Feature shot on XH-A1

[Clayton Moore]

Hello guys, I don't post here often but I read tons and tons of posts every day. Wanted to show you my latest project, we shot a feature length thriller in Canada on the XH-A1 last summer. We are just now finishing up post production and I wanted to get your thoughts on the trailer. I'm very pleased with the results from this camera!

 

http://vimeo.com/2155129

 

Enjoy!

 

-Clayton Moore

www.claytonmooredp.com

[Peter Moretti]

Clayton,

 

I'm curious about what settings you used on the camera and if you shot the sign w/ the dwindling population numbers w/ the XH-A1 as well.

 

I think it looks quite good, maybe a little too much red for my tastes in some shots. As for the structure of the trailer, one thing it doesn't have enough of is a an mini act structure. Generally, a trailer will in introduce the movie's setup and complication, tease with what might happen next. That usually involves VO or titles of some sort, which can be a PITA but help "sell" the story.

 

That said, it looks like very good work.

 

Oh, one other thing, you might want to get foley of gun shots or process what you have to give it more bottom.

 

Thanks for posting and if you could share any of your filming settings, that would be GREAT. Thanks!

[Clayton Moore]

Peter, thanks for your comments. I'm sorry it took me so long to respond, but I've been a bit busy lately... thats a good thing I guess. :)

 

The settings I used on the camera were pretty straight forward. I started with the Cine2 gama, and Cine 2 color matrix. Everything else was left pretty flat, notable changes were decreasing set up and sharpness a touch. I also pulled down the RB Matrix, and the GB Matrix quite a bit down near -12 each.

 

I didn't have any budget for lights so most everything was shot daylight with white bounce cards. On occasion for night shots I did have a China Ball with a 200watt bulb on a dimmer, and two garage worklights from Wal-Mart. Those usually ended up gelled blue to light up the background.

 

Most interiors I shot using existing florescent light for top light, with lots of gain to introduce grain to the picture, and with the intentions to push it toward blue in editing.

 

The sign was shot with the camera, if you notice we took a still shot of the sign, and added the numbers counting down with after effects and also the slight push.

 

I agree with you about the trailer, it wasn't completely my choice, its a zombie film and the other producers were hesitant to introduce that aspect of the story to prevent anti-zombie types from immediately dismissing the film. I think it makes the trailer a little bit mish-moshy myself... you can't really tell what is going on.

 

Thanks for the note on the gunshots too... there actually is a foley sfx in there already, maybe we will just add more "oomph" to it.

 

-Clayton Moore

claytonmooredp.com

 

 

 

Clayton,

 

I'm curious about what settings you used on the camera and if you shot the sign w/ the dwindling population numbers w/ the XH-A1 as well.

 

I think it looks quite good, maybe a little too much red for my tastes in some shots. As for the structure of the trailer, one thing it doesn't have enough of is a an mini act structure. Generally, a trailer will in introduce the movie's setup and complication, tease with what might happen next. That usually involves VO or titles of some sort, which can be a PITA but help "sell" the story.

 

That said, it looks like very good work.

 

Oh, one other thing, you might want to get foley of gun shots or process what you have to give it more bottom.

 

Thanks for posting and if you could share any of your filming settings, that would be GREAT. Thanks!

[ryan knight]

hey clayton,

 

i think it looks pretty nice too. the sharpness is great and the EXT. night scenes held up fairly nicely with no light. i've definitely seen prosumer video in such an environment look absolutely unforgiveble!

 

i do agree that it looks a little red. i wonder if that is the way the canon renders skin tone (i've never used a canon). did you white balance manually? maybe next time for EXT day scenes try using a manipulated manual white balance. grab one of those free lee filter 4" by 4" swatches and white balance through some of those to warm it up, cool it down, add or remove R G or B, or pink and green just to get the skin tones when you like them.