F3: Sex scene

A

Alpha Beta Omega

Veteran

A sex scene I shot this spring that was finalized last week. Sony F3 in s-log and using Canon L glass. I wanted the grade to look a bit rough and pushed footage to show grain rather than making it clean. I tell you that when that girl started acting I became scared. She was that intensive! It was fun to shoot and I think we did it in two hours time.
 
Haha that was fun, especially the moment when the girl started licking the mans hand :P And yes it looked fantastic and also sounded even more fantastic :) Really loving the look you get out of the F3.
 
Haha, excellent, I've seen the trailer for this film on Vimeo. I'm pretty sure it said it was recorded to the internal codec? If so, how was S-log at 8 bit? Any chance of her phone number? Haha.
 
It was recorded in 8-bit on the SxS cards. It works shooting s-log in 8-bit 4:2:0 but you wont get the best out of the camera by doing so. Her phone number? You wish ;)
 
Osslund, how do you expose for S-log? I've never used it before, but I played around with it last night. I know you use a 18% grey card, but do you expose with it up close to the lens like you do when you white balance? Or do you put the grey card in the scene, centre and expose till you get 38%? I find this whole S-log thing confusing. I found 3200k far more pleasing in an indoor situation, at low light, using a 200w bulb. Any advice would be very welcome. Unfortunately I'm stuck with 8 bit SxS until next year.
 
Jack, the grey card should always be in the scene under the actual lighting that you are exposing for. If you are using an F3 you can turn on the spot meter function and the marker display in the menu which will give you a percentage readout based on the light the camera sees in the center of the frame.

hope this helps.
 
Thanks Starcentral, that help a lot, I'll test this out again tonight. So it's probably a 2 man crew when shooting S-log on the F3.
 
Last edited:
JackCarter said:
Osslund, how do you expose for S-log? I've never used it before, but I played around with it last night. I know you use a 18% grey card, but do you expose with it up close to the lens like you do when you white balance? Or do you put the grey card in the scene, centre and expose till you get 38%? I find this whole S-log thing confusing. I found 3200k far more pleasing in an indoor situation, at low light, using a 200w bulb. Any advice would be very welcome. Unfortunately I'm stuck with 8 bit SxS until next year.
Click to expand...

First I check that my faces are at about 40% and white not over 68%. I also check the histogram and eyeball it to get the correct exposure. It takes some time before you star to see what looks right but then you can go just by the histogram and only double check with the spot meter. The thing with s-log is that it wont look good in camera but when you've done grading it looks very good and gives you ample room for adjustment.
 
JackCarter said:
Thanks Starcentral, that help a lot, I'll test this out again tonight. So it's probably a 2 man crew when shooting S-log on the F3.
Click to expand...

Well you can use spot meter on skin too, you don't need a "grey card" all the time. Or if you have talent ask them to hold it over their face briefly.





Osslund, nice look by the way. I like it, very natural non-lit looking.

cheers,
 
Osslund said:
First I check that my faces are at about 40% and white not over 68%. I also check the histogram and eyeball it to get the correct exposure. It takes some time before you star to see what looks right but then you can go just by the histogram and only double check with the spot meter. The thing with s-log is that it wont look good in camera but when you've done grading it looks very good and gives you ample room for adjustment.
Click to expand...

I was filming Saturday night, and chickened out of using S-log, I couldn't get it to 38% with the grey card with the f2.9 lens I was using, only 36%, so I went with Abelcine's AB range, which worked out well in the grade. I figure S-log is better used for daytime use. Perhaps I need to grow a pair, and just use it. So maybe now I'll try a face at 40% and white not over 68%. I suppose practice makes perfect.

starcentral said:
Well you can use spot meter on skin too, you don't need a "grey card" all the time. Or if you have talent ask them to hold it over their face briefly.
Click to expand...

Without sounding like a complete inexperienced idiot, If you were in a room at night, you had three light sources, 2 on the walls, and one above the head of the actor, what would you expose for in S-log? The girls face 40%? Or for the grey card 38%? Another question that occurs to me, once you have decided on the exposure, do you keep it the same for other angles or camera moves? Or do you have to keep checking the percentage meter for 38%, 40% etc? It's like learning all over again with this S-log lark. Part of me thinks why bother, it never looks like film anyway, I mean digital is way cleaner, even at low light, the F3 is so clean.

I have a daytime scene coming up soon, so maybe I'll give that scene a try with S-log.

Osslund said:
I guess it's in my style to do natural looking light and I do hate artificial light sources for better or worse.
Click to expand...

Osslund, what do you do if you have a scene set at night? I too prefer natural light, but because I work so much in a crap job that has nothing to do with cameras apart from CCTV, I always have to film at night.

Starcentral and Osslund, thanks.
 
JackCarter said:
I was filming Saturday night, and chickened out of using S-log, I couldn't get it to 38% with the grey card with the f2.9 lens I was using, only 36%, so I went with Abelcine's AB range, which worked out well in the grade. I figure S-log is better used for daytime use. Perhaps I need to grow a pair, and just use it. So maybe now I'll try a face at 40% and white not over 68%. I suppose practice makes perfect.



Without sounding like a complete inexperienced idiot, If you were in a room at night, you had three light sources, 2 on the walls, and one above the head of the actor, what would you expose for in S-log? The girls face 40%? Or for the grey card 38%? Another question that occurs to me, once you have decided on the exposure, do you keep it the same for other angles or camera moves? Or do you have to keep checking the percentage meter for 38%, 40% etc? It's like learning all over again with this S-log lark. Part of me thinks why bother, it never looks like film anyway, I mean digital is way cleaner, even at low light, the F3 is so clean.

I have a daytime scene coming up soon, so maybe I'll give that scene a try with S-log.



Osslund, what do you do if you have a scene set at night? I too prefer natural light, but because I work so much in a crap job that has nothing to do with cameras apart from CCTV, I always have to film at night.

Starcentral and Osslund, thanks.
Click to expand...

Jack, every situation is different (and you are right, s-log is not always the best option on night shoots), but I generally assume that if there are humans in any given scene, then I have to expose for their faces, not the grey card.

When shooting fiction, most DOP's try to keep the same t stop all the way through a scene for consistency (sometimes all the way through a film) and if they need to do so they'll adjust the lighting whenever they shoot different angles (i.e, maybe you went for a strong backlight that later becomes a key light when the actor turns round and you shoot the reverse shot). The same apply's for camera moves (you try to keep the same stop), but sometimes when on location one can't control things so you will have to gently ride the iris (I once heard Seamus McGarvey explaining how he had to do a huge iris rack during a day time crane shot that went from a dimly lit traffic underpass to the road on top; he racked during the 'bridge' transition between the underpass and the road, so the audience never noticed the shift).

When shooting observational docos and run-and-gun situations things are not very controllable, so by all means adjust the aperture whenever you need to do so.

When you get used to working on S-log (and better still on raw) you never want to go back to baked profiles. However, I only ever work on S-log or raw if I know there's a budget for grading; otherwise I use a baked in look.

Sorry in advance if you already knew all this and I sounded patronising.
 
dracalat said:
Sorry in advance if you already knew all this and I sounded patronising.
Click to expand...

Not at all Dracalat, thanks for the information. I shot my last project all at the same T stop, as it was all set at night, with all the lights fixed in place. I don't think I could shoot the day footage at T2.9, but I will play with that tomorrow, and with S-log finally, haha.

Thanks again.
 
JackCarter said:
Not at all Dracalat, thanks for the information. I shot my last project all at the same T stop, as it was all set at night, with all the lights fixed in place. I don't think I could shoot the day footage at T2.9, but I will play with that tomorrow, and with S-log finally, haha.

Thanks again.
Click to expand...

When shooting exterior day stuff I do the same as my eyes do in such situations - my eye pupils get smaller, and so I also close down the aperture. I don't like shooting wide open under the sunlight - it makes my life difficult (focus nightmare) and I find it visually distracting. However, sometimes it can be useful to completely isolate an object or a character. Magic hour time is a different matter - working wide open under those conditions can add more magic to it and if you are backlighting your lenses will flare even more.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top