Browsing Category Lenses on m4/3

Reviews and tests with a number of legacy lenses as well as current lenses for the micro four thirds system.

Nothing is Right – Wayne Hsu

It is always an honor to work with Wayne Hsu. He is an amazing artist and is not only a gifted singer songwriter but also has an excellent ear as a studio engineer. The three of us won a trailer contest for the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival with Wayne scoring the music for our little 60 second animated film.

Last March, I gave a call to Wayne Hsu late one evening and said, “Hey, do you want to shoot a Music Video tonight?” Hey said, “Yeah, sure. You want to do it now?”

It was already 10pm at night and I said, “No, I’m thinking at about 1am in Chinatown in front of the arch.” It was a very chilly night but he enthusiastically agreed since it was just around the corner from where he lived. I was itching to do a few tests with some c-mount lenses a newer industrial lens, a Computar 25mm f/1.3 and an older Kodak Cine Ektar 25mm f/1.4. I wanted to compare these lenses and see how well they work with just street lights and the light of the traffic driving by at night.

The concept was simple. I had Wayne sit on top of my Subaru Forester and we parked far enough so that he would be elevated above the traffic and we could see the Chinatown Arch in the distance. One of the challenges is that in order to shoot him I needed a rig that I could hold steadily on the back bumber of the car. A tripod would not do since the bumber was about six inches wide. To make this work I used the indiSYSTEM indiRAILSpro MP which is part monopod, part camera rig, and part follow focus. It fit very nicely with me standing on the back bumper of the car.

Rather than do a MV where we were syncing to the studio recording of the song I wanted to keep the real elements alive on the streets of Chinatown and just show the beauty and simplicity of his playing. I wanted Wayne Hsu to play live acoustic. Wayne is so good playing live. And in the “LIVE” I wanted to keep the environment a part of the piece so whatever happens in the moment happens. If we have a truck barreling down the road or loud late night pedestrian traffic so be it.

The results were very beautiful. This year the Chinatown Arch dawned new lights .So from the distance as Wayne played, the Arch was brilliantly lit as a a backdrop to his playing. Both c-mount lenses really gave this piece character. The Cine Ektar 25mm was a touch sharper and had this unusual crescent shaped lens flare from the street lamp right above. The Computar 25mm lens being the faster lens was able to do very well in street lighting soft and low contrast working very well on the evening city streets. One stupid mistake I made was that I taped the lav to Wayne’s shirt and you could hear the rustle of the shirt brushing up against the mic. It’s less noticeable as the song progresses but it is very pronounced at the beginning of the song. Next time proper, lav clip or vampire clip is a must. Other than that issue, we are really happy by the way the footage turned out.

Please visit Wayne Hsu’s site. His new album will be coming out very soon:

waynehsu.com

Filming Details:

Panasonic GH1

Computar 25mm f/1.3 lens

indiSYSTEM SNAP! Gear

indiRAILSpro MP

Kodak Cine Ektar 25mm f/1.4

Sound Devices 552 Mixer/Recorder

Director: Gary San Angel

Assistant Director: Serena Perrone

Camera Operator: Rocky Kev

You Said – Wayne Hsu

This MV is the companion piece to Nothing is Right. This song is a nice little ballad and I pretty much kept it a simple two camera shoot capturing Wayne’s great singing and playing with the streets sounds all around.

When I asked Wayne to do an adhoc music video at 1am in the morning in the middle of March I didn’t think he would say yes at first but I’m really glad he did. What we attempted to do was a live street recording with two contrasting pieces. “Nothing is Right” being more upbeat would be the more polished MV. The limited b-roll I had by went to “Nothing is Right”. So “You Said” became really a documentation of a live street performance. For both of these two songs I really wanted to stay away form the polish of the studio recorded version. I just wanted to show some of the rough edges. Some of which was unfortunately a little more rough in the audio. My Sanken COS-11x which I had taped to Wayne’s shirt was not a good idea and we encountered a lot of handling noise. That’s one of the elements that I’ll learn from for the next time around.

I stuck with c-mount lenses on this shoot to experiment and see the kind of character they give to the natural street light. I’d say the Computar 25mm f/1.3 is a lens that really lends itself to the nightlife and low light street scenes. The Kodak Ektar 25mm f/1.4 also has that retro character with nice contrast and sharpness and interesting lens flares which we decided to just keep and use because it was halo-like and had a cool effect. Because most of the shots were static we only used the SNAP! Gear for b-roll and the opening shot. But it’s been really great to be able to pull focus with such small lenses using this gear. The SNAP! Gear and SNAP! Collar help in that regard giving the possibility of pulling focus on c-mount lenses. The combo of c-mount and SNAP! Gear is really so amazingly light weight it’s a blast to shoot with.

Please visit Wayne Hsu’s site. His new album will be coming out very soon:

Director: Gary San Angel

Assistant Director: Serena Perrone

Camera Operator: Rocky Kev

Filming Details:

Panasonic GH1

Computar 25mm f/1.3 lens

indiSYSTEM SNAP! Gear

indiRAILSpro MP

Panasonic GH1

Kodak Cine Ektar 25mm f/1.4

Sound Devices 552 Mixer/Recorder

Sanken COS-11x

3 for Pink Martini

A few months ago my sister called me pretty excited and said, “Check out Pink Martini’s website. They are having a music video competition!”
Are you serious?” I said calmly. Though I have to admit inside I was pretty excited.

Pink Martini is a 12-member “little orchestra” based in Portland, Oregon whose work I’ve been following since they first began in the mid 90s. I first listened to their music on KCRW in Santa Monica, CA while I was driving in traffic as is often the case in L.A. and then later saw them live in small venues in New York when I moved to the East Coast. I have seen them a number of times live and each time has always been unique and amazing. Their albums are always on my iTunes playlist for the days when you need that extra pick me up. Over the years I have been so impressed with their ability to deepen their craft and to explore their own special mark that has made them who they are. They are a group that is classical and contemporary, cinematic and very intimate, historical and experimental, and one of the few groups that cross cultures and language in a manner that honors and celebrates the world we live in.

Their music has always been a huge inspiration to me and has been profoundly influential to my own connection to my own family. I can remember when my sister and I would play Pink Martini’s first album Sympathique for our Filipino family celebrations. We would often have impromptu dancing after our huge Filipino meal of pancit noodles and lumpia spring rolls.

My Uncle Buddy and Uncle Chic who were dance instructors in the Philippines would put on their best dressed dance shoes and suits. They looked like they were part of Frank Sinatra’s Rat Pack. Then they would request for a CD player and put in a really bad 80s Karaoke sounding ballroom dance CD. Both my sister and I hated when they played that CD. They would play it for Thanksgiving and then for X-mas and all our family gatherings. This one time my sister ejected the 80s ballroom dance CD and put in Pink Martini’s Sympathique. She rolled Track 1 Amado Mio. The catchy dreamy Latin beat started to play and China Forbes and her beautiful voice pierced the din of the party conversations and within minutes our whole clan literally jumped out of their seat and started dancing.

“Who is this CD?,” my Uncle Buddy would say in a thick Filipino accent still dancing, “Pink Martini? Who is this Pink Martini? I like this Pink Martini! Play that fast one again. I like that one!” And he would swing my Aunty around and show off his cha cha and tango steps and everyone would hold their plate full of pancit noodles and laugh.

Pink Martini closed the gap connecting our generations and brought our family closer. That is their music to me it is a celebration of life and a reminder that we are all connected in some small way to each other.

3 for Pink Martini are 3 music videos in a short film style format created for the Pink Martini Music Video Contest that honor my personal connection to their music as it relates to family and community and the themes of love and loss.

Animation artist Rocky Kev from the KoAloha Ukulele Story teamed up with me once more to create something that is out of the box and very personal exploring our connections to Où Est Ma Tête?, Ohayoo Ohio (Hello Ohio), and Over the Valley from their new album Splendor in the Grass.

We did something unique with this process since we were able to present more than one music video. We each created a music video in our own disciplines on our own and then collaborated on one final music video together (Over the Valley). I hope the films can explore the multiple layers of Pink Martini in a manner that you have not seen before and hopefully captures the spirit of what Pink Martini’s musical message has always represented to me.

I’ll end with one final personal story related to why these music videos have special meaning to me. After Sympathique, the group did not put out another album for several years and I thought perhaps they disbanded. I was randomly searching for new music to catch at the new World Cafe Live! music venue in Philadelphia. World Cafe Live! was just finding it’s voice as a venue and at the time it was a strange cross between a House of Blues venue and a dinner theater. I saw Pink Martini was listed as performing for one night only. It would be their first and only show in Philadelphia. I went online and immediately purchased tickets thinking the show would be sold out but it surprisingly was not. The front row “dinner theater” style tables were totally open and available so I bought a whole table and called up my Philadelphia music loving friends and I said you have to see this group. Just like my Uncle, they had no idea who they were but went along for the ride just to humor me. At the beginning of the concert, I could hear the clatter of silverware on plates and I could tell looking at the bands reactions it was like, “Are we playing at a wedding?” But over the course of the evening, Pink Martini worked their magic and one by one people began to pop out of their chairs and started dancing. Old people. Young people. I never saw anything like it.

At the end of the show, I remember talking to an older couple who drove to every Pink Martini show on the east coast and they were on their way to catch the next show in D.C the next day. They were like teenagers again. I told my friend who sat next to me, “You know, this is really something. I mean look at all those young people and old people dancing to the same music. I’ve never been to a concert like this before. Somebody should do a film about this group and the people who follow their music.”

So he says, “You should do it! Ask them!” As we waited after the show outside the venue I tried to rehearse what I’d say in my head but after a few minutes I immediately got cold feet and walked away. In a very strange and special way, this music video contest has given me a chance to do something I’ve always wanted to do for a very long time and that is to create a film about a group that continues to inspire and bring people together across generations and across all boundaries.

To Thomas M Lauderdale, China Forbes, and the talented core artists of Pink Martini I raise a martini glass to you and say, “Salud!”

I hope these films are a small personal thank you for the music you’ve given me.
With every good wish,

Gary San Angel
Director

Pink Martini – Où Est Ma Tête? (Featuring Wherever There is Water Parade)

Wherever There Is Water Parade – Fleisher Art Memorial

Artist in Residence George Ferrandi led a beautiful community based art making project and parade involving stories, sculpture, paper mache, and LED lights at the Fleisher Art Memorial in South Philadelphia. Inspired by Catholic Saint processions, “Wherever There Is Water” was a unique community parade led by Huberta one of the main characters of the story and surrounded with her are a sea of paper mache LED lanterns and animals. I got to to the event as the parade was returning back to Fleisher but I was still able to capture part of the celebratory atmosphere and community spirit of the event.

I’m still doing some more testing with c-mount lenses on the GH1 using indiSYSTEM’s SNAP! Gear and Collar this time with a Computar 25mm f/1.3 lens. This is a fairly fast lens and a very small lens. Because this was a night time shoot I thought this lens would be good to bring out of the bag. I also wanted to add something interesting to the mix on this shoot by adding a Raynox HD-5050PRO-LE .5x wide angle converter to the Computar 25mm lens which would make the focal length of the Computar 25mm lens a 12.5mm lens with the addition of the .5x Raynox converter. Now in order to know what focal length that would be equivalent to on a Full Frame camera we would multiply 12.5mm by 2x and we would have an equivalent field of view of a 25mm lens.

A few folks have been exploring wide angle converters simply because one of the challenges with this format is finding a good fast wide angle lens. I looked around and saw the Raynox wide angle converter which interested me because of its low image distortion as well as being very small and light weight. And with the rear thread size of the Raynox being only 37mm, I could easily attach it to the front of many of my c-mount lenses including my fast Computar 25mm f/1.3 lens. Using a 40.5mm to 37mm step down ring, I was able to attach the HD-5050PRO-LE to the front of my Computar 25mm lens with the combined weight of the lens and adapter being less than my Canon FD 50mm lens.

The Computar 25mm f/1.3 is an industrial lens that is rather fast and is one of the few c-mount 25mm lenses that I’ve tested that almost fills the image sensor of the GH1. Many m4/3 still photography users have picked up this lens and have had really good results but I wanted to use it in a film context and see how well it does in an evening shoot and I thought the “Wherever There is Water” Parade would be perfect to test and see how all these combination works together.

I was really astonished by how well the Raynox wide angle converter worked with the Computar 25mm c-mount lens. There was really minimal distortion and light lose and compared to other wide angle adapters that I have tried before including a Century wide angle adapter, the 5050PRO-LE can really trick your eye to think that you are shooting without a converter. Upon close inspection, I can see the light fall off and softer focus around the edges but it is much less pronounced than what I’ve used with other wide angle adapters and this is really quite exciting to see. I’d like to shoot with this same setup in the day just to see how well the Raynox adapter works with the Computar lens. One down side is that the wide angle lens does flare a lot and you can see that in the test footage where the street lamp light shines into the lens. It’s a cool effect but it is something to be aware about.

The indiSYSTEM SNAP! Gear and Collar worked quite nicely allowing me to pull focus much better than with my Ektar II 25mm lens that I had tested previously. There’s a shorter distance that you have to go from close focus to infinity and that gives you greater control. I am continually blown away by the ability to pull focus with small c-mounts lenses. There’s a freedom in a way that I find so much fun. Just a few years ago, I was shooting with my back breaking my HVX or EX1 rig with 35mm adapter. And this is night and day to be able to scale down your setup and achieve similar results.

Overall, this was a fun unexpected test to see some real nice results with this combination of fast prime c-mount lens, wide angle adapter, and follow focus system in an all in one run and gun setup.

Many thanks to George Ferrandi, Fleisher Art Memorial and the Philly community for sharing their beautiful creations. Hope this captures just a small taste of this wonderful community celebration.

Featuring music by PINK MARTINI – Ou Est Ma Tete? from their new album Splendor in the Grass. (My favorite band!)

For more information on the “Wherever There is Water” Parade please visit:

fleisher.org/exhibitions/water.php

If you liked the music please buy Pink Martini’s new album:

pinkmartini.com/

This was shot with the Panasonic GH1 1080/24P and a Computar 25mm f/1.3 c-mount lens with Raynox HD 5050PRO-LE Wide Angle Adapter.

The indiSYSTEM SNAP! Gear and Collar was also used to test pulling focus with this smaller c-mount lens.

Mosaic – Pennsylvania Station

I recently went up to New York City to meet a film collaborator friend of mine in Times Square. It was the first sign of spring after a series of blizzards in the Northeast that trapped everyone indoors all winter so I thought it would be a nice day and a perfect opportunity to test the SNAP! lens gear from iniSYSTEM. My goal was to try to be as low profile as possible and to carry light with only my bike messenger bag to hold my camera gear. I decided to take with me my GH1 and Schneider 1:2/18-90 C-Mount zoom lens and the indiRAILSpro MP with a 75mm SNAP! gear.

Most of my footage was just quick tests pulling focus with the gear and seeing how well you could rack focus. Overall I was really pleased with the performance of the SNAP! gear with the indiFOCUS20. With the right amount of squish in place between the lens and gears I was able to pull focus very solidly and with the MP and GH1 it looked like I was just shooting stills in Times Square.

When I got home I was initially just going to cut the footage as quick tests showing the smooth focus of this combo but when I looked at some of my opening shots I realized I starting filming at Pennsylvania Station and a light bulb went off in my head.

Whenever I think of Pennsylvania Station I think of Mosaic aka Glenn Suravech who is an amazing artist, producer based in Los Angeles. Mosaic released his ambitious debut album in 2007 entitled “Through the Eyes of A Woman” collaborating with independent artists and musicians from across the nation. One of my favorite tracks is his song Pennsylvania Station which my amazing sister Jenny San Angel who is also a singer/musician in her own right is also featured.

So I thought hmm..

Maybe I can use some of this test footage to make a music video for Pennsylvania Station.

Because I was literally just shooting what I saw that either grabbed me visually I was not focusing on any particular shots I was really just focusing on the SNAP! gears usability factor. I was not thinking end result at all so this really was kind of a challenging prospect.

But I decided to go for it and sat with the song for a while to listen to the lyrics and to find the heart and emotion of the song. For a few weeks I would play random images with the song in the background to see what relationships I could find to tie in the right image to the music. There was an Asian bike messenger who was sort of contemplative and calm among the fast flowing walking New Yorkers and tourists of Times Square. I sort of focused on him from far away and shot a quick sequence of him preparing to get on his bike and then riding off into the crowd. When I found that section and played it with the first verse of the song I knew that we could make something from what was meant to be just a simple test.

I tried a number of variations and combinations of footage literally squeezing every bit of good footage I had to make this work. The last scene of Times Square was shot with the very common peephole effect you get from using c-mount zoom lenses. From a technical aspect it’s generally frowned upon because you want to use a lens to cover the full frame of the sensor. In this case, I liked it and left the imperfections. I wanted to use what was a visual flaw and make it work. It still had the right feel and moment.

When I finished I sent it to my sister Jenny and to Glenn as a little surprise. I knew that if they liked it we could post it as a music video online and if they didn’t it would be just some nice test footage. When I got their e-mails that they loved it I was really floored simply because I never thought the outcome of the footage would be a music video for Pennsylvania Station.

In Glenn Suravech’s e-mail to me he shared a little bit about the background and meaning behind his creation:

“When I was putting this song together for Jenny back in 2006, I imagined her standing and walking amid a ocean of people (just as you depicted in this video). While most of your shots were overground in Times Square, the setting for Pennsylvania Station is underground in the subway stop located beneath Madison Square Garden. There is a huge lighted corridor there where people seem to walk expressionless past rows of store fronts. Your video captures all of that in the song except that it’s overground, outside.”

I’m proud to put together a visual interpretation that complements this beautiful song and to use Times Square as it’s backdrop. I went for simplicity and rawness allowing the imperfections to come through. The visual imperfections of me trying to focus from one scene to the next as well as the human ones, the images of real moments of people passing each other by, walking uptown alone, a city worker collecting garbage, a bike messenger on his way to his next destination or just friends and loved ones in a group going “uphill” though the “ocean of people”. These are moments that we don’t see because we are so busy going to our own destinations. In this piece, we can take a moment to see where they may be going and see our own connections to these random travelers.

Many, many thanks to Glenn Suravech and Jenny San Angel for allowing me to put this little piece together.

Pennsylvania Station

Written and Produced by: Mosaic

Lead vocal: Jenny San Angel

Lead guitar: Shin Kawasaki

Acoustic guitar, bass and keyboard: Mosaic

Drums: Harvi Kato

Special Thanks:

Gary San Angel– for your love, support and inspiration.

Tim Ovel, indiSYSTEM – www.indifocus.com

David Lin

www.glennsuravech.com

www.jennysanangel.com

www.componentgeek.com

Inside Lovely to Me

Taiyo Na in front of “Colors of Light” Chinatown Mural by Josh Sarantitis

To commemorate this Thanksgiving weekend. I thought it would be appropriate to send this beautiful music video out to the world called “Lovely to Me (Immigrant Mother)” by New York based artist Taiyo Na from his debut album Love is Growth. I completed the final cut of the music video version of the piece on Thanksgiving day and thought it would be nice to share my reflections and process as it relates to working with communities. I’ll also be sharing some of the technical aspects of the process and a few reviews of some Studio 4 Production and Wondlan gear that helped us greatly with the production of the piece. I thought I’d first start off by sharing some of my reflections on how this piece was created.

Loc Nguyen’s Mom and Brother at their home in Northeast Philadelphia

Last April of 2009 for the grand opening of the Asian Arts Initiative we had a number of amazing artists bless the new space with their artistry and community spirit. Taiyo Na was one of those amazing artists. When he got on stage with just his voice and guitar he moved me to tears with his song Lovely to Me (Immigrant Mother) from his debut album Love is Growth. For weeks after I had an idea of trying to do a community arts project that would combine both documentary and music video elements together with this beautiful song and to set it in Philadelphia’s Chinatown and Love Park.

Mary Seng & Barney Seng holding an old photo of their mom at Love Park

We were fortunate enough to have Taiyo perform again for the Asian Arts Initiative banquet and fundraiser later that month and I mustered up a bit of courage and asked Taiyo if he had anyone put visuals to this song. He tried but it didn’t pan out at the time so I talked to Taiyo about the possibility of creating something special and Philly based for this song and that it would be shot using the Panasonic GH1. I told Taiyo as soon as that little camera comes in we’ll shoot it. A few months passed as I waited ever so patiently for the GH1 to arrive. It wouldn’t come until mid summer so everything was on a holding pattern. As we waited, I was concurrently working on another project with David Lin, an artist and director friend of mine from Los Angeles. We were in the process of collecting stories for a short documentary on Jook Songs , an Asian American writing and performing troupe at Yale University that David began over ten years ago. Because of time and funding issues, I had the idea of passing around the GH1 camera to members of the group around the country and filming a day in their lives. I wanted to test this concept out locally here in Philly and thought it would be great to have community members from the Asian Arts Initiative film their mothers and grandmothers for the Lovely to Me music video. I wanted to just put the camera in the hands of the community, allow each person to film the everyday moments of their moms from washing dishes, to doing laundry, to cooking traditional foods, working a local mom and pop restaurant or shop in Chinatown or just sitting, resting and being.

Lai Har Cheung with camera captures her grandma Lau Fong in Chinatown’s On Lok House

I approached David with the idea of being a producer on Lovely to Me because of the community element that is both shared with the Jook Songs documentary that we were working on and he was all for sharing his resources to create this new piece. With our GH1 and gear in place, I approached Taiyo again at the end of the summer in order to deepen the concept of the piece.

Eric Law captures his mom Wai Man Ip in front of their store, Chinese Culture and Arts Inc. in Philly Chinatown

I wanted to bring that feeling for me growing up looking at old 8mm film footage of my family when they first came to Los Angeles from the Philippines. It was that faded slightly dirty look with those tints of green and deeper saturated blues and red that I remember from those old pictures and film reels that captured a distinct memory of family and our own immigrant stories.

Here are some of the pictures I used for the inspiration for the look and feel of the film:

My Uncle Meng, Auntie Lina, & Auntie Welma (1970s)

Me and My Dad (Isagani) & Mom (Fe) with my Auntie Lina who helped raise me

You know some things are just meant to be.

I wanted to find an old camera to use for the piece so I went on craigslist and found a Cine-Kodak Magazine 16 camera for sale on a listing out in Orange County, CA.

Taiyo Na with Cine-Kodak Magazine 16 prop camera still works!

I called up the owner who said it was his father’s old camera and he had held on to the camera in it’s original box for a few years after his father passed away. His father was a camera collector and loved photography and filmmaking. He sold many of his old lenses and gear but this was one of his fathers last pieces from his camera collection. Though he was hesitant at first to do a cross country sale, he loved the idea of the project and sold me the camera because it would be used in this film and go back to the East Coast where his dad was originally from. The idea of passing the camera from one person to the next, is the idea of passing on our individual histories in order to create a collective story, this is a touch point of the piece and why Taiyo at the end passes the camera to the next generation. This idea for the film was inspired by this cross country craigslist sale.

Manong Al Robles with elder manong from Curtis Choy’s Manilatown Is In the Heart

Another subtle but important aspect of the film is that it honors the people who came before us. I thought it would be an interesting twist to have Taiyo open the sequence of the film as a sort of homage to Al Robles with this old Kodak camera. Al was a gifted Filipino American community poet and community activist based in the Bay area who was instrumental in the political fight against the city of San Francisco to stop the demolition of the I-Hotel.

Manong Al Robles back in the day

He loved to hear stories of the “Old Country” and honored the Filipino elders (manongs) in much of his life and work. Definitely Curtis Choy’s old footage of Al at the I-Hotel from “Manilatown Is In the Heart” is such a huge inspiration for the look of this piece. I thought it would be a nice tribute to pay homage to Al Robles by having Taiyo as a kind of community filmmaker who carries his camera in his guitar case. And begins, the community story telling process with the opening of his guitar and filming through the lens of his camera.

Aleyamma Mathew holds a picture of her father Mathew Varughese & mother Annamma Mathew

In our conversations about how to deepen and push the concept of this piece Taiyo expressed to me that it was important that the piece begin in Chinatown and start from a personal Asian American experience but that by the end of the music video it should be a song for everybody. That upon ending in Love Park that this personal immigrant mother tribute not just be for Asians but for all peoples.

Kaitlin S Dugan with her mom Lynne T. Dugan at Love Park

And this is where the Asian Arts Initiative comes in. A call was made for people to come to Philly’s Love Park, to bring your mother, grandma, or person who raised you. If not in person, you could bring an old photo of your mom or even a picture of your mom in a cherished picture frame.

Asian Arts Initiative community members at Love Park

So many people came out. Just filming each person standing in front of the Love Park sign with their old photo of their mom or with their mom in person was so moving, simple, and real.

Jes Vu holding a picture of her mother Hao Vu Le

Taiyo Na holding a picture of his mom on his birthday

There was one moment at Love Park that I knew was going to be an ending moment for the film. One of the Asian Arts Initiative’s youth, Kaitlin Dugan was holding her mother so lovingly. Unrehearsed and in the moment she closes her eyes and hugs her mom deeply and says, “I love you mom.” In the film we don’t hear her say it. It is just the way they held each other in that moment that said it all to me. It was beautiful.

I think this was not just a music video it was a community coming together to reflect, share, and pay tribute to all our mothers. In a way, Taiyo’s song brought a community of people together to create a living breathing piece of art. It gave us all an excuse to have permission to break away from the everyday routine of our lives and to take a deeper moment to remember where we all came from. Our mothers. To bring different folks together, asian, black, young, old, mixed heritage, buddhist, muslim, and everything in between, to share both our love and our struggle is rare and a powerful act of courage and hope. I hope this film captures a Philadelphia that is here and now, growing, loving and always ever changing.

Asian Arts Initiative community members wrapping up the Love Park shoot with a group pic.

This was a community arts endeavor that I nor Taiyo could not have done with out the support of the Asian Arts Initiative and the Chinatown community. I am so grateful to them and could not have done it with out them. Please take the time after you see the piece to look at the credits below and see that so many people were involved in making this piece possible and then make a contribution to support the Asian Arts Initiative and the local businesses in Philly’s Chinatown.

Loc Nguyen’s Grandma picking tomatoes in her Northeast Philadelphia garden

And lastly, I hope that everyone who sees this piece can appreciate and reflect on our own mothers, grandmothers, aunts, or that special someone who raised you. I hope that you share this with your closest friends and people who you have disconnected with over time. I think it is my hope that this song and this film can touch people’s lives in the same way that this song first touched me.

“Lovely to Me (Immigrant Mother)”

Artist: Taiyo Na

Album: Love Is Growth

Label: Issilah Productions

Director: Gary San Angel

Additional Credits:

Featuring the Asian Arts Initiative and the larger Philadelphia Community.

Additional Vocals: Vudoo

Violins: Jason Kao Hwang

Electric Bass: Mas Yamagata

Additional Instrumentation: Taiyo Na

Producer: David Lin

Co-Producer: Asian Arts Initiative, Gary San Angel

Chinatown & Love Park, Philadelphia

First Assistant Director: Jeff “Slope” Cylkowski

Second Assistant Director: Eric Law

Camera Operators: Kaitlin S. Dugan, Loc Nguyen

Mom & Grandma Everyday Life Movie Clips

Camera Operator – Mom / Grandma

Victoria Chau – Anna Hang

Lai Har Cheung – Lau Fong

Lo Eric Law – Wai Man Ip

Loc Nguyen – Loc’s Mom – Loc’s Grandma

Linda Saroeun – Linda’s Mom

Love Park Community Participants

Aditi Vilayphonh & Catzie Vilayphonh

Aleyamma Mathew & Annamma Mathew and Mathew Varughese

Asdy Wan & Viola Kung

Andrea Pien

Barney Seng & Mary Seng & Sangvuth Ly

Betty Nguyen & Tina Huong Nguyen

Charles Ramirez & Cornelia K. Ramirez

Cheryl Tse

Chon Phoeuk & La Phoeuk

Eric Law

Gary San Angel & Fe San Angel

Gayle Isa & Hazel Isa

Jes Vu & Hao Vu Le

Jordan Coates & Inja Coates

Kaitlin S Dugan & Lynne T. Dugan

Keiko Kubo

Lai Har Cheung & Yuk Kan Lo

Lauren Harris & Nya Harris & Cathy Harris & Mildred Carter

Linda Saroeun & Linda’s Mom

Loc Nguyen

Michael Lu

Myong Pok McCloud & Vanessa McCloud & Victor McCloud & Michelle Myers & Myong Pok Myers

Husayn al-Jamil & Sham-e-Ali al-Jamil & Juhi Nayeem

Sovansuny Uy

Ratha Chea & Sarin Sek

Taiyo Na & Taiyo’s Mom

Toni Dang & Can La

Chinatown, Philadelphia

Chinese Culture and Arts Inc.

Wai Man Ip

QT Vietnamese Sandwich

Karen Tha & Mai Phan

Annie Tran & Trieu Le

Philly Chinatown Murals

“Furious Style” by Jeff Cylkowski

1219 Vine St. at Asian Arts Initiative

“History of Chinatown” by Arturo Ho, Giz, N. Phung, H. Tran

10th and Winter St.

“Colors of Light” by Josh Sarantitis

12th and Vine Street

Caterer

QT Vietnamese Sandwich

Special Thanks

Tim Ovel, Studio 4 Productions

Frederic Cheung, Wondlan

Steve Serota, Classic Camera Workshop

Asian Arts Initiative

Chinese Culture and Arts Inc.

Eric Law & Wai Man Ip

QT Vietnamese Sandwich

Karen Thai & Annie Tran

www.componentgeek.com

www.asianartsinitiative.org

indiRAILSpro MP on Immigrant Mother

IndiRAILSpro MP = mobility, stabilization, and follow focus all wrapped into one. Some of you may be wondering what gear we used to create “Lovely to Me (Immigrant Mother)”.

A large part of the film was shot using the IndiRAILSpro MP made by Tim Ovel and Studio 4 Productions to help out guys like me who need stabilization for their smaller DSLR cameras but who are constantly on the move. The MP is ideal for run and gun, wedding, and documentary work because you can set up your shot quickly and be on the move in an instant. Instead of a tripod and a separate follow focus rail system, the MP has a monopod which rests under a long J- shaped support system. On the rear side of the support system is pad that rests on your shoulder. In the middle, there is a sliding camera mount made from a Giottos MH-652 compact quick release assembly and MH-642 plate where your camera sits and an additional Giottos quick release mount located under the support system to attach to the monopod. To finish it off they added a follow focus on the front of the rig so you can run and gun with your DSLR and your prime lenses in manual focus while having the ability to rack focus fairly smoothly.

In most larger rigs the shoulder support and the follow focus are separate attachments but Tim and his crew created a lightweight one piece alternative. The follow focus on the MP is the Indifocus 20. It’s a little larger than my Chrosziel AC-206-50S follow focus and a lot cheaper in price of course. The Indifocus 20 is fixed to the front of the MP with a sliding plate that loosens and locks into place with a quick release mechanism to allow you to change out your lenses fairly quickly. The quick release levers are not only placed on the follow focus mounting plate but also on the sliding camera mounting plate. This is a great feature that was just added so you can adjust your camera and the follow focus at the same time with little hassle and with the ability to do immediate fine tuning in a pinch. When your camera and lens is not in the right spot you can tighten up the follow focus plate and camera mount with just a few turns of the lever and be ready to start shooting quickly.

It was imperative to use the MP in order to draw as little attention as possible and to set up our shots and move in and out very quickly. In Chinatown and Love Park, this was a necessity because the streets and sidewalks constantly have moving traffic from cars and people walking just about anywhere. With the MP, folks would turn slightly and walk around us, it’s a leaner setup and perfect to retain that honest realistic setting of our Chinatown and Philly neighborhood surroundings. I already had my Zacuto zip gears on my Canon FD prime lenses and they worked very nice and smooth with the MP follow focus. There was a little bit of play compared to using to the Chrosziel but overall the setup with the MP and GH1 and Canon primes were very lightweight and was a wonderful surprise to use. I’m so used to using not only the HVX or EX1 but also the added weight of a 35mm adapter rig. This was really like a dream come true to be so streamlined. The MP’s follow focus also includes one adjustable gear to place on your lens. It’s made of plastic and is usable but I found that even when you tightened down the gear the plastic tended to slowly slip especially when using a larger lenses. I had a hard time fitting the gear on my Schneider 1:2/18-90 C-Mount zoom which is a larger lens.

Putting the gear on the smaller Canon FD lenses seem to work but I needed reliability and consistency and it was nowhere near the solidness of Zacuto gears. There is some light adhesive tape that is like a cushioned version of double stick tape that does help secure the gear to the lens but it is cumbersome to put it on the lens and helps a little but not a whole lot.

My recommendation would be to wait and see if Tim Ovel comes up with better gears or go with some alternative manufactures. On the shoot, I found the MP’s strengths to be the following:

(+)

The use of manual lenses both zoom and primes is a major plus. Not having to drag along a heavy rig and follow focus system is perfect for those who want to use their DSLR in a variety of settings, on the streets of a big city, the wilderness somewhere, covering concerts, sports the sky is the limit. I used my Schneider 1:2/18-90 on the follow focus and MP and it worked very nicely. No need to worry about a gear ring because the Schneider lens has a built in gear ring on the focusing ring itself. This was a nice find. The quick release type locks to loosen and tighten the follow focus, monopod, and camera mounting plate are very well designed and well built. I also appreciate that the sliding plates are grooved into the bracket so that when the mount slides it will not move from side to side. This is really important and something that was added just recently so it shows that these guys are constantly tweaking and making things better. Based on a suggestion I had, the groove that the camera mount slides on has been increased so that the camera can be moved closer to the follow focus when using smaller cameras like the GH1 are used and that often use smaller prime lenses. I had no problems with my Canon FD primes and though I have not tried it yet popped on Kodak cine ektar lenses and they can reach the follow focus quite nicely.

(-)

The MP can never replace the stability of a tripod and a good fluid head. It definitely is not meant to do that. Even with a steady hand, you will get shaky footage especially when shooting with higher focal lengths. With the MP being a one piece unit it is a challenge to figure out how to store it and travel with. It’s hard to find a bag that will accomodate the L-Shaped bracket. I’d rather not have to take that off every time. The Giottos camera mounting plate to the camera needs to be a stronger and a tighter fit. One of the problems that occurs is that the camera would loosen and move side to side over the course of a shoot from the pressure and use of the follow focus. I think if there is some way to lock the position of your camera to the mounting plate with out having it move from side to side that would be ideal.

(>)

I would love to have the ability to have a swivel tilt monopod head. This can be easily added and found online but it would be nice to have it with the package right off the bat. Although I like the MP’s follow focus, I would love the option of putting my Chrosziel follow focus. I kind of figured out a way to do it but it meant adding an additional component and a set of rails. It would be nice to have a simple cushioned slip cover and strap to protect the follow focus and that can hold the monopod and L-bracket. It would be great for traveling and storage. Currently, I have to strap it to the outside of my tripod bag. One thing that has been nice is seeing that you can also put the mp on a tripod if you need to have that extra bit of sturdiness and smoothness. It would be nice to get an additional Giottos quick release mount so that you can quickly switch from monopod to tripod.

Overall, the IndiRAILSpro MP was a great asset for us on our shoot of our music video and I constantly use it for event shoots were I can’t bring a tripod. I know that Tim and his crew are constantly re-tweaking their gear all the time so I’m hoping that with some of these improvements the MP will be a solid go to tool for the always on the go filmmaker.

Here is an outtake from the film/music video of Taiyo Na’s Lovely to Me (Immigrant Mother). These are different shots that we were exploring for the opening sequence. The footage was shot with the Panasonic GH1 and Canon FD Prime lenses using the IndiRAILSpro MP from Studio4 Productions.

Singin’ and Slidin’ with Lovely to Me (Immigrant Mother) Chinatown Arch

The indiSLIDERmini Deluxe is basically a scaled down mini version of the indiSYSTEMpro. I have the larger slider and it was a workhorse for my needs especially when I was using a 35mm adapter, rails, lens, and camera setup. It still is a great tool in my kit giving simple smooth reliability, stability and indestructible heft.

As the market has shifted with the advent of the DSLR there has been a growing need to have a slider that will be more compact and work well with smaller DSLR cameras.

Enter the indiSLIDERmini Deluxe.

At just over $100 for the mini version and $169 for the Deluxe it’s really a no brainer. The indiSLIDER is a must have in any kit.

The Deluxe has rubber mounted table legs for use on a fat surface. It also comes with a pistol grip ball socket head with a quick-release plate that allows

Right off the bat, the material of the slider is very lightweight and extra durable. When I talked to Tim Ovel from indiSYSTEM on the phone about the unit he said you could throw it around in the mud and toss it in your dishwasher and it would hold up with out a sweat. I don’t have a dishwasher to try that test but I believe he and his team have tried this at home and stand behind the durability of their mini slider and for good reason.

One of the biggest pluses with using the inidiSLIDERmini is that you can toss the slider in with your tripod bag and drag it around with you where ever you go. Gone are the days where you stop and think, should I take my slider, nah.. it’s too heavy. There are no excuses anymore because it’ll always be there in your bag no matter what.

We used the indiSLIDERmini Deluxe on our shoot for Taiyo Na’s Lovely to Me (Immigrant Mother). Because of the need to be stealthy and not to draw too much attention it was really a treat to set up, roll and run around town with out a sweat.

When we got to Love Park we used both the larger indiSLIDER and the indiSLIDERmini. As you can see, pairing the mini with the GH1 was really a nice fit compared to the larger pro version which has the added weight and setup time.

Perfect for the new DSLRs like the GH1 and Canon 7D and T2i.

It’s small and compact can fit where ever you go.
The Deluxe pistol grip is a nice feature and allows for steady and smooth control.
Very lightweight (compared to the heavy duty pro version, I take this where ever I go).
Durable if needed you can get this dirty and throw it in your dishwasher!

Couple things I would hope that Tim could solve in my tests with the indiSLIDERmini to make it even better:

There is a little looseness with my unit so as you push-in and stop there is a slight tilt back. During the shoot to counter that issue I merely used one hand on the grip head and and other head on the base of the carriage and that seemed to smooth the shot out. Later, I also unscrewed the carriage and put just a little bit of felt between the carriage and the rail so that the carriage was situated more firmly with out the chance of tilting forward or back because of the camera weight and head.

Though it may not fit in my camera bag, I would love to have a longer version. I think 24″ is nice when you are shooting close but having 36″ would be even to do some more creative moves. I don’t know how that would effect the weight and the possible tilt factor but with a solid tripod locked down it may not be much of a problem to have that extra bit of length.

One thing I noticed is that when you use wide lenses like a 14mm or 24mm you can see the rails in your frame as you move along the track. One possible solution is on the deluxe version to have the pistol grip have the ability to rotate away from the track so as not to see the track in the frame on a wide shot. Currently, when you place the pistol grip in a horizontal position (camera is now vertical) you can move the camera so it’s not seeing the track. Only thing is that your image is vertical and you would need a small ball head to connect to the quick release plate of the pistol grip and to the camera in order to move your camera back into a horizontal position. The other possibility would be to use a noga arm to get the camera higher. I’ll have to try that and see if that provides an alternative solution.

Overall, theses are really minor inconveniences on the wish list and for the price you pay for a mini slider it’s really a non issue to me. I’ve been able to resolve and make my own fixes as mentioned here.

Here is a one sample of the indiSLIDERmini Deluxe in action from Lovely to Me (Immigrant Mother). Though the use of the slider here is more subtle in terms of movement what it allowed us to do more importantly is frame our shot without having to move the tripod around since the slider rail allowed us quick flexibility to move our camera to frame up our shots quickly and with little adjustment. So crazy cool slider moves are not in these samples, it’s more subtle.

This outtake from Taiyo Na’s Lovely to Me (Immigrant Mother) was shot in front of the famous Chinatown Arch in Philadelphia and a few shots in front of the “History of Chinatown” mural on 10th and Winter St. created by Arturo Ho, Giz, N. Phung, and H. Tran. Again, this clip shows a subtle example of the use of the indiSLIDERmini with the Panasonic GH1 and stock 14-140mm lens. I needed subtle movement here because the final version would inter cut with the community footage which is what I wanted folks to think about as they watched the piece.

Singin’ and Slidin’ with Lovely to Me (Immigrant Mother)

As the market has shifted with the advent of the DSLR there has been a growing need to have a slider that will be more compact and work well with smaller DSLR cameras.

Enter the indiSLIDERmini Deluxe.

At just over $100 for the mini version and $169 for the Deluxe it’s really a no brainer. The indiSLIDER is a must have in any kit.

The Deluxe has rubber mounted table legs for use on a fat surface. It also comes with a pistol grip ball socket head with a quick-release plate that allows

Perfect for the new DSLRs like the GH1 and Canon 7D and T2i.

Couple things I would hope that Tim could solve in my tests with the indiSLIDERmini to make it even better:

Here is another outtake from the film/music video of Taiyo Na’s Lovely to Me (Immigrant Mother). This is one of the initial cuts with Taiyo Na at the Asian Arts Initaitive’s Furious Style Mural created by Jeff Cylkowski and his team of youth artists.

The footage was shot with the Panasonic GH1 and Canon FD Prime lenses as well as the stock 14-140mm lens with one camera using the indiSLIDERmini Deluxe. The vertical shots are using the mini slider and the approach again was more for subtle shifts to focus on the story and the song. One thing you’ll notice is that all the vertical shots are using the pistol grip on the Deluxe in order to make vertical framing possible and giving us the ability to slide along a secured track. Because of the steep vertical tilt we were using to get some of the shots it was nice to have the light weight GH1 to ride up and down the slider and for the most part we could do the shifts with a lot of control.

This was one of the first cuts to build the final piece. Most of these shots didn’t make it in the original version because we felt we wanted to let the moms tell the story. However in coming back to this version, I thought it was really nice to see Taiyo solo with just his guitar so I decided to post this to share the process of creation. This is the Furious Style version named after Jeff Cylkowski’s beautiful mural.

In Memory of Steve Serota

Steve Serota, owner of Classic Camera Workshop outside of Philadelphia recently passed away.

Steve used to run a camera shop near Chinatown, Philadelphia on between 9th and Arch Street called Camera Care. When cameras starting going digital he had to sell his shop and later retired from the business. But he never left. Instead, Steve ran his camera shop from his home largely focusing on repairs and calling his online shop the Classic Camera Workshop.

I only knew him just this past year but he was one of the few guys around who had the history, know how, and love of old cameras and lenses. He had the gift of restoring and bringing them back to life.

Though I only knew him for a short time from my own need to get some old c-mount lenses repaired, I definitely felt a connection to his love and passion for classic cameras and lenses and learned a lot from him. His knowledge in the field and his persistence to tackle any problem was really amazing and he had a gift for doing what he loved to do.

Steve never charged you hourly for his services. He was one of the few camera repair guys who gave one price and stuck by it. No matter how long it took he’d get it done and repair that lens with all the tools he knew in his trade. He took a hell of a long time with your lenses though because he got them to his strict standards of perfection. Most would wait and give nudging e-mails or phone calls but then months later when you least expect it you’d be rewarded with an amazing lens that was overhauled and restored with care.

He never did get paid for what he truly deserved. He just loved doing it. He had the unique history to know how to work on so many cameras and lenses before digital came into being. Ironically, his knowledge is needed now when most people are investing to have old lenses repaired and restored to be used with DSLR cameras.

I never met him in person. Never even saw a picture of him or any pictures that he took until after he passed away. I only talked to him by phone and through e-mail. Camera lenses is why I came to him but through the process of repair and restoration he shared his life, his love of cars, taking care of his wife and mother-in-law, and his love for his son who recently just got married.

When his wife Barbara called me and told me he had passed and that she had my camera and lenses to return, my heart sank. I wanted to pay my respects in person. I drove out to his beautiful home just outside of Philadelphia and met his wife and she shared a picture of when they first got married and her own stories too, the good memories as well as the times of struggle, his health challenges and how the life of a camera repair guy was always a struggle but it’s what he loved to do.

Before I left their home, she took me down to the basement where he did all his repair work. It was as if he never left. Piles of old cameras on the floor, his beat down chair bent and slightly swiveled waiting for his return and a few tools and hardware strewed on his desk as if Steve was right in the middle of a repair.

It was truly a mess but I could see some semblance of structure. There were scribbled tags in plastic bins identifying someone’s lenses or camera body. Some bins were in the middle of repair and he needed a part or two while others were not touched at all. All were just waiting to be fixed. He was the camera doctor and this was really his labor of love. In all it’s chaos it was his sanctuary. His home.

In all this organized clutter of old cameras and lenses this is what he loved to do. Being able to restore a bad lens and get it back up and running to its full potential was something that he took pride in especially the ones that were impossible to repair. I remember he repaired an old cine Nikkor 10mm c-mount lens that was impossible to repair. I told him if you can’t do it just let it go. He stayed up all night and gives me a proud call on the phone 8:30am the next day explaining how he could not sleep and was able to get the helicoids unfrozen. That was the kind of dedication he had to his craft.

His wife jokingly said to me, “Steve knew how to repair cameras but he could never take a good picture.” And that was not far from the truth.

When I picked up my plastic bin containing my last set of lenses from him, I imagined him telling a long story of why he was delayed with my lenses saying he was at the hospital and had meant to send them to me sooner. He would then say, “I didn’t forget about you. I got your lenses and camera right here.” And there I was holding the last of the lenses repaired by his hands. In the bin was also my GH1 camera which he used to test out all my lenses. When I turned on the camera, I saw his test pictures that he took shooting his shop and backyard using my c-mount lenses. Most pictures were really bad but it was a nice gift. They were little snap shot memories documenting a brief moment of his day to day repairs.

One was the nicest pictures was this test from his backyard using what I think was the Cine Nikkor 10mm c-mount lens.

On my way back home I decided to take a last minute stop where his shop used to be near the Chinatown Arch in Philadelphia, one of the beautiful landmarks of Philly. It was cold that night and no one was around except the few cars that passed by. I looked up and noticed there were new lights on the arch. It looked beautiful. It was a classic camera moment. I took out the plastic bin and I pulled out one of Steve’s lenses and placed it on my camera and looking through the viewfinder said, “Here’s to you Steve.” And I started shooting.

These shots were taken with a Yvar 75mm f/2.8 c-mount lens restored by his gifted hands.

Though he could not take very good pictures, he sure knew how to restore classic cameras and lenses. These pics prove his worth in gold. He was a humble master allowing his art and spirit to live on through the people who he touched and through the lenses that he restored.

Every time I use any of his lenses I’ll always think of Steve Serota.

I will be creating special shorts with each of the lenses that he has restored for me.

For those who have had their lenses repaired by Steve, I invite you to send me your stories, pictures or films. I will add it to this post.

And for those who may still be anxiously waiting for your lenses and camera. His family asks for your patience at this time and are in the process of contacting all his clients.

Please feel free to contact them at Steve’s e-mail at repair@camera-care.com

Angenieux 8-64mm = The little Angenieux c-mount that could

My Story of the Angenieux 8-64mm c-mount lens:

The Angenieux Zoom Type8x8B 8-64mm f/1.9 c-mount lens was the first legacy zoom lens I purchased for the m4/3 system. I was pretty green at the time and when I initially got the lens I popped this lens on my GH1 and I saw the image was a tiny fuzzy circle as big as the size of a quarter. I was pretty disappointed but did not want to give up so I gave the lens to Steve Serota from Classic Camera Workshop to see what he could do with it. He spent close to a year cleaning up the lens. He just loved that little lens and said he was surprised at how sharp it was and how he finally got it working nicely with his 16mm camera. When I got the lens back I thought this would be it. I thought I’d have a nice clear image but when I popped it back on my GH1 camera I still saw the quarter size image only this time it was sharp only on the telephoto end not on the wide end. At 8mm I still saw an image that was out of focus and still could not get the lens to infinity focus. With the results only a shade better then before the lens was repaired the Angenieux 8-64mm was useless to me. I still kept it though because it was the last zoom lens Steve Serota repaired for me before he passed away.

This past summer I was about ready to sell the lens but I heard the GH2 was announced with the extended tele conversion (ETC) feature that allowed the ability for small lenses like this to be used in the full HD resolution of the camera. I wanted to give this lens one more shot. I knew I would need to find someone to get this little lens machined so that it can achieve infinity focus on a standard c-mount to m4/3 adapter. I knew that the best legacy mount m4/3 manufacturers were in China so I sent an e-mail to “R.J.” also known as ebay seller jinfinance to try to see if he would be open to machining my lens to fit his c-mount adapter. R.J. is one of the more well known legacy mount makers in China and is best known for his reliable C-mount to m4/3 adapter and Canon FD to m4/3 adapter.

I sent pictures of the lens to R.J. and he told me that he could not guarantee it would work because there could be a possibility that the lens would fall apart. I decided to just go for it anyway and sent the lens to him in China. I thought if it falls apart then it was meant to fall apart and if it works then it would be pretty unbelievable and make for a good story to tell. After a two month waiting period I got the lens back before X-mas just in time to test with my new GH2.

R.J. had done it. He had machined a significant portion of the rear of the lens. I popped the lens on the RJ c-mount adapter and on to the camera and engaged the ETC of the GH2 and took a deep breathe. I set the lens on 8mm and saw the the quarter size image had almost filled the screen. It was not the sharpness that Steve Serota was excited about but the picture on the wide end was in focus and had that soft Angenieux quality that was very pleasing to me. Then I brought the lens to the telephoto side and that’s where the sharpness of the lens really shined. It was all worth it. It really was a huge journey to get the Angenieux 8-64mm c-mount to work on the micro 4/3 system. There are a number of flaws that I have found out as I’ve played with the lens a bit more but I feel the journey was worthwhile and the lens will serve its purpose. The big pluses for me is that this lens is a very tiny fast zoom so you can carry it around with your small GH2 and images become sharper as you go up the focal range.

Here are two sample stills at 64mm.

One thing to note is because the image circle is very small at 8mm there is vignetting and edge distortion when using the GH2′s ETC mode.

You can definitely work around these problems or make the issues work as a part of the character to your film. The Angenieux 8-64 lens despite all it’s problems represents to me why I do what I do. The idea of collecting legacy lenses is also the idea of keeping the story alive and passing on what was once old and worthless and making it new again. In a small way, this journey is hopefully honoring the previous owners who may have used this lens on their own films and also honoring the guys like Steve Serota who repaired it.

The Angenieux 8-64mm lens was first used in my test film footage for the indiSYSTEM Bulldog and indiSYSTEM BallGrip in a piece called Aloha Winter.

If you’d like to try this with your own Angenieux 8-64mm lens it will take a few hurdles, some patience and a few key pieces of knowledge:

(+)

Send the lens to R.J. (ebay seller: jinfinance) in China. It cost me about $60 to machine the lens.
R.J.’s c-mount adapter works well but the best mount to get you infinity focus with this lens on the wide end is with the “Hawk’s Factory Made in Taiwan” adapter from Hawk Peng or ebay seller hawks_factory. I have only tested the old version which works great. The new version I will be testing shortly.
This is a very small c-mount zoom and works best wide open and sharp near the mid to higher focal ranges (20-50mm).

(-)

GH2 ETC mode in creative movie mode is the best way to get the lens working but this mode cuts off some of the sharpness and on the wide end you will still see vignetting and edge distortion especially when stopped down.
Since this is a legacy lens there is no optical lens stabilization so in the GH2 ETC mode it’s best to lock your camera down on a monopod or tripod any bit of camera shake will be magnified greatly in this mode.
Because of the design of the lens at the farthest focal length (64mm), you will unfortunately see two metal elements from the interior of the lens on the edge of the frame of your shot especially when stopped down. Unfortunatey, I do not think it is possible to remove these metal elements from the interior of the lens.

Special Note:

When using the GH2 ETC mode for still pictures you will have to make sure you set the camera quality to capture only JPEG and not RAW stills and also set the picture quality to 1920×1080 16:9. Creative Movie Mode gives a larger picture than when shooting in any still mode with the ETC engaged.

We Will Be Missing You – Steve Calvarese

Over the course of this year, I will be creating special shorts with some of the lenses that Steve Serota restored for me.

The first is called, “We Will Be Missing You” written and performed by Spoken Word artist Steve Calvarese.

Steve Calvarese is an emerging artist based in Philadelphia who has really been growing and developing his craft. With the help of Michelle Myers, who is one half of the famed Yellow Rage yellowrage.com, Calvarese has been sharing his take on the Spoken Word form integrating personal, community, and social issues.

Calvarese says “We Will be Missing You” tells a story about gun violence in the city of Philadelphia. At the same time, the story is grounded on the belief that understanding is key, thus it opens our minds to multiple perspectives.

This footage was taken using the Panasonic GH1 with a Schneider 1:2/18-90 C-Mount zoom using the indiRAILSpro MP and a new indiSNAP gear.

Sound was captured with a Sound Devices 552 Mixer/Recorder and Sennheiser SK2000 wireless system with a Sanken COS-11D lavalier.

This version of We Will Be Missing You is set at the Christa Lewis Memorial Tot Lot in Russo Park Philadelphia.

This piece is dedicated to Steve Serota who used to run Camera Care in Philadelphia and later his online repair shop Classic Camera Workshop. This Schneider 1:2/18-90 C-Mount Lens was overhauled and repaired by his hands. Whenever I shoot with this lens, Steve Serota will always be remembered. His work was amazing and brought back to life every lens I brought him. He was a storyteller, a perfectionist, a great family guy, and he loved his work and was passionate about classic cameras and lenses. He will be missed.

Here are the words to the Spoken Word piece.

We Will be Missing You

Written and Performed by Steve Calvarese

Dedicated to all of those who died by gun violence

What weighs on his conscience

is greater than the weight

he carries on his waist

but the problems he faced

being raised in a broken home but no one can relate

so he alienates

himself from everyone else

away from the fake

those who create hate

cuz he’s seen as a Monster

which generates

his hate he has for them

no friends, accept for his gloc

forget about crying out for help

he’ll let his gun be louder than his mouth

R.I.P. carved into every bullet

finger itchin’ on the trigger waitin’ to pull it

so he can express his meaning of “Resting in Peace”

his piece

is always kept off safety

before the victim died. Mama was praying for his safety

before you go out make sure you walk the street safely

before he knew it cold metal was against his skin

he wanted to show him how cold the world really is

one shot left his frame frozen in time

where he hangs is in his home, a 8×10, a picture frame

the only memory his mom have left to keep herself alive

is his smile so everyday she don’t think about suicide

and dreams

dreams to remember about her baby boy

the only person she has left in this world is her baby boy

now that he gone away to a better place

she will no longer see the smile on his face

every night when she goes to lay herself to sleep

she prays

so she can listen to her son speak

sayin’ I’m still alive inside

when your heart beats

no more cryin’ out

you’re baby boy is here now

smile down

and watchin’ out

soon we’ll be together but for now

you got to remain strong

no matter how deep you feel pain

I know it’s hard to adjust and make that change

when the only thing you have left in your pockets is hope

hopin’ for better days

hopin’ that kids like me don’t gotta die today

she tires to be the voice about gun violence that needs to be heard

but no one wants to hear her

lying to ourselves when we know it happens too often

how many kids we gotta see dead layin’ in coffins

how many bodies gotta drop

being outlined in white chalk

we just chalk it up and talk

like it’s the new verb

but stuck in the pretense

because we are preoccupied by other things

what we need to do

instead of throwing shoes

we need to throw our guns on the wire

first we must be alive

say like Kanye “Through the Wire”

open our eyes

and not retire

the issue

I know we’re all tired

But I don’t want to tell another friend

“I miss you”

indiSYSTEM SNAP! Gear – Cottman Ave.

As those of you know once you get your lenses and your new DSLR you’ll find that manually focusing by hand is fine in the beginning but when you want to push your work to more professional results it’s best to use a follow focus and focus gears on your lenses in order to have the ability for more precise focus, the ability to rack focus, and to lessen camera lens shake on your footage.

Tim Ovel and his team at indiSYSTEM have been hard at work again this time on their new SNAP! gear.

This new design is a very nice upgrade to their previous focus gear rings. What makes indiSYSTEM’s new design quite unique is that their focus gear is split in two halves and connected together with super strong magnets.What this allows is the ability to place the SNAP! gear ring on your lens and then remove it in a snap.

Snap! gears are sold in a set with five different gear sizes to cover most of your lenses:

70mm / 75mm / 80mm / 85mm / 90mm

At only $100 bucks for these set of five gears it’s a pretty sweet deal. And for those who need just one you can purchase the 70mm for $30 each.

Each set of SNAP! gears comes with “squish” as Tim likes to call it, or thin self-adhesive foam.

The squish looks like poly foam weather seal tape that you use for weather stripping your home. It rests between your lenses and the focus gear and does a good job of making up the difference if your lens diameter is a few mm smaller than the focus gear. In my case, I tested the 70mm with my Schneider 1:2/18-90 c-mount and the lens diameter was 65mm so I had to make up the difference by doubling the squish.

In my initial tests the adhesive just wasn’t strong enough so Tim is sending some thicker “squish” and I look forward to using it and seeing if it will show better results. In the mean time, I doubled up on the squish that was already sent to me and secured it using some gorilla glue and and now the SNAP! gear fits nice and snug on my lens with no play between the lens and the SNAP! gear.

Here are just a few initial impressions so far.

(+)

You gotta love the “snap” the magnets make. They are surprisingly super strong. Once you have the proper squish, you literally snap the gear on and your ready to go in seconds.
One SNAP! gear can be used with your full set of lenses if they each share the same outside lens diameter.
With magnets and squish, no need to worry about the stress of tightening up your gears with Allen wrenches and leaving marks on your lenses.
I found the ½ inch wide gear great giving you plenty of grip using the MP’s indiFOCUS20.
$100 for a set of five gears (70mm/75mm/80mm/85mm/90mm) is a great deal and covers most of your lenses.

(-)

Don’t place your hard drive or SD cards near the magnets for obvious reasons.
The current adhesive when placing squish on top of each other is not the strongest so you lose the stickiness on the adhesive and need to use something strong like gorilla glue to keep it together. (Will wait on the new “squish” adhesive hopefully that should solve it.)

(>)

70mm is the smallest size gear so currently you need some hefty squish to make up the difference with smaller lenses. It would be nice to have smaller gear sizes especially for my Canon FDs and c-mount lenses but it sounds like 70m is currently the smallest gear size that indiSYSTEM is offering.

Here are some of my initial tests with the SNAP! gear and indiRAILSpro MP using my GH1 and Schneider 1:2/18-90 c-mount lens.

Here is film test with Steve Calvarese who is an emerging spoken word artist based in Philadelphia. Steve has been sharing his take on the Spoken Word art form integrating personal, community, and social issues in his poetry.

Our first test was on Cottman Ave. an extremely busy street in his neighborhood in the Northeast right off the 95 highway. Steve performed his piece “We Will be Missing You” which tells a story about gun violence in the city of Philadelphia. Steve says that the story is grounded on the belief that understanding is key, thus it opens our minds to multiple perspectives.

During this shoot the SNAP! gear and MP set up really worked nicely with my Schneider zoom lens.

There was very little back lash and I was able to focus and rack focus pretty smoothly. Over all, I’m very happy with the results. The SNAP gear is definitely a winner in my book with a great price and flexibility.

Mero Cocinero

I recently had the chance to work with Chef Mero Cocinero known for his critically acclaimed cooking shows across the country teaching communities healthy eating and bringing new twists to cultural recipes. Mero was in town for a brief visit in Philadelphia and so we decided to head down to the South 9th Street Curb Market. This little film captures Mero’s adventures through this rich and diverse neighborhood.

The film was shot using the GH1 and a Schneider-Kreuznach Variogon 1:2/18-90mm c-mount lens with no tripod only the indiSYSTEM indiRAILSpro MP and a SNAP! Gear on the lens. Had some issues with the sharpness of the lens because the lens was not screwed on tight enough which is one of the down sides of using screw mount lenses since there is no locking mechanism to lock the lens down to the mount. I also had to use the GH1′s digital zoom in order to avoid some of the vignetting and smaller image circle so there is issue of image degradation. I can’t wait to test out the Schneider Variogon lens with the new GH2 tele extender feature which is in 1:1 mode so theoretically with this new feature we should yield some very nice results.

Open
Abierto

Featuring: Mero Cocinero Karimi
Directed by Gary San Angel
Producer: David Lin

Filmed with:
Panasonic GH1
Schneider-Kreuznach Variogon 1:2/18-90mm lens
indiSYSTEM indiRAILSpro MP
indiSYSTEM SNAP! Gear

Sound Devices 552
Sennheiser SK2000
Sanken COS11-X

Pegasus II First Impressions

It was a sweltering hot humid day in Philadelphia, not the kind of day to be shooting outside not unless you want to be dripping wet with sweat. Because of the heat factor, I was forced to do my first tests indoors at a local community arts center called the Asian Arts Initiative. I’m the Technical Director and work part time with adults and youth teaching theater and video programs.

Today, they had a youth lounge where youth have open space to focus on their craft. I was fortunate enough to be able to sit in on the youth B-Boy (Break dancers) crew, The Dreamers as they honed their b-boy skills and I thought this would also be a perfect opportunity to see the Pegasus II in action with the GH1.

For this preliminary test, I wanted to use the lowest common denominator and set the GH1 on its (iA) auto settings using the stock 14-140 lens because I knew the camera and Pegasus II would be in the hands of other youth who have never used a steadicam or a camera like the GH1. In that way, we could test if put in the hands of a complete novice is the Pegasus II and GH1 easy to use and can you still get some decent footage even when using default automatic settings? All the footage was shot at 1080/24P AVCHD with pull down removed via NeoScene.

It was important for me to just keep things raw including the audio in order to see what’s working well and what’s not.

Here are my initial observations of the Pegasus II with the GH1:

(+) Plus Side

Over all I have to say the Pegasus II and the GH1 make a nice pair. To shoot a B-boy crew you have to be able to move the camera at different levels and move out of the way if necessary. And you have to be unobtrusive. If you had a large rig then I think they would feel the pressure of feeling like they had to be “on” and perform well and in most cases what usually happens is that they are not as relaxed and won’t do as good of a job.

For the small size of the Pegasus II and the GH1 there were only a couple times when the guys looked at the camera with the awareness of “oh, I’m being filmed!” but for the most part The Dreamers could be themselves. I think this is a key factor in doing documentary work and the low profile attributes of the GH1 and Pegasus II help in that regard. In fact, since the Pegasus II can easily breakdown and is compact I threw it into my messenger bag rather than using the case provided. It’s always a big plus for me to not have to worry about lugging around another piece of gear that may potentially get lost.

Overall, the nice thing I noticed was that it did not feel heavy and you were able to shoot for longer periods of time with out getting tired. It still takes some getting used to and there’s still weight on it so you will get tired. But I think for the hour and a half that I shot, it was very nice to know that at the end of the day my unfit body didn’t feel strained in any way from the shoot.

The quality of the Pegasus II is very good. When I looked at the gear it reminded me of the kind of quality and machine work that I received with my previous Letus gear. It seems that little by little the Chinese manufactures are getting better at creating quality products. Even the gimbal system was a nice surprise. It was one of the functions of the unit that in pictures gave me a little pause because the design looked like it was made with a threaded bolt going into a metal joint but in use, at least with the GH1, it seemed to work surprisingly well.

(>) Challenges

Using any kind of video stabilizer definitely needs some getting used to and this is no exception.

Partly do to this was Wondlan’s first units to have English instructions, the translations still need to be worked on to so I had to follow the visual cues from the DVD that was provided. It did take me a little longer than I had expected to get started but hopefully I can provide a few tips for those who do pick up the Pegasus II when using the GH1.

I’m still working on optimizing the balance of the GH1 unit and it seems to me that when using the Pegasus II you are constantly adjusting and optimizing the balance of the camera depending on what you are shooting. And in my case, where we were shooting a group of dancers that were dancing low to the ground, I needed to use the front and back adjusting knob many times to move the position of the GH1 to get better ground coverage. But the front-back locking lever which releases the plate is awkwardly placed just below where the GH1 sits and the left-right fine adjusting knobs get in the way of unlocking and locking the plate.

Making right to left adjustments is easy on the fly but getting that front and back adjustment on the fly, you have to stop shooting. I think Wondlan can easily resolve this by changing the position of the right and left adjusting levers and making the front-back adjusting knob and locking knobs bigger and more durable so that you don’t have to stop shooting to make a front to back plate adjustment.

Also, it may be just my unit, but if you don’t loosen the front to back locking wrench all the way then it’s a little tricky to slide the plate into place. I actually don’t mind this too much because it’s a nice safety precaution. There were a few times where I was making a front to back adjustment and released the locking mechanism too far so the plate just tipped far forward and in that moment I thought, “There goes my new GH1 camera!!!” But the locking lever saved me because it has to be released almost completely out before the plate can slide freely.

As you all probably know using a stabilizer, you are reduced to not touching the lens, if you do then you will notice camera shake big time, making your footage a little buoyant looking like you were a ship lost at sea. The Pegasis II gimbal system is rather sensitive probably because the GH1 is a pretty small camera. You have to use your other hand to guide the camera ever so slightly so that your movements don’t send the camera pointing to the wrong direction. Placing a hand on the GH1 fold out viewfinder actually helps in that regard as well as obviously not creating any fast jerky movements.

(?) Keep it or Sell it

From my initial first tests with the GH1 the Pegasus II is definitely a keeper. I’ve used a steadicam and with a steadicam you have much more control and ability to finesse your shot but you literally have to be rigged up which takes time not to mention it can get heavy after a while. Obviously, there’s a huge price difference and if you want true steadicam footage then get a real steadicam or merlin but for roughly about a little over $300 when you add shipping costs from China you have a really great low profile, stick in your small backpack, “mini steadicam”.

As a documentary filmmaker, this is a great tool for stealthy situations and for those narrative movies where you are shooting in public spaces it doesn’t draw too much attention. And for event shooting well it’s one thing you can throw and fit in your tripod bag and may be a nice option if you don’t like the monopod and like to be roaming about.

Again, these are initial tests I’ll be doing a few more tests with the unit but all in all its a pretty impressive piece of gear especially for the price. Thanks for looking and hope this information is giving folks some options and things to consider when shooting with new DSLRs like the GH1.

Notes on 1080/24P AVCHD-

So some of you may have seen the earlier versions of this footage. It looked like crap! Lot’s of macroblocking and compression issues. After hours of testing with the Cineform (422) MOV container I noticed that FCP was seeing the clips as having a framerate of 59.94 as if the pulldown was never removed. So instead, I used the Prores MOV container and FCP sees the clips as 23.98 and the footage is so much cleaner. Seeing the H.264 footage even compressed looks clean. I’m still trying to figure out what the problem is with the Cineform (422) MOV container footage but for those who are using the GH1 and filming dancers with lots of movement I think despite the file size the quality of the Prores MOV container is much better.

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