New music video shot on FX3 and A7S3

[Oliver Daniel]

Hello all. 

In the appraisal of small mirrorless cameras, here’s a music video I shot, DP’d, edited, graded for Dit h artist Charlotte Wessels, ex-singer of Delain. 

Shot in SLOG3 and a bit of 2. 

Lenses used were Tamron 17-28, Tamron 28-75, Sony 24-105mm, Lensbaby Sol45, 7artisans 35mm and ProMist 1/4. 

Most of the video was lit with an Aputure 600d through 8x8 white diffusion and bounce / reflectors. 

Fire scenes lit by fire light only and a 2x2 silver bounce. 

Stick around for the credits. 😊

 

[webrunner5]

Wow, when I see stuff like this, I need to find a new hobby lol. Never in a million years as they say. You have a gift.

[newfoundmass]

4 hours ago, Oliver Daniel said:

Hello all. 

In the appraisal of small mirrorless cameras, here’s a music video I shot, DP’d, edited, graded for Dit h artist Charlotte Wessels, ex-singer of Delain. 

Shot in SLOG3 and a bit of 2. 

Lenses used were Tamron 17-28, Tamron 28-75, Sony 24-105mm, Lensbaby Sol45, 7artisans 35mm and ProMist 1/4. 

Most of the video was lit with an Aputure 600d through 8x8 white diffusion and bounce / reflectors. 

Fire scenes lit by fire light only and a 2x2 silver bounce. 

Stick around for the credits. 😊

 

Incredible stuff. What language was that? And what kind of budget? 

Thank you for sharing! 

[kye]

9 hours ago, Oliver Daniel said:

Hello all. 

In the appraisal of small mirrorless cameras, here’s a music video I shot, DP’d, edited, graded for Dit h artist Charlotte Wessels, ex-singer of Delain. 

Shot in SLOG3 and a bit of 2. 

Lenses used were Tamron 17-28, Tamron 28-75, Sony 24-105mm, Lensbaby Sol45, 7artisans 35mm and ProMist 1/4. 

Most of the video was lit with an Aputure 600d through 8x8 white diffusion and bounce / reflectors. 

Fire scenes lit by fire light only and a 2x2 silver bounce. 

Stick around for the credits. 😊

Great stuff!

This is what happens when more attention is paid to the non-camera things rather than the camera body 🙂 

Especially good production design and hair/makeup.  It must be really satisfying working with a team of talented people who are all bringing their different areas of expertise into the finished production!

[Oliver Daniel]

8 hours ago, webrunner5 said:

Wow, when I see stuff like this, I need to find a new hobby lol. Never in a million years as they say. You have a gift.

Thank you. I feel the same way about other peoples work 😂

[Oliver Daniel]

7 hours ago, newfoundmass said:

Incredible stuff. What language was that? And what kind of budget? 

Thank you for sharing! 

Budget was around £20k, and it’s in Dutch. 

[Oliver Daniel]

2 hours ago, kye said:

Great stuff!

This is what happens when more attention is paid to the non-camera things rather than the camera body 🙂 

Especially good production design and hair/makeup.  It must be really satisfying working with a team of talented people who are all bringing their different areas of expertise into the finished production!

Funny this. One person did say “why are we shooting this video on just these small cameras, why not a RED?”

 My response was “although you’re underestimating their image, this project is not about the camera….” 

It was great to have the crew but it was still stretched. However, you can still achieve a lot with few resources. 

[ade towell]

Wonderful work all of it, camera, lighting, costume, special fx. Bravo

[newfoundmass]

2 hours ago, Oliver Daniel said:

My response was “although you’re underestimating their image, this project is not about the camera….” 

Absolutely! That's what so many people miss! It's not just about the camera, it's about what you're filming and all the pieces that go into it. When you put that much effort and skill into what you're filming it doesn't matter all that much what you're filming with. 

[Django]

I actually think what camera you choose can be crucial for a project like this but not for the reasons most may think. 

I'm thinking mostly about budget and time constraints. 

A big cine cam takes time to rig, to setup. do reverse angle shots etc. It all eats up precious time.

Having two or even three cameras like OP can allow multi-cam or multi-rigs speeding up down time.

Then you have the crew to think about. Big cam usually means first AC, 2nd AC etc.

With an A7S3/FX3 you could get away with AF on gimbal shots, handheld with IBIS, monopod instead of tripod etc.

This all saves you time & budget that can be allocated to more shots, location, production value.

Anyways maybe OP can share his own experience & congrats to him on the music video!

 

[Oliver Daniel]

On 5/28/2022 at 10:42 AM, ade towell said:

Wonderful work all of it, camera, lighting, costume, special fx. Bravo

Thank you! 

[Oliver Daniel]

On 5/28/2022 at 12:33 PM, newfoundmass said:

Absolutely! That's what so many people miss! It's not just about the camera, it's about what you're filming and all the pieces that go into it. When you put that much effort and skill into what you're filming it doesn't matter all that much what you're filming with. 

Any time a “newbie” student type asks me what camera to buy, I just say get a GH5 and a set of cheap vintage primes. Then learn to frame and light 💡 

[PannySVHS]

16 minutes ago, Oliver Daniel said:

Any time a “newbie” student type asks me what camera to buy, I just say get a GH5 and a set of cheap vintage primes. Then learn to frame and light 💡 

My favorite comment of the week. GH4 would be plenty too with its 50, 100 and 200mbit flavours of HD. But then again, GH5 is a fantastic camera.

[Oliver Daniel]

On 5/28/2022 at 4:05 PM, Django said:

I actually think what camera you choose can be crucial for a project like this but not for the reasons most may think. 

I'm thinking mostly about budget and time constraints. 

A big cine cam takes time to rig, to setup. do reverse angle shots etc. It all eats up precious time.

Having two or even three cameras like OP can allow multi-cam or multi-rigs speeding up down time.

Then you have the crew to think about. Big cam usually means first AC, 2nd AC etc.

With an A7S3/FX3 you could get away with AF on gimbal shots, handheld with IBIS, monopod instead of tripod etc.

This all saves you time & budget that can be allocated to more shots, location, production value.

Anyways maybe OP can share his own experience & congrats to him on the music video!

 

Totally. 

We had a RED available for the shoot. Director wanted it and I said the Sony’s would be better. 

Why? 

Well, our crew was small and we needed to move fast as we had a day and a half to shoot.

Also, we didn’t have a very good lighting budget, although I intentionally didn’t want to use lots of lighting in this video because I wanted the bulk of the shots to look natural. A lot of it was done using bounced light from natural sources. 

The native 12,800 ISO allowed me to use only fire light and reflectors without having to bring in and constantly move around lights per shot. The fire was burning out fast, so we had to blitz it. It worked out. 

Had we shot on the RED, the shoot would have been a disaster. 

If we shot on the GH5/6 - it would have been “ok” but very murky and noisy. The picture would have suffered. 

So yes you are right. The camera is crucial. In this case, the merits of the Sony system allows you to work in a way that you would greatly struggle with using something else. 

After various experiences, I’d confidently say the Sony trilogy of “FX6 / FX3 / A7S3” is likely the best all-rounded system on the market. You can work in a unique way. The only challenge is yourself. 

[PannySVHS]

To me it would be S5, S1H and FX6 🙂 @Oliver Daniel I know people say AF and such, but I would say nasty noise reduction on the Sonys:) The two Pannys and the FX6 would be a powerhouse trio of image takers, if you don´t need PDAF on your DSLMs. I don´t need AF for video but with the FX6 I should try some time and rent it.

[kye]

On 5/28/2022 at 4:55 PM, Oliver Daniel said:

Funny this. One person did say “why are we shooting this video on just these small cameras, why not a RED?”

 My response was “although you’re underestimating their image, this project is not about the camera….” 

It was great to have the crew but it was still stretched. However, you can still achieve a lot with few resources. 

I think all crews will always be stretched.

The crew might be stretched because they're all trying to do their own thing well and any spare time/resources is quickly put to doing something better or something more that wasn't originally included.

The crew might be stretched because they're all trying to do as little as possible and therefore the task expands to fill the available time.

The crew might be stretched because they're a smooth running operation who are coordinated and efficient through experience and discipline (which is no easy feat to implement).

The way you can tell the difference is that on the first instance the results are greater than expected from the time and resources, the second is that the results aren't better than expected, and the last is that things seem relaxed and smooth and there are time and/or resources spare at the end.

On 5/28/2022 at 11:05 PM, Django said:

I actually think what camera you choose can be crucial for a project like this but not for the reasons most may think. 

I'm thinking mostly about budget and time constraints. 

A big cine cam takes time to rig, to setup. do reverse angle shots etc. It all eats up precious time.

Having two or even three cameras like OP can allow multi-cam or multi-rigs speeding up down time.

Then you have the crew to think about. Big cam usually means first AC, 2nd AC etc.

With an A7S3/FX3 you could get away with AF on gimbal shots, handheld with IBIS, monopod instead of tripod etc.

This all saves you time & budget that can be allocated to more shots, location, production value.

Anyways maybe OP can share his own experience & congrats to him on the music video!

Absolutely.  People concentrate on image image image and it's so short sighted.

I talk a lot about dynamic range and stabilisation etc in my work and share nice images I've captured and people respond with the old GH5 is enough, but what they're not seeing are clip after clip after clip where I couldn't get my shit together in time and missed the moment, where the DR wasn't enough, where the stabilisation made it unusable, etc etc.

Every usable clip on the card is better than every clip you can't use or didn't capture, and camera choice is huge in that equation.

[TomTheDP]

23 hours ago, PannySVHS said:

To me it would be S5, S1H and FX6 🙂 @Oliver Daniel I know people say AF and such, but I would say nasty noise reduction on the Sonys:) The two Pannys and the FX6 would be a powerhouse trio of image takers, if you don´t need PDAF on your DSLMs. I don´t need AF for video but with the FX6 I should try some time and rent it.

Prores RAW gets rid of the noise reduction though and you can use it up to 120fps like the internal recordings. But I agree the S1 series cameras are equally as nice aside from the lack of high speed recording.

On 5/29/2022 at 4:27 PM, Oliver Daniel said:

Totally. 

We had a RED available for the shoot. Director wanted it and I said the Sony’s would be better. 

Why? 

Well, our crew was small and we needed to move fast as we had a day and a half to shoot.

Yeah I have found always being ultra conservative in what you try to accomplish always pays off. Even if you make things as easy as possible for yourself you'll still likely run into problems.

I am really tempted to go with the Sony system right now. I keep juggling different options and it seems like the best one for me.