T2i Music Video with the T2i and 4x5 Glass filters

[haden]

Hey all,

I wanted to share with you my latest work with the T2i. I love the camera and thought I should share.
But I'll preface this with some tech specs:

This music video was shot with the Canon T2i and the Canon XHA1.
We used the XHA1 mainly for big dolly shots and heavy movement.
Both cameras were equipped with a pro-series filter screw-on filter holder which we (CAREFULLY) fitted in 4x5 Glass Filters from Panavision. T2i was outfitted with a Zacuto Z-Finder Pro 3x.

This was the rig:

And here is the Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9oZDy0-KUU&hd=1

If the video doesn't work, go to Youtube and Search: Sandra Hosgood - Hey You

Let me know what you all think and let me know if you can tell the T2i shots from the XHA1. :thumbsup:
Cheers.

 

[draven4]

Cool work.

Can you share more info?

Lenses, shooting methods like what fstops did you aim for? what kind of picture profile settings? time of day? problems you had, things that weren't a problem, things you'd do differently, things that worked out great, gear that was good to you, ect.

 

[haden]

Cool work.

Can you share more info?

Lenses, shooting methods like what fstops did you aim for? what kind of picture profile settings? time of day? problems you had, things that weren't a problem, things you'd do differently, things that worked out great, gear that was good to you, ect.

Sure thing.

Referring to the T2i, most of its shots were taken with a Canon EF f1.8 85mm less with a double step up ring (henry's didn't have a single step up from 58mm - 77mm in stock) to 77mm for the Cokin Z-pro series filter holder.
Due to the ND9 and ND6 4x4 filters we had, I was able to shoot consistently around F4.0, which was helpful for pulling focus, though I find the t2i to be a little unforgiving at times.
I also shot with the Zacuto Z-finder Pro 3x attached. This made catching focus exponentially easier. It's probably the best investment I've made. The last shoot I did with the t2i, I didn't have one and honestly pulling focus by eye from the lcd screen what a pain. Not impossible, but a pain.

The picture profile settings were pretty flat. We matched the camera to the XHA1 settings which just about zero'd out my typical settings.

The shoot was 3 days and the time of day varied. But most of the hay field shots were taken in the morning just after sunrise to about lunch, we had a 12x12 silk on set to bounce light, which helped keep the light consistent.
The forest shots are shot in the afternoon around 2-5pm (sun was ducking out pretty early on us, but we got lucky and it almost lasted until 5 30pm). The rainy car stuff was all at night, as the sun completely checked out an hour earlier than expected. So we had to get really creative with the lighting.
The most interesting part though is the shots when the best friend is working at the tractor and walks up to the window of the car and leans in to talk to the girl (2:06 into the video). We had taken the shot of him walking over to the car while she sat in it, and then the sun rapidly went down on us. So we shot the other two shots (him smiling at the tractor, and him leaning on the window sill of the car) in almost complete night with lights. But with the color correction we took the project through, it all looks pretty seamless. Our colorist was very good.

The biggest problem to be perfectly honest was the limited daylight and the lack of manpower. We shot the whole video with a 4 man team plus a makeup artist. Made putting up the 12x12 and setting up dolly track with the Chameleon dolly we had a little slow (but not that slow considering we made our days anyway). I definitely will make sure to get some more people out next time.
The budget was also slim, but I've worked with less, and that wasn't really too much of an issue.

But I will give a word of advice to anyone using the chameleon dolly (a finnicky dolly somewhere between a doorway dolly and a peewee bombloader): if you disconnect the hydraulic box and take it off to save weight or to fit it somewhere tighter... when you're putting it back on the hydraulic connector should just snap back over the nozzle. NOT SO... it will resist and not snap on unless you have a second man physically lift up the boom arm to relieve pressure first.
That was a fun snag we hit for at least ten minutes. lol
Lets just say, if you can afford a bombloader peewee.... get that instead. lol

Otherwise, the locations were great. Everyone was really nice (we were north of the city). I loved the shot at 5:33 (it was shot on the xha1, though), also love the shot at 2:09 (lighting was great and this was the t2i). Loved how well our makeshift rain rig worked. Would recommend anyone looking to give flavor to a shot to rent a fog machine. WORTH EVERY PENNY. If you're shooting outdoors and you have the people to use a 12x12 silk, suck it up and do it. It is a great way to bounce and soften the sun. It's a pain to set up, but once its up, you don't often have to move it.

Overall, it was a long but fulfilling shoot and I got to work with some great people and meet some new ones.
I'm happy overall with how the shoot turned out.
Oh, and I really love that 63 impala. I was given the key to it for the duration of our shoot. What a fantastic car.

Hope that fills you in a bit more.

Cheers!

 

[Snapper123]

The one thing I'd like to point out is like always, there really seems to be some extreme skin tones going on - the thing with music videos, the shots change so often that it puts even more importance on keeping a more even tone throughout the skin, and the honest truth is that there's some scenes where the skin is so brightly orange that I almost felt like I had to look away, like I was looking at the sun. But the thing is, I have no clue how to escape this either, it's really something I like asking about so often, so I'd really like to ask what white balance techniques you used - was it more that you used a card, yet had to pump up the colors in post to achieve the mood (then it sort of screwed up the skin tones?) - or was it that you used the presets during the shoot?

My idea of white balance is that there's always going to be changes in skin tone - some shots will naturally have more of a pale, soft, olive look, while another shot may have just a bit more of a red or orange tint to the skin with different lighting types, and this is even normal for films and all music videos at times - but I do want to say that with this music video, the skin tones are very, very extreme at times, and also have a very extreme variety that really just strikes me as inconsistent. Maybe some more post work could help? And anyway, speaking about other things involved with the video as well, I really like some of the shots, like the shot with the girl kneeling down to the floor with the broken houseware all around her, and other shots here and there that truly capture a cinematic feel - the only thing I have to suggest is that I feel like the majority of the shots really fall under a "budget genre" look in some sort of way, so much.

Some examples that come to mind with me is the in front of the house shots - again, in every single angle, the skin tones are just so extreme that it really falls out of any normal level, and yet one stunning shot in the midst of all this is the shot at 2:33, where the angle is slightly adjar and both characters are looked at from the side, the tones are perfect, and it looks like something out of Twilight - that scene is a stunning example of the work you seem very capable of and I just feel like so many of the other scenes and angles just didn't incorperate this precision. And with more of the other house shots, to me they just look too camcorder based in the production, the types of shots that are oftentime associated with camcorder filmmakers and budget work and I think that's one thing that is becoming very important to watch out for with the competing style of so many new and indie filmmakers on the rise. I think the tone of this video is very nature based and romance based, and no other great learning tool works for that genre like watching Twilight.

Now, beyond the skin tones, I really gotta say that this music video is not bad and is especially not bad compared to many things I've seen, it's a very average video that proudly used tough conditions to learn from (rain, sun, darkness, ect ect) and that's always great to learn from. And I think you've got those conditions really thought out, but again, I think the things that make this video even some steps lower aesthetically than what's really being easily put out by up and coming filmmakers who just put their cameras on auto and film fruit stands, is the skin tones are really extreme and do need some major work, some of the camera angles just too budget appearing and may be too "film school" based, and while there's some interesting camera movement and some interesting scenery, I do think even other factors that simply weigh in like wardrobe choice, and possibly not enough location establishing shots, and all in all, one of the most important things of filmmaking is no matter what you do, to simply make sure you have the right lens (focal length/aperture) and the right picture style that naturally makes things pretty no matter what you do. If you can master going into the city and shooting beautiful things out of nowhere, then shooting a music video is a piece of cake!

I like to show this website as an example, it consists of music videos all filmed on location, completely live, with no set or tools at all beyond a mic and a camera. I think that projects like this really exemplify where so many filmmakers do get just a bit lost and too caught up in complex conditions, sets, or equipment and not enough on simply knowing how to do an artistic angle in a great location. These people didn't even use tripods, it's all handheld with IS lenses:

http://sideshowalley.tv/

 

[haden]

@Snapper123

You're absolutely correct about the skin tones. This was primarily for two reasons. One, the xha1 ended up overexposing in several shots (which was unfortunately not the camera I was operating), which ultimately put us in a bind with the t2i's shots looking very different from the xha1, not to mention when you overexpose, its not as easy to rescue digital footage from that as it is in film. The second reason is that the DP decided he wanted to tackle the color correction session alone (which was only an hour and a bit long). Normally I'd do this kind of color correction on my own, but he wanted to take it to a professional color correction. Typically, this usually provides exceptional results, but the session was very short (budget problem) and I was not able to be present for it (only the DP). So what came back was somewhat out of my hands.

What I'll likely do in the future is keeping a sharp eye on what the other operators are running for their aperture and such, so there are no hiccups in color matching, and I will definitely insist on being at any color sessions if we're not doing the CC in house.

And I'm glad you enjoyed the shot at 2:33 as it was one of mine on the T2i, lol. But I completely agree with you. I feel that some things are overly bright and orange even. Not something I was overall happy with by the end of things.

But moving past the skin tone issues,
I'd love to hear more specifically where you think, shot-wise, the video was strong.
There were shots we knew we really wanted, but not all of them were as dynamic as I would have liked. So, to hear what strikes you as strong would be appreciated, because I always love to hear what other people like (especially someone with a keen eye for this kind of stuff).

And I had a good chuckle over the part of your comment where you said: "I think that projects like this really exemplify where so many filmmakers do get just a bit lost and too caught up in complex conditions, sets, or equipment and not enough on simply knowing how to do an artistic angle in a great location." The reason I found this funny is that one of my cohorts is really all about having all the support gear, and big lighting, and really about going big. I, however, like things simpler. I have huge respect for what proper lighting and support gear can do, but the angle and the substance of a shot (not to mention acting) is more important to me.

 

[Panicvision]

As the DOP I figure I should discuss why certain things appear the way they do in the video.

Firstly, on the topic of skin tones, and primarily, the orange tint found in most of the "warm" shots on the skin of actors and the singer are the effect of a Coral 1 filter that was placed in front of the lens. Coral filters are typically used to warm exterior scenes, but they do tend to produce an orange tint when it comes to skin tones that sadly isn't as nice as what a Tobacco or Antique Suede filter would do for skin tones. White balance was kept at 5600K, and we filtered all warm exterior shots with a Polarizer and Coral 1 combination. Something in the color settings of the XH-A1 seemed to favor shifting towards red more than I had expected and ultimately the Coral filter ended up sending the skin tones askew(Tobacco would have been a better choice). Interestingly enough, the T2i's settings did not favor the red as much and thus had much cleaner skin tones when using the Coral filter.

The downside to this was ultimately, in color correction, a balance needed to be found between the two camera footages used, and sadly the orange tint was the best we could live with given there was only an hour and a half to do the color correction session, and there was a lot more to work on then just those scenes.

The more dreary looking exterior scene on the porch was achieved by cheating the white balance on the camera. We white balanced under an overcast sky, with a Coral 1 filter on, and the camera adjusted for a warmer color temperature. This gave things a much cooler look. The effect did create an ugly green color cast in shots that needed to be pulled out during color correction. In the forest scenes, we brought up the tint of purple more so than blue to create a darker look.

On the argument of skin tones being extreme, thats a creative argument to make. Shooting clean skin tones should not be the only way to shoot. I recently saw the work of a cinematographer on a television series who heavily used warming filters on all interior scenes, making skin tones shift heavily to yellow/brown extremes, yet this is considered normal practise in cinematography, far from camcorder budget world. You can see other examples of extreme skin tones at work in films like The Social Network where some scenes which could have been shot clean, are instead filtered and lit to create an extreme skin tone. Ultimately, it just comes down to taste.

The camera angles definitely could have been better. I really dislike the camera work on the first porch scene around the 2:30 mark in the video. There is a sweeping dolly shot followed by a mish mash of angles that just don't work together and do end up looking pretty amateur. Other scenes however have much stronger camera work and cinematic quality. Sometimes you just get dealt a bad hand at a location.

I agree that art direction could have been much stronger and color choices in wardrobe and locations could have helped strongly with the cinematography. These are things that are learned more and more as we create videos like this and see that art direction and cinematography do work hand in hand in creating a stronger cinematic feel in a shot.

The biggest lesson and advice that can come from this music video is the following:

If you're shooting with 2 different cameras, test them extensively with any and all filters and color settings you'll be using to be sure they are matching up. It's imperative both cameras can match up enough that it won't cause surprises when the footage comes back or a sudden lighting situation occurrs.

Both cameras must match their exposures. In this case, several times one camera would adjust its exposure to something other than what another camera was doing and ultimately just leads to more headaches in post when you're trying to now find a balance. Get it right on set, don't try to fix it in post. We failed to coordinate like that. On any professional production shooting with more than one camera, if the DP says "T2", all 1st ACs will acknowledge, for example "T2, Pola ND6" so the DP knows everyone is on the same page.

To give an idea of the support gear on this shoot, we used the following:

-Chameleon dolly with skate wheels and straight and curved track, apple boxes of various sizes and wedges and pancakes to level the track
-one 12x12 with silk and black fabric, and one 6x6 with silk and black fabric
-A few grip stands and stands to support the 12x12 and 6x6, sandbags, etc.
-White foamcore boards for bouncing light, and a few flags/nets
-Lighting consisted of two 1000Ws, two 650Ws, and a 300W, and a small Dedo car kit for the rain/fog sequence inside the car
-Fog machine

We went big lol.