I finally finished my Whistler snowboarding documentary 2 weeks ago. Sorting through 14 hours of footage, editing them down, syncing music, fixing audio, and color correcting was an exhaustive process. Not to mention that it took over 13 hours to render.

I definitely took a lot of short cuts and after 3 edited versions, I finally came away with a 50 minute movie that I felt somewhat happy with. Is it the type of professional style documentary I envisioned? Definitely not. Actually, not even close. But is it a fun memory filled movie that myself and friends can always treasure? Yes, and to the reactions from my friends, they certainly enjoyed it. I world premiered it on my friends 60+ inch projector screen, complete with surround sound, and it really was rewarding to see your efforts on the “big screen”. I know my second short film/documentary/idea will be greatly improved with the added experience.

With that said, I recently purchased a 35mm DOF adapter for my HF100. I finally got to play around with it last weekend and so far I am very pleased with the early results. Having shallow depth of field opens up a whole new possibility for my footage and I feel like it really separates it away from your typical video look to a more cinematic ‘film’ look. There are definitely some issues I’ll need to work around or get used to. Shooting a flipped image, focusing precisely, and getting maximum light are just a few. There’s a lot of good reviews and resources floating around on the web for anyone interested in learning more. And by the way, Jehu Garcia (creator) offers exceptional customer service and is really a helpful person.

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