Dream Job - A 48 Hour Film by P3Pictures at DVinfo.net

Dream Job - A 48 Hour Film by P3Pictures · August 21st, 2009, 03:47 PM

Here's our 2009 entry in the Portland 48 Hour Film Project

Dream Job on Vimeo

Genre: Mocumentary
Character: Brian Merryweather, Lab Technician
Prop: Picture Frame
Line of Dialog: "For crying out loud."

Shot with the Canon 5D Mark II and EF 28/1.8, 50/1.4, 85/1.8, and 200/2.8 L II lenses.

Being Mockumentary, we played it safe, typically keeping the aperture around f/5.6 to simplify focusing. Almost everything was on a tripod (what rolling shutter?), except a subtle dolly shot in front of the lab, and a crane shot in front of the theater. (We had some bounce that we planned to remove in post, but we ran out of time.) The final shot of the picture frame (and a few others) used Magic Lantern's electronic rack focus.

Speaking of Magic Lantern, we recorded the dialog (except for a touch of ADR) into the 5D Mark II using an AT815b mic on a boom and a juicedLink CX231. In post, we corrected for gain changes due to falling lines and head movement, but applied no EQ or noise reduction. By using a Boostaroo and having the AC (me at the juicedLink) and boom op (my youngest son, who also mixed the dialog) wear Sennheiser HD280 Pro headphones, we didn't clip a single syllable, nor did we record when planes and trucks were audible. Analog gain in the camera was 17dB. Digital gain was zero.

We set the camera to Faithful with Contrast and Sharpness at minimum and Saturation one step down. By using Magic Lantern's zebras on skin tones (0xb000) and highlights (0xf000), we only needed to correct the exposure on five clips in the whole project. Aside from those and a few special effects, the shots are shown as captured by the camera.

Special thanks go to Trammell Hudson and Magic Lantern. As my son Nathan (director) put it, "Magic Lantern turned the camera into a completely different beast." Back in the auto exposure days, we had to fix the exposure on every single shot. Now we can get virtually every shot spot on.

My first shoot with ML was super stressful - the fonts were tiny, I had to set the gain for every shot, and it kept timing out before I could shoot. I was under multiple deadlines, and nearly OD'd on adrenalin! Now, with the big fonts, config files, and the ability to store configurations, the camera was great - even on a 48-hour, near-zero sleep weekend.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the film. Don't worry about critiquing it - I have a list of about 50 things that we would have changed, given more time. As it was, we turned it in with only eight minutes to spare.

Daniel Browning · August 21st, 2009, 06:35 PM

Wow! I really enjoyed it, thanks for sharing. The composer did a fantastic job. ;)

Jon Fairhurst · August 21st, 2009, 08:51 PM

Actually, the composer is bummed that he didn't have more time. ;) I would have added more layers (brass, woodwind, more percussion, choir...) and I would have finessed the strings more. As it is, it's a single legato patch per instrument, and I just moused the notes in. Normally, I'd use the expression controller to add swells and such.

The jazz bit in the intro took about a half hour. I copied and pasted it over the end credits and hit render!

It gets the job done, but another couple of hours would have been golden!

Jon Fairhurst · August 23rd, 2009, 06:53 PM

EDIT: I wrote that we typically shot f/5.6 above. That's wrong. I confirmed with Nathan that we were typically around f/3.2. We used a 3-stop ND and polarizer outdoors, except on the crane shot as the sun fell, and no filter indoors.

(Chris, it would be nice if the EDIT button were available for a few more days...)

Jon Fairhurst · August 25th, 2009, 03:36 PM

We won the Audience Award for our group. Yay!

The 48 Hour Film Project: Portland, Oregon

Monday, we will learn the city winner...

Chris Barcellos · August 25th, 2009, 04:17 PM

Congrats Jon and rest of the team !!

Evan Donn · August 25th, 2009, 04:22 PM

Congratulations! I really liked the film.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jon Fairhurst

It gets the job done, but another couple of hours would have been golden!

I believe that is the official mantra of the 48 hour filmmaker...

Jon Fairhurst · August 25th, 2009, 08:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Evan Donn

I believe that is the official mantra of the 48 hour filmmaker...

So true - and it would still be true, even if it were the 72 Hour Film Project. ;)

August 21st, 2009, 08:51 PM	#3
Jon Fairhurst Inner Circle Join Date: May 2006 Location: Camas, WA, USA Posts: 5,513	Actually, the composer is bummed that he didn't have more time. ;) I would have added more layers (brass, woodwind, more percussion, choir...) and I would have finessed the strings more. As it is, it's a single legato patch per instrument, and I just moused the notes in. Normally, I'd use the expression controller to add swells and such. The jazz bit in the intro took about a half hour. I copied and pasted it over the end credits and hit render! It gets the job done, but another couple of hours would have been golden! __________________ Jon Fairhurst

August 23rd, 2009, 06:53 PM	#4
Jon Fairhurst Inner Circle Join Date: May 2006 Location: Camas, WA, USA Posts: 5,513	EDIT: I wrote that we typically shot f/5.6 above. That's wrong. I confirmed with Nathan that we were typically around f/3.2. We used a 3-stop ND and polarizer outdoors, except on the crane shot as the sun fell, and no filter indoors. (Chris, it would be nice if the EDIT button were available for a few more days...) __________________ Jon Fairhurst

August 25th, 2009, 03:36 PM	#5
Jon Fairhurst Inner Circle Join Date: May 2006 Location: Camas, WA, USA Posts: 5,513	We won the Audience Award for our group. Yay! The 48 Hour Film Project: Portland, Oregon Monday, we will learn the city winner... __________________ Jon Fairhurst

August 25th, 2009, 04:17 PM	#6
Chris Barcellos Inner Circle Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Elk Grove CA Posts: 6,838	Congrats Jon and rest of the team !! __________________ Chris J. Barcellos

August 21st, 2009, 06:35 PM	#2
Daniel Browning Major Player Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Portland, OR Posts: 949	Wow! I really enjoyed it, thanks for sharing. The composer did a fantastic job. ;)