[Todd Terry]

It’s a little bit of a “I want my cake and eat it, too” situation, as you simultaneously two things that are very different.

It’s not quite “I can only have one thing, so I’ll have a pork chop and a piece of cake,” but it’s similar.

The simple fact is, that the best shutter speed for slow-mo and the best shutter speed for normal footage are going to be two very different things.

The best you can do there is find a happy medium that doesn’t compromise it too much.

Firstly though, 1/1000th is way overkill for a basketball game… you likely don’t have to shoot nearly that fast to give you sharp enough action for decent slow-mo. It depends on how much you are going to slow it. If you are shooting 60fps for slow-mo (I’m assuming for a 24p project) to get a 40% slow-mo… then the “normal” shutter speed for the 60fps footage (which would be 1/120) should be absolutely fine. Any faster than that and you risk getting choppy staccato motion in your slow-mo as well as your normal speed footage.

Even at 1/120th though, you still will get some of that staccato look in your normal-speed footage… but it really can’t be helped. It will be there, but on the bright side (if there is one) it shouldn’t be as bad as your 1/1000th footage. Not quite like “Gladiator,” heaven forbid.

There simply is no single shutter speed that works perfectly for both scenarios, each has the one that works best for them. Find a happy medium.

If you notice how this speed-ramp effect is done in movies (or more commonly, commercials), they tend to use higher shutter speeds so the slow-mo looks good and just live with (or maybe even desire) the staccato look for the normal footage

Best thing to do is grab a camera and run some tests… just don’t bother with anything nearly that fast because it is unnecessary.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

The “narrow shutter” look is really very simple, you just shoot at a higher shutter speed.

1/100 isn’t cutting it… that’s just not fast enough. Depending on how fast your action is, I’d try 1/250th as a starting point.

You say higher than 1/100th makes your lights flicker… obviously your lighting is not tungsten, but a non-continuous source (flos, or HMI, or AC-powered LED, etc.), and you are getting phasing because the shutter and the lighting are out of sync. You combat this by shooting in “clear scan” mode (I’m just going to assume that your GH4 will shoot clearscan, I have never used the camera and do not know its capabilities, but these days most high-end and pro cameras will shoot clearscan).

In this mode, shutter speed is not expressed in fractions of a second, but rather in cycles per second, or hertz (Hz). In this mode you can dial in a very very exact shutter speed and find one that exactly matches your source lighting and eliminates the flicker.

So… you need the combination of shooting in clearscan, and at a high enough shutter speed to eliminate the motion blur and at a precise speed that syncs with your lighting instruments.

You might also consider different lighting choices, as continuous sources (tungsten or DC-powered LED) or sync-able non-continuous sources (such as HMIs with electronic ballasts) will be easier to deal with.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

I’m with Rick… some VERY nice shots.

As far as editing flow along with composition goes, I really liked the very last sequence best, with all of the Wes Anderson-esque perfectly symmetrical shots. Well shot and well cut.

Also agree with Rick, a better tripod head would smooth out those pans.

There were a couple of times where you panned to follow someone walking perpendicular to the camera, and that person got what was for me uncomfortably close to the leading frame edge. Usual composition convention would say that you should give the subject more “look space” for them to lead into rather than their trailing space… although you certainly can lead them with little space, although that is usually done for specific effect (to build tension, etc.).

My only real editorial note would be that you said you were trying to “the story entirely with real life scenes.” I’m not so sure it actually told any story (or if it did, I missed it), other than a “day in the life of a city,” which, if that’s the case, is fine.

Some very pretty stuff there.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

Haven’t used, it (or seen it), but for what it’s worth the CAME-TV products in general do have quite a good reputation… as being some of the very better of your Made-in-China or Made-in-India instruments of the knockoff variety.

The company generally gets pretty glowing reviews.

I too would be very interested in seeing how “fresnelly” the fresnel LED instrument actually is… whether truly focusable and cuttable with the bard doors, etc. I’d be even more interested in it if it was DC rather than AC (and I could battery power it).

I will note that instrument DOES have a fan in it. How loud or how quiet… that’d be an important question.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

[stan welks] ” There seems to be pink spilling over from the chair onto the subject. What can I do to minimize this?”

This is going to seem like a totally smartass answer (and I don’t mean it to be), but the real answer is “Don’t shoot in a pink chair.”

ANY type of surface (even a non-reflective one) is going to reflect its color to some degree. The more chroma level the object has to it the more you will notice it… and the closer it is to your subject the more you will notice it. When you have your baby actually on that material, it will be very difficult to completely eliminate it.

The good news is that we are talking about stills, not motion video… so that would be relatively easy to correct in Photoshop. It would take someone who knew what they were doing and probably multiple masking layers to avoid getting rid of too much pink in the wrong areas, but still very easily done.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

[Seth Marshall] “30L goes down to 22”

And the 35A will technically do down even more than that, because you can completely release the aircraft-cable spreader, and the legs will go all the way out so that the head is all the way down on the deck… down to high-hat level. Or actually even lower, my high-hat would position a head a little higher than the Oconnor legs when they are spread all the way out.

It’s just DUMBFOUNDING to me that no other legs will do the simultaneous release… it’s my #1 tripod feature, my “must have.” Absolutely cannot live without it. I raise and lower my head height probably a couple of dozen times on the average shoot. I can now do that easily in literally one second without even unmounting the camera. We’ll even change heights with a jib on the 35A legs without unmounting it (although a couple of people are recommended for doing that).

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

Love Oconnor, and to me nothing (and I mean absolutely nothing) beats the 35 series legs… either 35A or 35L (the latter being the carbon fiber series).

Unfortunately, I don’t think either are manufactured anymore (the 35A ones definitely are not), but to me it would be more than worth it to find a gently-used set (occasionally they pop up on eBay) as opposed to any new set.

I love these so much because, unless someone has come out with something in the last year, they are the only sticks that allow you to release all three legs easily and simultaneously…

This is an old COW video of me doing it with 35A legs….

I’ve found no other tripods of any brand that will do this, and no other Oconoor tripods of any other models that will do this either.

I didn’t realize how much I relied on this until once on a cross country shoot where we rented part of our gear there rather than ship it… and I was cursing the (otherwise very nice) Sachtler tripod all week. If you have been using an Oconnor model that will do this (and it sounds like you have been), you’re going to miss this feature more than I can describe.

These legs were several thousand dollars when new, but you’ll often see good or like-new sets selling at auction for around $1000, sometimes even a fair bit less (I think I bought one of my sets for $800). Just make sure you are getting ones with the right bowl size, as there were multiple versions. All of our sets have the big 120mm bowls for the big 50D heads that we use… I wish I had a smaller set for the occasional use of some of our other heads when the 50D is overkill.

Oh… one more thing… if you search eBay or wherever for these, try multiple searches with different spellings. While the real company name is now “Oconnor” (previously O’Connor), you’ll find just as many people who (incorrectly) spell it “er” rather than “or.” So if I’m looking for Oconnor gear I always search “Oconnor,” “O’Connor,” “Oconner,” and “O’Conner.” It’s surprising how often the wrong spellings sometimes get more results than the right one.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

I personally wish there was a hybrid.

YouTube videos are outstanding, quality wise, seem to play flawlessly anytime and anywhere (unlike Vimeo, which can be a little clunky depending on your computer/connection/location), give you multiple resolution choices, etc. YouTube will even host 4K videos. Embedding works flawlessly. And everyone knows and uses YouTube.

Vimeo looks slick and professional, but it’s operationally a bit problematic at times. I’ve personally found that often it takes multiple clicks to get a video started, sometimes there are loading issues, and things like that. I’m not the only one, I have heard this from numerous people. Although you can certainly make your Vimeo site look beautiful.

But you’re right, YouTube looks like…well… YouTube. You have little or no control over things like poster frames (unless you are one of the rare users that YouTube has invited to play) or what garbage you see at the end of a video (which might even be a competitor’s video). While Vimeo can appear very slick and professional (especially the paid accounts), YouTube just always looks like what it is… an avenue for 14 year old girls to gush about boys and for people to upload cat videos. I’ve yet to see a YouTube channel that didn’t look lowest-of-the-low end, at least compared to what I’d like for it to look like.

YouTube sure does work well though.

I guess it depends on what’s most important to you. As I said, I wish there was a hybrid.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

Yeah there is a danger there… I usually don’t change lenses in dicey situations… on beach or in a dust storm etc.

My protocol is basically just to do it as fast as I can. I’ll usually call for a lens, and by the time I swing the matte box out of the way and turn the PL ring, my AC will be handing me the new one with the rear cap already off and I’ll make the swap. I’m particular enough about it that I almost always do lens changes myself. I’d say the camera body usually stays uncapped for only about two seconds or less.

I’m not TOO worried about it. My current principal camera (C300) has three different built in ND filters… that are physical internal glass filters that swing down in front of the sensor. Almost always for exteriors one of the filters will already be in place which would protect the sensor, and I figure outdoors is likely the “dirtiest” situation… much more so than on stage, or on location for interiors. I think (I can’t swear to this) even if there are no ND filters in place I there is still a clear glass one in front of the sensor. Unlike the film world, at least in the video world if you have a dirty gate (or the “gate equivalent” in video) you’ll know it right away. I’ve certainly never had to clean a sensor… I wouldn’t even know how to try. I think I’d leave that to a pro.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

I feel your pain, Bob… I’m a primes guy and shoot almost exclusively with them. However, every now and then you’ve just got to have a zoom. Great, fast, PL mount zooms are not cheap. The two that I want from Canon are $43,000 and $47,000.

My go-to zoom lens is a Russian FOTON 37-140mm, a hold over from my days where it shot a few zillion feet of 35mm. These are GREAT lenses for the money, and tons of people used them. Back in the film days they used to be VERY plentiful, and dirt cheap. There would often be a half dozen or more on eBay that people were practically giving away… literally maybe just a few hundred dollars. Now they are a bit more scarce, and are more commonly in the $1000-$1500 range, which is still very cheap for what you get.

Many of them will be mounted for Russian Konvas or Kinor cameras, but some of them you’ll find with a PL mount, as mine is.

It’s a very beautiful and contrasty lens, a tiny bit on the warm side. It’s also very small, lightweight, and compact… especially compared to many zooms with comparable speeds and focal lengths. It’s a fraction of the size/weight of the Canons.

My only real complaint about the lens is that it is a tad slow, so it used to be relegated only to daytime exteriors. However since I stated using the C300 as my principal camera I can shoot with it anywhere and anytime.

Do a search, you might get lucky.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com