Browsing Tags Gary San Angel

My KoAloha Story Film at NEW website: www.koalohastory.com

Aloha Everyone! I just want to announce the launch of the new KoAloha Story site at www.koalohastory.com. Home of the KoAloha Story Film Series and the new “TalkUlele” Online video collection of KoAloha stories.

The KoAloha Ukulele Story is an animated documentary film short about Hawaii’s very own Renaissance man and inventor Alvin Okami and his amazing story about how he changed his plastics company into one of the worlds most admired and respected ukulele companies.

I was really inspired by people’s reactions to our little animated film and how it was an opportunity for people to share their own personal stories and experiences about how they found the ukulele and found a connection to the Okami and KoAloha family. Because of the amazingresponse we had from the first film I touched base with Alvin’s son Alan Okami about the possibility of putting together a Part 2 to the animated film which would tell the story of their family after the miniature ukulele was made.

The film project is called “My KoAloha Story” the idea being everyone has their own KoAloha Story, a story with heart, passion, and inspiration, a story that connects us to family.

For part of the films process, I worked with people around the country and even in Great Britain who wanted to share their KoAloha Story. I even arranged for my personal HD video camera to be sent out or had them film themselves with their own high quality camera. The process of crossing borders and building relationships with people who I had no contact with before except for their connection to KoAloha was rather quite powerful. Each person had a set of simple open questions to answer about their connection to KoAloha and their love of the ukulele. It was really that simple- Just tell your story. Sometimes we were even blessed to get a song or two on their KoAloha ukulele so much of the music from the interviews became the soundtrack to the film.

Part of this unique community style of filmmaking comes from years of working in the theater and building communities through this unique story telling process. I was fortunate enough to test it out with NYC based artist Taiyo Na using his beautiful song “Lovely to Me (Immigrant Mother)” and working with the Asian Arts Initiative community as the story gathers for the images to the song. I put the camera in the hands of the community and youth and they filmed their moms and grandmothers. It was really a moving experience. Lovely to Me (Immigrant Mother) premiered at the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival and now has a home online at www.lovelytome.com where you can see the music video and documentary film as well as contribute your own photos to honor your mom.

I hope this gives you an idea of the simple and profound concept of putting the camera in the hands of the community and why I feel passionately about the work of the KoAloha Story Film Series. My KoAloha Story is not only the story of the Okami family but it is your story too, a community story that makes up the larger KoAloha Ohana. It reminds us to never forget our stories, to never forget where we came from “warts and all” because life at it’s most honest and vulnerable place of challenge and strife is where we see our true inner beauty, our humanity.

I have been very blessed to be sort of a conductor of this KoAloha Symphony of Stories. I have had the humble honor of making two documentary films about Papa KoAloha and the Okami family that I hope captures the heart of what KoAloha does best and that’s sending love out to the world with their beautiful instruments.

Papa KoAloha’s story was just the seed. And I hope that you can help me by continuing to be a part of this oral history project which does not end with the film but continues as a living archive online here at www.koalohastory.com. Whether you are a novice ukulele player or master, or just a person with a story to tell, please share and be a part of this project. This is an opportunity to share your story and to celebrate a unique and inspirational ukulele company and to add your story to the KoAloha Ohana.

Many thanks for supporting KoAloha and the work of these films. I encourage you to sign up and be a subscriber. We will be celebrating the work of the KoAloha films by screening them through the KoAloha Story website and posting never before seen stories and short films. So stay tuned!

I hope that all these collective stories inspire you to share your KoAloha story at www.koalohastory.com or in your own communities.

Mucho Maholos to all! I look forward to hearing from you soon!

Gary San Angel
Director
The KoAloha Ukulele Story and My KoAloha Story

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LovelytoMe.com Celebrate Mothers Day Everyday

Dear friends and family,

Please join me in celebrating this Mothers Day with the launch of LovelytoMe.com and sharing a digital picture of your “Mom”.

LovelytoMe.com is a living online community gallery inspired by the film Lovely to Me (Immigrant Mother) created by Taiyo Na and Gary San Angel with the Asian Arts Initiative and Chinatown community in Philadelphia.

You can upload a photo of your mom from anywhere around the world and connect the photo with Google Maps.

You can share a picture of your mom, grand mom, aunty, or that special someone who helped raise you and make you who you are today.

It can be a picture of your mom from an old scrapbook photo or a favorite pic with you and your mom.

Don’t have a picture of you with your mom. Draw stick figures!

Just be Creative!

Special Thanks to Taiyo Na for writing such a beautiful song and for sharing it with the world.

Very special thanks to Sean Brown for website and logo design help, Byron Bennet who created the PhotoSmash WordPress Photo Gallery plugin, and the Asian Arts Initiative Apprenticeship program for their work on the site.

Hope you can find time to honor your mom in some way today and everyday.

Share your mom photo here!

Happy Mothers Day!

Gary

MP and Schneider c-mount zoom lens

Before “goin’ down to the Shore” as the say here in Philly, Tim Ovel from Studio4 Productions was kind enough to send me a few goodies to test out. One of which is the their new indiRAILSpro MP, which I took with me to Ocean City, NJ for a little test run.The new indiRailspro MP combines the best features of a shoulder mount system, the ability to go hand-held, and has a built in follow focus to boot. It’s lightweight, lowprofile, and flexibility is perfectly designed for the event shooter or anyone who needs the ability to stabilize their DSLR and use manual prime or zoom lenses and be on the move in an instant.

The MP consists of a Velbon RUP-40 monopod with a Giottos MH-652 compact quick release assembly and MH-642 plate which mounts to a top mounting stabilizing bracket. The monopod can be quickly attached and removed with the Giottos quick release assembly which is an added plus for quick setup, break down, and storage. On the bracket you have the ability to adjust the monopod, camera, and shoulder pad length as desired. An additional Giottos MH-652/642 quick release plate is where your DSLR mounts and you can slide your camera along the bracket’s adjusting slot to set your camera and lens for proper follow focus use. Unfortunately, the slot was not long enough for me to use the GH1′s 14-140 stock lens with the MP’s follow focus. Tim will be sending me out a new bracket with a longer slot for me to test soon. In the meantime, I decided to test out another c-mount lens that I recently just got back from being overhauled, a Schneider-Kreuznach Variogon 1:2/18-90 C-Mount zoom lens which I will talk about in detail later.

I wasn’t able to use the follow focus on the MP with the Schneider so instead I wanted to simply focus on the MP’s ability to be used as a DSLR stabilizer. Because the Schneider c-mount lens does not have a large enough image circle to fill the sensor, the GH1 must have digital 2x zoom engaged in order to get full use of the lens though out the zoom range and to fill the image sensor with out the “peep hole effect”. Doing this however, means that any slight camera movement in higher focal ranges will create a heck of a lot of camera shake.

And this is where the MP comes in. I wanted to use my Schneider c-mount lens but I was on vacation and didn’t want to drag an additional tripod with me. The MP was a perfect fit in this department because I could split up the MP with the Velbon monopod in my day bag weighting less than a pound and the stabilizing bracket (less than 2 pounds) in my camera bag.

Without the follow focus, you can be ready to go in 5 seconds, the MP’s combination of monopod and shoulder mount bracket allows for enough stabilization so I can get fairly steady shots with my Schneider lens even with the 2x zoom engaged on the GH1. If I didn’t have the MP, it would literally be camera shake city. Don’t get me wrong, this is no substitute for a good tripod for rock solid shots, you will always see some movement and sway but when using the Schneider lens at the lower focal ranges like 18-30 (which is doubled with the 2x zoom factor to 36-60) and by keeping that camera nice and steady you reduce camera shake and can capture some really nice steady footage. The big advantage with the MP is quick mobility combined with stability.

The footage I captured was nothing special, just a few shots of our day at the beach with friends. Two big challenges with shooting with the GH1, aside from the sand and wind whipping around, the GH1 camera mics are absolutely atrocious and unusable in windy situations. Number two, in bright outdoor beach type settings, it is literally impossible to get an accurate reading on focus and exposure with the flip out LCD. I didn’t have a hoodman on me so through out the footage you’ll see the exposure settings change that is not the camera it’s me trying to play with my Variable ND filter because I couldn’t see the screen.

Again, the GH1 audio was simply unusable being a windy day so the visuals are accompanied with a live version of Dar William’s song “The Ocean”. Here is a quick test of the indiRAILSpro MP (no follow focus) with the Schneider Variogon 1:2/18-90 in c-mount. The footage was captured at 720/60p and converted to 24p using NeoScene.

GH1 with C-mount Zoom Test

My goal with this test was to focus on whether c-mount zoom lenses in general are worth using with the GH1 for film. There have been a few posts on the net by still photographers but not many tests from filmmakers. Most results have been so so though.This is mainly because c-mount zoom lenses generally have a small image circle and do not fill the image sensor of the GH1. So you get the Peep Hole or looking though the lens of a barrel effect.

So here’s the bad with c-mount zoom lenses:

Image circle smaller than sensor
Vignetting and smearing at the edges of the frame
Resolution loss
Wide focal lengths have very small image circles, nothing usable until 25mm- 35mm and higher focal lengths
Depending on the lens, you may need to machine it to fit the c-mount adapter in order to achieve infinity focus

Alright that’s a lot of not so great reasons especially for those like myself who are filmmakers unless you have a stylistic piece you want that image circle to fill that entire sensor through out the zoom range.

So why waste the time.
Because I’m stubborn and I want to make it work anyway.
So I thought I’d test it out.

The first lens that I’ll be testing is the Angenieux Type L2/L3 1:2.2/17-68 c-mount zoom lens. It is not perfect by any means and has many of the problems that I pointed out that are the downsides with c-mount zooms but over all I was pleasantly surprised to see some really good results. The clip that is posted here are just straight up mundane doc style footage. Nothing fancy. Just cut and dry. So please excuse some of the shakiness and random footage or commentary by me at the end. I didn’t have my tripod and am still testing out my own variation of a Gorillapod and a Noga Arm called a Gorilla Noga.

The footage was shot in my stomping grounds Chinatown North and Chinatown proper in Philadelphia. I used no ND filters just the lens and shot only 1080/24p with a shutter of 50 and 720/30p with a shutter of 50 as well. All clips had pull down removed using compressor.

Obviously,when using the GH1 digital 2x setting, you are getting an image that is cropped with resolution loss but the results are better than expected. I think scaling up the image and cropping out the vignetting and the “Peep Hole Effect” in Final Cut Pro seems to help with a better image but I have to do a few more tests to be sure. I think despite the image resolution loss it would be very usable for HD presentations on your HD Flatscreen tv or local indy community film screening. For those who are still putting out SD material which we all still do, the footage will be very usable.

Here are a few pluses for using zoom lenses on a GH1:

You can find c-mount zoom lenses that are faster, many can find at f/2.2, f/1.9 even f/1.2!!
Many c-mount zoom lenses are smaller and lighter than the stock lens especially tv lenses
You can focus much more easily with a small c-mount zoom than the stock lens
Some are still super cheap!! You can find many c-mount zoom security lenses or tv lenses for $50-$100
Despite the resolution loss you can still use the digital 2x and get some nice results or shoot wide with the peep hole circle showing and enlarge and crop in post and get better results.
So you lose your wide shots with the digital 2x zoom, just step back farther when you are shooting!

The GORILLA NOGA on GH1

What do you get when you cross a Joby Gorillapod SLR- Zoom and a Noga HOLDIT 3-Joint Locking Articulated Arm? A GORILLA NOGA!!

It’s a mini tripod!! It’s a DV stabilizer!! It’s a mini steadicam!!

Just before the GH1 came out there were lots of folks exploring ways to stabilize the GH1. Because of it’s small size, many folks this summer looked at the Joby Gorillapod as a possible GH1 stabilizer.

Of course many GH1 users continue to tinker with their gear to create modified rigs with bastardized parts from our old 35mm adapter rigs that are sitting and collecting dust. Inspired by retroleum and folks at DVXUser forum, I started to tinker too. I bought a Joby Gorillapod SLR-Zoom (you can find them for $30-45 bucks) and I felt it was useful but it didn’t have the flexibility of use that I needed it for my work. I wanted to create a simple rig that could be put in a small camera bag and used for the documentary that I am working on about the Jook Songs Asian American performing group at Yale University.

It’s the 10 year anniversary of Jook Songs and we are putting together a little doc to commemorate the groups existence. What I’m currently doing is sending a GH1 in a small camera bag all around the country to members of Jook Songs past and present for a portion of our documentary called “Video Check-Ins”. Each member will get the GH1 package and film a day in their life as well as give reflections on the impact of the group on their lives today.

I wanted to put everything they needed in a small camera bag including a tripod, stabilizer, and steadicam. Ha! Of Course we all would to put all our gear in one small bag. At least I tried…

So I rummaged through my gear and found a heavy duty Noga arm that I wasn’t using and found a 3/8-16 and 1/4-20 Universal Converter kit that I purchased from filmtools.com. Then I attached the pieces together to a Joby Gorillapod SLR-Zoom Tripod and I put it all together and viola! The GORILLA NOGA!

This little guy folds down and pops into my GH1 camera bag. It’s super light weight, flexible, and gives you the ability to have a small tripod, a camera stabilizer and a mini steadicam, all in one, all fitting in a little bag.

In fact, all the footage shot for my c-mount zoom Angenieux tests were used with the little GORILLA NOGA mainly as a mini tripod and GH1 stabilizer. Some footage was a little shaky but that’s at the higher focal ranges where having a tripod should be the norm. You can view a little bit of the Angenieux footage with the GORILLA NOGA abilities here on this blog.

One of the great things about using the GORILLA NOGA with the GH1 and Angenieux Type L2/L3 zoom lens is since the lens is so small it does not create a top heavy feel to the GH1 allowing the use of the GORILLA NOGA’s flexibility to create a counterweight to allow for a pretty successful steadicam feel.

Here is a tutorial that I put together for the Jook Songs group who will be using the GORILLA NOGA and the GH1. You can just skip through my simplistic explanations on GH1 use. I apologize in advance for my simplistic tutorial on the GH1′s use but I just needed to convey the use of the GH1 to users who may be technically challenged.

Over the Valley – Pink Martini

We just want to say many thanks to Pink Martini for selecting our animated short film as one of the top five music videos selected for the Pink Martini Music Video Contest. It was truly a dream of mine to put an MV together for one of my favorite bands who I have admired, respected, and seen grow from their early beginnings. Our MV for their beautiful ballad “Over the Valley” took a fifth place award and we are very humbled to be chosen.

The film is dedicated to my “Auntie Lina” Marcelina Doma who came to the Philippines in the late 60s and was a telephone operator for White Memorial Hospital in Los Angeles. Her home was the touch point for many of my family who came to the U.S. and we would affectionately call her small apartment in East Los Angeles “Auntie Lina’s Place”. She helped raise me and did not have any children of her own. Her children were all her family who she helped take care of so that they could all have better lives and her many stuffed animals that she collected over the years.

She was also a fanatic documentarian and had her super 8 camera around with her documenting all our family gatherings and daily events. In a small way, that has rubbed off on me and the work I do documenting everyday stories and peoples lives comes from seeing her filming all of us.

When I first heard “Over the Valley” for the first time I thought of Auntie Lina and the animated story for this MV is a metaphor for her life and dedicated to her memory. Both Rocky Kev and I who collaborated to create the piece wanted to create something simple and touching that brings elements of childhood memories and reflections of our loved ones past. Today August 12, 2010 marks the anniversary of her passing and I know that she would have loved this animated film.

Her spirit will always be with us.

We are truly honored to have been selected from the many fine pieces that were submitted to this contest. Again for both of us, the beauty is in the simple fact that we created it and are able to share it to others who I hope will also be touched by its message. I’d like to give a special shout out and thank you to my sister Jenny San Angel (pictured above with me and my Auntie Lina). She introduced me to Pink Martini and their amazing music and sent me the link to participate in this contest.

Please enjoy “Over the Valley” by Pink Martini

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

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.

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.

Pegasus II Jump Test

One of the members over at DVXUser asked me to do a simple test with the Pegasus II, a jump test as well as a test to show some simple panning left to right with the Pegasus rebalanced with more weights I thought I’d show the results here. I also added a brisk back and forth walk test. This was shot on the upstairs Mezzanine level of the Asian Arts Initiative. The safety railing looks a little off and one might think the camera was not properly balanced but the building is old and the floor is not exactly level. Just thought I’d let you know that in case you were wondering.

I have not found the ideal balance of the weights of the Pegasus II system yet but I am getting close. My feeling over all is that if you are shooting and doing simple to moderate tracking movements you should be able to capture some real nice results using the Pegasus II. As I stated in my previous post, practice and a little anticipation will help capture more intricate movements but overall you will get the bobbing head of the camera effect as it tries to move back into position from a quick move. Unless you are able to use your free hand to guide the camera, running or even fast walking does not seem like a reality with this unit as you can see from the clip. Still though, with the new weights it is much more fluid and has a significant amount of control.

As with any piece of gear, my feeling is that there are some limitations using the Pegasus II. You just have to work within these limitations in order to get consistent results. Also, something that I think all GH1 users have to deal with is using the stock lens and autofocus when using a video stabilizer. As you can see from the clip, the auto focus kicks in and out especially in low light situations or fast movement.

Pegasus II on GH1 More Weight

With the help of a few folks at DVXUser and also from Frederick Cheung distributor for Wondlan products, I was able to balance the Pegasus II unit better by adding some additional weights. I still don’t think I have it right exactly because when doing the push-front pull-back test that Wondlan recommends the camera still dips down and back up. But rather than spend all day figuring out the best setting I readjusted the weight as best as I could and quickly went to shoot the opening reception of “Furious Style!” involving New York based visual artist Jeff Cylkowski.

This first set of clips was part B of the initial test of the Pegasus II DV Stabilizer which includes some tracking shots and skater footage.

You’ll notice in the footage that the The Pegasus II unit was not weighted down enough so it does sway side to side or up and down a bit and unfortunately because of this problem the skater footage was really bad so what I have attached on the tail end of this footage are just the usable shots.

All this footage was shot at the Asian Arts Initiative, a community arts center in Philadelphia and the youth are participating in the Youth Lounge where students can come on a Tuesday or Thursday to hang out and develop their own skills in their own discipline or to learn something new.

The footage was shot at 1080/24P and for days I was having tremendous problems getting NeoScene to transcode the footage on a MAC using the Cineform (422) MOV quicktime container. I’ve figured out some possible workarounds. For now, I’d say when you use the cineform container always set it to best and don’t work from a preset there seems to be a bug where sometimes the clips transcode without changing the framerate to 23.98.

This is test shoot #2 using the Pegasus II with the GH1.

As I said, I had to shoot some B-roll and document “Furious Style!,” a youth-centered exhibition led by NYC based artist Jeff Cylkowski at the Asian Arts Initiative.

Kaitin Dugan, who is one of my students in our Tech Apprenticeship program guides us on a tour of the artwork and theater space in this clip. You’ll see some artwork, very enthusiastic youth who love to be on camera and Jeff the artist and instructor as he talks a little bit about the work.

These clips are all raw. Again, this is just for the purposes of showing the Pegasus II at work in a typical event type shoot. The audio was recorded from the camera. It sucks. Actually, when the subject is close to the camera and there is no competing noise it’s usable but when we went into the gallery space with the crowd and DJ music playing, the voice gets lost.

At least for those who are looking at using the GH1 as a documentary type camera or event camera you can see what is usable camera audio and what is clearly not.

Also, I Ieft the clip long so you can shuttle threw it and see the Pegasus II and it’s use over a period of time. Walking though a crowd, walking up stairs, it did pretty well.

There were a few spots with a fast turn or so that gravity made the camera sway but for the most part the extra weight helped. I still think I can get some better settings and tweak the weights a little more.

For the most part the Pegasus II will sway from right to left or up and down if the movement is sudden or jerky. As long as it’s not that, the Pegasus II was was much better and the camera was able to move to where I needed it to go. The nice thing I noticed this time around is that I could move and track Kaitlin’s movement as she walked though the gallery and the crowd with out having to use my other hand to turn the camera.

There is definitely a way where if you work with the gimbal long enough you can counter balance and move the handle to the right place before the camera head starts to turn or sway. Practice and anticipation is the name of the game here.

I think on the second shoot with the Pegasus II I’m still pretty happy with the results especially with the price point. Sure a steadicam has a lot more control, steadyness, and flexibility. There’s no question. If you really need a steadicam shot that requires you to be doing sudden changes and moves this unit will take time to learn in order to achieve that level of precision. If you need a steadicam type unit that is compact and can give you some great stability with out a lot of fatigue I think this unit delivers that.

Personally, I’m glad to be able to have some test shoots with the unit before doing a real shoot. I think the Pegasus II does need practice so that you can create your own workarounds for shots that may require the operator to move quickly.

Jeff Cylkowski – Skater Shot

So after my first test with the GH1 I realized that there was a lot of sway and I needed to correctly balance the camera with the appropriate amount of weights on the Pegasus II.

Now with the Pegasus II optimized with the appropriate weights and with me practicing with the unit for like an hour a day for a week, I decided to give it another go and see if it would be possible to do use the Pegasus II on the GH1 for skate footage. I had done a previous test with some brisk walking and jumping the night before and there was still some sway to the footage so I adjusted my weights again and this is the new results so far.

Jeff Cylkowski, visual artist in residence at the Asian Arts Initiative, was kind enough to let me film him doing a couple skate board runs this past week one very hot and humid Philly evening as the sun was coming down. The first tracking shot of Jeff heading toward the sun, I was following him with a slight jog. The camera did have a little dip here and there but overall much much better than the first skater footage that I posted earlier. The second tracking shot of Jeff was just an all out let’s just see what happens if I run with the Pegasus II and GH1 on the street along side of him. I honestly was not expecting much but when reviewing the tape I was really shocked at how well the Pegasus II did with the new weight system and me being more comfortable with the unit. Again, I was doing my best to balance the camera and run and keep up with Jeff all at the same time. I think if we had a few more tries we may have been able to get a good solid take but it was so hot out there we had to call it. Only downside was that the AF on the camera could not track Jeff. He was moving pretty fast and so the AF clearly loses focus especially toward the end of the run.

Overall, the Pegasus II really has a lot going for it and even with its limitations is a pretty great tool to have in your arsenal. Already for me its so necessary to shoot with the Pegasus II because any camera shake is just magnified on the GH1 so even a little sway here and there from the Pegasus II is so much better than shooting hand held.

If you look at the second run, you’ll see my shadow and reflection in the store windows. I’m pretty much running! It’s crazy!

Lovely to Me (Immigrant Mother) premieres at PAAFF Philadelphia

Chinatown Mural “Colors of Light” by Josh Sarantitis 12th and Vine Street

About a year ago this time I had finished shooting a community arts film project working with the Asian Arts Initiative in Philadelphia using New York based artist Taiyo Na‘s heartfelt song “Lovely to Me (Immigrant Mother)” which honors immigrant mothers and all our moms. The music video continues to impact and touch people from all over the globe on youtube and has been an official selection at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, DisOrient Asian American Film Festival, and San Diego Asian Film Foundation.

Based on the recent success of the music video, I created a documentary version which would fuse both music video and documentary elements into one form as I had originally intended in the initial stages of the creation of this project. I am very proud and honored to have completed the documentary version of “Lovely to Me (Immigrant Mother)” and to have its premiere as an official selection of the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival and presented at the Asian Arts Initiative where the project first began. To celebrate all the moms who were a very special part of this film as well as the neighboring Philadelphia Chinatown Community and to premiere the work at the Initiative for PAAFF was always a dream of mine.

It has been a wonderful journey sharing this beautiful piece at various film festivals across the country and I am so proud to bring it home to Philly.

I know that both Taiyo and I hope that you can continue to share both the music video and documentary to all your family and loved ones.

Please celebrate the upcoming holidays with all those that you love and pass this warm message along.

Warm Wishes,

Gary San Angel

Gary & Mom - Lovely to Me (Immigrant Mother)

Lovely to Me (Immigrant Mother) Mothers Day Version

I think there are just some projects that you do in life where all the stars are aligned and the vision for what is created is not only shared by you but by a whole community. This was one of those projects that I will be proud of for the rest of my life.

Lovely to Me (Immigrant Mother) was a reminder to me of the power of the creative process and that the art of filmmaking at its core and at its very best thrives in a community based process.

This was a key core value to our process. Whenever I talked to Taiyo he would always say, “This is not about me. It’s about the community.”

Working with community can be challenging but I have been doing it for a very long time and I know that part of making a successful process is by having a simple structure that is engaging and where you listen more than you speak and where you can foster and encourage individual voices.

One of the things that we did is we gave an HD camera to individual community members from the Asian Arts Initiative so that they could film their own moms and grandmas from their own point of view as a son or daughter. My direction was simple. Just be. Be with your mom. Be with your grandmother. Film the moment as it is happening. Nothing is too small or mundane. Just be present and real and let the camera and your creativity peel away the layers within.

In the process, these filmmakers with very little training revealed their own moms and grandmas as they truly are showing their love, their strength, their weariness, their laughter, and vulnerability. Nothing was sugar coated. This was the real deal.

The “mom” footage became part of the backbone that has made Lovely to Me (Immigrant Mother) a special kind of music video. A music video with heart.

Lovely to Me (Immigrant Mother) has had more than 17,000 viewers with postings on many community blogs and has been very well received at the Los Angles Asian Pacific Film Festival and DisOrient Film Festival in Eugene, Oregon. We have been floored and moved by the response as it continues to garner attention.

It had always been my hope to create a variation of the music video as a short film version and to get it in time for Mothers Day.

Back in the day, when you would go to your mom and pop record shop and purchase a new single sometimes you would have a b-side with a different cut of the song. I always found little surprises and often times found new meaning from the song with the new variation of that single. In some small way I hope that you can find the Mothers Day version of Lovely to Me (Immigrant Mother) as a variation on that theme. It’s an experiment to fuse documentary and music video together as short film. I had always wanted to figure a way to make it work and I think after months of trying and then giving up I finally found something that I’m really proud of. I think this is a start in the right direction in what I hope will be an exciting ongoing exploration of this form.

The initial release of the music video fell on the Thanksgiving holiday and I only thought it was appropriate to book end that with the final short film release of the Mothers Day version of Lovely to Me (Immigrant Mother). (We are a little late of course. But its coming to you Filipino Time!)

I want to give my whole hearted love and thanks to Taiyo Na for taking a chance on me and letting this song touch the lives of so many people from our neighborhoods to the world wide web. I want to give a special shout out to our producer David Lin who has been a long time friend and collaborator from the Peeling the Banana years in NYC and has helped greatly to make this project a reality. I want to also honor and thank Gayle Isa and the Asian Arts Initiative community who have really been the core inspiration and the visual voice for this beautiful song.

Happy belated Mothers Day! May we always honor our mothers each and everyday!

With that I say, “Love you Mom!” And enjoy the Mothers Day version of Lovely to Me (Immigrant Mother).

Flying Away to the Movies

OMG!!!! Our trailer called “Flying Away to the Movies” won as the winner of the 2009 Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival.

We were not expecting to win at all seeing some of the other 3-D Animations which were really quite impressive and visually compelling. We thought for sure the judges would go for the other submissions because they had much more of the industry look and commercial appeal.

We really saw ourselves as the Philly underdogs and are really very surprised and honored to be chosen among some very fine trailers submissions. A lot of Philly love was put into this trailer so we are just ecstatic to represent Philly, pay homage to Philly’s Chinatown, and create something that we hope will bring a smile to your face and make you think of the first time you went to the movies.

Here’s a little more info:

Animator Rocky Kev, music recording artist Wayne Hsu and, filmmaker and director Gary San Angel create a 30 second trailer for the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival called “Flying Away to the Movies.” A young boy leaves his static television world and follows a flying film reel, taking a journey to find inspiration in movies at Philadelphia’s very own Chinatown Arch where the opening night film of the festival is about to begin. Rocky Kev’s vibrant digitally hand drawn animations and Wayne Hsu’s catchy high soaring music inspire us to remember why we are drawn to going to the movies in the first place. The animation includes a cast of hundreds and is meant to be seen again and again allowing the viewer to find and hear things that they never saw each time they see it. We’re glad to represent Philly and PAAFF and hope that our trailer will be something that people will look forward to seeing, something that they will remember and associate with PAAFF even after this year’s festival.

On behalf of myself, Rocky, and Wayne, we humbly thank the judges for the award and are extremely excited and honored to be chosen as the winner of the 2009 Philadelphia Asian American Film festival Trailer Contest!

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