Crooked Path Blog

If you missed the live broadcast this Sunday, watch the replay.  Featured on planet5d.com, Mitch interviewed me about my use of DSLRs and our recent inclusion on the shooting of the feature “Moon Ring” in Hot Springs which was shot all on 5dMkIIs.

I wanted to let everyone know that I’ll be on the planet5d.com radio show this coming Sunday evening.  If you’re not busy, would love for you to stop by and join us.  You’ll also be able to participate via chat.

We’ll be talking about DSLR cinematography, geeking out about the technical aspects via my Idiot’s Guide to the 5d and seminars, but also talking about some of the projects being done on these cameras and the future of the technology.

Should be fun, stop by if you have time…and we’re looking forward to seeing you there!

http://blog.planet5d.com/2010/06/new-on-the-planet5d-calendar-interview-with-richard-crook-from-crooked-path-films-sunday-at-9-edt/

First of all, there’s one thing about this camcorder that I can’t get over.  I’m not a fan of the Panasonic GH1, I think the quality of picture is what is most important and Panasonic just doesn’t have nuthin’ on Canon.  This camera is most likely going to emulate the GH1, but hey, they had me at HD-SDI outputs for uncompressed recording!

Looking at these specs, I’m quite impressed.  The SDI outputs being the most tempting, but factor in the variable framerates and conveniences that we’re used to on regular video cameras and I’m starting to calculate in my head how much a month I need to put aside until this baby comes out!

Two things that would prevent me from nabbing one up next year are:

1. If Canon puts together a full frame 5d/video camera hybrid, and/or
2. The AF100′s picture looks like the GH1′s…including those annoying vertical lines in high ISOs and the overall obvious picture quality (when compared to the Canons).

Enough of my talking…onto the good stuff!

The software that helped final cut pro users automatically sync audio with their video is now available for Adobe Premiere users (PC) if you have either CS4 or CS5.

From the website:  PluralEyes™ saves hours in post-production for multi-camera edits, dual-system audio or multi-take workflows such as music videos. It automatically synchronizes all your audio and video clips without the need for timecode, clappers or any special preparation.

Head over to the Singular Software website and download it for FREE! Look over the guide for any questions.  There are known issues and bugs just like any other beta, but hey, it’s FREE.

When I first heard of Moon Ring from the popular DSLR cinema site planet 5d, I was immediately excited.  The film is being shot only 5 hours away from me in Hot Springs, Arkansas using all 6 Canon 5dMkIIs.  Though not on the level of Twilight in terms of budget, Moon Ring shares some similar story elements that’s sure to be popular with the teen demographics (but NOT about vampires)…and is catching the eye of Hollywood studios because of its sole use of DSLRs and the benefits of doing so.  It’s also the first feature length movie to be shot on the new line of Zeiss Compact Prime Cinema Lenses.  The Director of Photography is Bruce Dorn, a Canon Explorer of Light, who also creates great DSLR products used on the production.  You can read Mitch’s planet5d post about Moon Ring HERE.

Scott Loye, the Director of Moon Ring, told me in between scenes that the use of multiple cameras to shoot the various scenes drastically cuts down the production time, because they are able to shoot multiple angles of the scene without needing to move the camera for other takes like usual.  Most productions use one camera to shoot a scene’s multiple angles and shots requiring the crew to move and setup the camera several times and run the scene in multiple takes each time.   The cost of a fully loaded Red One camera is in the neighborhood of $50,000…where each of the 5dMkIIs with appropriate lenses and accessories is about $6000.  Hence the ability to use up to 8 5dMkIIs for the same cost.  Scott says this opens the doors for filmmakers to not only shoot a quality feature on a lower budget, but do so in a faster process hereby minimizing the costs that plague a one-camera shoot.

I was honored and flattered when Scott had me come up there this week for a few days and run steadicam (I use the amazing Indicam system…hands-down the BEST stabilizer on the market sans the “real” Steadicams) for the production.  I wanted to share some experiences and observations working with the cast and crew of Moon Ring.  As a dslr guru planning to shoot a feature film solely on Canon 5ds myself, I was very interested to see the challenges and the benefits to using these cameras on a feature.

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The Cameras

All of the cameras used were 5dMkIIs, except for one 1d, which I didn’t see get used while I was there.  I believe they had it there for a backup or a b-camera if they needed it.  Bruce showed me that the cameras were all using the “neutral” picture file setting, with the saturation at -2 notches and the contrast all the way down.  The sharpness and hue remained at the middle setting.

Being a professional film set, they had a sync-sound audio engineer (Dwight Chalmers) so there wasn’t a need to worry about the camera’s audio settings.  Talking with Dwight about the 5d’s on-camera audio recording capabilities, he mentioned that he really liked the Juiced Link as an option for recording sound and that it really sounded great.  I’m sure it’s not as good as the stuff we were using on Moon Ring, but still that’s good to hear from a professional sound man.

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The Accessories

The accessories being used were a real treat.  Bruce had brought some of his products that is for sale on his IDC Photography site.  The cameras were outfitted with his friction follow focus and viewfinder.

I really liked the mini dolly with crank that he was using, outfitted with his U-boat Video Rig.  The U-boat is a fantastic creation because it allows you to mount your camera to ANYTHING and also allow for ANYTHING to be mounted to it.  This is great because we all know there’s a ton of stuff that needs to be attached to the rig at any given time.  The dolly itself can have the U Boat attached to the bottom or top, and the track design is made with brackets that take 1 inch conduit available at any hardware store.  Traveling?  Pack up the track brackets and get the rails after you arrive.  Want a different size?  You’re only limited by the amount of conduit you buy.  The Dolly isn’t available on his site yet, but here’s a picture:

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The Lenses

How awesome that the production got a hold of the new Zeiss Compact Cinema Lenses to use.  All of them had f-stops of either f/2.0 or f/1.4.   Bryan Stafford (1st Camera) and I talked about these lenses and about mixing them with the Canon L-series lenses.  Right off the bat, replacing the L series with one of the Zeiss lenses made a noticeable difference in sharpness.  The lines and creases on the actors’ faces were razor sharp when viewed on the production monitors using the 5d’s AF-assist blowup of the detail.  These are indeed nice lenses.

The sharpness difference, however, wasn’t as extreme as I would have guessed…which tells me how great Canon’s L-series lenses are especially for the money they cost.  They could have been intercut between each other except for the fact that the Zeiss produced a slightly different color gamut than the L series.  Rather than worry about being able to make adjustments in post to compensate, the crew decided to solely use one brand of lenses per scene, depending on the needs of that particular scene.

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The Workflow

The production was using Sandisk CF cards and a digital technician was on set offloading the cards onto a Mac laptop.  The Director was able to instantly view the clips on the laptop’s decently sized monitor in between setups and scenes to determine if re-shooting was necessary.

Something I forget about when I’m shooting is the fact that this camera happens to be one of the best digital still cameras in the world!  They took the official presidential portrait with it just a few months ago…why not take advantage of this?  Bruce would take a photo just about every setup and angle.  They have a beautiful hi-res raw picture of every shot which can be used for promotional materials like posters and one-sheets.  Additionally, he also pre-visualizes the framing and exposure by taking a snapshot and showing the other cameramen or director.

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Other Stuff

I was also pleased to be able to spend time with Mitch Aunger, founder and evangelist of planet5d.com.  He flew to the set to get the inside scoop on this feature, and I’m looking forward to reading the details.

I may be a guest on his internet radio show soon…so keep an eye out for that.  Mitch is a great guy and if you really want to most up to date DSLR information and news, planet5d is the place to go.

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And THANKS to Scott, Sara, Bruce, and the whole cast and crew of Moon Ring for including me in this project.

Wishing them the very best of luck!

The Official Moon Ring Facebook page

Moon Ring Movie Site

OFFICIAL TRAILER:

It appears that the current beta of Magic Lantern isn’t working on the new Canon 5d firmware 2.0.7. I decided not to update to 2.0.7, because I rely too heavily on Magic Lantern benefits.

Here’s the message from Trammell:

I updated my 5D Mark II to 2.0.7 this morning and ran the old 1.0.7 based dumper on it. It is odd that Canon has not enabled any of the security features on the 5D’s firmware files, in light of their intense efforts to protect the 7D.

Attached is my preliminary IDC file for the ROM0.bin image (loaded at 0xFF80_0000, as usual).

I’m making my way through the 2.0.4 stubs.S file to locate the new symbol locations and hope to have an update beta for 2.0.7 sometime in the near future. My real job has been taking 150% of my time and I haven’t had any spare cycles to hack on any of my cameras. As Mark Twain said, the rumours of my demise have been greatly exaggerated.

Trammell

So a new beta should be up relatively soon.  Until then, I recommend holding off on the 2.0.7 update until its ready.