Magic Bullet/Double 16x9 update...
 

Hope I'm not out of line here but some of the folks in this forum have been asking me when the film I'm been working on will be available on DVD. It's the horror movie Camp Slaughter and it's available from Amazon, Yahoo Stores and CustomFlix. More on http://www.campslaughter.com

As many of you know we shot it using a Sony PD150P and an Optex 16x9 converter. That combined with the in camera setting of 16x9 gave us Scope aspect ratio. We have over two hours of extras on the DVD. Three behind the scenes documentaries that reveals a lot of how we did it using so few light's (and so many night exteriors). If you're into doing low budget features using prosumer gear you'll find it a lot of fun and hopefully inspirational.

I´m from Brazil. Can I buy it?

Amazon zShops only ship within the US but you can order it from CustomFlix. They ship everywhere. Just follow the CustomFlix link at www.campslaughter.com. It's also a bit cheaper to buy directly from CustomFlix.

Where can I find a trailer?

Thanks,

Eddie

Trailer is at:
http://www.campslaughter.com

There's also a smaller one at CustomFlix.

Will the same extras be on the Swedish dvd also?

Yes. There are only a few minor differences.

Hey man, I love the look of your movie. I think I'm gonna order a copy. Also, how is CustomFlix working out for you so far?

CustomFlix has been a great experience. They are fast to help and everything is very well layed out. I think it's a great idea and I really hope it picks up because it removes "the middle man" that makes it almost impossible to finance and distribute independent films today.

I just ordered a copy. I'm a huge horror fan and I think I'll really enjoy this movie! I'm particularly interested in the making-of extras. I'm preparing to shoot a low-budget horror and I need all the help I can get.

I'll let you know what I think after I watch it.

P.S. - Would you mind if I e-mailed you for some advice in the future?

No not at all, Joel.

Martin,
I just received my Camp Slaughter DVD and I just had to say, BRAVO!!!
Absolutley incredible. Every aspect of this film is so well done, I'm dumbfounded.
The lighting and composition is top notch.
I love the "mini dolly" rail system that you used.
Did you make that yourself?
This gives me great hope and inspiration as I begin my first feature this summer.Once again, a big THUMBS UP!

Thank you Douglas. Unfortunately the company (Litegrip) that made the rail system went bancrupt. It was pretty inexpensive and it's very easy to use and move around. I suppose it could be built if you've got the right tools. A simplified version could be using a skateboard dolly on an aluminum ladder.

Good luck with your film.

Great movie Martin! Interesting story, good acting... and the production quality was excellent! It looked very film-like, especially the camera movement. And the cinescope looked so nice. That really raises my hopes for the DVX100!

EDIT: my only regret is that some of the extras are in Swedish instead of English!

Good work
 

Looks pretty good from the trailer, there are some niggling areas that bother me, such as the cliched girl groping along the ground trying to escape her attacker routine, but other than that, it's absolutely phenomenal.

I'm also about to shoot a horror short, sometime hopefully at the end of May, I'm scared and excited at the same time because money is at stake and i don't want to blow it, but like they said in Frank Herberts Dune, Fear is the mind killer, just gotta stay focused.

Anyway Martin, I'd love it if you gave my script a short critique if you have the time. I want everything to be perfect before shooting.

Thanks

Trevor T

I saw Camp Slaughter. The look is incredible. Did you make the color correction or did you use any pre-set magic bullet look?

How did you capture the sound? I didn´t see any shotgun mic or boom.

Joel: All the extras have english subtitles. Just dial them up on your remote.

Trevor: You can send the script to martin@NOSPAMoperafilm.com (remove NOSPAM). I'll be gone for a few weeks but I'll try to read it and get back to you when I return.

Gustavo: No presets. It's a combination of Magic Bullet and Digital Film Lab and a few After Effects adjustments. All of the film was post synced. We used none of the actual dialog.

<<<-- Originally posted by Martin Munthe : Joel: All the extras have english subtitles. Just dial them up on your remote.

Oh, great! Not sure how I missed that...

I was wondering, was it a pain getting around the vignetting from the 16x9 adaptor? Also did you find the zoom with the adaptor sufficient for your needs? I keep hearing about how limited the zoom range is on that adaptor. Anyways, trailer looked real nice!

Hi Martin,

Saw your post, downloaded the trailer, ordered from CustomFlix and within a week I was watching your film in Sydney, Australia. Something that wouldn't have been possible a couple of years ago! You gotta love that!

Loved your film, had a real TCM/Friday 13th feel - exactly what you were going for, and pulled off well (Embrace the cliche! It's what horror fans love, oh, and butt naked teens).

I'm in pre-prod currently on "I Know How Many Runs You Scored Last Summer" - a farcical exploitation slasher (main protagonist is a cricket player... we're talking NICHE here!)... so I'll be coming back to this forum with questions and updates on production in the next few months.

Just a QUESTION for you all out there, just how much better is the image when you use an anamorphic lens rather than just cropping a standard image down to 2.35:1 ?

A Century Precision anamorphic lens for my JVC GY-DV301E (lovely and underrated camera, btw) will set me back $675US, but no-one in Australia has one for sale, so there's no way I can test it.

Another QUESTION... I'm thinking of upconverting the 720x576 image up to HD to perform grading and Magic Bulletting, then converting back down to SD to render out for DVD - does this sound a good workflow to anyone who's got the knowledge?

I bought Camp Slaughter to support the indie film scene... go buy it yourselves too!

Cheers, Doug.

Gerald: Yes, the vignetting is really annoying. And it limits the zoom. You have to move the camera instead of zooming.

Doug: Glad you liked it. Cricket sound like virgin territory for the horror genre. Go get 'em.

The image isn't better using this type of set up for 2.35:1. Just different. I like anamorphic behavior in the image. Flares become blue streaks across the image and it's a different feel from spherical. But overall the image isn't as sharp since your adding glass in fron of glass. If your going for clean and sharp I'd shoot straight with no adapters.

The image won't get any better from scaling it up to HD and then back again. Scaling is a destructive process to the compression algorithms. Magic Bullet is also a destructive process that "softens" the image a bit. There is really no way to deinterlace an interlaced image without loosing some of the resolution. MB does a good job since it cleans out a lot of artifacting that the deinterlacing process creates (like jaggy edges) but it's not perfect. It should only be used if you can't tell the story without the progressive "film motion" feel and you've only got a camera that shoots interlaced. You save image resolution and vast amounts of rendering time by using a progressive camera. Magic Bullet Look Suite however is an excellent tool for color grading the footage into more film like behavior. The best I've found so far. Some people claims that you can do everything that MB does using AE standard plugins. That's not true. The behavior of the "camera filters" in Look Suite is unique for MB. I've been using AE for nine years and I could never recreate the white promist and black promist settings using only AE. Used the right way they are actually great noise reducers.