Frame grabs from my first (and maybe last) feature GH4/GH5

[Lux Shots]

Here are some frame grabs from my first feature length film Bad Decisions. I started on the GH4, then shot some scenes on the GH5. I will finish this next year with the S5 and S1H if COVID-19 doesn't turn into COVID-20. 😬 I'm probably going to go straight to Amazon Prime. My budget thus far has been $10K and I have another $3K or so for the last two scenes. 

As so many of you know, no ifs, ands or buts about it; filmmaking is fucking hard!  This is probably why this is my last one. I've been discouraged so many times that I had pretty much decided to delete the whole film and just quit altogether. But looking at these grabs, and knowing that I lit that, I blocked that, I wrote that, I shot that and I directed that gives me the courage to complete what I've started. It would be nice if I break even, but even if I don't, I can say that "Hey, I did that!" And boy I didn't do that alone! I had so much help from friends, family and complete strangers that it's too much to even count! They were angels, there just when I needed them, and for not a moment longer,

There was one scene, that I was shooting straight guerrilla style. I needed to shoot on three city blocks at night, and I had to light it, and there was a gun scene that kinda made me nervous for the safety of the cast and crew. We have no permit process in my city, so I went to the police department, and explained what I was doing that night, and they were like "Ok".

As soon as it got dark around cast and crew call time was at 6pm. We went to the neighbors houses and let them know what we were doing. We started blocking, and laying down markers for lights tripods and actors. It got dark at 9pm, and we started shooting. We were shooting in moving cars, had special effects, and every scene was lit. We even faked a window getting shot out. We wrapped that scene at 5am the next day, right before the sun came up.

Do you know for the entire time we were shooting, not a single car drove up any block visible? It's like we rented 100 homes, paid everyone to stay inside and blocked off the area for a 1/4 mile radius! God was most definitely on my side that day, and it was one of the best scenes in the entire film!

[sanveer]

Congrats. If one doesn't have a very effective team, filmmaking is usually a very difficult job. Especially for Independent Filmmakers, on much smaller budgets. Congrats on making it this far. 

[Thpriest]

Looks good!

It's very hard work working on any low or no budget project especially one that takes months/years to complete.

[Mark Romero 2]

Congrats on being close to wrap!!! The stills look good.

[newfoundmass]

What were the lenses you used? What made ya go with the GH4/5? Did you find shooting in low light to be a problem? What would you say was the most difficult thing? BTW! It looks good! Please let us know when it's available! 

[Lux Shots]

2 hours ago, newfoundmass said:

What were the lenses you used? What made ya go with the GH4/5? Did you find shooting in low light to be a problem? What would you say was the most difficult thing? BTW! It looks good! Please let us know when it's available! 

This is one of my biggest mistakes of the production to be completely honest.

I shot most of the scenes with Canon FD 28mm f/2.8, 50mm f/1.4 and 35-105 f/3.5. Beautiful glass, but you need to stop down a stop or two to get it really sharp. I lit all the scenes with LED Fresnel lights and panel lights, but sometimes that wasn't enough unless the lenses were wide open, so some shots are way too soft for my liking, like the black guy with the white guy in the car scene. I was away from power, so couldn't use my A.C. powered lights. 😥

When I rented the GH5 for some scenes, I also rented the Sigma 18-35 f/1.8 and Speedbooster. This is the lens that is shooting the scene with the guy and girl in the bar (shout out to my fine ass wife 💞).

In other scenes, I even used the Panasonic 42.5mm, 25mm and 20mm f/1.7 primes. That was just stupid of me. I even used the 14-45mm 3.5-5.6 in a scene because I needed a much wider shot indoors. The guy looking out the window at night was shot with this.

The one other thing I wish I had was an electronic gimbal. I had a vest with spring arm and mechanical stabilizer, but I really wasn't good at it at all. It would have been better for me to go into more debt to add better motion shots, as many were killed and just shot on sticks.

I went with the GH4 and GH5 because it was the camera I had. I made certain to always shoot out to a Ninja 2 and at the time I was using DNxHD as a codec. All in all, I'm very pleased with the quality.

You may be surprised, but low light shooting wasn't really an issue! Every single scene was lit, so I didn't go over ISO-1600 for any shot. This is why I really can't understand cameras like the A7S line (even though I eventually bought the GH5S myself) when it comes to filmmaking. For docu work, yeah, that's a perfect camera, for weddings it makes life super easy. But when you are trying to sculpt a look with light placement, when shooting a film in available light, you relinquish all control of the visual medium. Now you could use negative fills to great effect (never seen it done once on an indie set) or fly large diffusion panels and scrims, but what indie production can afford to do that?

The biggest  problem for this project is, well,  life.

Everyone in the film has jobs, businesses and careers. Getting the moons to align was quite the difficult task. Many a time it was a shoot day, and someone had to be at work early the next morning and couldn't make it. At that point, I just needed bodies for grip just to not loose another day. I even hired my handyman that does home repairs for me to do grip work!

Almost all shooting was done exclusively at night by design, but that worked out in my favor.

The budget went to craft services, location rentals and gear. I also paid a talent agency to wrangle extras for me for two scenes. At least these people had an interest in the business, as you really can't have just any Joe or Jane do this because more often than not, they will fuck up your shot by looking into your camera or talking when they aren't supposed to, etc.

I hope this helps!

[Rinad Amir]

Congratulations on your project dont give up man.

[Mark Romero 2]

4 hours ago, Lux Shots said:

In other scenes, I even used the Panasonic 42.5mm, 25mm and 20mm f/1.7 primes. That was just stupid of me.

I gotta ask why you thought that was stupid???

[Lux Shots]

29 minutes ago, Mark Romero 2 said:

I gotta ask why you thought that was stupid???

Lenses have different color tones and different blooming characteristics. You may see the difference from one scene to the next because of these characteristics. The biggest difference if the amount of sharpness between the lenses.

[Mark Romero 2]

1 minute ago, Lux Shots said:

Lenses have different color tones and different blooming characteristics. You may see the difference from one scene to the next because of these characteristics. The biggest difference if the amount of sharpness between the lenses.

Ahhh... got ya. Thanks.

[kye]

On 11/2/2020 at 9:17 AM, Lux Shots said:

Lenses have different color tones and different blooming characteristics. You may see the difference from one scene to the next because of these characteristics. The biggest difference if the amount of sharpness between the lenses.

Lenses can be matched in post if you're willing to put in a bit of effort.

Here's an example where I match a Samyang to a Lomo...  unedited:

and matched:

If you put a look over the whole film you'll also help to even things out too.