New travel film-making setup and pipeline - I feel like the tech has finally come of age

[kye]

I have a new setup and pipeline and I'm really happy with it.

• GH7 shooting V-Log in C4K Prores 422 internally, at around 500Mbps
• 14-140mm F3.5-5.6 lens for daytime, 12-35mm F2.8 for night-time
• K&F True Colour 1-5 stop vND
• Pipeline in Resolve:
  • CST to DWG as working colour space
  • Plugin for basic shot adjustments
  • Film Look Creator for overall look (and for taking the digititis out of the image)
  • ARRI709 LUT to get to 709 output

I went on a walk on Monday to test the full setup, and it was a crazy hot day (37C/99F) and direct midday sun, so seriously challenging conditions.  Here are a few grabs (be sure to click-through rather than viewing the preview files embedded in the post).

My notes and impressions - while shooting:

• Setup was GH7, 14-140mm lens, vND, and a wrist-strap and that's it
• I used the integrated screen, showing histogram, zebras, and focus-peaking to monitor
• I used back-button focus to AF before hitting record, so no AF-C going on while shooting (and randomly changing its mind about what to focus on)
• All shots were 14-140mm at F5.6 for constant exposure
• The K&F 1-5 stop vND had enough range, when combined with the DR of the GH7, so I never needed to change settings, despite going in and out of shadow (and even inside, which isn't included in the above images)
• The vND had a much more consistent sky and colour render than my old (crappy) vND, so I'm really happy with it
• I did ETTR and bring images down in post, but my tests indicated that V-LOG is very linear so there are a good few stops of latitude there
• The "tripod mode" of IBIS, which locks the frame completely, was very effective (despite me being hot and not having eaten for hours) and I could hand-hold past 70mm without it needing to drift, and even at 140mm (280mm FF equivalent) the shots will be fine with a bit of stabilisation in post (C4K on 1080p timeline)
• I shot about 18mins of footage in about 1.5 hours, camera was on most of the time with screen at full brightness, and didn't get any notifications about the battery, and didn't look to see how much was left since I have a spare

My notes and impressions - in post:

• I chose a Film Look Creator preset and then just messed with it for maybe 10 mins, while scrolling back and forth through the footage, and I deliberately pushed the contrast to create a really strong sense of the contrast between the beating sun and the deep shadows
• Shots had exposure adjusted (obviously, due to ETTR) and some had contrast lowered and a few had slight WB tweaks, but that's it
• I never felt like I was fighting with the footage, and it didn't feel like work when creating the look..  I've shot with a lot of cheap cameras with tiny sensors and you always feel like you're trying to make gold out of lead, but playing in the FLC was more like choosing between a large range of high-quality options
• I used another copy of the FLC to adjust exposure etc per shot, with it set to not impart and 'look'.  The advantage of that is that in Resolve there is a mode (Shift-F) that maximises the preview image and gets rid of the GUI except for the vertical toolbar on the right-hand-side where the DCTL and OFX plugins are, so it's a way of getting almost a full-screen view but keeping the controls visible..  very useful if you don't have a control surface or a second monitor handy.

I'll talk more about my thought process and how I got to this setup in a later post, and also go into some of the technical stuff (DR, high-ISO, etc) but more importantly than that, I finally feel like the tech has come of age.

What I mean by that is that I now have a setup where:

• I can shoot with a conveniently sized setup that doesn't need a rig and is ergonomic to use
• It has the right usability features, such as histograms, zebras, focus-peaking etc internally
• The monitor is bright enough
• The GH7 plus lenses (14-140mm F3.5-5.6 and 12-35mm F2.8) are long enough and fast enough to shoot what I see, without being too large, heavy, or prohibitively expensive
• It has enough spec that it can deal with almost all the situations that I actually shoot in, with enough DR for the sun, enough ISO for night-time, and fans so it doesn't overheat before I do, etc
• It shoots internally using a colour space and codec that don't look cheap/amateurish and make me think about upgrading
• It doesn't fight with me in the colour grade
• Resolve and the Film Look Creator are able to easily give me the flexibility in post to match images and correct any weaknesses from shooting (e.g. if there's a bit of movement when shooting hand-held at 140mm)
• Resolve and the Film Look Creator are able to remove the 'digital/video' look and instead give me a range of options that don't look artificial and most importantly, contribute a feeling to the footage without distracting from the content of the images (this is, after all, the entire purpose of what we're doing here.....)

For the first time it feels like I'm getting the results I want because of the equipment I have, rather than in spite of it.

[BTM_Pix]

29 minutes ago, kye said:

it was a crazy hot day (37C/99F) and direct midday sun, so seriously challenging conditions.

Not to mention that Museum Of Modern Moiré building.

 

[John Matthews]

39 minutes ago, kye said:

For the first time it feels like I'm getting the results I want because of the equipment I have, rather than in spite of it.

That's a good feeling. Nice to see you posting again as I always like to hear what you have to say. The shots look really good! So, did you get the Arri LUT add-on?

[kye]

Part 2...  how did I get here?

I've written about this previously, but the summary is that I went through a sequence of trial and error, continually bumping up against the limits of the hardware, the software, my skill, and mindset.

Setup: GH5, fast manual-focus primes
I shot a bunch with the GH5 and a set of very fast MF primes.  I chose this setup as it had 10-bit LOG, IBIS, and the fast primes gave good low-light and some background blur.  I knowingly sacrificed AF, essentially swapping a fast / accurate / robotic AF for a slow / human / aesthetically-appropriate focusing mechanism.
The MF worked, but not always (especially for my kids, who wait for no-one), and took time and effort to operate the camera away from the things that literally every other crew member does on set.
The 10-bit LOG worked, but wasn't a properly supported LOG profile so didn't colour grade flawlessly in post.
The primes provided the low-light and shallow-DoF but the shots I missed because I couldn't change lenses fast enough were more valuable in the edit than having shallow-DoF.
The DR was lacking.

Setup: GX85 with 12-35/2.8
I owned the GX85 and 12-35mm zoom, so I did some testing.  
I loved the speed of AF-S, and the deeper DoF meant that the number of shots unusable due to missed focus dropped to almost zero.
I tested it with low-light and for well-lit night-time areas, like outdoor shopping malls, it was sufficient.  
The Dual IS (IBIS + lens OIS) was absolutely spectacular and a welcome addition, and having a zoom made me realise why doco and ENG shooters have them as standard issue.
The DR and 709 profile was a real limitation though, and I really felt it in the grade.

It was around this time I figured out proper colour management, and the Film Look Creator was released.  These made a huge boost to grading the GX85, despite its 709 profile.

The mindset shift
The fundamental pivot was in mindset.  As social media became faster and more showy, I noticed the gulf between it and 'real' film-making more and more.  I went minimalist, thinking more and more about the days before digital where the process was to shoot as best you could, cut it, do sound-design, and that was it.  The focus was on what was in-front of the camera, how the cuts made you feel, and sound design that supported that vision.  Even those shooting docs on 16mm film could make magic.
Without throwing away the baby with the bathwater, I decided to re-focus.  To shoot what I could shoot, to learn to cut with feeling, and to simulate a film-like colour grading process where the look was applied and only very basic adjustments were made.

Setup: OG BMMCC with 12-35/2.8
I owned these already, and on my last trip to South Korea I took these as well as the GX85.  My shooting moved from shooting people I knew to shooting more general scenes, giving me more time and taking the time pressure off.
The setup was large (comparatively!) and very slow to work with, but it validated my mindset shift.
The images were organic and rich, but in a way that drew you into their contents, rather than towards the medium.
The DR was finally sufficient, and the colours were delightful.
But the monitor wasn't bright enough, the lack of IBIS meant that the OIS stabilised tilt and pan but not roll, so the images all needed to be stabilised in post, but had roll motion blur due to the 180 shutter.
The low-light wasn't ideal either, even with fast lenses.
The moire from the 1080p sensor was real and ruined shots.
I also got a lot more comfortable shooting in public with a more visible camera setup.

New Setup: GH7 with 14-140 and 12-35.....

So what I wanted was the best of all worlds.  

Dynamic range.  

I knew the OG BMMCC and OG BMPCC were the same/similar sensor, and I knew the GH7 had more.  
What I didn't expect was how much more that would be in real life.  Here's a high DR scene from Monday.

Here it is without the FLC, which I set to add contrast.

Now with the shot raised by 3 stops.  Notice the detail in the railings and under the eves on the right.

Now with the shot lowered by 3 stops.  Notice that the roof, and even the body of the car are still not clipped, with the only clipping being the sun reflecting off the car window.

In grading, there is more DR than you can fit in the DR of the final shot - assuming you haven't developed Stockholm Syndrome for your LOG footage that is.

Low light.  

I had previously established that the GX85 and 12-35mm F2.8 were good enough for well-lit night locations.  I also knew that the BMMCC at ISO800 and the 12-35mm F2.8 set to a 360 shutter was good enough for semi-well-lit night locations.  I also knew that the BMMCC with my 50mm F1.2 lens was passable at the darkest scenes I shot in Korea - which were from the hotel window at night.

I've compared the GH7 vs the GX85 and BMMCC and the noise profiles are all very different, but I concluded that the GH7 had probably 2-4 stops of advantage over those.  This means that I might be able to shoot well-lit night locations with the 14-140mm lens, and might be able to shoot from the hotel window at night with the 12-35mm lens.  

I'm still contemplating if I should take my F1.2-1.4 primes on my up-coming trip, but if I don't I'll still be able to shoot 99% of what I want to with the zooms.

Camera size.

Perhaps the only drawback when compared to my previous setups.  

I'll be taking the GX85 and 14mm F2.5 pancake lens as the pocketable tiny camera.  This combo is no slouch by itself, so although it lacks some of the specs from more serious cameras, it is easily in the capable category, especially when helped by Resolve+FLC and from a shoot-cut-sound-publish mindset.

Absolute speed.

When it comes to absolute speed, nothing beats a smartphone, which is always in your pocket, can be pulled out and rolling in seconds.  This is also a serious tool when combined with Resolve+FLC and a shoot-cut-sound-publish mindset.

[kye]

2 hours ago, BTM_Pix said:

Not to mention that Museum Of Modern Moiré building.

HA!  I didn't notice that until you pointed it out, as I hadn't hit play on that shot yet.

I guess nothing is immune to moire, although this was worse than I would have thought.

The GH7 has no crop in its full resolution modes, and none in the 1080p modes, but the 4K modes do have slight crops - with the C4K having slightly less crop which is why I chose it, so I wonder why that is and what tom-foolery might be going on with that.  The bitrates for the native resolutions are pretty brutal without Prores LT, so I'll likely stick to the C4K mode unless it starts being an issue.

2 hours ago, John Matthews said:

That's a good feeling. Nice to see you posting again as I always like to hear what you have to say. The shots look really good! So, did you get the Arri LUT add-on?

Thanks!

I didn't get the LogC upgrade.  I haven't seen any tests that were done properly so am assuming that it's not worth the cost unless proven otherwise.  I also figure that even if there is some magic in there, I'm taking a hammer to the image with the FLC anyway, so it's not like I'm precious about it.  The only thing I am precious about is getting images that have the right aesthetic to support the subject matter and get out of the way rather than being distracting.

When I saw Goodfellas and a bunch of film trailers projected on 35mm film, the two most stunning things about the images were:
1) how fundamentally flawed they were from a technical perspective
2) how quickly and completely those incredible flaws evaporated and you saw effortlessly through and into the scene

I'm still at the beginning of my FLC journey, but I'm convinced this pipeline is capable of removing the digital distractions from the image that bug me so much.

[mercer]

What's interesting about the LogC license is that it was probably mapped for that specific sensor. The vLog could have just been tossed in. Maybe. Either way, cool camera and shots. 

[mercer]

And Arri may have mapped it. 

[Davide DB]

When FLCs were introduced in Resolve I had seen some tutorials on how to apply them. I had never actually played with them because I was only working with underwater footage at that time.
Some time ago I took up the subject again and realized that several YouTube videos gave wrong directions on how to apply them and the results are very different.
I am certainly stating a trivia and I apologize in advance.
This should be a correct example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwcItNYhOV4

 

[Emanuel]

Impressive @kye no idea what this forum would be without you, really. Food for thought. You're such an asset and a few people here, if no more or/and elsewhere, miss you when you're absent : )

7 hours ago, kye said:

When I saw Goodfellas and a bunch of film trailers projected on 35mm film, the two most stunning things about the images were:
1) how fundamentally flawed they were from a technical perspective
2) how quickly and completely those incredible flaws evaporated and you saw effortlessly through and into the scene

You've summed up the whole thing : ) it's all about that, no more no less, one of the reasons why people love (and use) anamorphics :- )

[PPNS]

What’s the point of the arri 709 lut at the end? Why not just convert dwg to 709 and have more control over rolloff etc?

[fuzzynormal]

Regardless of whatever pipeline you ultimately use, I really like what you're willing to do with the blacks. 

[newfoundmass]

These kind of posts are always my favorite. Thank you for sharing!

[MrSMW]

Just based on the thumbnails, really nice work Kye.

[Django]

Is it me or is the GH7 a recent camera release no one speaks about? Every Panny user seems to have jumped over to the FF S line. Anyways surprised OP hasn't purchased the LogC3 license considering how many posts about ARRI color science etc! My pipeline usually involves CST to LogC just to benefit from the excellent ARRI look/LUT library. Would be cool to be able to skip this step in post and access it straight in cam a bit like Fuji film simulations. Definitely one of the highlights of GH7 for me personally.

[kye]

On 3/29/2025 at 11:15 AM, fuzzynormal said:

Regardless of whatever pipeline you ultimately use, I really like what you're willing to do with the blacks. 

Thanks..  

To be honest I just find it baffling that everyone is throwing the word "cinematic" around and yet all the colour grades look like they haven't been converted from LOG to 709.  It's one of the easiest changes you can make in post to take your footage from video to cinema, and yet hardly anyone does it.

Pushing as much contrast and saturation as you can was the best film-making advice I ever got.

[zlfan]

finally, you take the gh7 bite. a very good choice.

[zlfan]

40 minutes ago, kye said:

Thanks..  

To be honest I just find it baffling that everyone is throwing the word "cinematic" around and yet all the colour grades look like they haven't been converted from LOG to 709.  It's one of the easiest changes you can make in post to take your footage from video to cinema, and yet hardly anyone does it.

Pushing as much contrast and saturation as you can was the best film-making advice I ever got.

i like high contrast high saturation style too. for landscape, i push as much as i can. really pushing the sensor and the dsp to their limits.

[maxJ4380]

On 3/28/2025 at 9:53 PM, kye said:

 

• K&F True Colour 1-5 stop vND

•  stop vND had enough range, when combined with the DR of the GH7, so I never needed to change settings, despite going in and out of shadow (and even inside, which isn't included in the above images)
• The vND had a much more consistent sky and colour render than my old (crappy) vND, so I'm really happy with it

Is that the same one that Btm_pix has shown on the lenses page?  because i have to confess i got one too 🙄

Btm_pix You should probably add affiliate links... 

[zlfan]

From your screen shots, I feel that OM1 has better dr than GH7. I use art filter 1, which is a high sat high contr filter. On EM5, the dr is too narrow, although I like the color and the contrast, I kind of don't not like the whole pictures. On OM1, it is very usable, I get good contrast, good color, and relative good dr, at least the dr does not distract my eyes.