We wrote(with my wife Raven), shot, edited, graded, mixed, scored, sound designed this film in one week.  It was a great experience!  It felt like 120 degrees on location, but it was so worth it.  Let us know what you think and if you can, feel free to comment on the vimeo page- and if we make finalists, please consider casting your vote for us!

Shot on Canon 5D Mark II with manual NIkon primes, Canon 24-70 L, Fader NDs

Light is featured on Studio Daily’s email newsletter and new site DailyFilm.tv.  We entered their DSLR Short Film Contest, but were surprised and honored to be featured this way.  You can rate and vote for Light in different categories here.   We’ve already received some “sweet” ratings and several nominations!  Thanks for your support:)

Light is a production of Greenlight Hope Films

In my earlier post, Top 10 things I’d like to see in Final Cut Pro 7, I outlined what I hoped to see in the imminent next version of Final Cut.  Of course,  I’m just one of many that have been waiting for these new features, so lets see if they’ve been listening to us….

Well today, they announced “The new Final Cut Studio” (FCS 3), and it is indeed new in a lot of respects.  Here’s a quick overview of what they did change… and what they did not, using my original top ten as a reference.  (Disclaimer, this is based purely on info given at the Apple website, I reserve the right to change my opinion based on using a working copy when I get my hands on one)

1.  Leopard-like Quick View of footage with TC, markers, I/o points – I actually use the finder now to scan footage!

NO.  This I was surprised at, no real changes to the GUI yet that I can see.  The colored tabs are nice though.  “You can now color-code tabs to make them easier to identify, and drag to reorder them. It’s also easy to distinguish Projects from Bins with the new Project icon in
the tab header.”

2.  Colored and customizable markers.  Or different marker icons for different functions (chapter, compression, takes, etc.)

YES!  Now we can change the marker colors, ripple edit (they move with the clips in timeline) and type comments while it plays!  This seems to one-up Avid finally:  in Avid MC and Xpress,  you always had colored markers, but could not type the comment while playing.

3. Bigger icons and buttons in the UI- maybe I’m just getting older, but they’re are just too small!

NO, none that I can see.  However,  the big timecode window is definitely a step in the right direction for the interface readability.

4. Better media management- need I say more?

MAYBE.  Spotlight technology is now used in the Media Manager.  Nice,  but there is a lot more that needs improved here.

5. “Send to” commands available for external apps like After Effects

NO… BUT,  I love the new “Share” command, ala iMovie and other iLife apps.  Sometimes you just need the quickest way to send to Youtube, MobileMe(which I don’t use yet), iPhone, Blu-ray disc,  etc.  I like.

6. Improved keyframe editor with kb shortcuts, snap to kf, etc

NO.  BUT, the new speed change tools look great.  Finally a quick way of doing speed ramps, bumps, without getting lost in the time-remapping tool (which is also improved) or going to After Effects (which is my first choice usually).  I really found the speed ramp curves in Avid very useful – even in Xpress, the presets were just fast and intuitive.  Now, looks like I’ll be doing speed ramps in the FC timeline.

7. Better render management  (i.e. when you undo, you don’t lose renders, DS had render mgmt. mastered)

Yes, and YES.  This is really welcome, I hope it works in practice as well as it looks- and that they addressed the missing render bug…

8. Render & export in the background  (DS and Liquid could do this years ago- at least render)

Yes, and YAYYY!!  Export, render and publish in the background using Compressor.  You can use Apple Qmaster QuickCluster for even quicker rendering.  I know that editors of long-form will especially appreciate this.

9. iTunes-like project searching

uh, no. Though, the Markers feature improved searching — and if you count Media Manager using Spotlight now (though not useful in while editing)

10. iLife – like icon scrubbing

NO,  not that I can see.  I thought for sure they would do something here, the small icons are just not doing it for me anymore.  Who knows, maybe there are some features here that are not revealed or published yet.

Contrasting light and shadow, day and night, a glimpse at life in a bustling city where often perspective… is everything.

About The Production

This short was a fun exercise in shooting a film without the normal constraints of a script or the pressure of a deadline.  We had just purchased the Canon 5D Mark II for a big outreach event Joel Osteen Ministries was holding at the new Yankee Stadium, and we thought; hey, lets make a movie! (in the evenings during our off time).  What better place than New York? An endless backdrop for telling stories of all types, if nothing else, we can always use more b-roll.

Yes, we did have a loose idea of the structure for the story; but that was it, nothing written down, mainly just a few characters that we would put in contrasting environments – then write the voice-over later.

We shot it over the course of two evenings and one morning, usually with 3 or 4 people at a time.

The cast and crew consisted of myself as Director/DP, Dino Brogna as co-producer and actor, Casey Graham as location sound/post mixing and actor, Stephen Varughese as actor and sometimes grip, Darren Johnson as additional location sound(when Casey wasn’t available), and Trae Stanley and Micah Bickham each as voice talent and co-producers.

We planned our evenings by either walking or taking the subway to our destinations- shooting along the way.  There was no scouting, so if we saw a scene we liked we just started shooting and tried to get a few different takes/angles/focal lengths if we could.  The beauty of shooting with the 5D, is that no one knows you’re shooting a movie, they just think you’re shooting stills and keep out of the way or ignore you, so there were no “hi mom!” moments, thankfully.

The Gear

Our “extensive” production kit fit into one small Thinktank roller bag plus a Sennheiser 416 on a boom pole and a small Fostex flash recorder for nat sound.  This made for a very mobile production- getting on and off trains and up and down staircases were a snap.

We shot with all Nikon manual focus primes.  This was before the firmware update so I chose the Nikon primes to have absolute DOF control and not have to mess with the “half twist” or tricking it with flashlights, etc.

Glass used: 14mm f2.8 ED (actually AF, but can only use as MF), 28 f2.8, 50 f1.4, 85 f1.8, 135 f2.8, 200 f4.
We also had a Rhode Videomic on the hotshoe a few times for redundant audio.  Since we wanted to travel extremely light and nimble, any “tripod” shots were actually with a GorillaPod, which I was very happy with.  It enables you to make a quick camera support out of postal boxes, curbs, fences, or even bending it sideways to stabilize by pressing it against a wall.
We had a Steadicam Merlin on this trip but didn’t take it out for this particular shoot so as not to draw too much attention.  So depending on the project, I highly recommend the Merlin for the 5D, they work really well together.

Post Workflow

The Post workflow was pretty straight forward.  In the field, we dumped the camera H.264 quicktimes to bus-powered LaCie drives from a Lexar Firewire 800 reader on  a Macbook Pro.  I cloned the drive and stored it in a separate suitcase.

Back home, I used Compressor to convert all the H.264 files to Prores422 HQ quicktimes.  Then imported those to FCP for editing- that way any subsequent timeline processing is at the highest quality and makes for a MUCH faster and more responsive editing experience- compared to trying to edit in native H.264.

I considered color grading in Color as I have in the past, but I tried this one with Magic Bullet Looks- and was very pleased with how quickly and intuitively I could get the result I was after.  I often grade in After Effects as well, but I chose to grade this project all in FCP, except for the title graphics and a couple effects shots, which were in AE.

Audio post was handled by Casey Graham in one of our Euphonix rooms.  I did the rough music edit and mix and then sent him OMFs which he imported to Nuendo for the final mix and added further sound effects.

Just Do It

For me it is incredibly exciting to have a tool that finally allows you to get stunning filmic images with the exact depth of field that you require — and in places that usually would be very difficult or impossible to place an HVX with an M2 adapter, let alone a RED ONE or a Panaflex!  Not only that, but the freedom this size and form factor allows you is unparalleled.

Much ado has been made about the lack of 24 or 25p in this camera, and while I am one of 24p’s biggest fans, I have never felt while watching this that it was missing something by not being in that frame rate.

If given the chance, yes, I would have dialed it in at 24p- and I realize you can do some frame rate conversions with Twixtor, AE and Compressor, but for this project, 30p looked great to me.

Of course, if I had to do a filmout, that would be a challenge.

In all, the thing I enjoyed most about doing this short was seeing the response it got when we showed it around the office.  No one knew we were even doing this short except our core group, so when we showed the completed project to other key staff members, it was a total surprise to them- in a good way.  So much so, that it was featured in a special Joel Osteen webcast and will be soon available in the podcast feed; and best of all, they would like us to do more projects like this.

Remember, its not all about the tools you use, its how you use what you do have by maximizing the resources you have available to you.  If you have a Flip, a Canon 5D Mark II, or a RED ONE- no excuses, go out there and make your movie!

Dan Rubottom is senior producer of Special Projects at Joel Osteen Ministries and also co-owner, with his wife Raven, at Epiphany Creative Group in Houston, TX.
Greenlight Hope Films is a new extension of Joel Osteen Ministries where we present the hope found in Jesus Christ through creative and compelling short films.

You can follow Dan on Twitter.  See more of Dan’s work at Vimeo.

Credits:
Directed by
Dan Rubottom

Written by
Casey Graham

Produced by
Micah Bickam
Dino Brogna
Trae Stanley
Casey Graham
Dan Rubottom

Featuring
Dino Brogna
Trae Stanley
Casey Graham
Micah Bickham
Stephen Varughese

Executive Producers
Duncan Dodds
Jon Swearingen

Cinematography & Editing
Dan Rubottom

Sound
Casey Graham
Darren Johnson

Music
FirstCom Music, Inc
Decibel Collective, Dittybase

I really don’t know when Apple will announce Final Cut Pro 7, aka the editing app in FCS 3.  Yes, it could be tomorrow at WWDC, but no one really knows (well, I’m sure someone must!).  I also know that whatever I put here doesn’t really matter at this point, sniff- its already been decided by some some really hip, cool, engineers that know what we want…right?

I’ve edited on Final Cut for quite a while – since V. 1.2 on a Digital Voodoo card (remember that?).  Before that, I was a staunch Avid fan (DS, Symphony, Media Composer, Xpress, and…ahem, Illusion).  Of course, After Effects has been in my toolset all that time as well.  Along the way, I picked up things that I really liked from each app, things that make me more productive,  creative, and help me have a lot more fun through the editing process.

So, I thought I’d come up with an informal list of things that I’d like to see in the next iteration of Final Cut Pro, whenever that is…

This is by no means comprehensive or in any particular order, mostly things that I run into on a daily basis that would make life a little eaiser in my edit suite.

Top 10

1. Leopard-like Quick View of footage with TC, markers, I/o points – I actually use the finder now to scan footage!

2. Colored and customizable markers.  Or different marker icons for different functions (chapter, compression, takes, etc.)

3. Bigger icons and buttons in the UI- maybe I’m just getting older, but they’re are just too small!

4. Better media management- need I say more?

5. “Send to” commands available for external apps like After Effects

6. Improved keyframe editor with kb shortcuts, snap to kf, etc

7. Better render management  (i.e. when you undo, you don’t lose renders, DS had render mgmt. mastered)

8. Render & export in the background  (DS and Liquid could do this years ago- at least render)

9. iTunes-like project searching

10. iLife – like icon scrubbing

Final thought

If Apple does happen to announce Final Cut Pro 7 (FCS 3) tomorrow at WWDC to help show off the new speed advances in the forthcoming Snow Leopard, then it will be fun to see what, if any of this, makes the final cut.  (sorry)   If not, we can hope for next time.

Happy editing!

UPDATE: So WWDC came and went, alas no FCS3 update.  See Scott Simmons’ post about that here.  I expect we’ll see an update in July or August to precede the launch of Snow Leopard  in September which it reportedly will depend on so much.

Well, maybe this is it, where I can start posting samples and thoughts about what I’m working on in the ever changing world of media production. If you like filmmaking, motion graphics, music videos, commercials, TV opens, live venue video, maybe you’ve got something in common with me.

I believe we’re here for a purpose and that its no accident that we are living in the one of the most exciting times in history.

Honoring God with the talents He’s given me is my priority one. If you share this passion with me, then we have even more in common!

More later.
Dan