HELP!!??? Question on shooting a documentary on a airfield.

[ninjadumbass]

Hello,

Im about to film a documentary at a WW2 air field. The director wants a really stylisied, top gear-esque, look to the piece. At the moment, the weather is really grey and autumnal here in England. There's no leaves on the tree's and tbh its lookin abit cold and crappy. I want to jazz it up and make the place look visually interesting.

Im going to be shooting with an SG-Pro an Nikon Lenses and i was wondering what filters would be a good choice?? Can anyone suggest afew??

Also, im staring to think the dont exist, but does any1 know where i can get 52mm circular graduated filters (like the ones the use in Top gear)??? Ive only found them in the rectangle/square form for a Mattebox.

Any help would be greatly appreciated,

Tom

 

[Joe Shaw]

Personally, I think you might be better off doing this in post. And I suspect most of the heavy grads etc on Top Gear are also done in post. You could look at something like After Effects and/or Magic Bullet Looks. MBL will let you very easily add those over the top grads and masking that Top Gear seems to love.

 

[Alex H.]

You could also start with adjusting the look in-camera. Though you haven't specified the camera you're using, here's an awesome thread on scene settings for the DVX-100a/100b.

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=101419

 

[ninjadumbass]

Thanks, im using a JVC GY-HD 100. of that helps

 

[Alex H.]

Thanks, im using a JVC GY-HD 100. of that helps

Same principal applies, though. You should have in-camera control over the image. It can be as simple as a warm balance (white balance through a swatch of CTB, 1/8 or 1/4 or 1/2, depending on how much warmth you want).

Or you can go into the scene settings and play with color temp, color phase, pedestal, etc. Just be cautious not to over-adjust the values. You can crunch the blacks too much, and you can cause noise by settings that are too intense on many of the controls. But tweak the look, do a test shoot, and watch back on a good, and large, monitor.

 

[ninjadumbass]

Thanks, ill have a play around on the test shoot.

 

[puredrifting]

I did a shoot in Scotland last year at this time, same gray skies, no foliage, etc. I did the shoot with 4x4 ND grads but I agree after messing around with Magic Bullet Looks, as long as your skies have some detail left in them, MBL is killer, you can selectively de-focus, add grads, film grain, etc.

Just make sure you expose correctly and that focus and composition are good, you can get "the look" in post more easily these days.

D