Scout Leader - RED Music Video

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Interesting video shot by our own Michael Leblanc. Another great concept by Scotty has some dramatic slow paced wire work involved. Dreamy and wierd. Supervised color correction session held @ Frame Discreet to handle the RAW files. Slight film grain applied to help take the edge off the slick video feel.

Director: Scott Cudmore
Cinematographer: Michael Leblanc
Camera: Red One
Colorist: Justin Lovell @ Frame Discreet

Cinematographer Collective - New Member - Mikhail Petrenko

Most recent addition to our Cinematographer Collective - Mikhail Petrenko (usually going by what he calls his friendly name, Misha). Super guy with a very passionate approach to cinematography. When he's not shooting films, he's honing his eye with still photography, trudging around in natural landscapes studying the light. He often tells me about his dreams to create a free cinematography based school where people can learn and teach in an open environment flourishing with new ideas. http://mpetrenko.com/

On Location - Footy (SI2k Mini)

Another cool project headed up by Frame Discreet. I was cinematographer on the shoot with fellow Frame Discreet cinematographer, Mike Leblanc operating. Everything was shot POV style mounted onto a helmet (except for a couple stylized jib/dolly shots). Tony Del Rio directed the spot and it was shot on our SI2k Mini head recording direct to a touchscreen tablet laptop. I had the VGA port off the laptop cloning the monitor which was then converted to a wireless composite signal. The composite signal was rigged into our MYVU video goggles for Mikey to compose his shots. I monitored the laptop running alongside him. Only had a couple of hickups. One being battery power for the laptop (we had two batteries, however we were only able to charge them on the recording laptop). The other hickup was with a loose connection on an RCA cable that lost us 30mins in troubleshooting. Besides that, everything went great! Kept with the natural flourescent lighting, having a few bulbs off to create pools of light and accented it with our kit of 3 1k LED lights (www.flolight.com). Fantastic because each 1k only draws 100W of power. Power outlets were scarce, so we actually had batteries charging, and 3 lights all running off the same circuit, no problem :)
Shout out to production photographer Sam Grant for his stills. Thanks to Aalis @ Tiger Direct for his magical rush orders on components and laptop.... and Special thanks to Ari and Steve at Silicon Imaging for the ongoing support and skyping to make this shoot a success!

Justin

Camera: SI2k Mini - Toshiba m750 12" tablet laptop - Switar 10mm, 25mm, Angenieux 5.9mm, Schneider Xenon 50mm, MYVU Shades 301 (w/ VGA>RCA adapter)
Format: 1920x1080 HD
Stock: QT Cineform RAW to internal 120gb Solid State HD
Cinematographer: Justin Lovell

Super 8 Transfer Samples- "Sheila's Day Off"

Super 8/RED Short "Sheila's Day Off".

A great little short film shot on both RED camera and super 8. Seasoned actress' Heidi Tan and Amanda Lewis co-produced this project-- Amanda Lewis' directorial debut. Taking a challenging approach Richard Fiander shot all the super 8 on ektachrome 64t. A tough stock to use for interiors because of its slow speed. Most people would choose to shoot this with the negative 200/500 ASA film stocks for the extra latitude and speed. Richard ended up pushing the processing in certain shots to be able to maintain exposure. Good on 'ya for taking a less conventional approach!

Camera: Rollei SL85 & RED
Format: Super 8mm
Stock: Ektachrome 64t
Cinematographer: Richard Fiander

On Location- Swagger of a Rockstar

Music Video collaboration with Director Jason Gosbee & RED Camera Package from Toronto local Ben Goldstein (redshorts@rocketmail.com).
Shot most of this in 4k, except for the sections we wanted at higher frame rates. Having to keep in mind that when you shoot at 3k or 2k you are cropping in on the sensor and losing some of your field of view. Lots of help from 1st AC Mike Dawson made the day fly by smoothly. Another tip of advice, when exposing for darker skinned people your green screen ratios may have to be adjusted. I was often opening up nearly 2 stops from incident readings to get a healthy exposure on the darker skin tones. A little extra fill light also helped to maintain detail. I'll post the video once it is released!

Video: Quinn-Maybach - Swagger of a Rockstar
Camera: RED 4k, nikon primes
Director: Jason Gosbee
Cinematographer: Justin Lovell

On location- Greenhouse

Greenhouse - an inspirational short film that looks at greening Toronto's social housing community. from SHSC GLOBE on Vimeo. (sorry, squeezed 4:3 ratio)

On location shooting with Director Christy Garland and Producer Kathleen Smith (not in photo). Thankfully I had some of our cinematographer collective helping out with lighting - Barry Cheong and Misha Petrenko. Was a great time working with the crew over the 7 day shoot. Made great use of Barry's Kino-Flo package and my EZFX Jib arm for some cinematic intro shots around Toronto.

super 8 transfer stills

More recent transfer samples from filmmakers Deniz Berkin (ektachrome 64t and frame discreet frequenter David Mason (200t negative).
All super 8 transfers to 720 x 486 8 bit uncompressed blackmagic codec.

Thanks for getting us involved in your projects!

Frame Discreet on Location in Guyana

I'm working on a fantastic documentary in Guyana right now with Christy Garland and Kathleen Smith. We are travelling through the Interior and Georgetown following the life of the songbirds used in songbird racing/fighting. It's an interesting project where you'll find a mix of macho men carrying around tiny cages competing their birds against eachother in 'singing battles'. Lots of money is on the line in these races leaving many locals quite happy, or quite angry. So far I've been able to visit some beautiful villages in the interior and met some incredible people. I'm here till the 29th of January and look forward to every minute of it. Frame Discreet's transfer studio is still open working away (seceretly finalizing some HD/2k scan testing in talks with Silicon Imaging, Iridas and Digital Vision for a RAW DI workflow.. shhh)...

Super 8 Transfer - CERVELO AD

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An homage to a movie named, "La Course en Tete" a documentary about the Belgian cyclist Eddy Merckx mace in 1974, this spot was shot in the town of Altdorf for the Tour de Suisse Time trial to Klausenpass. The race is each cyclist against the clock, it takes approx. an hour and is 25 km long from 400m above sea level to 1948m above sea level. 25km an hour average speed, I can barely do that on my bike in Toronto, let alone these guys going up hill the entire way. Driving down from the mountain after the race seemed to take longer than these cyclist take to go up.

The de-saturated and grainy look is a reference to the original 1974 documentary. Hairs in the gate, dirt, scratches were all kept in as this was the goal. A great example of a look that can not be faked any other way. Best way is by shooting the original 8mm format.

-"Guy Godfree" Frame Discreet Cinematographer

Camera: Super 8 Beaulieu 4008 ZMII

Stock: 7217 (200t), 64T

Cinematographer: Guy Godfree

Music Video- Sloan

Recent music video for Sloan shot by frame discreet cinematographer Michael Leblanc. Originally shot in colour neg, then crunched down and stripped to black and white for a grittier more contrasty feel.


Cinematographer: Michael Leblanc
Format: Super 8
Stock: Super 8, 500t 7218
Camera: 1014xls, C8 wide adapter
Transfer: Frame Discreet
Processing: Niagara Custom Lab

Transfer Samples -Super 8

A few more sample frames from Jeff Moneo's recent transfer with us. Super 8 200T and 500T (7217/7218). Get your exposure right, and it can look saaah-weeeet!

Transfer Samples - Super 8

Some recent footage shot by Jeffrey Moneo for Cherry Blossom Season. Mix of Super 8 200T and 500T. Especially impressed by the resolution on the last image. Click to enlarge. Some really slick footage...

2006 Cinematographer Demo Reel

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My demo reel from 2006. Stumbled across it in my archives, figured I'd share it with you guys. All film originated. Mix of super 8 and 16mm.

Cinematographer: Justin Lovell
Format: Super 8, 16mm

Transfer Samples -Super 8

Super 8 sample transfers for recent clients (in order- 2x 64T reversal, 2x 200T 7217 neg, 2x 500T 7218 neg). Just giving you more of an idea of what is possible with super 8, and the different looks that the stocks can provide. Thanks for choosing us!

Emily Haines "Our Hell"

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Video shot by our super talented cinematographer Mike Leblanc. Shot with a military issue infra-red camera. Nominated for the UK Music Video Award. Currently up for best music video in Poland's CAMERIMAGE. Recent award winners include Sven Nykvist, Vilmos Zigmond, Owen Roizmen, etc. He has also been requested to speak on a panel about his work as a cinematographer. Pumped for Leblanc and his recognition by this esteemed festival.

super 8 transfer comparison

A client bring us footage to have re-transferred after having it done at a different transfer house. The image looks muddy and flat, like a VHS dub. The problem was the equipment that the other transfer house was using. Take a look at the detail in the watch and the overall color rendition in our transfer on the right. (click to enlarge)

We take pride in the custom work we do here. If you think you're getting a wicked deal somewhere else, it may be too good to be true. Do your research, as we have!

super 8 transfer stills

Some stills from a recent transfer for Homegrown skateboards. Wicked group of guys producing their own custom skates and videos out of Nova Scotia.

Stock: 7218 500T + 64t Cross-processed
Format: Super 8mm
Processing: Niagara Custom Lab
Transfer: 8 bit upcompresed QT files