My second short from New Mexico is now online on my website. Info about it can be read on my blog. It's called "The Tramway"

Michael, just 25fps for most of it, some shots are 60fps 720p

Phil,

Great as always but a few question for us students regarding Tramway.

What Picture Profile setting?

Are you shooting 1080p and editing 720p to keyframe moves?

Did actually use tripod on the tram?

Are you punching up the chroma (saturation) in Magic Bullet or is that a Picture Profile?

I notice the image washes out (and seems to become very orange) as the tram leaves the dock and then the exposure changes again. How did you execute the exposure change smoothly?

On tram, focus from woman with still camera (out of focus) to man's face with still camera (in focus). How did you execute that without "rehearsing" it?

I don't see a music credit. Who's is it?

And the last question, being from NYC, I can't fathom how you shot the people on the tram with an EX1 without having the stare at you the whole time and/or telling you to bug off. What did you say to them?

Craig: I would not dare to ask a busy guy like Phil so many questions, but I have been wondering exactly the same things about the people. So maybe we will get a bit of inside info.

The picture profile settings on my blog, with Cine 4 I think for gamma instead.

Shooting 1080p, but normally I do what you said about keyframes moves. What I did here was edit in 1080 zoom in to 130 percent track left to right and add a little sharpen.

I used the tripod the whole time for every shot.

The colours are from a Magic Bullet Film stock preset.

The exposure was controlled by using the EX1 iris as we left the dock, I was a little slow on that to be honest.

The man taking photo is actually a reversed shot, that's why when he comes into shot he is so fast, hence I got the focus when he was taking the photo.

I need to update the music credit. James Newton Howard again, this time from Signs.

I said absolutely nothing to the people on the tram. We were in tram for 15 minutes and I didn't start taking shots of them until 10 minutes in, normally I would have asked but they seemed chilled and fine!

Am looking for an assistant to help me out on a short film drama shoot this Sunday in Folkestone in Kent.

I am shooting on the Sony EX1 using the Letus Extreme. If anyone is interested let me know ASAP.

Thanks

Phil

Phil,

Do you find the IR problem (where with artificial lighting, the black fabric turns brown, the dark-blue looks more like magenta, etc.) a problem? How are you dealing with it?

not seen it

I consider my PP settings as open source. Which means, any publication of my PP settings are required to be posted with a reference to the source. My legal advice is already working on this issue. Any reference to my setting MUST be accompanied by a reference. Thank you for your co-operation.

The latest entry on my blog concerns my first ever proper drama shoot. A short film, about a powerful subject. I am very proud of it and really enjoyed shooting it.

Quite fancy doing more narrative work now!

Stunning Phil, it looks very, very good and the performance are spot on a quality piece.
Well done! great behind the scenes photos too!

Sorry Mark, I forgot to thank you on blog for your photos!

actually did you see it all? I had the wrong file embedded and it was only half the length it should be!

Only half Phil but was it great!

Hm, the Quicktime on your blog for some reason is real choppy playback for me and the link to Vimeo takes me to a "
Ooops! Sorry, this page could not be found!". Still the first 5 seconds looked great even choppy!

- Ray

PS Tracked it down on Vimeo but it says "Uploading".

That's odd Ray. It should play smooth. I have fixed the Vimeo link but it won't show up yet as it has to finish uploading and then convert it. The file is almost half a gig

Weird about the choppiness though! Persevere if you can. It's worth it!

No worries, I'll get it sooner or later. =)

Was trying to track down the dolly ya used but it looks like it ain't available here in the US. Looks like a nice light rig, the one I have is pretty heavy and not fun to lug around. Though I need ta save up and get a Letus and stop getting distracted by other toys!

- Ray

thats a shame. its a great dolly and track

Wow- great job Phil. "Confession" looks fantastic. It is really great to see you now moving into this direction with your pieces. Any advice on settings, lenses, accessory use with the EX1 and this type of work? The Letus holding up well? Everyone is waiting to see how this finishes.

really good job on "Confession", looks like you nailed it again. To add on to Hayes' questions, how did you find editing this piece on a macbook pro? I am about to start shooting similiar stuff and hoping to use magic bullet alot and trying to decide if i should break the bank and go for a quad core or have a look at a new macbook pro. Im just scared of having to sit waiting for hours during renders to see every little change i make.

The lenses I used are mentioned in my blog as well as the accessories. Ideally a follow focus and matte box would have been used.

Editing on the macbook pro was fine, ideally the mac pro would have been used but I was away from home. Magic Bullet took an age to render. It's fine but you need the time to do it.

If you have the money get a macpro. It's a good 6-8 times faster than the macbook pro and when it comes to rendering magic bullet.

Hi Phil,

just wanted to congratulate you with your blog. I love your images, color correction and music choices. Especially nice to see you choose Symphony for Sorrowful Songs by Gorecki, it truly is a marvelous cd, I never can stop listening to it. Every song is so heartbreaking. Although I think you overused the music in the movie of the trenches, photography of it looks splendid, yet again.

Keep up the good work!

Auto focus unit
 

Thought this to be of interest, right now only supporting Canon EOS type @
http://www.birger.com/Merchant2/merc...een=ef232_home

This would allow manual method to control focus.

Phil: Ola says these EX1 settings came from your blog. If so, can you post a reference as I can not find.

Thanks,
Mike
Palm Desert

"Philip
Matrix select: cinema
Level: 0
Phase: -29
R-G: +31
R-B: 48
G-R: -2
G-B: -32
B-R: -38
B-G: +4
Color Correction ON
Target Phase: 274
Target Width: 0
Level: 91
Phase: -18
Knee SAT 50
Gamma Level: 0
Select STD1, Cine1, CINE3, or CINE4
Black: -8

Philip CONFESSION was a master piece!!!!!! It did not in anyway feel like a rough cut to me. The images looked nice, great camera work, color correction blah blah blah.....

The crowning glory of the piece; was the story, and the acting! Those actors rocked!!!!! Good luck with the film mate!!!!

Cheers!!!!

Philip,
Nice work. I am truly inspired by your work
Confessions is a great story and shot so well,
You could start work shops and people would come from all around the world just to see how you do it.

All the Best
Simon

Phil,

Congrats on your last job - great as always:)

Can you tell us which Hoodman LCD shade you're using?

yep is the hoodman 400

Thanks, Phil. Could you comment on this one, please?

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showpost....1&postcount=41

yeah your backfocus is out on the Letus. The procedure is more complicated than moving the lens mount back and forth. You need to move the ground glass back and forth. Go to the letusdirect site and look at the procedure there

Great work, Philip. Gives us ambition to do the same. I might have a few nit picky comments, but it would just be envy talking!

check out my blog on Sunday evening, my first one from Las Vegas. There should be something really worth checking out...I promise!!

something really worth checking out
 

D'you mean something like a picture of you in LA with maybe a pint of Guinness?

Mark - I think by Phil's standards it will be even better then that, and he's making a promise!! So watch for the Blog on his website...

Finding Philip Bloom at NAB...
 

Hi Philip,

Are you going to all over the place or will you be at the Sony booth at NAB?

I only get to go to the show Tuesday & Wednesday, but if there was some way possible to meet you I'd love to record a short segment for my Podcasts.


Sincerely,

Bob Diaz
http://web.mac.com/bobdiaz/Site/Podcast/Podcast.html

Hi Bob,

I will be mostly hanging around the MGM grand on Tuesday, but drop me a mail if you want to hook up here.

I got a chance to have a drink with some of the DVinfo giants tonight! Really great to meet them all. Chris Hurd, Nate Weaver, Greg Boston and Tim Dashwood. Wish I could have spent more time with them but had to go and see the Beatles Cirque Du Soleil show which was pretty bloody good!!

Thanks for dropping by Phil -- it was a real treat to finally meet you!

Phil,

Sorry I wasn't able to connect to the internet from the road and I wasn't able to work out anything with you. Oh well, maybe next time...

Best Wishes,

Bob Diaz

Sorry we missed each other Bob.

By the way have made my first short using the Letus Ultimate prototype and the EX1.

There is a better quality version being uploaded to exposureroom.com right now but in the mean time here it is:

http://www.philipbloom.co.uk/Philip_...eer_Vegas.html

a semi sequel to Piccadilly Furs

More info and photos on my blog.

to see it in 720p register at exposureroom or vimeo and download it from there. it is still compressed obviously but better