stefancolson
Well-known member
Just finished shooting a second feature (DP and editor this time) on the hacked GH2, at a relatively low 80mbps. This time I was lucky enough to have Arri/Zeiss Ultra Primes and a Hot Rod PL adapter at my disposal (though the Tokina and a Rokinon 35 snuck in a couple of places, as did a Rokinon fisheye), as well as a great 1st and 2nd AC/key grip (though I pull my own focus) and an awesome gaffer.
The vast majority of the film is lit with china balls and a couple of LED panels. For the bigger locations (like the bar) we supplemented with a few two-bank flo-light fixtures with only one bulb each, or occasionally a pair of Coollights CDM-150s. The night exteriors (in addition to a boomed china ball and led panels) used a 2.5k HMI and the CDMs for large rim/fake moonlight. With the exception of the night exteriors we never brought in more than 800 watts of light, and most of the film was shot with 200 or less. We managed to go without the generator a good 75% of the time.
The original plan was to shoot mostly on the jib, dolly, and steadicam, but due to time constraints I shot most of the movie on the shoulder or on sticks. There are a small handfull of jib shots and a few steadicam scenes, but we didn't lay tracks or pull out a slider once for the whole shoot. A few stolen locations are just the bare camera with the tokina, or a monopod and the Rokinon 30 or a Canon 70-200 2.8 IS II.
We shot for 13 days (more than 100 pages) and the total budget would buy a decent mid-size family sedan. No art department on this one, but we scored way above our budget in wardrobe and hair/makeup. We had a skeleton crew (including an overworked and overachieving AD/UPM/LP), but somehow wound up with an insanely awesome group of PAs, without whom we would have no film.
Just waiting on music clearance to post the trailer. Should be soon!
The GH2 has a certain textural quality that reminds me of 16mm in a very cool way, and aside from limited DR, a very contrasty baked-in look, and ridiculous rolling shutter artifacts, I think the GH2 is the best low-budget cam around with a practical workflow. I'd rather shoot C300, but it's almost twenty times as expensive. The BMC would be my pick if 80tb of storage wasn't such a burden, and the Scarlet would be a contender if not for the same storage problem and costly RED ecosystem. I like working with the Epic when there's a budget/cheap access, but I'd rather go for Alexa with a nicer (in my opinion) image and more manageable workflow. A DIT is a luxury I seldom am afforded, and seeing as I usually shoot and edit I put a high value on fast, efficient workflow. Hopefully all of this nonstop work will start to payoff in bigger budget projects with the resources to do things the way they should/could be done. In the mean time I see more GH2 features in my future!
The vast majority of the film is lit with china balls and a couple of LED panels. For the bigger locations (like the bar) we supplemented with a few two-bank flo-light fixtures with only one bulb each, or occasionally a pair of Coollights CDM-150s. The night exteriors (in addition to a boomed china ball and led panels) used a 2.5k HMI and the CDMs for large rim/fake moonlight. With the exception of the night exteriors we never brought in more than 800 watts of light, and most of the film was shot with 200 or less. We managed to go without the generator a good 75% of the time.
The original plan was to shoot mostly on the jib, dolly, and steadicam, but due to time constraints I shot most of the movie on the shoulder or on sticks. There are a small handfull of jib shots and a few steadicam scenes, but we didn't lay tracks or pull out a slider once for the whole shoot. A few stolen locations are just the bare camera with the tokina, or a monopod and the Rokinon 30 or a Canon 70-200 2.8 IS II.
We shot for 13 days (more than 100 pages) and the total budget would buy a decent mid-size family sedan. No art department on this one, but we scored way above our budget in wardrobe and hair/makeup. We had a skeleton crew (including an overworked and overachieving AD/UPM/LP), but somehow wound up with an insanely awesome group of PAs, without whom we would have no film.
The GH2 has a certain textural quality that reminds me of 16mm in a very cool way, and aside from limited DR, a very contrasty baked-in look, and ridiculous rolling shutter artifacts, I think the GH2 is the best low-budget cam around with a practical workflow. I'd rather shoot C300, but it's almost twenty times as expensive. The BMC would be my pick if 80tb of storage wasn't such a burden, and the Scarlet would be a contender if not for the same storage problem and costly RED ecosystem. I like working with the Epic when there's a budget/cheap access, but I'd rather go for Alexa with a nicer (in my opinion) image and more manageable workflow. A DIT is a luxury I seldom am afforded, and seeing as I usually shoot and edit I put a high value on fast, efficient workflow. Hopefully all of this nonstop work will start to payoff in bigger budget projects with the resources to do things the way they should/could be done. In the mean time I see more GH2 features in my future!
