Todd Terry
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COW Coin
Forum Replies Created
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That’s ok… there’s always room to learn and sources to do so.
I’m still learning new tips and tricks all the time… and how to do things better, faster, and often more inexpensively. I can light better now with one instrument and a few pieces of grip gear than I could a decade ago with six or seven instruments.
You should head to the COW’s Cinematography and the Lighting Design forums where you can really learn a lot from the pros like Rick Wise, John Sharaf, and about four or five other guys who really know what they are doing. I’ve been a DP for 20+ years and what some of those guys know and do can still makes me feel like a hack.
https://forums.creativecow.net/lightingdesignpros
https://forums.creativecow.net/cinematographyT2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Yeah, your DoF is pretty deep in your sample.
If that was using the 18-55mm lens, I believe that is f3.5-5.6… so if it was as wide as possible it would have been f/3.5 max, and you were likely zoomed in some so the max f-stop would have been even higher.
So… sounds like you need a faster lens. I can’t really guide you to any specific lenses, I just don’t have any expertise with DSLR lenses as I use PL mount cine lenses. But as I said above, the faster the lens (the lower the f-stop number), the shallower you can make the depth of field.
Kodak has a great free DoF calculator app for your phone. I don’t see it on the Google Play store, but I think you can get it straight from the Kodak website. If not, there are tons of other DoF apps and will help you learn exactly how shallow or deep a DoF is for a particular focal length and f-stop combo.
Some more cinematic lighting would also help… your interview also had a very video-y look not only because of the deep depth of field, but because it was lit that way (or might have even been just available light, not sure). I always tell people who want their video to look more cinematic to first light as if they were shooting film, not video. That goes a long way toward giving the “look” a good start.
Good luck!
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Well couple things…
Firstly, with the lens you have, make sure you are shooting as wide open as possible (the lowest f-stop possible). The lower the f-stop, the narrower the depth of field. Longer focal lengths will help too, although with the cheaper stock lenses the more you zoom in, the more limited the maximum aperture is… but just make sure that whatever focal length you are using the f-stop number is as low as possible.
Of course that might lead to some exposure control problems. If that’s giving you over exposure, make sure your camera does not correct for it by increasing the shutter speed. You’d likely want to keep your shutter speed within the “normal” realm, which is one-over-twice-the-frame-rate (i.e., if you are shooting 24p that would be 1/48th of a second). So control exposure with ISO changes and/or neutral density filters.
I think if you make sure you are always shooting wide open, you might be able to get the results you want with the lens you have. The sample video didn’t seem all that remarkable or extreme in terms of depth of field. It was fairly shallow at times, but not super super shallow.
If you still can’t get it and want to go the new lens route, you simply need a faster lens… something that will go down to at least f/2 or so, or even faster if possible. I shoot with superspeeds which are f/1.2 and with the right combo of focal length and distance, wide open I can reduce depth of field down to an inch or less… often more than one would want (or can focus).
The downside of course is price… the faster the lens, the more expensive it typically is. A 50mm f/2.0 might be two or three times (or even much more) the price of a 50mm f/3.5. The difference is even bigger (much bigger) if you go down to something really fast in the f/1.2-1.3 neighborhood.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Hey Bill…
(hijacking this thread about something else, sorry)….
YES I got your email messages. In fact I replied to two of them but my replies each bounced back as undeliverable several days later. No idea why, because after the first one bounced I sent the second from home with a Gmail account… so two different sending accounts from two different ISPs, but they both bounced back…
“Hi. This is the qmail-send program at fantasticplastic.com.
I’m afraid I wasn’t able to deliver your message to the following addresses.
This is a permanent error; I’ve given up. Sorry it didn’t work out.
Sorry, I wasn’t able to establish an SMTP connection. (#4.4.1)
I’m not going to try again; this message has been in the queue too long.”I also tried to call you a couple of days ago but got voicemail; I left you a message basically saying “I wasn’t being rude, I tried to reply,” but hmmm maybe that didn’t reach you either.
Hope it’s just my bad luck and you are not missing out on any jobs!
Anyway I’m glad Jeff worked out… he’s great and the best DP I know. Damn him.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Yes, the numeric name of the card’s root folder is year, month, day… followed by six more digits.
I don’t know what those digits are. Yes, they might indeed be time of day. I don’t know any way to get back or recreate that info if it is missing. If it is the time, it would be the time that the card was formatted in the camera, and I don’t know that the format time is available in any of the clip metadata… there wouldn’t be any reason for that data to be there.
But… I don’t think it matters.. that root name can be anything. For example if I back up a card I shot yesterday, the folder might be called 20140207123456. But the first thing I do after a backup is rename the folder with something more appropriate to the job or client. So “20140207123456” might become “Hospital 020714,” or whatever I like. It still functions, behaves, imports all the same.
All you REALLY need to edit are the .MXF files that are in the very bottommost folders. You should be able to even manually import just those individually. The big advantage though to using the Canon XF Utility (or whatever other utility you are using) is that to do it manually you might have to sort through all those scads of folders to get to each .MXF file, because each is in its own folder…. so if you have a lot of clips, it can be mind numbing to hunt and peck them all down.
But it certainly can be done. I’m really not sure what is giving your trouble… but then again I’m a Premiere guy, not FCP. You might have better luck with your question in the FC forum.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Don’t know if this helps (or if it is what you are really asking), but natively on the camera cards from the C300, the file structure looks like this….
That root folder on the card has a 14-digit numerical name (it will be the date plus 6 digits). Inside that are the nested folders as shown, the last ones being folders for the individual clips with an alpha numerical name (two letters and six digits).
I’m not sure about FCP, but if you manually reproduce this file structure on a card (or on a drive backup of the footage) it will be recognized by the Canon XF Utility.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Exactly right, Seth… forgive my very crude (but quick) drawing….
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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[Jason Jenkins] “…word is that they shoot film for color accuracy.”
That makes perfect sense.
This whole thing got me thinking, though…. should I re-visit our job postings and strike “Proficiency with Mimeograph Machines” from the requirements?
Ahhhh… that blue fluid, and the smell……
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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I am 100% sure of that… you’d want both of your devices to have the same wattage/amperage, or very close to it.
That’s why putting the two Divas in series would be ideal.
A Diva and a 110v 3w night light? Umm… not so much.
And if you don’t make this pigtail yourself but have someone else make it for you, make sure sure SURE they know it is to be wired series not parallel. That’s VERY important because something like that would normally almost invariably be wired parallel, not in a series… so their natural inclination would likely be to do it not the way you want (and in a way that would surely cost you some very expensive equipment).
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Haaa…. sure.
Their components are so cheap it would probably literally cost more to ship them to you than for you to buy the parts.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
