F55: CineAlta Magazine issue 4

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In this issue:

ANNIE - It’s a 4K Life – with the Director and Cinematographer
An Owner/Operator’s Story: My Journey from a C300 to the F5
Workflow Made Easy with Catalyst Browse and Catalyst Prepare applications from Sony Creative Software
4K in Corporate Production
Sundance Labs – Education in Film Making
Behind the Scenes with Sony Professional Service
The Wedding Ringer

Interviews:

Rodrigo Prieto, ASC, AMC on using the F55 with Director Martin Scorsese
Daryn Okada, ASC on shooting Dolphin Tale 2 and Let’s Be Cops
Director Joseph Kosinski discusses TRON: Legacy, Oblivion, and his Destiny

https://community.sony.com/t5/F5-F55/CineAlta-Magazine-issue-4/m-p/474140#U474140
 
cool - thanks for sharing this - had no idea they had a magazine for fan boys, by fan boys. :)
 
I like how it was explained that for Annie that they only ever used the F65 in order to get HFR since the F55 is limited to 60p in 4K. I have not seen Annie, but hopefully I can check it out eventually on VOD or Netflix.

Still reading this issue, but have to say its an amazing resource to see these cameras in production and get the scoop on all the behind the scenes details on post workflow, use of LUTs, etc..
 
My wife and I were invited to a Sony showing of Annie a week before release. The critics, by the way, have universally panned the movie. We thought it was a cute children's film and really felt no need to be hypercritical. A great deal of the film was shot outdoors in NYC. The F55 footage held up nicely. But I did think it was a bit crunchy in places. The director deliberately wanted no reds until Annie appears late in the film in her red dress. So he either avoided shooting reds (no small feat when shooting outdoors in NYC) or muted the reds in post. But whatever reds there were up to the time of the dress were quite orange. The red dress itself was obviously oversaturated in post but it was really, really red. A few sync issues with ADR but it wasn't Chinese kung fu movie bad. But should not have been in a major production. As regards the orange, another tech writer and I discussed it and we talked to a Sony guy. He figured it was the projector. But it was Sony's 4K projector in their viewing theater at Sony bldg on Madison Ave.

I agree that Peter and crew do a wonderful job on the CineAlta Magazine.

I'll be getting production notes and stills and at that point will know if there is anything I will be allowed to divulge beyond what is in the CineAlta article.

And, did finally catch the first Marco Polo Netflix tonight. Sony at this point has no production notes or information about it. Looked very good.

Ned
 
Thanks for sharing the .pdfs. There was some nice stuff in there and gave me confidence in the F series cameras.

I thought the trailer from The Man From Reno look very nice - F5, Slog 2, XAVC codec. I like just how understated the grade was - neutral, not in your face, subtle.


I thought Deliver Us From Evil look sweet as well. The DP commented how great the F55 was for this project specifically because it was mostly low light.


With how much crap people talk about Sonys, these certainly looked on par with the more popular cinema cameras - Arri, RED.
 
Just a note that Sony themselves zipped these up and placed them on DropBox. I am not distributing their magazine(s) in any funny manner.

Yes I really like the information and detail in these magazines, it's something I never saw with the F3 for example, so like Gene says it does bring a lot of confidence to the table with these cameras.

As for crap being spoken about Sony, probably the biggest fault of these cameras is all fairness is the rubix cube matrix of possibilities when it comes to settings and then post.. I'd say other manufacturer cameras are much "simpler" to use. If that's fair to say.
 
Plus the double edged sword that is the less expensive a camera the more opportunity for less experienced people to get their hands on them and completely saturate youtube and vimeo with really bad looking footage that starts to make people think that's all the potential in the camera. :)

On that note I've seen some shocking stuff on the Red Scarlet too.
 
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yes and it also adds further fuel to the fire and argument that the FS7, F5, and F55 all look the same..

When it is this complex to work with, just who knows what the right combination of settings in-camera and in post are the "right" ones to use to produce the "best" possible image.

How many threads here have we already seen where someone completely writes off the Sony because what they've seen online so far doesn't look good, etc.. it's why for the past year as much as I love cinematography and lighting, I've been focusing myself on post; namely color science, LUTs, and Davinci Resolve.

:huh:
 
I've always been quite technical (came from post many moons ago before moving into production) and funnily enough buying the FS7 and offloading the Red was an attempt to free myself a bit from a world of micro and macro adjusting every clip I shoot and instead just concentrating on trying to tell stories again, which I know is a cop out answer but to be honest.

Obviously I now find myself right back at square one, but with a whole new colour science methodology to learn :)
 
RED made it easy. No one can deny that. Sony is catching up, their Catalyst software mimics Resolve/REDCineX and Sony RAW viewer offers even more whistles.

There's more to learn, but it's a great problem to have.
 
starcentral said:
RED made it easy. No one can deny that. Sony is catching up, their Catalyst software mimics Resolve/REDCineX and Sony RAW viewer offers even more whistles.

There's more to learn, but it's a great problem to have.
Click to expand...

Isn't REDCineX free? If Sony was smart, they would just have Catalyst (the paid version) be free. This would greatly help people unfamiliar with Sony cameras, who are passed the footage have an easy way to deal with the Metadata from CineEI and to do quick transcodes.

Sony always makes really good hardware, but RED seems to do really well with the software end of it - evolving color science (I really like the Dragon look), good post workflow, REDCode, etc...
 
gene_can_sing said:
Isn't REDCineX free? If Sony was smart, they would just have Catalyst (the paid version) be free. .
Click to expand...

Cat browse needs to be free and fully functional for every sony ever. Like RCx. Go on the other site and make that clear.. I did.

it needs to be free to enable ones clients to look at/delog/EI/transcode your footage at no cost to them.. or they just hire an op with another camera system!

It would be reasonable for CatPrep to be paid for if it was a useful tool for DITs and read any camera.

S
 
Trouble is Mr Jensen dedicated some posts to explaining why Im a moron. http://community.sony.com/t5/FS7/Cat-Browse-for-Clients/m-p/472711#U472711 there is an official thread on the 5/55 page stickies too.

Re-reading my OP I now realise that my moan about de-logging Slog custom was wrong as you can 'unlock' the input settings.

Maybe someone else can say it better.

RCx - free
GoPro - free
Canon Raw viewer (stills) free
Nikon Raw view (stills) free

Sony.. paid!

S
 
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