DSLR for documentary, no; but for film...yeah, yeah!

So I've been extremely busy over the August and September period due to the London Olympics as well as London's Notting Hill Carnival. I did a number of gigs over that period including the shooting of a short film.

Together with Nigel of SpinxMedia we filmed a short to try and truly understand the capabilities and shortcomings of DSLR using the Canon 550D. That expereince can be seen here http://youtu.be/eRg8zMqreEk . As a result I went out and purchased the Canon 600D shortly after. The 600D having the flip out LCD and better audio control providing both improved monitoring visually and sonically. This certainly has prepared us for the music video shoot I had mentioned a few posts back. More of which later.

So during the Olympic period I was fortunate to be able to visit the Athlete's Village to meet the St Kitt's and Nevis Team. I supported ChantiMedia with this gig and was pressed to use the Canon as it has the look they were after. My preference was for the tried and trusted Z1. I can quite safely say that DSLRs are not the best for run and gun or documentary work where sound quality is paramount. The additional fidgety gear needed for sound is a grind to both carry around as well as to monitor the different functions. Sync in, post even with Plural Eyes, is a nightmare and extremely time consuming. I'm still working on that project now! The images do look great mind.

I used the Z1 with the same production unit for a 'rockumentary'. Rootz Underground was featuring at the London O2 arena as part of the Jamaica House Expose that coincided with the Olympics and support of the national team. Unfortunately I didn't get to meet the athletes but the experience with the band was great. Apart from some of the low light challenges with the band backstage, the footage I've reviewed so far is good and sound is great and locked to the clips. No syncing there. I hope to piece together something inspiring here.

I took the Canon's back out for Jamaica National's day to catch the performance of one of the friends of Rootz, Briana. As this was a live performance of three songs only, I had a better experience.

Which brings me back to that music video I've been harping on about for so long. So I sketched out the original track or "riddim" back in February. The artiste I shopped it to put lyrics to it and changed slights parts of the arrangement. That was around April. We agreed we would take it to studio in May and we certainly did at the end of the month. Now I love hip hop, I grew up with it. For the life of me, I cant work out how every music production house engineer in the UK seems to only have hip hop or Grime background. The vocals were recorded with little appreciation of harmonies and layering and the finer points of melody, etc. I ended up taking the project from the original recording house and dealing with an independent engineer from New Zealand. We've finally got a product I'm happy with and we can now start pre-production of the video in earnest. Now here is where the Canon's will come into their own!

Be good ... Tony

Great videos shot with the Canon 550D / Rebel T2i

Thought I'd update you on where we are with the music / video project.

We are at last to the production standard I am happy with. Some tweaks still required by the guys with the musical ears to sprinkle that magical dust that turns a mixed down track into a master that sounds great on any music system.

With regard to the Video I posed the question should I use what I have in my possession or hire a video camera for the purpose. Here are two great videos shot with the Canon 550d/Rebel T3i that have been truly inspirational (and could potentially save me a couple hundred bucks in rental fees!).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYqwvUECWkk

http://vimeo.com/32655795

Time to go away and complete that video script and learn my lighting techniques.

Fail to prepare, prepare to fail. Most certainly for video production

So I've been to the studio to track the vocals. Still lots of work left to do. May have to book another session with the engineer to mix down, etc. But as I said in the last post we are thinking/planning a video shoot too.

This was my first foray into music video production. http://youtu.be/UCokx0TZyQI

Last year I approached Nikisha to do a video for her "Island Niki" youtube channel. Her primary focus is RnB/Pop. If you do a search on her full name Nikisha Reyes-Pile you will see the support she has in those genre's. During the UK's carnival season Nikisha pens a calypso/soca song in support of her Caribbean culture.

A two day shoot was planned. However, day one was really supposed to be some wild shots so that both Niki and her sister could eliminate any fears of being in front of camera. As most people know the UK weather is temperamental, even in summer! . And it was fortunate that we did these shots on Saturday as our main day, Sunday, was almost washed out. The usable shots were when the sun came out in 15 minute bursts.

What we tried to achieve was a simple storyline of two everyday girls being caught up in the magic of carnival and becoming costume princesses for the day. Carnival offers the most direct route for escapism at least for two days a year, right?

Many lessons learned but well pleased I listened to the advice read that,  pre-planning and preparation are key to risk reduction. And, we got the finished product out. Let me know what you think.

Technical Info: Shot with Sony z1 using matte box with ND filters. Edit and grading in FCP7 and Color.

Tony

DSLR or not to DSLR ... the question for video!

Since last post I have been testing out the DSLR. About 18 months ago I purchased a Canon 550d for stills photography. The portrait photo on this blog was taken using this camera. Really wedded to the Sony Z1 and it's 'log and capture' workflow, it took a lot of convincing for me to start using the 550 for video. I have been filming a 3 minute short recently and been relatively impressed I must say. So much so that I purchased a 600d body and plan to shoot a client's music video using it!

What's the difference between both cameras. First, the 600d comes with a flip out screen which will allow me to use a shoulder rig to follow action whilst getting some stability. Framing shots from interesting angles also is made simpler. Second, improvements to audio functions means it can now be readily monitored and controlled (without the aid of third party firmware). All the advantages of the budget 550d remain.

I've also discovered some picture style settings (Marvels' Cine and CineAlta) that have been specially developed for Canon's DSLR video function. Some argue that the basic photographic settings are not suited to video. These styles were mainly developed to assist with color grading in post. The more neutral setting that can be used in any video or digital capture device the more headroom there is for experimenting with colour and feel during the edit process. On my Z1 I use neutral settings for similar reasons - capturing HDV in any other form is difficult to grade. 

I think the development for me will be to accurately gauge exposure balancing this with ISO settings to avoid too soft or granular images.

At some point upgrading my Z1s and the Canons to a single camera that will be useful for both film as well as documentary is something I'll have to consider. For now I rest assured that my laggard attitude to technology means that I will not be making a rash and therefore regrettable choice.