Broadcast TECH In association with
scenes and Dedo lights for the evening scenes. Lighting is all about controlling the mood and you need to work quickly if you’re going to get through the scenes in time.
6. CAMERA FORMAT AND LENSES
Choosing the right camera format and lens package can really help on a tight budget. We went with two Sony NEX FS100s and a Sony F3 on the Steadicam Zephyr. We used a mix of Canon L Series lenses and some old Nikon primes. The 8mm fi sheye was a Samyang costing around £300. The sensitivity of the Super 35mm sen- sors of the F3 and FS100 is so good that you don’t need a lot of additional lighting. The FS100 is so clean that you can shoot at +12db of gain and the images are practically noise free. We recorded internally using the pro- prietary 8-bit AVCHD and graded using Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve. It worked beautifully.
7. USE MOVEMENT TO CREATE A MORE CINEMATIC EFFECT
For us, using movement is what adds production value, so we never leave home without a slider. We use a 0.8m Cinevate Atlas 10 and a lot of the time it is for small moves that add a cinematic look to what we do. When- ever possible, we use Steadicam as well. The Steadicam Zephyr is a sub- £10,000 camera stabiliser that can be hired with an operator and will work at these types of budgets. We used a lot of Steadicam on this project and it really adds that big-budget look to a smaller production. But be wary of using it just for the sake of it. A Steadicam should not be used in place of a dolly or slider. Be imagina- tive with your use of Steadicam. A good operator will always help by advising on the best way to achieve the look the director is after. It’s all about collaboration.
www.broadcastnow.co.uk/technology
8. INSURANCE AND LIABILITY
Make sure you’re covered. You need to protect your employees and the public. It’s also worth getting professional indemnity. There are plenty of options for insuring productions and it needn’t be expensive. We got full insurance covering all production, post-produc- tion and fi nishing for £500. If any- thing went wrong, we would be cov- ered to reshoot the entire project.
9. USE A DIT ON SET
We have been shooting tapeless for fi ve years and are acutely aware of data management. We hired a digital imaging technician (DIT), who ingested the three camera units as each scene was completed. He then transcoded all the footage, adding the shot notes from each camera unit. This meant we could walk into the edit with all the fi les sitting in their respective folders, with addi- tional ProRes proxy versions ready for assembly in multi-clip.
10. POST AND GRADING
The edit was completed in just 16 hours on FCP and the XML exported
‘Realigning the artist’s ambitions with the realities of the time and budget takes some skill’
and launched seamlessly in DaVinci Resolve. We have been using Resolve for 10 months and it’s our number one ‘go to’ grading platform. The ability to grade in real-time and see what your overall project is looking like is crucial in tight-turnaround projects like this one. The fact that we were also demonstrating to the students meant we could show them in real-time how the different looks could be processed. You can now get a fully functioning copy of Resolve (DaVinci Resolve Lite) as a free download from the Blackmagic Design website. This has been instru- mental in an education capacity, allowing students to try their own grade on the very same software that is used to grade some of the biggest feature fi lms. They no longer have to settle for inferior programs.
London-based Hangman Studios special- ises in music videos, commercials, live concerts and fi lms. It is operated by director and founder James Tonkin. Visit
www.hangmanstudios.com. Den Lennie’s F-Stop Academy delivers
online training and live interactive master- class workshops teaching aspiring fi lm- makers how to shoot low-cost cinematic video. Visit
www.fstopacademy.com
On location: checking out the lighting at the manor in Surrey
November/December 2011 Broadcast TECH | 25
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