This just in. For the sequel of “Crank“, titled “Crank: High Voltage”, the director is not using the RED cameras that he already used on his previous movie. He’s going even lower in price. He will be using a number of XH-A1s and HF10s from Canon. The HF10 is a $900 AVCHD consumer camera (a bit worse in quality than the HV20). The idea is to use these cameras in places where the big Hollywood cameras just don’t fit, or if they do, they fit after a lot of work of re-arranging the set.

To the directors: good luck removing the pulldown out of the HF10. It will piss your editors off.

I was watching “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” tonight, and there is almost no background blur in the movie. At least, not more than the HV20 can deliver without any extra 35mm adapters. The magic is all in the color (easily reproduced with Cinemode/Neutral, and color grading), lighting (that’s where your money should go), and composition (only your artistic genes can help you here). I don’t think the camera they used had much more dynamic range than the HV20 either. The lack of background blur didn’t stop the movie to be voted the 4th best movie of all times on IMDb.

Last year there were a number of focus rings hacked together by enthusiasts to deal with the HV20’s flimsy focus roller button. The rings required quite some work to construct and it was adding to the bulk of the camera. Well, not anymore. The following solution is ingenious. It’s simple, cheap, easy, fast, and takes no space. HD version here.

Also check my friend’s Jay videos on how to pan smoothly with a fluid-head tripod and how to construct a dolly track.

I used to be against the use of the “Cinemode” mode that is found on the Canon HD cameras. Truth is, it clips the dark areas pretty bad, and it’s too soft. However, having worked with it for a few months now, it’s true that it has higher dynamic range and provides a much better color response.

People usually don’t like cinemode because it looks too dull, it’s not sharp and it has low contrast. However, Cinemode is not meant to be used as is. It is MEANT to be color graded. Look at my bad-hair-day frames below, as shot, and after having been color graded. As shot the “auto mode” provides a more pleasant look, but after having color graded, cinemode looks fantastic: look how more natural the colors are! I used unsharpen mask with a large radius to fix the contrast and sharpen issues, bumped saturation a little bit, reduced gamma, and using “Curves” I bumped the the dark areas a bit too.

Sure it still looks like video, but it looks less of it. So, if you are after the movie look, always shoot with Cinemode and the “neutral” color setting. The duller the picture is when shot, the better color grading response it has on post which will help you achieve that movie look.

JBQ theorized that CSI:Miami might be shot in Velvia-like filmstock. Interesting theory. If that’s true it means that the only camera that can simulate that look is a RED-class one. Not possible with cameras like the HV20.

Thanks to Stefan for the link of the big-time director James Cameron interview at Variety:

“4K doesn’t solve the curse of 24 frames per second.”
“I would vastly prefer to see 2K/48 frames per second as a new display standard, than 4K/24 frames per second. This would mean shooting movies at 48 fps, which the digital cameras can easily accommodate.”
“I’ve run tests on 48 frame per second stereo and it is stunning. The cameras can do it, the projectors can (with a small modification) do it. So why aren’t we doing it, as an industry?”

Cameron answers his own question towards the end of his interview here.

Quite a few announcements at NAB this week. From the worst to the best announcement:

By far, the most disappointing camera news came from Canon. Or, should we say, the lack of them. They simply modified their existing tape-based models. No next-generation stuff. They either working hard for next year, or they are seriously behind the curve.

The second worst news came from Panasonic. The HMC-150 and the HPX-170 are hardly HVX200 replacements. Not bad products, just yawwwwn…

Sony actually has pulled their shit together this year. After the release of the popular EX1, here comes the EX3. Now, that’s a camera! But at $9500 price tag, it’s indeed expensive for most.

And the big guns: the RED EPIC and the Scarlet 3k. The EPIC is a 5k camera, while the Scarlet, is a 3k one. The Scarlet is a marvel. It features a 2/3s sensor which can potentially provide quite some background blur all by its own. It shoots a huge resolution that puts Canon’s 1440×1080 prosumer cameras into shame. And all this, at less than $3000 (plus another $3000 for needed extras). Still, this is the cheapest camera you will ever get with these capabilities. A dream come true for every poor indie filmmaker.

Now, the HV20 ain’t that bad either for the $700 it costs. The other day HV20.com forum user LordTangent posted some screenshots captured from the HV20’s HDMI port instead via the tape (which would normally exhibit HDV artifacts, plus it would be 1440×1080 instead of 1920×1080). The captures are from the movie he is working on. Quality is extremely good (check this and this). I could say that whatever the Scarlet will be for the prosumer/pro indie market, the HV20 is for the consumer one today. Both ahead of the curve.

An interesting teaser trailer of an upcoming short movie. All shot with the Canon HV20.

A number of short movies shot for DVXUser’s “LoveFest” competition were using the HV20 as well.

I’ll be 35 in 1.5 months. God, I am old. Good news is, I’ve been thinking of a present (I got nothing for my name day and Christmas), but I can’t decide as to which one to get.

The first idea is to get a 35mm adapter for my HV20. I was hot on the idea of getting a cheap one from TwoNeil and be done with it, but JBQ wants me to use his EOS lenses, so we are now thinking of getting a vibrating adapter from my co-moderator at HV20.com Worley. I just want some background blur damn it. Using HV20’s manual focus is an exercise in patience, while masking on post is a major pain in the butt (like I did below), especially because Vegas Pro has no automatic tracking like After Effects does (and Vegas Platinum doesn’t even have masking). Plus, it looks unnatural, or “green screen’ed” at best.

The second idea is to get a special Vegas keyboard from Bella. It’s the only affordable keyboard that has a Jog/Shuttle Controller and that’s a cool idea, although such a keyboard won’t really change much the speed of which I edit. Truth is, I am concerned about the quality of their drivers. They still don’t have 64bit driver support, not even Vista support! This is usually a good indication of sucky XP drivers too and not enough attention to detail. None of their marketing/PR emails work anymore either.