In celebration of being Independent filmmakers on Independence Day, we are going to finally get our trailer up on our blog.. :D
We had a few motivations for producing a crime film. First off, we enjoy crime films. We enjoy a lot of types of films, but we were watching a rash of crime films and thought it would be a good start. We had been watching some of our faves including: Snatch, Fight Club, Lock Stock and Two smoking Barrels, Boondock Saints, Once upon a time in Mexico, Heat, and Ichi the Killer. The stories in all of these films are exceptional, stylish and very fast paced. With a low budget, your limited on the devices you can use to make the production happen. The convenience of being able to write your own screenplay is that you can assess what resources you have and work with those while writing your production. Not only did we have a bunch of ideas for a story, but we had a network of awesome actors that were ready to go for our story and we had worked with some of them on a short we produced and that went very well..titled "The Difference".. Producing a crime drama story can be very cost effective for a low budget production...especially with a good group of actors on hand...good story...and accessible locations.
SO here we are....LIGHTS..CAMERA.....ACTION!!!!
USING THE CANON HV20 TO SHOOT OUR FEATURE FILM
We decided to use the CANON HV20 to shoot our film “Shadow of Crime” for one
reason, it produced a much better quality image than MiniDV. As matter of fact at the time it produced the best quality image I’d seen for a camera at the $799 price range ever. We did a few practice shots with the HV20, and brought those into our NLE which was Adobe PREMIER CS3. At that time PREMIERE CS3 did not have a preset for a 24p timeline for HDV, so we made our own. We set the timeline to be a 24p, at HDV’s 1440x1080 with a1.33 aspect ratio. It worked well. That gave us the necessary confidence to go ahead and start the process of film making.
This part will explain all the equipment we used along with the HV20. We built two camera supports out of PVC one was based on the FIG-RIG, the other was based on the GLIDE CAM. These worked well on the light weight HV20, and I was very happy that we constructed these. They performed very well through out the film, we needed to keep a wrench around, because the bolts keeping the section that held the camera on kept coming loose, but it wasn’t that bad. We used an old tripod I Had left over from when I used to do a lot of shooting with my Arri SB 16mm. It was a bit heavy and over kill for the HV20, but we already had it. WE BOUGHT 3 Altman 650 Fresnel 165Q for $147 a piece. We already had 2 Ellipsoidal focus spot, two soft edge boxes, 6 halogen work-lights, so we were set on lighting. FOR SOUND we already had the AZDEN SGM-2X Shotgun Microphone, but we decided to buy a second for back up, also for those times when we would need two MIC’s. We decided on the Azden SGM-1X Shotgun Microphone $169. We bought a 2XLR to 3.5mini Jack adaptor$10. It was a “Y” shape. Two mono XLR’s to the stereo mini jack. The HV20 handle this fine. We didn’t need a Beachtek or Juicelink. We used the camera’s internal manual microphone adjustment to control the sound. As far as I know, before the HV20 no other consumer camera had this feature, and they handled sound poorly even if they had an external MIC jack. We used a telescopic paint pole, and a brush holder that attached to the microphones integrated shock-mount , that’s what I love about AZDEN these Mic’s come with their own shock- mounts. We used the Sony DVM-63HDR tapes, they were more expensive than regular miniDV tapes, but we had a few DROP OUT on our test on the Sony DVM60PRR, so we switched to the DVM-63HDR’s and we never had another DROP OUT through out the film. We shot 40 tapes. Some we filled up the full length of 63minutes, most were around 45min. WE shot a lot of footage 1825 minutes, and the film was 99min long.
Now back to the camera, our first day of shooting was August 24, 2008 at the MGM Grand Casino Parking lot. We had 6 pages of the screenplay to shoot, we had from 1pm to 10pm, at least that’s what we told MGM Grand, “We should be done by 10pm or so” They shut down the whole 8th floor of the parking garage for us. The first scene we shot was of a MOB BOSS that goes into the parking garage elevator and is killed by one of the hit men. We set up two 750w Altman’s to throw some light around in the Elevator waiting area. I set the camera to 24p, and switched over to Cinemode in the MGM Grand Casino Parking lot. We had 6 pages of the screenplay to shoot, we had from 1pm to 10pm, at least that’s what we told MGM Grand, “We should be done by 10pm or so” They shut down the whole 8th floor of the parking garage for us. The first scene we shot was of a MOB BOSS that goes into the parking garage elevator and is killed by one of the hit men. We set up two 750w Altman’s to throw some light around in the Elevator waiting area. I set the camera to 24p, and switched over to Cinemode. Then took a few passes at the entrance of the Elevator Waiting area door. It was 3pm, and daylight was coming in from all over. This is supposed to be a night scene. So I was forced to shoot from inside the elevator waiting inside out, and would have to go back later and get the approaching mob boss when it was dark. We pulled a bunch of our cars up near the entrance to the elevator to block some of the Sun. We set up inside the waiting area. The actor practiced his move through the doors and up to the elevator. It looked good. The first shot was ready to shoot. I plugged in the 3.5mini jack Microphone, and all I heard was hiss. “OH SHIT, IT’S BROKEN! Damn, I should not have tried to use a consumer camera to shoot a film”. I said to myself, “Settle down, it’s a connection”. I checked all the connections, no change. Now I’m thinking “All these people, our first day, I’m going to look really bad, the actors are going to quit, MGM won’t let us back to shoot, I’m an ass.” Everybody is looking at me, like what’s wrong. Suddenly, my Cell Phone rings, it’s an actor calling for direction. I answer the cell, tell everybody I’ll be right back. I walk over to my camera bag and grab it, and go out the elevator, and sit in my car. I tell the actor how to get there in a minute or so. Leave the phone to my ear and go over the HV20 manual real quick. Hoping everybody thinks I’m talking to some one real important, and will be right back. “This didn’t happen in the test we did, but those were two months ago.” I’m forgetting something or the camera is broken. What am I going to do if it’s broken? I read through the microphone stuff then get to the head phones. As Sweat drops off my forehead, and drops onto the manual I remember, as I read, the head phone is plugged into the same jack as the AV in/out, and I have to switch this over. I close the Manuel wipe my forehead and head over to the camera. The whole time I’m praying “PLEASE BE IT, PLEASE BE IT” as a walk to the camera. I reach the camera, click through the menu, and hit the switch that turns it from AV to HEADPHONES, and the hiss is gone. I smile, and look up to everybody. Sorry about that, are we ready? Everybody says “yes” meaning they have been. The actor takes his position. I hit record, then yell “action”. He enters the elevator, and the sound was crystal clear. Using the manual adjustment’s I had perfect sound. I never had another problem with the HV20 again. We shot all six pages, but we didn’t get out of there until 1am. The ability to change exposures on the fly using the joystick on the back was great. The weight and size of the camera was great for getting into tight places, or hand holding for very long periods of time. We shot some weird angle stuff that would have been impossible even with the XH-A1, the HV20’s bigger brother. The two microphone trick, using the “Y” adapter worked great. We never used a mixer through the whole film.
The HV20 doesn’t have as great a low light capabilities as a three chip HDV camera would have or even a miniDV with three chips, but we knew that wouldn’t bother us, because FILM is the same way.
We only had one other problem, and that was with trying to shoot using the AC adapter we kept getting a slight buzz, recorded to the tape. We fixed it by taking a break and letting the camera charge for 45min, and we finished out the day on battery.
ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT THE HV20 or HV30, ask us..we will do our best to help!
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