Wow, it's been awhile since I posted here. Guess I've been really busy with work.
Back in late September we did a commercial shoot for Encap. We shot four 30 second commercials in one day. We should have them edited by late winter, early spring and should start airing before summer '09.
Here are a few pictures from the shoot:
For more information on Encap, visit their website at: www.encap.net
As I mentioned in previous posts, I now work for Laugh Your Way America, LLC at Celebration Church in Green Bay. Here's a snapshot of my workspace. I'm pretty spoiled :) I work on a G5 Quad-core Mac running a 30" and a 23" Apple Cinema display. Everything I need for TV, DVD, and film production in SD and HD.
I hosted a relaxing grill-out with some friends and then went around and stuck my HV20 DOF rig in their faces. Decided it had been awhile since I played around with my rig. A few cuts and Magic Bullet color correction and it's a nice summertime video.
One of the the many parts of my new job is being DP (director of photography) on most of my shoots so lighting is very important to me. I have lots of great equipment to work with at work so I don't feel like spending tons on lighting equipment for my personal work. That said, I still like to have something descent to work with. Basic clamp lights and umbrella lights are okay but a good softbox lets you control light much better. Unfortunately softboxes often run several hundred dollars a piece. I did some serious hunting on ebay and came up with a cost effective setup that really works great. Please note: Since most of these items were bid on, you may not get the exact same price I did.
What I Used:
2x Light Sockets (Umbrella Adapters): $10
1x Light Stand: $25
1x Light Boom Stand: $50
2x 40" Umbrella Softboxes: $25
2x 40w-200w Equivalent Fluorescent Bulbs: $12
(These I actually picked up at my local hardware store)
This setup will give you two of your main lights out of the standard three-point lighting kit: the key light and back light (hair light). You will probably still need to get a third light as a fill light depending on your ambient lighting. You can invest in another light stand and umbrella softbox or just use a clamp light or basic umbrella light. Since the fill light is meant to fill in any harsh shadows that the key generates, it doesn't necessarily need to be as controlled as the key light.
Now this isn't the most perfect setup and it may not work for everyone, but it is an inexpensive route to get some quality lighting equipment. The light boom stand can also be used as a mic boom stand if you don't have a person around to hold your mic boom over your head for your shots.
Everything came together rather well. The only major problem we had was that the audio was overdriven when recorded to tape even though it sounded fine over headphones. After some tweaking we managed to get it fixed but some of the shots were recorded with the overdriven audio.
This was a test shoot I did for an intro action short to start off our Manly Man Conference this August. The idea was to have an action movie intro like you often see in award shows.
I simply grabbed my HV20 and shot a quick concept over the course of 5 hours with some of the staff at our church.
I used this as a chance to experiment with camera angles. In the first hallway, I did a Vertigo zoom (Hitchcock zoom). On the roof I experimented with some fly by shots and extreme closeups. At the end, the final epic scene I shot in one take and kept the camera moving around the actors to keep the intensity going.
There are many things I would change for in a final shoot. Taking more time to setup lighting, get a boom operator for sound, use a steady cam and manual controls, etc. My wind screen even got in the way on a few shots.
Regardless, I had a lot of fun shooting this and I hope you enjoy this concept video.
This is a promo video that I shot and edited for the Manly Man Conference. We used four Arri lights and shot with a both an XL-H1 and my HV20. I then played around with some color correction and time remapping.
Big words, but I truly believe them because RED is developing a new camera that will change the world of digital cinema forever.
“What camera is that?” you ask me in puzzled wonderment. Well that would be the RED Scarlet. Those of you who aren’t aware of RED...well, frankly should be. They’re first camera, the RED One, revolutionized digital cinema once before when it was introduced in 2007. Simply put, the RED One was able produce a RAW (non-compressed) video image that was higher quality then any digital video camera had been able to produce before. And by high quality I mean not only the quality of the camera's sensor but also the resolution of the video. The RED One shoots at a full 4K! That’s 4520x2540p broken down to actual pixel size. Compare that to HDV's end resolution of 1920x1080 and you can see a huge difference. I could go on about the RED One, but there are tons of online resources you can check out.
Now while the RED One was amazingly high quality, its price point was ridiculously low. $17,500 got you the bare camera and about $30,000+ would get you a fully functional rig. Considering the least expensive camera to output that quality previously was over $300,000, you can see why people were excited about it. Granted that’s a great price, but filmmakers like myself would never be able to even dream of using something like that.
“…look for us next year” Ted Schilowitz of RED said at NAB ’07, but he wouldn’t say more than that. So wait we did until rumors of a high-end, professional grade camera that would be a little brother to the RED One surfaced. Something that would have RED quality written all over it but also be less expensive so more people could afford to invest in it. Speculation rose. …would it be HD? …maybe 2K?
Finally NAB ’08 comes and Ted officially announces the Scarlet. Not HD. Not 2K. But rather a camera that will shoot in full 3K! A camera that uses RED’s RAW codec and shoots in full 4:4:4 color spacing. A camera that would shoot at 120 frames per second in standard record mode and up to 180fps in burst mode. A camera that would have a 2/3” sensor that would rival most professional grade cameras. A camera that would have a built in 4.8” screen and use compact flash storage.
…all this for $3,000.
If that doesn’t floor all the indy filmmakers out there, I don’t know what will. This is something that we’ve all dreamed of but never thought any company would be able to do. This will open up opportunities for small production studios, independent filmmakers, cinematographers, and many others to jump into the world of high quality, professional grade video production. Never before have the possibilities been this numerous or exciting.
When can you get one? Right now RED says early ’09, but that’s subject to change. It is important to note that you will probably have to invest in high-speed CF cards when you buy the camera and depending on your capacity preference, those can run anywhere from $200-$1,000. A decently stocked Scarlet would probably run around $5,000. Considering the Panasonic HVX-200, Canon XL-H1, and Sony EX1 are all considerably more expensive, I’d look at that $5,000 as still a fantastic price.
Another thing to note is the Scarlet will not have interchangeable lenses. It will have a fixed high quality lens. RED’s goal is not to make another camera that would be in direct competition with the RED One. By taking away some of the RED One’s versatility and features they can reduce the cost and still have a high quality, professional model. For some people, the Scarlet will be a main camera. For others, it may be a B camera that they have several of. In any case, the Scarlet will be an asset to many.
Check out RED.com for full specs of the RED Scarlet.
Check out scarletuser.com for a growing community of people like myself who are really excited about this camera.
Check out camcorderinfo.com’s interview with Ted Schilowitz from NAB ’08 which has more details on the Scarlet along with RED’s announcements of two other products. The RED Epic which will shoot in 5K and the RED Ray which will record RED RAW video to disk.
This is another comedy short that we worked on to prepare for our new film. Besides making a cameo and doing some of the camera work, I also took the time to work on color correction for this short. The original footage was white balanced correctly, but we wanted more of a slight (but not overpowering) golden/greeny tone to the film...to give it a "cheery" feel. After some touching up with RGB Curves in Premiere, the final result was very satisfying.
This is just me with my camera experimenting with time ramping, extreme color correction and some epic music. All shots were done handheld with me pointing the camera at my face. Title shots are a varient on a Video Copilot download.
This is a good example of taking something that would be very boring to watch normally and slaping on a bunch of effects and cool music to get a great result.
The stuff you see: Canon HV30 Brevis DOF adapter Cinevate rails Cavision handles and shoulder support Lilliput 7" VGA monitor Mayflash Component to VGA adapter Mattebox from dv-shop23 Azden SGM-1X mic Beachtek DXA-4 XLR adapter Impact VT2500 tripod Davis & Sanford W3 dolly Shoulder support arm from 23filters Energizer Energi To Go battery pack
This is a comedy short that I worked with the very talented director and good friend, Jared Hoyman to produce. Besides being a great little short, this was also a test run to get a feel for our equipment before we begin filming Jared's new film this summer. Stay tuned for updates on that...
I'm just your average guy that loves film and graphic arts. As a Jack of all trades, master of none, I take on many roles in my production company. Everything from cinematographer, editor, visual effects designer, still and motion graphic designer, and photographer. Next Wave Graphics started off as a graphic design business and has now expanded into a full service production company, Creative Edge Productions. Thanks for checking out my blog.
Feel free to contact me at info@creativeedgepro.com or 920-403-0110
One of the the many parts of my new job is being DP (director of photography) on most of my shoots so lighting is very important to me. I have lots of great equipment to work with at work so I don't feel like spending tons on lighting equipment for my personal work. That said, I still like to have something descent to work with. Basic clamp lights and umbrella lights are okay but a good softbox lets you control light much better. Unfortunately softboxes often run several hundred dollars a piece. I did some serious hunting on ebay and came up with a cost effective setup that really works great. Please note: Since most of these items were bid on, you may not get the exact same price I did.
This setup will give you two of your main lights out of the standard three-point lighting kit: the key light and back light (hair light). You will probably still need to get a third light as a fill light depending on your ambient lighting. You can invest in another light stand and umbrella softbox or just use a clamp light or basic umbrella light. Since the fill light is meant to fill in any harsh shadows that the key generates, it doesn't necessarily need to be as controlled as the key light.
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