On Location- Lighting Tricks

Frame Discreet Cinematographer Guy Godfree devised this cool rig with his gaffer for their latest hip hop music video. Essentially a short 2', 4 bank Kino flo stripped apart and taped together. Creates a pleasing soft source 'ring light' effect, also gives off an interestingly shaped catch light in the eyes. As a note, be careful when rigging something like this so that the bulbs are flagged off from flaring the lens.

SHORT FILM - Picnic at Sea

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U.S. Director/Cinematographer Sam Kuhn contacted us to do some HD testing for some of his upcoming projects. Check out some more of his *really cool* work here: SAM KUHN

Stock: 7217 200T
Format: Super 8mm
Camera: Nizo S800 (ext. shot between f 11-22, int. shot @ f-2).
Director/Cinematographer: Sam Kuhn

Understanding HD / SD formats

Found this excellent site that explains SD / HD aspect ratios, frame rates, interlaced vs. progressive and more.

Simple to understand yet still quite thorough. Worth checking out.

http://edu.moviola.com/rc_kzone_main

Super 8 - Corrected VS. Uncorrected

Sample frames of 7217 Vision 2 Super 8 Corrected and Uncorrected (flat) in the transfer. It is essential to make sure that your transfer house has the controls to properly manage the colors, contrast and density of the new (fabulous!) negative film stocks. We've had to do a number of 'retransfers' for people who have had their films transferred elsewhere and were not satisfied with the results.
Stock: 7217 200t
Format: Super 8mm
Camera: Canon 1014xls
Cinematographer: Justin Lovell

Upgrading our Color Correction Management

Check out some of the frame grabs from the new color corrector we're testing out (click to enlarge). It's pretty sweeeeeeet. Allows to load full 1D/3D LUTS. For those familiar with photoshop, we can now do color corrections in Curves. This is awesome for digging out information in the shadows. Also amazing for being able to selectively build a look by selectively modifying the gamma curves for each primary color. Each correction can be stored as a seperate scene file along with the histograms/RGB parade stored with a still frame. This allows us to technically and visually match up shots scene by scene. So much cool stuff in the new remote, I just can't get into it all in one post... exciting!

On Location- "ICON"

I got a great opportunity to shoot a short film for Kathleen Smith last week. After many discussions, we decided to shoot on the HVX 720p and super 16mm. The film is a narrative piece influenced by the work of Werner Herzog. Shot over the course of a day, Smith walks 35kms from Bloor/Bathurst (toronto) to the Metro Zoo (5:30am-7:30pm).

I really wanted to steer clear of the typical handheld, reality tv, documentary feeling. So in taking a more cinematic approach to documentary storytelling, I shot 80% of the film on our Jib arm and dolly track. Fellow cinematographer Guy Godfree was on location and helped develop a solid workflow with the Jib that took us mere minutes to have it out of the wagon and ready to shoot.

A large portion of the film was shot at 30 -48fps to give a more poetic look and to allow the narrative to breathe. We would have shot more film, but unfortunately the spring snapped on our bolex during our first roll. Sad day, but worked out for the best as we really couldn't afford the reload time. Camera is back with our Pal, Jean-Louis, at Concordia University for repairs. He is the only guy I will trust with my camera (he did our super 16 modification).

Premiere screening June 5th at The Theatre Centre 1087 Queen St. West 8pm.

Stock: 7246 250D
Format: Super 16mm / 720P P2
Camera: Bolex Super 16 / HVX-200
Director: Kathleen Smith
Cinematographer: Justin Lovell

Super 8 Timelapse- K40

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Some super 8 timelapses I shot across Canada for Tell Us the Truth Josephine: A Bitter Immigrant Story. First shot was done on the 1 frame every 5 seconds interval setting. The rest were shot on the Nizo variable interval settings. (Awesome camera for timelapse- has a B setting to keep the shutter open for night timelapses and a fully variable intervalometer).

Stock: Kodachrome 40
Format: Super 8mm
Camera: Canon 1014xls, Nizo S800
Cinematographer: Justin Lovell

On Location- The Adrenaline Project- YTV

Now that the show has aired on YTV, I can post some stills from the shoot. The show is called The Adrenaline Project- an extreme sports reality show for kids. I was hired on to teach the kids how to dirtsurf, and to also shoot some B camera ride along footage with Toronto DP Kevin Wong's HVX-200. Super fun time out with the guys. Frame Discreet cinematographer Barry Cheong was also shooting on 2nd unit.

On Location- Dundas Square Bboyin

Hit up Dundas square this weekend. Shot super 16 of a bunch of bboys gettin loose in a fun 1 on 1 battle on stage. Afterwards got out and shot a little more street dance of Troy Feldman and Yukon Nick. Slapped on my 5.9 angenieux wide lens shooting low angle with Toronto's mini "times square buildings" towering up the background. Fired off some 64fps and a little bit of hand cranking of the boys dancin in the street. Got some wicked Udon Noodles after the show and did some scouting for parkour filming for the upcoming summer days.

UPDATE:
Rough Cut sampler of some of the footage (May 17/08).




Stock: 3374 (black and white High Con) + 7246 250D Vision 1
Format: Super 16mm
Camera: Bolex super 16mm with POE 16-100mm + angenieux 5.9mm, 24, 32, 48, 64fps and hand cranked.
Cinematographer: Justin Lovell

On Location- Wedding Proposal

Had a strange request from Mimmo & Naz last week. Got to shoot a proposal for a wedding on super 8. Adam Caputo (soon to be groom) arranged the whole thing to be shot without her knowing. Felt kinda like a spy with myself and cinematograper Guy Godfree sneaking around filming the happy couple having coffees and exploring the distillery district in Toronto. Used a Nikon 80-200 t 2.8 (with c-mount adapter) on sticks for some telephoto work. Bright sunny day for the most part, until the rain came down right in the middle of their meal. (Adam arranged one romantic table outside the resaurant for the proposal). Unfortunately they had to move inside- where it was too dark for me to get a descent exposure. We rigged him up with a wireless mic in the washroom (recording digitally to a Jukebox 3), and decided to have him propose in the rain on the open cobblestone street after the meal. It was beautiful.

Stock: 7217 200T Negative (Processed at Niagara Custom Lab)
Format: Super 8mm
Camera: Beaulieu 4008ZMII + Nikon 80-200mm (c-mount adapter) + Schneider 6-66, B Camera- Canon 1014XLS- Superduper 8, 24fps- transfer at 18fps
Cinematographers: Justin Lovell & Guy Godfree

On Location- "Suck it Up Princess"

I was on set today shooting Documentary style alongside Bongo (shoots So You Think You Can Dance). Project is Suck it up Princess. Headed by Hop To It Productions, the show will be airing on OMNI in Canada.

We shot inside a large banquet hall on the 33rd floor. Used 3 1200W HMIs bounced into foam core on a balcony to help create a nice even fill on the floor and to balance out all the window light pouring in. Little frustrating working with the DSR 570 because I couldn't set the ZEBRAS to 100IRE. I like to be able to see where my whites clip at 100, but this camera only does max 90IRE. Brought out our JIB arm and got a few dynamic shots when I was able to. It was tough to sneak in the jib shots because I had a wide angle lens, two boom poles and a second camera man that I had to try and keep out of the frame.

Camera: Sony DSR 570
Show: Suck It Up Princess

On Location- Dundas Square Bboyin- X-process 64T

Absolutely love the colors and gritty grain that come out of having the film cross-processed. Samples above show normal exposures, overexposures and uncorrected with/without the 85 filter. Really helps to nail your exposure and to have the proper filtration in the camera. Vignetting from the C-8 wide angle adapter was unavoidable, Though could be cropped out with a tighter widescreen matte.

Stock: Ektachrome 64T (Cross-processed at Niagara Custom Lab)
Format: Superduper 8mm/Max 8mm
Camera: Canon 1014XLS- Superduper 8 + C8 Wide attachement, 24fps- transfer at 18fps
Cinematographer: Justin Lovell
Transfer: Justin Lovell @ Frame Discreet

On Location- Sony F900 on "Apollo's Pad"

Frame Discreet Cinematographer Michael Leblanc just linked me with some production stills from "Apollo's Pad", a puppet show he is currently shooting. Leblanc is well respected for his 35mm and 16mm cinematography. Taking on a new challenge, he is shooting this all in HD with the Sony F900. The results have been stunning.

Camera: Sony F900
Filter: 1/4 black frost to help blowout the highlights a little bit and soften the blacks. Shot in 24p mode
Show: Apollo's Pad

On Location- Lens testing on Beaulieu

I'll be shooting some long lens/telephoto work coming up and was looking for the best solution for super 8. Came up with a few options on our 4008ZMII package: Ang. 12-120mm, Sigma 28-300 with cmount-nikon adapter, + 2x tele extender or the original 6-66 schneider lens. The 300mm lens is meant for a 35mm still camera so 300mm becomes almost 1200mm + the 2x extender it becomes a crazy 2400mm lens! (I would normally be shooting at f-11 in this lighting, but with 300mm, the 2x extender and light loss from the zoom I ended up around f-3.5). Will be getting back results this week.

2006 VFX demo reel

Click to play

Just dug this one up, thought I might post it. Showcasing a little of the older After Effects work that Justin Lovell has done.

Transfer Stills- "Real Street" - 500T Super 8

Stills from recent transfer of Nick Norton's Super 8 colour negative. Just goes to show how much detail you really can get with the 7218 in low light situations. Even works well in Exterior day situations. Nice images Nick. The 220 deg. shutter gives you a slightly softer/motion blurred image but allows you to shoot in lower light situations.
Stock: 7218 500T
Format: Super 8, 24fps
Camera: Canon 514 SV Auto Zoom & Canon 1014xls with 220 deg. shutter
Cinematographer: Nick Norton
Transfer: Justin Lovell @ Frame Discreet