WW2 Short Film shot on a V1
 

Hey all,


Just recently shot this short film for a TV competition....

YouTube - The Battle For Crete (ep 1) || New Zealand WW2 Series


Let me know what you think!


Cheers

Logan

excellent - in fact, i'd say it's one of the best short's i've ever seen (and i'm 35+ years in tv).

well handled, beautifully executed.

very well done!!!

that is awesome , of course i like the action war flick stuff too.

but V1? V1 and What? how do you get human hairs flipping on frames with a video camera?
is that an effect you added or does the telecine guy need a hair net?

Nice one Logan; congrats. War is not my thing but hats off for production values. If you don't mind me asking what was the budget and how many hours, roughly, from go to DVD?

Cheers

John

"very well done!!!"

Thanks!

"but V1? V1 and What? how do you get human hairs flipping on frames with a video camera?
is that an effect you added or does the telecine guy need a hair net? "

Yes - V1 with a free FCP 'old film' filter in post.

"If you don't mind me asking what was the budget and how many hours, roughly, from go to DVD?"

The budget was $200 - this just covered the hiring of guns, blanks and uniforms.

Mostly had a crew of just me - had a little help for the grenade hits etc.

Took about 3 days to shoot and edit together. Am working towards shooting a kiwi WW2 feature in 2012 - so this was just a short test. Will be doing a few more shorts next year.

Logan,

You make me very proud to be a fellow V1 owner. :-)

Andrew

Brilliant! Loved it!

Man, that was awesome work.

Well done Logan, very nicely done, the best part was the opening. Very nice warm look and feel to it. Question - did you use a jib or something for the opening shot?

Also, anything other than the free post filter? Thats impressive.

Yeah - used a home made jib. It's a real piece of junk and is quite wobbly - but I added 'Smoothcam' in FCP to the shot and it came out ok.

Just added a little colour corrector in FCP to the shots - nothing else.

I have the sharpness and contrast in the camera set to minimum - I find that gives it a nice soft look and gives you room to play with the blacks in post.

Did you record to tape, or some other device?

Did you use an intermediary codec, or edit HDV?

"Did you record to tape, or some other device?

Did you use an intermediary codec, or edit HDV?"


I recorded to the Sony Flash recorder. Only because my camera has water damage and can't record to tape.

I edited it in HDV.

Due to the water damage the camera can't record audio in HD mode either so for the dialog I do the scene in HD then switch to SD, get the cameras boom mic in close and get the actors to redo the lines.

It's a bit of a hack and pretty rough - but worked for what I needed.

Colour me "impressed".

Andrew

Heh, well done Logan! Your poor camera though! Water damage, not nice. I take it warranty's out the question?

How about some pictures of that home made jib? You did a great job considering its a 'piece of junk', i know you used smoothcam but i never would have guessed it was a wobbly home-made job. :)

Logan, did you also write and direct this short?

Very, very well done!

You either have the gift or you don't. Logan, you have it.

Yes Ron - I wrote, shot, directed, edited & funded this short.

Only had 1 other guy helping for some of the shoot - but mostly was just crewed by me.

hI LOGAN that was an awesome video, is there any way you can share me the picture profile that you use on it? and did you shoot at 24 p? tnx : )

Well, you have certainly done a great job! And please share your camera settings and if it is at all possible tell us about your post work as well.

The cameras at my office so I don't know the exact picture profile settings. But I know I have sharpness turned all the way down.....and low contrast - which I think is done through BLK Compensation = Stretch ?? I think that's the setting. I have the colour set to 1 below the middle as well.

It was shot in 25p. So - pretty close to 24p.

Post work is all done in Final Cut. I use a Colour Corrector and for most of the film just heavily desaturate it and crush the blacks a bit. I also added grain using a free plugin - but it ended up adding dust and scratches as well - which I couldn't turn off. But it didn't bother me.

Free old film plugin: Final Cut Pro / Express Plugins by Eiperle CGM

Hope some of that info is helpful.

Logan, watched it spellbound all the way through, the cuts just flowed the story along naturally, and the great thing is i forgot that i was watching a V1 clip! I really enjoyed that.

What i found interesting was that you turned sharpness on the V1 all the way down to the lowest setting - a great example of not listening to mainstream advice!

cheers

"What i found interesting was that you turned sharpness on the V1 all the way down to the lowest setting - a great example of not listening to mainstream advice!"

I shot a few music videos on the Red - and one of the things I liked about it was the soft edges. I find I get similar results with the sharpness setting on the V1.

Great Work
 

Logan, very creative and 1st class! I'm a fan. Garry Moore

Water Damage
 

Hey Logan, how did the water damage occur? Was it dropped in water or something not as obvious? Thanks

Was doing a shot under a fish tank. Had an actor put their face in the water. When he pulled his head out the water dripping off his hair got onto the camera. And a tiny amount got onto a circuit board frying it. It was a really small bit of water but it found the right spot.

Hope that makes sense. Thanks for the comments as well!

Great film!
 

Logan this looks great - as someone who recently bought a new V1E this film makes me happy! Considering you did practically everything yourself, great job on getting the performance from the actor and still framing beautifully.

Cheers for the hint about turning sharpness all the way down - I will definitely be doing this!

Logan,

Like the others on this thread my hat is off to you. Excellent piece of work and as a V1 owner made me very excited and proud about my cameras.

You obviously are a natural filmmaker. I hope you do get the opportunity to direct that feature film in 2012.

I also hope you can post your camera settings / profiles for that piece as i would like to experiment using them as a starting point.