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Car Chase video I shot with Hacked GH2 - GH1 and Red One MX
  • n5pn5p

    Hey guys and girls,

    I bought a BT Red One MX and shot this TV show trailer which got sponsored after by Toyota/Scion.

    We used hacked GH2 and GH1 cameras through out, see if you can tell where - although I'm sure you'll be able to pick out the obvious ones. 3 person crew mostly, mad low budget and a lot of time and care went into it.

    Which music works best with the trailer... version 1 or 2?

    We are trying to get as many YouTube hits as possible before approaching a few networks and FX Canada,

    Thanks!

  • 19 Replies sorted by
  • matt_gh2matt_gh2

    @n5p Damn....very cool. Like the title Petrol too. I'd say go with first version. Best of luck. Let us know when we can watch the series on TV! Really really well done!

  • HallvallaHallvalla

    Liked #1 - felt like it matched up a little better for the genre.

    Looks really good. How much did you get your BT R1 for?

  • n5pn5p

    Hey thanks matt_gh2 - I like version 1 the best too, I like the piano vibe.

    Man, if you saw the car mount I built to get those pavement rushing by shots... lol you'd laugh. All I can say is home depot and PVC piping are my best friends.

  • kingmixerkingmixer

    Congrats! And this turned out awesome. Another vote for #1

  • n5pn5p

    Thanks Hallvalla,

    I like # 1 as well. My BT R1 I got fairly early, like right around the same month they became available, I got it off a company called art beats in Seattle, for $7000 or $7500 all in. It was pretty much a full package with ssd drive except for the batteries and charger. It was really low hours under 300 I think and has so far been great, but.... I need to buy ssd cards.... a must for this type of work. I had a lot skips on the drive with burnouts and handheld stuff.

  • cjdincercjdincer

    @n5p 1st is too hard. 2nd is too soft. I'd say it needs something in between. Everything is very nice. good luck with the series.

  • rockroadpixrockroadpix

    Nice job, I liked 1 better as it had a bit of a foreboding feel. The 2nd is a little too upbeat/uplifting. Both are decent tracks.

  • bumsklumpenbumsklumpen

    Awesome! can't wait to see more :)

  • n5pn5p

    Thanks all, appreciate the feedback seems like an equal divide between both versions with maybe a slight edge to version 1 but still pretty even.

    Had to scratch a pany 14mm lens when doing the wide shots near the ground but oh well...

  • TheNewDealTheNewDeal

    1. The piano build builds the suspense and keeps it moving forward. Very Fincher cinema style. You do need to clean up the dialog a bunch. It's all over and really distracting. Different EQ, dynamics, and verb tails on every line. Sounds like a FCP temp mix. :)

    "Audio is 50% of the experience."

  • tinbeotinbeo

    @n5p GH1 for out side shots, Gh2 for inside? I wonder why did you have to combine 3 cameras of shooting?

  • n5pn5p

    Most of the VO one liners were in a sound studio.. but yeah the location sound... especially the reverb on one needed some decent work... but time time time.

    tinbeo.... we shot most of the outside and inside on Red One MX cameras - two of them actually. Why we needed the gh2 and gh1 were for more angles of the chase... and to mount cameras onto the bottom of the camera cars, fronts bumpers, rear bumpers, etc. Also we used the pannys on jib shots since the Red One with full gear is so damn heavy... like really, really heavy. But we got really cool chase shots of the ferrari and Audi S5 that are not in the video... basically the small cameras were sorta like crash cams except that I would have been pissed and sad if any of them were actually destroyed... ha.

  • mpgxsvcdmpgxsvcd

    Cool Stuff!

  • HillTop1HillTop1

    @n5p, good stuff, good luck with it. Can you talk more about your home made car rig, cost, some pictures and how well it worked, all that good stuff. Also with the GH1 and GH2 mounted on it did you experience any "jello" image with it and how stable were the car rig shots?

  • n5pn5p

    Hi HillTop1

    Sure I can give you some info if you go to the petroltheseries.com site you will see some BTS photos as well. Especially how ghetto some of the rigs were even for the R1. I never cared about rigs actually and even using matte boxes and all that stuff - so I just try to simply, simply, simplify.

    I have seen a lot of car rigs but the time and prep it takes for some of them are just too much to deal with on the kind of production we tackling.

    LIke for example I wanted to be able to pan around 180 degrees and so we had a convertible... but the trunk area makes it really hard to mount anything, so I got 4 dual suction cup mounts, we made a board and mounted the tripod head onto the board instead and it worked.

    For the GH1 and GH2 I knew I wanted the camera as close to the ground as possible, with a wide angle lens. The wide angle helps you the most in terms of jello effect, and since we are following or being chased by a vehicle it's not the same as panning the camera as a vehicle flies by.

    Basically I built a L shaped pipe out of PVC and bolted that shit were the licence plate would go. I measured it so the GH2 was about an inch off the ground. Had I used a lens wider than 14mm it would have probably worked even better, but in any case the shot came out exactly how I wanted it... for example you can see it used on the bridge as we fly over the steel grating/road.

  • n5pn5p

    I forgot to mention you can for example see when the girl is running on the street... the low angle tracking shot with the GH1 or 2 (can't remember which) has considerable jello... look at the construction pylon thingys.

    Also if for those who may be curious.... the shot at night with the Japanese guy walking with the Speed Freaks shirt is all GH2. After the flag shot... the shots of the drivers getting ready to race is gh2... the jib down before the girl says "fear..." is GH2.

    Chasing the Ferrari low angle is GH2, as are the bridge shots with the BMW 635 and Audi S5.

  • RatLabProductionsRatLabProductions

    @n5p

    It was nice to recognise some local spots being a Toronto guy myself.

    Where are you looking to shop it around to? I'll send you a PM

  • blackseedzblackseedz

    hot video

  • n5pn5p

    Thanks blackseedz - thinking about turning that mofo into a feature... TV seems like a brick wall with no one wanting to take chances not in Canada anyway.

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