zlfan
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for a scene to look really good, actually the lighting needs to be controlled to be within 10 stops. otherwise, the results will be like in this video, even the camera is the legendary 15-stop usable Alexa 35.
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for big budget production, camera is not a concern and a small part of the budget. for indie film makers, camera still is a big part of the budget. it is safe to say that big budget production still want to differentiate itself from indie shorts. this includes camera and the style only high end cinema cameras can provide. shooting a long take of the main character walking though a narrow street packed with group actors lighted with hundreds of meters of led tubes and reflectors is another differentiator. I have seen so many such scenes that do not matter much to the story line. also, large scale of green screen and heavy time consuming vfx, like dune 1/2. on the other hand, for the last ten years, tv series are getting so good, that its cinematography is better than that of most of the movies in the 1970s and earlier times. indie short films are also very good now. Denis Villeneuve spent his earlier and mid career in indie film making, then breaks through into the block bluster making. this is very rare case almost impossible 30 years ago.
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it seems to me that the camera is not a differentiator like it was 20 years before, no matter what kind of style. intensive camera movements also can be mimicked by indie makers using s1h with good ibis, or gh7, or gimbals, or digital reframing and power window if shot in 8k or 12k. I think right now that hiring many actors and applying large scale green screen are the key differentiators, although these will make dps less essential to the whole product process.
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totally agree. "It's high level art dear, you don't understand". lol I guess the true reason behind this trend is that low budget cameras are so good, like black magic bmpcc ff, Lumix s1h, etc, that Alexa users, i.e., big production dps, have to use dr as the differentiator, just like bokeh, etc, to separate themselves from low end indie makers. the problem is that they can not control the viewers' environments, like the black levels on viewers' monitors, the ambient light in the viewing environment, etc. nowadays, I like news, sports, and commercial shots more, as they just look normal, the colors are rich, the contrast is fine, and the exposure just looks all right.
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the new tv series warrior has so many dark scenes. it is understandable that this series is about ganster, crime, etc. but still too dark for the whole series. the John wick series is the same. cannot find the camera info for warrior. John wick was shot in Alexa cameras. so Alexa cameras also want to explore deep Into the darkness to maintain its highlight rolling off legacy. everyone is doing this dr rat race. the new landmark of the current era cinematography style. lol.
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seems to me, in theory, this mid grey shifting approach makes many cameras' useful dr very close to alexa. very clever detour. the achillie's heel is that the end viewers' monitors have to have very good black levels. in other words, the end monitors need to have dr distribution similar to these cameras that have more dr stops under the 18% mid grey. if this kind of monitors get popular, the advantage of alexa cameras will diminish.
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possibly this workflow is trying to take advantage of the more dr stops under the 18% mid grey in most cameras. basically, the "new mid grey" shifts to the darker side, to maintain the high dr and keep the highlight rolling off, and to keep certain levels of contrast and saturation to please ordinary human eyes.
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i know now why so many latest movies have so many dark scenes. my current understanding is that the camera is operated at the highest level of dr possible, mostly using log, so most dps use 60% to 70% ire for high light protection. then colorists may increase black level in post too to add the contrast. the final results are contrasty, color-rich, and, have high dr (high dr is normally not associated with high contrast high saturation style), at the expense of looking dark.
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just did another shoot out with c300 og at 29.97 fps with the camera set at 59.94i using the in camera codec 50 mbps mpeg2. in resolve it recognizes as 29.97p. when the scene is static, it is great. when there is camera movement like panning and tilting, or even when there is subject walking in the static scene, on 4k monitor, the loss of image quality is very apparent. on laptop, it is not as apparent as on the 4k large monitor, but still visible. so this confirms again my previous observation. when the codec is weak, at 24p or 30p, either the camera movement is to be avoided, or use 60p. at 24p uncompressed raw or low compression raw, slow camera movements seem ok. faster movements may have issue. but I normally don't do whip panning. also, rolling shutter may kick in, so it is hard to define the effects of the 24p, the codec, the rolling shutter.
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Lumix GH7 + Sigma 18-35 | Kraków Cinematic - YouTube seems working on gh7
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rebel moon seems very organic and cinematic although by red 8k cameras. seems 8k is different depending on different cameras.
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in no good legend, I can guess which are gh7 shots. the ones with the old bar tender look sharper than other takes, almost different look or style, it might be taken by gh7. in other words, in order for gh7 to work with Alexa, not only arri log c lut is needed, filters are needed too. on the other hand, for news and sports, gh7 is perfectly fine, no less than any other cameras.
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r5ii 8k is too sharp to my eyes, like news. I feel a little uncomfortable. no good legend looks much more cinematic. not sure which takes were done with gh7. not sure if they did filtration.
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s series and gh7 are really leading the Japanese companies.
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yes, ettr is really depending on different sensors. interestingly, i have no issue on r1mx and epic-x mx for ettr up to 3 stops, but they can not do ettl. underexposure more than 1 stops, then pull up in post, will cause much noise, and render the footage useless. magic lantern raw cameras can do ettr (but with the increase of the iso, less dr), no ettl. similar to red ones.
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Over 30 Lighting Diffusions Tested
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Hollywood Gaffer explains Lighting Filters and Diffusion || Julian White
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leitz lenses are great, no doubt about it. just style is kind of different from the movie itself. not sure why.
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They shot on raw. Typically shooting raw uses ettr to suppress shadow noise. Why did they elevate the shadow? Also if final look was intentionally high contrast, the shadow should be crashed further?
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Basically, they used Sony Venice 2 and Venice OG with AXS R7 for 6k raw or XOCN, Leitz M ff cine lenses. The look is extremely sharp, very much like looking through the window. Why did they choose the leitz lenses, not the zeiss lenses? Probably the latter is more suitable for this style? Also they used the aspect ratio of 1.78:1, not the typical cinema 2.40:1. why? Technical specifications The Zone of Interest Edit Runtime 1h 45m(105 min) Sound mix Dolby Digital Color Color Aspect ratio 1.78 : 1 Camera FLIR X8500(American Cinematographer December 2023) Sony CineAlta Venice Rialto, Leitz M 0.8 Lenses Sony CineAlta Venice, Leitz M 0.8 Lenses Negative Format AXS-R7 Cinematographic Process Digital Intermediate(4K, master format) Spherical(source format) X-OCN ST(6K, source format) Printed Film Format 35 mm(Kodak Vision 2383) D-Cinema DCP Digital Cinema Package
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i think s9 is very promising as a street cam or an action cam, like a ff equivalent of go pro 12. there may be more details to solve for s9 to be a true action cam, but very promising. a ff action cam heals the Achilles heel of the current crop of action cams, the low light. panasonic needs to design a small pancake lens specifically for s9. something like 50mm f2.8 for f4. the ibis or eis needs to be tuned for this lens to avoid digital artefacts. maybe some gyro info can be added for this rig too. a s9 action cam will sell like a hot cake.
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Thanks for the detailed information. I checked the DPReview's chart comparison, you are right, DCI and UHD 4k, both OM1 10 bit and GH6 10 bit are the same, even to the smallest details. 4K IS loses details at the rightest block in the middle row, 4K 60p loses the rightest two blocks in the middle row. I guess if GH6 has related 4K IS and 4K 60p, the results may be similar too. I think you are right, the OM-1 video is not line-skipping, but over-sampling.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rgeIvF_UuU s5ii or s9 with 14-28mm (seems no ois on this lens). like gimbal shots, except jiggering for some shots, not many. generally, smooth enough to not disturb watching .
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true. gh7 price is kind of hard to swallow as a m43 camera, $2200 base, plus $200 arri log c, plus $500 xlr module to get 32 bit audio. almost $3000 for a full potential package.