getting to know so many of the people that make up Old Skool showed us a world that few of us had ever experienced first hand. it was certainly my first time visiting the projects and you can immediately feel the environment as you enter.

as you’ll see in the film, what we were left with was such a warm portrait of these youth who put so much of who they are, and so much heart into making Old Skool a success. i can remember being in that age range, not quite 20 yet, and…

i don’t think i could point to one thing that i care about half as much as these youth care about Old Skool. their perspective and determination at such a young age is absolutely awe-inspiring.

last Friday we brought a projector down to Old Skool to premier this piece. among a packed restaurant, Teresa stopped the kitchen and had everybody come out and take a moment to share in the experience. Tammy’s first reaction to the film, through tears, was especially touching. she said that the Old Skool family means so much to her and the film showed the world how she knows each of them to be in her heart.

Music licensed at WithEtiquette.com
Drew Barefoot – Enjoy the Calm
Kelli Schaefer – Song For A Friend

Share started because we wanted to give back. after our first film, we feel like we have taken much more than we gave, and for that we have to thank everybody at Old Skool. if you enjoy the film and want to support Old Skool, please share their film and come visit their restaurant. if you have ideas or want to help out with our next Share film, please email us at share@stillmotion.ca

P.

we decided to walk to the Emmys last night. it was a distance that, on a normal day in NY, you would cab. we wanted to have some time to take it all in before the show started. looking back just a couple years, a weekend in late April would probably see us off shooting a wedding somewhere and now we were hours away from receiving multiple Emmy’s for our work in A Game of Honor.

the view from inside the lincoln center as we mingled before the show began

stillmotion was nominated for 8 Emmy’s, which we couldn’t help but get excited about, but we went in trying to keep our expectations down. this was out first time at the show and there are a lot of strong entries across all of the categories.

one of the first categories we were nominated in was Outstanding Promo, for the trailer to A Game of Honor. for each category, like most award shows, they announce all the nominees and play a brief clip of each. that’s followed by the winner being revealed from a white envelope. sitting there, waiting for announcement, you’d almost start saying ‘A Game of Honor’ to yourself almost as if hearing it would make it real. and then it happened. they called…

‘A Game of Honor’, everything went fuzzy, and we had won our first Emmy.

Pete Radovich, the director, giving the acceptance speech for the team at the podium

by the end of the night A Game of Honor went home with 3 Emmy’s; outstanding promo (the trailer), outstanding new approaches (web series), and the highlight of the night for most of us, Best Sports Documentary.

A Game of Honor was by far the most challenging piece we have ever been a part of. from the shoots, to the travel schedule, to adapting to a longer form of storytelling – it was a very tiring 8 months, but one that left all of us involved changed forever.

the entire team up on stage when we won for Best Sports Documentary

first and foremost, we have to thank Pete Radovich for taking a chance on us. we certainly weren’t the safest option to shoot his first feature length doc, and i know we didn’t make his life any easier throughout the process, but through it all i know that everybody is so proud of what we did together. more than anybody else, Pete demonstrated such a powerful vision to see through hundreds of shoots, dozens of characters, and a complex web of storylines. from that, he pulled together not just a cohesive storyline, but a very powerful story that delicately balanced humour, emotion, and action, a story that we believe is very special. thank you Pete for the trust you had in us, always pushing to innovate, and for sharing your vision with everybody on the team.

we had a great team at CBS to work with. Steve Karasik produced an incredibly complex film with many moving parts. he also had to ensure the growing pains of us working through out first documentary. through it all, we always got his support and understanding. producing can be one of those under appreciated positions in a large project like like this, but we definitely have a huge thanks to Steve for everything he put in to make this happen and all of the amazing access we got throughout the film.

Steve Karasik, our producer, up on stage representing for our 3rd Emmy of the night

Gareth, Shelby, Lindsey, Carrie, and Mia made a great team of of field producers and broadcast associates, living their life on the road with us, often trying to apologize for extra access we sometimes took without asking, or pushing to get us that extra little bit of time we needed.

Anthony Cortese, the lead editor on the film, had piles of shoots and footage to make his way through. Anthony put the film together beautifully, but getting it to where it was meant crafting piles of scenes and moments that never ended up making the final film for one reason or another. As Gareth often said,we could put together a pretty special film just from what doesn’t make the final doc. i don’t think many people realize the scope of just how much footage and story had to be gone through to get to where the film is, and while that was absolutely a team effort, Anthony was often the last one there and the first one in because anything less and A Game of Honor wouldn’t be what it is.

our team also devoted so much of themselves into making this film happen. while Joyce, Justin and myself shot the majority of the film, it was toughest on Joyce who is based in San Fran and would often travel weekly to the opposite coast for a shoot in West Point or Annapolis. Paul and Ray also came in whenever needed and made it possible for us to cover many different story lines all at one time. it was a long gruelling stretch but everybody gave everything they had, did their best to make the next shoot even better, and happily took on weeks on the road at a time. nobody knows that better than Quenna who moved to New York for about 8 weeks near the end of the film to help on post.

there was also a large network of other shooters across the country that stepped in and helped when we had shoots in their area. Josh, Tim, Jon, Cristina, Joey, Roey, James, and so many others that gave their time to help when and where they could. the biggest addition to the team outside of stillmotion was Davey Finch, a member of the CBS team, who moved to NY from LA and covered shoots that came up last minute any time day or night. Davey has quite a collection of Emmy’s from years past and has shot every major sporting event in this industry. despite such a strong career thus far, he jumped in and joined a team with far less experience, and was always incredibly kind, humble, and helpful in any way he could be.

through it all we made some great friends, became better filmmakers, and shared an incredible experience. a film that started out about an iconic football game, quickly developed into a much deeper story about who these kids are and what they give up. winning these Emmy’s really just validates something that everybody on this team already knew, together we put together something pretty special. we also got word that DVDs and digital versions of the film will hopefully be appearing in the next month – news that rivaled the Emmy wins :)

P.

we decided to walk to the Emmys last night. it was a distance that, on a normal day in NY, you would cab. we wanted to have some time to take it all in before the show started. looking back just a couple years, a weekend in late April would probably see us off shooting a wedding somewhere and now we were hours away from receiving multiple Emmy’s for our work in A Game of Honor.

the view from inside the lincoln center as we mingled before the show began

stillmotion was nominated for 8 Emmy’s, which we couldn’t help but get excited about, but we went in trying to keep our expectations down. this was out first time at the show and there are a lot of strong entries across all of the categories.

one of the first categories we were nominated in was Outstanding Promo, for the trailer to A Game of Honor. for each category, like most award shows, they announce all the nominees and play a brief clip of each. that’s followed by the winner being revealed from a white envelope. sitting there, waiting for announcement, you’d almost start saying ‘A Game of Honor’ to yourself almost as if hearing it would make it real. and then it happened. they called…
‘A Game of Honor’, everything went fuzzy, and we had won our first Emmy.

Pete Radovich, the director, giving the acceptance speech for the team at the podium

by the end of the night A Game of Honor went home with 3 Emmy’s; outstanding promo (the trailer), outstanding new approaches (web series), and the highlight of the night for most of us, Best Sports Documentary.

A Game of Honor was by far the most challenging piece we have ever been a part of. from the shoots, to the travel schedule, to adapting to a longer form of storytelling – it was a very tiring 8 months, but one that left all of us involved changed forever.

the entire team up on stage when we won for Best Sports Documentary

first and foremost, we have to thank Pete Radovich for taking a chance on us. we certainly weren’t the safest option to shoot his first feature length doc, and i know we didn’t make his life any easier throughout the process, but through it all i know that everybody is so proud of what we did together. more than anybody else, Pete demonstrated such a powerful vision to see through hundreds of shoots, dozens of characters, and a complex web of storylines. from that, he pulled together not just a cohesive storyline, but a very powerful story that delicately balanced humour, emotion, and action, a story that we believe is very special. thank you Pete for the trust you had in us, always pushing to innovate, and for sharing your vision with everybody on the team.

we had a great team at CBS to work with. Steve Karasik produced an incredibly complex film with many moving parts. he also had to ensure the growing pains of us working through out first documentary. through it all, we always got his support and understanding. producing can be one of those under appreciated positions in a large project like like this, but we definitely have a huge thanks to Steve for everything he put in to make this happen and all of the amazing access we got throughout the film.

Steve Karasik, our producer, up on stage representing for our 3rd Emmy of the night

Gareth, Shelby, Lindsey, Carrie, and Mia made a great team of of field producers and broadcast associates, living their life on the road with us, often trying to apologize for extra access we sometimes took without asking, or pushing to get us that extra little bit of time we needed.

Anthony Cortese, the lead editor on the film, had piles of shoots and footage to make his way through. Anthony put the film together beautifully, but getting it to where it was meant crafting piles of scenes and moments that never ended up making the final film for one reason or another. As Gareth often said,we could put together a pretty special film just from what doesn’t make the final doc. i don’t think many people realize the scope of just how much footage and story had to be gone through to get to where the film is, and while that was absolutely a team effort, Anthony was often the last one there and the first one in because anything less and A Game of Honor wouldn’t be what it is.

our team also devoted so much of themselves into making this film happen. while Joyce, Justin and myself shot the majority of the film, it was toughest on Joyce who is based in San Fran and would often travel weekly to the opposite coast for a shoot in West Point or Annapolis. Paul and Ray also came in whenever needed and made it possible for us to cover many different story lines all at one time. it was a long gruelling stretch but everybody gave everything they had, did their best to make the next shoot even better, and happily took on weeks on the road at a time. nobody knows that better than Quenna who moved to New York for about 8 weeks near the end of the film to help on post.

there was also a large network of other shooters across the country that stepped in and helped when we had shoots in their area. Josh, Tim, Jon, Cristina, Joey, Roey, James, and so many others that gave their time to help when and where they could. the biggest addition to the team outside of stillmotion was Davey Finch, a member of the CBS team, who moved to NY from LA and covered shoots that came up last minute any time day or night. Davey has quite a collection of Emmy’s from years past and has shot every major sporting event in this industry. despite such a strong career thus far, he jumped in and joined a team with far less experience, and was always incredibly kind, humble, and helpful in any way he could be.

through it all we made some great friends, became better filmmakers, and shared an incredible experience. a film that started out about an iconic football game, quickly developed into a much deeper story about who these kids are and what they give up. winning these Emmy’s really just validates something that everybody on this team already knew, together we put together something pretty special. we also got word that DVDs and digital versions of the film will hopefully be appearing in the next month – news that rivaled the Emmy wins :)

P.

our biggest challenge is that we have so much that we want SMAPP to be, but every addition means more time to get it ready. i think our developers are probably starting to fear our phone calls as each one comes with a handful of news ideas we want to add, all of which need to be done right away for launch :)

with all that being said, here is where we are at…

…SMAPP is in a good place. we have over 30 tutorials ready to go for launch, the gear bag is rockin’, and we have two filmmaking tools (Lens Selector and Get Creative) that are ready to share. we are focusing solely on some final stability tweaks and then we are set for launch (aside from Apple approval, which should be quick because the changes are small). that puts our best guess at a 2-3 week time frame for SMAPP to be available on the APP store.

we are also going to add a page to getsmapp.com to showcase whats coming. this way you can see what’s in development and what you can expect soon. we have a couple really cool tools that are taking longer than planned to develop as we think of more we want them to do. these will all be free updates in the APP store as soon as we have them ready.

thanks for your patience. we have another lighting tutorial we will be sharing next week, so check back for that.

P.

“how do you film when you have no one to help you? how do you achieve multiple shots other than station couple camera?“

shooting solo is definitely a daunting task, but it is far from impossible. it takes a special sort of person and outlook to try and tackle a shoot often needing 2-3 people with only one. that doesn’t mean that makes it is a bad idea, it means you need to be prepared to put in a little more. some of our best work has come from weddings shot with one person or shoots on A Game of Honor where only one person was there. sometimes it takes a little luck, but shooting solo will really push you to know what you want out of a scene and will push you to be a better storyteller.

simplify

one of the best examples of a wedding that was shot solo by us would be JC and Esther. at over 200k views on vimeo it became our most viewed wedding film to date. with most of our weddings shot with 2-3 people and dozens of lenses, i learned a lot in approaching a story with one person and needing to really simplify things. the first thing to go was…

…the gear, just so it could become more manageable for one person. i brought two bodies, 4 lenses, a tripod, a monopod and a slider (plus audio gear). it was a very manageable setup that allowed me to carry everything in one trip. it also meant less decisions every step of the way allowing me to be much more present while things were happening.

4 lenses are a great number as 3 fit into a shootsac plus one on your camera body. i would choose the lenses you do bring based on the story you are trying to tell. the more you know your characters, the better you can pick effective focal lengths and really be okay at leaving others behind. our lens selector tool in SMAPP was built around the idea of picking effective focal lengths and we believe it will really make this process easier. we would then recommend picking a couple camera tools that best fit the story. for this wedding we left the steadicam at home as it didn’t really fit JC and Esther, but for others it may make more sense to bring a handheld stabilizer and skip the slider. the key is to make more decisions up front to really lighten your load, keep your speed up, and allow you to get more with the time you have.

trim the fat

look at how you normally cover an event and see if there is anything you don’t really use, don’t really need, or perhaps has a high time input for a low return. this is a great exercise for any shoot you do, but especially when you only have yourself to get things done, you want to make sure everything is essential. a third angle at the ceremony is a great example. we used to setup a tripod with a super wide as a safe angle. it required setting up another tripod, camera, lens, getting the angle, composition, and exposure all set. the return was often less than a dozen seconds in the final piece. by cutting it it meant that we lost our safety net, but maybe that is not such a bad things anyways. your less likely to fall if you know you have no net to catch you.

when you are looking at trimming the fat think about shots or angles you might not need to get, things during the event you might not need to shoot, and gear you may not need. cut out everything not essential and focus on the essence of what is.

scout, plan, cheat

the value of scouting your locations and really storyboarding your ideas is so so important on a commercial shoot yet it is often overlooked on a wedding. our wedding films are so little about the day and so much more about the couple that we rarely scout location, but what we do do is really really know the people and the story so that we can know what we need and plan for that. as you look at your films and your style, think about whether scouting the location will help you. in addition to that, get as much information as you can and really plan from there. that could mean storyboards, but more often it just means shot lists and ideas of what you want to get when.

the processional for JC and Esther is a great example of this. i knew the exact shots i wanted, the shots i needed for the story, and i found a way to make those – and nothing more – happen. i had a slow slide at the back of the ceremony as Esther came down the aisle. i already had the lens chosen and the position picked out. i left the slider in the ground exactly where it needed to be, i had the quick release on the tripod head loose, and even had the slider in the right position. when the processional came around, i slipped the camera in and without even tightening the plate down, slid the camera once across the length of the slider, pulled it off and was already on my way up to the front with my monopod. i was able to beat Esther there and get a completely different perspective a few seconds later. all of this was possible only because i knew exactly what i needed and i had it planned so precisely that it left so little room for anything to get in the way.

when you are shooting an event, things only happen once. if you’re like us, you need to make the most of that as there are no re-dos, slowing down, or pausing. BUT that doesn’t mean you can’t cheat :) cheating is a term more often used in a commercial production and refers to manipulating the set or environment for one shot in a way that is different than another shot but rarely noticed when cut together in the final scene. sometimes it means getting shots for the same scene at a different time or location. when put together, the power of context really leads the viewer to think it was all done at the same time and it means you can get more coverage for your story at different times. applying this idea to weddings, that means always looking for reactions before or after something happens and then using those during the actual event. you might get a tight shot of a bridesmaid laughing hours after something happened but you can cut it in with a funny event from much earlier and it will feel like it happened together (and it often did happen in a similar way, you just don’t have the ability to cover everything at once). look for reaction and moments before and after your big events to give you more of an ability to cheat those shots in during the big moments. for JC and Esther’s first meeting, everything happened in real time. however, JC had a good couple minutes while he waited for Esther. every second counts, so i took that time to get some tights of him standing there as well as a slider from behind as he stood there waiting. if you look at the final sequence of their first meeting, several of the shots in the middle of the sequence were actually from before anything happened, but with the power of context it all feels like it happened in the order shown.

follow what excites you

probably the biggest tip we can suggest is to really follow the story you want to tell. when you only have one person to shoot that leaves less room for the fluff. hair and make-up are one of those things at a wedding that are often quite meaningless yet many people still cover. to be an effective shooter all alone, you need to be okay saying this is what i want and i am okay missing everything else. like the point above, this comes down to really planning things out and having an idea of what you want to cover. it always requires the trust in yourself, and the trust from your couples/clients, to follow what you believe and feel more than anything else. put another way, would you rather have a lot of average coverage with little story, or a much footage that has really strong story? put yet another way, if you look at a film like JC and Esther or Veronica and Dan, dissect it shot by shot and see just how many have no purpose for the story. if every single shot in your story has a purpose, which it should, then there is no need to get coverage that doesn’t add to your story. it takes time to be okay with that, but the sooner you are, the more you can really get down to telling stories and not just covering everything around you.

safe doesn’t work here

if you have an excess of resources you have the ability to play it safe, get extra coverage, hold your shots longer, and cover things you may not need. if you have few resources, such as shooting by yourself, you need to resist the pull to play things safe and really push extra hard to make something more. your first instinct is often to shoot wide, hold shots longer, and really get a lot of coverage. we can get so worried about getting so little because we are by ourselves that we then play it safe for anything we do get. the only problem with this approach is that playing to safe doesn’t make a good film or a strong story. get in there, make effective lens choices, and push yourself to catch things before they happen. it won’t always work, you will miss things, there will be times you will probably wished you had played it safe, but the more you put yourself out there the further you can push what you can do with one person. if you find yourself often shooting with one person, you already have a limitation of resources and that likely isn’t your fault, but it is all on you if you allow this limitation of resources to also hold you back from telling strong stories.

P.

Matt and P. getting the Epic in place for of our first shots of the day

the Epic rig built with a Zacuto baseplate and…

…follow focus, all riding on an Atlas 200 for super smooth pushes.

we used the Cinevate Ballare dolly for the tracking shots that were longer than the Atlas200 could provide. the Ballare was great at quickly getting track down and moving from shot to shot.

Joyce working the Cinevate Atlas 200 to get a low slide of the floor and the perfect push in of the server panels. the clean lines really come through in this piece with so many rows, columns and patterns everywhere we looked.

we removed the Red Brick battery to make the rig lighter and get it up on the Kessler Pocket Jib. with a perfectly balanced jib we could get super slow moves such as one of the last shots rising on the exit signs.

Cisco Unified Data Center: A Path to the World of Many Clouds

directed and edited by Matt Rutherford of ROCNOIR
cinematography by stillmotion
shot on the Red Epic

P.

Ray and P. filming Trombone Shorty with 5D MK3 for the Final Four Open [photo - Tyler Kaufman / CBS]

what we’ve done thus far with the 5D MK3

this review is based on how the 5D Mark3 has performed in the field and for the types of shoots we have been on lately. thus far we’ve shot several pieces for CBS with the MK3. the first was an 8 min feature on the Chardon High School shooting called ‘One Heartbeat‘ that aired Saturday night before the Final Four games. we also helped shoot both the Saturday and Monday night opens – Monday’s which aired on CBS to about 15 million people. Through these three pieces, the MK3 footage has been cut in with Varicam, Epic, Alexa, and broadcast footage. while assisting on the edit on the backlot at the Superdome, several producers walked through and saw the pieces we were working on. one commented on the Saturday open in particular (the Trombone Shorty piece) and asked how the footage was treated as it looked so good. at that point, it was still straight out of the camera. while working on the Monday night open the look of the MK3 was so preferred over broadcast that several broadcast shots were actually rotoscoped and the backgrounds softened to try and get them to be a closer match. in short, the image we have gotten out of the MK3 has been very well received and has already aired in handful of pieces for CBS with no complaints – aside from us not always holding the shot long enough :)

why we choose DSLR for our films and our issues with them

let’s rewind a bit and look at A Game of Honor, which was shot almost entirely on the Canon 1D MKIV, and why we chose that camera as well as the challenges we had. first and foremost, we love DSLR technology because of the intimacy it brings. we can be closer to our characters, move faster than ever before and…

…get into places others can’t. all of this is arguably paramount, for us at least, to the image that the camera provides – both form factor and image are important of course. if content is king, then a DSLR allows for more content in the same time, more diversity in the content, and much less camera awareness when filming in event scenarios (as all of these CBS shoots were).

P. on the court with 5D MK3 on the Steadicam Zephyr [photo - Tyler Kaufman / CBS]

we have both an Epic and Scarlet but chose to shoot these pieces on the MK3 because of how it allows us to tell stories more so than the imagery it provides – so keep that in mind with anything you read in this review. our biggest challenges on A Game of Honor were moire/aliasing on wide shots, lack of timecode for syncing, and on camera audio. one of my favourite shots in the film is a 14mm shot at 60P as the cadets throw their hats in the air during graduation. if you look closely at the stadium seating in the background, you can see quite a bit of moire. it was something that the colourist on the film did his best to minimize before it premiered, but ultimately there is only so much that can be done. shooting a documentary with so many shooters and shoot days meant a ton of footage was always coming in. when sound was recorded separately, it often became very daunting to sync all of it in the Avid. plural eyes is a solution that works on a small scale, but working in an Avid environment with thousands of audio and video files it wasn’t the right solution. our shooting style and the types of shoots we were on often prevented us the luxury of slating, so audio sync was not an easy task and something that we all constantly tried to make more efficient. A Game of Honor was nominated for a sports Emmy for best camera work so that tells me that we did something right with our approach and camera choice, it means the platform is definitely working for our team, but in terms of being a great solution for our client – CBS – it was more of a love/hate relationship with the camera. they loved the image and the results we were getting, but the workflow issues with audio and transcoding as well as some of the moire plagued wides leveled out their reception to the DSLR platform.

why we love the MK3

with all the TV work we’ve been doing lately for CBS, NFLN, and FOX our task is to provide great storytelling, great imagery, and an easy experience for them to work with what we shoot. the Epic and Scarlet provide great images – absolutely stunning with an incredible amount of room to move in post – but the workflow isn’t the right fit as a main camera for many television applications. the Sony F3 (which we once owned) and the Canon C300 are sort of in-between options offering more robust features at a medium price point and size. with the added features also comes an increase in size and complexity. yes a C300 is fast and the image may be great, but we still aren’t as fast as a MKIV and now a MK3 on a monopod. does that difference really matter? for us, it absolutely does. on Monday we found ourselves looking for a couple pickups shots for the Final Four Open before it went to air that night. one of the biggest pickups was shots was of Kansas arriving to the Superdome. the team bus pulls up to the back, players get off and straight onto golf carts where they are whisked off to the locker rooms. when you have a window of opportunity that is less than a minute long, seconds matter and the MK3 gives us precious seconds that we haven’t found in any other platform (as did the MKIV before this).

moire and aliasing // shooting the French Quarter in New Orleans as well as the Superdome presented quite the challenge for our wides. many shots we got i think we would have had to re-work due to moire. technology is at it’s best when it recedes into the background and just lets you do your thing. with the MK3 we were able to roll in several situations with tight brick patterns or empty stadium seating that we never could have in the past. moire did pop-up from time to time, but in every case it looked like a pattern so fine that almost any camera would have issues with it. from what i’ve read, part of the improvement in moire and aliasing comes at the cost of sharpness. this absolutely may be true, and from the looks of the detailed samples posted that is in fact the case, but in practical use when playing back the footage cut right in with Alexa, side by side on a 50″ LCD, nobody commented on a lack of sharpness (while they definitely would have noticed moire). again, i’m not trying to suggest that there aren’t difference between the MK3 and Alexa (or Epic for that matter) or that the MK3 image couldn’t be sharper but i am saying that everybody loved what they saw and when mixed with these other cameras, the MK3 still got all the attention.

timecode // the timecode functions on the MK3 are fairly basic – they allow you to set the type of timecode you’d like, such as free run, and preset a starting timecode. whether you are recording separate sound or trying to get a sync on multiple cameras (as we did with multiple MK3s or with our Epic) even this basic timecode and manually jamming got us very close, much quicker than ever before. had we been dealing with a ton of footage and audio files, this timecode could have saved days if not weeks of logging and syncing. this functionality certainly helps on a commercial set where sound is almost always recorded separately. in an event setting, many have lived without it for quite some time now and others may not know what to do with timecode, but whether you use plural eyes or not, there is always value in having your video and audio files syncs as closely as possible.

recording times // while we rarely ran into issues with the 12 minute recording limit before, in shooting interviews having up to 30 minutes recording time definitely was helpful. we did a series of interviews in Chardon and Harrisburg for the CBS feature and having that extra time made it easier to roll one take for the whole interview and also made it easier to sync up once in post to the audio file. while this wasn’t a crucial addition to the MK3, it definitely is one of those things that makes your shooting life  a little easier and definitely saves you some time.

lowlight // the lowlight ability of the MK3 is definitely very strong. with that being said, the MKIV we are used to was also quite good in low light and we rarely had to push it to the limits. doing any sort of event or doc work, having the best low light is always a huge addition and the MK3 really performs in this area. for the Sunday night NCAA game tease we filmed Trombone Shorty while he and his band performed at the House of Blues. we were filming him while he perfumed in front of a paying crowd so we had to be quick, try and be discreet, and we couldn’t modify the lighting. with one take of the song, Ray and i moved quickly with our monopods and got footage in a dark club that excited us as well as Gareth and Christian (the producer and editor on the project).   [iPhone photo - Gareth Hughes / CBS]

LCD screen // the display on the MK3 is a nice step up from previous generations. it definitely feels very sharp and vibrant and is slightly larger (so keep that in mind for accessories such as a Zacuto Z-finder). when it comes to actual shooting, i don’t believe the LCD size or sharpness made focus significantly easier, but it definitely gives a nice image to look at. one minor, yet large improvement to the viewing experience is that the video is no longer masked with low opacity grey bars at the top and bottom and instead is shown at the proper 16X9 ratio. more than once we’ve composed a shot while taking in the area underneath the grey bars and it feels much more natural to see only what you are recording. the histogram option is definitely a nice addition (coming from a MKIV) but it would be nice to have it available while recording. the general LCD info options give you several options from no info to basic info to a ton of info, and options are always good, but it would be great to be able to customize what you see. the option with the most amount of info ends up covering up the majority of the screen but the basic info leaves a fair amount out. the challenge becomes properly seeing your shot with so much info on the screen (which does minimize when you start rolling) or trying to make due with less info to keep your screen clear.

compression // the new recording options – high and low compression – are an interesting feature to add. for all of the CBS pieces we shot in high compression because the footage was heading to an Avid environment and would need to be converted regardless of which mode we chose. from all the Canon literature i’ve read, it appears that low compression is mostly about making it easier in post but not about recording a cleaner image with more detail. while working inside FCP7 (which is admittedly out of date for a newer files coming off the camera) there did not seem to be an advantage for the low compression mode. the ability to avoid transcoding is definitely enticing but we need to do more testing on our end to see just how smoothly it will play in various editors. we’ve read a fair amount about others shooting in low-compression and reporting codec noise. in the couple scenes we shot in that mode it was not something that we noticed, but there were darker night time scenes and we didn’t blow up individual frame to fully compare. so our take on the new recording formats are that it is a step in the right direction but it is yet to be seen, for us, if the new options will actually save time and will become the option we roll with.

what we would have loved to see in the MK3

while definitely an improvement over the MK2, the biggest question and criticism others have is whether it is enough of an improvement. there are a couple things we would have loved to see included in the MK3 and we hope we may see in future releases.

the white balance shift function is a huge feature we are always working to dial in the closet image to what we’d like as possible. it can be rather time consuming to make changes to your white balance shift and then need to exit the menu to see the effect. in shooting the Miami Marlin’s this past weekend there was a need to dial green out of the image (due to the reflected light off the grass) and it takes a fair amount of time to try one setting, review it, then try another. if the LCD showed a preview of your correction that would be much more efficient. if it allowed for a comparison with no shift, that would be extremely helpful and let you get an even cleaner image in many event situations.

while we appreciate the additional recording format options added into the MK3 I would have loved to see the effort put more into a higher quality recording versus a more edit friendly one. sure RAW would be amazing, but also not likely in a camera at this level. even if Canon brought their recording options from the XF cameras and C300 it would be a nice improvement while still keep files sizes, and therefore bandwidth, minimized.

the addition of timecode is definitely a big one, but having more options to sync your cameras together and sync to your audio would have been a more compete addition. there are likely other solutions to this that we aren’t aware of, but it is great to work with the sync port on the Epic and have it quickly and easily match timecode with our Sound Devices field recorder.

filming at Jackson Square with a SmallHD Dp6 and the 5D MK3 [photo - Tyler Kaufman / CBS]

the LCD also saw some improvements but it still remains very difficult to view outdoors in bright sun. a Z-finder or other monitoring solution really feels essential when shooting outside. keeping the camera and gear minimal while being able to shoot in a variety of situations is the hallmark of DSLR shooting to us. being able to see the LCD better in bright sun would then further the run and gun nature of the MK3 and would be a huge addition for us. as a side note, if you do find yourself without a Z-finder, the histograms are a great option to check that your image is properly exposed in any lighting condition. an articulating LCD is also something that would be advantageous for many of us buying this mainly for the video mode. operating the MK3 on a slider is always possible, but it’s ruined more than a couple sets of clothes in order to get the perfect shot. while talking about LCD improvements, we could also add in the ability to get an HDMI feed while still viewing the onboard LCD this is very helpful for steadicam operating so your an see your bottom monitor (which makes it much easier to see where you are going). this would also be a huge addition on a commercial set so that others can see the image you’re getting.

our recommendation

for what we’ve been doing lately, the MK3 gets our recommendation hands down. it lets us continue to work inside the same platform while providing a better image and also eliminating or reducing some very problematic issues such as moire. with that recommendation, keep in mind we have been doing a lot of television work lately where the form factor and mobility are huge, and where the best image straight out of camera is such an asset. if you’re shooting something like a NCAA open to air on TV, it’s well worth the upgrade even if some of the features may be considered by some to be minimal upgrades. in other words, the pile of small improvements make a big difference for what we do and for the shoots we are working on, we’ll take all the improvements we can get while still working within the DSLR platform. if you find yourself shooting a different types of films, you’ll need to investigate what the right choice is for you. if you are doing doc or commercial work, the advantages are well worth the upgrade in most cases. if we were to re-shoot A Game of Honor, we would want to use the MK3 in place of every other DSLR used (MKIV, 7D, MK2). if you are shooting weddings, the upgrade question becomes a little tougher to navigate. I would look at how many of the features will make your work better as well as how much time you feel it might save you. with weddings, efficiency is such a huge part of keeping up. an improved image with improved workflow options may end up saving a large amount of time over the course of the year. what i can say for sure is that we love our MK3s and we’ll be adding more as well. i can’t see us shooting much this year on the 7D or MKIVs.

P.

you can see the feature, ‘One Heartbeat’ we shot for CBS here on CBS Sports’ website.

cinematography by stillmotion (aside from the varicam and news footage)
directed by Pete Radovich, CBS
edited by Jonathan Katz, CBS
field produced by Gareth Hughes, CBS

cinematography by stillmotion
interviews shot by John Tipton
lighting by Midwest Grip and Lighting Co.
produced by Gareth Hughes, Steve Karasik, Pete Radovich, CBS
directed and edited by Christian Winters, CBS

there are so many different ways you can light an interview and while story is always important, interviews more than anything else often come with the constraints of time, space, and gear. traveling for A Game of Honor we had to be able to light an interview with whatever we could fit into one 70lb suitcase (which inspired a whole separate tutorial on what’s in that suitcase). if you’ve done your share of interviews…

…you’ll be all too familiar with showing up and having a room that would be a tight fit just to hold all of your gear, let alone setup and interview in it. with almost every interview we feel like we could use one more stinger, one more light, an extra five minutes to tweak the setup, or an extra 5′ feet to reposition the talent and camera. however, through working within these constraints we can learn to do much more with much less. half the tricks we know about lighting have all come from having to figure something out while on set, and having to do so quickly. the more we understand light, how it works and how we can work with it, the more we can make the most of whatever time, gear, and space we might find ourselves in.

we hope you enjoy our first lighting tutorial on basic interview lighting. our next lighting tutorial we will be sharing shortly will show how we light the same scene three different ways to create different moods.

P.

]]> http://stillmotionblog.com/2012/04/03/a-smapp-tutorial-basic-interview-lighting/feed/ 9 http://stillmotionblog.com/2012/04/02/now-screening-anna-kim/ http://stillmotionblog.com/2012/04/02/now-screening-anna-kim/#comments Mon, 02 Apr 2012 11:00:03 +0000 Patrick http://stillmotionblog.com/?p=7626 READ FULL POST + JOIN DISCUSSION]]> ‘I like to life my life to the fullest’ was how Anna lured us in for what would be a crazy day in trying to tell as much of their story as possible. we were in Hawaii for another shoot and after that had wrapped we found ourselves with an extra day to relax and hit the beach. we reached out to Anna about hanging out but she’d have none of that – why just hang out when…

a screengrab from the Red Epic of a surfer at North Shore

…we can make a film? we couldn’t really fault her on the logic and things were set in motion.

with any film we do, getting to know the characters is so so important, but when you create a portrait film getting to know your characters not only influences how we film their story, but also what things we look to get in their story. we are very careful to listen first and brainstorm second. with such a short turnaround from green light to production we took a couple long phone sessions and paired that with a string of emails to come up with the basis of the story.

thanks for letting us tell your story Anna. you inspire us :)

P.

featuring music by Drexler – Lovely Ghost
licensed at WithEtiquette.com

Saturday, right before the first game, tune into CBS for the Final Four open we shot in New Orleans.

(big thanks from Tyler Kaufman / CBS for these images!)

we’ve also been working with the The Game of Honor crew on a feature that touches on two unfortunate tragedies;  the school shooting in Chardon, OH and the tornado in Harrisburg IL. the piece is about the healing power of sports. Saturday has a shorter feature and Sunday will have a 22min piece, both of these on CBS Sports Network.

we hope you can tune in!

P.

a little BTS teaser from our time in NOLA…

(big thanks from Tyler Kaufman / CBS for these images!)

(big thanks from Tyler Kaufman / CBS for these images!)

(big thanks from Tyler Kaufman / CBS for these images!)