[Gary Steward]

Dear All,
Firstly apologies for the late reply – I’ve been away (nothing too interesting, just a friends short film).
Leo – many thanks I’d be really interested to see some stills.. my email address is: gary_draco@hotmail.com

Sarah- Many thanks for weighing in on this question. I had looked at the
P&S Technik mini35c but as I understood it was vastly more expensive than the other options.. what have your experience with the adapter?

Gary

[Gary Steward]

Dear Leo and Johnny,
Firstly, thanks for all comments and advice, all are much appreciated!

I’ve just finished shooting a pilot for a sitcom using the stock lens, and while I was relativly happy with the results (after much lighting boosts) I had to complelely discount the ‘fake DOF’ trick of zooming in becuase we didnt have a great deal of space in a lot of situations.

Now because it was a sitcom, this isnt so much of a problem, even more so because its premier will be on the web (not a plug for it.. just talking about the delivery lol).
Next year however, we want to shoot a full feature film, and I want as much as possible to get that cinematic look. We will have a larger crew (and anyone in the NW of England area reading this can email me and I can let you know of spots still open), and although I have some experiance in focus pulling I’ll be training someone to fill the roll, and I also have a nice HD monitor for keeping an eye on focus etc (cheers mum and dad!!!).

Having looked at the Redrock forums some people have posted pictures of their rigs and they look huge, and what I find most interesting is that they ALL talk about the size, gadgets and gizmos without mentioning the actual image quality. I’m not wanting an adaptor to make my camera look great, only because I want better images more suited to a film (that potentially could have a film print made)

It seems, given the size, that a 1/3 relay is really important and I get the feeling that this is going to be costly (someone on the Redrock Forum paid $2000 for a custom made one).

Although I’m probably not going to start buying equipment (whatever that may be) until dec/jan it seems I’ll have to look long and hard for the solution.

Just as a matter of interest, what are you guys using? And more importantnly whats the image quality like?

Many thanks!

Gary

[Gary Steward]

Thanks for your reply Leo. I must admit the Redrock has always been on my ‘I really want’ list – and now the Indy Bundle (with flip module because I dont want to turn my monitor upside down) seems to be perfect for what I want.

Not too concerned about the weight… if anything it’ll help smooth out moves which benifits my 24p filming. Do you think there is any better substitue for the stock lens to go between the camera and adaptor – I’m just thinking about reducing the overall legnth…

[Gary Steward]

Thanks for your response Phil. I had heard of Gabriel (and another called Bull). I guess my main thought was that if I made a film using the camera and (by some freakish luck) it was picked up, would the quality of the footage deteriorate sufficiently to create a print not worth of showing in a cinema.
I understand what you say regarding the script being the key. In fact some of my favorite films are not great visual quality at all (point of reference: Primer).

Currently I’m using the camera for the usual things a filmmaker with a new camera does- short film, ‘test shots’ etc. and Tim Dashwood’s dvd has helped a lot. If the camera can do a decent filmout, then I’m of the opinion that I can comfortably invest some decent money in making a good film, in the hope that at worst a dvd release, at best a limited cinema release