skiphunt

I remember one of the most disturbing movies for me about a serial killer was "Henry: A Portrait of a Serial Killer". It still ranks as the most disturbing I've seen to date, and even made me feel guilty that I'd watched it. That movie had a very low production value and even some shots were from the POV of one of the killers while he shot with the victim's home video camera, then tossed it on the floor to join in the killing. The viewer continues to witness the killing from the sideways home video camera laying on the floor. GENIUS. I think if that movie in particular had been made with high production value it would not have had the power that it did.

Well, I checked out "Only God Forgives" based not the fact I too like Ryan Gosling. It was certainly an interesting film and I can definitely see how the craft could definitely inspire. It was beautifully shot, and the acting was an interesting exercise in restraint. The whole film felt like that. It seemed to linger forever... to the point I almost thought it'd got stuck on freeze frame ;). Not sure how I felt about it overall though. Great poetic violence that's expertly executed. But also had to wake up and back up a few times to get through it. ;) That reminds me, I would add most of Wong Kar Wai's work to my list.

I've played around with iMovie and the Pinnacle Studios app on an iPad. They work considerably well and even used the Pinnacle Studios app to edit something that was a low-paid gig and only used in a bar video display. Looked great! There's even a grading app that works surprisingly well, considering. I think it's called VideoGrade. That reminds me, one of the reasons I got a Nikon D5300 recently is that I can transfer it's small, compressed video files right to the iPad via camera connection kit, and do basic editing with titles, and inter-app shared audio mixes, while on the road. I tested that I could transfer the files, do a basic grade, then edit on the iPad, but forgot about it. Need to play with that again because I'd like to do some live stuff from the road while traveling on a motorcycle. Wouldn't want to carry extra storage and a laptop for that. You can transfer GoPro footage to the iPad too, and it too looks pretty good, especially for web delivery. Only, it seems you're limited to standard frame rates, ie. I don't think the iPad would recognize anything except 24p, 30p, 720 & 1080. There may be a few others that work, but I'm pretty sure the 60p from the D5300 is recognized at such and remains 60p even after camera connection kit transfer. Will need to reverify that though.

There are a couple D5300 clips recorded to the Atomos on YouTube. They look very good, but nothing A/B to prove it's significantly better than what you can get just sticking with recording in-camera. Most of what I got in Mexico, recorded in-camera using a pretty average lens (18-200VR) still looked about as good as they got with the Atomos using slightly better glass. Some of them do look a bit sharper than what I got, but it could be they were just using the slightly better glass. The only real reason I'm somewhat interested in adding something like the Atomos is that it would give me focus-peaking, zebra, etc. Though, I don't really want to pay $1000 for that. If the quality was actually improved as well, it could convince me. However, I'm really liking playing with 60p, so since they don't record in that, it could be a deal breaker for me. Unless, the quality is significantly improved of course, but I haven't seen any evidence that it is improved significantly for cameras like the D5300. Has anyone else? And if you were to add an external recorder to the D5300 to gain focus-peaking, zebras, etc., is the Atomos pretty much the only game in town?

Has anyone done or seen any good D5300 that was recorded via external recorder? If so, was there much difference? And do any of the external recorders support 60p yet? Looks like the new Ninja Blade does not.

Cool. A few here I haven't seen and based on common taste... have added a few to my Netflix queue. :)

No worries. I revealed to Maxotics privately that I've got some heavy life stuff that's freaking me out at the moment. Should pass soon, but I'm not my self at the moment. Ultimately, I think I should not have taken it so close to looking like a finished piece. I was just going to put some graded clips with no audio up. Then, had a hard time cutting stuff out because I shot so much variety and am really happy with the images I got. Then added music to make it easier to get through, then thought it'd be nice with some narration that I already had handy. Toss on a title, and a little production bumper name I've been playing with, and bada-bing... ya got something that looks like it's supposed to be a finished piece. My mistake. In the end, I'm glad folks here liked the images and got something out of it. Cheers.

Yikes, so many good ones I forgot. Almost added Magnolia (brilliant) as well as Elephant (way under appreciated IMO). And Silence of the Lambs! The Matrix! Requiem for a Dream! Too hard keeping it at just 10 ;)

Blue Velvet Wizard of Oz Angel Heart 2001 Space Odyssey The Shining Bladerunner Pulp Fiction Lawrence of Arabia Apocalypse Now 8 1/2

Whatever. Thanks for looking and glad you enjoyed it. Moving on. Peace out.

I thought I made it crystal clear what the intent of the video was in the video description and original post. Again, if I'd posted a creative piece that I wanted creative feedback on, I would have asked for it. Glad you enjoyed it, but I'm not going to get into a pissing match over this with anyone. I learned what I needed to from this personal test. If my method of sharing it wasn't to your liking, then so be it. It was a PERSONAL camera test I thought I'd share. I get bored looking at test footage of traffic going over a bridge, trees in the wind, waves on the beach, etc. etc. I shot footage on a trip I recently took to see how the camera would perform for ME. I thought some here might get something out of it. Nothing more. When I post something creative, and want feedback about the creative, the edit, the voice over, the audio design, etc. I will ask "hey, what do you all think?". For a glorified camera test, I'm not looking for feedback. I'm simply sharing. I didn't even ask for feedback on my grading. I posted this for other's here to see what I got from the camera. I'm done with it. I've actually already moved on to cutting clips for stock video sale and am uploading as I type this. If this were a project that I cared to develop, I'd gladly listen to creative critique on the audio, etc. Then, I'd mull it over, and take another stab at it. Instead, I learned what I needed and am moving on to concentrate on an actual project next. Understand? Again, in case you missed it. The video I uploaded was random shots while I was traveling in Mexico recently. I wanted to see if I could get acceptable results from minimal gear in my backpack. I discovered that I could. I also wanted to see the differences in real world shooting in the field between different picture profiles. And finally, which of the profiles worked the best for my own visual style and which worked the best for the limited grading experience I have. Also, wanted to confirm that I wasn't making a mistake by not investing in a much more cumbersome and expensive raw workflow. I learned that the compressed Nikon D5300, if shot well, holds up well to grading and produces an acceptable image for my needs. No need to spend any more time comparing, buying, shopping, looking at tests, etc. Now time to learn how to use what I have and apply it to a cool project, instead of wasting time. ;) Decided to add narration I'd already recorded and I actually like it. To do a voice over talking about the camera and such is not my job. I didn't need that for myself. I shot it, played with grading. Thought it was boring without sound, so I slapped a loosely related narrative I'd already recorded over it, with some catchy royalty free music. Done and done. You're welcome.

Can't please everyone I guess. The narration only goes for less than half of it. Then it jumps to only music. The narration is about a photographer paying too much attention to the details and missing "the place" ie. missing the forest for the trees. So, in essence it does actually fit with the random moving images of basically the stills I shot. If you want to look at the ungraded footage, there's a link to it in the video description. Just click over to YouTube and read the full description there. ps. the other version is edited too and has the much longer version of the narration. Only difference is it's longer and isn't graded. Nor did I spend any time at all with the order or edit. So enjoy! lol There's not an "unedited version" online and I won't likely spend any more time on it. Just wanted to make something out of it to force me to dive into FCPX and start practicing grading. It's essentially a glorified camera test. So, the fact you don't like my narration, doesn't really bother me the slightest. That was just something I recorded for my friends who follow my blog so I just slapped it on as narration. Then, cut it down to just that eye-glasses story because that's where I was when that footage was shot, and it does actually go with it in an abstract sense. I don't expect most to dig it though. Just wanted something other than the usual, very easy, slapping music on a travel video that everyone does. I posted it here because when I was shopping for a camera recently, I wished I'd seen more stuff like this instead of typical test footage. It would have made the buying decision easier. There wasn't much from the usual gear blogs and some outright ignored the camera as nothing more than a rebadged D5200. So, I thought I'd post it here in this thread for other's considering this camera. Not trying to win any fans for my storytelling. It is what it is. More of a service to show some variety from this camera. BTW: I wasn't really looking for critique to be honest. I don't usually critique anyone's work unless they ask me too or unless I ask them if they're open to critique. If I'd wanted critique on the creative, I'd have asked for it. So, if you're interested in this camera and want to see more variety of footage from it, but don't like my narrative, just continue to keep the volume down. Oh yes! Thanks for the compliment on my visuals! And, you're welcome. ;)

Yeah, I noticed on your last collection of slo-mo ocean clips, etc. All looked much sharper than your first videos were. I think I've got mine at +1 or +2 (have to check) then a sharpness bump in FCP. I'm still liking the D5300 image better than the G6, but they're close I think. Should be easy to find the right combo to mix nicely.

That's interesting. I felt like what I got out of my not-very-sharp 18-200mm f3.5-5.6VR lens in Mexico was mostly sharper than much of what I've seen you post from what should be MUCH sharper lenses. However, I was shooting ALL 60p in Mexico and I'm guessing much of what you've been posting (until recently with your slo-mo stuff) has been 24p? Doesn't seem like there'd be that much difference in sharpness between 60p and 24p. And, I would have guessed 24p would have yielded a sharper image between the two frame rates.

Yeah, at first it sort of bothers me too. I do get that. But, like you... it slowly worked out to the point I was satisfied. Thanks for the compliment! Also, I just watched the 1080p version via 60in plasma TV and I'm definitely happy with the image. That was also the heavily compressed YouTube version streaming through AppleTV. My editing system is very minimal and got VERY bogged down, so I didn't end up trying a bunch of different stuff. Just wanted to get it to something presentable and be down with it. My system is just a MacBookPro 13in mid-2012 with 2.9 i7 with 8GB of RAM. I added an external thunderbolt drive connected to a thunderbolt display, but it's still just the Buffalo mini TB portable drive, that I believe only had a 5400rpm drive in it. Just did a little research and found that simply turning off a few things in FCPX that I wasn't using anyway, including background rendering... helped a HUGE amount. I think all I'll really need to do is possibly upgrade from 8GB to 16GB and I should be good to go for short projects like this one. If I was trying to do anything with a raw workflow and not the compressed D5300 source, I'd definitely need to sell off my machine and get something much faster.

@BurnetRhoades Looks like Vision-Color's VisionLogUCS might be a good solution for at least an interim standard solution. http://vision-color.com/2013/11/18/announcing-visionlog-ucs/

Thanks! No, all of the time-lapse was done with a GoPro Hero3 Black Edition (not the new + one) The GoPro is great for doing easy time-lapse and when you want to get into the water. The last shot in the video is from the GoPro shot at 2.7k 24fps and down-sampled to 1080. I know I could have removed the fisheye effect, but decided I liked it. I think given the fact a new GoPro Hero 3 is cheaper than the ultra-wide lenses available for the Nikon.. it makes for a compelling alternate choice instead. For less money, it's actually smaller than an ultra wide lens, plus it can shoot 1080p at 60fps as well as 720p at 120fps for ultra slo-mo, does great high-res time-lapse easily, and gives you an excellent waterproof option while traveling. For me, given a choice of a sharp ultra-wide Nikon lens for around $700+, or a GoPro Hero3 for around $400, I think I'd take the GoPro, especially for video.

Regarding that last Yucatan video I posted.. not likely going to spend any more time with it, ie. travelogue, sweetening audio, etc. Just wanted to make something finished with my D5300 source/test footage to see how it looked after playing with grading. It's really just a camera test for the most part. Mostly likely the better clips that don't need releases will be uploaded to sell as stock video. It was just more fun to shoot interesting subjects while traveling Mexico in real shooting situations, than to shoot any more bowls of fruit or people at the park, etc. ;) Figured some considering the D5300 might enjoy seeing something else from it. I discovered that the D5300, for the money, can deliver an image I'm happy with. Now, I just need to come up with a good story/project, and figure out how to get my editing gear faster without dropping a few thousand on it.

I didn't have a plan for this. Just recorded some thoughts on the beach and shot stuff over a month of traveling to mostly test the camera. Then, put it together as best I could. Sorry your found it distracting, and thanks for your critique, but I'm still rather satisfied with it. I do somewhat wish I'd had a few more clips related to what I was saying. However, if you listen to the nature of what I'm saying in the narrative, ie. often the "details" distract you from seeing "the forest", I think it works as is. :)

Thanks Matt! Just beginning to play with grading and I happen to favor hyper-color, which I know some don't. The steadiness is partly the fact I used a VR lens for stabilization, and the rest is FCPX. Even for this little, first project, and even with the compressed D5300 footage, my MBP 13in with an external thunderbolt drive proved too slow. I'm not sure what to do at this point, but so glad I didn't go the more processor intensive raw route. The D5300 is definitely capable of getting a look that I like. With more practice, tweaking, and my better manual lenses it will only get better. Now, I have to figure out where the main bottleneck is in my editing flow. My system is just barely up to snuff and usable, but painfully slow. Trying to figure out the most efficient upgrade without having to spend a bunch of money. I'd like to stay portable, so ideally I'd max out a new 15in MBP with the most RAM, solid state drive, along with it's much faster graphics card, but that's getting close to $3000. My 13in MBP only has 8GB of RAM and a 5400rpm internal drive. I'm thinking maxing out RAM to 16GB and upgrading the internal drive to an SSD drive might be sufficient, but if it's not... that's still an expensive band-aid. Again, glad I went the camera route that can at least get by with minimal computing power. ;)

Posted a longer, mostly unedited, flat color version of this D5300 footage a few days ago. Here's a shorter version, that's edited, a stab at grading, with music and some GoPro footage added. :) File too large for my free vimeo account.

I wasn't friends and watched it fine. Maybe I did the link wrong. Will recheck. Ooops! I pasted the wrong link. Will fix the one above and here it is again:

Regarding looks.... Matt's signature quote from David Lynch reminds me of an interview I read of his, or maybe heard... can't remember. The quote may actually be from the interview. But, the gist of it was an answer to a question about high definition. David Lynch was saying that he didn't much care for it at the time and felt it was waaaay too much detail. So much detail that the magic and mystery of the dreamlike illusion were being destroyed. And, that he preferred the softer constrasty look of old 16mm films where the viewer had to fill in what was in the shadows with their own imagination. Or something like that. I think there's definitely something to that.

This doesn't have to do with gear, but a friend just sent me a link to this short film that's very well shot, etc.

Oh wow! Great info, and I'm glad I persisted with this. I didn't know you could create your own plugins with Motion 5. Just watched this basic tutorial and it's super easy to do as well: http://library.creativecow.net/articles/neil_andy/Motion-Quick-Tip-5-FCPX/video-tutorial Just installed the SC Sharpen, plugin and it's pretty cool too, though a bit aggressive at the default settings. From looking at how Matt's stuff seems to be evolving into a specific look/style for him, I'm guessing it's mostly just get in there and find out what works for you. Cool to see what everyone's approach is, it's given me some excellent ideas. Now, I just need a faster external drive because I'm now choking FCPX10 I think. Can't decide if I should pay the extra $ for a thunderbolt SSD drive to plugin to my thunderbolt display back, or get a fast USB3 to plug into my MBP (since the builtin thunderbolt display only supports USB2, FW800, and Thunderbolt of course).