Matt Pacini's new film

[Scottness]

Hey Matt! - thought this'd get your attention! Just wondering can you let the cat out of the bag and tell us all a bit about your new film - what's it going to be about, what equipment will you be using - what will be different to Lost Tribes, and what will be the same - it'll be great to hear - particulalry fromsomeone going on to make their second feature - as most people don' do that ---- also is their a web page for Lost Tribes - I've been trying to find one but can't

Scot M

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[MovieStuff]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Courier, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Matt Pacini:
I'll post lots of frames taken from Lost Tribes, and also from Black Forest, which will be transferred on my new, kick ass Workprinter that Roger is building for me.
In fact, I'll do comparisons from frames of Lost Tribes that were RANK'ed, then I'll put that same film on the Workprinter & compare. Should be interesting.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Oh, man! Nothing like working under pressure. Thanks a lot, Matt.

Roger

[Scottness]

Sounds very cool Matt - good luck - the short is a good idea - i think the guy who made Halloween did that - and then got some investment from Doctors etc to make the final thing - I look forward to hearing how it goes - - like the title too

Scot M

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[Dominic3]

Matt - your enthusiasm, energy, ambition and technical ability are worthy of admiration. ( Roger too, from the look of his website).

If anyone deserves a major break in the "movie biz", you do.

Good luck with your project.




[This message has been edited by Dominic3 (edited October 09, 2001).]

[Matt Pacini]

Hi Scott.
Yeah, that got my attention!
I'll give you the specifics, and try to keep it short (always a problem for me!).

It's called BLACK FOREST, and I'm not really shooting a feature.
I'm shooting excerpts from the script, to put together a sort of long trailer, to try to get financing to shoot it.
Then, depending on how much (if any) money I can get, I will shoot on 35mm, 16mm, or Super 8.
I'm hoping to get a real budget, and I have at least one producer interested. (He has a deal with HBO pictures).
Of course, he hasn't seen the script yet, so that means nothing. (I'm almost finished).
At this point, I'm reserving Super 8 to this function, which I think is probably a good idea:
Shoot shorts or trailers to raise money, knowing that it will only be shown on video or the internet.
Shooting a feature on Super 8 is both a great experience, and a dissapointing one, because it really has limited the chance of making any money back on what it cost to make the film.
You have to remember, distributors couldn't give a rat's sphincter what it cost to make your film, because YOU spent the money.
They just want something they can make money on.
We've all bought into this hype of the last 10 years, starting with Rodriquez and El Mariachi, that the industry is all excited when someone makes a movie for a few thousand dollars, but in reality, that's just a marketing angle to capitalize on to get press.
If they think your movie is worth a million dollars (Blair Witch), they will give you a million dollars, whether you spent 3 million making it, or $3,000.
That being said though, there have been many people in the industry that have been willing to watch my film even though they know it's on Super 8. But some of them have been very clear, that it would really have to be something special for them to buy it. In other words, it has to overcome its handicap of being on S8.

Anyway, so that's what I'm up to as far as what I'm going to do from now on using Super 8.
As far as what I've learned, the above rant is what I've learned regarding the business side of things. (and much, much more).

Other things I've learned....

1. Do not shoot until your script is tight. Nobody is going to think any of your visual expertise is totally cool, if there's no story there, and there's no story, if there isn't a killer script.

2. Audition your actors, no matter what their experience level is, or how they look, or how enthusiastic they are.

3. Overestimate all financing costs.
Add everything up you can think of, including script copies, gas money, food, paperclips, I mean everything... then at least double it. I'm not kidding.

4. Be really, really meticulous about lighting, light flatter than you think you should, but keep light off the walls and try to keep big, solid evenly lit things out of the frame. (Like grey sky, white walls, etc. big grain displays, that's what they are).

5. Try to get an f-stop of F4 or better.
Most of Lost Tribes ended up being shot at F2 or 2.8, and a couple things outdoors I had a stop of F4.5-5.6, and there was a noticable increase in sharpness, which is no mystery, since this is common knowledge in cinematography & still photog.
Us Super 8-ers forget this stuff, to our detriment. Even with those big-ass 35mm frames, those DP's STILL try to get those f-stops, for sharpness, unless of course they want less depth of field.
(This is going to be tough, shooting on K-40. My 15K worth of lights is really going to come in handy.)

6. Don't shoot with a noisy camera, and don't record dialog on an analog recorder (they float too much)

Equipment:

I'm shooting on a Nizo 6080, & a Nikon Super Zoom for 2nd camera stuff.
I'm shooting on K-40, (never anything else, ever!).
Accessories include:
Nizo Ultrawide III adapter.
My mini-jib and wheelchair dolly (the jib also connects to the dolly), a steadicam thing I made out of a monopod.
Also, this is so cool. I got this little window camera mount, and shot some test footage driving in the car.
It has two rubber pads, and you mount it to the window of your car, then your camera goes on top. It worked like a charm. No shake at all (much to my surprise).
So, I have a scene with two guys driving & talking, so this will work great.
Lights:
One Lowel 5 Light Kit (the old one's, that use R-40 bulbs with barndoors that slide around them.)
2 Lowel Pro Lights.
Big home-made fluorescene light box (12 5K bulbs, 4 ft each),
1K Strand fesnel
(2) 650watt Altman Fresnels
Home-made Mini-fluorescene light box, with 8 screw in flourescene lights.
Home-made lights, using PAR 650 watt lights (the ones you see in those old Super 8 lights on ebay, Lotta-lite's).
I took the handles off them, mounted a matthews TVMP adapter, and they mount to a 5/8 baby pin.
I have about 10 of those.
One home-made china ball light (I put an R-40 photobulb inside a plastic ball that I got at Home Depot, that's like 15 inches around, and hang it from a boom).
Various flags, scrims, reflector boards, etc.
I'm probably not going to use all that at one time, but we'll see.
Audio: Sharp Minidisk recorder, Audio-Technica boom mic, & a Behringer mixer. (I also have this cool little Fostex portable mixer, with a compressor built in, that runs on a 9 volt battery!)

I can't think of anything else as far as equipment goes.

BLACK FOREST:
Sort of a cross between Predator and Deliverance, but it's not an alien.

A group from the local university is on an archaeological expedition deep in the Sierra Mountains to find the site of an old abandoned Indian City.
On the way, they are stalked by something unseen. They accidentally hike into a marijuana farm, and they are kidnapped by pot farmers, who assume the are there stealing their pot. They continue to be stalked, and one of the pot farmers shoots & hits the thing following them.
From then on, they are hunted, and one by one, picked off by this mysterious creature. (I'm not gonna tell you what it is. You'll have to wait!).
What started as a scientific hourney, becomes a struggle for survival.

(This isn't really my official pitch, but that's basically the general idea).

So, I'm going to shoot this trailer to use, along with my screenplay, to get financing, or sell the script, and convince the buyer that I should be directing it.

I'm still working on my website.
I want it to be a really good website, and along with all this other stuff that takes up my time, I'm learning how to create websites.
So, eventually, there will be a site, that has stuff from Lost Tribes, Black Forest, along with tips on shooting, a place where actors, crew and filmmakers can exchange info, downloads, etc.
Hopefully before the end of the year.
It will be at: www.blackforestentertainment.com

Don't bother yet, there's nothing there.
But anyone who's interested, bookmark it and check back. I'll post lots of frames taken from Lost Tribes, and also from Black Forest, which will be transferred on my new, kick ass Workprinter that Roger is building for me.
In fact, I'll do comparisons from frames of Lost Tribes that were RANK'ed, then I'll put that same film on the Workprinter & compare. Should be interesting.

Matt Pacini

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[MadFor3D]

Matt,

That sounds like a cool movie. I have two questions.

1. Regarding your Nizo's UltraWideIII angle lens, how do you do it? Do you keep it on the camera all the time with some sort of home made lens cap? Put it away in the plastic case each use? I just got one and I'm worried I'll scratch it if I just leave it on there. Didn't come with any lens caps at all, just a clear plastic case.

2. Regarding #4 of your lessons above... "light flatter"? What do you mean by this? I'm confused. Did the more contrasted shots not come out as well?

Thanks,

Madrone

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[mattias]

> i think the guy who made Halloween did that

evil dead maybe? sam raimi did that as a short first, and the "doctors" part rings true as well.

/matt

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[Matt Pacini]

Thanks for the encouraging words.
As far as how I use the Nizo Aspheric, the answer is... very carefully!
I'm always in fear when it's on the camera, because there's no threads to mount a lens shade, or any other way to protect it, and it sticks WAY out there, and is plastic!

So I carry a little fanny pack, with the plastic holder, with tissue in it, and I put the lens adapter in there when I'm not using it.

As far as lighting flatter, I should elaborate:
I actually like contrasty lighting, however, with S8, anything that is not right in the midrange, tends to either blow out, or go to black.
So, for faces, I'm trying to light more soft, and flat, and then go ahead & do contrasty lighting for backgrounds, if it's needed (which in my case, is usually!).
I made the mistake on Lost Tribes of metering the scene in general, which is stupid!
You have to start with the faces only, then determine the look you want for the background, & light accordingly.

Matt Pacini

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[Alex]

I'll make my offer again. You are welcome to send me an ektachrome transfer to video that you are unhappy with.

I'll "degrain it", and send you back a copy of your original that should look better.

A little Ektachrome in your movie here and there could make you filmmaking experience much easier.

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Alex

[Matt Pacini]

OK, you're on, I'll send you some, but I'm going to warn you, if it looks as crappy as I think it will, I will be brutally honest.
I just don't see how you can "degrain" something, when the grain is that big.
Walls that were tan colored, are dancing with grain the size of a nickel.
How in the world is software going to know that something THAT big, is not supposed to be there?
If a character is standing 20 feet away, the grain is the size of their eyeballs! How does your software know that the eyeballs aren't grain? Or the other way around?
There's just no way it can know that it's grain, unless the grain is smaller than the smallest detail, and on Ektachrome, that's just not the case, unless it's in objects that are really close to the camera.
I'm skeptical!
Sure, shooting on the highest speed stock is easier... but that has nothing to do with whether it's going to look any good or not.

Shooting with no film in the camera is easier too!

So, give me an address to send it to, & I'll mail off a tape...
If you dare!

Matt Pacini

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