Sthlm Rim Shot - a Streetball film

Martti Ekstrand

Martti Ekstrand

Veteran
I shot this some month ago but it has taken some time to get the edit right.

I wanted to test the autofocus feature on my GH1 and luckily right where I live is a hoop court where the pickup games are on each late afternoon for a couple of hours. Awesome fast players come there every time, a good way to practice pan tracking. Shoot with the kit lens, a crappy monopod & sync sounds done with the built-in mic. Didn't know what parts I'd do in slow-motion so I left shutter at 1/50, ISO 100 and to keep aperture wide open I had to use a ND8 + ND2 despite it was at seven o'clock in the evening.

Music by 4-Eyed Joe

Vimeo with downloadable QuickTime: http://vimeo.com/groups/gh1/videos/5966843

Added it to YouTube as well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ra1_PMU4EM
 
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Hi Martti.

Video looks great.

As you know I'm sure 1/50th is a big no no for 60p (forces the camera into a frame rate hack). Were you shooting PAL I wonder? 50p at 1/50th to convert to 24p either slow mo or real time?
 
Wow, the AF seems to work really well. Great looking footage, is it CC'd at all? Also love seeing some footage that isn't still life (flowers bleh). Thanks man, I really enjoyed that!

I'm looking into purchasing a video camera for events and documentary work, would you recommend the GH1? I'm torn with all these new DSLR's vs conventional video cameras (i.e. JVC HM100 or Sony HV1U), not sure if the GH1 would be a viable option as my first semi-professional (at least by my standards) camera for mainly video use.

Anyway, love the footage, keep it coming and my decision might get a little easier.

Cheers!
Simon
 
Thanks all!

Jack: I'm shooting with a PAL camera and set the Toast converted footage to slow-motion with Cinema Tools before bringing it into FCP. There I speeded back the parts that go in real-time and just made sure to not have frame-blend on. Did two speed ramps but current FCP has a really stupid interface for that. It's supposedly better in the new version.

Simon: I added a global yellow-orange tint in the high and mid-tones with FCP 3-way colour corrector on a nested sequence and then took down gamma on some clips in the original sequence that were shot earlier in the evening but used next to later shoots so they wouldn't "pop out" with brightness.
If I were to do a documentary I'd have both this one and a 'normal' video camera with me. The GH1 for portraits and planned shots and the other for being able to quickly react to situations where one don't have time to focus precisely and get separate sound running. I shot nearly an hour of material for this one to get 4 minutes that works - OK I had a 5 minute cut but it felt a bit long so I stripped it down. Have a look at Panasonics new HMC-40 as well as the cameras you mention. Girls like flowers, don't ever forget that.
 
This looks much smoother than what I shot in daylight. Well, I shot 1080p mode and I overexposed a stop, and I used too many zooms. I'll have to invest in a couple ND filters so I can maintain a 60/125 shutter speed.
 
A tip about ND filters is to get a variable ND. I got a "Fader" and it's the only ND you'll ever need. It has a range from ND2 to ND400, which is almost completely black. Just buy one with as large thread as your largest lens and use step rings for all smaller lenses.
 
Have been using the Fader vari-ND and am very pleased with it. Shooting in Creative Mode (M) which allows setting ISO, Shutter, and Aperture - then using the ND for exposure with histogram.

Chalk this up to my inexperience with lenses and filters, but I was surprised to get some vignetting with the kit lens when attaching a CP to the Fader - even though I bought a 67mm Fader (used a 62-67 step-up) and the Fader then steps up to 72mm. So the CP is a 72mm and I still get vignetting with the kit at 14. Have to go to 18 to clear it. Slap a 72mm wide angle lens hood on that set-up and the vignetting doesn't clear until about 35. Even without the CP and with the lens hood, still get vignetting until about 25.

As an aside, discovered that when shooting in Creative Mode, if Direct AF Area (Custom Menu) is enabled--when pushing the ISO button you get the AF Area adjustment instead; losing the ability to adjust ISO (as far as I can tell). Anyone know of a way to still be able to adjust ISO?
 
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