISO? Your shots look very well lit. Were you using any special lighting setup?

[Jerry Porter]

All I can saw is WOW!! That was really GREAT!! You Sir have talent!

[Tony Davies-Patrick]

I placed an earlier post and link to Vincent's original clip on dvinfo here:

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/eos-7d-s...-using-7d.html

Very nice work, Manuel. I was impressed with the smooth takes and clean footage.

By the way, where did you manage to find the old wooden chest? ...Not quite the same as Vincent's but a very good match! :)

[Manuel Hernandez-Stumpfhauser]

Thank you very much Jason, Jerry and Tony.

I shot almost the whole movie with ISO 1250 and aperture 2.8. I used a 2,000 watt tungsten lamp to iluminate the chest. The lamp was placed in a 45º angle and 20 feet away from it. I used some scrims and flags to control and cut the light coming out from the 2k. Also used a Kino Diva light (2,900 ºK) to paint just the front of the chest and a Arri 650 watt for the backlight of the actor.

Inside the "monitoring house" (at the beginning and the end of the film) I used an Arri 650watt for the backlight with a lot of metal scrims, because the light was too much for ISO 1250 and an ARRI 150w that iluminated his face & body.

The chest belonged to my great-grandmother and my mom had it as a decoration at her office. I was lucky!

[Tony Davies-Patrick]

That's what mum's are for...always there when you need them! :)

[Jon Fairhurst]

Beautifully filmed, Manuel! And I see that it was quite the family effort. Kudos to Victor on the music. The overall effort continued the mood of the earlier segment wonderfully.

[Chuck Spaulding]

Ok Sure, everything they said. BUT, am I the only person who when confronted with an old chest that moves on its own would turn and run the other direction?

What was he thinking?

Nice job.

[Jason McDonald]

Originally Posted by Manuel Hernandez-Stumpfhauser

Thank you very much Jason, Jerry and Tony.

I shot almost the whole movie with ISO 1250 and aperture 2.8. I used a 2,000 watt tungsten lamp to iluminate the chest. The lamp was placed in a 45º angle and 20 feet away from it. I used some scrims and flags to control and cut the light coming out from the 2k. Also used a Kino Diva light (2,900 ºK) to paint just the front of the chest and a Arri 650 watt for the backlight of the actor.

Inside the "monitoring house" (at the beginning and the end of the film) I used an Arri 650watt for the backlight with a lot of metal scrims, because the light was too much for ISO 1250 and an ARRI 150w that iluminated his face & body.

The chest belonged to my great-grandmother and my mom had it as a decoration at her office. I was lucky!

That looks very clean for 1250. Any noise reduction used in post?

[David Chapman]

Manual, this has a great feel. I'd love to start with your ending for part 3!

[Erik Phairas]

Awesome! Love the twist!

[Manuel Hernandez-Stumpfhauser]

Originally Posted by Chuck Spaulding

Ok Sure, everything they said. BUT, am I the only person who when confronted with an old chest that moves on its own would turn and run the other direction?

What was he thinking?

Nice job.

Good point Chuck!, I would also had run away if I had seen saw an old chest that moved! Fortunately I don't work as a guardian or watchman in an old warehouse!

Maybe he was thinking there was a trapped animal or person inside!


Hello Jon, It was really a complete family effort, Daniel & Victor (my brothers) as the producer and music composer respectively, my wife as the associate producer & my mom and Dad helping us with some props and the very important chest.

Regarding the ISO 1250 I was very worried about it, but after doing some tests, it looked ok, not perfect, but good enough. I didn't use any noise reduction plugin or software, just crushed a little bit the blacks in color grading and that helped to hide the noise.

Hello David, I always had on mind a very open and easy ending to start chapter 3.


Thanks again everybody for you comments and for taking your time to watch the video!

[Brandon Paschal]

Very well done Manuel!