AF100 shot segment on the Today Show

B

Benjamin Eckstein

Well-known member
Tomorrow at 8:42am (EST) they are airing a segment I shot this week. This was the first time I've shot for Today, and the first time they've explored the use of cameras like the AF100. I've done a bunch of different corporate/doc jobs with the producer of the segment, and he has been wanting to bring a slightly different aesthetic to their field stories. We filmed in a charter school in East Harlem talking to a few students about their mother's (the piece is about Mother's Day). Similar stuff to many of my projects: interviews and b-roll.

I ran into some challenges because all the kids wore white shirts as part of their uniform and many had very dark skin, so for shooting the b-roll in the classrooms, it was hard to expose their faces without clipping the whites. I also had to shoot with a somewhat more "baked-in" look than I usually do, because I was under the impression that they do little to no color correction on these fast turn around projects. I find that I can't get, as easily, a great baked-in look on this cam as I can with my EX-1, but I was happy with my results, particularly in the interviews. We shot on SD, and (I believe) they AMAed the ProRes files I created into Avid.

So, hopefully it's a nice little piece, and feel free to turn on the tv tomorrow morning to see the AF100 on a national broadcast.
 
That's really cool, I will try to watch it if I can. Will you be able to post a link to it after it airs if we miss it?
 
Benjamin Eckstein said:
I ran into some challenges because all the kids wore white shirts as part of their uniform and many had very dark skin, so for shooting the b-roll in the classrooms, it was hard to expose their faces without clipping the whites. I also had to shoot with a somewhat more "baked-in" look than I usually do, because I was under the impression that they do little to no color correction on these fast turn around projects. I find that I can't get, as easily, a great baked-in look on this cam as I can with my EX-1, but I was happy with my results, particularly in the interviews. We shot on SD, and (I believe) they AMAed the ProRes files I created into Avid.
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I had that problem once shooting a quick outdoor shot for a wedding scene for a nigerian movie... the talent was REALLY dark skinned, and the dress was REALLY white. We just got our RED MX at that point, and even it did not have that kind of dynamic range... If you can't adjust the lighting, you gotta do what you gotta do and clip the clothes... better than crushing the details in their face.

As for better baked in look vs the EX cams, I find I can get it better with the AF100 than the ex1/3 cameras I have used. granted I have gotten to play with my AF more than the EXs I rent or used at various studios, but I was never really happy with the colors of them... they had great sharpness, but something in the color look of the EX cams were always lacking to me compared to my AF100 and even my HPX (though besides the color and 'mojo', the EXs kill the HPX, sorry...). Anyway, to each their own though.
 
Great job but 5:42am PST? You are killing me, my Tivo is in storage. Hope you can get a copy, I would like to see it. Maybe I can wake up and catch it.
 
Great Job! The interviews look perfect! Crisp with a nice bokeh. Wonderful work and a great endorsement for the camera. Nice going. I would really like to know your settings, lenses and what light you used. Beautiful!
 
Thanks guys. I thought it came out well. It's always interesting to see what editors do with your stuff, often using the reframing, refocusing bits that you wouldn't consider "real" shots.

In terms of settings, for the interviews I was at:
Detail/V-Detail: -4
Coring: +1
Gamma: HDNorm
Matrix: Norm 2
Ped: -3 (I think)

I shot the whole piece with the excellent Olympus 35-100 f2 (for interviews and some b-roll) and the Olympus 14-35 f2. We had a second AF100 as b-cam, but it was interesting because despite the fact that the settings were identical, they definitely looked different. That camera had a Nikon 28 and 85 (I think) for the second angle on the interviews, which might have made for the difference in color and contrast, but it definitely looked more muted compared with my camera. I shot a chip chart for ease of matching the cams, but as I suspected, in the land of editing morning shows, they don't do much for color correction, and it looks like they aired untouched. I'd be curious to see though, how close or how far off, two AFs with the same settings (and the same lens) are to each other. I imagine there would be slight differences no matter what.

Anyway, thanks for checking it out. I'll see if I can get it online and post a link.
 
Here's the link:
http://on.msnbc.com/lyXLe2

Certainly not in HD. I'm going to see if I can snag an HD version to put on Vimeo, but that may not happen. Nice stills in the live segment shot by my buddy Mike Flanagan.

(They definitely put a really big lower third up on the screen!)
 
I caught the second half of the segment, saw it HD and it looked really good. Your settings are pretty much what I used. Good work.
 
I liked the entire segment, very well put together and the shots are very nice from what I have seen. Great work! I can not wait to actually shoot on mine, just got it and waiting for my Nano and some other parts to come in.
 
Benjamin Eckstein said:
Thanks guys. I thought it came out well. It's always interesting to see what editors do with your stuff, often using the reframing, refocusing bits that you wouldn't consider "real" shots.

In terms of settings, for the interviews I was at:
Detail/V-Detail: -4
Coring: +1
Gamma: HDNorm
Matrix: Norm 2
Ped: -3 (I think)

I shot the whole piece with the excellent Olympus 35-100 f2 (for interviews and some b-roll) and the Olympus 14-35 f2. We had a second AF100 as b-cam, but it was interesting because despite the fact that the settings were identical, they definitely looked different. That camera had a Nikon 28 and 85 (I think) for the second angle on the interviews, which might have made for the difference in color and contrast, but it definitely looked more muted compared with my camera. I shot a chip chart for ease of matching the cams, but as I suspected, in the land of editing morning shows, they don't do much for color correction, and it looks like they aired untouched. I'd be curious to see though, how close or how far off, two AFs with the same settings (and the same lens) are to each other. I imagine there would be slight differences no matter what.

Anyway, thanks for checking it out. I'll see if I can get it online and post a link.
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Nice job. Enjoyed watching the segment.
Color and contrast really changes with different lenses. I noticed this yesterday shooting with a Lumix 7-14 and a Zeiss ZF 85. Very diffrent look. Had to color correct them to match or it would have looked strange.
 
thanks for sharing. the piece looks great. i was wondering about the second camera. looks like it was on a slider too. so, how does Today pay? was it good?
 
gregstrange said:
thanks for sharing. the piece looks great. i was wondering about the second camera. looks like it was on a slider too. so, how does Today pay? was it good?
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Thanks Greg. We had the second cam (another AF100) on a Kessler Pocket Dolly. I just got a 501 head for it though, and for whatever reason, I can't seem to get a smooth pan/slide at the same time. I think that the 501 just cannot adjust so that the tension is the same as the slider. My assistant was operating the 2nd cam and definitely found the slide/pan hard to get super smooth. In hindsight, I woulda scrubbed the slider. They didn't cut to it much anyway.

I think they paid well. People on the forums (or in general) don't discuss pay much, but I think it's useful to know what people charge, as a basis for figuring out your own pricing. I know a lot of people starting out are at a loss for figuring out the whole pricing. They paid $1500/day for me + my assistant (sound/second cam) including my gear package. We intended to use my 7D as second cam, but my officemate's AF100 was available so I brought that along.
 
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