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Trevor Fernando

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  • Occupation
    Producer
  • Location
    Los Angeles
  1. Hey Robert, Thanks for your feedback. I've also heard the same about the HVX which is why I've been considering the Day for Night. My main question is, would day for night on that camera be a good solution to this. Alternatively...what is a good video camera with solid low light capability? The film I'm shooting will have the look of "Once" or "Quiet City"...very run & gun DV, lots of handheld, etc. I've heard those two were shot with the Z1U but I'm not positive...any suggestions? -Trevor
  2. Hey Guys, I'm planning to shoot a feature in NYC on the HVX in a few months. There will be a lot of night scenes, however its an ultra-low budget feature and we want to try and use practical lighting for all the scenes...street lights, neon signs, lit buildings etc. My concern is the HVX won't be able to handle the low light that well. I'm considering shooting day for night for some or all of the night time scenes. I realize it won't look like natural night time, but if it has an interesting and cool look, that might be okay. My question is - is it feasible with little to no money to pull off a day for night look in manhattan shot on the HVX and still have it look nice? I'm assuming that any shots where we can see a street light or a building that should be lit would probably actually have to be shot at night since it wouldn't make sense that no lights were on while being shot in the day. Is this accurate? What is the best way to do it? What filters should I use specifically, exposure, etc. If anyone has ever done this before, do you happen to have any screen shots or footage online? Thanks so much! Trevor
  3. Hey Guys, So I'm shooting my thesis film for my school. Its set in the future but I'm going for a more realistic minimalist look...something similar to Gattaca or Children of Men. We're shooting in LA on a very low budget. The locations are: 3 different loft or house locations - they must look like a wealthy individual or family lives there, ideally with a very modern, minimalist decor. We also need a sushi restaurant. Each location will be a 1 day shoot (12 hours), so its a total of 4 days of shooting. Every place I've contacted has been somewhere between $3K-10K a day. I found a few cool places that were $1500 but thats the cheapest so far. Can anyone recommend some houses or standing sets that we could rent for less at a student rate that still would look great on camera for this kind of film? Or, even better, a location with several standing sets so we could go to one place for the entire shoot? So far, I only know of United Pacific Studios (also known as the Entertanium) and Lacy Street. I don't know how much these places rent for indies...anyone who's used these before know? On a side note, if you happy to think of a perfect place but it is a lot more expensive, I'd still love to check it out. Anyhow, any recommendations are greatly appreciated. Thanks a lot!
  4. Thanks Michael, after I started looking into after effects I was thinking of a similar idea of recording some flares and compositing them in as opposed to trying to generate them from scratch. Do you think I could shoot the flares on video and composite them in over the film image? Would it blend in since I'd only be using flares and not video content...or would it look super pixelated and weird...I only ask cuz running tests on film could end up being imprecise and expensive for such an effect especially considering I'm not a pro at doing optical effects...
  5. I just had an idea. What about somehow suspending colored liquid between glass and putting that directly in front of the lens? Theoretically the liquid would move around out of focus and make a moving colored type of effect. Practically speaking I have no idea what this would look like. Perhaps someone with more experience could tell me if a filter or device like this already exists or if this would work and how to shoot with something like this... Thanks in advance... Trevor
  6. Thanks for the great suggestions everyone! I was thinking about smoke as well James, good call. Although it'd be very difficult to use it for exterior stuff. It seems like the effect might be too unpredictable to create optically...and after i saw some after effects demonstrations recently I've been thinking it might be a lot better to composite something in in post. Although I'm still definitely open to suggestions, so if you have any other ideas or if someone has done a trick like this before effectively, please share. Thanks! Trevor
  7. Hey James, Thanks! Interesting ideas. The main character will also be in exterior shots in a downtown area and ideally I'd like to create this effect there as well. Like maybe he's walking down the street, he hears a car honk as he passes by with a dopplar type effect and he sees a color associated with that. I think maybe what David was getting at is using lights in the way you suggest, might look specifically like lights illuminating a wall or object as opposed to colored flares appearing in the lens as though they're a part of his sight. Like if you could imagine having this condition, you wouldn't see color splashed on a wall, but instead it would be almost like the effect of a lens streak, a glow of light in your vision. It seems like this could work by shining light or reflecting it into the lens in combination with a streak or some other filter possibly...but the Big question is how can we make the light appear as though it belongs there...or better yet, disguise it so you can't tell its specifically a light. David you were referring to using a glass angled at 45 degrees and reflecting lights. I don't mind if we're somewhat limited in movement, and I don't mind syncing sound later if this effect would work. How would I go about doing this? Perhaps when its POV of the main character (which is the only times we see these colors appear) and he hears a musical note, we could shoot very shallow DOF, so you can't make out the light source in the background but the colored flare still appears. I don't really know how or if this would work, and it would limit us in shooting only shallow for POV stuff, but I wonder... Any thoughts anyone?
  8. Hey David, Thanks a lot for the quick reply. If I were to go for the VFX option, I don't know if I could do it myself, do your or anyone else know of a good VFX firm in LA that might do this kind of work? Also, if anyone else has any ideas using lights, etc. on set or ideas for how to do it digitally, I'm definitely open. Thanks! -Trevor
  9. Hey All, I'm making a film about a young man with a condition that causes him to see colors when he hears musical notes...he uses this ability to compose music. To recreate this on camera, it should be something to the effect that when he hears specific musical notes, like lets say he's playing on a keyboard, he sees flares of color. Maybe the keys light up one color, or better yet, its just in random areas superimposed over the image like a lense flare but animated and controlled...I've been thinking it could be something similar to the effect of the horizontal flares you get from anamorphic lenses, and then color correct the flares to different colors...or maybe do a sin city type effect where the colors are very muted and desaturated and different sound sources make a specific color pop and saturate in the scene (which I believe can be done in telecine)...I'm looking for some new ideas for different ways to portray this, from things you might have done or seen as optical or visual effects...and how to execute them. I'm torn between whethere there's a good way to create this type of effect optically with filters and lights, or if its better to do it in post. I'm not attached to any one specific way to do the effect. The more specific the better, as opposed to just "go to a visual effects house and have them do it"...on that note though, if you do happen to know a good visual effects house in LA that might offer student pricing, that would be awesome as well. Thanks a lot! -Trevor
  10. Thanks a lot Mark! That helps a lot. I suppose if anyone has any more insight on the SR3, that would be cool, but I think the A-minima sounds like a decent enough option for this project. It would be nice to have a better video assist, but I like the fact that it supports daylight spools. The smaller mag is fine for this project. The lack of an orientable eyepiece is a bit of a drawback for certain angles and such but I think it should be fine for this. By the way, do you happen to know if you can get daylight spools for any of the standard vision2 kodak stock? I think we're looking to get Kodak Vision2 16mm 250 and/or 500 (18 stock).
  11. For this we'll only be using original Kodak stock...no short ends. And actually I prefer the 200 ft spools because we won't be shooting too much film (about 500 ft.), so if I got 3 rolls of 200 ft. film, I'd have 600 ft. total, as opposed to getting 2 rolls of 400 ft. film which would give me 800 ft., leaving 300 ft. of unecessary film.
  12. Hey Guys, I'm shooting a Super 16mm film coming up. What are the main similarities and differences between these cameras? The SR3 is more expensive than the XTR Prod which is more expensive than the A-minima to rent. I know the A-minima is the new guy and is very compact with some new features, so what doesn't it have to make the other two more expensive. All things being equal, the A-minima seems mighty attractive based on its price and size, so I suppose if I'm not sacrificing much, that might be the best option for a small budget short film... Thanks in advance!
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