"Player" Feature shot on HVX Flip and Nikon Primes

[David C. Smith]

http://player.legend44.com/

It's been a busy year for the Brevis. The link above is the teaser trailer for "Player", the second feature I've shot this year on the Brevis, but my first project with the flip. I am blown away by how much the flip improves the Brevis in nearly every way. I loved it without the flip, but now it's a whole new ball game.

I'm excited that this trailer is on it's way to Cannes right now with the Producers and Director, hopefully next year I will be able to attend as well.

Next week I start shooting "The Mojave Experiment", a period western shooting in the desert in and around the Calico Ghost Town. Should be fun.

[Dennis Wood]

David, agreed, the flip was one of our most expensive projects in terms of engineering, but the optical results sure make it easier to justify after the fact.

I had a look at the HD version of the trailer and the images looked excellent. The intro title sequence was very cool. There's a hint of the imaging element (left edge) at 00:56 in the HD trailer which you might want to zoom/crop out. Good luck at Cannes..even if you're not there yourself!

[David C. Smith]

Thanks for the kind words Dennis, and thanks for making a great product. I have a ton of footage (3 shorts and 2 soon to be 3 features) to share with you, hopefully I will have a chance to compile a DVD of quicktimes to send in.

I caught the element in shot you mentioned after the gang left, there will certainly be a clean up pass as we get through editing. There is virtually no color correction or any tweaking in the current trailer. We wrapped less than two weeks before the producers left so I know they had very little time to finesse the images. I'm sure by now, you're eye catches the element like an English teacher catches bad grammer.

Cheers,
David

[eric gorski]

how does the flip "improve the Brevis in nearly every way"? obviously it flips the image.. but what else are you referring to? i would think that it would suck up more light which would be a negative...

[David C. Smith]

Hi Eric,

The flip enhances the overall and corner sharpness while loosing nearly no light over the Brevis alone. It also allows the use of the camera's auto focus feature to get tack sharp focus on the ground glass, reducing the possibility of soft footage due to a mis-focused camera lens. All of these benefits seem to come from the fact that the flip allows the camera's lens to see the ground glass at, on my HVX, about 6 feet away. The flip is letting the camera lens function in the middle of the focus range rather than in macro mode as was necessary with the unflipped Brevis. CA seems reduced, and the flip allows a greater range of alignment, so centering is improved.

I haven't metered yet with and without the flip, but to the eye, I cannot discern any appreciable light loss. It may be a 1/3 of a stop, or in other-words... not worth worrying about.

The only down side I've found to the flip is it causes the ergonomics of an already unwieldy camera system to be a little harder to deal with.

[eric gorski]

thanks for the explanation. the flip sounds fantastic. ..i may have to re-evaluate my upcoming brevis order...

[Michael Panfeld]

That's interesting. You mean that you don't set the focus to manual and then manually set the backfocus. The cam does it accurately with the autofocus feature? That would be a great benefit. Will this work on the HV20? thanks

Oh and nice footage.

[David C. Smith]

All of my Brevis experience is with the HVX so I can't speak to the HV20, sorry.

After the flip is mounted, I adjust my zoom settings with the servo disengaged and securely tape off my focus and zoom rings. I don't remove this tape for the remainder of the day. I then stop down my prime with the ground glass off and press and hold the momentary AF button. It will hunt for a few seconds but eventually settles in on the GG. I press and hold again and if it finds the same point again, I know it's right.

It doesn't seem like the GG needs to be stopped down and off for the AF to find the mark, I just do it so I can see it for myself.

I would't want to shoot with AF continuously on since it does like to hunt a bit. I would be afraid it would decide to hunt at the worst possible moment. Using momentary AF between takes keeps everything tack sharp.

[Dennis Wood]

David, it's getting to the point that I can sometimes tell what camera was used on the adapter. Call me a geek

I'm looking forward (as is the entire team during our viewing sessions!) to seeing more of your work.

[David C. Smith]

Thanks Dennis,

We just wrapped on "The Mojave Experiment" and really put the rig through hell. Day two saw 120 degree temperatures in the shade, we had trouble picking up the camera without burning our hands. Two weeks camping in the desert was awesome fun, but there were a number of times that "Lost in La Mancha" came to mind... here's a picture of the tornado that touched down within 50 miles of set...




I'll have stills to post tomorrow, footage soon to follow.

By the way, I absolutely LOVE the electronics upgrade.

-David

[Dennis Wood]

Ok, so now we can claim the Brevis has been used in the extremes of both the Mojave, and Everest Glad you like our little upgrade!