FS7: British drama

M

morgan_moore

Major Contributor
So I shot a short over the weekend - first outing at 4k.

I wanted a simple 'british' feel which may not look too cinematic to some but it was the look I wanted,

I shot IE for the EXTs and Slog3Custom up to 4000 maybe 8000 for the ints.

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Intrigued to see the stills and to see what you mean by 'British' feel.


Utopia?
Broadchurch?
Luther?
Ripper Street?

Looking forward to it :)


I'm doing my first 'higher end' promo shoot with it tomorrow after doing a bunch of run n gun stuff. Lot of 240fps slick stuff required.

EDIT: Nice
 
British? - I guess a reliance on modified natural light, no rim lighting ('hollywood feel') and also the lead actress actually looks like a person? (and she 'lives' in a house most of us could afford etc. 'kitchen sink'?)

S
 
I think certainly that there is a strong heritage of that look and style in British drama going back to well, as you say, kitchen sink dramas and then Loach, Leigh and the rest.

Conversely, I think modern British drama is currently falling into two broad categories in terms of the aesthetic over the last 4-5 years. One is the European low con dramatic composition 'cinematic' form and the other is the more hyper stylised and gloriously revelling in being TV instead of film, a la Being Human, Utopia, Misfits et al.

Some nice frames there mate.
 
Yep the first feel :)

Really I think the Scandis and Spiral (french) have it nailed. Ive taken a bit from their lighting in that sometimes I will have a hard source on the talent which goes against my personal rulebook.

S
 
I love Spiral :0

Aside from trying to make every light source in a scene seem 'motivated' I don't really have much of a rulebook any more. Certainly am getting more into lighting with flags instead of lighting with lights these days :)
 
Really the cam is making me very happy. To some extent we lucked out with the thin cloud cover, but yep - no shocks at the computer..

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Really really nice, Sam. I happen to love that British esthetic and from those stills you've really nailed it.

Ned Soltz
 
'heavy build' ,,DP6 at the front for me, EVF with my plywood hood for the director (we did have a crap SDI monitor too - but it did not play)

Vlock runs the monitor and sort of ran the camera, but I feel safer with onboards.

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Thank you.

Mainly my £125 35-70 manual nikkor zoom, ints were (£39) 35/2.5 SeriesE nikkor and (£49) Nikkor 50 1.8

Also my (£700) nikkor 50-300 4.5ED manual, and AF 14/2.8 Nikkor (£800)

I did some (not seen) steadicam shots on the joke sony 18-55 lens because it is super light and doesnt really need rebalancing on the rig - I realised I didnt even know how to change the iris on that!

S
 
Nice frames indeed!

Not a fan of the "Kitchen Sink" drama look myself but sometimes you get a director who demands it, so you gotta do what you gotta do!

You're really getting some good stuff from this camera.
 
Cool shots Sam. I like cinematic compositions with natural lighting. Not everything has to be lit-up like a christmas tree.

Funny how small the camera looks in your rig:-)
 
What's happened to all those people saying it was a run and gun camera and not suited to drama stuff? They seem to have gone into hiding!

Steve
 
My thoughts on the FS7 is just because it has a fancy hand grip doesn't mean it's for run and gun only. I love the image from this so far and plan to use it on independent films and commercial work. I will most likely rarely use the shoulder pad and hand grip on the FS7. I got this camera because it looks similar to the F55/F5 which I love so much.
 
steve phillipps said:
What's happened to all those people saying it was a run and gun camera and not suited to drama stuff? They seem to have gone into hiding!

Steve
Click to expand...

I think drama hits at two levels (gear wise) - I work at an Indy level at the moment and the camera is entirely good enough to build a reputation - and maybe even shoot something that makes money on the big screen.

But on a fully funded feature would I use it? No.

-the onboard 4k codec is a bit compressed the sort of softening of hair and other fine detail that we are used to seeing falling apart under compression.

Now if I were both funded and going for a fatter codec I would use the 5/55 (or varicam!) because I think the FS7 kind of gets bogged down if you go down the recorder route - F5/55+raw is a way neater package.
Also I think the camera would be hard to rig if you had a really powerful focus motor and heavy lenses

I would pick the varicam personally as I just get a sense that the camera is better thought out than the sony menu bullsh_it.

But.. most budget productions would be better to use this camera/onboard codec and put the kit rental/dit budget into art and talent. So Id pick it up to a way higher level than most would consider sensible.

S
 
Very nice work Sam and from the expressions on the faces of your cast and crew we aren't the only ones hoping to see the final product!
 
morgan_moore said:
But on a fully funded feature would I use it? No.
Click to expand...

I don't think that's the right question though, I'd ask you if you were on a feature and could only afford a camera around FS7 would you hate to use it and feel massively compromised because of it? I'd guess the answer would yes you'd happily use it. Asked if you had a big enough budget to choose any camera you wanted would it be an FS7? I'm sure the answer would be no. And that's where the confusion comes I think - people point to big TV shows and movies and ask if the FS7 is up to the job why is no-one using it then? It's because those productions have to money to choose whatever they want.
Footage looks nice, the rig in the production shot looks nice too :)

Steve
 
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