2016 TRANS AM WORLDWIDE (Official) | A7s, FS700. 7Q+, Ronin M

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ashclever

Well-known member
My latest promo video for Trans Am to show the new upgraded 30,000 square foot facility. They make the 2016 GTO as well which is featured in the video too.

Roughly 70% of the shots were A7s with the 7Q+ combo. Without doubt, the Odyssey 7Q has unlocked the power of the A7s the same way it unlocked my FS700. The 4K ProRes 8-bit color space is almost just as flexible as the FS700 10 bit in grading. The A7s got used a bit more than the FS700 on this shoot because I found myself gravitating towards the use of the RONIN-M a lot for a video like this that needed to keep energy high.

After my last two projects and seeing how well the two camera setups pair together once graded, I am happy with the choice to get a second 7Q for the A7s instead of upgrading to a different camera for my B-Cam. The 7Q I have been using for the last year and half on the FS700 is not the + model so I could not test the A7s possibilities until I rolled the dice on a second 7Q purchase.



EDIT: Up on VIMEO now as well.
 
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Thanks. In this I was using the straight S-Log2 profile but switching my color between S-Gamut and Cine a lot!

On interior shots within the facility that had the yellow GTO in view, I used Cine color space. On all exterior car shots (which was all A7s) I used Cine as well....because the yellow GTO was a part of the batch of cars the entire time. The Cine mode was used exclusively to handle making that yellow GTO look the yellow that it should be. S-Gamut provides better skin tones once you bring the high end of the green curve down a bit...but there seems to be no recovering getting accurate yellow without a greenish tint or making the image appear too flat or unbalanced. Because the paint jobs are such a big deal in this, I used cine to get accurate yellows. I preffered S-Gamut for everything else.

All that being said, without the 7q+, I usually used Samuel's FLATT picture profile which worked pretty well.....but I was really on the fence about giving up on the A7s until I added the 7Q+. Now with these juicy 4K ProRes files I can explore the very large LUT library I have built up. I could only get a couple of LUT's that I have to play nice with the XAVC-S footage from the internal recording before. I can get the FS700 and the A7s to match but I have to use different LUT and grading combinations to get there.
 
Good job on that and thanks for sharing the info. Good to see the A7s and FS700 being matched up well.
As someone who has shot cars since 1991 and also own a '78 Bandit Trans Am and '02 SLP T/A Firehawk, I can appreciate both the vehicles and the production end of this project.
I'm also glad to see the FS700 still in use, since I own one too :)
 
nice, thanks for sharing, yeah prores is much better with the a7s.

which lenses did you use for this job?
 
firehawk said:
Good job on that and thanks for sharing the info. Good to see the A7s and FS700 being matched up well.
As someone who has shot cars since 1991 and also own a '78 Bandit Trans Am and '02 SLP T/A Firehawk, I can appreciate both the vehicles and the production end of this project.
I'm also glad to see the FS700 still in use, since I own one too :)
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I too am glad to still see life back in the Trans Am. Over the course of my life my mom had one, my dad had two and my wife had one when I met here 12 years ago...so I have a little relationship with them.

The FS700 with the 7Q in my opinion has much much life left. I pretty much plan on buying another FS700 a little down the road as these prices are dropping. This is the route I plan to go for shooting a film this summer for an exact match. Other than ergonomics, I'm still not seeing something that convinces me the FS7 is worth the upgrade. The other thing that the FS700 can do that the A7s can absolutely can not is handle blue LED's which can be a really big problem in some situations. Also having all the frame rate options in 4K is fantastic. The 1080p ProRes from the FS700 is also superior to the A7s 1080p ProRes when needing to lighten the data load of not shooting everything in 4K.

dia3olik said:
nice, thanks for sharing, yeah prores is much better with the a7s.

which lenses did you use for this job?
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Thanks. I will say the ProRes in 1080p from the a7s through the 7Q+ is disappointing in that it grades and looks almost identical to the XAVC-S. Ther 4K footage has much more depth, magic and flexibility happening when I did some side by side test and grading. This was a disappointing discovery because I had hoped I could still get great footage in 1080p for higher frame rates.

On the A7s (which is any RONIN M shot you see in the video and all the driving shots) I used either a Rokinon 24mm or Rokinon 35mm depending on the situation. On the FS700 I used Tamron 70-200mm the most, Tamron 185mm Macro, Rokinon 85mm and a Zeiss Contax 50mm.
 
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Holy Crap!

Scrape the smile off of my face...IF YOU CAN!

Were we talking about some cameras or lenses or something? Yeah....DON'T CARE!

I know time marches on, and we have to develop green technologies and get off of fossil fuels, but THE VERY LAST thing I am going to give up is good old American Muscle Cars! From my cold dead hands baby!

What a joy it must have been to shoot this.
And I love the soundtrack as well.
 
I know DPStewart! It was and has been a blast making videos for this growing company over the years, they really are doing the best possible job they can muster and the results I think are fantastic. I am happy with how the soundtrack came out as well, thanks for mentioning. It took quite a bit of cutting, pasting, looping and sampling to get all 3 songs and video cuts to intertwine and hit at the right times for power statements.


Thanks grifter09.
 
ashclever, great job with the video. Agree with DPStewart, the soundtrack was great and you did a nice job cutting to it.

Love the modern take on the GTO and T/A. I didn't realize those guys were here in FL, going to go check the shop out next time I'm up in that area. As a certified car nut, I had to watch it twice since the first time I was just checking out how the cars are made. All of the Ronin shots looked good, I have a Beholder DS1 on the way to pair with my A7rII and A7s, looking forward to shooting with the combo.
 
Chris Joy said:
ashclever, great job with the video. Agree with DPStewart, the soundtrack was great and you did a nice job cutting to it.

Love the modern take on the GTO and T/A. I didn't realize those guys were here in FL, going to go check the shop out next time I'm up in that area. As a certified car nut, I had to watch it twice since the first time I was just checking out how the cars are made. All of the Ronin shots looked good, I have a Beholder DS1 on the way to pair with my A7rII and A7s, looking forward to shooting with the combo.
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Thanks Chris. Yeah, even most people here in Tallahassee don't know this is happening right under their nose, lol.

This was my first experience using the RONIN M or a 3 axis brushless gimbal system period. I literally got it the day before we began shooting and had to come up with a solution to mount the 7Q+. It all came together though and I love it! Very happy to have it in the kit. The DS1 looks promising too so best of luck!
 
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