Corporate Video - mini educational series

[rob norton]

I directed/shot a handful of short episodes for a medical devices company (5x 5-7 minute videos). The episodes are just speaking on camera, but I thought I'd share the trailer, which is a mix of speaking to camera and product shots of the laser. Stills of extra angles included here.

https://vimeo.com/913145908

EDIT - slight tint difference between first wide and rest of the talent on camera frames. The final versions are consistent, I just uploaded the wrong file and dvxuser is a nightmare for photos so it's here to stay.

 

[morgan_moore]

The vimeo doesnt work on my phone as you must “rate” the video

 

[rob norton]

The vimeo doesnt work on my phone as you must “rate” the video

Thanks Sam, I just rated it. Vimeo is always such a struggle..

 

[DustinSchmidt]

Nicely done. I’m curious how careful you needed to be with any laser beams getting too close to shooting back towards your lens/sensor?

 

[rob norton]

I hesitated but still went for it. The laser only passed over a few times, although I have no clue if that was reducing risk or how risky the situation was in the first place. The shooting conditions were safe for people, but probably slightly irresponsible with the pass over shot in terms of potential sensor damage. Another plus for using a c200, the stakes aren't too high.

 

[ahalpert]

Really nice lightings - I'd love to hear about your set-ups!

 

[morgan_moore]

Thanks Sam, I just rated it. Vimeo is always such a struggle..

somewhere you can set all to be not prawn - i think vimeo suppor stepped my through it.

 

[NorBro]

Rob was always a magician with lighting, for years I peeked at his interviews on his site, a true DP vs. someone like me who is absolutely horrid with a two-point kit.

TWO POINTS, man - and I still can't get it right.

But I'm still in better shape, lol. [inside joke]

 

[DustinSchmidt]

I hesitated but still went for it. The laser only passed over a few times, although I have no clue if that was reducing risk or how risky the situation was in the first place. The shooting conditions were safe for people, but probably slightly irresponsible with the pass over shot in terms of potential sensor damage. Another plus for using a c200, the stakes aren't too high.

I honestly don't know much about lasers, just that I've heard to not point any into your camera. It may depend on the type of laser, etc. But I'm glad there's no ill effects on your camera. The shots were very cool.

The old C200 huh? It just continues to produce great imagery. I sold mine off in January but I'll always have a soft spot for it. The raw in that camera makes a beautiful image.

 

[rob norton]

Rob was always a magician with lighting, for years I peeked at his interviews on his site, a true DP vs. someone like me who is absolutely horrid with a two-point kit.

TWO POINTS, man - and I still can't get it right.

But I'm still in better shape, lol. [inside joke]

Haha, thanks a lot NorBro! As far as a true DP, I'm still just a pretender with the main career goals now being to stay inside where possible and carry less equipment. Also, I'm sure you're being too hard on yourself with the lighting. As for better shape, there's no debate. I'm in blimp mode atm and need to deflate asap.

I honestly don't know much about lasers, just that I've heard to not point any into your camera. It may depend on the type of laser, etc. But I'm glad there's no ill effects on your camera. The shots were very cool.

The old C200 huh? It just continues to produce great imagery. I sold mine off in January but I'll always have a soft spot for it. The raw in that camera makes a beautiful image.

Thanks Dustin, I've heard similar with welding and seen YouTube videos where people's iphones get ruined while filming at a concert etc (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14eYz_m8ZIY). Soon Resolve will probably release a "bricked iphone overlay" effect.

Yeah, c200 still going strong. Especially after discovering the phantom LUTs (https://www.joelfamularo.com/colour-canon). I use the arri/neutral one and do next to nothing else. I have NO IDEA what my future camera owning looks like, it makes sense to not buy unless absolutely necessary. My main issue with the camera is cfast2.0 being so expensive. I use 7x 256GB cards, but would really like to have something like 4x 1TB cards for fewer card swaps.

 

[NorBro]

405 squat by mid-may or we're selling the C200








lol







This CFast 1TB is a good deal, I bought the same one for much more years ago:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...ro_cf_1tb.html

 

[rob norton]

405 squat by mid-may or we're selling the C200

This CFast 1TB is a good deal, I bought the same one for much more years ago:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...ro_cf_1tb.html

Haha we'll see. Thanks for the link, that's a big saving. Except reading the Q&A, looks like some potential bizarre issues (7th question). I remember reading about strange things with the egodisk 512GB cards too. Speaking of, I wonder if CFexpress cards are here to stay or if future canon cams will have yet another option.

 

[NorBro]

For that question, interestingly enough I know exactly what he's/she's talking about but you just have to eject the card or open and close the door on the C200 a few times for it to be recognized again. Indeed a bizarre issue (especially since it worked perfectly in the Komodo) but there is no way my card stopped recording after 256GB; I know this for a fact with that card and with the C200.

With that said, hey, you never know...maybe that person's card really did do that. Either way, it exhibited some communication issues you might not be able to risk.

 

[rob norton]

Really nice lightings - I'd love to hear about your set-ups!

Thanks Abe. I'm a fan of the beauty look with a completely centred, raised key light, which gives crisp shadows under the chin and nose. I thought about using an 8x8 frame as close as possible for a soft light but an issue with the 8x8 close to talent is that you're usually working around a light stand, even if the frame is in enough of a good place. To compensate, the lighting often ends up more sidey than I like. I also wasn't interested in a Rembrandt triangle look. You need the height for this look, otherwise it's completely flat - I've made this mistake before! The other major part is you get a very nice eye light. It's funny, you could pretty much light purely according to what eye light you're after and go from there. Sometimes the soft lighting looks great on skin but then the eye light is a broad, barely noticeable spread of white. You can obviously add an eye light but I like using the single key light.

We went with an 8x8 unbleached muslin, with the plan to bounce a 2k into it. This didn't quite get us there, so instead we shot through the muslin, with a diffusion frame in between. I've never shot through muslin like this because of how much light you lose but being in the studio, it was fine. The set up ended up being a goal post with the camera just under the 8x8 frame.

The entire shoot, other than the Prolycht 675 for the peach background, was lit with tungsten lights. There were 4 grey flats (fake walls), which we hit with 2x source 4s and 2x dedo 150s with gobos - it's been years since the gobos have come out. Light for the hair was a source 4 into a 4x bounce card. I forgot how handy this is - I can't quite remember but we had to repositon some things but didn't want to change the bounce light. Using the source 4 meant the bounce was free to move, then when it came time to bring it back it was just a matter of perfectly filling the edges again - no markers etc. required. Two arri fresnels were used for the grey backdrop, plus a back light for the harder shadow on the ground.

For the product shots, we filled the whole studio with a huge amount of haze. I was pretty surprised how much this changed the same white cyc sutdio. You know it's hazy when even a soft light gets its own visible ray. Most of the product stuff was an arri fresnel with 2x3 softbox, plus anything else for either the background or different part of the machine. For the final wide reveal, the shot moves through three beams of light. I've always wanted to push through light like this. It was one of those things where my. brain was fried and it felt like there was no rhyme or reason to adjusting the lights vs. how they looked on camera. We eventually got there but it was pretty tedious, I think mostly because there was an element of focussing the source 4s and being happy, but when tightening them they land in a different place. I'm sure you picked up on the powerful metaphor of moving beyond other, inferior light sources (other competitor lasers), before arriving on the premium laser.

You didn't ask about camera moves but you can see the not quite ideal compact jib on the dana dolly. This was for push in on the second last shot.

 

[norway]

Haha we'll see. Thanks for the link, that's a big saving. Except reading the Q&A, looks like some potential bizarre issues (7th question). I remember reading about strange things with the egodisk 512GB cards too. Speaking of, I wonder if CFexpress cards are here to stay or if future canon cams will have yet another option.

Isn't it easier to just get a CFast to SSD interface? I've had zero issues with this so far (1TB SSD drives).

https://www.zitay.com/ZITAY-CFast-2...SA-Mini-EF-Z-CAM-E2-BMD-BMPCC-4K-p279269.html

 

[rob norton]

That's a great report on the zitay. I'm still not a fan of an extra bolt on and cable, even though others don't mind at all. I have 7x 256GB cards so never run out on a shoot day, without making backups along the way. Do the SSDs transfer to hard drives faster than a cfast 2.0 usb c reader?

 

[norway]

That's a great report on the zitay. I'm still not a fan of an extra bolt on and cable, even though others don't mind at all. I have 7x 256GB cards so never run out on a shoot day, without making backups along the way. Do the SSDs transfer to hard drives faster than a cfast 2.0 usb c reader?

I'd think the transfer speed would be slightly slower. I've only been able to find SATA to USB 3.1 adapters (for Mac). That being said, the SSDs are much cheaper than the CFast 2.0 cards.

 

[paulears]

No autocue? Good on your actress for learning that.

I've no real worry now with shooting welding, or just very bright lights, but lasers are bad for your health because of the no diverging beams. I've seen numerous DSLRs and video cameras die. What lulls you into complacency is that the laser catching the metal just off-beam to the glass is not dangerous to the chip, but two mm towards the glass becomes deadly to chip health. In your video, I suspect the beam came close but didn't actually hit the open part of the glass, even the iris can be a shield, blocking out parts of the glass. I do lots of events with lasers and they always make me look away, just in case.

 

[rob norton]

No autocue? Good on your actress for learning that.

I've no real worry now with shooting welding, or just very bright lights, but lasers are bad for your health because of the no diverging beams. I've seen numerous DSLRs and video cameras die. What lulls you into complacency is that the laser catching the metal just off-beam to the glass is not dangerous to the chip, but two mm towards the glass becomes deadly to chip health. In your video, I suspect the beam came close but didn't actually hit the open part of the glass, even the iris can be a shield, blocking out parts of the glass. I do lots of events with lasers and they always make me look away, just in case.

I'm not a fan of autocue, other than disliking the initial hardware set up, I believe the delivery and performance is night and day.