(Page 2 of 3 pages for this article  <  1 2 3 >)

Filed under: Cameras •Editing •Post Production •Production •Training •

More Fun with RED

(top image graded in Magic Bullet Looks, bottom image processed without correction through RedRushes, Rec 709 gamma and color)

This shot was fairly simple: two kids walking back and forth along a road. I used a polarizer and a Schneider Tru-Cut IR filter. The RED has a far-red leak like most HD cameras, but it shows up more than most when a couple stops of ND are added. At three stops of ND I add the IR cut filter, and as it doesn’t hurt to leave it in I’ll often use it even if I just have a polarizer in the matte box.

My camera assistant, Phil Bowen, did an excellent job of following focus, as he always does. The wide shot was probably a 35mm Zeiss Super Speed, and the longer lens was 135mm. I used Zeiss Super Speeds because I didn’t know if I’d end up in a situation where I’d need a T1.3 stop; UltraPrimes only open up to a T2. Also, Super Speeds are cheaper than UltraPrimes, which made the producer happy. Super Speeds are perfectly good lenses if you don’t flare them too hard.

_______________________________________________

(top image graded in Magic Bullet Looks, bottom image processed without correction through RedRushes, Rec 709 gamma and color)

We grabbed this at sundown on our first day of shooting. We’re probably wide open on a 25mm lens at T1.3. The longer shot was at a T2.1 on a 135mm and once again Phil nailed the focus on very short notice.

I made a conscious decision to let parts of the image blow out, knowing that the blown out “white” of the RED had a nicer quality than most other HD cameras I’m familiar with. I colored the gammas a little warm with Magic Bullet Looks and pushed some of the blown-out gains further into clip to make the highlights pop a bit more.

_______________________________________________

(top image graded in Magic Bullet Looks, bottom image processed without correction through RedRushes, Rec 709 gamma and color)

We shot this garden party of solar panel owners at a community in Roseville, CA, just outside of Sacramento. Jib operator Bret Allen, SOC worked his magic on this shot, while I slowly went insane due to constantly changing cloud cover. This is when I used my meter, set at EI 160, to calculate a stop just before sending the camera off to do a series of jib moves. My camera assistant had a Preston FIZ with only one motor, and that motor ended up on the focus ring and not the F-stop ring because I knew that I could probably finesse the exposure later. You can’t do much to finesse focus in post, other than to get rid of it.

_______________________________________________

(top image graded in Magic Bullet Looks, bottom image processed without correction through RedRushes, Rec 709 gamma and color)

I had a mad scheme where I wanted to use several lights bounced into a 4x4 piece of bead board as a TV source. One light would be the base light, and two others were to be spotted into the card in different areas. By dimming the spotted lights up and down the brightness of the “screen” would change, and the shadows from the “TV” would appear to dance around. My gaffer, David Bunge, convinced me to do something much simpler: use a 4’x4 Kino Flo with two flags waved in front of it. I tried it, and it worked very nicely—and it was much simpler and faster than my rig. I did ask him to put two layers of 216 diffusion on the Kino to make it a softer source, and I also asked for a tweenie to be hung to “carry” the light from the practical in the background to the parents. I knew the parents would drop off a bit but I didn’t want them to end up as shapeless mud; by adding just a whisper of colored hard light from a dimmed tungsten source we gave them a little bit of a warm highlight to pop them from the background. Hard light, when it’s not much brighter than the fill and is a different color, pops areas of the frame nicely without looking hard or artificial.

The Kino Flo is bulbed for daylight (5600k), and the white balance on the camera is set at 4300k to let the “TV” go a little cool and the practical a little warm.

_______________________________________________

(top image graded in Magic Bullet Looks, bottom image processed without correction through RedRushes, Rec 709 gamma and color)

This shot was just following a whim. While shooting at Sunpower’s offices I noticed that the floor was very shiny, so we put a 1200w PAR down at the end of an aisle and had someone walk toward us. I used my favorite Magic Bullet Looks preset, “Green Pearl,” on this one, along with a vignette that blocked a bunch of the miscellaneous stuff at the edge of the frame. I also took the liberty of adding a little digital “anamorphic flare” to make the shot a little less threatening and foreboding.

_______________________________________________

(top image graded in Magic Bullet Looks, bottom image processed without correction through RedRushes, Rec 709 gamma and color)

The only “dolly” we used on this entire project was a 4’ slider from Todd Stoneman, a local grip who makes all sorts of wondrous things. An 18mm lens and some foreground elements made this move look longer than it really was.

_______________________________________________

(top image graded in Magic Bullet Looks, bottom image processed without correction through RedRushes, Rec 709 gamma and color)

We shot this entirely with existing light. The sun came in at an angle through the windows that ran down the entire length of the building and we taped up a roll of Opal Frost to diffuse it. We used a 4x4 silver reflector to bounce some of it back on the guy’s face. The dolly move is entirely due to our 4’ slider, and we shot this on 85mm and 135mm lenses at around T4.

The other half of the shoot follows on the next page…

(Page 2 of 3 pages for this article  <  1 2 3 >)

                   

 

The Editing of “Courageous” Part One Steve Hullfish | 10/14 The off-line edit of a RED feature film Last October, I had the rare opportunity to edit a feature film called “Courageous,” which is in theaters now. “Courageous” was the number one new movie the weekend it opened (September…

The Best of Stunning Good Looks Art Adams | 08/30 A directory of my best articles, sorted by topic. This entry is a guide to my best articles, sorted by topic. Enjoy!

2D Footage with a Stereo 3D Rig in After Effects CS5.5 Jeff Foster | 02/10 Edit and Optimize 2D Stereo Pairs from a 3D Video Camera or Twin Cameras with a Modified Stereo 3D Rig in After Effects CS5.5 Adobe included a 1-step option to create a 3D Stereo Camera Rig in After Effects CS5.5, to everyone’s enthusiasm for a simpler workflow in 3D space. Great if you are working in 3D space in After Effects, but what about an easy option for 3D Stereo pairs captured by a 3D camera…

You must be registered to comment. This is an effort to reduce spam. Please REGISTER HERE.

Looks great Art. I know I asked you this before in another blog post, but have you tried Camera RGB or Redspace colorspace and compared to REC709? I find REC709 does funky things to colors. I do use the REC709 gamma setting but I have found I generally use Camera RGB or Redspace for colorspace. I’d be curious about your thoughts on this.

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  on  10/28  at  01:15 PM

---

Name:

Email:

Location:

URL:

Smileys

Remember my personal information

Notify me of follow-up comments?

Submit the word you see below: