[Ransley]

Have you tried using your portable DVD player as a monitor (via video out)? I’ve been considering buying one just for that purpose, but wasn’t sure it’d work. There are several brands with screens up to 10″, and something that size sure would make a nice reference monitor.

[Ransley]

Sorry for the delay, but here are the specs on the equipment that was used during this past weekend’s festival (I don’t yet have info about specs for the first venue)

The theater used an Eiki LC-NB2 projector(1,200 lumens). The festival entries were all DVDs, loaded into a Pioneer DV-275 progressive scan player. They used a DVDO progressive scan display interface between the player and projector.

The theater was an older facility (probably built in the 40s-50s) and the throw was about 100+/- feet from projector to screen. I don’t have the dimensions of the screen, but it was probably comparable to a medium-sized contemporary multi-plex.

The technician who provided the line-doubler, told me that the Eiki projector was not the best equipment for handling the blacks, especially when the image is enlarged to such a scale – so there’s at least a part of the problem (although, as Noah & Steve have pointed out, the DVX isn’t a 35mm).

I’m going to follow up on David’s & Steve’s suggestions; shoot some tests and experiment with the 7.5 set-up, then try to screen the results at the (older) theater. We’ve got a couple of projects coming up in the next month which will be screened at the first (newer/larger) venue sometime in December, and I’d really like to have a firmer grip on how to anticipate and deal with this issue.

Thanks for the feedback – Russ

[Ransley]

Thanks for the feedback…

Yesterday I attended a small film festival that was screening a short I’d produced prior to buying my DVX. The camera I used for this piece was a consumer grade Sony digital 8 (obviously not anywhere near the same class as the Panasonic). The footage, which contained a wide range of exposures & lighting levels, looked great – I was stunned when it was projected, especially after my experience last week, as I had been expecting a catastrophy.

HOWEVER several of the other festival entries had been shot, using DVXs and every single one of them had the same problem I had experienced with my DVX footage… their blacks & shadows were decidedly muddy or simply too black to see any detail. The most glaring example of this problem was a scene in one short that featured a black actor fighting with someone who was wearing black in a darkened locker room… the actors were invisible except for the whites of their eyes – definitely not what the director intended!

During the Q&A that followed each screening, I asked each of the directors who had used a DVX the same question – how did your footage look on the monitor – and each of them, of course, responded that their footage looked good, in fact the piece, featuring the locker room scene actually had exceptionally high production values throughout (for a $2k budget) with the shadow detail being the one, nagging exception.

As with the previous theater, the festival venue was a large commercial theater, but this time I got the opportunity to tour the projection facility. They were normally set up to use a conventional projector, but the owner had rented a “commercial grade” Ieki digital projector coupled with a “line-doubler”. The projectionist told me that they tried using the projector by itself, but the footage for all the project entries looked terrible, and was only acceptable after he installed the line-doubler, which may speak to the quality projector issue. All entries were on DVD (not tape) and I plan to get the tech specs for the projector & line-doubler from the projectionist today, should anyone be interested.

Given my filmmaker stature at the moment (and my wife’s protective eye on our budget) my ambitions preclude 35mm, and I’m very happy to have my modest little Pannie, but I’m still dealing with its learning curve.

Based on my (admittedly sparse) experience with the DVX thus far, I have tended to accept what I see on the DVX monitor as an acceptable image for post & projection, but now I’m wondering if I should lead the exposure a bit by raising the overall light levels (or by bumping the exposure), then adjust the levels in post, depending on the ultimate destination for viewing – small or large screen.

Any other thoughts on this would be appreciated.

Thanks again – Russ

[Ransley]

Thanks Noah… the projector in question is one at a San Antonio cinema multiplex, and probably first rate. I’m just looking for suggestions about how to maximize the DVX for a big screen venue.

[Ransley]

David is right on this one… the HD format seems far from firmly established. At the moment, the price of gas seems more relevant than the cost of upgrading to HD media, at least among most of the households in my circle of friends, so it would seem to follow that the general market for HD is still relatively narrow, particularly at the prosumer level.