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"Sick Love" Orgy making-of
  • You came for the technical details, right? :) This is a shoot I provided production services for, I don't think the video is out yet. The "Director" operated a 5DMk2 as that's where his world ends; I shot the making-of on a Hague MMC stabilizer with the GH2 patched with Valkyrie 1.3. I used an old fixed lens (Pentacon 29mm/f2.8) that cost me like $25, it was the only one I had weight-wise that could be flown on the MMC.

    For post I used AE (32bpc) with a filter stack along these lines: - NeatVideo for noise removal - ColorGhear (only Green Kill with luma curve adjustments, just for the convenience of the preset) - FilmConvert Pro (color temps ranging 4500-5600K, GH2 Smooth profile, Fuji Reala emulation, S35 sensor size, 33% grain). Since I shot most of the material with the "wrong" white-balance (intentionally) I used the color temp control of this plug-in to get a combined warm/cold look. Most lights on the set were 3200K. Using Adobe Media Encoder, I rendered out a Cineform 444 master, out of which I made a high-bitrate H.264, and this is what I uploaded. I let Vimeo downres from 1080p to 720p, which probably wasn't that smart. Maybe I should spring for a Pro account...

  • 6 Replies sorted by
  • hey, GH2 user from RO. fain

  • @radikalfilm I'm thinking of buying a hague MMC stabilizer for my GH3. Does it work?

  • It does; sort of. You'd have to manage your expectations, and within that (very) limited subset, you'll get a lot more than your monies worth. The maximum camera mass that can be reasonably balanced is about 600g (they advertise 800g). It is very finicky to get balancing right, it needs milimetre adjustments. It will not balance the Panny 14-140 lens, it becomes too front heavy. You'll have to use pancakes or lightweight primes with adapters. It is very limited in balancing off-center mass.

    All the above applies to the GH2 which is about 400g body only. I expect GH3 to be heavier. Besides the GH2 I used it with an older Sony handycam, SR-1; quite a bit easier to balance (it's bulkier and has its mass evenly distributed).

    If you do balance it you'll have to learn how to walk, which is different from a steadycam rig. You'll get about 80% of the job done (it's prone to sideways tilt when you turn corners, so move intelligently), the remaining 20% can be improved with software stabilization (Warp Stabilizer in CS6 is awesome).

    All moving shots in the clip above are with the MMC only (no software stabilization), the very first time I used it. I wasn't trying very hard as I was there to provide production services, the making-of was a bonus of sorts for the customer.

  • @polybious I shot this music video entirely on a Hague MMC however it was with a 550D but I'm sure it will be the same (or similar) with a GH3. It was EXTREMELY windy that day as I was up high so it may not be the best example but it held up ok. If I had the chance to go back and decide whether or not to get one, I probably wouldn't get it as it's pretty limited and has just collected dust for over a year now.

    Adreyn Cash - Slowmotion from Joshua Alderson on Vimeo.

  • yeah you could have stabilized it additionally in post to raise production value, the movement is basically fine. Agree it's limited, but within those limits it can be useful. Mine has been collecting dust for 2yrs now, so... :)

  • Looks nice. I hope the shot in ML RAW. :)