Doco shoot in LA on EX1 and Letus Extreme

I am currently working as DP for a feature documentary with the working title “Nightshift” for award winning film maker Vanessa Vassar. Filming started last week in LA and we are currently moving onto Vegas.

We have been filming for about 5 nights now and so far it’s gone pretty well.

I have been shooting using 2 EX1s. One with an Extreme mounted on it and one “clean” with the wide angle adaptor on it. I also have 5 16gb cards and 8 8gb cards so loads of media.

Almost all our shooting has been after dark so it’s been a real challenge. The EX1 has performed pretty well. Sometimes it has been too dark and I have refused to go over 9db of gain and a top light is out of the question. After all you can bring up the pictures in the grade by two stops so have been tending to keep the gain to a minimum. This is a really important tip, sure it looks dark to the eye but it is better to do that and bring it up in post. Less noise. Nicer pictures. Magic Bullet looks or Colorista bring up exposure beautifully for FCP.

Shooting “clean” was mostly handheld capturing lost of actuality, I have a sound recordist who connects to me wirelessly and I use the cheap shoulder mount as mentioned in an earlier blog. It’s worked beautifully so far. Taking the weight and letting me shoot for prolonged periods of time. Also with the wide angle on it makes following people shots pretty steady.

With the Letus I have it mounted on Zacuto rails and the protech ps1 tripod plate as documented in another earlier blog! I have the new EX1 fix on it and a number of different lenses. Being night time it has been difficult  using it most of the time using just ambient light. It seems darker in LA than London!

For interviews I have used the Letus and mostly lit with one RIfa 55 and once using a dedo as a backlight.

At the end of the shoot I have been using two lacie 250gb 5400rpm rugged drives. One for quicktime converted files for FCP and the other I create folders named after each card and drag and dropped the entire contents of each SxS card into that folder. So I have a perfect duplicate of my card in case the conversion didn’t quite work or the footage is needed for avid or a different system.

On top of that I have a LACIE D2 Blu-ray burner with lots and lots of blank discs. Each one holds about 25gb, so I have tended to shoot using the 8gb cards mostly as it makes it easier to copy the entire contents onto the discs. I have been cloning the cards onto the blu-ray not the quicktime files. Each disc took 45 minutes to burn and 45 minutes to verify. So pretty much real time. A real downer. You don’t need to verify if time is an issue

After Vegas we are moving onto New Mexico. We then move East all the way to New York and after that to various countries around the world.

Below are some shots of me then screen grabs from the Letus footage first then the clean shots.

CLEAN EX1 SHOTS BELOW

17 comments

  1. Hey, that’s looking nice! When you mention the cheap shoulder brace, is that the one from creative video? I just got my Ex1 a couple of days ago, and am loving it! But very hard to hold for long periods of time.

  2. Philip,

    This project looks outstanding. Thank you for the blog post.

    I look forward to hearing more, and seeing some footage as well.

    Any chance you are stopping in Atlanta? If so, I would be happy to assist.

    Scott K.

  3. Clean is without the Letus.

    Scott. Don’t know our exact movements. I am returning to London in a week then sometime later we resume somewhere in the middle of the US and keep on going!

    Jacob: Yes the one from Creative Video and ebay. It’s brilliant!

  4. nice looking grabs. hope it all continues to go well.
    what is the on camera mic you are using. The length looks nice (and short) for the EX.

  5. Phil’s current client. Some details from the web

    Vanessa moved to New Mexico in January 2000 and began working on her first documentary AMERICAN WAITRESS. It played at many film festivals, was written up in VARIETY, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER and MARKEE MAGAZINE and sold to The Sundance Channel, Rialto-TV (New Zealand) and The Documentary Channel (Canada and USA). The internet sales have recently been signed to CINETIC MEDIA in New York. AMERICAN WAITRESS is used in many high school and university psychology and sociology curriculums.

    Vanessa followed up AMERICAN WAITRESS with an artist profile documentary about an Apache artist entitled DARREN VIGIL GRAY COUNTERCLOCKWISE that she directed for the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian and sold to The Sundance Channel. Her most recent documentary CINDERELLAS OF SANTA FE opened the Santa Fe Film Festival in December 2006 and won Best Documentary at the Iowa Independent Film Festival.

    Vanessa is currently working on her next documentary NIGHTSHIFT, a documentary to be filmed around the world featuring the subculture of people who work at night.

    LINKS

    http://www.americanwaitress.com
    http://www.cinderellasofsantafe.com

  6. hey phil,

    first off… your work is very cool. i’ve been following your adventures from the beginning.
    second… more than this… i think it says a great deal that you are willing to share. a big warm thank you for that.

    phil, like the countless masses… i do have a couple of heavy questions i need to get sorted. I do understand just how busy you are these days so appreciate anything insights you can find the time to offer.

    here goes…

    i’ll be leaving for india in 3 months and will be directing/ shooting / editing a doc over the next 2 years out there. art council/ nfb funding. i’m renting a flat there. i’ll mostly be a one man band but will have small help from time to time.

    6 of the past 12 years have been spent in india/ asia with pd150/ powerbook gear making indy-docs. now it’s time to move over to the ex1/ macbook.

    i would love it if you… could find half a second (cause i already know you never sleep) to put a list of essentials/ or must haves for those who spend large chunks of time out of the loop but need to be self sufficient in the shoot edit world on the ex1.

    3 pieces of support gear things that i’m coming to term with…

    letus – i’ve ready everything you’ve written on it. very informative.
    stedicam merlin
    cheap shoulder brace

    letus. just love the richness it adds but seems like a lot to deal with when your concentrating on your subjects storylines and frame composition while moving around. I know it can be done but is it alot to juggle? thoughts?

    steadicam merlin. never used it. watched it in action via a little window on the web. seems to add production value. i know your love for the locked frame (me too)… would you use it? i’d like to get away from the sit down interview and keep it dynamic with movement but not mtv style. slow and meditative. thoughts?

    cheap shoulder brace. never used it. i know that it works for you. trust that it can take the weight off and add stability. could it take the place of the merlin? i know it’s apples and oranges. if you had to chose one over the other?

    anyway phil… looking forward to all that you put together out there. please don’t forget to breath 😉

    favorites:
    darwin’s nightmare
    iraq in fragments
    surplus: terrorized into being consumers

  7. Looks promising! Thanks for you taking the time to feed us with your work. BTW, are you still satisfied with the new Letus-EX1 achromat? Is the edge to edge sharpness good?

  8. When you say a top light is out of the question, do you mean any kind of camera-mounted light? I feted to have to shoot in dark pubs and clubs on some jobs. Would you advise me to leave the LED light at home, or should I mount it to the side and have it on the lowest setting? What do you do to avoid ‘panda eyes’?

    I’m loving the pictures in this blog post, and hope you’ll have the chance to post some footage soon.

  9. no grading. the picture profile i posted on my blog.

    I am going to NAB, I fly into Vegas on the 10th.

    Top light can be fine, depends what you want, as long as you keep it really low so it doesn’t look “lit”

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