Winter Nights. The first 7D Feature Trailer

Enjoyeee!

http://www.theaspectratio.net/WinterNightsLog8.htm

Mad Props to Ari Dassa (director) and Yuki Aizawa (editor) as well as the incredible talent Ari chose to put in front of the lens.

Panavision

Feature Wrapped!

First Feature Film shot entirely with the Canon 7D (2 of them) has wrapped production.

Now for some sleep.

Pascal wanted to know what picture profile settings we've been using.

I have the cams set to neutral picture style, contrast all the way down, sharpness all the way down. Saturation down between -2 and -3 points depending on the scene, and no adjustment to color tone.

Highlight tone priority was used in one scene only.

No Auto Lighting Optimizer was used.

white balance was almost all Tungsten balance, as that was how we lit. The few things we shot during daylight hours were balanced for daylight.

Zeiss primes rock.

I want to revisit a really basic set of well oiled Nikon AiS superspeed primes though for my second cam as a rental option for other people.

Let's see what other kinds of fun I can have shooting with this camera in the coming weeks.

First Feature Shot Entirely on the Canon 7D

I just want to declare that by tonight I will have completed principal photography on the first feature film shot entirely with the canon 7D.

Entirely with the 7D.

Complete.

The Searching for Sonny guys claim to have the first feature shot on a DSLR - not so. I completed shooting on "The Louisiana Conversation" in February 2009. As far as I can tell they haven't finished principal photography. Maybe they have. I guess it just irked me that they took the credit, and while their film does look good - I was first. Of course the production team still doesn't have distribution on The Louisiana Conversation (or maybe they do) I don't know -I'm just a hired gun...

Anyway, that's part of the reason I started a Blog in the first place - to document what's going on. Now that we're almost done with Winter Nights, I can start to share technical details and stories from the production. Cool!

Winter Nights...

Usually I keep my mouth shut about the particulars of the production I'm working on, but since Ari Dassa, the talented director of the film has been publishing his own log of the film, I've decided to link to it here:

http://www.theaspectratio.net/WinterNightsLog6.htm

He's rad. Film's almost done Shooting!

Cambo Video?

Hey everyone, just wrapping up here on the set of the feature today.

I have to say, this is probably one of my favorite indie movies I've worked on so far.

Why?

We have only gone over 10 hours once. I love reasonable schedules.

Also, I have to say - one thing the 7D excels it is 2 camera shooting. Because the size of the body and support system is so reasonable it's easy to get two sizes with enough of an axis difference to allow for nice cross-cutting, without effing up my lighting setups.

It's how 2 camera shows are supposed to be!

I'm thinking of selling my SmallHD DP-1 after this show to try a different monitor. Feel free to email if you are interested in buying it!

Let's see what else...

I had some ideas for a series of stills to shoot after we finish up with the movie. Probably going to shoot some 4x5 fujifilm...

which got me thinking about this thing:

http://www.calumetphoto.com/item/CB4600K11/

Anyone have one I can borrow to hook up to the 7D and shoot video with? Talk about swing shift!

FireWire 800 Card Reader

Just wanted to mention how happy I am with the Calumet Firewire 800 card reader I purchased from Calumet with my first two 7D's.

The thing is blazingly fast and makes our onset workflow more of a pleasure than a chore.

It's also the cheapest one I've found for sale in the US...I'm a notorious cheapskate, so please enjoy the savings with me:

http://www.calumetphoto.com/item/CM6030/