Working follow focus test setup!

Yes! It works!

It works a little better than the video shows, but it's a little too noisy right now, and still has some kinks to be ironed out.

Video with the Canon M500

Camera rig

I've been working on a 15mm camera rig. A follow focus will be essential to this project, and I'll need something to mount in on once I make it, so here's what I've got so far:

The rods were from http://www.onlinemetals.com/ if I remember right, and so was the plastic. The photos should make the design so far clear. The plastic parts were cut from this plastic, 3/4" I think. Hey, it was the cheapest option by far and it works great! I cut the sections shown from a 12 X 12" piece, and this took 36 square inches (3X12) to make two brackets. I can make smaller brackets, but I wanted to make a larger one for the camera first, and I can always swap out brackets later. The measurements are 60 mm rod spacing, and 15 mm (approx., it's slightly off, but not much) diameter rods. The reason I built it to these measurements is that is what commercial DSLR rigs are using, so if we ever happen to acquire a 15mm rod accessory, (which is unlikely, as the prices are astronomical!) it should be compatible with commercial systems. I'm not the only one building or who has built a DSLR rig though, but I'm the only one who has posted it so far (hint hint, Daniel!) Next I need to work on making this into a shoulder rig, with a counterweight and shoulder pad, or I could just use it on a tripod as its main function will be for the follow focus.

Camera Ladder

Camera cranes are great, but commercial ones are really expensive. I want to use one on this project, so I have to figure out how to make one. I've posted about my first ones, but I'm also looking at trying to using a ladder like this one as the arm. It has the advantage of being (slightly) collapsible, and probably lighter weight, but it's also more flexible than the triangle design of the tower that I was using, so there might be bounce on faster moving shots. Only a test run will show, so that's on the list of things to try. It's not very high on the list though, because I already have something that I think will work.

2.5K camera

The market for high resolution digital cinema cameras is really expanding. It's really interesting watching right now, when there's so much competition. Prices are also falling, which I like! Right now, I know of two different 2K RAW cameras for about $3000. That's still pretty expensive, and they don't include lenses either, but that's still less than something like Canon's 5D MK III.

Below: A photo of Black Magic Design's 2.5K camera from their website.

http://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/blackmagiccinemacamera/

It's really neat seeing what's happening right now. Another big plus of this camera is that it records to 2.5" SSDs, so recording media will be easily available, not proprietary, and it will also be easy and quick to transfer data.
Anyway, this isn't exactly related to the project, but it is of general interest. At the rate things are going, I wouldn't be surprised if we shot our next film in 2K! Maybe wishful thinking, but you never know...

720p vs 1080p

I really don't want to make this choice... But, it does have to be made. If I remember right I said a while ago that we would probably shoot this in 720p. However, I've been working with video, (from the 1D MK IV), and 1080p really looks drastically better than 720p. Some of this may be due to the fact that I'm viewing the video on a real screen, uncompressed from the camera, not a YouTube version on a smartphone. When we're done though, I want to be able to put this in our home theater and show it to friends without being ashamed of it (thought I'm sure I will be able to see / hear flaws)
The problem here is that we can shoot 24 or 30 frames per second 1080p, OR 60fps 720p. The 1080p looks much better, but it only takes 30 fps, so slow motion will be very limited. Right now, I'm thinking we will probably shoot the trailer in full 1080p to get a feel for it, and see if that will be feasible for the whole thing. It's possible that we could shoot the film in 1080p, and switch to 720p for the slow motion parts, but I don't think we'll do that.

Improved camera

Now with aperture!

In case anyone's curious, it takes about 40 sec- 1 minute per frame to render with a node chain. (That's with my CPU overclocked) 

Concept Artwork

Click for full 2K! This is the current result of some of my work for this movie. This is supposed to be a lens for the satellite's camera. (the gray box at the bottom will be the camera / satellite) The boxes around the lens are supposed to be the controls for focus and zoom.

What do you think? I know it still needs a lot of work, especially texturing. What could be improved? I'm thinking of adding an iris behind the lens, but haven't yet.

Bigger Better Camera Crane

The camera crane is now 20 feet long, (15 effective) 60lbs counterweight, and still working nicely. If I can figure out how to mount this thing it will be great. Here's another video, and this time it's longer too (still no HD, sorry)

It's looking good, but finding a good mount for it is going to be tough, not to mention trying to transport it! (If we decide to use it for the movie that is) Here are some photos to show the size of this thing.

Above: It's not small!

The counterbalance system above.

Above: The temporary camera mount (This is part of why I'm not putting a 5D up there!)

My impromptu method of joining. (It's actually much better than it looks)

And along the side.

Try not to cringe too much, watch the video first, it really works very well so far.

Camera Crane Test

I've wanted to make / use a camera crane for a while, but they're expensive, and I would also need a pan/tilt head. A pan/tilt head shouldn't be too hard to build, now that I've figured out how to get my Arduino to read a potentiometer and control a stepper motor. I was thinking about using a servo motor for a while, and then I discovered stepper motors :) Anyway, I may or may not go that direction yet, but I was testing out a section of antenna tower I have as a camera crane with the camera mounted directly on it. Here's the test video below:

Start at 0:15. The jerk at 30 seconds in is from the counterweight (30lbs) on the back sliding around.

Yes, I know, it's not HD, and I find that annoying too, but I'm not putting one of our HD cameras up there until I have some sort of fail-safe. Below are photos of it:

And close up of the ends:

All for now! Please comment, and next up, production workstation photos!