Our test film "Thornwood Park"
by Bill ONeil
on
May 18, 2006 at 3:34:34 am
Check out the little film my friend Jim Tianis and I shot (and starred in) to test out my new AG-HVX-200. We went to a nearby park to shoot some flowers and decided to film a chase. We had no crew, lights or bounce cards and shot the whole thing in less than an hour. It was sort of an overcast late afternoon and we shot standard def 16x9 at 30p. Enjoy!
Re: Our test film "Thornwood Park" by doka15 on May 18, 2006 at 6:52:08 am
If you download flip for mac there should be a free plugin that will automaticly open a WMV using quicktime for us Mac users.
I thought the chase video was pretty funny. Is that just the HVX200 or did you also buy a wide angle adaptor? I just got my HVX200 today and it dosen't seem as wide as your shots. I might be wrong though.
Re: Our test film "Thornwood Park" by Eric Steinberg on May 18, 2006 at 7:58:33 am
Thanks for the clip, enjoyed it!
I just bought the HVX200, and I'm considering buying a camera stabilizer for it. Which one did you use (Steadycam, Glidecam, Hollywood Lite, Magiqcam....), and do you have any general recommendations about a suitable stabilizer for this camera?
Thanks Bill, Fun. Its funny I have been looking at 24P so much the 30P looked odd. Nice job. I like the surprise when you got out of the swing and the other guy was there. I didn't see him back there at all. Was that real, he was just that well lined up, or that the next shot had him there?
Thansk good job.
Best,
Jan
Jan Crittenden Livingston
Product Manager, DVCPRO, DVCPRO50, AG-DVX100
Panasonic Broadcast & TV Systems
Re: Our test film "Thornwood Park" by Bill ONeil on May 18, 2006 at 9:32:06 pm
I uploaded the film (ok video) as a trusty mpg file for the Mac users. I should point out that Windows Media Files are becoming the standard. They look the best at the smallest file size. The mpg version came in at over 20 megs and looks worse than the wmv file at 11 megs. Unfortunately, Apple makes you work hard to be able to play wmv files on the Mac but it can be done.
Thanks for the kind words. This little "short" started out as a joke and we decided to edit our tests into a goofy little film where nothing really happens.
There was no stedicam used. The rotating shots were done by grasping the tripod at the neck with the legs extended a bit to create a pendulous action. Your arm acts as an auto stedicam by absorbing some shock from your body movement. It takes some practice but with a light grip you can get really smooth stedicam-like moves with this technique. Unless you're Hercules, the shot has to be short enough that your arm doesn't fall off and with the weight of this camera (plus the tripod) it can be exhausting.
There was no wide angle lens used in the film- just the glass that
Re: Our test film "Thornwood Park" by doka15 on May 19, 2006 at 1:42:27 am
For Mac Folks you should think about posting a Quicktime movie file using the H264 codec. you need QT 7 but it will blow the doors off of both formats and make a much smaller file. Use a setting of 30% on the slider. It looks great.
Re: Our test film "Thornwood Park" by Bill ONeil on May 19, 2006 at 4:08:10 pm
"For Mac Folks you should think about posting a Quicktime movie file using the H264 codec." I'll have to give this a try. I've been using Sorenson 3. Maybe that's the problem.
Re: Our test film "Thornwood Park" by Lance Bachelder on May 24, 2006 at 10:42:15 pm
Funny stuff. Just a comment about .wmv becoming the standard - I used to think this too. Quicktimes using h.264 are WAY better than .wmv's at ANY size. It's not even close. Plus the files are usually smaller.
Use Quicktime Pro to export your files for the web - works great and everyone can see them - Mac or PC.
Lance Bachelder
Southern California
Cow Forum Host- Magic Bullet
Re: Our test film "Thornwood Park" by Gerrit Schulze on May 19, 2006 at 6:49:06 pm
I like your film, especially the swing shot! Entertaining, without any plot. Nice work for just testing the cam.
Did you shoot on P2 cards or Firestore? Which NLE did you use (Premiere pro, Vegas, obviously not FCP -> WMV). Did you use the raylight codec?
Re: Our test film "Thornwood Park" by Bill ONeil on May 19, 2006 at 8:08:43 pm
"Did you shoot on P2 cards or Firestore? Which NLE did you use (Premiere pro, Vegas, obviously not FCP -> WMV). Did you use the raylight codec?"
I shot this in standard Def at 30p. I didn't even purchase any P2 cards because I don't deliver anything in HD at this time. I can wait on the HD stuff until I decide to do a real film.
I edit on Leitch/Harris Velocity and used After Effects for the titles.
