C300: C300mkii shot Commercial

John, looks really great, well done! Could you comment a little on the picture profiles used, why you went Log3/2020/Production Camera, and did you use the LUT in post as a baseline or did you go from scratch. DaVince or other?
 
Thanks Lkorver,
Unfortunately, I wasn't involved with post on this one. I try to get the image as close as possible in camera using the 709 LUT from the camera. So in the worst case scenario they just throw a LUT on and it's pretty close to what we all agreed on set with.

I went with LOG3, its honestly just the easiest to deal with. Add a touch of contrast and shift the white balance and its done. I find it's also the best option to go with when the final project ends up living in that low-contrast style, there's no aggressive noise. I also knew I'd want those windows to bloom out to white so the minor loss of DR in the highlights didn't bother me.

2020 Color space: I've found the 709 space just a little restrictive, but I didn't need the full range of Cine Gamut.

Production Color Matrix: I don't think it really lines up with an arri in terms of color. Cinema Eos color actually looks closer. That being said, I do really like the tonality of this profile. It doesn't quite look like a Canon image which I think is a good thing when you're approaching some projects.
 
John, great job on this piece. It's funny to see such a flattering look for a hungover moment ;) Thanks for sharing!

-MMcK
 
2020 Color space: I've found the 709 space just a little restrictive, but I didn't need the full range of Cine Gamut.

Production Color Matrix: I don't think it really lines up with an arri in terms of color. Cinema Eos color actually looks closer. That being said, I do really like the tonality of this profile. It doesn't quite look like a Canon image which I think is a good thing when you're approaching some projects.[/QUOTE]

I'm curious about the productionColor matrix. The few times I used it I found it a little thin color wise when i graded some of the material. Obviously each project has its requirements and design goals for look so having the option of different color matrices is good. "Production camera" matrix seems to be some what limiting, but I probably should get on board with the idea that it has its place in the the matrix rotation.
 
I've used the production camera color with the wide DR gamma, it's one of the nicest 709 looks I've seen out of a camera.
 
Lovely work, john! One of the marks of a highly skilled DP is that they can make things look deceptively simple and achieve great results with only a minimal complexity in the lighting setup.


Tell me if you would, why did you go with the Hives over, say, a traditional HMI? What advantages are there if any, to the Hives over something like a 1200w HMI or an M18?
 
JPNola said:
Lovely work, john! One of the marks of a highly skilled DP is that they can make things look deceptively simple and achieve great results with only a minimal complexity in the lighting setup.


Tell me if you would, why did you go with the Hives over, say, a traditional HMI? What advantages are there if any, to the Hives over something like a 1200w HMI or an M18?
Click to expand...

I'm not trying to answer for him, but I'd say possibly power savings/heat generation, but what some may not think of, is color/skin tone. The plasma's are supposed to be full spectrum, like the sun and tungsten, whereas HMI's aren't.
 
Thanks JP. The crew was just myself and my gaffer, simplicity by necessity! Limiting the number of angles in each setup also helped.

Run&Gun is on the right track. I would have loved to an M18 or big joker, but I drive a tacoma not a cube truck!

I had been looking at picking up a joker800 for quite a while. I came across hive a while ago, kind of wrote them off when they were still around last cine-gear in LA, I took another look. Another buddy of mine was on the market for an HMI in the 800 range, we went all over town doing our own photo metrics. I ended up going down to hive and playing with a few of their lamps. I was blown away with the input vs output. It just didn't compare to anything else on the market. It draws around 300 watts and spits out a 575HMI. Doesn't make any sense! After a number of long conversations with the company I took a demo unit out on a shoot and ended up buying the 2x Wasp250 kit a few weeks later. They never get as hot as a tungsten or hmi unit (my 650's need longer to cool). Being able to shift color temp from 4600-6500 is pretty amazing and the full sprectum is noticeable compared to an hmi. I did have a bunch of ballast trouble with the first kit I got, but the customer service has been great, I even backed the kickstarter for two of their new LED lamps.

I have two big shoots coming up soon. One with an M40 and the other one I'm going to rent the large Hive1000 for. I'll check back with more thoughts later.
 
jm.gardiner said:
I've used the production camera color with the wide DR gamma, it's one of the nicest 709 looks I've seen out of a camera.
Click to expand...

Did you shoot this profile to minimize grading in post, and if you did what grading did you do in post ? I 'm looking through some camera profiles and the "Production Camera+ EOS gamma" also looks attractive at first glance, Wide Dr Gamma is also good though more reserved color saturation wise as would be expected.
 
I'm just a big fan of the Wide DR gamma. I like the slightly muted saturation and shadow detail. I've used it on a number of quick turn around docu-projects.
 
jm.gardiner said:
I'm just a big fan of the Wide DR gamma. I like the slightly muted saturation and shadow detail. I've used it on a number of quick turn around docu-projects.
Click to expand...

The issue for me is whether choices made for camera profiles get addressed in post. I had a recent shoot where we shot 2k 444 RGB with a log 3 profile.... I saved camera originals and did a quick sketch up for client on how the end product should look - Also had a rec 709 LUT. Applied on set for viewing purposes.

Client does post, does no grade and submits work. I found out about this weeks later and I'm wondering WTF? We had the discussion prior to shoot, then on set about the grade and zippo happens. I shot some beautiful footage for them, showed the client what it could look like, which did not take much work to acheive and it winds up in the cut as ungraded canon log 3. Grrr.

All this has got me thinking I like production camera & EOS gamma a lot more these days.
 
Agreed, I think most cinematographers would choose to bake in a few choice looks on set, so no one can flip a 180 on the aesthetics at the end of the process. There's at least a few projects where I would have rather had clipped the highlights then see the gamma curve murdered in post.

Much to the chagrin of myself and the production company a rough cut of a previous spot was uploaded to instagram by the client.
 
jm.gardiner said:
Much to the chagrin of myself and the production company a rough cut of a previous spot was uploaded to instagram by the client.
Click to expand...

Oh man, sorry to hear that. Had a version of that happen once. Sucks.

Just sent a previsualization of a composite we shot scouting yesterday. Set up the privacy settings so that I can just remove access if 'someone' gets the bright idea to share prematurely.

Been shooting almost exclusively in clog 3 cinema gamut. Per your positive experience, I look forward to experimenting with Wide DR when time permits.

Again, great work on the spot you shared.
 
jm.gardiner said:
Much to the chagrin of myself and the production company a rough cut of a previous spot was uploaded to instagram by the client.
Click to expand...

I've experienced this a number of times. Always have that specific conversation- do you want log or WYSIWYG. For WYSIWYG I ended up with my own custom profile that gave more DR than Wide DR, much to my surprise. If nothing else- test then test some more.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top