Ritz Carlton in DC

Panasonic HPX-370 & LA 7200

So didn't end up in Wallingwall to shoot Paul, which is a bummer.  However I contacted a business friend who also models for a label called Neodandi.  Amy Nevins got some garments together and we did some shooting...this is the rough cut.  My review of this from a technical stand point is that the camera itself is in fact a great low-light shooter, however the LA7200 in low light at f2.8 is by no means sharp.  Being that as it may, I feel like the lack of sharpness is what I wanted in this shoot, I was trying to create a sort of dream like space that isn't real, past, or future.  The chromatic aberrations (especially the last shot) I really dug, I suppose it's like they say about the happy mistakes...I like that in my image, plus I used some non-traditional (whatever that means...lights are lights) lights to do this set-up.  The randomly sprinkled red hexagons are created with a laser.

NEODANDI from James Reeves on Vimeo.
If you really want to see the video, send me a message and I'll send you the password.  jamesmichaelreeves@gmail.com

Tonight I'm going to a place called "Chapel" in Wallingford to conduct a low light anamorphic test.  I'll be using the HPX370 & Panasonic's LA 7200 as seen below.

The camera itself is an ENG style camera but I feel it was designed with strong Cinematic potential, I believe Panasonic and a large number of it's owners would say the same thing about the unit.  Going down almost half price from ~$15k, the camera is now listed for ~$9k.  Features a 1/3" 2.2megapixel 3-chip imager with U.L.T. (Ultra Luminance Technology.  It is the only 10 bit camera available to students at AiS.  I have done many side by side tests with many cameras and to me this camera does BLACK the best.  Being I'm into underexposure a bit more than the average joes, I care a lot about my shadow detail.  The test tonight being to focus on the quality I can retain with the element of the LA7200 (Anamorphic Adapter) attached to the Fujinon zoom bayonet mount lens.  The jumping around between sensors I feel gives me a good perspective on the design & implementation of the technology behind these imagers.  This sensor utilizes a high-sensitivity photodiode and low-noise pixel transistor based on analog processing.  The wide range of features make this camera highly versatile, VFR, ADV GAMMA, CHROMATIC ABERRATION COMPENSATION, DRS, WFM & VECTOR SCOPES!  But none of that really matters unless you work to make a good image with some pleasing lighting.

I'll be posting the results into this post with a posting of the post review after I do the post on the footage talked about in this post.  Send a postcard if you'd like to be posted in the blog.

Patricia Norris Production & Costume Designer

This was generally to serve the purpose of doing a homework assignment in my "Art Direction" class.  Coming back to the AiS I hadn't used the studio space or gear there in a bit, I wanted to practice some lighting and the use of the HPX & it's work flow.  Plus, I wanted to attempt in actually capturing decent audio myself.

Tech specs:
Camera: Panasonic HPX-370 Fuji Zoom Lens, f1.8 1/60 AVCI-100HD 24PN CineLike D (default settings)
Lights: Over head practicals, Arri Mixed (150w,350w, 600w), Mole Richardson Inbetweenie ( 200w(3)), Mole Richardson 2,000w babyzip.
Audio: Senn something shotgun, AT wired lav.

I suppose that I pretty much just let the typical fall color scheme effect my taste here a bit too much.  It most certainly looks over lit to me.  Plus because of all the tungsten bulbs, I wasn't taking into effect the addition of warm gel on-top of warm color temp. bulbs.  The final result we see in the video I had corrected quite a bit pulling the midtones way over to cyan/blue just to cool down my flesh tones.  I am not that "into myself" I tried to get other people on camera, but I literally had no one else available to interview.  I suppose this is a good example of what you can achieve with a little bit of work, this is a one man production, lit, shot, audio, design, directed???  Just overall fun practice. 

cool signs

SF chinatown + randoms

HTDA

New EP Nov. 13th

Post SAMSARA viewing

I posted earlier about SAMSARA before I had seen it at the Cinerama, which I went back two more times positioning myself in different locations to observe.  I find that I'm even more attracted to their work in BARAKA since viewing SAMSARA.  I think it somehow strikes a stronger emotional cord with me.  The above screen shots were examples as a part of homework for an art direction class.  They are some of my favorite moments in the film.