Short Movie: Wishes

[shawnyboy60]

Hey everyone, here's my first short movie shot with the HV20 and the Raynox 6600 wide-angle lens. Magic Bullet filters were used in post-production.
I had no lighting, no staff, no nothing. It's more of a "Look what my camera can do" type of short movie. :hv20-smilie03:

Click here (http://hv20.info/yopu/Wishes2.mp4) for the short movie, Wishes. Feel free to post constructive comments. Thanks for watching!

Shawn

[skinnyboy]

Nifty.
I like it. Clever idea, and well-executed. Very David Lynch.

Looks like you actually shot the iMac screen while the movie was playing on it? That turned out suprisingly well.

I like how the guy just goes to sleep when confronted with a rather disturbing movie on his computer.

[skinnyboy]

Question - what did you edit on?
The titles look iMovie-esque, but you mention Magic Bullet so I'm thinking FCP.

[Erik Bien]

Hah, you beat me to it, skinnyboy, I also thought I detected a bit of an "homage" to DL ...

I'll also add that it's nice to see some contrasty, low-key "dramatic" lighting. It's going to be really fun as more and more users post their best "cinematic" footage ...

[shawnyboy60]

Question - what did you edit on?
The titles look iMovie-esque, but you mention Magic Bullet so I'm thinking FCP.

I edited the whole movie with FCP.
And yes. I love David Lynch. :hv20-smilie70:

[tkmslee]

Very nice. I love how Magic Bullet makes everything look good. Did you use presets? Which ones?

It seriously looks just as good as any semi pro indie film shot with expensive cameras. I can't wait to finish my production. How long did it take to render?

[shawnyboy60]

Very nice. I love how Magic Bullet makes everything look good. Did you use presets? Which ones?

It seriously looks just as good as any semi pro indie film shot with expensive cameras. I can't wait to finish my production. How long did it take to render?

I actually changed the settings for each cut, to try making it as nice as possible. Mostly played with the Fade function of the Look Suite and the the amount of gamma of the MisFire.

As to render time, I'm not too sure since I started it and went to bed, rendering it during the night. However, with tests, I would say it took an hour to an hour and a half of rendering.

[Dodgy Nick]

Top marks ShawnyBoy! That had me jumping out of my seat there. Great acting, and great editing too. I loved the use of sound fx and music to create the feel you did. Which products did you use for the sound fx and music if you don't mind me asking?

Constructive criticism: I know you went for a handheld POV shot in the middle, but it was a little too shaky for high def footage. I would recommend a cheap handheld stabilizer.

Good job, and very inspiring for the rest of us wannabe indie filmmakers!
Bravo!

[shawnyboy60]

Top marks ShawnyBoy! That had me jumping out of my seat there. Great acting, and great editing too. I loved the use of sound fx and music to create the feel you did. Which products did you use for the sound fx and music if you don't mind me asking?

Constructive criticism: I know you went for a handheld POV shot in the middle, but it was a little too shaky for high def footage. I would recommend a cheap handheld stabilizer.

Good job, and very inspiring for the rest of us wannabe indie filmmakers!
Bravo!

Hey there SpoilerWarning! And to everyone, thanks a lot for posting!

Sound FX: www.sounddogs.com with modifications to the sounds with Soundtrack Pro.
Music: Garageband with some of it's MIDI synth pads and textures.

As for the handheld POV, I too, agree that it IS too shaky. I am thinking of buying myself a SpiderBrace for these kinds of shots. Any other suggestions?

Thanks for watching! :)

[tkmslee]

I actually changed the settings for each cut, to try making it as nice as possible. Mostly played with the Fade function of the Look Suite and the the amount of gamma of the MisFire.

As to render time, I'm not too sure since I started it and went to bed, rendering it during the night. However, with tests, I would say it took an hour to an hour and a half of rendering.

Do you mean the fade of the black and white diffusion? It's a perfect mix.

[shawnyboy60]

Do you mean the fade of the black and white diffusion? It's a perfect mix.

All I played with was the gamma so the lighting would be similar in all scenes. The kitchen was a lot brighter than the living room, so I had to tweak that.

The Fade function of the Look Suite gives a much more "Filmy" look IMO. I tweaked with that as well, to a value of 25.

[tkmslee]

Thanks for the MB tip...I will have to try the fade thing later today.

[Dodgy Nick]

As for the handheld POV, I too, agree that it IS too shaky. I am thinking of buying myself a SpiderBrace for these kinds of shots. Any other suggestions?

I got myself the $14 steadycam. (Actual price: $40) Does the job.
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~johnny/steadycam/

What are you wasting time around here for? Go shoot your next masterpiece! We're all waiting...
:hv20-smilie72:

[shawnyboy60]

I got myself the $14 steadycam. (Actual price: $40) Does the job.
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~johnny/steadycam/

What are you wasting time around here for? Go shoot your next masterpiece! We're all waiting...
:hv20-smilie72:

The 14$ Steadycam looks interesting, I might get one. Thanks a lot for the link!

Hehe. Next masterpiece will be recorded next week, but this time with a crew. Just waiting after a friend's lighting kit. I'll post it here as soon as it's complete.

[bluegrass]

i'm definitely going to build one of these puppies. i think i might build two. i just got the idea of shooting with two cams at the same time while running one cam facing foward and the other facing the other cam. i have two arms. why not try it. sounds like a cool video to me.

i can see making some comic videos with these puppies. as i'm running i can also speak to the cameras, right? hey maybe add another person with two steady cams and cameras running along side me would be cool. hell, why not a group and make it a bit of a race shot. some of the cams can be twisted as someone passes you so you can follow the scene of what happening in front.

will someone volunteer to do the multi-video-track edit of this one.

all kidding asside, i am going to make one or two next weekend and do some steadycam shooting. if you guys new me, you'd know i'm not completely kidding with my crazy ideas. just look at my logo with a canoe paddle with a vest, hat and a banjo in my canoe floating down the cumberland. i also had a 100 watt boom box in the back with me blasting out steamboat whistles as i passed people along the shore. of course i played bluegrass music too. hey, it would also be cool to equip an HV20 for underwater and mount one a couple feet under water beside the canoe. i'd need to find a clearer stream to float. maybe it would be a new way to find the best fishing holes if i could rotate the camera as i went down the river.

[cybercrash]

That was pretty nice, in what format did you shoot it? It doesn't look like 24p to me, which I think would have been better.

[shawnyboy60]

That was pretty nice, in what format did you shoot it? It doesn't look like 24p to me, which I think would have been better.

Actually, it WAS shot in 24p.

[cybercrash]

Actually, it WAS shot in 24p.

Strange, what is it then... Was the shutter on 1/48?

[shawnyboy60]

Strange, what is it then... Was the shutter on 1/48?

It was shot in Cine Mode.

[cybercrash]

It was shot in Cine Mode.

Thing is, the motion clarity seems very video-ish to me and I wonder why... Maybe the shutter speed went up (as it was automatic I guess), I don't know. It seems a lot more video-like than other HV20 24p footage I've seen.

I don't have an HV20 myself yet so I can only compare... Do others concur or is this what normal 24p at 1/48 should look like?

[skinnyboy]

I agree with cybercrash that it looks a little "video-y". It could be the filters that were applied maybe.

[jimbaran]

The 14$ Steadycam looks interesting, I might get one. Thanks a lot for the link!

Hehe. Next masterpiece will be recorded next week, but this time with a crew. Just waiting after a friend's lighting kit. I'll post it here as soon as it's complete.

I'm going to buy one as well... Thanks for the info.

[cybercrash]

I agree with cybercrash that it looks a little "video-y". It could be the filters that were applied maybe.

Now that I think of it, it really must be the shutter speed. Which is strange because I thought the HV20 tries to stick to 1/48 in Cine... Can anyone comment on this? Don't have an HV20 yet and I'm curious...

[SenorKaffee]

It tries, but you have to use Exposure Lock to actually force it to do so.

[retired26]

Shawnyboy

I love what you did with your short film. I learned a lot from this post. I never heard of Magic bullet filters or didn't know about sounddog music. I am new to this type of video stuff and would love to be able to do what some of you guys have done with this little camcorder.

Putting a film together like you did looks like it would cost alot. The price of
FCP. Magic Bullet filters, sounddog music, and I think you also have Sonicfire
software which I know about. Is this your first ever attempt at this? If so, I need to get to work and learn this stuff. My video can't compare. Nice job

Can Magic bullet filters work with FCE? I have that, and am just starting to learn how to use it. I have an IMac 20, 1.8. Did you do your short film on the IMac, and does it do a good job?

Thanks just trying to learn

John

[shawnyboy60]

Shawnyboy

I love what you did with your short film. I learned a lot from this post. I never heard of Magic bullet filters or didn't know about sounddog music. I am new to this type of video stuff and would love to be able to do what some of you guys have done with this little camcorder.

Putting a film together like you did looks like it would cost alot. The price of
FCP. Magic Bullet filters, sounddog music, and I think you also have Sonicfire
software which I know about. Is this your first ever attempt at this? If so, I need to get to work and learn this stuff. My video can't compare. Nice job

Can Magic bullet filters work with FCE? I have that, and am just starting to learn how to use it. I have an IMac 20, 1.8. Did you do your short film on the IMac, and does it do a good job?

Thanks just trying to learn

John

Hey Retired26, thanks for posting! :)

I've made numerous short-movies, but all in a scholar context or classes and never for myself, actually. Nothing I was really too proud of. :hv20-smilie126: Let's say those we're all my practice-shots and this would be my first. This is also the first time I've used MB filters. But hey, by producing and making the most movies/shorts possible, that's how you learn and become better at it.

I have no clue if MB filters will work with FCE. Maybe someone else knows.

I did my short-movie on my iMac, and it did do a good job. Sure, it's HD material so it could go faster on a Mac Pro, but it does the job perfectly. I did, however, render all the scenes with the MB filters only at the end, since everything becomes heavier and "laggier" when they're used.

As for the video-ish issue, I somehow don't feel/see that. However some of you do, so I would definitely like to fix the problem. Can anyone else comment on this? Could it be shutter speed, filters or even the compression?

[24Peter]

As for the video-ish issue, I somehow don't feel/see that. However some of you do, so I would definitely like to fix the problem. Can anyone else comment on this? Could it be shutter speed, filters or even the compression?

I'm guessing it's a pulldown issue. I noticed ghosting on some of the quicker movement. AFAIK, you can't remove pulldown in iMovie/ FCP on the HV20's 24p footage. Did you use another program to remove pulldown/de-interlace?

[shawnyboy60]

I'm guessing it's a pulldown issue. I noticed ghosting on some of the quicker movement. AFAIK, you can't remove pulldown in iMovie/ FCP on the HV20's 24p footage. Did you use another program to remove pulldown/de-interlace?

I used JES Deinterlacer with these settings:
-Top field first
-Inverce Telecine (standard, detect cadence breaks, output frame rate 23.976)
-Video output => Direct Photo-JPEG

[skinnyboy]

It's definitely 23.97 fps, so I'm guessing pulldown was accomplished. More likely it's a frame-rate issue. Since you were shooting in low-light, I'm guessing the camera pushed the frame-rate up.
Do you know how to lock exposure using the little joystick? Here's a thread that 'splains it for anyone who's interested:
http://dvxuser.com/jason/hv20/

[tkmslee]

Hey everyone, here's my first short movie shot with the HV20 and the Raynox 6600 wide-angle lens. Magic Bullet filters were used in post-production.
I had no lighting, no staff, no nothing. It's more of a "Look what my camera can do" type of short movie. :hv20-smilie03:

Click here (http://hv20.info/yopu/Wishes2.mp4) for the short movie, Wishes. Feel free to post constructive comments. Thanks for watching!

Shawn

shawnboy,

Would you mind sharing the exact settings of your Magic Bullet filters...I can't seem to mimic the effect. Thanks!

[shawnyboy60]

It's definitely 23.97 fps, so I'm guessing pulldown was accomplished. More likely it's a frame-rate issue. Since you were shooting in low-light, I'm guessing the camera pushed the frame-rate up.
Do you know how to lock exposure using the little joystick? Here's a thread that 'splains it for anyone who's interested:
http://dvxuser.com/jason/hv20/

I started to read the page a bit, and my guess: it probably IS this. I will have to understand everything. Thanks for the link!

tkmslee, here are the settings I have used. I have not touched any other setting (or, I think I haven't).
-Look Suite: Subject > "Pre Gamma" = from 3 to 5, depending of scenes
-Misfire: Check "Apply Fading", then "Fade Amount" = 25

[cybercrash]

Yes, I'm also sure that it's the shutter speed.

It's 24p but almost every frame is very sharp while there should be more motion blur to make it filmlike. Shutter speed was just too far above 1/48.

[SenorKaffee]

I liked it, but I´m not so sure I got the story. o_O

[24Peter]

I liked it, but I´m not so sure I got the story. o_O

Me either. :(

[shawnyboy60]

I liked it, but I´m not so sure I got the story. o_O

Thing is, I kinda like shorts that make you think. You guys can make up your own explanation to the story. I have mine. :)

Thanks to http://dvxuser.com/jason/hv20/ , I found the answer to the video-ish footage problem, which is the shutter speed that automatically kicks in. I will have to lock up the settings next time.

[SenorKaffee]

Guy is bored with life, dreams about suicide, but is too lazy. ^^