A month ago I called your attention to a teaser for a short film called White Red Panic by Ayz Waraich. The film is now complete, and viewable on Vimeo as well as on his site, dimeworth.com.
Don't you dare watch the video in this little window though. Go to the Vimeo page, download the full-res movie (requires logging in) and watch it full screen. I watched it projected at 1080p 90" wide played off a PS3.
And it looked damn good.
Ayz is my new "shut up and make movies" poster boy. He didn't fuss with 35mm adapters and carbon fiber matte boxes. Instead he tamed the toy (the in-spite-of-itself Canon HV20) and put some fine actors with a good, simple story into shots he knew he could make look great using a combination of well-considered camera settings and ample color correction.
Thankfully for all of us, Ayz has started to share some of his production methods on the Rebel Café, including these color correction before/afters.
Read the thread on the Rebel Café and get inspired—but don't make the mistake of thinking that you need to do exactly what Ayz did. The point is that he got off his ass and made a film at a scale he knew he could slam dunk, with the gear he had available.
See, I love Redrock adapters and follow focuses and jibs and anamorphic lenses. But I worry when I see young filmmakers thinking that they should not embark on a project without having all that stuff. Ayz estimates his budget at somehwere south of $1,000. Add the cost of a brand new HV30 to that and you still haven't come close to the cost of most fancy DV matte boxes. Think real hard about that the next time your gear lust overtakes you. I know I will.
Rock on Ayz. You deserve all the attention you're getting for this flick.