"Sisters" Directed by Sekiya Dorsett

Beat Takeshi

Beat Takeshi

Two-Hip Shakur
"Sisters"
Directed by Sekiya Dorsett
Cinematography by yours truly
Stedi-Cam by Johnny Tsang

HVX and Brevis

screenies04.jpg


screenies07.jpg


screenies09.jpg


screenies10.jpg


screenies12.jpg


screenies15.jpg


screenies18.jpg


screenies20.jpg


screenies22.jpg
 
Um...Wow.

Your projects are always so stunning. The CC is incredible.

Your cinematography is great as well.

Good job
 
Always like your stuff. I think it is more effective to have a couple quick shot thrown together then to put up 50 stills. So lets see some actual NOT YOUTUBE footage. :)
 
Aram, I was trying to put my finger on a common element in your CC work. It's like a warm fireplace on a cold night...warm and comfortable :-)
 
Hi, I notice a good deal of edge distortion in a number of the images. Is this a typical issue you have with your Brevis or is it the wide Nikons wide open?
 
Thanks guys. Yeah, I was having issues with my wide angles and didn't have an HD monitor until the 2nd day and what I had to do is zoom in a little more on the ground glass to lessen it. We also switched to my friends wide angle that helped a lot too but the first day was killing me.
She should have footage Feb first but I will ask if I can do a mash up like I did with Most Beautiful girl.

EDIT: Yes, in some of the shots the Nikon was wide open. Does that make the edges soft?
 
Last edited:
What was your Brevis set up like? Did you use any spacers? Flip? (related to the distortion)

Also, please tell us a bit about your lighting kit.

The grabs look great, good job! All your women look beautiful. I'd love to watch it. It looks very good and interesting.
 
Aram, your stills are always nice and it pains me to see the edge fall-off. Those sorts of things shouldn't be messin' with your images, honestly. Have you tried spacers or anything like that with your Brevis?

Are you getting the flip unit?

Show us some footage and I hope the edge fall-off is done away with for you in the near future.

Thanks for sharing.
 
hahah, beautiful girls man.. beautiful girls.. haha

i honestly miss shooting movies.. thanks for having me as a part of the team.. WHEE!

and emily is def a good AC.. possibly a regular for the crew?
 
what I had to do to compensate for that blown out window, still blown but not like how it was before:

screenies18.jpg


me:

photo1.jpg


photo.jpg


hehe..
 
to be honest, and I know most of us hate crazy blown out stuff being we shoot video, but I think it looks great there! I have no clue what the setting it, but it looks mysterious, and it makes me feel there must be something big going on... so long as you didn't have too many of those it just might work great... just don't tell anyone that doesn't deal with shooting video that it was something you couldn't avoid :D
that was one of my favorite grabs
 
Looks really well put together and interesting. In lots of your stuff i reaize you have a preference for warmer looking footage.
 
Thanks for the compliments.
Yeah Johnny, you know your the first person I call when I can. We make a great crew and get sh1t done quickly when a problem arises. Emily is definitely a keeper. She was on point with everything and never complained once. She's like 90 lbs. but will lift a fridge if needed.
The edge to edge sharpness thing sucks but zooming in more and focusing the lens and then refocusing the camera helped when I figured it out on the wides. I used to tape the focus ring down but not anymore. It seems sometimes you need to focus on a different plane on the ground glass depending on the lens.
The warmer footage lent to this story and to the other short "Most Beautiful Girl" where it has the same texture but I do love warm footage. :) It's yummy. The director chose me for "Sisters" off the strength of "Most Beautiful Girl" since she was working with darker skin tones also. Both shot in 720pn mode. I shot for Chris Messineo's love fest entry and that film is not as warm nor has the same textures and hopefully looks as good.
 
The Brevis set up is I guess the same as all the others. I am using a CF1-le which got rid of the vignetting I had with the original one but I still use the original once in a while because I like the vignette in a way.
The lighting was mostly soft sources. One 1000w key and the rest were 300w and down for the pools of light with some gels and diffusion and of course my magic light that I use. Everyone should have that one light that gives a certain look to their style. I used it for almost every scene where it could throw light far enough. I also had a 650w but only used it once in the kitchen scene to bring up the lighting to help battle the sunny window. I think I had all the lights on in the scene. Otherwise the 650w was too dominating even with diffusion. The 300w were the lights of the day. I tried to use either the windows or the practicals as the motivation for the key most of the time and cheated the rest. The diner was the worst because I was only allowed one light in there since they were open and working and had to make it stretch its duty. Plus the diner had no windows next to the booths which is what I was hoping for to be able to put a big light outside of it. Oh well, got do with whats given.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top