Frame Discreet- On Location "Latch- MTV"

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Frame Discreet team, Justin Lovell and Guy Godfree Co-DP'd a commercial spot for MTV and Panic and the Disco. Fun shoot, had a Reindeer, Emu, Peacock and over 40 screaming teenagers. Put to use our newly acquired EZFX JIB ARM. Used the extra undersling attachment and 6 foot extension. Shot at 720p on the HVX200 allowing us to do some 48fps shooting.
Shot most of it with longer lenses to compress the background and help hide that we didn't have a full crowd. More importantly, we made use of shutter speeds between 1/500 and 1/1000 to give a more frenetic and energetic feel. Had ordered 2 1200W HMI lights, but somehow the order was messed up and ended up with 2 575W HMIs. Guy took care of most of the lighting organizing the day to always have the sun backlighting our subjects. He also doubled as a great AD :) Justin dealt with camera operating and movements, utilizing a modified Arri shoulder bracket and a magic arm clamped to a T-Bar for low angle tracking shots. Working as a co-DP team really provided us with the freedom and time to focus on getting some rockin' images.

Frame Discreet- On Location "Nike/MTV"

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Frame Discreet Cinematographer Guy Godfree tackled a Nike commercial this week with a full on Motion Control Tracking shot. Shot on the HVX200 in 720p, the shot consisted of over 30 passes of the exact same camera move. Each take had different lighting elements, characters and explosions! They'll all be composited together for a crazy mash of two 'worlds' revolving around a runner. Justin Lovell dropped in to get a few behind the scenes shots and see how things were going. You should have seen the insanity happening outside trying to black out the windows... the wind and rain were causing havoc for the grips!

Frame Discreet- On location "Twilight"

Frame Discreet Cinematographer Michael Leblanc created a very surreal look on Twilight, referencing the feeling of "The Polar Bear Express" and "The Saddest Music in the World". Shot on Super 16 with the Arri SR III & Fuji 500T (for a softer, grainier look). This film is a period piece. After some major testing, Leblanc settled on using a Soft FX 2 filter to create a diffused beautifully soft look (photographs above are without filters, just showing you our lighting setup for reference). Justin Lovell was shooting B Camera inserts with our Super 16 Bolex, 5.9 wide angle lens with Soft FX 1/2 filter. This camera was meant to capture a more jarring 'in your face' perspective of someone in the midst of the party happening on the train.

Wedding Doc - Superduper 8 & Super 16

Shot by cinematographer Justin Lovell for Matt & Michelle Crowly. Mixed film formats, superduper 8 (max 8), super 16. Cross processed all black and white Tri-x as a negative. Cross processed some Ektachrome 64T on super 8 giving some crazy color shifts- also added a little more contrast in the xfer (hard to see in this version but this type of processing also makes the grain more pronounced). Custom processing carried out by Niagara Custom Lab.

The wedding ceremony and part of the reception was shot on 250D 7205 on super 16. Ceremony was fun to shoot, using our bolex S16 package. 1 man crew, Justin still managed to get 2 dolly shots off during the ceremony :) Stylistically I shot all the S8 handheld and all the 16mm on sticks. Didn't matte the widescreen, I liked the look of the frame lines composing the image. You can really see the vignette on certain focal lengths on the super duper 8 modification. This gives you a good chance to see the stability difference between Super 8 and 16mm. Oh and I shot portions of the reception at the end at 9fps with a 220 deg. shutter to get more light onto the image.

Editing has a rough, raw feel to it, asserting most of the edits in camera. Enjoy the collage of formats and processing techniques :)

Stock: Super 8- Kodak 7217 (200T), 7218 (500T), Ektachrome 64T, Tri-X 16mm - 7205 (250D).
Format: Max 8 (super duper 8), Super 16
Cameras: Canon 1014xls Superduper 8mm, Bolex Super 16 (POE 16-100 Zoom)
Cinematographer: Justin Lovell
Transfer: Justin Lovell @ Frame Discreet

Documentary- BBOY battle on Super 8

Frame Discreet's Justin Lovell was at it again documenting a bboy battle at the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto. Shot with the Canon 1014xls & C-8 wide angle attachment. Used 8 rolls of Kodak 7218 500T. Accented the lighting with a 1k Fresnel getting a t-4.0 in the highlights and 1.4 in the darker areas. Shot it all at 1.4, going to let the highlights blow out a little but will also print it down in the transfer to give me a slicker image with less grain in the shadows. Overexposure will also help as I was speed ramping to 36fps without compensating the iris. Will post some footage once its back from Niagara Custom Lab's processing.

Music Video- The National (Super 8)

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"Fake Empire"- The National

Transferred here @ Frame Discreet by Justin Lovell.

Technical:

Stock: Kodachrome 40, processed @ Dwaynes
Format: Super 8

production company: Scott Cudmore Film
photographed by: Lee Towndrow
styled by: Corrina Allen
edited by:Matt Hannam
produced: by Mike Smith

from The National's 2007 album, Boxer, on Begger's Banquet.

Music Video- Hayden (super 16)

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"Where and When"- Hayden

Shot on location in stunning Brussels. It was an awesome experience shooting out there. Tried and true the bolex was great for this shoot as a lightweight workhorse. Little note, on super 16, daylight spools must be loaded in the dark to avoid light leaks.

Technical:

Camera: Bolex Rex 4, Super 16 (lens Switar POE 16-100, 10mm switar)
Stock: Kodak 250D 7205 & Fuji 500T

Director: Scott Cudmore
Producer: Mike Smith
Director of Photography: Michael LeBlanc (Frame Discreet)
Editor: Matthew Hannam
Camera Assistant: Justin Lovell (Frame Discreet)
Produced by The Field, 2007.

Super 16/Super 8/Max 8 Comparisons

Nice test for you to see how the different formats compare when using the same stock. (Click images for larger versions). FYI Max 8 is a modification made to widen the gate of the camera allowing image to be recorded where sound used to be recorded. In the transfer you are able to 'zoom out' and see more of the image resulting in tighter grain and a 16x9 image area. There are some limitations to this modification though as you're not able to see the extra are in the viewfinder of the camera and certain focal lengths will vignette.

Stock: Kodak 7218 500T
Format: Super 8, Max 8 (super duper 8), Super 16
Cameras: Canon 1014xls S8, Eclair NPR 16mm (lens Zeiss 11.5-115)
Cinematographer: Justin Lovell
Transfer: Justin Lovell @ Frame Discreet

SALE- LIGHT PADS

LED PADS for sale. Same thing ROSCO is selling at a fraction of the price. Various sizes, runs on 12v batteries, lightweight sweet little product. $80-$320 depending on the size. More info HERE: LED PANELS from Frame Discreet.

Stock: 7218
Format: Super 8
Camera: Canon 1014xls
Cinematographer: Justin Lovell
Transfer: Justin Lovell @ Frame Discreet

Frame Discreet on Location

Guy Godfree and Justin Lovell teamed up to shoot a documentary on Super 16 and 35mm capturing the Parkscapers snowboard park rebuild at Devil's Glen. Was an awesome experience covering the complete reconstruction of the park into one of the best in Ontario. We had a jib arm setup and dolly track on hill getting some slick moves on the riders rippin it on the new features. Thanks to Chad, Chris, Doug and the rest of the team for all the wicked support. JTK photography was on site for the night photo shoot, alongside the quicksilver snowboard team.. it was craaaazy... some stills to come!

Frame Discreet on Location

Frame Discreet Cinematographer Guy Godfree created some beautiful images for director Ada Vaughan in Toronto's Wallace Studios. Captured on 35mm using Vision 3 500t. Frame Discreet owner Justin Lovell was on set lending a hand and having a laugh. Its always a good time on set with us :)

Transfer Stills- Super 8 7217

Stills from a recent transfer we did for Cinematographer Cabot Mcnemly. He captured some beautiful images taking full advantage of magic hour on Toronto Island. Shot with a Canon 1014E, pushed 1 stop in the processing at niagara custom lab.

Shooting a Jib Jam on Super 16mm- Bleach Bypass S16mm

Cinematographer Justin Lovell got out to Osler Bluff's no Guff Snowboard Jib Jam this weekend. Shooting with our Super 16 Bolex package to capture some high speed and 45 Degree shutter angle shots of the event going down. Used Kodak 250D 7246 & Fuji 500T when the sun started to fail. Plan to have it processed with a bleach bypass at Niagara Custom Lab to give it a desaturated more snappy contrast. Doing this process will also push the film 1 stop to help with underexposure. If all goes well with the sound design and editing, it'll be screened at the Blue Mountain Multimedia Showcase this weekend.

UPDATE!
Stills from the transfer- Bleach bypass processing on 250D(7246) & Fuji 500T by Niagara Custom Lab, Transfered here at frame discreet. Top Sample is the 500T without 85 filter & corrected in transfer.



UPDATE!!
Here's the video, music composition courtesy of Adam "pink socks" Barnes.