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Motion to share

bcooter

New member
There is not a lot of motion content or mention on this forum, but a good friend sent me this link and it's very pretty and should be shared.


NightFall on Vimeo

I think you landscape and architectural photographers will find it interesting.

Actually, anybody that loves hard to do imagery will love it.

IMO

BC
 
We don't see things like that here because medium format cameras can't record video yet, but I don't doubt MF's been used for time lapse before, though.

If Dalsa or some other chip maker(s) get to developing an MF chip that would have a fast enough readout for video recording, it could open a whole new world for cinematography, the first Panavision 65/IMAX/70mm filmmaking tool that doesn't sound like a jet taking off, weigh a ton, or cost as much as a luxury house with all the trimmings. (slight hyperbole, but ya'll seen what the 5DmkII did for video, right?) And the inherently high resolution of digital backs would be well suited to the expected resolution output (4K to 8K).

The only question is whether RED will develop a camera with this sensor size before any of this happens... which seems dangerous, considering their tiny 18mp 30x15mm Dragon can already output 18-20 stops of dynamic range at a fairly high ISO.
 

bcooter

New member
I wasn't trying to turn this into a video thread, just thought it was interesting in regards to what most people's interests are here.

In regards to still to video and file size, well you can never have too much data, not matter what the final or how small you will rez it down.

This was done for our reel and shot with a p21+ and Contax. I like the look.

http://www.spotsinthebox.com/cut_frank_lola.mov

(The banding you see here comes from the web purposed clip which is of low bitrate.)

If I had time I'd probably go back and processes it out flatter to kill some of the banding, though in full 4:2:2 pro rez it's fine.

Anyway, a lot of video we have done through the years are moving more and more to multi media projects and less pure motion only pieces, because the world of imagery has become more multimedia in style.

In fact when we have a brief to shoot only motion we sill cover every scene in stills and it is always picked up and used.

In regards to RED our cameras have a lot of dr truly useable 14 stops, but RED is more tilted towards the highlights where the Arri is more tilted towards the whole range.

DR talk, still or motion, of 12, 14 to 18 stops sounds good on paper, but a lot of that talk is just that, on paper. It's what those useable stops look like.

I don't find it a one camera world yet, or where a digital motion camera can produce stills the quality of a dedicated still camera.

Even cameras like the Panasonic g3 which is probably the best of the low cost hybrid cameras has tilted there efforts towards the motion imagery more than the still imagery.

Olympus with there new 4/3 camera took the opposite track so maybe it's not possible to optimize the camera to do both well.

We'll see.

IMO

BC
 

bcooter

New member
In all reality, photographers, cinematographers is not that different in mindset.

We all use light and subjects, we all try to tell a story or do something visually interesting.

If you get the time watch this Zacuto comparison.

Revenge of The Great Camera Shootout Part Two | Zacuto USA

If you don't care about motion cameras just scrub past that and listen to the interviews from the DP's like Haskell Wexler.

If you live and breath photography the quotes you will hear from these people are exactly what you hear in your own mind.

I find moving from one medium to the other equal in challenge, equal in thought process, different in execution.

It's funny these dp's live and breath making images. I understand that.

Just like photographers look at films to get inspiration, DPs look at still photography to do the same.

I loved these quick interviews and wish they had expanded them.

I hear all the time from clients and people not in my industry, "how can you work all the time?" and though I usually don't answer that, I always want to say how can you not?

IMO

BC
 

bdp

Member
Technically it's brilliant but I found some of the edits too fast - it needed to linger more instead of jumping from one shot to another so quickly imho.
 

peterv

New member
I fully agree with bdp, for starters, there is no rhythm in the editing of these night shots. It would be better if the editing would allow some shots to be shown for 2 seconds, others for 4 or 5 seconds.

This video is merely a juxtaposition of shots that keep on telling the same story over and over.

This could have been interesting for 30 seconds, over 3 minutes of repetition starts to get boring. One of the first things one learns at film school is 'kill your darlings', meaning you should leave the shots that do not add to the story you want to tell on the cutting room floor, no matter how much you like them, or how much trouble you went through to make them. The audience just doesn't care.

The video looks a bit like a pet project of a photographer who fell in love with his individual shots, but doesn't know how to narrate a story in a cinematically interesting way. For example, it's common in motion pictures to not edit long shots to long shots. You need medium shots and close shots to intercut a scene in order to keep it interesting.

Anyway, nice shots, nice light and nice compositions and all, but that's not enough for motion story telling.

IMHO, of course.

James, if you like the quotes by Mr. Wexler and other cameramen, you should read Masters of light, if you haven't already.

Masters of Light: Conversations with Contemporary Cinematographers - Dennis Schaefer, Larry Salvato - Google Boeken

Thanks for starting this interesting thread!
 

ondebanks

Member
I rather liked that film...until...

As the end credits roll, the starry sky rotates...backwards! They must have pulled a giant handbrake on the Earth, and thrown the planet in reverse.

I know very little about film making, but sequencing timelapse frames in reverse order, thus showing the subject in a physically impossible manner - would that count as a schoolboy error?

Ray
 

Shashin

Well-known member
It was taken in the southern hemisphere. ;)

Besides, how do you know? You weren't there. ;) ;)

I remember a friend who needed to take a location shot showing a mountain range north of the location. The art director wanted to know if he could get the moon rising over the mountains...
 

bcooter

New member
I rather liked that film...until...
No offense to anyone but I think a lot of people missed the point.

This isn't a dialog piece or a movie, not even a documentary.

It's more of a demo reel and as the artist mentioned it's available for liscensing.

I thought people here would enjoy it because to me it's a hybrid mindset of stills and motion, where you frame like a still photographer but you think about the end product like a cinematographer.

It's like a video portfolio and if anyone here has reviewed multiple portfolios there is a huge volume of repetition.

Maybe I'm partial to it because I know how difficult it is to work L.A..

Just scouting these locations took huge volumes of hours, getting clearance, working in some neighborhoods that make Baghdad look safe.

Also it's a piece that imagery doesn't happen in an hour, a minute, a second.

As most people know most of these images take hours, even a day and one mistake, one camera bump, one wind gust that moves a camera off axis and it's ruined.

I respected the work.

IMO

BC
 
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