Check out this DV movie short!

[Phait]

I am just starting to learn DV (or Mini-DV/digital video) as I have a film I'd like to do in a few years. I joined the community at DVinfo.net and came across this:

http://www.pixelloft.com/riddle.htm

A big issue with digital movie making is the amateurish "video look", that is missing the polished "film look". Sometimes even post-production work won't achieve it, but may still improve upon the video look.

This guy made his own 35 MM adapter, I believe - and used a Canon XLS1, a DV camera I have seen for under $4,000. To get into independent movie making, that is a bargain!

I am impressed with how well he has done this short. I can still tell it is video and not film, but it is quite near that pinnacle of pro-quality film - really inspiring. Here are some direct-links:

Large (39 MB download): http://www.pixelloft.com/qtmov/riddle_large.mov

Small (unsure of size):
http://www.pixelloft.com/qtmov/riddle_small.mov


http://www.apple.com/quicktime/ QuickTime required

[Ruger]

Pretty good picture quality I guess, but like nearly all student films/demos, the story was absolutely freaking ridiculous. There's an awful lot of wannabe directors out there who can't write to save their lives I guess.

Do you have a link to a writeup anywhere on his "35mm adapter"? I'm not about to drop four grand on a new camera, but I am curious just what he did. It sounds sort of like he built a new lens mount with an actual physical motorized shutter to emulate the 24 FPS of a real camera, if that makes any sense.

[Phait]

I believe there is some info here:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=46967

[Ruger]

Thanks. From there I read this (http://www.redrockmicro.com/dof.html), which seems to explain things. So apparently I guessed wrong and it's a depth of field issue. Interesting...