[Konvas] Crank: High Voltage (off topic)

[Adam Frey]

This is completely off topic, but I thought it would be something to 
discuss...

Last night, I saw "Crank: High Voltage" - Jason Latham's latest film 
(I'm not going to say whether it was a good film or a bad film, since 
that's completely in the eye of the beholder). But apparently this film 
was shot with a Canon XHA1 and also an HF10, since the film's budget was 
only $20,000,000. Both are fairly cheap HDV cameras (especially when 
compared to an ARRI d20 or even the RED), to say the least. The "look" 
looks like cheap video throughout the film.

BUT, what I did not see (and believe me, I was looking for it) in this 
film was video compression and/or artifacts. Many Interiors, but many 
more Exterior shots, so they didn't "play it safe" with the HDV cameras.

This film was jerky and the camera moved around a lot, and yet I never 
noticed any tearing on the side to side up and down camera movements. I 
guess it could have been that it was shot while hooked up to some long 
cables allowing uncompressed video out... Certainly does not look like 
regularly taped HDV.

I'm not sure about their lighting setups - they may have been lighting 
their exteriors, but I'll be honest and say that I wasn't paying as much 
attention to lighting. But I did notice that they did a LOT of color 
correction. Skins were extremely gold and such.

Also, there never appeared to be any DOF adapters on the camera(s).

All in all, those interested should go see this film just to get an idea 
of what HDV cameras looks like on the big screen. Be warned though - 
there is a LOT of gratuitous violence, cursing, and nudity.

Has anyone else seen this film yet?


Cheers,

Adam Frey
Director/Cinematographer
Crimson Chain Productions
http://crimsonchain.com

Crimson Chain Productions
PO Box 35
Libertytown, MD 21771