Fair Fight part II: A DC Comics fan film

This past weekend I helped out some of my friends who were shooting their DC Comics fan film, Fair Fight. This was part 2 of the project, with my fellow DP Scott Baker handling the first installment. We utilized the same location and camera, a BlackMagic Pocket camera. While I've shot with BlackMagic cameras before, this is the first time I've used the Pocket Camera. The one I used had a speed booster and included a set of Leica still lenses with a Duclos Cinemod.

I shot handheld primarily on the 25mm and 50mm, with a couple shots on a 100mm and a single shot on the 24mm. The B-cam shot on a 14mm or 35mm Rokinon on a small Glidecam-style rig. Matching the settings from part 1 as closely as I could (ISO 1600, F2.8, ProRes 422, 120° shutter), we shot pretty much everything with two cameras at a time. I'd occasionally shoot ISO 800/F2 when I could, but tended to stay at a 2.8 to give myself a little extra leeway since I was pulling my own focus off of the tiny Pocket Camera screen.

Since the original shoot was unable to recall if they shot with the flatter "film" profile and then graded, or shot straight to the "video" profile, I opted for the flat "film" profile, as it's easy to get the video look from that footage, while the reverse isn't true. They were also unsure about the color temp, so I went with 4000K, as the first part had pretty orange tungsten while the blues were fairly blue. By splitting the two temps, I gave them warmer than average tungsten and kept my blues nice and strong.

I believe these grabs are off the ungraded screenshots. I kind of like the muted color scheme, as it fits the darker and grittier nature of the content. Part 1 has a lot more saturation and contrast, so these will probably get graded to a crunchier look for the final product.

August catch up!

I've been busy the past few weeks and just wanted to get a little update in. My own project was coming along nicely, but hit a snag. My location may have suddenly become unavailable. Unfortunately, the whole script was based on this location (in fact, I wrote the script only because this set was sitting around unused and I hated to see it go to waste), so I may have to scrap the script and work on something else instead. Oh well, that's how it goes some times.

This past week I DP'd a PSA shoot for a big client. I wasn't allowed to get any screenshots and I can't say much about it until it airs, but I can say this, it features one of my favorite subjects: books! We shot on my RED Dragon with Sony CineAlta lenses, using mostly bounced natural light and some Kino for fill. The clients were extremely happy with what we got.

Finally, today Blackmagic Design had a conference that I attended that discussed their workflow, from acquisition (using Blackmagic's own cameras) and FX (Fusion), to the new, all-encompassing workflow with DaVinci Resolve 12 (ingestion, editing, coloring, and final print). I was hoping we'd get a peek at footage from their new 4.6K sensor, but they didn't have anything to show us. I'm interested in perhaps acquiring one of the new URSA Mini's, but it looks like I'll have to keep waiting to see if the new sensor is all it's cracked up to be.

Some nice brochures. Also available (but not pictured here), complimentary food and beverages!

This was the Blackmagic conference room when I walked in. Twenty minutes later it was full and people were standing in the back.