Once

[Bren Murphy]

Anyone know what Once was shot on? Was it half Mini DV and half HD I saw it today and noticed something funny, there is a shot of Glen at his desk halfway through the film and on the desk there is what seems to be a packet of Maxwell HD tapes. Which is when the film's detail suddenly improves and the rest of it looks like HD (with the exception of some scenes) when before it looked like Mini DV. So coincidental goof or subtle celebration of a slightly increased budget?

not hd. shot on the z1, im not sure if they recorded in hdv or mini dv format but Tim, the movies Dp has just joined up on the network so if you wait long enough im sure he'll post a response.

[Jason Butler]

Think John Leahy said at the workshop last week that they shot on DVCAM which is basically the same as regular standard definition DV.

What did you think of the look of the film overall?

[Bren Murphy]

better watch what I say now that Tim is about, but I like when I see a film like this, it gives me hope that such a low budget film can get so much recognition, despite obvious sound and lighting problems, some scenes really make use of the DV format, I always find something beautiful about splashes of colour on dark scenes when shot on DV, the scenes inside the girl's flat are pretty dark and grainy and unpleasant but maybe thats the point.

[Devin]

Tim's here? How cool! Hiya Tim, how's it going?

[oiseog]

Hi guys, Tim here. Yes the film was shot on the two Z1's shooting HDV. Where to begin!!! This was my first time to work on this format and to work with John. The Budget was the then micro budget from the film board 100,00 euro. John particularily wanted to shoot on a budget of this size to maintain creative control.
The brief to me was, show up every day with no plans and lets see where we get to. This was challengeing for me because as you all know us cinematographer types like to know what awaits us and to be prepared for what might be needed in responce. As it transpired it was a positive experience and responding on the fly was a big learning curve.
The Z1 initially was a nightmare. No real ability to pull focus in the normal dramatic way, and hand held left us with strobing,gut renching for me as in honesty I felt the format just had to many inherent flaws at this stage.We then decided to use monopods, allowing us the same fluid and flexible shooting style with a little more stability.
The scene referred to with Glen wasn't shot by me, a pick up scene for which I wasn't available. I can only presume the cameraman didn't get to see the film before shooting as the lighting and style of the scene bears no resemblence to the rest of the film.
The progression to more solid and stable shooting comes from, monopods!, but should relate to the confidence arc of Guy's charachter more than anything else.
We had a tiny light package, 2 x pocket pars on battery, 1 x 575w HMI, 1 X 4bank 2ft kinoflo, and my usual package of diffusion, green and yellow gels. I have been surprised this format has held up so well, I used notions of silhouette and foreground and background single sources to place action in and went with trusting my instincts relative to the package.
Anyway hope this is of some use. T

[Dan]

Bravo, i saw the flick last week and though it was a beautiful stroy well told.

Its so heartwarming to see such great results from a format that has got its fair share of badmouthing, I think the HDV format is great, just needs to be handled right, your work on this film is living proof to those critics that say, if you want to shoot digital, shoot HDCam. Well done.

Just a question, do you know how the editing was handled?

[oiseog]

Hi Dan, Glad you enjoyed the movie and felt it reflected positively on hdv. Just not exactly sure about editing, the post was at Screenscene and I recall talk about mac based software,I presume final cut. but I will find out more and get back to you.T

[Sean Wallace]

Oh Oh now I've gone and done it , Dan'll want to start shooting the Feature next week if you tell him too much Tim !

Ahh there's hope for me yet ,

I'll have to go and see "Once" this week , Dan's been bothering me raving about it for the last couple of weeks and since I told him it was shot on Z1's today , he's stoked .

There's another thread in here discussing the recent Film Ireland article " is low budget film killing the Irish Film Industry " and I think that if this film "Once " is as good as I'm told , it fair answers the question. I think we should be thinking on the Pyramid model

If for every 100 low budget films 1 full budget got made then we'd be doing well, in my opinion anyway

Originally Posted by Dan

I think the HDV format is great, just needs to be handled right, your work on this film is living proof to those critics that say, if you want to shoot digital, shoot HDCam.

Tim,
see what you've started

[oiseog]

I don't really want to get into an analysis of formats or suggesting one is better than another etc, what I do know is that when I first started in filmmaking, we shot super 8 or if we could afford it vhs. The fundamentals are the same, script, motivation and appropriate responces from each department relative to your means. In relation to the article in Film Ireland, unfortunately I haven't read it yet but did read some of the thread on here. Again let me focus peoples minds on this. 15 years ago the common held view among filmmaking profesionals was, if you dont have enough money to make a film in the tradition of maintaining standards, incomes and pushing the industry/art further, then dont make it. over these years there have been many initiatives from within that tradition to assist filmmaking on lower budgets etc. However the explosion that is accessible technology, allowing us all to make valid movies with a camcorder and a laptop can be seen as a threat to the industry that gives us a good livlihood some years. In reality this is a period of flux and ultimately to stay filmmaking we will all need to make a living recognising our right and need to work for fair and adequate reward in a safe environment with reasonable conditions. I suspect that Brian is watching a situation where the norm has changed from productions that had to recognise these tenets to a norm where it seems everyone wants a dig out and people hungry for credits and experience are willing to work for free or very little in roles they dont really understand, this leads eventually to a disolution of the tradition and stadards.So those of you in your teens and twenties who work at other things to stay making films recognise the eventual outcome of your approach, do consider the craft route where you can work and train within the tradition being paid to eventually heading up a department, still making films of your own in your down time. And whatever anyone thinks of Once remember apart from the two lead actors,though performers, all other roles were taken by people who have a lot of experience behind them and who have worked on productions and sets for many years, despite this being a " lo tech" approach compared to what most were used to. Again when I first spoke with John about coming on board the micro budget was a choice to allow him creative control. Anyway Sean and Steve I do rattle on, I hope there is some modicum of sense or truth or food for thought here though. T

Far more eloquent then i could ever have put it.