FS7: Latest Arctic doc - shot on FS7 and 18-110

B

bengiles

Well-known member
This is our latest film shot in the Arctic, this time on a 4K workflow right through from shoot to publish, unlike previous productions, where we've shot 4K and edited/delivered in HD. Aerials were shot on a Mavic Pro.

To edit the 4K XAVC material natively on Adobe without edit proxies and adding the grade and FX as we went, we bit the bullet and upgraded our regular G-RAID Thunderbolt to a new 24TB Thunderbolt 2 G-Speed Shuttle system, following some useful advice on here. It's still not perfect and can take a moment to spin up from quiet, but it does give this fussy film editor enough speed to cut without a latent interface getting in the way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ih5w7si5cQw

Ben.
 
Ben - really nice & interesting work. Thanks for sharing here. Some really beautiful shots in there under what I assume to be rather challenging conditions. And the Mavic Pro looks nice & matches well. (doesn't have the mushy codec look it sometimes can) One question / comment - I'm not a big fan of the main professor's interview framing & the way the camera is looking up at him - just takes me out of the story, albeit briefly. Assume there must have been a logistical or other reason perhaps - since I like the look of all the other interviews.
 
markfpv said:
Ben - really nice & interesting work. Thanks for sharing here. Some really beautiful shots in there under what I assume to be rather challenging conditions. And the Mavic Pro looks nice & matches well. (doesn't have the mushy codec look it sometimes can) One question / comment - I'm not a big fan of the main professor's interview framing & the way the camera is looking up at him - just takes me out of the story, albeit briefly. Assume there must have been a logistical or other reason perhaps - since I like the look of all the other interviews.
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Just badly shot :-) Wasn't an easy room to find that "right" shot in the time we had, before the students returned - sometimes you get that loving feeling, but this time round was a bit of a compromise.

Thanks for the kind comments.

Ben.
 
bengiles said:
Just badly shot :-)
Ben.
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I wouldn't go that far...:embarasse... just not my favorite shot in the piece. Truly did not mean to sound negative. Also, I owe you this - :beer: I believe it was your move to the 18-110 lens (and review on this site) that precipitated my own. And so I thank you because I'm quite happy with mine & dare admit that it's been no where near as wonderful looking places as your 18-110 obviously has been. Cheers.
 
Very nice work enjoyed watching and actually learned something.
The interview shots indeed did look different and jarred ever so slightly, but I took this as artistic licence given the subject matter, just a different style.
For me, it all worked nicely.
 
Hi Ben nice work, enjoyed watching, interesting subject.

How well did the mavic in these conditions? Was fly time less than normal? Any problems with gps and/or compass?
 
On reflection, it's worth mentioning that the master interview was shot 3 weeks later, in a lab in Yorkshire. We didn't have time to shoot it at the same time as the other interviews. I guess you must be picking up on subtle location cues that mark it out as different. Useful feedback. Thanks.
 
Publimix said:
Hi Ben nice work, enjoyed watching, interesting subject.

How well did the mavic in these conditions? Was fly time less than normal? Any problems with gps and/or compass?
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It wasn't particularly cold or windy, so flight times were normal. GPS all good- one thing I've learned is to be diligent about downloading updates beforehand, with time to spare. DJI updates are quite frequent and can take an hour of offline time to properly update everything and check settings etc.
 
May i ask a little about the settings Mavic - FS7?

My Mavic looks horrible compared to the FS7. But these shots looked rather nicely. What settings did you use? And what color profiles did you match with?
 
Hey Ben,

Great looking piece. Really nice work - I know for myself how challenging it can be to get decent coverage of an event (or series of events) that aren't happening simply for the purpose of being filmed like most corporates. Did you shoot in CineEI or custom? If I was being nit-pciky I'd say that some of the exterior shots had a slight magenta tinge to them, and was interested to know the colour process you used. Also, great stuff with the Mavic, the composited overlays looked very slick and really helped explain the theoretical basis in an unobtrusive and clear way.

Quick question on your post workflow with the 4K footage. Were you cutting in Premiere? Did you shoot 4K DCI or UHD? Did you have any problems with a flickering bar on the RHS during render and/or export?

I assume you're shooting with +1 sharpening on the Mavic to avoid the dreaded watercolour effect. I took mine out last week in the Peak District, and did a complete firmware update the night before, BUT forgot to double-check all the picture profile settings (which were of course all reset to defaults). As a result our first evening's shots with the Mavic were all disgustingly muddy thanks to the built-in NR 'feature'. Luckily for me we had much nicer light the day after, so it wasn't really a problem - but well worth noting. I was also stunned by how well the MP dealt with extremely windy conditions - still managing steady shots at probably about 20mph+ winds at surface, and much higher at 50m altitude. It's a beast! Definitely glad to have sport mode there when bringing it back after a 1-2km run outwards - without sports mode it just kept blowing downwind!

Thanks for sharing.

jason
 
Martin.G said:
May i ask a little about the settings Mavic - FS7?

My Mavic looks horrible compared to the FS7. But these shots looked rather nicely. What settings did you use? And what color profiles did you match with?
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All pretty much standard D-Log, 4K/24, style settings are set to standard - no extra sharpening or colour tweaks.

In post, I roll my own curve - I can't find a starting point LUT that is even vaguely useful.
 
Lovely work, Ben.

Regarding Mavic Pro’s lack of starting point LUT availability, I also “roll my own curves” and get it to match the A camera more often than not, usually a DVX200. Not even Film Convert has any looks I like.

Now I’ve upgraded my A cam to an FS7 II and I’m looking forward to producing similar content for my clients. Thank you for sharing.
 
Thanks Jason - answers below.

jasonbrooks said:
Did you shoot in CineEI or custom? If I was being nit-pciky I'd say that some of the exterior shots had a slight magenta tinge to them, and was interested to know the colour process you used.
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Always Cine EI - have never shot custom on this camera. Colour graded on an Eizo self-calibrating monitor, using Prem Pro Lumetri panel.

jasonbrooks said:
Were you cutting in Premiere? Did you shoot 4K DCI or UHD? Did you have any problems with a flickering bar on the RHS during render and/or export?
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Yes, cut the original XAVC 4K files in Premiere, full fat DCI, but I haven't encountered the flickering bar issue.

jasonbrooks said:
I assume you're shooting with +1 sharpening on the Mavic to avoid the dreaded watercolour effect.
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Actually, no I didn't use any sharpening this time - although I feel some of the landscape shots might have resolved slightly better if I had. At the end of the day, it's a small sensor, with a low bitrate codec, so results can be hit and miss. I avoid NR and use a set of Polar Pro ND filters to get the exposure in the ballpark, while keeping ISO down to 100 and a 180 degree shutter. Everything is standard, except for D-Log curve.

Ben.
 
Martin.G said:
May i ask a little about the settings Mavic - FS7?

My Mavic looks horrible compared to the FS7. But these shots looked rather nicely. What settings did you use? And what color profiles did you match with?
Click to expand...

view it full screen and the Mavic doesn't shine anymore. From my experience the less structure and the less speed the better it looks. A scenery with trees, grass, leaves in a fast fly over is likely to look bad.
 
Clermond said:
view it full screen and the Mavic doesn't shine anymore. From my experience the less structure and the less speed the better it looks. A scenery with trees, grass, leaves in a fast fly over is likely to look bad.
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Ah, yes. Did not need much pixelpeeping to see it full screen.

But small screen it really do look like a more expensive drone from the first glance. Or perhaps i was just too busy taking in the beautiful scenery of my home country :-) I was super dissappointed with the Mavic when i got it. The IQ is far from what i thought i was getting. But i have the P4Pro as main drone, and the Mavic more as a mountain warrior always in my pack on hikes.
 
The Mavic Pro is definitely a compromise, but it's a joy to use - and it allows a numpty like me to cheat shots on an occasional basis (ie, without any regular practise) that I just couldn't otherwise justify on the budget. And it carries around in a small backpack - makes me smile, every time I use it.

I do hope DJI put a more powerful camera/codec combo in the next iteration. This one more than paid for itself in the first project.

Ben.
 
I love my Mavic Pro. Agree it's a joy, but you need to hit the sweet spot for both exposure and camera movement. Mavic Pro II is due for release in March, reportedly with a 1 inch camera! Should be exactly what we need:-)
 
Liam Hall said:
I love my Mavic Pro. Agree it's a joy, but you need to hit the sweet spot for both exposure and camera movement. Mavic Pro II is due for release in March, reportedly with a 1 inch camera! Should be exactly what we need:-)
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The newer Air will have a higher bit rate in 4K I believe .. on paper sound s a better deal that the pro really.. unless I have read it all wrong..
 
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