IamOakley

Oh ya! I love Mel Brooks, but never saw Young Frankenstein, so I'll make a point to bump that one up!

Pretty impressive considering all the waves and water spewing in every direction to distract auto-focus with. Thanks Doug, super useful to get your settings insight.

Looks great, and how fun for the troupe to see their acts from this vantage point for the first time! I'm currently developing recommendations for a theatrical space with live performances wanting something like this. Based on your experience with this circus show, if you were going to have a second camera angle, would you go with two FR7s?

Dang those kids can shred! Did you have an onboard mic on the FS7? Sounds good.

First, it's Halloween. Second, I recently got to talk to super talented DP James Kniest about how he became a horror DP and how he filmed the new Mike Flanagan series The Midnight Club. (It’s a Netflix show where eight terminally ill young adults tell scary stories, and Kniest went on a tour de force of film references to create it, using different different aspect ratios, spherical, anamorphic, full frame, and Super 35, all on the Sony VENICE.) It got me thinking a lot about horror cinematography. Like, the inherent mechanics of camera placement and lighting that makes the viewer feel so scared. I’ve been thinking about the best “horror” genre films (using the term loosely) that have really standout cinematography in particular. I would love to know what others think or would recommend, from a cinematography perspective. Here's my shortlist, in no particular order: The Birds, 1963 Sure, everybody usually thinks of Psycho as Hitchcock’s best horror flick. But I’m making a case for The Birds. I mean, the story itself is literally ridiculous. It’s just a flock of birds, and that’s supposed to be scary? Well, it’s all about the cinematography here…showing us the creepy perspectives of the birds, and making us feel purely through camera placement how we cannot escape the birds. Leslie Robert Burks, A.S.C. was the cinematographer, and I read that he collaborated quite a bit Hitchcock, so their shorthand must have helped immensely. A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, 2014 An Iranian black and white 2014 indie film about a lonely vampire. It’s an unforgettable atmospheric world from from first time filmmaker Ana Lily Amirpour, that was promoted as “the first Iranian vampire Western.” The film was exquisitely photographed by DP Lyle Vincent with cinematography that many count as a some of the most beautiful b&w ever. The Love Witch, 2016 This film is a wonderful essay in lighting psychology and color symbolism from filmmaker Anna Biller. It’s about a young witch who “loves men to death.” I once talked to Biller, who described her DP, M. David Mullen, as a genius who she trusted carte blanche to shoot on 35mm and create an almost uncanny look of 1960s cinema. Alien, 1979 The best sci-fi horror there ever was, cinematographer Derek Vanlint brought Ridley Scott’s two-camera anamorphic film to life. And it was Vanlint’s first big film as DP! An American Werewolf in London, 1981 Horror-comedy just might be the hardest cinematic genre to pull off, and it also happens to be my favorite. (Dare I say the best of the genre?) An American Werewolf in London is to me the best example. How can you go from atmospheric fog on the moors to hilarious London cinema to bittersweet transformation and resolution? The film was recognized when it came out for it’s special effects (werewolf transformation) and is considered something of a B movie. But if you look at the lighting, and how the tone is able to shift so seamlessly from moment to moment, while staying true to the world of the film, you’ll see the great work of DP Robert Paynter along with director John Landis. OK that's my list. Anyone have any other scary movies with beautiful cinematography to recommend?

Is there any particular color chart that you like best?

I'm into this sort of thing. These evoke like an 8mm, Super8mm look to me! What about using vintage lenses themselves? I just wrote up some tips on how I like to use 'em, although it's only half the battle. Will keep Dehancer in mind.

That's interesting and completely understandable about the TV news world not really needing/wanting S-Log3. Different strokes for different folks (post-production environments). Thank you so much for your input, Alister!

Wow, super interesting. Thank you Doug! I'm going to test shooting S-Cinetone on my FX3 and grading like this, and see if I can get results I like. Yours looks great.

Ever since I made my with the FX30, where I paired the APS-C sensor with some vintage lenses, I’ve been getting questions about how you actually use older glass with the FX30.It’s actually quite simple, so I wanted to demystify it a little for new users! Here are the basics. 1) Find the adapter. Honestly, all you have to do to put a vintage lens on your FX30 is find the right adapter. Twist on an XYZ mount to E mount adapter, and *bam* you’re in business. If you’re at a thrift store and see some really funky looking glass you just have to try out, look online at BH or Adorama to see if they’ve got [that lens mount] to E mount. That's it. There are a few weirdo lenses that extend so far in the rear, they won’t actually fit anyone’s digital camera, but a cursory internet search for said mounts and adapters will let you know right away. For the FX30 shoot with the VW van, we used lenses with three mounts: Helios 44-2 with a M42 to E mountA bunch of miscellaneous FDs from KEH and Goodwill with FD to E MountVoigtlander 35mm f/2 and 15mm f/4.5 Super-wide Heliar already came fitted with E mountWhile there are certain adapters that offer different optical elements or added functionality, keep in mind, there’s just no way a manual vintage lens will ever work the way a Sony G series lens will. Some filmmakers swear by adapters with added optical elements to widen the angle of view, but I just used two simple $23 mounts and had no regrets. I should say that here I’m talking about vintage lenses that you are picking up for relatively cheap. If you’re using (or renting) something more $$$ like K35s, which have shot up in value 500% over the course of the past five years, go with whatever the rental house or previous owner recommends! 2) You can absolutely use full frame lenses, just keep in mind the crop factor. There’s no reason you can’t use any full-frame lenses on your FX30, old or new. You just have to keep in mind the 1.62x crop factor of the FX30 APS-C sensor. It doesn’t change the character of the focal length, it just changes the how much of the frame your lens is capturing, the angle of view, aka how wide you can capture the scene. Since the FX30 has a 1.62 crop factor, a 35mm full frame lens will behave like a 56mm on APS C sensor. You know, 'cause 35 x 1.6 = 56 3) Be prepared to focus by hand. So with any old glass, you are almost certainly going to be going full manual when it comes to the aperture and focus. Focus peaking and Zebra and all the FX30s extensive exposure settings all work and help to guide you. So just think about this during Prep and don’t plan any shots that demand dedicated autofocus. Instead, run with the nature of the vintage lens! 4) If you’re trying to recreate a vintage look, the lens is only half the battle. The truth is that vintage lenses are great for getting looks of yesteryear, but it’s only half of the equation for your final image. The other half is what the sensor brings. And since the FX30 sensor offers so much to get creative with, think about the color space beyond the lens. I used LUTs from Alexandru Don from the SonyCine LUT library for anything in the shoot that wasn’t in the “vintage” realm of our shoot. (Because they perform really well with differing skintones.) But in order to make the vintage sections have the vintage look, I wanted the sensor to mimic 16mm film. For our bright daylights, I ended up going with a specialty LUT from Triune Digital called 50D, which emulated Kodak 50 Daylight film stock. Does anybody else have any tips or tricks? Or maybe different opinions or approaches? Or favorite vintage lens of the moment?

Same!

You've captured the swamp light in such a magical way. Not at all the images my mind conjures for 'swamp'! How do you keep your cool with your rig around these 'gators?

Also, how did you capture that shot with the monster moon next to the peak? That's gorgeous. I'm pretty surprised how much of it you can see considering it's only a little waning sliver.

Really like that shot of the bison in the dappled shade of the trees. 👌

Columbus, woot! Welcome and nice to meet you.

Good to know, thanks for the input.

Stunning! Great work to you, Than Povi, Natalie, and the whole team! How long did it take to choreograph + film this piece? Would love to hear about the process.

I'm always curious about what others are doing when shooting non-fiction. Obviously, there are many different kinds of documentary productions, and some allow more careful planning and lighting than others. But when you're literally shooting from the hip, adjusting lighting, framing, and focus as fast as you can following whatever is unrolling in front of you, there's a lot of room for error. Do you have better luck with a baked in Picture Profile (e.g. S-Cinetone) or shooting S-Log3? On one hand, with S-Log3 you'll have more dynamic range to play with, and plenty of options for looks and LUTs. It feels like it's a safer bet because you or your colorist have more options in Post. On the other hand, committing to a Picture Profile, what you see is what you get. There's less time spent on the end grading the footage (if you're the one who has to do it) and there are less exposure surprises or errors - in theory - that you can make. Since I shoot a lot on the FX3, before the v2 update, it was easy to decide on Picture Profiles. But now that you can bring in LUTs to view in Log Shooting mode, I find myself shooting everything in S-Log3. I like that I can actually choose a different look/LUT after the fact. Because honestly with documentary, the story often emerges during the edit, and so it's nice to have the ability to go different directions with color at that time too. But now I also spend a lot of time in Post grading. And sometimes it's just to get the image to where it could've been from the beginning. Anyone have any thoughts? I'm curious what others in the community are doing!

OK that's interesting. Thanks Alister, I've always just assumed overexposing was good insurance, even with S-Cinetone. I'm going to try sticking to the 60%-65% upper zebra limit and see how it goes. In your experience, does that apply the same to FX9, FX6, and FX3?

This is so cool, thanks for sharing these dailies from your Boston shoot! For the first series, with the two people sitting at the table across from each other, love the range of the light + dark and that you shot from the shadows. Could be an intimate dinner scene from a narrative! What was your lighting setup, and is this how you normally light for documentary?

Good to know!

Doug, you've seen so many changes and been around for it all in the front seat as an entrepreneur. It's great to have you on here to share your wisdom! I started out during the transition to tapeless HD. What I want to know is, what the heck do I do with all these miniDV tapes I have in a box somewhere? Still waiting for a good use to pop up...

That's exciting. How long are you shooting in Peru? And what's your preferred method to media manage all the footage from all the cameras while you'll be out there?

Hello people! Oakley here. I’m a filmmaker. It’s the collaborative nature that drew me to filmmaking, so I’m excited to join this new SonyCine community. I’ll start by sharing a little about myself. I’m a bit of a strange creature in that I grew up between Apple orchards where my dad was a Fruit Tramp, and overseas, where my youth was spread out across South America, Europe, and Asia. At some point after I moved back to the States to go to college, wondering what to do with my life, I discovered the magical world of filmmaking. The first time I showed up to a set, it was some no-budget student 400 Blows ripoff where we were all pretending we knew what we were doing, myself included. I think I was assigned to hold a square-shaped Styrofoam cutout that someone whispered to me was the “bounce.” I held the damned thing up for so long that my arms started shaking. (No one told me to put it down between takes.) Afterwards, we went to some awful all-night diner; the food was terrible, but I had never laughed so hard or felt so much camaraderie. I could tell this was the path for me. Many grueling years after that, my first feature documentary Brave New Wild landed me in the IFP Independent Filmmakers Lab. I felt like I had won the lottery. I took my film to the Lab, which takes place in New York City, and it was the first time I met other filmmakers who were out there making films, just like me, in the real world. Years went in to making that first feature, and after it was released, Brave New Wild (and it’s companion Wild New Brave) went on to find a small cult following with a certain type of maniac, have a surprising film festival run across the world, a grassroots theatrical tour, a broadcast premiere on Public Television, and now lives comfortably on AppleTV. For the last decade, I have been living the filmmaking life here in Northern Arizona. (It’s 7000 feet elevation, so it snows in the winter but you get sunburned even faster than Florida.) My current exciting project is a large-format filmmakers dream: I’m directing films for a brand-new 8K LED immersive cinema in Flagstaff, where the screen wraps around the audience at 100 feet x 30 feet. I’m even on the design team building the theater from the ground-up. I also teach young indigenous teenagers from Navajo Nation and Hopi how to make films in an after school program called Kinlani Film Project. I can honestly say that I learn as much from them as they learn from me. For many years, I have profiled directors, DPs, and editors for No Film School. It was there that I first got my hands on the first release of the Sony #FX3. I fell in love with the camera, and this led me to SonyCine. Just last week I had a chance to test out the brand-new FX30. I grabbed two fellow filmmakers, hopped into a 1976 VW van, and took the camera for a spin. Here’s what we shot: TLDR: I am Oakley. Filmmaking is the magic that keeps me alive. I look forward to meeting some of you on the forums who feel the same. My camera of choice at the moment is the FX3, paired with a GM 50mm. I love watching people’s work and hearing your stories. So share your work or post an introduction with who you are!