Filmic Look - Yay or Nay?

djejmz

djejmz

Member
Hey guys! I am new here. I got my FS700 4 months ago and have been shooting and filming my own stuff since. Previously, I had only ever filmed with a sony VX2100, so the FS700 was quite a jump! FYI, lenses I use are: Zeiss 100mm, Zeiss 50mm and Tokina 11-16mm (with metabones adapter).

Here are some shots from the latest video i am editing. It's all shot under just natural light, aided by a reflector. I only use simple tools when grading. I'd love to get some feedback from you guys.

Screen Shot 2013-02-18 at 04.33.18.jpgScreen Shot 2013-02-18 at 04.33.47.jpgScreen Shot 2013-02-18 at 04.34.28.jpgScreen Shot 2013-02-18 at 04.34.45.jpgScreen Shot 2013-02-18 at 04.36.28.jpgScreen Shot 2013-02-18 at 04.36.48.jpgScreen Shot 2013-02-18 at 04.37.33.jpgScreen Shot 2013-02-18 at 04.37.55.jpg

In case you'd like to see some of my previous videos, my website is www.jamesvernonfilms.com (all are filmed with my FS700, except for 'Fugue')

Thanks for your time!
James
 
Some of the best FS stills I've seen. :)

Also, you sir need to spend more time shooting and less time on the Internet. :) you're stuff is fantastic.
 
One thing I don't get, how do you keep your blacks so clean? I shoot native 640 ISO and my blacks are noisy no matter what I do, no matter how I tweak the PP's and cinegammas. Care to share? (starting to think I got a lemon)
 
Jusgorilla said:
One thing I don't get, how do you keep your blacks so clean? I shoot native 640 ISO and my blacks are noisy no matter what I do, no matter how I tweak the PP's and cinegammas. Care to share? (starting to think I got a lemon)
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One thing I personally tend to do is add a curve that compresses the blacks. So I raise the black level up a bit and then curve it out so that the bottom ends up getting crushed but still leaving that slightly milky look that raised blacks do. This also gets rid of the bottom shadow noises.
 
Jus gorilla, what are you monitoring on? Computer monitors are set to a weird gamma. Amplifies noise. Check on a calibrated production monitor.
 
Thanks so much for all the positive feedback, it means a lot!
I'm not sure why the images appear so small, perhaps I'm uploading them wrong?
Regarding blacks, there's not much to reveal really - I also shoot at 640 ISO and cinegamma4.
 
Looks amazing. Definitely the best looking stuff I've seen off the FS700. The light whereever you live is beautiful and you've chosen your locations spot on for the films.
 
Very nice, the only comment i'd add is that you've taken your highlights down which i'm sure is an artistic decision and works well for the look of the shots, but in some cases like the sky, the sun and the highlights in the hair, it's quite obvious. I'd be tempted to be careful where you take them down rather than globally. But that's me being obsessive.

When grading footage you have to remember that you're taking it in a REC709 colour space which has limited range whereas the underlying image has a greater range, so when dealing with highlights care is needed to not loose any of the very subtle gradations as you bring them down in exposure. IMHO anyway.

I'd like to see more, in motion too.

cheers
paul
 
paulcurtis said:
Very nice, the only comment i'd add is that you've taken your highlights down which i'm sure is an artistic decision and works well for the look of the shots, but in some cases like the sky, the sun and the highlights in the hair, it's quite obvious. I'd be tempted to be careful where you take them down rather than globally. But that's me being obsessive.
Click to expand...

Sure but as you said, it is an artistic decision. If those spots had been at 100% it would look quite different and not necessarily better.
 
maarek said:
Sure but as you said, it is an artistic decision. If those spots had been at 100% it would look quite different and not necessarily better.
Click to expand...

Sure :)

I was just trying to say that because of the way the highlights are being brought down in whatever package you're using and because the source dynamic range is stuffed into a simple REC709 curve from the camera (not the same as the cine4 you shot with), you may loose some subtle detail in them, which i can't see at that size. Call me obsessive but i'm not talking about the decision to take them down, just watch that you're getting the best out of your source footage when doing that.

I ought to illustrate with an example. I can take a scene into Nuke and adjust the exposure down and my highlights will flatten very quickly because the standard REC709 curve tells Nuke that the highlight range rolls off in a certain way. If i modify the LUT curve that Nuke uses then i can bring down the highlights with a bit more detail and roll off in them instead of being cut flat. I can tell Nuke that the very highest point of the highlights curve in a different way to how the REC709 curve thinks they do, closer to how cine 4 does it.

In 99% of the cases it probably doesn't matter but when you're bringing the highlights down you may find detail loss (subtle though)

cheers
Paul
 
Awesome Stuff! Your stuff looks great.

I've been very happy with the looks I've been getting out of the FS700 as well. Not sure what all the haters are saying about video look to the FS700. I think it's because many associate it with the FS100, but the 700 has a more organic look just because of the Cinegammas. IMO, the two cameras have a noticeably different look even though they are the same lineage.

BTW James, what are you setting your Knee and slope at? I've always been a little lost on this.
 
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