On Location - "Body CSI" Olympic spot

Continuing from our RED/SI2k Shootout... We sent the Cineform RAW footage to BIG for a VFX compositing test. They loved the footage! Said it was beautiful, and super easy to work with. They were able to use the raw footage with the look applied (which puts it into a non destructive 'normal' color space for an easier key). We shot today and everything went flawlessly. It was a super relaxed shoot with Mikhal (Misha), Leblanc and myself, all from the Frame Discreet cinematographer collective hangin out. The VFX fellas from BIG were on set to oversee the setups and they were stoked to see how easy the SI2K mini is to work with. I'm looking forward to working on personal projects with these talented guys!

Commercial: "Body CSI" Olympic Spot
Camera: SI2K Mini
Stock: 1920x1080 Cineform Raw, 29.97
Director: John Turner
Cinematographer: Mike Leblanc

On Location - "Timber Timbre"

Music video for super talented Timber Tamber. Shot on short ends of 35mm with the beautifully loud Konvas 35mm. Great little camera, a little cumbersome getting used to the viewfinder - it doesn't orient itself when tilted so the image turns sideways... try walking handheld super slow wrapping around someone with everything sideways.. yeesh! All poetic natural lighting, with 2 mirror boards to help us out as the light was failing towards the end of the day.

Video: Timber Timbre - Demon Host
Camera: 35mm Konvas
Stock: 5218 500t Vision 2
Director: Scott Cudmore
Cinematographer: Mike Leblanc

Red / SI2k Comparison

We recently invested in a SI2k mini camera- same one used on Slumdog Millionaire. We're bidding to shoot a commercial project for the Olympics. A comparison between the RED one and the SI2k was eminent. We were kindly loaned Toronto based Ben Goldenberg's RED ONE and had our footage processed by the friendly fellas at RED LAB Toronto. Walt @ Red Lab had us in and colored the footage with his technical eye. The Si2k has a slight bit more latitude, finer grained noise in the shadows and most importantly a easier workflow on set and in post. Though to be honest, the images from both cameras were quite comparable, but not film.

Currently in development to use the SI2k mini for film scans of super 8 and 16 to 2k.. shhhhh...
Can you spot the Si2k mini in the pictures?

On Location - "The Path to Shaolin"

An awesome project to be on. I learned a lot from the them about training, spirituality and willpower. A story about one man's journey from Saskatchewan to become accepted in China as a non-Chinese Shaolin Master. Truly an incredible journey that Tim has undertaken. Just found out Equator HD bought the doc and is currently airing it so watch out for it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PO8dF4aZmc0
http://www.equatorhd.ca/may09_pathtoshaolin.php

Video: Path to Shaolin
Cameras: Sony Ex-3
Director: Leif Kaldor

Scout Leader - RED Music Video

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Interesting video shot by our own Michael Leblanc. Another great concept by Scotty has some dramatic slow paced wire work involved. Dreamy and wierd. Supervised color correction session held @ Frame Discreet to handle the RAW files. Slight film grain applied to help take the edge off the slick video feel.

Director: Scott Cudmore
Cinematographer: Michael Leblanc
Camera: Red One
Colorist: Justin Lovell @ Frame Discreet

Cinematographer Collective - New Member - Mikhail Petrenko

Most recent addition to our Cinematographer Collective - Mikhail Petrenko (usually going by what he calls his friendly name, Misha). Super guy with a very passionate approach to cinematography. When he's not shooting films, he's honing his eye with still photography, trudging around in natural landscapes studying the light. He often tells me about his dreams to create a free cinematography based school where people can learn and teach in an open environment flourishing with new ideas. http://mpetrenko.com/

On Location - Footy (SI2k Mini)

Another cool project headed up by Frame Discreet. I was cinematographer on the shoot with fellow Frame Discreet cinematographer, Mike Leblanc operating. Everything was shot POV style mounted onto a helmet (except for a couple stylized jib/dolly shots). Tony Del Rio directed the spot and it was shot on our SI2k Mini head recording direct to a touchscreen tablet laptop. I had the VGA port off the laptop cloning the monitor which was then converted to a wireless composite signal. The composite signal was rigged into our MYVU video goggles for Mikey to compose his shots. I monitored the laptop running alongside him. Only had a couple of hickups. One being battery power for the laptop (we had two batteries, however we were only able to charge them on the recording laptop). The other hickup was with a loose connection on an RCA cable that lost us 30mins in troubleshooting. Besides that, everything went great! Kept with the natural flourescent lighting, having a few bulbs off to create pools of light and accented it with our kit of 3 1k LED lights (www.flolight.com). Fantastic because each 1k only draws 100W of power. Power outlets were scarce, so we actually had batteries charging, and 3 lights all running off the same circuit, no problem :)
Shout out to production photographer Sam Grant for his stills. Thanks to Aalis @ Tiger Direct for his magical rush orders on components and laptop.... and Special thanks to Ari and Steve at Silicon Imaging for the ongoing support and skyping to make this shoot a success!

Justin

Camera: SI2k Mini - Toshiba m750 12" tablet laptop - Switar 10mm, 25mm, Angenieux 5.9mm, Schneider Xenon 50mm, MYVU Shades 301 (w/ VGA>RCA adapter)
Format: 1920x1080 HD
Stock: QT Cineform RAW to internal 120gb Solid State HD
Cinematographer: Justin Lovell

Super 8 Transfer Samples- "Sheila's Day Off"

Super 8/RED Short "Sheila's Day Off".

A great little short film shot on both RED camera and super 8. Seasoned actress' Heidi Tan and Amanda Lewis co-produced this project-- Amanda Lewis' directorial debut. Taking a challenging approach Richard Fiander shot all the super 8 on ektachrome 64t. A tough stock to use for interiors because of its slow speed. Most people would choose to shoot this with the negative 200/500 ASA film stocks for the extra latitude and speed. Richard ended up pushing the processing in certain shots to be able to maintain exposure. Good on 'ya for taking a less conventional approach!

Camera: Rollei SL85 & RED
Format: Super 8mm
Stock: Ektachrome 64t
Cinematographer: Richard Fiander

On Location- Swagger of a Rockstar

Music Video collaboration with Director Jason Gosbee & RED Camera Package from Toronto local Ben Goldstein (redshorts@rocketmail.com).
Shot most of this in 4k, except for the sections we wanted at higher frame rates. Having to keep in mind that when you shoot at 3k or 2k you are cropping in on the sensor and losing some of your field of view. Lots of help from 1st AC Mike Dawson made the day fly by smoothly. Another tip of advice, when exposing for darker skinned people your green screen ratios may have to be adjusted. I was often opening up nearly 2 stops from incident readings to get a healthy exposure on the darker skin tones. A little extra fill light also helped to maintain detail. I'll post the video once it is released!

Video: Quinn-Maybach - Swagger of a Rockstar
Camera: RED 4k, nikon primes
Director: Jason Gosbee
Cinematographer: Justin Lovell

On location- Greenhouse

Greenhouse - an inspirational short film that looks at greening Toronto's social housing community. from SHSC GLOBE on Vimeo. (sorry, squeezed 4:3 ratio)

On location shooting with Director Christy Garland and Producer Kathleen Smith (not in photo). Thankfully I had some of our cinematographer collective helping out with lighting - Barry Cheong and Misha Petrenko. Was a great time working with the crew over the 7 day shoot. Made great use of Barry's Kino-Flo package and my EZFX Jib arm for some cinematic intro shots around Toronto.

super 8 transfer stills

More recent transfer samples from filmmakers Deniz Berkin (ektachrome 64t and frame discreet frequenter David Mason (200t negative).
All super 8 transfers to 720 x 486 8 bit uncompressed blackmagic codec.

Thanks for getting us involved in your projects!

Frame Discreet on Location in Guyana

I'm working on a fantastic documentary in Guyana right now with Christy Garland and Kathleen Smith. We are travelling through the Interior and Georgetown following the life of the songbirds used in songbird racing/fighting. It's an interesting project where you'll find a mix of macho men carrying around tiny cages competing their birds against eachother in 'singing battles'. Lots of money is on the line in these races leaving many locals quite happy, or quite angry. So far I've been able to visit some beautiful villages in the interior and met some incredible people. I'm here till the 29th of January and look forward to every minute of it. Frame Discreet's transfer studio is still open working away (seceretly finalizing some HD/2k scan testing in talks with Silicon Imaging, Iridas and Digital Vision for a RAW DI workflow.. shhh)...

Super 8 Transfer - CERVELO AD

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An homage to a movie named, "La Course en Tete" a documentary about the Belgian cyclist Eddy Merckx mace in 1974, this spot was shot in the town of Altdorf for the Tour de Suisse Time trial to Klausenpass. The race is each cyclist against the clock, it takes approx. an hour and is 25 km long from 400m above sea level to 1948m above sea level. 25km an hour average speed, I can barely do that on my bike in Toronto, let alone these guys going up hill the entire way. Driving down from the mountain after the race seemed to take longer than these cyclist take to go up.

The de-saturated and grainy look is a reference to the original 1974 documentary. Hairs in the gate, dirt, scratches were all kept in as this was the goal. A great example of a look that can not be faked any other way. Best way is by shooting the original 8mm format.

-"Guy Godfree" Frame Discreet Cinematographer

Camera: Super 8 Beaulieu 4008 ZMII

Stock: 7217 (200t), 64T

Cinematographer: Guy Godfree

Music Video- Sloan

Recent music video for Sloan shot by frame discreet cinematographer Michael Leblanc. Originally shot in colour neg, then crunched down and stripped to black and white for a grittier more contrasty feel.


Cinematographer: Michael Leblanc
Format: Super 8
Stock: Super 8, 500t 7218
Camera: 1014xls, C8 wide adapter
Transfer: Frame Discreet
Processing: Niagara Custom Lab

Transfer Samples -Super 8

A few more sample frames from Jeff Moneo's recent transfer with us. Super 8 200T and 500T (7217/7218). Get your exposure right, and it can look saaah-weeeet!

Transfer Samples - Super 8

Some recent footage shot by Jeffrey Moneo for Cherry Blossom Season. Mix of Super 8 200T and 500T. Especially impressed by the resolution on the last image. Click to enlarge. Some really slick footage...

2006 Cinematographer Demo Reel

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My demo reel from 2006. Stumbled across it in my archives, figured I'd share it with you guys. All film originated. Mix of super 8 and 16mm.

Cinematographer: Justin Lovell
Format: Super 8, 16mm

Transfer Samples -Super 8

Super 8 sample transfers for recent clients (in order- 2x 64T reversal, 2x 200T 7217 neg, 2x 500T 7218 neg). Just giving you more of an idea of what is possible with super 8, and the different looks that the stocks can provide. Thanks for choosing us!

Emily Haines "Our Hell"

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Video shot by our super talented cinematographer Mike Leblanc. Shot with a military issue infra-red camera. Nominated for the UK Music Video Award. Currently up for best music video in Poland's CAMERIMAGE. Recent award winners include Sven Nykvist, Vilmos Zigmond, Owen Roizmen, etc. He has also been requested to speak on a panel about his work as a cinematographer. Pumped for Leblanc and his recognition by this esteemed festival.

super 8 transfer comparison

A client bring us footage to have re-transferred after having it done at a different transfer house. The image looks muddy and flat, like a VHS dub. The problem was the equipment that the other transfer house was using. Take a look at the detail in the watch and the overall color rendition in our transfer on the right. (click to enlarge)

We take pride in the custom work we do here. If you think you're getting a wicked deal somewhere else, it may be too good to be true. Do your research, as we have!

super 8 transfer stills

Some stills from a recent transfer for Homegrown skateboards. Wicked group of guys producing their own custom skates and videos out of Nova Scotia.

Stock: 7218 500T + 64t Cross-processed
Format: Super 8mm
Processing: Niagara Custom Lab
Transfer: 8 bit upcompresed QT files

Super 16 - Gadfly Trailer

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Trailer for "Unbearable Prospect".

A super talented group of dancers from Gadfly Dance Company Toronto. Shot their performance on Super 16. Edited by Ofilio Coto Portillo. Features Jesse 'Jester' Caitbog from So You Think You Can Dance Canada. Watch out for them...

Camera: Eclair NPR s16mm
Format: S16mm
Stock: Fuji Eterna 500T (expired stock)
Cinematographers: Justin Lovell

Super 8 -64T cross processed

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Behind the scenes on the short film Becoming.  Kindly cross-processed at Niagara Custom lab.  Knew there was going to be a lot of greens and yellows in the image and was dying for a chance to see those colours pop from the cross-processing.  Adds more texture and grain to the image as well.  Added a soft glow to the highlights/shadows in the transfer. Could be a cool look for your next project...

Camera: Canon 1014xls (max 8)
Stock: Ektachrome 64T
Processing: Niagara Custom Lab
Transfer: Frame Discreet - colourist Justin Lovell
Cinematographer: Justin Lovell

Transfer stills- Super 16

Recent short film titled "Spores". Directed by Peter Huang. Dark and bloody. Has a great look to it created by frame discreet cinematographer Barry Cheong. Peter came and hung out here supervising the transfer and the look of the images. Note to all camera assistants- be sure the lens/lens mount is seated correctly. The slightest fraction of a loose mount can throw the focus out completely.

Camera: Eclair NPR, Zeiss 11.5-115
Stock: Kodak 7219 500t
Cinematographer: Barry Cheong

Transfer stills- Super 16

Overcast rainy day held back a lot of the bboys from showin' up. Between the rain, these raw dancers were throwin down representing Toronto to the fullest. I love the tonal range that this stock has on skin tones, super sexy when exposed correctly. Did I mention you can get 1000' of this stock for under $200 direct from Kodak...?

Cinematographer: Justin Lovell
Stock: 3374 High con (processed as neg)
Camera: Eclair NPR, canon 25-100, Kinoptik 5.7

Transfer stills- Super 16

Dean and Lena Vargas' wedding day. Super couple, super day. Colored to have a vintage 16mm look.

Camera: Eclair NPR S16, Ziess 10.5-115, Canon 25-100, Kinoptik 5.7
Stock: Fuji 500D
Cinematographer: Justin Lovell

Transfer stills- Super 16 music video

Transfer Samples from a recent music video shot by frame discreet cinematographer Michael Leblanc.

On Location- RED one BRAVO! short "Becoming"

7 days of putting the RED one to a real field test. Some great features on this camera including 'false color' which maps out the your IRE values (clipping/shadows/midtones) on the screen in a color scheme. Anything overexposed/clipping goes RED, Midtones are shades of yellow and underexposure is shades of blue. Fantastic tool.

We recorded 4k images to a Compact Flash (CF) card at times to save weight on our 10' EZFX jib arm.

90% of the footage was a beautifully choreographed dance between the actress, the dolly, the jib and the remote head's movement. Required 3 operators working together in harmony to pull it together. Keep your eyes out for this short... the visuals are stunning...

Visual effects by internationally renound Carlos Lascano.

Production Company: Wandering Eye Productions
Camera: RED ONE 4k, PL Mount, Zeiss Primes
Cinematographer: Guy Godfree

On Location- METRIC - Documentary

Got pulled on board with talented Toronto cinematographer John Price to work on a music series to be aired on IFC. We shot the recording of the new Acustic Album that Jimmy Shaw and Emily Haines are working on. Sounded amazing and looked beautiful. Lit with 100W diffused practical lights with no fill. Director Bruce MacDonald had us shooting some very powerful tight shots of couple as they subtly interacted during their recordings. Going to be an awesome album. I remember Jimmy stating something about how if people can't listen to their music around a campfire then really what good are they...?

Camera: (3) HVX-200 720p,
Cinematographer: John Price, (B cam) Justin Lovell

On Location- NYC, Sonya Kitchell Music Video

Frame Discreet cinematographers Guy Godfree and Justin Lovell got out for an awesome time out with the CHOP WOOD CARRY WATER crew in NYC. Shooting Sonya Kitchell in "here to there", fresh off her European tour with Herbie Hancock. 2 days of shooting, 3 days of prep and scouting. RedRock adapter can produce some great results, however I wasn't totally impressed by it. Seemed to have a lack of sharpness at the edges of frame, and knocks the light level down to an equivalent of 80ASA. Made use of our newest tool, the LED 1000 from Flolight. Was a real asset. 1000W output, 100w power draw. Excellent for car interiors.

Production Company: Chop Wood Carry Water
Camera: HVX-200 720p, RedRock Micro Adapter, Nikon Primes
Cinematographer: Guy Godfree

Parkscapers- short version (5min)

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Short Edit Version

Sept 1 2008

Transfer: Frame Discreet / Notch

Camera: Eclair NPR s16mm , Bolex rex-4 S16mm, Konvas 35mm"
Format: S16mm/35mm
Stock: Kodak Vision 1 250D, Vision 1 200T, Vision 2 500T
Cinematographers: Justin Lovell / Guy Godfree

Parkscapers End Credits

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End credits

Sept 1 2008

Transfer: Frame Discreet / Notch

Camera: Eclair NPR s16mm , Bolex rex-4 S16mm, Konvas 35mm"
Format: S16mm/35mm
Stock: Kodak Vision 1 250D, Vision 1 200T, Vision 2 500T
Cinematographers: Justin Lovell / Guy Godfree

TRANSFER- 16mm 50D, Curtis Bouvier

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Recent transfer for Curtis Bouvier.  He was doing some tests with gun shots and compositing.  Gun was firing high powered gas blow backs and the muzzle flashes were added in post.  Great results! 

Camera: Krasnogorsk "K3"
Format: 16mm
Stock: Kodak 50D
Cinematographer: Curtis Bouvier

On Location- DIRTSURFER Colorado

Just got back from Colorado @ Snowmass Resort. Working on a documentary 'unveiling' film for DIRTSURFER. Was shooting the pro team in Colorado at the US OPEN of Mountainboarding. Competitive boardercross and freestyle/big air. Awesome shoot, always stoked to get offered these opportunities. Met up with the boys from one5media who shot 'the shralpdown' another awesome production company working with Mountainboarders. Shot a ton of high speed super 16 on the riders ripping it around the hills. Going to make for some slick footage to really help promote the emerging sport. Will try and post some samples for you guys!

Stock: 7246 Kodak 250D
Format: Super 16mm
Camera: Bolex Super 16 (POE 16-100 zoom, 5.9mm Angenieux)
Cinematographer: Justin Lovell

On Location- Mimmo+Naz Interview

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Interview shoot for Mimmo and Naz photo+video. Naz found this brilliant location and we just had to make use of it. Climbed over a stagnant river of sludge and crawled through a tiny busted in door to find this amazing warehouse space. As you can see, the photos couldn't handle the contrast ratio of the bright windows, nor could the DVX-100 that we shot the interview with. I look forward to seeing how the 250D super 16 footage will be able to handle the extreme contrast ratio. I travel off to Winnipeg for 3 days in August to follow up on the interview and shoot some more super 16/super 8.

*UPDATE* Stills from the Transfer

Stock: 7246 Kodak 250D
Format: Super 16mm, Mini-DV
Camera: DVX-100A, Bolex Super 16 (POE 16-100 zoom, 5.9mm Angenieux)
Cinematographer: Justin Lovell

*UPDATE*

Flew out to Winnipeg to shoot their ceremony. Happy to say we hired a cinematographer who we'd been doing transfers for to operate our Super 8 2nd camera. Thanks Mike Maryniuk from the Winnipeg Film Group! View video here: Christine + Mark.