People have been asking about our rig, settings, and overall setup and workflow. In the spirit of openness, we would love to share with everyone if they are interested, and as we have time. Almost everything we have learned regarding my current setup has been found at the HV20.com forums and the cinevate.com forums. For an indie filmmaker, there are three key stages to producing a final video. There stages can vary in complexity and the roles that are needed to fufill them. Let's ignore traditional film school "rules", if anyone would like to add to it, please feel free in the comments.
** Disclaimer:**
Can anyone follow this process and become an "indie filmmaker"? Yes. Will everyone do it? No. Knowing the equipment, workflow, and process is one thing, the years of experience and research put into visual design, photography, and music production all helped me understand these concepts. All the way from choosing a lens to what exporting preset for Vimeo HD. This blog post is not meant for the beginner, this is meant for someone who is familiar with the basic concepts of photography and videography. Finally, we are still learning, so nothing is set in stone, or gospel. We did not go to film school for this.
Concept/Vision
This will be covered later on. But basiclly, think about the overall vision. What is the concept for your video? You don't always need a script, or a shot/location list. Sometimes you can just go shoot and pull a concept out of a hat in the editing room. But, it definitely helps to think through a concept/vision. But, don't get caught up in this! Just do something! If you have to get caught up, get caught up in the post. Hey, its what George Lucas does. Haha.
The Shoot
In our opinion, you can get "film" quality shooting with digital, with either a Red One, EX3, and a variety of cameras most of us can never bootstrap. For people who are financing films on a small budget, HV20 combined a 35mm adapter can create stunning results. For shooting, our first camera rig which consisted of just these simple components:
-** Canon HV20**- This is a HD consumer camcorder, there are problems using this unit, namely lack of manual control, and having to remove pulldown fields. However, the image quality is great for under 700 bucks. The camera I want to buy next is either the Red Scarlet, or Sony EX1. While the HV20 is a consumer level camera, on a totally different playing field, we would like to make a brief comparison. Briefly speaking, prosumer or professional level cameras (like the Red One), the resolution is limited, and there is no RAW output.
-** Cinevate Brevis 35mm Adapter** - This is the heart of the unit. This allows us to connect 35mm photography lenses to my HV20. This allows manual aperture and focus control , and the shallow DOF that many find desirable for some types of shoots. Originally, we had purchased a DIY one made by a user on the HV20 forums called "Worley" (around $400 USD). This was a great adapter, and the original Fifty People, One Question video was shot on it. Now, we use a Cinevate Brevis adapter. The Brevis allows for better image quality because of multiple things. It has a larger and better quality achromat (glass), it has a vibrating focus screen, the imaging element is higher quality/sharper, and the whole unit is made to a higher quality. More info on 35mm adapters. For more information on the Brevis, read here: cinevate.com
-** IndiFocus Upside Down Rig**- This holds the whole rig together. It also flips the Canon HV20 upside down. We have ours outfitted with short rails and a top handle. You can buy these at http://www.indifocus.com. Try talking to Jim for any questions, this guy is an amazing source of knowledge.
-** Nikon Lenses**- We have a MANUAL FOCUS AI/AIS 28mm 2.0, 50mm 1.8, and 1.4 and 85-200mm 3.5 lenses. We primarily use the 50mm and the 28mm. When we are going handheld, we try to use the 28mm as shorter focal lengths usually produce less shaking. Also, we try to buy lenses with large apertures, as they allow for maximum flexibility and quality (the glass is bigger/sharper). Our next lens purchase will most likely be a 85mm 1.4. Everything about lenses, we learned from researching photography, and the other videos on Vimeo with the same setup.
-** Matthews M25 Tripod-** We don't have any rails, dollies, cranes, or anything special. All our movement at the moment is done by hand, or by panning/tilting on the Tripod. This is a great tripod, with a fluid head, and decent sticks. Again, we found this by researching on HV20.com
-** Settings**: Shoot in HDV, 24fps, usually using shutter priority mode. we lock the exposure when we have time to setup the shoot. Sometimes, we like the camera handle the exposure if we are in a setting with enough light
This is just the rig, there are many other variables to consider when getting a good image on your shoot. Try to pay attention to: zooming in enough on my 35mm adapter, lighting, steady shots, creative shots, getting all the shots you need, shooting for the edit, and the list goes on and on. On hollywood shoots, they have multiple people handling all these things. We might break some of these things (like lighting) out into separate posts.
Post Production
Shooting can be the easy part. Editing takes time, patience, revisions, feedback, and a meticulous eye. Editing a piece usually takes me from 8 hours, on something like "Meet the Painter" and 80 hours on "Fifty People One Question". Our background and years of experience producing and editing music allows us a keen sense for editing video. Our primary editing setup consists of:
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Pentium 4 2GB ram, Windows XP, 2.8 overclocked to 3.0 GHz, custom built.
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A 20" Apple Cinema Display, 22" Dell
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Premiere Pro CS3 - Again, I know its not FCP
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Cineform - I use Cineform to remove the pulldown that the HV20 inserts on capture. It works magic. It also encodes it in a format that edits/plays back and applies color grading in real time.
My process usually entails:
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Capturing the footage
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Organizing footage to meet the concept
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Finding the good cuts
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Placing the cuts in the right order
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Finding the right music (if needed)- this is VERY important to me
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Refining cuts to music
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Getting feedback, refining
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Apply color grading, and various refinements - For color grading, as a starting point we usually desaturate a bit, crush the blacks, adjust brightness/contrast if needed, adjust the reds, and apply a sharpening mask.
We have not gotten into After Effects, motion graphics or anything special at this point, so my editing and grading are pretty basic. That's it for now, let me know if you guys have any additional questions!