videos

There are 168 posts filed in videos (this is page 18 of 21).

The Engagement of Micah and Nicole


After acquiring my new Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera, I longed for an opportunity to try it out. So I asked my colleague, Nicole, if she’d be interested in shooting an “engagement video” with her fiancé, Micah. Neither of us had never done such a video before, but the possibility of a relatively novel way to announce an engagement to their friends was exciting to everyone involved.

This video was shot at the Olympic Sculpture Park in Belltown (a very competitive spot for family/wedding photos, as there were 2-3 other shoots going on in the area at the same time as ours). For this shoot, I used the following equipment in addition to the Blackmagic camera:

Alright, baby. Let’s do this thing! pic.twitter.com/FLgmetZXtR
— David Chen (@davechensky) October 16, 2013

Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 lens – This lens was just refreshed and is now significantly pricier than its older brother. It delivers great image quality, although the lack of “manual focus” option makes using this lens manually a bit of a chore.

Polaroid Video Chest Stabilizer – When I first started investigating DSLR video, I was pretty shocked at how expensive some of the accessories were. $470 for a Red Rock Micro DSLR rig? Surely there was a cheaper solution. In fact, this $55 Polaroid stabilizer is just what the doctor ordered for Blackmagic Pocket Cameras. While the rig itself is really flimsy and hard to tighten to a degree that I really felt satisfied with, it worked perfectly for such a small device. It would also work with a DSLR and maybe a pancake/prime lens, but any more than that and I’d seriously start to question the safety of my gear. Overall, I think it gives the final video a good “handheld” look, without being overly jittery. As a bonus, it’s super light and easy to carry around. I could see myself shooting a bunch of footage with just this camera and this rig (audio would need to be captured separately).

Tiffen ND Filter – Essential for shooting outdoors and achieving shallow depth of field.

As usual, I used FilmConvert for most of the color grading. For comparison, here’s an ungraded shot and a graded shot. You can see how flat the initial image is, as well as how much info and detail is contained in the ProRes HQ file that can be pulled out in post.

The only thing I wish I’d been able to do was shoot more b-roll of the couple doing other activities. But the scope of this project was very limited (only about an hour of shooting in one location). Next time!

Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera – Initial Impressions and Footage

After two months of waiting, IT HAS FINALLY ARRIVED pic.twitter.com/NNjD9U0kDi
— David Chen (@davechensky) October 15, 2013

In early August, I placed an order for the Black Magic Pocket Cinema Camera at B&H. For months, I waited to receive word that my camera had shipped, and for months, all I received from B&H was the occasional note that they still had not received any stock. Finally, just a week or two ago, a miracle happened: Adorama suddenly and unexpectedly listed the camera as “in stock.” Not believing my eyes, I quickly placed an order and hoped for the best. A week later, I was unboxing my very first Black Magic Pocket Camera!


This camera takes any lens with a micro 4/3rds mount, which includes Panasonic’s wide range of Lumix glass. Never having used any MFT lenses before, I agonized over which one to buy and studiously perused a bunch of reviews (thanks to The Phoblographer for a lot of useful lens reviews). To be honest, I wasn’t sure how much work I was going to end up doing on the Pocket Camera, so I didn’t want to invest too much in glass quite yet. If I wanted to go all out, I probably would have ended up with the legendary Voigtlander Nokton 17.5mm. Maybe one day I still will.

Instead, I opted for the new Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 II. It’s a relatively new lens but I’d heard great things about it and more importantly, it was relatively cheap. I also recently ordered a Rokinon 7.5mm fisheye, which actually functions more like a wide-angle lens with the Pocket Camera’s nearly 3x crop factor.

Before I even bought the camera, here are a few things I’d already learned from watching/reading reviews about the Pocket Camera from the likes of Cheesycam, Philip Bloom and Dave Dugdale:

  • The battery life is crap – I was able to get about 30-40 minutes of standby and recording time on a single battery. Buy extra batteries! Fortunately they are relatively cheap and easy to carry around.
  • The camera is very selective about SD cards – Here’s a list of compatible cards. I picked up a Sandisk Extreme 128GB on sale a few weeks back, and that worked just fine after the most recent Pocket firmware update. You must format cards on your computer, as the camera firmware is incapable of formatting cards in the camera. Furthermore, you can’t delete media off the card in camera either, nor does the camera tell you how many hours/minutes of space you have left. Kind of a pain, but okay if you know how to deal with it. 
  • The microphone is terrible – Any sound recorded onto the camera, even when using an external microphone, was likely to be unusable. I actually went out and bought a Tascam DR-05 off of Craigslist for the express purpose of using it to capture sound for Pocket projects.

Taking all this into account, I shot the following video at Pike Place Market in Downtown Seattle. The audio was recorded using the Tascam DR-05, and the video was graded using Filmconvert. Everything was shot handheld.


Here are some further thoughts I had while shooting with this camera:

  • Wow, these images are incredible! – Despite the smaller Super16 sensor size, this footage looks almost as good as the footage from the full-size cinema camera. The ProRes (and it is ProRes HQ only as of this writing – no CinemaDNG Raw yet) truly gives you a ton of flexibility in post and I look forward to experimenting more with the capabilities of the camera in the future.
  • The screen is far worse than I could have imagined – I’m spoiled from using camera like the Canon 5D Mark III, with its gorgeous, crisp, glossy screen. But yeah, the matte screen on the Pocket Camera is really difficult to use and quite challenging to focus with. That being said, a double tap of the focus button reveals in-focus areas in bright green on the screen (Thanks to Andrew Gormley for pointing this out to me).
  • Lack of meters makes life difficult – While recording, the screen has no meters of any kind except for a timer noting how long your current clip has recorded for. I did not realize how much I would miss the light meter until it was gone. When you’re using a crappy screen (with variable user-set brightness) and no light meter, you’re basically flying blind when it comes to shooting an image that will be properly exposed. Shooting in ProRes does allow you to correct a multitude of mistakes in post but that’s no substitute for a properly exposed image in-camera. Update: I should point out that zebras are available as overlays on the screen (which is okay, but in my opinion, no substitute for a proper light meter). In the heat of the moment, I neglected to use zebras for the above video, which may explain why many of the highlights are totally blown out. That, and also it was exceptionally bright inside the market. In retrospect, I should have exposed for highlights and tried to pull out shadow detail in post. Instead, I exposed for the subject.
  • It is exceptionally difficult to manually focus using an auto-focus-only lens! – This is a basic observation but it’s new to me with this MFT glass. The lens gear just doesn’t feel very good turning in my fingers, and I always felt like I was damaging the lens in some way. I really missed having a manual/auto switch on the lens, as I do with all my EF glass. Also, my camera iris would sometimes spaz out, meaning that the aperture of my lens would occasionally change all of a sudden and unexpectedly. In addition, sometimes the iris button would not function (I’d press it and nothing would happen). Pretty sure these latter two phenomena are connected in some way – perhaps my camera was getting a delayed reaction from the iris button presses? Either way, I would strongly recommend you adjust aperture manually on this camera, whether through the up/down buttons on the back of the camera, or, if you have a fully manual lens, on the lens itself.
  • ND filters are essential – Unlike a DSLR, the Pocket Camera doesn’t allow you to jack up the shutter speed in broad daylight until the image is properly exposed. That wouldn’t be advisable anyway, as high shutter speeds can affect the quality of the footage, but at least it was a possibility. The Pocket Camera only lets you control shutter angle, which I left at 180 degrees. Thus, ND filters are a must for any outdoor work. 

I’m planning on doing more shooting with the camera this weekend, and hoping to combine it with a very simple Polaroid rig. I’ll post the results when I’m done.

Shooting the 2013 NW Chocolate Festival


I had the pleasure of shooting the Northwest Chocolate Festival this weekend, which was held at the Seattle Convention Center. Amazing chocolate and some really interesting people there, many of whom are using chocolate as a means of changing the world.

Some footage was shot at 60fps, and slowed down to 24fps (the final framerate of the video). All footage was graded using FilmConvert. Beyond my Canon 5D Mark III, here’s the other equipment that I used to make this video happen:

Manfrotto 561B monopod – When I was just doing photography, I never thought I’d ever spend over $200 on a monopod. But as I’ve entered the video world, I’ve started to see what an amazing deal this Manfrotto monopod is. It’s lighter and more compact than a tripod, and allows you the flexibility to get shots that even tripods might not be able to get. Highly recommended. I can’t imagine living without it!

Kamerar 23″ slider – Bought this slider on the recommendation of Caleb Pike and it is really cheap, as far as sliders go (most other options are at least double this much, and often run into the $500-800 range). As a result of its cheapness, it often needs some finessing to get a decent shot – and by finessing, I mean many, many attempts at the same shot. The slider is a bit flimsy so making sure it’s balanced correctly and positioned for an even slide throughout can take some doing. But the lightness also works in its favor. It’s easy to carry around all day, slap it down on a table, and get to work.

Kinotehnik LCDVF Viewfinder – Essential for helping to make sure you’re in focus, but attaches to the camera using a magnetic stripe that you glue around the LCD screen. In use, I found that it fell off really easily with only minor disturbance. Still, can’t really beat it at the price.

24-70mm EF lens (1st gen) – This lens is rapidly becoming the bane of my existence. I have always had sharpness issues with this lens. Coupled with shooting in Flaat 10 Picture Style, this has often made focusing very difficult. I’m thinking of investing in alternate options but there are just so many that I’m having a difficult time deciding which one. But the fundamental problem is that none of the footage is ever remarkable. However, it’s always at least usable. It’s a trustworthy lens, but I can never take any shots that I think are particularly interesting. Thus, inertia keeps me from changing my setup.

Currently on my list of possible replacements: the Canon 24mm f/1.4 and the Sigma 35mm f1/.4. I’m also on the lookout for a Canon 135mm f/2, which I’ve heard has unparalleled sharpness. I’d like to move to primes to shoot as they are lighter and offer better optics, but just waiting for the right deal for this to come through.

70-200mm USM II lens – Spectacular lens that has served me well since forever. Probably the last zoom lens I’ll ever buy.

Zoom H4n – Acquired 3-4 years ago, this thing is still going strong. Used the onboard mics (90 degree mode), positioned close to the subject, to capture the audio for all the interviews.

Rode Videomic (1st gen) – Not a terribly good microphone, but good for getting a scratch track and a decent backup when all else fails.

***

In all, it was a pretty run-and-gun setup. But for five hours of shooting and a few hours of editing, I think the video came out pretty nicely! Your thoughts welcome.

Black Magic MFT Cinema Camera – Test Footage

Last night, I had the unique opportunity to try out the relatively new Black Magic Cinema Camera with Micro 4/3rds mount. Local /Filmcaster Sam Kelly was kind enough to offer me an in-person tutorial. We met at Hilliard’s Beer in Ballard, which was hosting one of their many motorcycle meetups and just shot a bunch of footage in ProRes HQ. This is the result.

This footage was shot using SLR Magic prime lenses, then graded using FilmConvert. My first reaction to this video is: WOW! Shooting in ProRes gives you SO much more flexibility in post than anything that comes out of my DLRs. Details that might have otherwise been lost in shadows and highlights can be easily “pushed.” The video just has a “filmic” look that I’ve occasionally struggled to achieve with my DSLR footage. And FilmConvert works spectacularly with the BMCC “Film” Picture Style, which is what I used.

All that being said, the Blackmagic Cinema Camera is pretty clunky in a bunch of ways. The LCD screen makes it fairly challenging to focus, and the focus peaking overlay is sketchy at best, in terms of accuracy. The lens mount on the MFT version of this camera is passive, which is fine in theory but I didn’t like that there was no aperture reading on the screen that tracked with my adjustments. The lack of removable battery and the lack of charge in the existing battery means that an external battery solution is a must.

The firmware still has a lot of shortcomings. For instance, the inability to format your media or delete clips would probably drive me insane in the long term.

But in the end, when we’re talking about images of this quality for under $2000? I don’t think I will be able to resist purchasing one for much longer…

Big thanks to Sam for letting me play with this amazing camera, and to Hotels and Highways for the use of their song “People Have Spoken.”

Nike+ Fuelband Video Review

I’m a huge admirer of The Verge. While I often don’t agree with their opinions, I appreciate that they put a lot of thoughtfulness and classiness into the site’s design and content. I’m particularly appreciative of David Pierce‘s reviews, which are always filmed, edited, and narrated beautifully, with a blistering pace.

It was with this in mind that I tried shooting my very first video review. Here it is:



Obviously the Fuelband has been out for almost two years now, but I’ve only recently hopped on the measuring-everything-you-do bandwagon, so thought it was a good as product as any to try my hand at shooting/editing/narrating a review video. A few thoughts on the final product:

  • Wow, this really gave me an appreciation for what goes into a video review. Specifically, I didn’t think through precisely how important matching the narration to the video would be. This is considerably easier when you’re doing a review where the reviewer is on camera and speaking to the audience – no matching footage required. On that note…
  • As you can probably tell, I did not shoot enough b-roll. Very simple to fix; I just didn’t have enough time to take care of it this time around.
  • I didn’t even bother color-correcting the video, as it was shot in a variety of different environments with different color temperatures. As a casual exercise, I didn’t want to take the time to fix this, especially seeing as how it was shot on a normal DSLR.
Technical flaws aside, my question to you: Did the review help? Did it strengthen your understanding of whether or not you want to buy a Fuelband? And would you want to see more of them?

Thanks to Eva for modeling the Fuelband in the video!

More experiments with FilmConvert

After I got FilmConvert last week, I wanted to try out the program further to see how well it could really do at improving some of my images. So I shot some footage this weekend in Seattle and tried using FilmConvert to grade it.

Here is a video I shot of the 2013 Seattle Chinese Kite Festival, which took place at the Seattle Chinese Garden in South Seattle. This video was shot using the Prolost Flat Picture Style and graded conventionally to bring up saturation and increase contrast.



Now here’s the same video, but instead of using normal grading, all I did was use FilmConvert to apply the Fuji Provia 100 preset and set film grain to 0.



I was really frustrated with both of these videos to be honest. The shooting situation was very challenging – bright sunlight, no shadows, a ton of green everywhere. I wasn’t thrilled with how either of the videos turned out from a color perspective, although I do think the FilmConvert-ed footage achieves a consistent look throughout (whether I’m a fan of that look or not is a different question…).

Later Saturday evening, I was pleased to be able to attend Seattle’s Street Food Festival at Cal Anderson Park. Last year they held the event at Denny Park and I thought that was a much better time; the streets at Cal Anderson are just way too narrow to host thousands of people (plus, this year the lines were unbelievably massive). Nonetheless, good food and good times were had by all.

This video was shot using the flaat 10 Picture Style. I used FilmConvert’s Fuji 8543 preset and set film grain to 0.



I notice that FilmConvert presets can often jack up the contrast a bit too high and wash out some of the colors, occasionally to the footage’s detriment. For example, see the skin tones at around :28 into the video, which definitely need some warming up (a function that FilmConvert does supply – I just wanted to see how the presets would work on default settings). Otherwise, I think the grading looks quite nice, if you can ignore that terrible moire early on in the video.

All of this footage was shot on a Canon 60D. For the Kite Festival, I used a Manfrotto 561BHDV-1 Fluid Video Monopod.

Eowyn

My friends named their child Eowyn, after the character in Lord of the Rings. I asked them why. This was the result.



This video was shot using a Canon 5D Mark III. Sound was recorded using a Zoom H4n (onboard microphones) and then synced up in post. For all of the shots, I either went handheld or used the brand spanking new Manfrotto monopod I just purchased. I did not think it was possible to spend more than $200 on a mononpod, but having used the Manfrotto, I now don’t feel I could ever live without it. It is super easy to use, convenient, and extremely effective at stabilizing shots.