S106 Directors Blog

After taking a hard look at all the available cases that could fit my EX1 with the Letus Extreme, follow focus, lens and matte box fitted I went for the Portabrace PC-3B.

Cases that made the final:

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Most of the time we wish we could work on 2k material and sometimes we have to scale down… a lot… for Video MMS. Only 172 x 144 pixels with a maximum filesize of 220kb.

One of our regular clients is Chunk ID based in Amsterdam. We have done many video MMS campaigns for them over the years. Always strictly Vodafone and this one was special. Madonna & Vodafone have teamed up to release the first seven songs on her new album Hard Candy via Vodafone Live!

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This is a music video I shot for De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig. A dutch group, it’s about 2 years ago now and while cleaning out our server we came across this clip. Just thought I’d share it with you. It was shot very low budget on a Sony PD-170 with a mini 35 adapter.

Turns out Kenya is the place to be after all. I just heard that I will be shooting there 27 may till 3 april. I will mostly be working alone following one person. And I am not shure wether to bring my adapter. I haven’t used the adapter in these conditions and I know it can get rough out there. Will it stand the sand and moist of the continent Africa? It doesn’t help that I will be shooting on my own, I need to direct, monitor audio and operate the camera. This is enough responsibility without the risk of dirt getting in the adapter. Any tips on shooting with the adapter handheld on your own?

Just did some more test shooting with the Letus Extreme. I cleaned the entire adapter and checked everything via the SDI output on a HD broadcast monitor just to be safe. Shooting with the adapter is harder then I thought, there is a lot to take into account. If you close the aperture on the front lens too much you see the ground glass and if you use an ND your focus changes etc. On my last shots during the day I later found out that some dust had settled on the ground glass. I didn’t see this on the camera lcd so I am thinking of buying a ref portable, probably a Nebtek. Should it be an SDI or component monitor? Oh, and tell me how you like the footage.

This Saturday I started a shoot at 08:30, quite a lot of issues during the PPM the day before, namely technical. So it could have been a long day… But it wasn’t we wrapped at 19:00, exactly as planned. I can’t say too much about the commercial itself because it’s not airing yet. A lot of work will go in to the post since it was a green screen shoot. I decided it would be best to go with two Sony DVW-970′s because it records progressive 10 bit. Good for keying and web use since there are no fields. Crew was great!

I am completely in love with the look of these prime lenses! And the workflow is so much better then shooting on film. And with the grain from the ground glass and good lighting you can still achieve amazing results. This is one of my more recent scenes shot with an adapter. What do you think?

I am using the Letus Extreme with the custom EX1 achromat and just did some sharpness testing. I used one of my Carl Zeiss lenses, a 85mm with Nikon fitting. Great lenses by the way. Edge to edge looks good but I am not quite satisfied. Namely the right side of the screen makes me think because it won’t focus with the rest of the screen. I would guess it’s a ground glass issue. Any thoughts?

This saturday I directed the di-rect theatre show for DVD! A very good evening, location; Diligentia theatre, Den Haag. Production company; Double2 It was great working with Tim, Bas, Spike and Jamie, they are a great band! Next week I am starting with post production. I’ll keep you guys updated and maybe post some video. See some more shots in the gallery.

Just shot some test footage at our studio, don’t mind the steadiness, camera is still a bit front heavy… Focus is great with the new follow focus and the color depth of the EX1 amazes me for I usually have mixed results with XDCAM material.