Looking forward to seeing this complete, Nate, congrats on the shoot.

Hope you didn't use much Fuller's Earth, that stuff is really toxic!

Thanks!

So I'm done syncing, made all my multiclip preps, and then made all my offline media. Surprisingly enough, making 22 separate 3 minute files for use with the FCP5 Multiclip feature, and then making Offline RT files of THOSE only took about 90 minutes of my time. Amazing. I have 22 angles rolling simultaneously in the Multiclip feature. Crazy:

http://homepage.mac.com/nweaver/.Pictures/timeline2.jpg

Copy that on Fullers! I think in the end most of what we were using was wheat flour...I know it's what was in the overhead dirt rig when things got crazy towards the end.

I really do have to reiterate how poorly HDV does with the added grain from the Mini. I love the Mini, I'd like to own one, but the perceived sharpness, especially in low light situations where the Mini will add grain in the toe of the response curve, really goes down the toilet. I think I'd only use one again for very high-key situations like daylight exteriors, daylight interiors, etc.

In the interest of keeping up the "blog", my first cut is done.

Now to my own "first revision" before I turn it in for band/record co. revisions.

I wish I could post a Quicktime or some stills, but I run the risk of getting in trouble since technically, I don't own the footage. Hopefully soon, though.

Nate,

Do you feel that you absolutely needed the mini35?

No, not at all.

Was it a great way to widen the gap between all the other videos being shot on 24P (DV, Varicam, etc) and myself? Absolutely.

I rescind a little bit of my Mini35 commentary earlier. On HD, the video looks amazing. My producer went "Wow. Wow. Wow." Downconverted to SD and THEN encoded for DVD, things fall apart a little bit with all the fine detail. I think I'm going to have to finish in uncompressed for the SD version.

Down converted to SD and then to VOB? Does FCP have the ability to encode to VOB directly from the HDV timeline?

No. Not VOB. The FCP/DVDSP workflow doesn't require it.

You can encode .m2v direct from the timeline though, which is what I've been doing to make approval DVDs.

What I was talking about above though was uncompressed (vs. DVCPRO 50)for my Digibeta output, which is my primary deliverable. An HDCAM master in addition to the Digibeta is just a nice perk for Warner Bros, at this point.

OK, I see. FCP's workflow is different. With Liquid you burn to DVD directly from the HDV timeline for proofs then DVCPro50 or I frame 50Mb MP@ML output for SD delivery.

Looking forward to some content!

Are you being sarcastic, Charles? Fuller's Earth is used to combat toxins.

I did some research on it before the shoot. I'm not sure if "toxic" would absolutely be the right word as it's just very fine silica for the most part, but it IS dangerous as the particles are small enough to lodge in parts of the lung to cause problems.

And yes, it could have been an issue if we had used it in the overhead dirt rig, but we did not.

I've just been told on numerous sets that you don't want to breathe much of it in.

You're right, you don't :-) (according to what I read Googling around)

Ah, that part is right, Charles. Anything in small particulate form (ranging from ordinary dust, to silt, to smoke of any kind whatsoever) is bad news for the lungs. But Fuller's Earth is just sedimentary clay and is not toxic in and of itself. So, touch it at will, especially when wet, as this minimizes airborne particles.

So at this point I'm just waiting for the job to be delivered, after which I can post the video in it's entirety. I have to make two versions, and one has been approved. The Digibeta and HDCAM outputs will hopefully happen at the end of next week.

I plan to encode a full res h264 version for people to check out when the time is right, which I hope is soon.

In the meantime, here's almost every photo taken on the shoot:

http://homepage.mac.com/nweaver/PhotoAlbum41.html

Might be in this thread but HDVxDV now has added 24P support in the JVC ProHD cam.