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I was actually gonna comment on it since I noticed it in a few shots, but I figured I was crazy from pixel peeping. It's actually not terrible, it just shows up in annoying places that are hard to fix like reflections in the crutches or glass of water. The first shot where she drops everything it's kind of creating a bad cast on the midtones and shadows too, but I think that would've been an easy enough fix - push the gain in the midtones, maybe power windows around her arms and desaturate green or push the hue to more of a red. Also, is that operatic vocal custom? Sounds like she's singing about Rolo!
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Sep 4, 2014 09:03
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The music is all original and she is singing about Rolo, in Italian I think. Ha.
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Sep 5, 2014 03:25
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This thread has been really quiet so I thought I'd try to liven things up a bit with some camera chat. Been working on two different features over the last month, one with the F55 and one an Alexa/Amira show. I'd never used the Amira before this and was pretty excited to be using it, it's on permanent B-cam/Steadicam/handheld duty while the Alexa does its A-cam thing. I've fallen deeply in love with it. It's just so well designed. Perfectly balanced, got some mass and inertia to it but it's still very lightweight (especially for an ARRI!). You can tell they put a lot of thought into designing it as a camera that works right out of the box, without needing to add any stupid 3rd party crap. Having it on your shoulders feels a lot like the old ENG cameras used to, the CG is in exactly the right place so that it feels perfectly balanced on your shoulders and setting it up on Steadicam takes seconds. Even little touches, like having the menu system on the operator side instead of the AC side (like the Alexa) show that they're really focused on making this a one-man-band camera, though admittedly that side is not the best place for the menu on a feature. I even really like the viewfinder! During my time with it we experienced exactly zero problems. No crashes, no corruption of data, quick boot time, and it's 12v! The only thing that bugged me was that it's yet another different power plug. But I've given up on buying plugs and power cables and now just run any camera with the onboard battery, I'll gladly take the few extra pounds in weight if it saves me hundreds of dollars to get new plugs made every time a new camera comes out. I still have an entire case filled with different power plugs worth thousands and I rarely use any of them so it just seems like wasted money at this point. So in all, being on this set felt a lot like my old film days where the A-cam was the heavy and tricked out Panaflex/Moviecam/ARRi, while the B-cam/Steadicam was the nice and lightweight, stripped down, Aaton. I enjoyed my time with the Amira tremendously and can't wait to shoot with it again. Oh also the quality is obviously great, whatever, who cares at this level.
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Oct 15, 2014 10:24
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I'm selling four Sony HXR-NX5U camcorders with pelican cases over in SA-Mart at goon discount pricing if anyone here is in the market for that kind of thing.    
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Oct 16, 2014 10:56
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Steadiman posted:Amira stuff Does anybody know how the Amira compares to the Sony F5 balance-wise? My company has been looking into upgrading from their old-rear end Panasonic ENGs, and the one they seem to be leaning toward is the F5, but I feel like all of the camera operators here are waaaay more interested in something like the Amira. I've ACed with the F5 once, and maybe it was the kit we had but it seemed closer to having a DSLR rig with the weight all out on your arms than it did to having an ENG cam on your shoulder.
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Oct 16, 2014 16:39
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I've never touched an Amira but I didn't think the F5's balance was that bad with the Raw recorder and a battery on the back. I don't know how well it compares to an ENG camera but it definitely seemed balanced compared to a DSLR rig.
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Oct 16, 2014 17:04
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Having the raw recorder on the back helps a great deal with the balance of the F5. My set-up was the F5 with the Red 17-50 and the shoulder pad wasn't able to go forward enough to get a good balance of the rig. It also wasn't the most comfortable of shoulder pads. The new Sony FS7 looks like a great camera to go on the shoulder.
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Oct 16, 2014 17:19
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Yeah, the F5 setup on that shoot wasn't the greatest, I don't think, but I figured I'd see what everyone else thought. The DP didn't want to use the shoulder pad, so he just had the rails on his shoulder. No raw recorder, either, just a Titan transmitter and hops, and it was not balanced well at all, but I wasn't sure if that was because his preference was weird or because it was not easy to set it up so it had decent balance. That was all before I started working for this company, though, and they seem to be leaning toward those. They've rented them for a couple shoots already to test them out, so I'm hoping this isn't going to be a painful (for my back) transition if they go through with it.
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Oct 17, 2014 06:15
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For an out of the box shoulder camera I'd easily choose the Amira any day. It's really designed for shoulder mounting/documentary style shooting and the shoulder pad has great range of adjustment. Once you add the battery it becomes a very sweet system and certainly the equal of any old-school ENG camera. Slap on a nice zoom and you're good to go! The F5/F55 is decently balanced but really only becomes comfortable with some more weight behind it, especially with a zoom, it's a bit too small and forward-balanced by itself. So yeah, with the RAW deck and a battery it's pretty good, maybe a bit too much weight in the front still, depending on the lens, but perfectly doable. Personally I prefer a self-contained system where I don't need to add crap to make it balance well so, like I said, I would choose the Amira. By itself, without additional stuff, the F5/F55 is still better than anything else in its class (Epic, C-whatever-00, Blackmagic, etc.) but it could be better.
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Oct 17, 2014 15:42
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Cool poo poo in the lens world if you haven't already heard: Canon's now making a 50-1000mm zoom lens for cinema and video with a constant T5.0 out to 560mm. http://matthewduclos.wordpress.com/2014/10/16/canon-announces-worlds-longest-cinema-zoom-50-1000mm/ Voigtlander's making a 10.5mm f0.95 lens for micro four thirds(effectively a 21mm compared to full-frame 35mm). They already make 17.5mm, 25mm and 42.5mm lenses at the same 0.95 f-stop, so they have a pretty solid set of manual primes for all the new GH4 and black magic users. http://matthewduclos.wordpress.com/2014/09/16/new-10-5mm-nokton-from-voigtlander-sure-to-please-micro-43-shooters/
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Oct 22, 2014 04:44
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I was the DP on this video a while back, quite pleased with the result for the little budget/time we had. Simple performance piece, shot on a C300 with Compact Primes. The band is called Chef'Special, I'd never heard of them but I'm told they're pretty popular in Holland. Very nice guys and fun to work with, one of the few videos I've done where I didn't mind the song and didn't want to blow my brains out after hearing it hundreds of times. Hope you like it  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmQ3QXqxZMw
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Oct 22, 2014 10:54
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I'm curious, how did you guys get to the point where you billed yourself as a cinematographer/DP/cameraman? I'd like to see if I could do production work as a hobby/side job, but I'm at a loss as far as how to get experience. e: More specifically, it doesn't seem like there are a whole lot of opportunities to get on a film crew without experience. If Craigslist is anything to go by (and if it's not, what are the alternatives?), even people asking for volunteer PAs on their student films want prior experience. Baronash fucked around with this message at 23:42 on Oct 29, 2014 |
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Oct 29, 2014 20:23
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Yeah but how many K's does it have? Yeah that's what I THOUGHT. No thanks, I'll stick to my Canon Red Epic.
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Oct 30, 2014 10:46
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Every time I see this camera, I keep wondering how to get rid of that ENORMOUS slab of empty space between the dovetail and the actual camera body. That shoulder pad gap is lovely for handheld maybe (assuming ENG lenses, because like with the Alexa, I feel CG is closer to the sensor plane), but on my rig? I fear the gap.
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Oct 31, 2014 08:34
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JohnSherman posted:I'm curious, how did you guys get to the point where you billed yourself as a cinematographer/DP/cameraman? I'd like to see if I could do production work as a hobby/side job, but I'm at a loss as far as how to get experience. SquareDog posted:Yeah but how many K's does it have? Yeah that's what I THOUGHT. No thanks, I'll stick to my Canon Red Epic. Tiresias posted:Every time I see this camera, I keep wondering how to get rid of that ENORMOUS slab of empty space between the dovetail and the actual camera body. That shoulder pad gap is lovely for handheld maybe (assuming ENG lenses, because like with the Alexa, I feel CG is closer to the sensor plane), but on my rig? I fear the gap.
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Nov 1, 2014 12:06
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https://vimeo.com/111403592 #lightmetersareforpussies (search for the original at your own peril, it's bad.)
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Nov 11, 2014 22:26
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Slim Pickens posted:https://vimeo.com/111403592  I know quite a few guys like that. 
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Nov 11, 2014 22:34
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The original makes me legitimately angry
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Nov 11, 2014 22:57
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We just finished up two videos I'm fairly happy with. This one was a pro-bono project so the color is... not great, but I think it turned out really well for two shoot days with me, the creative director, and a client contact. I still can't believe how many interviews we got: https://vimeo.com/109478227 And a tunnel walk video for the local university's hockey team. This shoot was something of a disaster from the start thanks to a whole host of factors, but wound up OK: https://vimeo.com/109281078
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Nov 12, 2014 00:46
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JohnSherman posted:I'm curious, how did you guys get to the point where you billed yourself as a cinematographer/DP/cameraman? I'd like to see if I could do production work as a hobby/side job, but I'm at a loss as far as how to get experience. I would suggest avoiding Craigslist for any real work experience when you are starting out. There are legitimate jobs there sometimes but you have to look through a ton of poo poo to find them and if you are just getting into the industry I doubt you will know how to distinguish the real from the poo poo. Like Steadiman says there is no set way to become a DP but if you have zero experience on a real set then I would suggest set experience should be your first priority. If you are having trouble landing gigs as a P.A. especially on student films I would suggest doing a little bullshitting about your experience. There really isn't anything I can think of that you will do as a PA that you can't learn on the fly plus most people will treat you like you don't know poo poo anyways. The big thing is to learn set etiquette. Just make sure you bust rear end and network as much as possible when you do land a gig. Also like Steadiman says real work in the industry isn't for the hobbyist. When you are starting out you are going to be doing some awful and boring poo poo. As far as alternatives to Craigslist I would say check out http://www.staffmeup.com , http://www.mandy.com/ , http://www.productionhub.com/jobs , http://www.entertainmentcareers.net/ . Also you should hit up your state's film office and see what they have to offer.
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Nov 14, 2014 05:41
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I'm about to direct one of those time-limited film competitions for the first time (in this case it's 100 hours). Had anyone done these? Any tips?
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Nov 24, 2014 19:20
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I've worked crew on a couple 48 hour film fests, the biggest issue I noticed was having too many people trying to contribute to the script. Keep it to one or two writers, 6 people trying to put their creative mark on a script that needs to be locked in 4 hours is gonna create more headaches than you need.
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Nov 25, 2014 06:18
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Do as much as you can before filming begins, obviously. Try to have things so ready that you can walk in minutes before hour one and just start running. Things you didn't notice or didn't get done will pile up in advance and before long, you're spending more time not filming than filming. A good staging area will save you an unbelievable amount of time. Have food planned and ready in advance. Other than that, just really pay attention to when you're slowing down and why. I had a 72-hour that I had to remove nearly all of the crew from the set because of the level of conversation and poo poo slowing things down. Have a spot-on shot list, let it dictate things, and you should be good.
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Nov 25, 2014 17:15
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I'm learning how to use my Sony a7S camera as a hobby, but at work there might be an opportunity for me to use it for actual video recording / production for a podcast, and I learn quick when necessity beckons. What kind of equipment should I be looking for? I'm thinking I'll need a couple of things - Recorder (almost certainly an Atomos Shogun) Tripod Microphones Some sort of rig to mount things on? Some sort of stabilizer for when the camera is going places? Any recommendations?
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Jan 9, 2015 09:07
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Do you really need to be recording in 4k? I'd pull the shogun off till you know you need it. Those are some basics, but it'd help to know what kinds of videos you might be doing. Edit: didn't see the podcast thing. Do you have lights? Might want something there. How many people are on the podcast? What style is it? powderific fucked around with this message at 18:09 on Jan 9, 2015 |
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Jan 9, 2015 17:42
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The rig and stabilizer are probably unnecessary for a podcast.
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Jan 9, 2015 17:47
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Might want to look into ND's if you're using an a7s and want to shoot at proper shutter speed.
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Jan 9, 2015 18:18
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That a7S might not be very user-friendly, and I'm guessing you'll have a hard time getting what you want out of it. So, out of the kindness of my heart, I'll offer to trade it for my much-easier-to-use GH2 and batteries 1:1. I think you'll find you're coming out on top on this deal, but I feel it's my responsibility to help other filmmakers in this thread in any way I can. Honestly though, just worry about a decent tripod with a fluid head and not so much about fancy stabilizers. Cheapo ebay ones would work fine for now, but an older Manfrotto 501will pop up on craigslist fairly often and was probably only used to record the kid's basketball games. Rolling shutter can be kinda brutal on that camera, so handheld you might wanna avoid if you can.
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Jan 9, 2015 20:39
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Pretty sure he's shooting video for a podcast so anything that costs more than $500 on the camera side is probably overkill. Also I thought you only needed ND on the A7s if you shot s-log since the base ISO is so high? I assume shooting in any other gamma settings would be fine and a podcast probably doesn't need to capture more than like 8 stops of DR.
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Jan 9, 2015 21:02
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1st AD posted:Also I thought you only needed ND on the A7s if you shot s-log since the base ISO is so high? I assume shooting in any other gamma settings would be fine and a podcast probably doesn't need to capture more than like 8 stops of DR. this is absolutely correct but why would you ever NOT shoot S-log?  *~tHe RanGe~*
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Jan 9, 2015 21:58
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 Sometimes I shoot rec.709 and ProRes LT on my Blackmagic Camera because I plan on doing little to no color work in post.
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Jan 9, 2015 22:14
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powderific posted:Do you really need to be recording in 4k? I'd pull the shogun off till you know you need it. I haven't gotten the parameters of any video production (just that it's possible or likely), but I expect it to be a mix of indoors and outdoors. Probably two or three people, telling a story rather than purely conversational, so there's room for footage to be played. Slim Pickens posted:That a7S might not be very user-friendly, and I'm guessing you'll have a hard time getting what you want out of it. So, out of the kindness of my heart, I'll offer to trade it for my much-easier-to-use GH2 and batteries 1:1. I think you'll find you're coming out on top on this deal, but I feel it's my responsibility to help other filmmakers in this thread in any way I can. Slim Pickens posted:Honestly though, just worry about a decent tripod with a fluid head and not so much about fancy stabilizers. Cheapo ebay ones would work fine for now, but an older Manfrotto 501will pop up on craigslist fairly often and was probably only used to record the kid's basketball games. Rolling shutter can be kinda brutal on that camera, so handheld you might wanna avoid if you can.
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Jan 9, 2015 22:24
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1st AD posted:
No you doooooooon't  I want an a7s real bad. Even shooting at ISO160 I've started to notice way too much grain on my t2i stills
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Jan 9, 2015 23:45
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You must be doing something wrong because I've never noticed it on my T2i shots. Fake edit: every camera has noise, even at the base ISO. This is why raw workflows include noise reduction.
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Jan 10, 2015 00:45
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Doctor w-rw-rw- posted:Also, agreed; I've seen demonstrations of the rolling shutter so that's why I asked about stabilization and whether I should consider it. Stabilization won't help with rolling shutter unfortunately, as it's not directly caused by camera wobble etc. It's caused by how the sensor works, basically the sensor in a dslr is a strip of vertical lines that turn on one after the other rather than the whole sensor being exposed at once. Rolling shutter happens because the bottom line is seeing something different to the top line in the same exposure.
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Jan 10, 2015 00:56
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1st AD posted:You must be doing something wrong because I've never noticed it on my T2i shots. Yeah I'm reading up on it and the t2i is capable of being practically noiseless even at ISO 400/800. There might be some sort of exposure compensation going on.
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Jan 10, 2015 01:00
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Doctor w-rw-rw- posted:Sounds like a terrible idea. The a7S isn't that confusing to use. I know I'm paying for more than I can use effectively right now, but I'm doing so consciously and plan to stick with the same equipment for the long term. 
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Jan 10, 2015 09:41
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Hey guys! I have some news for the thread....I made an app! Figured this was a nice place to share it too, so far the response has been overwhelming (it got released a few hours ago). It's called "Shot Assistant" and it's basically the app I always wanted. It's like a multitool for people who work with cameras, at its most basic it shows you level/pan/tilt but it has a few extra features that I think make it pretty unique and useful for on-set use. For one thing it does ranging, basically you store whatever angle your shot is currently at and the app will guide you back there with a bunch of visual cues including colors (useful for peripheral ranging). Also it has a seismograph which can be used to hunt down vibrations in shot. Finally it's made to be used with multi touch, the whole screen is a button and the functions change depending on how many fingers you use to touch it! This allows you to set it and store ranges without even looking at your device . Already have a bunch of stuff planned for the next version too but first I'm taking a few days off because the last month has been insane So yeah, I'm pretty proud of it and I'm sharing it all over the place! Hope some of you find a use for it too Have a link: https://itunes.apple.com/nl/app/id961651001
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Feb 4, 2015 13:14
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Steadiman posted:Hey guys! I have some news for the thread....I made an app! Figured this was a nice place to share it too, so far the response has been overwhelming (it got released a few hours ago). It's called "Shot Assistant" and it's basically the app I always wanted. It's like a multitool for people who work with cameras, at its most basic it shows you level/pan/tilt but it has a few extra features that I think make it pretty unique and useful for on-set use. For one thing it does ranging, basically you store whatever angle your shot is currently at and the app will guide you back there with a bunch of visual cues including colors (useful for peripheral ranging). Also it has a seismograph which can be used to hunt down vibrations in shot. Finally it's made to be used with multi touch, the whole screen is a button and the functions change depending on how many fingers you use to touch it! This allows you to set it and store ranges without even looking at your device NIce! Passing this around to our guys today. edit: Also US link is here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id961651001
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Feb 4, 2015 16:05
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I'll put it on our slate iPad and get some of the guys to play around with it later today, thanks for the link!
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Feb 4, 2015 16:28
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