Big Orange Box

This weekend I built a simple wooden camera dolly for filming stop motion animation (photos of the dolly in upcoming posts). Also began painting the residential street set. Many details remain to be added.

The below video is shot on a Canon HV20 with a wide angle lens adapter. I didn’t to any lighting of the scene, its just a 75 watt household bulb directly above the scene. Threw a blue foamcore board behind the set for a quick “sky”. Anyhow, its fun to get the pace of the 12 frames per second (fps) recording and play with the depth of field a bit (camera was set at f1.8). Using iStopMotion on my MacBook Pro as usual.

I’ve just placed an order for a second Canon HV20. This second camera will allow me to shoot Leonard Who? microsodes with a bit more freedom on the editing side of things, since I generally allow the actors a lot of freedom to improvise.

The plan is to do two camera shoots with a crew of one. One fixed camera on a tripod and another on a shoulder mount with an external mic. I just picked up a zeppelin and fuzzy windscreen for the ME66 mic so audio in external locations should improve as well.

The decision to get a second camera was a tough one after buying the RNG35 adapter. Shooting with the adapter produces a great look, but we needed to add more editing options and more freedom for actors in short, quick shoots for the web like we do for the Leonard Who? show.

I was watching Craigslist for a good deal on an HV20 for about a month in both Orange County and Los Angeles (HINT: do searches on Craigslist then subscribe to the search results with Google Reader). The least expensive HV20 I saw was $625 and most were listing for nearly $700 for a used camera. I took a chance and tried B&H Photo Video (where I bought my first HV20 new) and lucked out — a refurbished camera that was only $609 AFTER shipping. I was quite surprised to find a better deal on a used item at a retail store and am anxiously awaiting the arrival of the new gear.

Weezer’s “Pork and Beans” video features a menagerie of top YouTubers lip syncing along to the song in their full regalia and in the actual (simulated) environments in which their original videos were shot. Good luck trying to think of a way to use YouTube folks in any production this year. Weezer has used up all the good ones. YouTube’s talent pool has just been rebooted.

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The first set is 80% built for the stop-motion music video I’m doing for the band Cars & Trucks. This residential set will feature about a dozen cardstock houses, very simplistic and childlike in design. The majority of action will be accomplished by camera moves and the movement of Matchbox style toy vehicles.

I will post photos of the set under construction soon. Right now I’m debating on how to dress the backgrounds of the set. Blue sheet on the wall? Shoot on green screen stage?

Shot a quick test today to evaluate iStopMotion software from Boinx for use shooting a music video in June. Set up the following gear on the coffee table in the living room:

• Canon HV20 video camera (plugged into MacBook Pro via firewire 400)
• Wide Angle Lens
• Sima rechargeable LED light (SL-20LX)
• Boinx iStopMotion 2 software

The only trick here was to make sure the HV20 was in DV mode. iStopMotion (as well as iChat) won’t recognize cameras running in HDV mode.

I kept the camera in a fixed position, adjusting focus manually as I moved the elements across the frame. I moved the LED light in a small arc as the CD cover became the focal point. These little LED lights seem like they’ll be pretty handy for stop motion animation work.

Next test will be with my RNG35 adapter with my 50mm/1.8 lens. Stay tuned.

Ten Things I Hate About Commandments

This trailer & many othes recut by Mike Dow & Ari Eisner (AKA Smaky Productions)

Set up the Canon HV20 with a 75mm-300mm (f4-5.5) telephoto lens on DotLot’s Orange County, CA green screen stage. I didn’t light the set, just turned on the overhead fluorescent lights, as I wanted to simulate a run & gun type of environment. I’ll likely run the same test on the stage at a later date with the full lighting set up.

High Resolution Video

You’ll notice some subtle vignetting on the edges of the frame between the 135mm and 300 mm points of the lens. This seems to be a characteristic of the extremes of this lens and not directly related to the RNG35 adapter. I noticed similar issues with the 18mm-55mm lens as well.

Tracey & the gang that make the RNG35 adapter are really great. Make sure to check out the RNG35 forum if you have any questions. A nice little community is building around this product.

If you want to learn more about the Canon HV20 camera, go to the hub itself: HV20.com (the Canon HV20 forum).

Shot some footage with the RNG35 adapter on my Canon HV20 HDV camcorder. I absolutely LOVE the results I’m getting thus far. Putting a telephoto lens on the HV20 made my day!

Below are a couple tests I ran to get a feel for the limits of the adapter. YouTube videos and the higher-resolution versions of each:

1. 70-300mm lens with HV20 in AV mode with camera aperture set to 8.
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Get High Resolution QuickTime Footage (20 megs)

1-b. Same as above but I blew up the footage to 110% original size to remove the vertical “side lines” caused by the vibrating adapter (and most likely a setting error on my part).
1-b
Get High Resolution QuickTime Footage (20 megs)

2. 18-55mm lens with HV20 in AV mode with camera aperture set to 8.
2
Get High Resolution QuickTime Footage (20 megs)

A big THANK YOU goes out to all the folks that have made the Leonard Who?™ show possible this year. We started this little project in April 2007 and in one year have crested the 10,000 download mark for our shows! In fact, we’re on pace to hit closer 13,000 through all our distribution channels (YouTube and the other usual suspects).

I’d like to take a minute to mention everyone that’s helped get us this far:

• Don Scribner - Actor, Executive Producer
• Daniel “Skip” Petras - Writer
• Mark Englert - Music Composer
• Bert Hinchman - Actor
• Lauren Crawford - Executive Producer

Our small team has done a great job of making a wacky little show about a guy named Leonard Carlson quite an interesting experience

Just picked up an RNG35 vibrating (AKA “spinning”) 35mm lens adapter for my Canon HV20 HDV camcorder. I’m currently running some tests with various lenses. I will post those tests and photos of my rig soon.

Here’s the first Microsode™ of the Leonard Who?™ show we shot with the RNG35 this weekend: