I might need some when this is done. “Prozak” is an slightly experimental short film I’ll be shooting at the end of the month. The story has elements of cross-dressing, sexuality, buddhism, and personal growth – but sorry, not little people. It’s not the subject matter that is making this project necessarily experimental as much as the method of image acquisition. We had a pre-production meeting today to go over as much as possible.
We’re capturing it using a digital SLR camera – the Canon EOS-1D Mark IIn. Why this camera, well it’s able to shoot 48 frames in an 8.5 frame-per-second burst. That translates to approximately 6 second clip. Six seconds! What can you capture in six seconds. Well alot actually. Take a look at any commercial.
The inspiration of this method comes from two other projects. Take a look.
Wasn’t that fun!? So what’s our twist? We’re shooting with sync sound. All the logistical and work flow procedurals are still being worked out. Here’s kinda how we’re breaking it down.
The camera is capable of the following bursts (maximum burst capacity 153 MB):
At 8.5 frames-per-second:
3,504 x 2,336 > 48 frames (3.2MB per frame) = 6 seconds per take
3,104 x 2,073 > 59 frames (2.6MB per frame) = 7 seconds per take
2,544 x 1,696 > 77 frames (1.9MB per frame) = 9 seconds per take
1,728 x 1,152 > 135 frames (1.1MB per frame) = 16 seconds per take
We’re looking to shoot at full resolution, which will give us 6 seconds per take. The camera will have multiple 2 Gig CF cards. We’re looking to see if we can download via Wi-Fi or a FireWire cable (IEEE 1934). The editor will be on location with us to deal with data management and work flow. The image sequences are then brought into Final Cut Pro to review and to edit. Time conversions (converting 8.5 frames-per-second into 24 frames-per-second) will either be done in FCP or After Effects. Sound will proceed as if this is a film shoot.
The plan is to edit this for a film-out. How? Well, we might have to edit for HD instead of 2K and use the HD version of the movie for our 2K finish. Or it might mean editing in HD and then getting our EDL into After Effects and replacing the HD files used in FCP to the original files for 2K. Or… Like I said, it’s all still being worked out.
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