Nature, animated birds and the Sony F3

While I thought I'd spend some quality time on RnR, my good friend ZoneArt aka Zonayed Mostafa gave me a call the other day. I don't believe in fate, but sometimes I can't help but change my views on it.  He just scored a new TV Commercial gig after spending 2 years out in the wild and was searching for a DP. Somehow, he heard that I was out of the country and was regretting not having his first choice around. That same day, I saw a picture of his on Facebook and clicked on the "like" button. He immediately checked my status to see that I was in fact 1Km away from him and sent me a message to call him. Within 20 minutes of that conversation he had secured my services for his next 3 shoots. Fate?

I cut my vacation short and started pre production soon after. Since I only have my 5D Mk III with me now, we made the decision to shoot on a video camera rather than a DSLR, as the shots we had planned, had a lot of VFX involved. The compressed codec from the 5D is something most VFX artists hate. So we started making decisions on getting a proper camera. 35mm was out since there wasn't a big enough budget for it. The only Alexa in town was booked. The C300 was available for 2 of the 4 days of principal photography, but the rate for that camera is set too bloody high for anyone to justify, even though it comes with a 6 lens ARRI/Zeiss Ultra Prime set. Then came the Sony F3. While most people love the F3, it's certainly not a camera that I've lusted over. Even with the SLog and 444 out, the color rendering is something Sony missed with that camera. In fact, it contributes heavily to the so called "Sony Video Look".

I have often heard that term and slowly I've grown to hate it. What is a "video look"? Most people describe it as a sterile and clinical look found in most video cameras, even high end ones. But shouldn't a "video" camera have a "video" look? Yes and no. The best digital cameras in the market right now, be it the Alexa, Red Epic or even the C500, try to emulate film emulsions. The Sony cameras have always tried to (for me at least) tried to copy the sensor patterns of their own digital cameras, something that I felt contributed to the video look. The only cameras that broke that mould were the F23 and F35 and those cams used to cost an arm and a leg when they came out. Lately, with the release of the F65 and F55, it seems that Sony have realized their mistake and are now copying the old 35mm stocks. Apparently, the F65 and F55 even have more colors than the gamut stored in film stock. I really don't know what that even means, but hopefully its not some sales gimmick. Anyways, on to the F3 and the project at hand.

i had to choose between two F3 packages. One that came with Zeiss still lenses and the other with Sony's 3 PL mount video lenses. Being the Zeiss junkie that I am I went with the first option, even though I knew I was going to have to work with a 1.5x crop factor. I drove the ADs mad, when I called out lenses for shots, since an 18mm ZF became a 27mm, I would refer to the 18mm as an 18mm and then again as a 27mm. Oh well, he's an AD, grunt. My favorite focal lengths in Super 35 happen to be the 27mm, 32mm and 40mm. So, I worked with the 18mm and 28mm ZFs provided by the rentals and my own 21mm ZF, thus getting 27mm, 31.5mm and 42mm Super 35 focal lengths. For a tighter mid shot, I'd use the 35mm (approx. 53mm) and the 50mm (75mm) for closeups. Even though the Field of View of the lens changed, the depth of field remained the same from the full frame sensor, but since I was using wide lenses mostly, the bokeh looked very similar to Super 35.

Instead of using SLog though, I used the CineGamma profile. Why? Cause, it gave me a good REC709 version of what I could see on TV when it aired. I even changed the parameters of the "Standard" color matrix to give me a slightly warmer picture without adjusting the neutral white balance. I found this useful when I used my very old Sony EX1. The Sony camera exhibit a blueish tint to them and shifting the reds can give you a great "filmic" image. The final thing I used heavily were filters. For daytime interior shots with natural light showing, I used a Black Pro Mist 1/4. This lowered the contrast as well as bloomed the highlights. Here's what that looked like:

The raw images from the F3.

F3 footage with grade applied

For the rain and storm parts I shot mostly with a polarizer and 0.6 ND combo. Here are some shots:

Ungraded

Graded

The 10 bit 422 capture to an Atomos Ninja recorder made my life easy as a grader. However during the last day of shooting, Canon finally released their Clean HDMI firmware update for the 5D MkIII and so I decided to take my beloved Olivia as a B cam, to see how the 8 bit 422 captured onto a Nanoflash would hold up against the F3's 10 bit 422. We rolled both cameras at the same time. Here are some results of that, you be the judge.

F3 with 50mm (75mm) Zeiss (Custom warm profile 3200K)

5D3 with 35mm Zeiss (Neutral profile 3200K)

F3 with 18mm (27mm) Zeiss (Custom warm profile 5700K)

5D3 with 21mm Zeiss (Neutral profile 5700K)

My favorite shots of the entire TVC however came from the 5D3 when I was taking shots of the newly built Hatirjheel freeways right after magic hour. The 1600 ISO shots taken with a 21mm Zeiss ZF at 2.8, internal IPB recording, looked stunning. See if you agree.

The One Man Band....and Dynamic Ranges of the 5D Mk III

Compared to last year, this year has been very relaxing. No 48 hour projects, no dealing with crazies and most importantly, no production mishaps. Perhaps it's because I decided to cut down on the number of projects I'm undertaking, or perhaps it's because I decided to direct/shoot/edit the projects coming my way. I've tried to work with the other directors out there, but even with a majority of my work getting good results from audiences, I personally was: a) exhausted b) pissed off and c) most importantly, not happy with the results.

So, starting this year, I made a promise to myself. Rather than running after the millions of takas available in the market, I was going to go solo. The true indie. Steven Soderbergh had just released some kind of statement like that. He was talking about how the big production companies were just taking over all of the creative control, leaving the "art" behind. I had pandered to the heads long enough. It was time to take some control back. Luckily, I had one client who was ok with that. He was not willing to spend millions, had a decent enough script and didn't care much apart from 2 things. Make a good commercial and have him star in it. I think I did one of those things all right.

The script was simple. A newly wed couple are on a drive down some highway when their car (running on low quality CNG Fuel) decides to conk out. A passing CNG Auto Rickshaw driver (played by Hasan Masud, one of the most famous comedians around Dhaka) pulls up next to them and tells them about the bad quality in the fuel. Blah, blah, blah. I admit the script was lacking a lot of "masala" which was required by the locals to like the ad. So, I decided to change some stuff, by including a romantic montage and quickly adding some knee jerk reactions to compensate for the dull script. The main idea was not to let the audience know what kind of ad they were seeing until the end.

I wanted to keep the shooting simple. A majority of the shots were going to be on the car mount. Since it was a daylight shoot and the car wasn't big enough to accommodate a generator to keep a fill light inside, I knew I was truly going to be pushing the Dynamic Range of Olivia, my 5D Mk III. I had rated the Mk III at 10 stops, but for this to work I required something close to 13. So, I decided to modify the "CineStyle" setting and give me more range towards the shadows. I know what you're thinking. This guy is an idiot. But here me out. If I could balance out the blown out highlights on the background with the actors faces and stop down, the shadows would only be my problem. I could then just add some light (in post) on the shadows and blur out any of the digital noise coming in. Here's what I mean

As you can see, even without any lights inside the car, I could balance out all of my shadows, mids and highlights. I even used a pro mist filter for the dude (who happens to be my client) so the blown out bokeh seemed to be under control. It was a hot and sunny day, which didn't really help the matter either. But in the end, the 5D's sensor came out a champ as always. In DaVinci Resolve, I could easily put up power windows and soften up the highlights even more and get a more acceptable image past QC.

The rest of the shoot took about 3 hours to complete. This was the first time I had directed a celebrity in Hasan Masud. He was a good sport. He literally gave 3 takes per shot and knocked it out every time. Somehow we ended up talking more about Macy's, NYC and B&H Photovideo more than the shoot itself. A big thank you goes out to H.K. Rudry Ripon who really helped me direct and put together the crew for this one.

Here's the entire ad:

How to make a commercial in 48hrs

The Dhaka media industry is all about one thing really...who gets the TV commercials for any one of the 4 top Telecom companies. I've never been "lucky" enough to work for any of these projects. Sure there was a music video for Airtel and a little graphics work for BanglaLink, but not much apart from that. The reason these ads are so high up the chain, is because everything from their budgets to the QC are the only thing the media industry can compare to foreign counterparts. Mostly, they are shot on 35mm, rarely, do they shoot on digital, and almost never on a DSLR.

After the craziness that was the India trip with my fellow Trojan, David Milburn, I needed a few weeks to recuperate. Fat chance. Maasranga called me up as soon as I landed about a commercial for Robi, another telecom giant. As soon as I went in, I was told that they needed the product within 2 days. While I smiled and nodded and accepted, every bone in my body yelled the F word....really loud. MediaCom was providing the script, with the commercial itself being about the cheap nightly packages the carrier provides during Ramadan. It was about young boys from a colony playing "front desk" by giving wake up calls to everyone via their cell phones, since the rates were so low. The ad starts off with a static shot of a window as lights up then goes to different other windows in the same and adjacent buildings being lit up, showing people waking up to a phone call and get ready to fast. The next few shots would show the young boys of the colony doing this service to the fellow colony dwellers, in the festive spirit of Ramadan.

So we went head on. Met the CMO, who is from India and only speaks English, hence I acted as a translator for my team, explaining the shot division that was drawn up. He seemed a little skeptical and just wanted us to give him something that wasn't verbose and linear like the script. Luckily, we had MediaCom's Asif Akhbar Khan (or Asif Mama, as I call him), who's kinda the best creative directors in the land. He assured the CMO that we weren't going the way with it. Handshakes and "good luck" comments were exchanged. Oh and we were reminded that the guy who made the previous Robi Ramadan ad did a marvelous job and we were stepping on a landmine, if we couldn't provide results.

So lets get this straight. A 48hr timeframe, a script the CMO is skeptical about and someone else's unfinished project. And since this was my first telecom ad, if I messed up....deathwish.

We started the day of the shoot with hordes of models, all being screen tested. By we I should say me. I knew I didn't have enough time, so I just had them run through the entire script with the 2 already selected actors from the previous ad. I literally just graded them, Bs or above gets to be in front, C's and below, get to be at the back, when I was doing my blocking. Once I was done with that, I rushed to the shooting spot, a colony situated in Mirpur.


Olivia, my 5DMk3 was entrusted for this one. DSLRs! On a telecom campaign ad that was previously shot on 35mm!! By the time we got everything ready and started shooting it was already 8pm. After shooting nonstop, we finally finished by 4am.

While the rest of the crew went home, the director NI Razoo, me and the ADs went straight back to edit. By 10am the next day, we had a proper first cut done, with a color grade and a scratch music track. By 3pm the clients got the first preview. Even though I was passed out by that time, I heard that collective jaws were dropped at how we'd achieved such a feat within 24hrs. By 10am the next day the final cut with the final color grade the final audio track was released. I just saw the ad on TV 5 mins ago. There are also murmurs that we are getting 4 more ads now. I met Asif Mama the night before the release and he congratulated me on the DSLR (!) footage, that apparently looked just as good as the 35mm ad shot before this one, something even the Robi clients voiced. I suppose miracles do happen, not often enough though....hehe. Anyways, heres those screen grabs we love so much.

So I suppose by making a telecom ad I've finally done it, and by "it" I mean make it big...just kidding. Now I look back at the madness that was. From quitting big time jobs to starting a post production panel (by which I mean just a Mac Pro) at my mom's boutique after she was done with it, to getting Dhaka's first 444 workflow and Dhaka's first external camera recorder, to introducing DSLRs as B Cams in my shoots so clients can use them as A Cams now, to completely shunning 35mm and spreading the digital revolution, hoping everyone I've worked with embraces it as well. Yup, its been a good trailblazing life....Shane Hurlbut would be proud.

Things that make me go WTF....then LOL hard...

I know I haven't bitched much in this blog the last few posts, even though it's my "Bitchin'" blog. A phone call form my maternal uncle (or mama, as we bengalis call it) got my blood boiling though and I couldn't help but write this up.

My mama is a rockstar. He's a big celebrity here in Dhaka, as well as Kolkata, since his a big name in the food industry. He has countless TV shows, hundreds of publications and most importantly, he's one of the coolest people I know of. A true inspirational figure, something this country seriously lacks. I should point out that this post isn't about him.

It all started when my mama hired me to DP/Edit a music video he was directing, starring his friend Iman Chakraborty, another celeb, from Kolkata, who was touring Dhaka at the time. She had just released her album which was a tribute to Rabindranath Tagore. I must admit, unlike many Bengalis, I don't have a "thing" for Tagore. One of the few fights I had with "big time celebs" here in Dhaka was when I told a prominent actor/TV host, how I felt Tagore was boring and in terms of music, guys like Miles Davis and Johnny Coltrane were far superior. To him it was almost blasphemous, that resulted in diatribes about everything from me being a snob to how inferior my upbringing was. Anyways, thats for another post.

So after a month or so of talking over the video and the feel of it, we finally got into shooting it. No crew, no lights. Just me, my (now stolen) 7D camera, the director and the artist. Since we were in a time frame, it had to be done quick. No time for tripods and elaborate lighting. So I thought I'd go the Bruno Aveillan way, since almost everyone is doing it these days. Long lens, handheld shots, something in front of the lens blocking the scene. The shoot was done in about 2-3 hours. Then I went home, edited and color corrected the material and brought it back to my uncle. He saw it, along with Miss Chakraborty and my cousin, who is a photographer. They all liked it and my mama was very happy with his first directorial debut. The finished material was then put on a DV tape and sent back to India to premiere.

That was 2 months ago. Today I got a call from my mama and he said that the "TV" peeps over in Kolkata said the video was too dark and way too jerky. Too jerky I can live with, since thats the effect I was going with and its a hit or miss with most people. It wasn't like murder/thriller jerky, but you can definitely tell it wasn't put on a tripod. Clearly, David Lynch, Darren Aronofsky and Bruno Aveillan himself can't make a living in Kolkata.

Now, this is where I got really pissed. The lighting was apparently too dark. ROFLMAO. Here are the color corrected screen grabs that made their way to Kolkata. Please feel free to comment.

The funny thing is I actually wanted to grade the shots so they were at least a little more on the darker side. But this was a love song, so bright saturated tones were necessary. I couldn't go the Fincher route and make the next Judith. 

The song got rejected for the "darkness" and the "jerkiness" and a disappointed phone call from my mama followed. I was at a loss for words when he said those thing, so I really didn't have anything to say after.

Clearly, this level of bad production is not fit for the glorious Kolkata scene. They'd rather see videos like the rock remakes of Tagore, where chicks are "trying" to sing and play instruments on stage, with smoke coming out from the background and some HMI lighting that and some christmas lights hanging on the background. Oh wait, it's handheld too. Well played Kolkata, well played.... 

CSRs, Super Markets, Milburn and Olivia

Sorry for the long wait since my last post. Lets just say, hectic doesn't even begin to describe my life right now. Even my mom told me the other day I should take a vacation, something that is unheard of in the Khan household.

The last few months since the Panther Condoms shoot I was busy shooting and editing 4 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) commercials for Square Group. Since Square is the biggest company in Bangladesh, maybe SE Asia, and pretty much owns everything starting from production companies to advertising agencies, I wasn't gonna let these babies slide.

The problem with CSRs are that they need to be cheap, short and somewhat poignant. That's the anti-MK attitude. The director for these CSRs, NI Razoo had done a few before, but those were well, mediocre. For these TVCs, I wanted something drastic - WTF Camera angles, minimal/almost no lighting and finally handheld/steadicam movements in the tightest of spaces. The director liked my ideas, but as always there was the "well, show me what ya got" look when I brought up some of those.

The biggest thing was that I was working with my new 5D Mark III and after spending a few days tinkering with her, I was quite amazed at the footage and the camera itself. Some vast improvements over the 5D Mark II and the 7D, had to be the new I-Frame 90mbps codec and the internal cooling of the camera. The 5Dmk2 and 7D's old 35mbps codec was really difficult to grade. It would never hold up in Resolve or any other color grading suite. Heavy grading usually ending up looking silly. The Mark III video however, can be pushed and keying for flesh tones and blown out sources are way better. The old sensors could only be pushed upto 1600-2000 ISO on the 5D and 1250 on the 7D without getting blocky grotesque noise on the footage. On the CSR shoot, I pushed the Mark III to 3200 ISO without getting any of that. Finally, all the commercials were either shot outside in destructive Dhaka summer heat or indoors in small spaces with Tunsgten lighting.....i.e. crazy hot temperatures. The number of times I had to turn off the camera because of the heat sensor warning = 0. Simply amazing. Oh yeah, where's the aliasing issues?? Its still kinda there, but vastly improved. Overall, the 5D Mark III made me again think about digital camera technology and the direction where the companies are headed. Personally, I think Canon, with their DSLRs and the new EOS C300/C500 is headed the right way by listening to what their customers (i.e us DPs) are saying and making cameras that don't need a backup or don't cost a fortune. Apart from the Rode Video Mic, this is the only piece of equipment that I would put my reputation at stake due to its price, performance, reliability and finally, form factor.

The other toy I recently got was the Zeiss 35mm 1.4 Prime. What can I say....its worth the arm and leg you're gonna be spending on it. I love it so much, I shot about 80% of the "Reckless Driving" CSR with it, something I've almost never done, but played to my idea of using odd angles, like barreling a face on closeups and also, lighting an entire wide shot by ambient (and natural) moonlight and a small oil lantern (affectionately known as a "hurricane") with an ISO setting of 1600. WTF indeed.

In a shoot where the budget was tight, I saved the production from spending anything on lights. All of the outdoors stuff was shot without any artificial lighting. One outdoor part was shot in gloomy weather, again with no lights and the director and client were worried about the footage. Once they saw it back at the editor's desk, big sighs of relief were head. Most of the indoor lighting, especially inside the bus consisted of a KinoFlo 2 bank as a fill.

Here are some snaps from the first 2 CSR shoots, "Reckless Driving" and "Poisonous Fruits". Notice the dynamic range, which I measured to be around 11 stops, about a good full stop above the old 5D/7D. The good thing that Canon's been working on with this camera (and from Vince Laforet's Mobius, shot on the C300) seems to be the sensors' handling of the highlights. While it doesn't roll off like an Alexa, it still looks way better than the old DSLRs and REDs. No nuclear blow outs.

I'll post the other 2 CSRs once they've gone on air. They are almost done, just awaiting approval. The other ad we finished was a Radhuni Spice commercial, where I did get proper lighting and a dream set....a real supermarket. We went in after they had closed down and it was an awesome experience. The first air conditioned set in Dhaka I've ever been in. My friend Dave is visiting from Texas, so he also got a taste of the Bangladeshi Media and the "local talent" (as well as her twin sister). The young actress seemed real happy the Texan was around and vice versa. Every once in a while I'd turn around to talk to people in my crew, only to find them having fun with Dave and teaching him Bengali. I should also add that the shoot was six hours after Dave's 27 hour flight across the Pacific. I'm such a good friend.

So all in all, I'm a happy boy again. Sure I miss my ol 7D. But, 5Dmk3 and the Zeiss primes are an awesome combo. Better skin tones, better bokehs, less (almost no) moire, less time worrying about lighting. I'll be sure to put up the spice commercial to show you exactly what I'm talking about.

Sinking in a Fruity Nightmare

Its not often I start off a post with sad news, but this is most certainly an exception. My lovely 7D, Marisa, recently got stolen the day before the now infamous Panther Condoms commercial. The commercial itself was a pain in the ass itself, troubled more with a DP working with a heavy heart....sniff sniff.

Marisa had become my only true love. After shooting a feature, a short, a reality TV show, a music video and numerous docs and commercials, she had won acclaim from Bolivia (my only true fan there who keeps emailing me....thank you sir) to Bangladesh (where I proved to many nay-sayers that HDSLRs are the way of the future) from people raving about her results. The custom picture profiles I'd toiled hours over, the various hot-rodding and finally the hours I'd spent shooting with her (more than any human feminine counterpart). All gone. I haven't cried since my pet dog KT died when I was 13, even when I broke my first CineAlta. This got me pretty close. I can only hope that the guy who has stolen it, uses it for some good, or at least sells it to someone who takes care of her as much as I did......(fat chance).

The Frayed Kit now lacks its most important member and we ended up shooting the Panther TVC with a rented 7D, the second time for me since the BDDL shoot after I broke the CineAlta. I can't really talk about the commercial itself, but be prepared for a long ass post for that one.

The last commercial I shot with Marisa was Radhuni Kashundi (Kashundi being a local mustard seed sauce of some kind and tastes like wasabi mixed with regular mustard....i.e gross), but apparently is some sort of local delicacy when mixed with fruits, especially the unripe kind. The commercial itself was fun to shoot. All outdoors, with 3D fruits mixed in with some good ol' puppeteering. Let's see if you guys can spot the 3D stuff and the puppets.....wait, does this qualify me to be their Master? Get it? Master? Puppets? Oh well, time to lay off the caffeine.

Helping womenkind.....again

Lately, most of my work seems to be focusing on the feminine variety. Last month was the pro bono for Maya (btw, they finished within the top ten bracket of the BRAC competition, so congrats to the Maya team for that) and last week was an AV project, or short in my terms, a short film. The product was Senora Women's Sanitary napkins, a product I almost have no idea of. My clients wanted a short film, that they would show in schools across the country to tweens so they have knowledge of the subject. Since, I snored through most of my high school biology class and never took the subject for O' Levels or in college, I'd get some education too.

I was more interested in the "short film" part, where we would show 3 girls - a tomboy cricketer, a "diva" dancer and a go getter aspiring reporter. After establishing the status quo, we'd show them hit their first menstruation period and all the drama that unfolds etc etc. This would be followed by an informative segment with a OBGYN doctor explaining the situation to them, in turn explaining it to the school children who'd watch this.

The film was shot in 2 parts. One part in Dhaka and the other in Pabna. Pabna is where the famous mental institution of the country is located. I was happy we were shooting there at first, since I wanted to check that place out, as well as get a psych evaluation myself. Somehow, I'd feel at home there.

The Dhaka part didn't start off smooth. The first segment was in a slum, where me and Marisa (my 7D) on a steadicam ran through tight corners following the young aspiring reporter and my awesome production manager Ripon, cameoing as her sidekick cameraman. The next segment was in these "shooting houses" that I hate so much. My regular gaffer is off on movie duty for some guy, so I had to make do with my old gaffer, I'd stopped working with a long time ago. Funny how not working for one year makes someone completely forget everything you taught them. The lighting for this segment was horrible. We got the required shots, but I called in the entire light crew and told them that their services were no longer required. However, cooler heads prevailed and they were rehired.

The next day we shot right by my house in the Russian Cultural Center auditorium. After the night before, I setup the lights myself. The first shot I took was probably the best shot I'd ever taken. It was an homage to David Fincher's last segment form the Curious Case of Benjamin Button, as best I could with less than 20% of the lights. The rest of the shoot was great as well. All steadicam inside the auditorium.

After the "better" day of shooting we wrapped up and went to Pabna, my first visit to the area. I really didn't have any time to scout the area out so we just shot in areas where the scouting team went. The best part was shooting a cricket match in a stadium filled with hundreds of people. BTW, the Pabna sun is devastating. I was baked for the entire shoot. Marisa gave me several warnings of overheating, so I had to shut her down and restart every now and then.

We shot 2 complete days in Pabna and then hurried our asses back to the capital. I spent the next day editing the footage, not trusting the peeps who had cut the first version of the Nesfruta commercial (which I ended up editing btw, both the 30 sec and 20 sec versions, since the first versions were horribad and got ripped apart by the peeps over at Bitopi). In house editors in this country, are, well....just sad. I also did the soundtrack, which means just selecting premade jingles in Logic Pro, ROFLMAO....and the director actually liked them....who said life was difficult?

SO after 6 hectic days, the AV/short film/school infomercial is up. I'm off to bed and a bottle of single malt. After these feminine crap I need to make an AXE commercial or something about some "player" dude.....but I've just been informed that one of the next projects will be about..........CONDOMS!!!