C100: Critique Please - Interview on black in C-Log

[drummondb]

Morning, friends. If you have a moment, please skim through this and let me know what you think. It's a simple talking head mulitcam interview I shot yesterday. Two C100 MKIIs in C-log. I've been shooting with Canon Cinema cameras since they were released, but I'm only now starting to dip my toes in the C-Log water. https://vimeo.com/user21442843/review/158445420/6f165139aa

This was a fast turnaround video--the subject needed "her story" recorded and posted the same day for a grant application. So this is very minimalist--No music or b-roll and only one title card. Though the story is so dramatic, and her "performance" is serious enough that I think the minimalist nature of the video works pretty well.

I wish I had dialed in the back light a bit better. It's a tad too faint for my taste on the bottom left side of her hair and her left shoulder.

I know the sound isn't great. Do you think it's a deal-breaker? I wanted to boom her so we didn't see a lav. I've boomed subjects in that room before and didn't notice such a strong HVAC presence on the sound track. I could have tried removing the sound via Adobe Audition or some-such, but I thought I was doing more harm than good.

Also what do you think of the exposure? I've always been intimidated by C-log. My usual method for exposing is just set zebras to 70 and adjust accordingly based on the picture profile in use. In this case I used my Sekonic L-308DC light meter. To grade, I used the Canon C-log to WideDR LUT to get in the ballpark. I also dropped Colorista III on the footage before the LUT, so I was able to play with my exposure before the LUT did its job. (rasie the blacks a little, minor saturation adjustment, etc...)

Her skin still seems a bit hot to me, but the corrected footage is all well below 710 IRE on the waveform.

 

[ReelWorksMedia]

I was gonna mention your kicker light as well. Also...black on black! Might want to consider a different wardrobe color to help cut out the subject a little more. Your exposure on the skin tones looks fine. You don't blow out her fair skin so that is a win. You mention you think its a bit how....seems like you made the right choice given your setup...or you would have lost her body....without additional lights and a different wardrobe color. Had she been wearing white...you probably could have come down a bit overall. The high contrast look seems to be a creative decision (to not include a fill).


So really, I would just say watch your kicker and take into account the wardrobe in relationship to the background and how it impacts your subject isolation.

 

[jb.]

I think it looks good. Exposure looks solid to me. I'd agree that the backlight could be stronger.

Black dress on the black doesn't bother me that much.

Overall, looks good to me.

The audio is definitely an issue, but I don't think it's a deal-breaker. She's present enough on the mic that the noise floor isn't overly bothersome. You can try to clean it up in Audition or the like, but it's not terrible as-is.

 

[puredrifting]

Exposure looks good, skin tones are okay. Yes, a better hair-rim light would have helped but anybody who is watching this isn't going to care. Your audio, OTOH, has a high noise floor, enough to distract from her presentation. It's usable but it's a shame you have not invested in Izotope RX5, it could have removed about 98% of that noise. It's $350.00 or so, the learning curve is pretty easy and almost every production without a sound mixer will need it. Many productions even with a sound mixer will need it, it can reduce and remove reverb and room reflections and that HVAC removal would have been childs play for it. Per usual, most camera guys worry so much about every detail of the image when for a talking head, audio is our or five times as important. You have $10k worth of cameras there, you can afford Izotope RX5, get it. You will thank me. https://www.izotope.com/en/products/audio-repair/rx/?gclid=CKX75LHJt8sCFQFsfgodyPwEHQ

 

[groveChuck]

Skin tones are fine, especially for someone with such a fair complexion.
I like the strength of the back light, and its position on her hair. Further behind her would have given too much of a glamour/halo effect. Yes, there could be more separation from BG on her left shoulder, but I don't know if you'd get it without giving her hair too much halo effect.
I like the black-on-black- it fits the somber subject, but my pet distraction is the material of her clothing behind her right shoulder- seems like it's sticking out and her top needed to be pulled tight in the back.
Sensitive subject in this situation, but she or another woman could have smoothed it out a bit.
Sound, well, yeah- maybe not a deal-breaker but plenty of room for improvement- in post or on location (lav on a vampire clip or Rycote Undercover inside the collar?).
Nice key- what did you use?

 

[drummondb]

Thanks, everyone. The key was a 4' kino with daylight lamps shot through 4x4' of 216 diffusion right up on her.

Hey Puredrifting, do you think the Izotope RX5 is that much better than Adobe Audition's built-in noise removal? I like Audition, but I think the noise removal could be a little better. or I need to get better at tweaking the settings.

 

[puredrifting]

Thanks, everyone. The key was a 4' kino with daylight lamps shot through 4x4' of 216 diffusion right up on her.

Hey Puredrifting, do you think the Izotope RX5 is that much better than Adobe Audition's built-in noise removal? I like Audition, but I think the noise removal could be a little better. or I need to get better at tweaking the settings.

Adobe Audition is decent, but Izotope is better. Izotope RX5 is the industry standard professional tool for audio repair. Yes, I think it is significiantly better than almost anything else on the market. I just had a video shot in a kitchen where various people's cell phones were going off with their little reminders and clicks from taking images as the video was rolling (no, I didn't shoot the video, i would have strangled the people whose phones were making the offending racket). I was able to use the Izotope RX5 display to locate the offending sounds in the detailed color spectrum waveform, attack them with a 4,096 band EQ attentuation tool and was able to reduce the output of each of the offending sounds by about 90% is less than 3 minutes. It could not completely eliminate the offending sounds, which were very loud in the mix, but it did knock them down to almost nothing, barely audible and it was so easy. As I said, HVAC removal is really easy, it does it automatically. If you aren't happy with the results, you can also tweak the NR algorithm manually to fine tune it. For video oriented editors who don't know sound mixing, this is an incredibly easy tool to learn, it's simple but very capable.