Filmic workshop part 1

8/19/2019 Filmic workshop part 1

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WORKSHOP DAY 1 notes

1. - CAMERA SETTING

FORMAT. PROGRESSIVE, RATHER THAN INTERLACE

Always choose among the options the camera offers, but HD is between 720p and

1080p. Progressive video gives further less problems than interlace, and the vertical

resolution is better. The frames per second advisable for video is 25, so we’ll work at

1080p with 25fps. That means that when we go to edit, in case we make the edition,

we’ll open a sequence with those parameters, otherwise we would have to render the

new sequence and that will slow us down.

For post-producing a slow motion video is handy to go for 720p60fps because a higher

frame rate means that there are more frames to slow down the movement and getting itvery well described.

MODE OF SHOOTING

Advise: Stick to manual (M) because that way you can control every parameter

separately.


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PICTURE STYLES

The best to use is Neutral. It is better to change the filters and image’s colours in post-

production, because it can be risky doing it on camera. Unless you want to go for a

very studied look you’ve got very clear in your mind and that has worked because

you’ve previously tested it.

In the picture style for CANON it is also handy, if you’re going to work with a colleague

that uses a NIKON, to reduce saturation (1-2 points) a little bit, because colours as

captured by CANON are really rich. But you must also know that each camera captures

colours in its own way, even two CANON cameras of the same series may bring

different results with colours.

And using Neutral mode you skip colour grading in post-production.

FRAMERATE

In Europe, we use PAL and in USA NTCS, and frame rates may change. People say

that 25/30 frame rates give you a TV show kind of look, whereas 24 gives you more

like a film look, but as I told you I usually use 25 because the double shutter speed for

this frame rate I’ve got it on my camera.


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2. - PARAMETERS FOR CONTROLLING EXPOSITION

You must know that in photography and in video, all is half or double light. And that’s

a mantra as long as you move on the average scales.

SHUTTER SPEED1

Shutter speed is the amount of time each individual frame is exposed for.

It affects:

1. The amount of light

2. Motion blur

The lower the number of your shutter speed, the brighter the image. And the higher the

number the darker the image, cause shutter is expressed in fractions of a second, so if

it’s higher that means the shutter keeps open for less time.

For example, if you say that your shutter speed is of 50, that means that each frame is

exposed for 1/50th of a second.

In still image, you can change shutter speed no matter what you’re taking pictures of. A

higher shutter will allow more light but may allow motion blur if you’re not using the

camera on a steady support like a tripod. But in video you cannot move freely along the

shutter scale, because it doesn’t only affect light that gets inside of the camera but alsothe way movement is described to the eye.2

The traditional standard for video is 24p, which is very pleasing to the eye and is pretty

much standard for DSLR video recording.

To achieve a film look, and get a natural movement and motion blur, you need to follow

this rule: double the frame rate.

If you go for a slower shutter while recording something that’s in movement, you may

get a smeary effect on the video. If the shutter is too fast there isn’t enough motion blur

to smoothly transition from frame to frame causing a stuttering effect. This can be used

as a creative effect like in the opening sequence of Saving Private Ryan.3

1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItnbO2X6pVA

22 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lItCq5Gp6vw

3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZltasvB7CKw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lItCq5Gp6vwhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lItCq5Gp6vwhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lItCq5Gp6vwhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lItCq5Gp6vw


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And, if you don’t have in your camera the double speed for your frame rate, then move

to the closest one. That’s why, instead of using 24fps in video, I’d rather go for 25fps,

because my camera does not work at 1/48 but it does at 1/50.


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APERTURE ( f- STOP)

The aperture is going to depend on the lens you have attached to your camera body.

Different lenses cover different ranges, and when doing zoom-in or out, you have to

pay really attention to that, cause for each focal distance in a zoom-lens (within the

focal range), your lens may have different effective apertures, so exposition may

change in making a zoom if you don’t stick to the closer one (the one with the biggest

number).

All the lenses have marked on them the lowest number of aperture they can go and it

refers to how much light they might get in. The lower the number, the brighter your shot

will be.


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EPTH OF FIEL

4

Aperture really affects depth of field. The camera can only focus the lens to a certain

point, but there’s an area in which everything seems to be focus, and that’s called

depth of field, and it’s always one third before the focus point, and two thirds after the

focus point. Depth of field may increase or decrease by three factors:

1. Number of aperture

2. Distance from camera to subject on focus

3. Focal distance in the lens

Shallow depth of field happens when your near to the focus point, using a long focal

distance and with the minimum of aperture. For now, we’ll just stick to aperture.

Depth of field is very useful when it comes to composing image and fixing a centre of

attention. It can be used combined with pull focus, that happens when we make the

focus, within a shallow depth of field, change from one subject to another in a single

shot.

If for some reason we need more depth of field we must change to a higher aperture.

ISO

ISO makes the sensor more sensitive to light, so it increases the light that impregnates

the image. But one must always be careful and test and know his own camera, cause

adding more ISO that what the camera is meant for will add digital noise to image that

is pretty difficult to remove. It doesn’t matter of course if it is a desired effect.

6D and 5D may go as far as 3200 ISO without adding much digital noise to image. You

must always think that increasing the ISO is like adding fake light to the image, so don’t

abuse it too much.

4https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKdYBlZhGmQ&feature=iv&src_vid=B5HafqMcb2

o&annotation_id=annotation_576301043


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On a sunny day with high contrast like what we usually have in Spain, you might use

like 100-200 ISO, but in very dark conditions when there’s no artificial light available,

you may go for a rather high ISO in case you want to appreciate what’s in the image.

WHAT’S A GOOD EXPOSITION? HISTOGRAM5

The histogram is a graphic that tells you about the brightness of the image you have

taken, in its total tonal range from back to white. The higher the values on one of the

sides of the histogram, the more tones you have to that side. The left side are the low

values, the centre stands for the midtones and the right side for the higher values. The

best way to check exposition is to look at the Luma histogram, because looking directly

at the image itself can be kind of tricky.6

Most of the time, it is advisable to expose on the right side of the histogram, but

keeping detail in lights. That’s going to depend on the sensor dynamic range a lot.

The dynamic range refers to the range within which a camera can successfully capture

the lightest and darkest areas of an image without losing detail or information. If you

exceed that range, the highlights will wash out or either the dark will turn to black bolbs.

And every camera has a different dynamic range.

So, when exposing an image, you have to make certain that you’re not washing thehighlights out, and in fact the histogram can tell you that. If you kind of have a curved

with all of the info on the right side and going to infinite, that means you’re losing

information in highlights, so in order to prevent it you should lower your exposition,

changing either the ISO or the f -stop. Or absorbing light somehow, but you must

expose to that side and make sure you’re keeping information in the highlights. Most

cinematographers expose to the midtones with a little bit of highlight just to be able to

5

6 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5cFquU19jw


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work afterwards in postproduction to get the effect they want with all the information

possible both in shadows and highlights, but that depends on your aim7

In Magical Girl for example, there are images that really go mimetic with reality. And, as

they take place in the night, they’re quite underexposed, whereas othercinematographers force the situation and do not justify the light, but we see what they

want us to see instead, even if it’s dark in the night and we know that in those

conditions we wouldn’t be able to look at the characters correctly.

So regularly, shift the histogram to the highlights without losing their information

7 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xONqYFkPXcY

Filmic workshop part 1

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Transcript of Filmic workshop part 1