A7S + Ronin + Laos for Pencils of Promise

benjaminreece

benjaminreece

Active member
Hey guys,

I'm excited to share a video we produced for Pencils of Promise (they are a non-profit building schools in developing countries). I hope you enjoy.


BTS Photos: http://dlt.re/pencilsbts

Tech Info

Shot on the A7S w/ Pro color -7 detail, SLOG gamma
Ronin handheld + controller operated (about 50/50) w/ Kit 28-70 for road/bike shots and Sigma 18-35 1.8 for pretty much everything else.
We had a 3-6 person crew, Abby Vo & I running as Director/DP/Producers/Props/Etc & a few PoP staff members as AC/grip/PAs
We used a 4ft california sun bounce + TorchBolt LEDs through umbrellas on manfrotto stands for light in a bunch of the shots.

Logistics

A 4 day shoot + 3 days for casting/scouting. We had a storyboard/shot list before we landed- but we casted on the ground as we couldn't coordinate beforehand. The kids we casted (and everyone else) were super heroes. We fell in love with every one of them.

We could not have done it without the help of the beautiful Laotian people. For example, those road/bike shots- they cleared out the road and helped us shoot that on the spot.

Everyone on the ground at the non-profit + the people of the town were just mind blowningly talented and collaborative.

Although it was an intense shoot from 4AM to 9PM every day, it was one of the most beautiful experiences of my life w/ our producer and co-founder Abby Vo. We laughed harder in the back of our scouting truck then I've ever laughed.
 
Hey Ben,

I'm someplace I'm not able to watch this with sound, but what I saw looks great. You really made a beautiful piece and the visuals are very impressive.
 
That was beautiful well done mate. Just wondering was everything on the ronin (any tripod shots), and what settings did you have for the slo-mo, it was great!!!
 
Matt Filmic said:
That was beautiful well done mate. Just wondering was everything on the ronin (any tripod shots), and what settings did you have for the slo-mo, it was great!!!
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The camera was never off the Ronin. But, we often mounted the ronin off the handles and onto a tripod or the stand for low shots. This happened for a couple of shots. I really wish A7S had internal 4K or I had the odessey at that time. - there were a lot of moments I wanted to push in more in post (especially that last shot of the Dad)
 
Fantastic! The kids were awesome, prefect for slo-mo shots. The finished product looks really, really good.

BTS shots for gearheads need cameras. :o)
 
Ben,
It's remarkable how children in different cultures prioritize what is important to their little lives. The joy that you were able to capture in their faces was amazing. My 12 year old son watched the video with me, and it caused him to ask questions about how these kids live. By being able to prompt a modern boy to ask these questions, you have obviously succeeded in making a superb (and beautiful) video.

Congratulations!

Dave
 
djosbun said:
Ben,
It's remarkable how children in different cultures prioritize what is important to their little lives. The joy that you were able to capture in their faces was amazing. My 12 year old son watched the video with me, and it caused him to ask questions about how these kids live. By being able to prompt a modern boy to ask these questions, you have obviously succeeded in making a superb (and beautiful) video.

Congratulations!

Dave
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Dave,

Thanks so much. Actually, its really special to me, hearing that story. The client ended up having us cut an alt version to be used that went against the storyboard we contracted for. So, sharing it here with you guys is the only real outlet I have for all the work that went into the product.

Thanks again,
 
Ben,

That was awesome in the true sense of the word. Well done. Power of filmmaking at it's finest. Bravo!


And nice job on the sound too!
 
Really enjoyed this, thanks for posting. Your color grade i think is spot on for your piece, kudos to you. Watching this makes me miss the higher frame rates of this camera (i've only been shooting in 4k) and the results of your slow motion is stunning... so you've inspired me to try something different, thanks!
 
Rick LaLonde said:
I wouldn't touch that push-in on the father. I only say that because it made my eyes water up just as it is. Nice stuff.
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After watching it again I forgot I actually did push in a little bit in post- so yes, agreed its fine ! :) I think a longer lens would have been the trick to compress his face closer to hers or perhaps cheat her forward a bit. But I digress :)
 
caseywilsondp said:
Really enjoyed this, thanks for posting. Your color grade i think is spot on for your piece, kudos to you. Watching this makes me miss the higher frame rates of this camera (i've only been shooting in 4k) and the results of your slow motion is stunning... so you've inspired me to try something different, thanks!
Click to expand...

Yes! To me crop mode with the sigma lens makes this a very versatile camera- for me rigging it up with the Shogun/7Q+ doesn't make sense as it only gives you 8bit with similar complexity to a FS7- I'd rather just rent out an FS7/buy when I need something for bigger productions and use the A7S for shoots like this where we don't have time to deal with the heavier workflow like a RED. But, I won't lie- if the FS7 was out when this was shot, would have loved to thrown it on the Ronin for those higher frame rates/10bit/better codec.

The biggest thing I learned from a technical perspective on this shoot was the limits of A7S and it truly is all about codec/8bit.
 
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benjaminreece said:
The biggest thing I learned from a technical perspective on this shoot was the limits of A7S and it truly is all about codec/8bit.
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this is honestly the only firmware update feature i ever care to see. if it's possible, and not limited by hardware, a 10 bit codec would be phenomenal.
 
bill totolo said:
Can you discuss the color grading process?
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Definitely- I'm actually very minimalist with what I do to the S-Log gamma. First, I think its important to use either Pro or Cinema- Sgamut color is hard to deal with. To my eyes, Pro makes the skin tones pop a bit orange/red more than Cinema. It worked better with the Laotian skin tones.

So after logging/organizing for 2-3 days, I edited the assembly > rough cut in premiere. Once I was done with my rough cut and I knew I had locked in the majority of my clips I then ran Neat Video on every clip- some had very slight noise correction, some a lot.

For example the room with the older man reading his medicine and the interior shots of when Luni (the main girl character) first enters the scheool, were both underexposed. The latter shot was underexposed on purpose due to the dynamic range of the scene (I thought I could pull her skin tons in from the shadows, I was kind of right, but the mountains are still blown out so I should have just set IRE 70 for skin as I did with most).

But all were sharpened through neat video (I set detail to -10 in camera). On tip on neat video- use advanced mode and enable deep bit depth mode). I find the A7S does well with light noise correction in post- I have it set to off in camera.

Then, I took the project into speed grade and pushed around the colors and luma values on gain, gamma, lift- I matched all the exteriors to a reference frame (a good scene that I tuned in first) and all the interiors to another interior reference frame.

Overall I have been happy with Slog- it pushes around a lot better (more luma than color) than h264 canon stuff - but is a far cry of course from R3D.

The shadows of course are the fabled problem with Slog2 - the detail is there but even after noise removal the loss of detail was of course not brought back all the way- so finally I added a luma curve that crushed the left end of the blacks a bit more. I find with my grading I like to lift the majority of shadows but then crush the blackest blacks so that noise floor is gone + the human eye loves to see that contrast in a scene (whitest whites to blackest blacks).

No LUTs were used. Again, I find with Pro/Cinema color you can craft your own luma curve for each shot to get the look you want. I'm used to working luma curves in Lightroom/Photoshop, so its my preferred method. Speedgrade was used to set a curve + adjust the color to match shot to shot/scene to scene.

Finally, I tried adding some grain that I had from purchasing the Osirus LUTs (which I use for quick uploads/renders) but ultimately removed it. I've decided "never again" with grain for web delivery as web compression doesn't know how to handle grain- the codec sends the bitrate bandwidth all over the image because the grain tricks the compression algorithm into thinking there is detail everywhere.

Hope provides some entertainment! It was fun explaining. :)
 
benjaminreece said:
Hope provides some entertainment! It was fun explaining. :)
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Very informative, thanks for the rundown of your process. I enjoy seeing other workflows since I come from a photo heavy background - I'm still trying to get into the grading mindset instead of approaching it like I do with photos.
 
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