GH2 GH2/RED Thesis Film

pinger007

pinger007

Well-known member
Hey all.

I'm shooting my thesis film this fall and am shooting the film on a mix of RED and hacked GH2. We have done several camera tests and after comparing the RED MX, GH2, and super 16, we have decided to shoot with the RED/GH2 combo since they'll cut together so well. My thesis advisors were adamantly against me shooting with DSLRs, let alone the GH2 because A) it wasn't a Canon, and B) they'd never heard of it before. Needless to say, the camera tests made believers out of them. The GH2s are hacked and will utilize the Sedna A hack provided courtesy of Driftwood and Vitaliy. I've been keeping a close eye on the new Apocalypse Now setting, but I'm waiting to see what the INTRA version looks like.

I've got the project up on Kickstarter: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1522958550/gutterflower-a-short-film-production

We're looking for as much support as we can get. I think our rewards are pretty kick-butt. We've got hacked GH2s up for grabs as our top reward. If you're in the market for a GH2, then be sure and check out our kickstarter page... you can support our film and walk away with lots of cool stuff, including a hacked GH2. If you mention you're a DVXuser, then we'll throw in an extra Panasonic battery (not a 3rd party knockoff) and a m4/3 nikon adapter as well!!! We've also got other excellent rewards as well, so please check us out. We really appreciate it!!!
 
For those of you that have done a similar shoot and have been successful mixing RED and GH2 footage, I would love to get some tips (no point in reinventing the wheel). I tend to shoot at 1/40th shutter with my GH2s as I find this to be more filmic and less DSLRish (I know 1/50th is closer mathematically to 1/48th, but it's a bit to fast for my liking). I'm also considering using LED lighting and bounce boards for one of our locations since there are no outlets, no place to park a grip truck, and I don't want to have to deal with generators. The LED lights are battery powered and can be placed almost anywhere, but they tend to give a greenish cast, especially apparent in skin tones. Does anyone have a good workaround for this?
 
You could try gelling the LED panels with a sheet of minusgreen/magenta (start with 1/4 and work your way up) but I feel like the light is still going to look "off" somehow. I've found the GH2 has a tendency to exaggerate the greenish tint as well.
If at all possible, I'd look at getting a small generator and a few shorter Kino banks diffused with some muslin.
 
Thanks for the notes. Clearly we could color correct the green cast - it's not a hard thing to do, and I teach post production at Columbia Chicago. But I'm of the mindset that if it can be solved on set, then it should be.

@mondayc
I'll test out the gels you mentioned and see if we can bring the green cast down. The generators are definitely an option, but if I can find a workaround without dropping extra cash to rental companies, then...

@bern caughey
Thanks for the link, the videos were quite educational. While the short, uninformed answer may be "No", the long answer is that it's quite possible. What I extracted from the series is that the issue becomes difficult to manage when you are using a wide variety of light sources at the same time because it becomes impractical to address each light sources inadequacies. That, and the fact that this report seems to have been filed in 2005, give me hope that working with LED lights on set is a viable option (let me know if this is wrong).

Also, keep in mind that my target audience isn't a theater full of critical-eyed cinematographers, but rather average joes looking to watch a good movie.
 
@Chris Adler

Thanks for checking out the project. The kids are super excited to be in it. I auditioned 182 kids for 5 parts. I was committed to casting in rural, underserved communities to A) give kids an opportunity to do something they normally don't get to do, and B) I wanted realism - the kids that auditioned in Chicago were way to "commercial" and fake to me.

Keep your fingers crossed we hit the goal!
 
pinger - I got rid of the green tint by adjusting the AWB. I did this by selecting AWB, pressing the downward cursor to set it manually, then pressing the downward cursor again (towards magenta) a couple of clicks and the leftward cursor (towards A for amber) a couple of clicks. I did this about a year ago and have used auto white balance ever since (sunlight, fluorescent, tungsten) and it works perfectly every time. Pretty sure Panasonic's video signal processing engineers are color blind ;)

Good luck with your project,

Bill
 
P.S., can you fire your thesis advisors? They didn't want you to use the GH2 because "it wasn't a Canon" and "they'd never heard of it". No wonder our education system is in such bad shape :)
 
@brunerww

Yeah, the panny engineers aren't the best when it comes to their GH line... I'm really looking for ways to correct the light source on-set since we will likely be using multiple sources throughout the day. In the tests we've done thus far, applying the right gel to the lights fix the problem (not perfectly, but no one can tell during the screenings.

As for firing advisors... I wish. I wish we didn't even have to deal with them. I feel like mine are so uninformed that it was hard enough to get them onboard with shooting digitally cause all they know is film. :P
 
As a college instructor myself I take pride on being cutting edge and knowing exactly what is out there. Now some may say I am silly because I care more about the gear then the art but I say BS. Any true professional should at least know what the heck is out there and what can be done with the tools that are out there. This should be even more true for an instructor or a school. If I didn't understand the latest trends and gear I would be embarrassed to be part of academia. Besides if gear is no big deal then why would the school have such a blind desire for Canon? Especially with so many well documented image artifacts compared to film.
 
Amen, Thomas. I have no idea how these people are even in their positions. I guess Canon, RED, and Film are the only choices out there to make a good looking film.
 
I feel like it's brand recognition - they're not in the know, so they only know what is "popular".

I plan to prove them all wrong with this film, and to prove that it's not the camera, but rather the hands that operate it that determines the final quality. If you agree, then I urge you to support the making of the film through the kickstarter link: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1522958550/gutterflower-a-short-film-production. Anything and everything will be appreciated!!!

Thanks again.
 
Sunrise test footage at 4:50am in Chicago. This is the footage that took my advisors by surprise and convinced them of the GH2's capabilities. Can you tell which one is 16mm and which one is GH2? The lens used on the GH2 was the Nikon Ais 35mm f2.5, whereas the 16mm A-Minima was using a PL zoom lens.

GH2 settings: Sedna A1 Hack, Smooth (-2,-2,-2,-2), ISO 1600, Shutter Speed 1/40, f2.8, white balance set to 5500K.

The weird flaring at the bottom of each sample is from me holding the 4x4 ND in front of the lens... forgot the mattebox at home. :(

https://vimeo.com/49121364

https://vimeo.com/49123509
 
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