DV Info Net

DV Info Net (https://www.dvinfo.net/forum/)
-   Sony TRV950 / PDX10 Companion (https://www.dvinfo.net/forum/sony-trv950-pdx10-companion/)
-   -   PDX-10: Any Screen Captures or Short Films online? (https://www.dvinfo.net/forum/sony-trv950-pdx10-companion/26167-pdx-10-any-screen-captures-short-films-online.html)

Robert Kirkpatrick May 18th, 2004 09:54 AM

PDX-10: Any Screen Captures or Short Films online?
 
Hi. I'm debating buying the Sony PDX-10 for making narrative films (starting with shorts and perhaps moving on to feature length, depending on how good I get). I have a choice of being able to buy the PDX-10 or waiting a couple years to save the extra money for the DVX100 (and by then, there will probably be something even snazzier out). I am, however, oscillating, because I can't find many stills or short films online that were shot with the PDX-10. So I'm not feeling all that comfortable with it.

Can anyone point me to any films I can watch or any screen captures that were definitely done with the PDX-10? My Google-fu is turning up rather limited sources. I've also clicked on most people's www links on these boards. (I've seen the widescreen comparison, for instance.) But I'm not finding a lot of PDX-10 stuff.

(Just an FYI, if anyone needs a reference. My plan is this: Use the PDX-10 to get the 16:9. Use DVfilmmaker program to convert to get the film motion feel (which is all I need). Edit in Vegas Video and use the color correction there to mess with the gamma (actually color curves).)

I live in Arkansas, and there's NO PLACE where I can go visit and check out the camera in person. Right now, I'm getting frustrated with the limitations of my Canon ZR camera.

Thanks for any help.

Robert Kirkpatrick
Crowfeather Films
www.crowfeatherfilms.com

Manuel Sepulveda May 18th, 2004 02:13 PM

i'd like to know this too.

the only thing i've found is this:

http://www.techshop.net/PDX-10/

but shooting an interior with the camera pointing at the bright window isn't the best way to tell the quality of the camera's image!! also, he has stretched the widescreen image using image manipulation software to make comparisons easier, but he has stretched it too much - the cat grows a couple of centimetres! ;)

a short film clip taken in considered conditions would probably be more useful.

Steve Roffler May 18th, 2004 07:49 PM

Robert,

I posted some footage here:

http://www.ibms.sinica.edu.tw/~sroff/wideangle.html

Graeme Nattress May 19th, 2004 06:35 AM

http://www.nattress.com/BirdBrains/birdBrainsMovie.htm

Is a small movie I shot on my PDX-10, using my own Film Look process to produce a 24p mp4 and DVD - and if you look around the pages there's a full article detailing how it was made.

Graeme

Glenn Gipson May 19th, 2004 09:04 AM

Of course...keep in mind that the internet is a VERY poor way to judge a camera's image (with all the compression and stuff.) As long as you are not shooting in low light, or directly into bright light sources, the PDX10 produces an excellent image.

Oh yeah, and that's a funny movie Graeme, good job.

Graeme Nattress May 19th, 2004 09:12 AM

Thanks - it came out great on the DVD, although I'm thinking of a few things I can do to make it better as my software plugins get better....


Graeme

Robert Kirkpatrick May 19th, 2004 11:49 AM

<<<-- Originally posted by Glenn Gipson : Of course...keep in mind that the internet is a VERY poor way to judge a camera's image (with all the compression and stuff.) -->>>

Very true. But it does give me a strong idea, since most of my stuff will probably be viewed online anyway. I'm really grateful for Graeme's film. The footage, I thought, rivaled some of the DVX100 shorts I've seen online -- which is comforting, that with time and effort you can make the footage shine. I don't have Final Cut Pro -- so I can't use his plug-in -- but it looks damn good with 24p. I'm not trying to make the PDX10 do the work of the DVX100 -- but I'd like an aesthetic that's close. I was worried that the PDX10 would still look too video-y for narrative film. Graeme seemed to have proved me wrong.

It looks like that if I decide to go this route, the Ultracontrast filters will be a big help. Is there a way to use that filter without having to buy a Century Matte box (because they seem to be rather expensive)?

And does anyone have any footage with actual actors or people, so I can get an idea of skintone reproduction and such?

Graeme Nattress May 19th, 2004 12:07 PM

Robert - thanks for the comments. The DVX wasn't an option for me - I don't like the hassle of anamorphic lenses and wanted to go real widescreen, and I wasn't in the mood for a general purpose camera - I wanted to light things properly, so I wasn't too worried about the lack of really good low light.

http://www.nattress.com/filmEffectsMovies.htm

is really an early test I did of Film Effects, but it shows the unaltered unfiltered PDX-10 footage nicely. I was really lucky with that shot to get the DOF though!

I don't think that the PDX-10 is too video, and indeed it's basic high quality makes it very adaptable to post processing methods - like the ones that I use, and the widescreen helps you keep the resolution up.

I do like the ultra contrast filters, but if you use them you must process your footage afterwards or it will not look "right", but the end results can be excellent.

I don't have any good shots for skin tone up on my website, though I think that the PDX-10 is fine in that respect.

Graeme

Boyd Ostroff May 19th, 2004 12:36 PM

Robert: Sorry, have been out of town for a few days. Have you seen the PDX-10 stuff on my site? http://www.greenmist.com/pdx10

Some frames from nature/landscape video: http://www.greenmist.com/nature

And "people pictures": http://www.greenmist.com/trovatore/film

All these are full size video frames from the PDX-10 in 16:9 mode, stretched in photoshop to be th correct size on a square pixel monitor (854x480). Note that some were shot in very low light conditions. They were deinterlaced with DVFilm Maker and had various filters applied in post, like Joe's Diffusion and the FCP 3 way color corrector. I think I should have been more careful about how I exported the stills because the JPEG quality looks pretty low.

Now that my schedule is opening up a bit I hope to put a lot of other examples online before too long.

Steve Roffler May 19th, 2004 08:42 PM

Here's a video with people in it. Just me following my kids around for a whole day.

http://www.vanemery.com/~sroff/2004/satweb.wmv

If you can't understand what they are saying, it's because they are speaking Chinese.

Chris Thiele May 20th, 2004 05:49 AM

Steve,
Great home movie! Thanks for letting us in on an aspect of your life/family.
Also some good examples of what the PDX10 can do.
Only comment, some scenes a little dark, post production may lighten a little. But hey that's a minor comment to a great family shoot. But Where are you in the movie? Mirror shot next time?
Thanks
Chris

Tommy Haupfear May 20th, 2004 07:09 AM

Here are a few frames I took with a past PDX10.

http://www.villagephotos.com/pubbrow...elected=441334

Steve Roffler May 20th, 2004 07:39 AM

Chris,

Thanks for the comments.

I hope to learn how to lighten up the dark scenes when I get more familiar with Vegas.

And I have found I have tons of pictures of my kids and wife but few of myself. How do others deal with this? Guess I could set up the tripod----

Ronald Lee May 20th, 2004 04:37 PM

Here are trailers for my short film
 
Here are trailers for a short film I made with the PDX10. I had a professional crew and a full grip and light kit.

http://www.roboneo.com/Alexis_pages/Alexis.htm

And now, one of my projects is to shoot a street level film, using the PDX10... just trying to go after that film look.

Mike Moncrief May 20th, 2004 05:35 PM

Hello,

Great examples from all who shared !! Nice to see the camera in use..
If I might i have some questions for ronald on his short film..I thought you got a nice dark tone in the trailers for what is obviously a dark piece.. Any tips on shooting in this low light type situation with the limitations we know the PDX-10 has in low light..Did you ad a film look in post?? Magic Bullet?? Was it shot 16X9? Any other info you wish to share on the process and using the camera..

Thanks
Mike Moncrief

Ronald Lee May 20th, 2004 10:24 PM

HI Michael.

Ahh, the tone.....that was from the magic of...color timing. We shot with the settings close to what we wanted in camera, but didn't make final decisions until post, so we left ourselves a lot of leeway with the tone in case we changed our minds.

The film was edited on a Canopus Rex edit and the film look we got was from trial and error, desaturating the video, etc.... it took a lot of tries.

Had we had known about magic bullet then, we may have tried it.... I still haven't seen any non-web video with MB yet, but from what I read, it sounds good.

We also have a full light kit so lighting was professional....but really, I think we could have gotten Home Depot lights and would have gotten something similar, with the white balance....

And yes, shot in 16:9.

Robert Kirkpatrick May 21st, 2004 12:59 PM

Thank you to everyone who posted their footage. I really appreciate it, and I'm starting to like the PDX-10 more.

Boyd: I did see your site before -- it was one of the reasons I'm seriously considering the PDX-10 -- but apparently I didn't explore enough. Those nature and skyline shots were amazing. How did you avoid the notorious smear for some of those sunsets?

Ronald: Thanks for the link to your film. So far, you're the only person I've seen that's working on narrative using the PDX-10. I really like the footage, especially one instance in the Director's Trailer -- specifically, the shot of the two actresses and the boom mike hovering overhead. That desaturated look is what I'm looking for. Quick question: some of the night, street scenes came off with a slight orange-yellow tint. Was that intentional?

Steve: Really nice footage. Even compressed, I get a strong idea of what this camera is capable of. It does close-ups very well, and I've learned to do that with my films mostly (the same way they concentrate on close-ups in Pieces of April). The sound was amazing. Is that from the mono shotgun mic that comes with the camera? Because if so, that was impressive. I didn't hear any hiss, and the wind noise (which is unavoidable mostly) was rare.

Thanks again, everyone.

Steve Roffler May 21st, 2004 05:55 PM

Robert,

Yes, I used the mono shotgun mic as well as the built-in mic. The uncompressed video does look much much better. It will be nice when bandwidth is not such a limitation.

Harvey Shiner October 14th, 2004 02:36 AM

Steve Roffler - Lovely film, nicely shot and nicely edited, plus super subjects !!! - What i'd like to know is when i watched it in WmediaPlayer it showed format as being 3:2 - Did you shoot it in 16:9 ?

We've had a 950 around a year now (and being totally satisfied with it for the output we need) bought 2 PDX10's yesterday for a forthcoming project.

Never edited 16:9 before so any help/tips will be greatly appreciated (running Premiere 6.5 for editing)

Ronald Lee October 14th, 2004 12:40 PM

HI Harvey!

Congrats on the two PDX10's! What is the project you are working on?

Now I found there are supposed to be three ways with Premiere 6.5 to get 16:9 to show up as letterboxed in 4:3. But for me, two of the three did not work. They were setting the project to be 16:9. And setting the clips aspect ration to be 16:9 or 4:3 (neither did the job).

What I suggest is that you edit your project the way it is and when you are happy with what you have, then you go into the filters and choose 'transform' and set the height to 75%. That will render your movie into the proper aspect ration, with letterboxing at the top and bottom for 4:3.

You actually can set the project to be 16:9 first and so you can visually edit everything in 16:9 and then switch back the project settings to 4:3 for the transform, but I never found the anamorphic squeeze to be bad enough to distract my editing.

That is just my experience.

Harvey Shiner October 15th, 2004 03:02 AM

Thanks Ronald, will be trying what you've advised this afternoon. Have 3 projects about to get started . 1 A documentary about a week in the life of a Czech based erotic photographer 2. A documentary about 3 totally differnet eccentric ex-pats (British) now living in France in varied circumstances and the third, which is the one that pays the rent, is our normal line of shooting erotic series for cable TV and and internet

Steve Roffler October 21st, 2004 05:56 AM

Harvey,

The sample movies were shot and edited in 16:9. They show up as widescreen on a DVD player or if you use PowereDVD to view on your computer.

Editing in 16:9 is a snap in Vegas.

Steve

Patrick Jenkins November 8th, 2004 10:25 AM

IIRC, Open Water was shot with a PDX-10 and a PD150 (?) (I'm not 100% sure). If anyone has the last issue (summer) of Filmmaker Magazine there's a retrospective of the film + the cameras in it.


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 01:28 AM.

DV Info Net -- Real Names, Real People, Real Info!
1998-2024 The Digital Video Information Network