interviews and pieces to camera breakdown

R

rob norton

Veteran
Hi users,

I just finished the edit for a big project for a theatre company doing a pre-recorded, digital launch that details their 2021 season of plays:



(Auslan (Australain sign language) version)

As well as the interviews I shot, talent filmed themselves - hopefully you can tell the difference.

We had the luxury of being in an amazing theatre, a refreshing departure from some generic corporate locations.

You don't have to watch the whole thing, I just thought I'd share some lighting info if anyone is interested.

Interview Lighting

Apart from the background, all talent was lit with tungsten lights - yes!! For the interviews the key light was a 2k through 4x4 and 8x8 diffusion frames. For the backlight we used a piece of poly board, hit with an ETC source 4 (jr version which is 575w not 750w) on a dimmer. Thanks to Charles Papert for introducing me to this trick, I've been waiting a long time to try it.

A separate physical brochure is being made, with each play assigned its own colour palette. For the backgrounds, the idea was to match the interviews we shot in house to the corresponding colour palettes.

The overhead grids had about 20 ROBE robin 300+ LED wash lights, all controlled with a single ipad - position, beam angle, output, colour etc.

On the ground we had 4x ETC Source 4 series 2 Lustrs, which are used for the purple coming from the hallway and green lights resting on road cases. There's also a shot of the venue (16:52) where you can see orange S4s as spotlights hitting the stage.

The woman with the red jacket key light was an arri 750 into a 4x4, positioned in line with talent, above the lens going for the beauty lighting that gives the crisp shadow under the nose/chin and nice eye light.

Camera

Canon c200 shooting raw with Canon 24-70 2.8 ii/schneider hollywood black magic 1/8 filter
FS7 ii for some B-roll

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Looks great, Rob, nice work! That's a good idea with the Source 4 JR on the poly board. How far from the board did you place the Source 4?

I had season tickets this year to QTC, I hope they have more luck with their 2021 season!
 
Great job all around! I can't stand most of the color/rgb use that I see all over the place these days. You have done a great job of putting color to very thoughtful use.

I'm a bit suprised at how strong the 1/8th Hollywood Blackmagic filter effect is on the image. It's definitely something that jumped out at me. Looks good, so that's not meant to be a critique at all. It stands out as a look, along with the color. Of course, because everything is in the theatre, it also gives it an interesting stylized look as if there is some volumetric stuff going on in the image (haze), but given the lighting ratios, it only stands out on the subject rather than the entire image...which haze would not do. Anyway, just thinking out loud as I look at your images.

Again, great job and thanks for sharing. I always appreciate seeing finished work from people whose posts I see and read all the time. It helps ground what's being said by seeing the aesthetic choices people make.
 
AndrewGentle said:
Looks great, Rob, nice work! That's a good idea with the Source 4 JR on the poly board. How far from the board did you place the Source 4?

I had season tickets this year to QTC, I hope they have more luck with their 2021 season!
Click to expand...

Thanks Andrew. S4 was to the side of talent, around 6-8 feet from the board. I've got one with a 50 degree lens.

That's great about the tickets, hopefully you can get to some next year.
 
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ozmorphasis said:
Great job all around! I can't stand most of the color/rgb use that I see all over the place these days. You have done a great job of putting color to very thoughtful use.

I'm a bit suprised at how strong the 1/8th Hollywood Blackmagic filter effect is on the image. It's definitely something that jumped out at me. Looks good, so that's not meant to be a critique at all. It stands out as a look, along with the color. Of course, because everything is in the theatre, it also gives it an interesting stylized look as if there is some volumetric stuff going on in the image (haze), but given the lighting ratios, it only stands out on the subject rather than the entire image...which haze would not do. Anyway, just thinking out loud as I look at your images.

Again, great job and thanks for sharing. I always appreciate seeing finished work from people whose posts I see and read all the time. It helps ground what's being said by seeing the aesthetic choices people make.
Click to expand...

Thanks.

I'm the same re RGB, it feels like a huge crutch these days and this was my first time featuring it so heavily.

Generally, I'm a fan of desaturated images and had to let go to reach the final levels. I played with knocking down the BG colours alone but liked the more vibrant version in the end (theatre promo = over the top, larger than life, fantasy land, dream big etc.)

That's interesting you bring up the filter. In resolve, CRL's default sharpening is set to 10. As well as setting it to zero, I went negative on midtone detail. Small changes made a pretty big difference, I was trying to be as subtle as possible e.g. pleasing without looking like I made it soft. The green background interview is the only one with midtone untouched (sharpening still 0).

So I don't know how much is from the filter and how much is from the digital adjustments. I thought 1/8 would be more noticeable but I'm sure without it I would have had an even sharper image to begin with.

From Schneider's overview:

- Reduces the appearance of blemishes and wrinkles
- Softens highlight and mid-tone contrast and reduces glare
- Creates glowing effect around highlights
- Maintains overall sharpness as well as density in dark areas such as shadows

And yes I agree, I like seeing posts of finished projects, sometimes we need a break from talking about the latest mirrorless cameras.
 
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rob norton said:
Thanks.

I'm the same re RGB, it feels like a huge crutch these days and this was my first time featuring it so heavily.

Generally, I'm a fan of desaturated images and had to let go to reach the final levels. I played with knocking down the BG colours alone but liked the more vibrant version in the end (theatre promo = over the top, larger than life, fantasy land, dream big etc.)

That's interesting you bring up the filter. In resolve, CRL's default sharpening is set to 10. As well as setting it to zero, I went negative on midtone detail. Small changes made a pretty big difference, I was trying to be as subtle as possible e.g. pleasing without looking like I made it soft. The green background interview is the only one with midtone untouched (sharpening still 0).

So I don't know how much is from the filter and how much is from the digital adjustments. I thought 1/8 would be more noticeable but I'm sure without it I would have had an even sharper image to begin with.

From Schneider's overview:

- Reduces the appearance of blemishes and wrinkles
- Softens highlight and mid-tone contrast and reduces glare
- Creates glowing effect around highlights
- Maintains overall sharpness as well as density in dark areas such as shadows

And yes I agree, I like seeing posts of finished projects, sometimes we need a break from talking about the latest mirrorless cameras.
Click to expand...

BTW, for me the most noticeable effect of the filter was the halation. Particularly on the Arts Minister with the beauty lighting. But the theatre director also has it. I don't notice it on the guy with the green background.

Interesting to hear about the other adjustments you made as well, more focused on the skin. I think the reason the halation stood out is that it is subdued in its effect on the background features since they don't have such strong luma levels, that's why it didn't have the effect of dreaminess being evenly spread across the entire frame the way you'd get with haze.

The midtone conrol on Resolve is such an amazingly powerful and simple tool, btw.
 
ozmorphasis said:
BTW, for me the most noticeable effect of the filter was the halation. Particularly on the Arts Minister with the beauty lighting. But the theatre director also has it. I don't notice it on the guy with the green background.

Interesting to hear about the other adjustments you made as well, more focused on the skin. I think the reason the halation stood out is that it is subdued in its effect on the background features since they don't have such strong luma levels, that's why it didn't have the effect of dreaminess being evenly spread across the entire frame the way you'd get with haze.

The midtone conrol on Resolve is such an amazingly powerful and simple tool, btw.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the information, this is very helpful. I'm still a complete newb with diffusion filters. I bought the schneider (in 1/8 & 1/4) as a starting point for a collection.
 
ozmorphasis said:
BTW, for me the most noticeable effect of the filter was the halation. Particularly on the Arts Minister with the beauty lighting. But the theatre director also has it. I don't notice it on the guy with the green background.

Interesting to hear about the other adjustments you made as well, more focused on the skin. I think the reason the halation stood out is that it is subdued in its effect on the background features since they don't have such strong luma levels, that's why it didn't have the effect of dreaminess being evenly spread across the entire frame the way you'd get with haze.

The midtone conrol on Resolve is such an amazingly powerful and simple tool, btw.
Click to expand...

Another round of interviews, this time I went with 1/4 strength filter (schneider hollywood black magic), just a point of reference if it helps.

I'm not a huge flare head but like the "more intersting" corners of the frame on the wide interview shots.

I'm really liking the extra strength diffusion with the c200 raw files. Sharpening reduced to 0, midtone detail untouched this time:

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Nice stuff RN. Looks good! Now I know who to contact on the other side of the WA state hard Covid border if I need something shot over there. The isolationists Sand Gropers that you are :)

Chris Young
 
cyvideo said:
Nice stuff RN. Looks good! Now I know who to contact on the other side of the WA state hard Covid border if I need something shot over there. The isolationists Sand Gropers that you are :)

Chris Young
Click to expand...

Haha thanks Chris. I'm in the republic of Queensland but ready if needed.
 
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