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Hello Mr. Deakins! And whoever else pitches in this discussion (please do!)
I’ve recently “completed” the first draft for a script I’ve been working on. I’m dead set to actually do it. In essence it’s a roadtrip film. Meaning tons of landscapes, highways, etc. I was hoping to get a “budget” suggestion for a camera? As well as a definitive approach on how to do this.
I’ve been doing some reading and just discovered about the possibilities of shooting in either s-log3 or RAW to then spend months in post doing color grading (I know nothing else than the basics of color theory). But in essence it does sound like it could be a good idea since I will not have any control on lightning, weather, etc. It’ll be a sort of “shoot as we go” film. Meaning natural lightning, meaning once I drive by a location that’s it. Unless I do some re-shoots once we get back… So I’m thinking having that fidelity on S-log3 and the like could work for this scenario.
There is a high chance I’m completely wrong -hence why I’m here- I’m just super scared of failing to achieve my vision. And/or failing to capture the beauty of the landscapes we’ll encounter. Which is sort of a paradox thinking of doing color grading/correction in post haha. Anyways, I’m considering the Sony A7C II which is going for 2000USD (I’m not in the US and not even a major city so the used market for cameras is non-existent).
Since it’ll just be me and my boy on the trip I need to find clever ways to cement a tripod inside the car to get some shots without too much movement. Of course I have no clue how I’ll get good audio, need to look up mic setups and such.. I have no clue on which lenses I would need to pack for good measure, that’s actually the next milestone of research I need to do…
Sorry for the lengthy post, any tips/tricks/suggestions I can get will be extremely appreciated!
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A bit of contradictory information I’m still reading about is that apparently the a7C isn’t really great at shooting S-Log3 because it can only do 8-bit color, resulting in a mushy look. Guess that just means I could shoot S-Log2?
As always, since i’m just an unexperienced amateur don’t take my words too seriously, but somehow i think i can be of some (limited) help since i’m in a similar situation: i’m working on my first short movie and more or less i’ve been through similar doubts. My case could be completely different from yours one but here they are some tips I gave to myself
1) The story is the most important element, don’t rush it. When you think you are done with it, work again on that (after a while you don’t see flaws anymore). Ask people you trust to read it and to highlight problems and don’t take critics personally, they are opportunities to grow. How many wonderfully crafted movies with a stupid story have you watched yet? And i bet there are a lot of movies with limited budget that found a place in history of cinema thanks to their stories.
2) Be realistic : what can you actually shoot, in terms of budget and technical abilities? In your script there’s the coolest scene ever scripted, but there is zero chances you’ll actually be able to shot it as you figured. Well, if is relevant to the story find a turnaround and a creative solution to do something similar, if it’s just a cool shot but it’s useless for the story do yourself a favor and erase the scene.
3) Even to my naive ears “no control on lighting” sounds a bad way to start such a project. You can’t control the weather and clouds etc etc but you can carefully plan many other things (the position of the sun, the angle of the light, the type of light and so on). When you create a shot list from your script you may think how actually shot it and how to achieve the visual result you are looking for. There are apps for sun tracking that allows you to calculate exactly where the sun will be in a given moment. Does the shot requires (in your mind) a close up of the actor in the sunlight? Than stage the scene considering how the sun will light your talents: given that, you may need to diffuse or reflect or block etc the sunlight. You’ll need some location scouting, at least on google maps or similar apps. And if after all this careful planning the weather will be horrible…well, it happens. If possible come back there but use it as a last resource (more shooting, more time, more cost) . Consider the time you’ll need to set the scene and that , well, the earth will move in the meanwhile, so the position of the sun will change.
3 1/2 ) In general, using the “shot as we go” approach for the entire project could turn in a really complicated one, unless your goal is to create a real documentary of a road trip and no matter how the scene will look and how the audio will be (and it seems it’s not your case). Don’t rush the pre-production phase, plan everything. And think to a B-Plan .
4) Perhaps i’m wrong but months for color grading seems a bit too much to me. If you are so scared by that you could think about hiring a professional colorist (within your budget) or do some test with, for example, free version of Davinci Resolve. It’s not that complicated to achieve decent results with log profiles once you understand how they work. You can’t use them as they are but they are not such a monster. Or you could consider Hlog profiles, that should work better on 8 bit and are way easier to color correct and color grade than Slog (you can almost use them as they are and while they have not the same dynamic range of SLog they offer some decent space for color grading) . Also consider that Slog may need to be overexposed (please correct me on that if i’m wrong) and to achieve that you may need…planning.
5) Great audio with poor cinematography or great cinematography with poor audio? Or, given the budget, a balance between the two?
6) There’s not “the right” lense, there’s the right lense for your story and while there is plenty of advices and suggestions and opinions on the web, only you know how that scene should look. Does it need an intimate approach? How the characters relate to the enviroment? What feeling should the audience experience watching the scene?
7) Is it a documentary on the beauty of the landscape or is it a road movie? Does the landscape plays a relevant role in the story or is it just a cool background? An ugly background hinting to the struggle of the characters could be more effective that a wonderful landscape that has no relationship with what’s happening.
I hope that helps a little! And as i wrote in the beginning, I’m in a similar situation and i need help too, ah ah!
Sony FX30 is cheaper and much better equipped for video capture than A7C while being almost as compact. BMPCC 6k pro is more expensive at 2500 $, has better ergonomics, a large, bright built-in monitor, ND filters, and can shoot raw out of the box, but lacks autofocus.
Neither slog curve was designed for 8-bit capture, and can exhibit some egregious color banding when shooting with an 8-bit codec. Fx30 has both 10-bit internal and raw via hdmi.
If you are only looking at cameras in this price range, any camera will do just fine for an indy project like this. Just rent a mirrorless setup. Most important thing is that you make the project!
The other option would be to use that money and hire a cinematographer. Or even find someone in school that knows cameras better, and is eager to work on their cinematography.
I suggest either shooting it with whatever you can get (and focus on the story), or bring people on with more experience. Filmmaking is collaborative!
This is just my 2 cents, I’m not one of the masters on here
If I may give my 2 cents:
Movies are all about collaboration. It sounds to be that you’re aspiring to be a director? But in this you also want to be the cinematographer, audio guy, in front of the camera, editing it and grading it? That paired with (from what I can gather) very limited knowledge in all of these fields seems a little too much to handle and hope for a great result. Why don’t you get friends and young film enthusiasts on board that can help for free or little pay? Try to find a camera person that will help you with all the camera and lens questions. Find someone who wants to become a colorist and might want to practice grading your film. Don’t seek to do everything alone and only use the internet as a tool. That’s not what it’s going to be like going forward and (in my humble opinion) a recipe for frustration..
I understand your point, halfgrain, but i don’t think it’s impossible to do a “one man show” as long as one has realistic expectation for the result. At least, that’s what i hope, ah ah! I think that me and emigal are in a similar situation and i hope we can help each other in this learning and planning phase.
I’ve been working for a lot of time on my first script and since i love to work with other people and organize team work i involved a lot of people, from actors to audio guys , from make up artists to musicians etc etc. Somehow i convinced many of them to work on a friendship base for free but I’d like to do a fundrising to collect the funds for this short movie, but i realized i couldn’t ask people for their money just on a trust base without showing that i’m least able to hold a camera. So i did a step back and i begung working on a simpler project to use as example for the fundrising. For this one i’m doing literally everything but acting and music: from set decoration to prop making, from 3d modelling to lighting etc, but i’ll ask to some friend to help me as boom operators. I took my time to learn withouth rushing (to be honest, i felt that the script, even if very simple, needed more work and i used that time to learn, to study cinema, movies, techniques, problems, gears, etc. I am unexperienced but they use to say i’m a fast learner let’s hope it’s true…). Of course i had to plan everything to make it possible and i have realistic expectations about it, but on the other hand it has been a great learning experience, since it gave me a clearer idea of what everybody does and how to achieve a coherent vision and an idea of problems a director may face. For example, I had to block my scenes knowing where i’ll put my lights and where i’ll need to digitally extend the set, how to use a practical light as a motivation and how to “fake it” where needed, how the choice of a palette of the scene means that you need to use a coherent hue also for the walls and the props, and so on. You know that better than me.
Summing up, i humbly hope to achieve just a decent result and i’m using this first step just a learning phase and an introduction to a way more complex project, but taking the time to learn how to achieve this simple result has been like a crash test on cinema. That’s just my experience but i think something similar could work also for emigal, as long as we both have realistic expectations about what we are doing and why.
I will say that any raw format with be large amounts of data so plan on budgeting for hard drives and having a laptop with you to transfer all of that data. Lumix and Sony cameras that shoot 10 bit log internally will have much smaller file sizes and still give you plenty to work with in post but really you want to get a good exposure no matter what. Even raw won’t completely fix a botched exposure. It may help but it still doesn’t work miracles. Some reasons to shoot raw video is it will bypass any of the internal processing of. the cameras especially consumer mirrorless. So if the manufacturer does some type of sharpening etc to their internal codecs it will bypass all of that. The other main reason to shoot raw would be the color fidelity which is 12bit or higher depending on formats and cameras systems. if your target audience is regular people they aren’t going to know the difference in any of the technical camera stuff As long as the story is good and the dialogue is clean the picture matters less.
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