Journal

Sony ex1 xdcam ex first impressions

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 21:57:52 -0400

Well I have had my new EX1 for about two weeks now and have had a chance to shoot a bit of footage with it under variety of conditions and while I have not had the chance to really put the camera through its paces, I do have a few comments on my thoughts to this point:

The SxS recording is spot on, a real joy to use after more than a year with the tape based V1U. Hitting the record button starts the camera recording immediately. Importing the footage through the supplied Sony XDCAM Transfer software is easy and fast.
As many reviewers have pointed out, the camera is NOT balanced properly for one handed operation. You will need to balance the camera with your second hand to shoot run and gun. No big deal, just something to have to get used to.
I tried to check for the dreaded back focus issue tonight while indoors, did not see any evidence of it, but I will need to try outside tomorrow on some more distant objects just to make sure.
Final Cut Pro 6.02 provides good support for the XDCAM format, including the EX1’s XDCAM EX. The latest FCP update give the user XDCAM presets for projects right in the drop down list.

I am really looking forward to my next official shoot so that I can see how this camera is going to perform under “real” conditions. However, right now I like what I see.

Craymo’s interview in music connection magazine

Wed, 5 Mar 2008 01:29:34 -0500

Just got word from Craig Raymo, the genius behind the title song for Super Southern Sweet Sixteen, that his interview in Music Connection Magazine is hitting newsstands and web browsers as we speak. Craymo is featured in the side bar of this months Film, TV & Theater section. He discusses his past accomplishments and mentions Happy Birthday appearing as the theme song for our little masterpiece. Craig has been very helpful in promoting the film since day one and I really appreciate his efforts.

Festivus for the Rest of us

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 22:04:01 -0500

Editing is now complete on “Super Southern Sweet Sixteen”. Overall I am pleased with our fourth effort in our first year of film production. I have already started entering film festivals in the area. The entry for the Atlanta Film Festival and Indie Grit Film Festival in Columbia, SC went out today. I have a few others that we want to enter in the coming weeks.

On a technical note, Compressor and Final Cut Pro 5 gave me all sorts of trouble last night as I rendered out the final mix of our film (I know, I know, shouldn't wait until the last second, but we were still making changes as of yesterday). Final Cut would bomb out half-way through an eight hour render. This would force me to start the process all over again. After a couple of restarts, it finally finished and I got everything in on time. Next time I will definitely give myself a few days to put the final product together....just in case.

Editing Nearing Completion

Sat, 5 Jan 2008 23:56:50 -0500

Work continues on final editing of “Super Southern Sweet Sixteen”. I am still trying to figure out the audio tracks to use for the party music, but the rest of the film is coming together nicely. We had a couple of pickup shots today with Clay and all went well, the new material meshing nicely with the footage we shot back in early December. We also had some foley audio we needed to get of the father’s truck idling and parking. I used a new toy to capture the audio today, the Zoom H4 Handy Recorder. Awesome little device, its small and records incredible audio. It has the added bonus of acting as an audio interface for your Mac or PC. We are down to six days until the final entry deadline for the Atlanta Film Festival. Time to make the big final push...

That's A Wrap

Sun, 2 Dec 2007 18:49:38 -0500

Principle shooting on Super Southern Sweet Sixteen wrapped today with the final party scenes being shot at the A&F Golf location. It was quite a busy day as we had a couple of dozen setups with over a fifteen extras thrown in for good measure. Everything went very well, we learned quite a bit about project management when so many actors and extras are involved. The footage we have shot up till now has looked very good and we have already roughed out two scenes. I will still have to get several tracks of foley sound effects for placement in the appropriate scenes. This will give and added dose of realism to what would otherwise be lifeless public locations.

Shooting on "Sixteen" Continues

Sun, 25 Nov 2007 21:15:56 -0500

Shooting continued as five more scene were put “in the can” so to speak. Two more scenes we had scheduled for the day had to be moved until next weekend due to the weather not cooperating as rain entered the area and temps dropped into the low 50’s. The look of the footage continues to impress, as does the performances of the actors on this project. I spent most of the evening after wrapping pulling the takes into Final Cut and will start cutting it up later this week.

Filming on Super Southern Sweet Sixteen Begins

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 16:25:56 -0500

Sunday November 18th marked the start of production on Swingtime Films comedy parody Super Southern Sweet Sixteen. We started off with a light day, filming three scenes at two different locations. This was the first time I got to use my Sony V1U with the Redrock M2 attached. We are filming most of the film during daylight hours, plus I have the two SV 500w lights, so I was not too worried about the light loss using the M2. However, just to be sure I picked up a nice Lowel Omni 10 500w light. This is my first “pro” light and I look forwarded to getting a couple more of these when the needs dictate and my available funds allow.

Judgement Day

Sat, 27 Oct 2007 11:28:26 -0400

Leslie, Clay and I are very excited. Today we have open casting for the Amanda and Mitch roles in “Super Southern Sweet Sixteen” that we are going to be shooting in Athens in November. I have been through a couple of castings this year already, but this is the first one I am in charge of. The actors and actresses that we are seeing today seem perfect for the parts (don’t they all when you have to make a decision?) and we can’t wait to see how they do on their sides we sent them last week.

Secret Lover Premier Impressions

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 22:10:29 -0400

Leslie and I just got home from the Push Push Theater in Decatur. Secret Lover and two other short films produced as part of the Atlanta Film Meetup group’s One Day Shoot project premiered at the Push Push in front of a standing room only crowd. It was an incredible exciting night. Everyone seemed to react positively to the technical merits of the film (as DP and Editor I was especially nervous about that one) and Laura’s screenplay really hooked them for the twist ending. It is a great feeling to see an audience react the way you want them to, when you want them to. I am really excited about are next project and hope to keep this momentum going.

I’m a Redrock(er)

Fri, 7 Sep 2007 22:17:40 -0400

Yesterday I got a nice surprise waiting for me from the FedEx guy. The Redrock Micro M2 Cinema Lens Adapter that my Father-In-Law had ordered for me had arrived. I opened up the box and eagerly started to unpack the hand machined goodness. The reviews that I had read online were spot on, the adapter and all the included accessories had a very nice, solid feel to them. The build quality was top notch. As I started to assemble the adapter and rail system I began to realize three things...
You will want to set aside some time for the first time assembly. The process is well detailed in the included manual and in the online tutorial videos, but you will need to take your time and make sure that you do it correctly. The quality of your footage will depend on it.
Even though it comes with a soft mount for the acromat to mate with the adapter, you will want to invest in the hard mount option. It believe that it gives a better connection between the components.
Finally, despite the fact that the Redrock website lists the Sony V1U as NOT needing a shim kit, I quickly learned that this is not true in every case. My V1U comes up about 1/16” to 1/8” short of a perfect vertical match.

So now I wait a few extra days for the Hard Mount and the Shim Kit to arrive from my new movie making friends in Texas. I am dying to shoot some test footage with this rig and get to understand the implications on my shooting style this new gear will have. Will post some footage when I have the chance.

The iWeb Challenge

Wed, 8 Aug 2007 18:23:59 -0400

Well, I have only had the latest incarnations of Apple’s iLife apps, iLife ’08, for a little over two hours now. The aging iMac I have chosen to install them on still runs each app well enough to be of use, though I would love to see them run on a new top of the line iMac and see how they fly. I love a fresh start so I have decided to make myself construct and maintain a good sized personal site using only iWeb and see how things go. This should be a nice test of the capabilities of the now second-gen product. I want to see how much more user friendly Apple was able to make this app based on feedback from the first version (which I was never able to fully get behind). Everything you see within this site will be created and maintained through iWeb. Wish me luck.