DOUCE CHINE: Technical detail for every shot (Camera/lens/Aperture)

Birth of the “Douce Chine” Project: Twice a year I am teaching a 10 weeks (25 hours) filmmaking course in Shanghai. www.shanghai-classes.com/filmmaking For the 2014 spring term, I decided to help one of my friends, by shooting a music video for his new Album: Douce Chine (China Delight). This was an interesting project for my students as well, as we had time to work on lighting set up and camera positioning. Song is about a guy who is used to travel from France to China, mixing up jet lag feeling with night life, good wine and wave of exciting emotion spicing up his life in China. This 4 minutes video was integrally shot in 10 hours (2 afternoons) in our classroom which is only 25m2. That means we could only walk 5 steps max in the different directions of the room.

Why multi cameras shoot? Out of my teaching work in photography and filmmaking, I am both a pro photographer and DP/cameraman. I am having lots of gears and this shooting was a good place to put all of my cameras at work for the good of the students; Nikon D800, Lumix GH2, Lumix GH3 and Panasonic AF100. I hired one of my Photography students (Richard) to be my main assistant and he brought along his Leica M240 he had never tried in video mode so we decided to give it a try on that project. Music video is the place for multi camera shooting as you cannot ask the singer to repeat the exact same performance many times in one afternoon. Despite the lack of space in our classroom, we managed to position the camera to cover as many angle as possible in our 3 different sets of background: Simple black back drop, (fake) Bed and Chinese curtain, Window with (fake) street light reflection. There is no use to get many cameras in action if their position and angle of view are not both different and matching.

Image bank from extra cameras On the image shot for the music video, I add a layer of images I shot in the previous years in France and China. They were shot with GH1 (night shots and on board shots) Panasonic HVX200 (club and slomo of people walking) and HVX200 with Letus Ultimate (Water shot, airplane, traditional places…). I followed up with the HD evolution but all my HVX shots (720p 50fps) still looks real good even blew over scaled to 1080p. Great cams always existed and any day, I can still grab my HVX200 if it matches my need on a new project.

Which lenses? I am having some great lenses and I used some of my favorite on that shooting; Voigtlander 25mm f0.95, Nikon AIS 50mm f1.2, Nikon 85mm f1.4 AFD, Computar 75mm f1.4 (a rare but cheap CCTV lens great for portrait) Prior to the shoot, I bought a 35mm f1.8G (DX version) which is doing very well on the D800 even in FX mode as I knew I would add some vignette in post. I am always taking advantage of this type of experimental project to test new things without pressure. The GH2 was hanged to the ceiling on top of the fan with the Voigtlander 25mm which was wide enough to get the establishment shot at once. The D800 shared the 35mm and 50mm at f2. The GH3 always used a Speed Booster (great tool that I highly recommend) with the Nikon 85mm 1.4 which is an amazing lens (older AFD version half price than the new G version). The AF103 mainly used the Computar (200 USD lens). For the Leica, Richard brought along his 50mm f0.95, 35mm f1.4 and 90mm f2. Those 3 lens costs more than my complete equipment, but they are already sharp fully open and get their own character which makes their full frame image looks more like Medium format camera.

Light and camera settings. This is not a proper camera test as the aim was to complete the music video shooting. Therefore, we didn’t try different set up on camera or aperture on lenses to compare. Instead, we kept everything pretty much the same. I am used to set up a lighting to be able to shoot at f2 on all camera at ISO200 (base iso for GH2, GH3 and AF100). This Aperture offers great sharpness on all my lenses and it also allows me to use lenses of any angle of view from 12mm to 180mm at f2(with speed booster) on M43 (which means 24mm to 320mm on FX). I am also working at f2 most of the time as I know the combination of lights able to deliver this result which is time and budget saving. There is just some slight correction according camera position versus light position. Playing a bit on the ISO or the aperture can handle that. On the other hand, Richard wanted to go shallow depth of field (f1.4) on the Leica and sets the ISO at 100. Sometime, he went too much on that direction (while being close to the subject) and you can notice that some of Leica’s shots are a bit out of focus as depth of field is too limited. I guess that Richard went as far as f0.95 few times on the 50mm due to noticeable overexposure on some shots. Bokeh Otaku!

Main differences between cameras - GH2 and GH3 are classic, great tools, the most efficient, my favorite and they get even better with Voigtlander lenses or Speed Booster + Nikon. They are easy to set for a flat image for post processing purpose. Still, I think the GH1 was the best in term of cinematic colors out of the box. Image is sharp and it is up to your treatment to smooth them up. Those cameras are easy to handle due to their size, articulated screen, electronic viewfinder with all needed information minus peaking. - AF100 (AF103): Often described as a weak product by people who don’t own one and just judge on technical data, this camera is a workhorse, the one I pick up first for my paid job due to its form factor and ergonomics. Great for sound recording and flexible with its ND filters (the feature I am missing the most on GH series). Image quality is good and it had never been an issue for me or my client. Interesting point, it is the most accurate camera of the bunch in matters of color rendition. Green is much more right on the AF100 than on the Gh2 or Gh3 for instance. I love this cam and it is far better than its reputation. - D800: I used it once for a very short movie just for a test. (

Final words: Camera model, Full frame or M43 does it matters? This was not a camera test, but a real world shooting with very different gears. As far as I am concerned the possibility to get a flat image out of the camera, working on a nice lighting set up, taking care of camera positioning and making a wise choice of quality Lenses are more important than camera type, model or brand. Cinematic look is not about crazy shallow depth of field. Watching great classic films help to reset some mind on that matter. Pilling up image with crazy smooth out of focus area is sometime so obvious that it takes over the story itself most of the time… The real advantage of FX is to be able to offer more separation between element with wider lens (even with an f2.8 zoom) and at longer distance from subject. If one day I am trying to shoot a fiction with the leica, I am going to write a story with that idea in mind and I might shoot in flat light, colorless environment to compensate the high saturation of the footage.

Franc Péret French Filmmaker/Cameraman/Photographer/Teacher based in Shanghai cn.linkedin.com/in/francperet View my video on (need a VPN from China): http://vimeo.com/channels/659428/videos Filmmaking and Photography classes www.shanghai-classes.com

Not sure how they should attach? The Manfrotto video tripod legs (755XB) also have the same 3/8" attachment I think so unless it is female (and it doesn't look to be), am I missing something?

I thought the half bowl itself would have movement to allow me to level my camera without adjusting tripod legs, but it was rigid so I've reboxed it and returning for the flat base fluid head instead. I guess the flat base means a female 3/8" connector?

Only problem then being I need everything ready for Friday!!

Head being returned: http://www.manfrotto.co.uk/lightweight-fluid-video-head-60mm-half-ball Head on the way: http://www.manfrotto.co.uk/lightweight-fluid-video-head-flat-base Tripod: http://www.manfrotto.co.uk/aluminium-tripod-4-section-190

Would be great to here thoughts and feedback. Please watch with headset or good audio system and download file for best quality.

Camera settings: 50 Mb/s IPB 50fps => 24p timeline, -5 -2 -5 -5 Lights: 1 x Arri Mini-Cyc 800W, 2 x Arri Junior Plus 650 W, 2 x Arri Junior Plus 300 W Post Production: FCPX + FilmConvert

Acting by: Veronika Herren-Wenger Music by: Jasu Jaranka (Sam Cava Productions) Art direction by: Heidi Wenger Assistance by: Ali Kisaoglu Directing, camera, light design and editing/grading: Christian Wenger

 
Je je, whatzup guys?!!!

These are some shots (through a 3 days span in February of 2013) badly put together registering an idea we had at A Empresa de Limpeza (Cleaning Business): to read Henrik Ibsen's Vildanden (Wild Duck) outside in the streets.

At some point there's a tiny bit of Mr Jonathan Coulton's - Your brains live in L.A.

Camera was a P&S and I tried to keep it simple while experimenting on new visual approaches; dumping everything into premiere and grading (or conspurcating like @Alienhead likes ,-) with colorista and looks. Plus parts with a lighter tweak of Eran Stern’s false hdr tonning technique. I want to apologize beforehand to @jpbturbo and people with good eye-coefficient for any inconvenience or damage :P

gashô

Some pics during the process +)

Comments and criticisms are appreciated :)

Cheers.

SOUNDTRACK
Maria Peszek
Miłość w systemie Dolby Surround
from 2008 Album – Maria Awaria

This video it's a bit older, rec and edit in the Spring of 2012. I remember being very interested in studying the natural motion/flow of things and also the macro world and then developing ways of interacting/intersecting/mixing/reacting (along) with it. Many stupid things happened, lots of fun =)

If you figure out the dizzy busy society of bustling beings that get visited by a stiffy happy grinning flaneur fish as a tiny metaphor of nowadays, it's happening in your head only, these are just ants :P

The guy in the background is encouraging me to put my dick instead, that's the level... At least you can listen a nice song by the wonderful Maria Peszek. @MarcioK filmed with our Hx9v + some zoom front element as magnifier.

gashô

PS
I wonder if they will accept it in nAT GEO channel...

Useful links:

• http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpBB/viewforum.php?f=120

I just did one day run with Wondlan stabiliser doing wedding video. Stabiliser is great and it's extendible rod is actually extremely useful. The problem is framing. So I was wondering about installing cheep FPV camera on GH2 screen and connect it wireless with single eye video goggles (like this: http://shop.reconinstruments.com/Product/MODLive/900-00007) Has anyone seen any other single eye video goggles that could be used for this?

This was a promo for a series of video production classes at a local public access station, centering on one of the former students who is now an intern working at the station.

90% of the footage was shot on a GH3 with the 14-140mm f4-5.8 lens

Recording mode was MOV 30p All-I

Photo Style was set to Natural 0,0,0,0

10% of the footage was from a GoPro HERO 3 (anything obviously hyper-wide)

Edit and grading were done in FCPX, with heavy use of Neat Video's noise reduction plugin for the interior production truck shots.

http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/panasonic-hc-v700-camcorder-review/conclusion

For me the 1080/60p and the telemacro mode are the two best things about this camcorder.

I shoot for Microstock and Vimeo, I can't tell you a codex from a follow-focus. I point/shoot and hope it looks good.

The 1080/60i mode has weird interlaced kinda lines, not sure if it's my workflow or what.

I've owned the GH1, Sony A55, Nikon P500 and Gopro Hero2 and this Camcorder produces a better image.

Here's a Time Lapse I shot, just sped-up to 800% in Motion5.

Grizzly shot a full zoom, slowed from 60p to 30p.

Telemacro shot.

another one

60i shot

There's a 180 photo burst mode that is kinda neat...

I have shaky hands but I think someone could make the zoom work smoothly

Apparently the updated Panasonic HC-v720 model is slightly better. http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/the-best-camcorder-is-the-panasonic-hc-v720/

For $460 it's a pretty good Camcorder. I think.

http://songwriter.revimage.com/channels/JoannaStClaire

If the music video wins for Joanna, it means a chance to work with Don Was (one of the most prolific and acclaimed producers out there) and money to help create additional music. She spent years on the album this video comes from and is an incredibly warm and talented person, so your help would be really appreciated by both of us.

Now here's some more text for everyone else about a project I worked on at various points from 2007 to last week. :)

Quick intro: I'm Per Lichtman, the guy that found the audio settings values now used in the majority of modern GH2 hacked settings, thanks to @Vitaliy_Kiselev making it possible to test and modify them. I've also participated in a lot settings comparison tests and talked way too much over the years. :)

Last year I directed a music video for a song I also worked heavily on the music side with. It was called "Listen to the Sound" by Joanna St. Claire and it finally got put up at http://songwriter.revimage.com/channels/JoannaStClaire in conjunction with a contest Joanna St. Claire recently entered. I wanted to help her out in the contest and share some of my experiences with the GH2 community at the same time.

The video is shot using a mixture of GH2 with the Driftwood Canis Majoris Night settings, as well as a RED Scarlet and Cooke lens courtesy of OnTheMarkMedia.net. There are also one or two shots with a Canon HV30.

The grading was done by Dimitrios Papagiannis ( @Bueller) in DaVinci Resolve using the Cineform codec as a digital intermediate. Ashley Nunn and Karla Usagi provided additional support carrying things as well as behind the scenes photography for one or two of the days. In other words, shooting often consisted of just me and the artist.

The shoot was done entirely using natural light, without reflectors or any other aids, on an extremely tight schedule and filmed almost entirely around sunset over the course of multiple days. The shots featuring water were done in a region where there is not normally a body of water: it was there for the first time in about a decade due to unusually high level of precipitation. The lake evaporated in a matter of weeks.

The lenses used on the GH2 were a Rokkor Minolta-mount 58mm f/1.4 and a Tokina 28mm Minolta-mount f/2.8. Various Tiffen contrast filters were used at certain point on the GH2. To the best of my memory, no filters were used on the Cooke lens for the Scarlet.

I will be posting more information (such as which shots are which) depending on what the interest level warrants.

The re-mastered album that the video goes with is "Stream HD Master", which we recently released in full-fidelity 96 KHz at 24-bit depth dynamic range. You can find it at https://joannastclaire.bandcamp.com/

It's been one of my favorite musical experiences so far. It also one of the ones were I've worn the most hats (recording engineer, mixing engineer, mastering engineer, creative consultant, album cover photographer, music video director, editor, etc.) that I can think of so far. :)

Cheers, D.

But there is a problem!! :-O

In the attached file you can see a test screenshoot (from a video frame) where in the underexposed areas (like the blue) there are some noise (but not much) and many lines, like small banding... this at 400 iso...

why this? IT's a D7100 problmem? Anyone have this issue?

What do you think is the longest lens you can use with a video monopod? I am thinking of getting a mogopod, custom setup, Benro or Manfrotto. I have a standard footless monopod and I get some pretty unstable shots with a 135mm m42 lens. I am doing event videos with this setup, mostly wedding stuff, so being able to get some length would be really nice.

First time post, sorry if I screw something up.

Here's the sort of thing I would like to do: http://www.406films.com/wedding-and-event/

Since the introduction of Digital Cameras it became easy to film and to learn making indie films, you just grab your camera and experiment with it. However the look of the digital footage(even color corrected and graded) still leaves amateur and domestic camera impression, the digital footage doesn't look as good as straight out of the film camera.

What is it about film that people like so much? Simple - it's color. Maybe some will say dynamic range, some will say the motion and flares. But the best feel about the film is that it looks unique and cinematic. People say that film has a unique color processing that can never be achieved by a digital camera. I take a more scientific approach and after many researches I found some breaking points in simple After Effects effects profiles and LUT usabilities and achieved unique fake color caps which gives that beloved film feel. The limited color brightness is one of the most important things when trying to emulate film look.

The hardest part in grading Digital footage is that it needs to be RAW or LOG, that means a flat footage taken out of expensive cameras. Then it is graded digitally by shifting colors of keyed parts, adding tints and editing curves. Amateur and Indie filmmakers sometimes doesn't have all those REDs and Black Magics and ARRIs and other beautifully named machines and anyway they want to look pro, so what we all indie filmmakers do is not called grading we just do the color correction - just create some interesting looks by shifting and tinting video. But there is certain points and colors that will leave that digital and domestic feel in the DSLR video even when it is color corrected. The colors overbright, and oversaturated areas doesn't change with color correction. Many of indie filmmakers lowers the saturation, but what happens is that they desaturate all areas of the footage so colors in shadows becomes undersaturated. I tried to fix it by collecting some unique braking points of Adobe After Effects CS6 as known as ColorGhear techniques but instead of doing it manually I tried to automate the process. The process is not grading nor color correction - it's something very different and unique and is used as a simple preset for After Effects CS6, which will be available soon for just a few dollars ($5-$10).

So I made some tests. At first I didn’t even think that I would come up with something interesting but now I actually need your opinion, it is usable? Does it really make a difference and most important – does it make the footage look like FILM (kodak). It does certain things to a simple footage: adds color bright limit, adds saturation limit ONLY to oversaturated areas, increases saturation to undersaturated areas, makes overbright colors(not whites) more visible and appealing on screen (for human eye).

There was a guy who tried to create and then disappeared his plug-in known as "Filmvision plug-in" I think he used similar techniques.

What do you think ?

Also I will make a video with just original color limiting process because the current video also affects the overall saturation and makes it more blockbuster Blue Orange type of thing.

gashô

I didn't know about this thing, but a good friend of mine is involved, so...

http://www.beneaththewavesfilmfest.org/about-us/

The mission of Beneath the Waves, Inc. and the Beneath the Waves Film Festival is to raise public awareness with regards to ocean conservation and marine science through the use of visual and digital media such as videos. We also seek to promote science communication and scientific literacy by encouraging and inspiring scientists, ocean enthusiasts, and members of the general public to produce, promote and communicate research and conservation through open-access, engaging short films.

Submission entries

There's a fee for each film; $15.00 for students and $30.00 for non-students
Deadline: February 1, 2014

All gluB gLuB

By the way - The cars they drive in the video are registered as tractors (kind of), kids aged 15 or more (or is it 16?) can drive them (they can´t go faster than 40km/h - you need to be 18 to drive a normal car here).

Cameras used: gh3, gh2, 5dmk2, gopro... maybe even a 7d?

1) We need interview guests! One of the series is called “High Scoring”. This is going to feature interviews with game and film scoring composers talking about the history and craft of scoring. Far from the usual discussion emphasizing creative process or tools or “industry realities”, these interviews will actually look at musical influences and changes in scoring approach over time. The continuity of composing for media. Following this discussion, the audience will also have chance to participate in a Q & A.

Several people have already volunteered to be guests and all I can say is “thank you!” for your desire to both help the arts and to help expand the perception of what we do as composers. It is my hope that the series will help both help to give a sense to the greater public of the history of what we do (in much the same way that music history classes do for classical composition) while providing a unique perspective to those of us already in the scoring community. Admission should be only a little more than the price of a movie ticket.

2) You can come to one the interviews, lectures or classes. It currently looks like they will be held in North Hollywood and tickets will likely be $15 to $25 depending on the event.

3) You can help us gauge interest in terms of the potential classes and the best schedule (for instance, would weekday evening or weekend evening classes be better?)

Here are some likely candidates (but feel free to suggest your own): - “High Scoring” The History and Culture of Film & VG Scoring - Supporting Your Child’s Creativity - Intro to Photography and Video - Composing and Producing - How To Communicate Better With Your Clients and Customers - Cultivating Creativity - Developing Expertise: The Keys to Learning Effectively

4) We will be launching a YouTube series in conjunction with “High Scoring” and possibly other courses as well. That means if you want to donate time or labor to any of the related areas (recording, filming, editing) it will be greatly appreciated. The more help we get, the more content we can create in a short period of time and the more attention we can bring to our craft.

5) We will need to get word of mouth out! Even if you can’t help directly or attend in person, chances are you know someone that would want to come to the seminars or classes or at least would want to watch the videos.

Anyway, this is something that I’ve been laying the groundwork for a long time and we only recently found a good venue for it. So I hope you’ll support us in making it happen any way that you can. I feel like we can really help make a difference, both for our peers and for the children that will soon be following in our footsteps.

So if you’re interested, please PM me or e-mail me at per@perlichtman.com. Thank you.

http://perlichtman.tumblr.com/post/69311146740/support-the-arts-for-the-price-of-a-movie-ticket

Wanted to share this music video I made for a Dutch band using the hacked GH2(Sanity 4). I was hoping to get some feedback from people who do not know me and were not involved in this project. So give your inner critic a go and let me know what you think :)

I just recently wanted to buy a fisheye lens to filming skateboard videos, but I came across 2 different fisheyes :

• The Rokinon 7.5mm f3.5 for Micro 4/3

Or

• The Rokinon 8mm f2.8 for Sony E-mount (NEX-7, NEX-5, NEX-3...) + Adapter

The thing is I know the Rokinon for M4/3 is going to fit directly on my camera (tried it in a shop), but the Rokinon for Sony is much faster, but maybe a little less wide...

Can you please help me choose ?

Thank you.

As you all know, a lot of old DV footage and even GH2's footage (shot on Panasonic lenses) has some ringing/halos (mostly around edges) caused by over-sharpening.

In the Internet there's a lot of ways to fix it a little bit in photos, but I couldn't find a way to fix it in videos using After Effects, VirtualDub or any other software. I've tried a lot of methods to fix it with some blur and high pass filters in After Effects CS6 but none of them helped me a lot (or... I couldn't find a way to properly tune these filters).

I would appreciate your thoughts on this issue very much!

Thanks in advance.

It was filmed on the Panasonic GH2 with Olympus Zuiko 45mm f/1.8 and Panasonic 20mm f/1.7....also a GoPro HD.

Hope you enjoy the adventure.

all feedback, comments, thoughts, tips, rants, recipes, questions, secrets and other form of communication are most welcome

gashô

I am looking to light, frame, and create more cinematic footage. What do you guys see that could be changed or modified for next time?