Letus Extreme Short Film - Left For Dead

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Using the Letus35 Extreme film lens adapter, I shot my first short film inside an abandoned warehouse near my home. The lens used was a $30 Korean 28mm f2.8 prime. The vignetting and color grading was done with Magic Bullet Looks. I used a homemade dolly system for the slow cinematic slides. The film was shot in 1080i HDV and edited using Final Cut Pro. Please go to tomguilmette.com for more info. If you have an old computer, turn HD off. Music selection: Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts I - Track 2.

Credits

Tom Guilmette
Shot and Edited by:

Sponsored by:

Ray 2 months ago

Very nice! Beautiful colors. The shallow DOF is awesome. I've been looking around at 35mm DOF adapters, but there are so many choices. How do you like the Letus extreme? Are you satisfied with it? I'm assuming the vignetting is intentional, right?
Tom Guilmette 2 months ago

Thanks Ray. I love the Letus Extreme. As for the vignetting, it was intentional. I used Magic Bullet Looks for vignetting and grading.

But... I did notice in my raw footage that there was some soft and minor vignetting on the extreme sides and each of the four corners of the frame. I do not know if this was because of the Letus Extreme or the $30 28mm f2.8 prime lens I had mounted on the front. I will be doing more experimenting at my website.

I will be getting a much more expensive prime lens set (24mm, 28mm, 50mm and 85mm each at f1.4) soon and hope to work on similar projects to post up here on vimeo. For more info, keep an eye on my blog at tomguilmette.com
My vimeo viHDeo ! 2 months ago

dude that was sweet quality
you recorded it in 1080i yeah
what frame rate ?
what format did you upload this?
Jim Renaud 2 months ago

this is awesome. love the effect - love the bokeh
Tom Guilmette 2 months ago

Danny, yea it was recorded in 1080i 60i at 29.97 frames per second and i edited the hdv with final cut. I exported the entire timeline as a quicktime video with h.264 codec. I kept the current frame rate and limited the data rate to 3000 kb. The frame size was set to 1280x720 and I de-interlaced the video. The total file size was 65.49 MB. I hope this helps. If you own a PC computer, recycle it and buy a brand new Apple Mac. Just trust me, I made the transition four months ago and have never looked back.
Kjewbee 1 month ago

3 months ago I bought a brand new mac 24".... sold it..... back to pc.. and will never look back.. at mac.
ricci ocampos 2 months ago

nice..love the bokeh
Blake Whitman 2 months ago

nice work.

if you have pictures of your rig, I'd love to see them. and if you have/setup a flickr account, you can add them to the side of this page.
Jon Rawlinson 2 months ago

Ya I second that. I'd love to see your dolly rig!
Tom Guilmette 24 days ago

check out my blog on my homepage for pictures. it is located at tomguilmette.com
bgd73 2 months ago

looks great. I just recently had to run my dsl line through a surge protector, vids came back to life here. not necessarily a slow machine stopping hd, even software can render it on a 10 year old machine. I was listening to muse during the vid "falling down".
Brad Groux 2 months ago

Nice use of Nine Inch Nails song 2 from Ghosts I... it is such an amazing track. I know the entire Ghosts collection was released under creative commons but you should still have put a credit in there for it... your name is credited so should those of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (who both wrote the particular track) or simply "Nine Inch Nails."

With that said, it was an excellent piece... and you might be interested in Trent Reznor's announcement today about a "Ghosts Film Festival" that just launched with "that other" video site. See NIN.com for details.
Jon Rawlinson 2 months ago

Fantastic dolly moves. Lovely visuals. Really nice piece. How do you like Magic bullet looks? Worth buying?
Steve Holt 2 months ago

Really looks great. Very nice.
Tom Guilmette 2 months ago

Jon, I do like Magic Bullet Looks. It is worth it. MBLooks is like $350 and the entire suite is just over $700. I just have MBLooks. I added a music credit in my description, thanks for pointing this out. NIN deserve credit. As for the dolly in this project, here is my blog on the production from my website: tomguilmette.com/Site/Toms_Blog/Entries/2008/3/10_Left_For_Dead_Short_Film_Behind_The_Scenes.html
Brad Groux 2 months ago

I appreciate the update, I wasn't meaning to be a hard ass about the credit, but as a fan I do love to see Trent and company's music put to good use... which you have splendidly done... and I'd like to see his fanbase improve whenever possible since he is one of the few artists that actually cares about his fans. Thanks again for a wonderful piece and I hope you look into the NIN Ghosts movie festival, this is easily a solid entry.

Also, thanks for posting an indepth behind the scenes look, it's great stuff for amateurs like me to see how a real professional does it.
Tom Guilmette 2 months ago

Thanks Brad. I will look into the film festival. I hope to continue posting behind the scenes blogs on future projects.
Tom Guilmette 2 months ago

I just bought six more lenses for my letus this morning. As I create more content, it will hit my website first at tomguilmette.com and then it will be posted here. Thanks for viewing it.
Jay Boy's Random Cutz 2 months ago

Damn man! nice!
BorisG 2 months ago

that was amazingly beautiful
35mm + dolly + HD = WIN
Robert Croma 2 months ago

Superbly done.
Tom Guilmette 2 months ago

Thank you. I am shooting in New Hampshire with the dolly track on Monday. I hope to post more here by the end of the week.
Dave Windle 2 months ago

A really classy piece. For me the smoothness of the movement was stunning. One critisism, if I may, the first 'running man' worked very well after that it was a bit gimmicky. Having said that...I wish I could produce something as good. !!
Josue Ibañez 2 months ago

love it!. Nice work ;)
Jorge Quinteros 2 months ago

Great camera use, editing and the soft tones make the film even more intriguing. Of course the music also tops it off.
Tom Guilmette 2 months ago

check out "the warehouse" in my other videos. shot at the same location but this time, with a story and actors. same dolly moves.
xoozn 1 month ago

which cam are u using? Z1?
Tom Guilmette 1 month ago

yea. "left for dead" and "the warehouse" were both shot with the z1u. i now own the sony ex1. it looks even better than the z1u.
Mike Gill 6 days ago

ok...now this reminds me of some dodgy places I know in Dublin....home sweet home ey....nice vid mate - as always....