tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76057638548953512092024-03-12T16:47:28.076-07:00MK's Bitchin' BlogMKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13877474502663785570noreply@blogger.comBlogger34125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605763854895351209.post-63069809524408214532013-10-06T13:33:00.000-07:002013-10-06T13:33:35.527-07:00Good Morning Bangladesh, but WAKE UP DHAKA!The last few weeks have been brutal. Straight out of the great Samsung Note 3 shoot, I headed into the double header production of <i>Good Morning Bangladesh </i>and<i> Prank Tank</i>. The first shoot was a pilot for GMB, which is going to be shown to producers outside of Bangladesh. I had wanted to work with the director Ahad Bhai, but the opportunity never came up before. I previously worked with his company as an editor for <i>Botumul</i> and he randomly sent me a Facebook message asking me about DPs in Dhaka. Little did he know, I was one. I also had the chance to meet up with the show's producer Mohammad Miraly, Ahad's cousin. M is an "interesting" dude. Hella funny but hella serious. The star of the show was Paul Telner (www.paultelner.com), a Canadian comedian, who is genuinely one of the funniest people I'd met since Jacob Reed in USC. Another guy I had the pleasure of meeting was the brilliant writer Spencer Walker, a Cali native living in NYC.<br />
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The shoot went great. Even though it was grueling and intensive, it was the most fun I had on set in quite some time. Ahad's direction was great, M was an awesome producer (and actor!), Paul Telner made me laugh so hard that my kidneys hurt and I had to stop shoulder mounting and switch to tripods and Spencer provided us with a gem of a script to work with. Now for the bad part.<br />
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After the Protik Developers TVC, I decided to go with the Sony F3 again. Big mistake. Unlike the US, here, when you rent a camera, you rent the entire system, lenses, tripod, accessories et al. The rental house who gave us the F3 for that shoot, Media Ajantrik, did not have their camera available. So we went with the other companies. Their setups simply put, were pathetic. We used two different companies. The first one, Timeline, carried only one, yes one, lens worth using. The Zeiss 21mm CP.2, which became a 32mm on the F3. I shot 90% of everything with this lens. The other lens that came with the camera were the Sony PL mount primes (the older version). These lenses are complete shit. I'm sorry, if you've used them and think they are good, cause they really aren't. Aberrations galore. They flared even with a small candle held in front. Trash; that is what they are and where they belong. Timeline didn't even setup the camera right when I got it. The tripod plate was sticking out of the shoulder pad and left scars on my shoulder. The camera was too front heavy and since the F3 doesn't even have a proper viewfinder, I had to put my own Marshall LCD on the hand grips and carry the Anton Bauer battery in a backpack. The whole thing was a nightmare. The ACs who came with the camera weren't any better either. They were amazed when I showed them how to sync the record button on the F3 and the Nanoflash recorder, or the fact that shooting 24fps on the F3 didn't mean I had to shoot 1080i60 on the Nano. Timeline is also supposedly the "better" camera rentals out there. Too bad they are never getting a call from me again.<br />
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The next camera that came wasn't any better. This was an independently owned F3. Like the Ajantrik cam, it came with Zeiss ZF glass, thank god. They only had a few of these lenses, so I brought my own ZFs as well. But everything else was a travesty. They brought a PC monitor as the director's monitor that wouldn't work in 24p mode, so I was forced to shoot 25p. The tripod they had couldn't take the load of putting my Anton Bauer battery and the Marshall LCD monitor. You couldn't mount the mattebox and the follow focus together. The hand grips, which they didn't have and I had to bring my own, had to be taken out everytime we went from tripod to handheld. They didn't even carry HD-SDI cables that could be used to hook up monitors. The cable that the Atomos Samurai was hooked up to the F3 couldn't be touched or the signal would cut out. I didn't even dare ask for a filter, so I just brought my own. Truly, if this is what the Dhaka DPs have been working with, I'm appalled these cameras even get rented. Shocking state of affairs. I instantly realized that not having my own camera in a shoot is just a nightmare in Dhaka. My hats go off to Dhaka DPs using these monstrosities and getting great results. No wonder they keep pushing 35mm on the market since the digital camera "packages" (not the cameras themselves) are just garbage.<br />
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They are also by no means cheap rentals either. I hope these rental companies wake up and smell the crap they are serving, because they are not doing anyone any favors. The camera is the most important tool on a set. Without it, you don't have a, well, a picture. It's as simple as that. If you rent out these crap systems you're just diminishing the artists' chances of making something better, all for the sake of business. Rental peeps of Dhaka, you've made your money, now start serving your customers, properly.<br />
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Needless to say, I'm not renting anything anymore, apart from lights, which seem to be the only thing that I can get on set that works properly. Oh well, time to keep shooting with my 5D MkIII until the next big one arrives.MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13877474502663785570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605763854895351209.post-32304698885057365532013-09-25T12:54:00.001-07:002013-09-25T12:54:17.389-07:00Turning the 5D Mk III into a Green (Screen) MonsterMy hiatus from TV commercials has resulted in a very good relationship with the online AV crowd. After the first Samsung promo I did a few months ago, I recently finished up two more. The last promo I shot was based on the intro concept from the movie <i>Juno</i>. Ridwan Hafiz, Innovator (that's just saying cool CEO) of Analyzen, the online marketing company, called me at 1am asking for an idea. While this seems odd to some of you, this is quite normal for the both of us. After a few single malts I called him back and pitched him the idea. He and I are usually on the same wavelength, so he was immediately into it. It took him around 12 hours to get the clients to ok the project as well and when the client happens to be Samsung Mobile, promoting their new Note 3, this was no small feat.<br />
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On my side, I knew I was going to have to shoot a majority of this promo in front of a green screen. I even had some crazy ideas of using the same character passing the Note 3 to himself on a regular basis, via split screens (just like the phone itself!), so he had to move around a lot as well. The Canon 5D Mk III shoots 4:2:0 at 100mbps internally, something which would make life hell trying to key out the green screen. Since Canon recently released the 4:2:2 8-Bit HDMI out for the 5D Mk III, I thought I'd use my trusty old Convergent Design Nanoflash recording XDCAM 422 at 220Mbps I Frame so get a nice key. The camera still recorded internally, just as a backup, since I find HDMI connections very fickle.<br />
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From the shoot, the important thing I found about shooting green screens with DSLRs are as follows:<br />
1) Try to shoot with a low ISO that gives the least amount of grain. My sweet spot was 400.<br />
2) Shoot with a higher shutter speed to avoid motion blur. Instead of the usual 1/50th shutter speed, I stuck to 1/100th. The staccato movement from <i>Juno</i> helped here as well. I'll cover the more about this in the post section.<br />
3) Adjust the white balance. Even though I was using 3200K Tungsten lights, I set the color temperature down to 2900K. This creates a nice separation from the green screen and the actor. <br />
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The shoot went smoothly. The phone was really a prototype, so it had to be handled with extreme care. We even made a Flip Wallet from chart paper, since the leather version is still on its way to the Samsung shelves. We set up the small corner stage in the old Coke factory with a large green screen and churned out the shots. After wrapping up the shoot there, we went to the Samsung Smart Cafe and wrapped up the shoot before sunset.<br />
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Post was a completely different beast. Each footage was animated and rendered out to 10fps from the original 25fps. The actor was given a "paper cut out" like Toner effect with white and black borders. Each element of the animation also had to feel like it was cut out and bordered with black. The videos used from YouTube had to have this effect as well. After 24 hours and many coffee/Red Bull breaks later, I had the finished product. You decide if it was worth it.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/CwgrFvLRUhQ?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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<br />MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13877474502663785570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605763854895351209.post-30448372826366138822013-07-29T10:07:00.000-07:002013-07-29T10:07:22.195-07:00Mid Year updatesIt's sad that I only get to update my blog when I'm running a fever of 101 and suffering from the sniffles and a sore throat. Either ways, I thought I'd update my peeps on some of the things happening lately.<br />
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Firstly, the Protik Developers ad is now online. Since I did not direct this TVC, NDAs had to be respected, so I can't put it up on my website or YouTube channel. However, unless you've been living under a rock or just shun social media, here's a Facebook link:<br />
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=343122355818437">https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=343122355818437</a><br />
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I really liked this commercial, although the link only shows you the Corporate version, which includes some shots and interviews not shown on the TV version. The CGI however is kinda sad. I personally would have out sourced it to my brother in law's firm 1998 Creative in Vancouver, BC. But, the director insisted on going the cheaper route of doing it here. See the previous post(s) about my experience while shooting this spot.<br />
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Then, there's the Samsung AV I shot. This was with a new client Analyzen. Quick back story: Analyzen is currently leading the charge with digital media hitting the social networking sites in Bangladesh. They got over a million hits with their Samsung <i>REXposed</i> shows, which is kinda like our own version of MTV's <i>Punk'd</i>. Needless to say, this company knows what they are doing. I think especially with the youth of Dhaka, online viewers are much more important than the TV stations. None of the 18-30 year olds I know are actually watching TV. They are however almost always logged onto their Facebook and YouTube accounts. The demand for quality online programming is therefore very important and as it turns out less hassle-some, since you aren't dealing with TV channels, which is very, very, very tedious. Also, have you seen the latest TV stuff here? Laughable. With cable and satellite TV channels, youngsters are rarely watching anything on the local channels here. Why would they? Compare something like a Glee, Person of Interest or Mad Men to some of the crap being served on local TV. The government is moaning and whining about our children losing their Bengali heritage. Well, give em something to watch then; something that would make them chose those shows over the cable channels. The movie industry is changing, why should the TV industry fall behind?<br />
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Anyways I digress. Back to the Samsung AV. I met with Analyzen while pitching another show I wanted to put on Facebook, that would be highly interactive with the audience. They loved the idea, but gave me a gig while I was there. This was the AV. Within a week, I made and aired the spot. Here it is:<br />
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=410133112438174">https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=410133112438174</a><br />
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Last time I checked, it had over 5000 likes. Whoa...<br />
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Finally, here's the last update. My short <i>WonderWall </i>finally made it to the top 10 in the Robi Film Festival competition. Not bad for something that was made within 12 hours and had a 0 budget. Big thank yous go out to the actors and the crew. Here's the short:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZKpF-GkIe3o?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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Lots of people loved it, some didn't, some were confused with the down beat ending (thanks Mom). Overall, I'm happy with the response. To my lead actor Tashrif: I'm sorry so many people are hating on you (the character, not the acting) after they've seen the short. But that only means you've done job absolutely brilliantly, since that's exactly what I wanted the audience to feel. You're going places and I'm sure I'm not the only one telling you that.<br />
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That wraps up the half yearly report from yours truly. Looking forward to a great year ahead, full of ass kickings, literally.<br />
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<br />MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13877474502663785570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605763854895351209.post-77704937665365859412013-06-20T10:31:00.001-07:002013-06-20T10:34:18.671-07:00How to make a no budget short and (hopefully) make it goodEver since I started my own production company, I somehow stopped making shorts. Shorts were a part of my life once. It was the easiest way of doing something I loved, making imagery that would not only serve as a statement but somehow create a visual impact, at least on some people. It didn't really have to make sense, but it'd couldn't be one of those pretentious black and white movies with jump cuts involving some naked hot girl eating a raw egg either. I'm not crapping on these "art house" flicks, but they have never been my cup of tea.<br />
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I have worked on shorts after opening Damage Inc. (mostly as a DP), both here and in different places abroad, but they were produced and directed by someone else. This created somewhat of a mismatch. While some of the directors wanted something I cringed at, I still did it. I even wrote a short (and was the DP as well) and that project ended up in a total disaster. I wanted a Fight Club meets Girl Interrupted kinda flick, but thanks to the director it ended up being a Victoria's Secret TV spot meets some tourism advisory advertisement on YouTube. Ever since then I actually stopped doing shorts all together.<br />
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Recently, Robi Axiata Ltd. announced that they were hosting an online short film festival. I had seen the advert on Facebook, but my schedule prevented me from even thinking of making a short. I kept thinking though, what if I made one, where I would pretty much do everything, except act in it. I recently watched "<i>Side by Side</i>", a documentary about the digital revolution happening in the cinema industry (btw, I highly recommend that you watch it as well). One of the things they talked about was the Dogme 95 approach taken by Danish filmmakers Lars Von Trier and Thomas Vinternberg. Let me first say that I'm not a big fan of either of them, but I really liked the initiative they took. The Dogme 95 had a set of 10 rules that filmmakers must adhere to. So, I decided to make my own "Dogma". The Dogma 13 if you will. These rules had to be followed for my short. They were:<br />
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: inherit;">1. <!--[endif]-->Shooting
must be done on location. Props and sets
must not be brought in. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: inherit;">2. No ADR (i.e dubbing). If you can't get the sound on location, use something else.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: inherit;">3. <!--[endif]-->The
camera must be hand-held. Any movement or immobility attainable in the hand is
permitted.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: inherit;">4. <!--[endif]-->The
film must be in colour. Special lighting is not acceptable. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: inherit;">5. <!--[endif]-->Optical
work and filters are forbidden.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: inherit;">6. <!--[endif]-->The
film must not contain superficial action.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: inherit;">7. <!--[endif]-->Temporal
and geographical alienation are forbidden. (That is to say that the film takes
place here and now).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">8. No one gets paid.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">9. No crazy SFX/VFX and relighting shots in grading with power windows are not permitted.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">10. Down beat endings only (thank you David Fincher).</span></div>
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<br />
I had cooked up a few stories. One that included one about the Joker (yes, the Batman one), one that included a man who had a wild and crazy drug induced night and has to remember how he ended up being chased by Dhaka's mobsters (yes, the Hangover) and one which was an entire short done on one take. But, I decided to take things further. One of the best writers alive today is my buddy Lance Hobbie. So I thought I'd have him write the script without even knowing the Dogma 13. Whatever Lance wrote, I'd have to make but still stick to the rules. So if he wanted to show someone jumping off a roof, I'd literally have to shoot that, with practically 0 money in my budget. Thankfully, Lance's script didn't do anything crazy. It was a story about how a couple that met online "sees" each other for the first time. I know so many people who have met after dating online, yet what if when they saw each other and they ended up being someone completely different. You know you love the person inside, but do you really judge a book by its cover? I only changed a small (and yet big) detail. Lance originally had one of the couples be a paraplegic. I changed her to be a mute. It changed the dimensionality a little bit more, I think.<br />
<br />
With my schedule being what it has been lately, I only had 24 hours to finish the 5 minutes or under movie. My friend Maleeha and I were talking about making the short and she suggested using two of her friends to act in it. They were only available for a few hours the next day. Somehow, I decided to shoot it anyway. My team was consisted of me, Maleeha and the two actors. I decided to shoot on my 5D MkIII and the Zeiss lenses (35/50/85/100 and the 21 for just one shot). We shot inside a local cafe, where we didn't even have permission, but the manager said we could do it before the owners came in for lunch. This meant around 2 hours. We paced through the entire indoor sequence within an hour. The outdoor sequence took about thirty minutes.<br />
<br />
During post, this was the first time I didn't enter Davinci Resolve after a long time. I didn't want to change the color tone that was I had shot in, which was 5700K with a green channel shift. With the coolness from the Zeiss, this gave a me a very nice cold feel. Increased contrast, timed the exposure, saturation and brought back some skin tone using Colorista II. I decided to use FilmConvert Pro, a new software I had just got that emulates film stock. I went with the Kodak 250D preset throughout. Originally, I also wanted some voiceover. But I find voiceovers boring. So I went with another way of getting the characters to chat to each other. Finally, I required a title. I had Ryan Adam's cover of "Wonderwall" on my head as the background song for the short. It worked so well, I decided to name the short that.<br />
<br />
Here are some screen caps.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK3Caoh92qj7zg93BIpJ1xbK0vwigj4GhWfVnbsylvbMZ7nF6iJzeTZkVpjfBFHsnETlvMpYhxZXFUDkhFIOUlu2Kdi1GRNZ85l6BxRsedT9RgmB3LcmWpzqEPRP7efnD_28uk1flZxNVZ/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-06-20+at+11.03.39+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK3Caoh92qj7zg93BIpJ1xbK0vwigj4GhWfVnbsylvbMZ7nF6iJzeTZkVpjfBFHsnETlvMpYhxZXFUDkhFIOUlu2Kdi1GRNZ85l6BxRsedT9RgmB3LcmWpzqEPRP7efnD_28uk1flZxNVZ/s320/Screen+Shot+2013-06-20+at+11.03.39+PM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEnMap27Bzif6gB6B15aHrQveeauVrKThidF2b8ESofoR20pdkHrWwDpZS-QHkgHj9WWjgFx0saaT7KOPyizHXjRq3mRJGmA0CYmSX417mcDnnNStNkWuk0cKK-8aY2xLhU1ttwDqV4P2o/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-06-20+at+11.03.56+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEnMap27Bzif6gB6B15aHrQveeauVrKThidF2b8ESofoR20pdkHrWwDpZS-QHkgHj9WWjgFx0saaT7KOPyizHXjRq3mRJGmA0CYmSX417mcDnnNStNkWuk0cKK-8aY2xLhU1ttwDqV4P2o/s320/Screen+Shot+2013-06-20+at+11.03.56+PM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJhn-F-R3ZDr-6s4WLQmkCMcJJVPnUxEAI8lYg9Sbd68ScuPI_ZfVNads6IkLjI5HBjt8qFO3ve-ET-_Ijw5HlgKBCY_aGuWBU2nGUZ892WPmJbgG-PXnpHhstp7jSGOT2ME8mepkOCBZe/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-06-20+at+11.04.46+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJhn-F-R3ZDr-6s4WLQmkCMcJJVPnUxEAI8lYg9Sbd68ScuPI_ZfVNads6IkLjI5HBjt8qFO3ve-ET-_Ijw5HlgKBCY_aGuWBU2nGUZ892WPmJbgG-PXnpHhstp7jSGOT2ME8mepkOCBZe/s320/Screen+Shot+2013-06-20+at+11.04.46+PM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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If you'd like to see the short in its entirety here's the link, just make sure you like it :)<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/hobeRobi/?sk=app_483607791688751&app_data=72">https://www.facebook.com/hobeRobi/?sk=app_483607791688751&app_data=72</a><br />
<br />
(just in case the link doesn't work, lemme know and I'll look into it)<br />
<br />
If you vote for it, I'll be your biggest fan.</div>
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<!--EndFragment-->MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13877474502663785570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605763854895351209.post-91574033208115352622013-05-19T04:45:00.003-07:002013-05-19T04:55:08.949-07:00Nature, animated birds and the Sony F3<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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?</div>
<br />
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".<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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:<br />
<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXSlF10Y6JMV3hQ_S3MtB-1lXpFkaVrjk4IocMJD0ijaMDBcnYYbct4qELyAI4hUUKJEFc6H2_xgMUmGnJLpqUZVVpxK0jU2I2oDOdG-Qjm-VyPFPNGJpq8sPTyVqAPrXednn1pSxMLfWW/s1600/Screen+shot+2013-05-19+at+4.55.20+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXSlF10Y6JMV3hQ_S3MtB-1lXpFkaVrjk4IocMJD0ijaMDBcnYYbct4qELyAI4hUUKJEFc6H2_xgMUmGnJLpqUZVVpxK0jU2I2oDOdG-Qjm-VyPFPNGJpq8sPTyVqAPrXednn1pSxMLfWW/s320/Screen+shot+2013-05-19+at+4.55.20+PM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNMx44v7sT1yVlVLN-Pxk6YrIrO60K5lxPHe369TQMMY2flZBY2Cjj3_XAPL-FD3KGofi4OcB_UlA5rQPgTMGqieCBEti_uIJjgDsnaSIJIAKUrnXmDPIRkX1leX63csB7HUqlKUsW_9dN/s1600/Screen+shot+2013-05-19+at+4.56.22+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNMx44v7sT1yVlVLN-Pxk6YrIrO60K5lxPHe369TQMMY2flZBY2Cjj3_XAPL-FD3KGofi4OcB_UlA5rQPgTMGqieCBEti_uIJjgDsnaSIJIAKUrnXmDPIRkX1leX63csB7HUqlKUsW_9dN/s320/Screen+shot+2013-05-19+at+4.56.22+PM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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The raw images from the F3.</div>
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F3 footage with grade applied</div>
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For the rain and storm parts I shot mostly with a polarizer and 0.6 ND combo. Here are some shots:</div>
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Ungraded</div>
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Graded</div>
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.<br />
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F3 with 50mm (75mm) Zeiss (Custom warm profile 3200K)</div>
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5D3 with 35mm Zeiss (Neutral profile 3200K)</div>
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F3 with 18mm (27mm) Zeiss (Custom warm profile 5700K)</div>
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5D3 with 21mm Zeiss (Neutral profile 5700K)</div>
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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.<br />
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<br />MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13877474502663785570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605763854895351209.post-58285035128399006062013-04-30T01:41:00.001-07:002013-04-30T01:41:24.599-07:00The One Man Band....and Dynamic Ranges of the 5D Mk III<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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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.</div>
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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.</div>
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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.</div>
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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</div>
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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Here's the entire ad:<br />
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<br />MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13877474502663785570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605763854895351209.post-76929716579862109092012-08-16T17:55:00.002-07:002012-08-16T17:55:40.210-07:00How to make a commercial in 48hrsThe 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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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<br />MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13877474502663785570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605763854895351209.post-31584157232536543902012-07-11T12:41:00.000-07:002012-07-11T12:41:31.424-07:00Things 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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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 <i>Judith. </i></div>
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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.</div>
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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.... </div>
<br />MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13877474502663785570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605763854895351209.post-70155728460962389142012-07-05T15:24:00.003-07:002012-07-05T15:56:49.337-07:00CSRs, Super Markets, Milburn and OliviaSorry 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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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 <i>Mobius,</i> 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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13877474502663785570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605763854895351209.post-61573359874303860112012-05-19T09:51:00.001-07:002012-05-19T09:51:57.413-07:00Sinking in a Fruity NightmareIts 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.<br />
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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).<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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<br />MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13877474502663785570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605763854895351209.post-30467582512252133312012-03-28T12:21:00.001-07:002012-03-28T12:26:22.374-07:00Helping womenkind.....againLately, 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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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 <i>Curious Case of Benjamin Button, </i>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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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?<br />
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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!!!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpHP2MggvyazX3VHal4IZY0yzWqBpVSjY5T6Z8UX6NUoqp23dWYuuH_30TVlkSFW6AMKzr8KV0WvCo3fwrgLep5sRguOvsVNRX3T7wxdFjyWPAm5mvYmRbvKSeEkwnEYcVycoUjYQzafUy/s1600/Screen+shot+2012-03-29+at+1.19.47+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="137" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpHP2MggvyazX3VHal4IZY0yzWqBpVSjY5T6Z8UX6NUoqp23dWYuuH_30TVlkSFW6AMKzr8KV0WvCo3fwrgLep5sRguOvsVNRX3T7wxdFjyWPAm5mvYmRbvKSeEkwnEYcVycoUjYQzafUy/s320/Screen+shot+2012-03-29+at+1.19.47+AM.png" width="320" /></a></div>MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13877474502663785570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605763854895351209.post-70679733614338220992012-03-27T10:05:00.000-07:002012-04-21T10:39:42.498-07:00Its raining peas....hallelujah....Yes, I like that Geri Halliwell song....she's hella hot in that video. But enough about Ginger Spice....my new friends at Burnt Sienna hired me again to shoot their new TV Commercial for Ruchi Chanachur (chanachur, my LA friends is a local snack made from fried dough, nuts and in this case, green peas).<br />
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The director, N. I. Raju wanted the entire TVC to be shot in slow motion. It would be a great opener for my new RED Epic, except half the parts are still in backorder. So we went through with my 7D shooting 60fps in 720p and a shutter speed of 1/2000. With a little help from Twixtor, the test footage ended up winning over some hearts. Shooting began in Jahangirnagar University right outside Dhaka. All outdoors.<br />
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The script was simple. Hot chick walks through campus, while getting the attention of some hunk. Hot chick opens a pack of "chanachur" and it starts raining peas all over, including a guitarist's "huddle", a couple enjoying their tea, some bros playing basketball, a businessman in his car and finally some random chick in a roof.<br />
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We ended up shooting a ton of footage around the campus and even on my own roof and drenched all the locations with green peas. The idea was to shoot the footage with real green peas as well as CG'd 3D ones done in post. The latter was a bad idea.<br />
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Its hard to believe that CG artists here can't even get peas to fall from the sky without making it look fake. Oh well, not my concern. The other stuff looked fine.<br />
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</div>MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13877474502663785570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605763854895351209.post-67888545359396487802012-02-29T15:26:00.002-08:002012-03-26T07:57:18.989-07:00A New Hope2012 has already been stressful. Losing face in front of clients leading to losing business partners. I was about ready to do the solo thingy again, before an old friend Rudry Ripon, my old production manager decided to give me a call. Shortly thereafter, I met my new clients, along with six new projects.<br />
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The first one was a television commercial for local agency powerhouse Bitopi. Have heard a lot about them, never worked with them. Ripon had started working with a new production house Burnt Sienna, who acquired all these projects. So I agreed to do the commercial, not knowing much about the production itself, a first, but it paid off soon. The only thing I knew was that it was about Nestle's new powdered orange drink and Tang's competitor, "Nesfruta".<br />
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Working with Nicole (my CineAlta) and having the newly sired JERICOs beside me, I finally started the shoot at the old Coca Cola factory that has been converted to sound stages. My gaffer and I decided to go with an old-in-the-US-but-new-trend-in-Dhaka system of hanging metal pipes on top and then hanging lights from them. The director, renowned maker Mr Raju, wanted a golden sunset tone indoors, so all tungstens. After the shoot I got congratulated by the head of branding from Bitopi about the lighting. A first again, I might add, while I toot my own horn. The Bitopi peeps were really cool and they all seemed happy, well with the cinematography at least and hopefully the final product, even though I'm not editing the footage....a first, again. Sadly, my RedRock Micro M2E died right after the shoot, which sucks. Looks like more face time for Marisa (the 7D) now.....still, its the end of a legacy.<br />
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One thing though, the Burnt Sienna peeps were awesome. Rarely was I ever at so much ease while shooting. Props to JERICO Fayaz who assisted me like a champ both days. My new focus puller was great as well and instantly told me he looked forward to working with me more in the future. So I guess with breaking old partnerships only creates new (better) ones. Hopefully this time these guys won't come back to bite me in the ass.<br />
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Here are the last raw screen caps from the (now dead) system.....sniff sniff<br />
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Now on to finish the other 5 projects, one of which is in Pabna, a place known for its mental institution....mama I'm coming home.....huehuehuehueMKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13877474502663785570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605763854895351209.post-18966623034981730232012-02-19T09:14:00.000-08:002012-02-19T09:16:02.767-08:00Empowering women...new pro bono for 2012Its that time of the year again, where I pretend I'm a good guy and bring out the philanthrope in me. I asked my good friend Abe, if I could do a documentary as a pro bono, for his charitable group the Big Bangs Foundation in Dhaka. Sadly, due to other stuff, Abe and his friends weren't able to squeeze in time for that to happen.<br />
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As most things happen, I got a wall post on FB, from Shahana Siddiqui, sister to an old friend Ashfaque, part time journalist (although her segments are better than the regular journalists themselves) and full time mom and social worker.....oh, and possibly the most liberal person I know of (she is recently being followed by the government for anti-government bashings showing up on her FB statuses.....I kid you not) asking me for my number. Shortly afterwards, I found out that her friend Ivy H. Russell had made a website dedicated to the women of Dhaka. The website www.maya.com.bd, had information useful to women of all ages, from all walks of life and even help for those to wanted to be anonymous and discuss maternal issues and even domestic/workplace and societal abuse. Needless to say, while I was in such a giving mood, I decided to make the 8 min presentation (having never done one before) for BRAC, the local NGO we love so much. it would serve as a pitch, so BRAC would give Maya the funds necessary to take such an initiative forward.<br />
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What followed was a 2 min video, where we would show women, sitting away from each other meet each other, via a "big sister", who would guide them along, until they became self sustainable themselves. It was a 3 hour shoot, with myself directing/dp-ing the 2 mins. No actors, just the people of Maya, including Mrs Russell and the great Shahana Siddiqui herself. The shots were all Fincher-esqe, trying to deal with hopelessness, despair and tragedy, soon blooming to hope and prosperity. I used a dolly, a steadicam and a jib. Marisa (my 7D) and the Frayed Kit, as usual, god I'm love with her......again. No lights, just the ambient stuff from the lounge in Spitfire (local restaurant) where I changed the bulbs to something more brighter (for some reason good restaurants here are very dimly lit).<br />
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The later part was an interview segment of Mrs Russell and some powerpoint like slides, where I was trying my best to mess with Motion 3. Bickey Russell, her husband, made it easy for me, since he had a clear idea of what the presentations should look like. I even did some of the music, with a <i>Gladiator</i> like jingle that comes with Logic Pro and then a remixed version of Michael Mann's movie <i>The Last of the Mohicans, </i>mixing it with the orchestral accents from <i>The Real Adventures of Johnny Quest</i> (I know, I'm such a brilliant thief) to get that "we shall overcome" theme.<br />
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Here's the video, watch it, learn from it, support it.....please:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://i.ytimg.com/vi/OY0_bQLlfYg/0.jpg" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/OY0_bQLlfYg?version=3&f=user_uploads&c=google-webdrive-0&app=youtube_gdata" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/OY0_bQLlfYg?version=3&f=user_uploads&c=google-webdrive-0&app=youtube_gdata" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object></div>MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13877474502663785570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605763854895351209.post-50721274082938342682012-02-09T11:02:00.000-08:002012-02-12T08:59:30.693-08:00A Fincher FANaticRecently some of you have emailed me about why one name keeps popping up on almost every post I've ever made. Those who have worked with me know that I bring his name up every time I talk about a great tracking shot, a gruesome story, a dark (pun intended) way of lighting, snappy edits or even a way of using more takes than usual.<br />
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Ever since I thought of pursuing a career in film/TV and re-watched "Fight Club", I was almost dumbfounded. When I first watched it when I was a kid, about 16, it was a cool movie. The ending was great, the premise/plot was cool and hey, I wanted that Brad Pitt eight pack and beat the crap out of anyone. When I watched it again, with all the knowledge of the George Lucas School of Cinematic Arts instilled in me, it was so much more than that. I think I've watched that movie at least once every month after that. Why? Because for me its the perfect movie. What is the perfect movie? The movie that offers everything and is not ashamed to hide anything. The social commentary is off the charts. Released in 1999, the political notion of Project Mayhem still resonates today, with the global economy crumbling and privatization and corporation out to take out the smaller dogs. Wanna fix this? Take out all the big shots and start again, from the rubble. I think I've moulded my life from what Tyler Durden says throughout the movie. One great piece of dialogue I'll never forget:<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><i>"I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off</i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"> "</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">People ask me why I named my company Damage Inc. (apart from the fact that I'm a Metallica nut), but the idea is Tyler Durden's. The Dhaka media scene is so messed up, you gotta start damaging the big guns with all the aces and then rebuild the "scene" from the ground up. New faces, new dogmas, new material. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Now lets talk about the movie itself from a cinematic viewpoint. The cinematography and editing was brilliant (that opening sequence was hella awesome), Ed Norton became my favorite actor, the music was great and who knew Meat Loaf could act? I'm no Roger Ebert, so I can't explain how great the film is, so if you haven't seen it, please do so. I think its film making at its best.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Fight Club was only the beginning. There are other almost equally great films: Se7en, Zodiac, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (which was a far superior film than Slumdog), The Social Network (far better than the King's Speech) and recently, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I don't even know how many times I've seen these movies. Each time, they only seem to get better. Most of the shots, edits, color grades, stories I do have these movies written all over them. I made a camera rig just to take some of those shots and even named it after him. Rob Zombie once said, "Every guitar riff in metal is based off a Black Sabbath riff". I can easily say, "Every shot I've ever taken is based off a David Fincher scene."</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I've had the pleasure of meeting the man himself and it was the best 20 minutes of my entire life. We talked the entire time about nothing but his philosophy of cinema. Why he made the move to digital and RED, why he thrived in making dark and dismal thrillers and how he said FU to the big shots of Hollywood and made his own "my way or the highway" attitude. Inspirational. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">He's also introduced us to so many new things we would have never been aware of. The new kid playing Spiderman, Jesse Eisenberg being a household name and before her OSCAR nomination for the portrayal of the US version of Lisbeth Salander, when did you hear of Rooney Mara? Using NiN man Trent Reznor for brilliant scores and making him win an OSCAR in a category reigned mostly by classical musicians, sheer genius. There is so much more I can babble about him. Most people are convinced I'm in love with him. I may indeed be. If someone says they don't care much of his films, I usually never even talk with them, let alone work with them. All I can say is that without David Fincher, I would never be who I am today.</span></span><br />
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</span></span></span>MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13877474502663785570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605763854895351209.post-20791017666584671872012-02-07T23:44:00.000-08:002012-02-07T23:44:51.216-08:00And Short Films for all...The last few weeks have been hectic to say the least. I had to take care of some ads that were prior commitments from November. I had to run to at least 20 meetings with some old and new clients in order to finalize the work orders for keeping Feb and March busy. Then there was the process of realizing that I had to stop working with someone I'd worked with for a long time. I think I realized it when another friend told me the real scenario, that this person not caring enough, suffering from indecisions and just doing whatever they wanted just made my company look bad and when high profile clients are involved, that's not a good thing. Finally, there was the starting of the JERICO Initiative, my own little project where I'm going to hire 6 kids to come and get apprenticeships and a film education and get paid for it.<br />
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Amidst this craziness, Bengal Creative Media (BCM) hired me as a DP to shoot a short film called "Stain". The movie was about corruption around the city, believe me there is a lot, targeting the drivers licensing bureau. The director turned out to be a fellow Los Angelino Emily Manthei. BCM is a company that has one of those special places close to my heart (aww.....) cause unlike most other production companies, these guys are doing great things with a shoe string budget and with a zero tolerance policy. I took a pay cut myself as well to help em out.<br />
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Stain was shot on the 7D again, which makes me sad for my CineAlta, which hasn't been used much since the Frayed Kit arrived. We shot on some of the tightest spaces I'd ever been in, which ended up being the licensing bureau. 5 actors crammed into a room not any bigger than half the size of a normal bedroom. I didn't get the luxury of a focus puller or my regular gaffer/grip. Emily also wanted a lot of handheld POV shots throughout the movie, as well as a lot of Fincher style motion. After the 3rd day, when she did find out that focus was an issue and perhaps too much for an MK to handle, I was given my regular focus puller, who ended up dropping my 100mm Zeiss on the ground.....twice. He became the 2nd person that I had to sever ties with that week.<br />
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The shoot ended up being good for the most part. Emily and I really didn't like the main actor though. She was amazed how people don't do screen tests here and just go on "recommendations". The side actors were far better. I guess I did a decent job too, since she asked me to DP her demo short film for her feature film Transnationals, a movie about adopted children the world over. She shot the first 2 parts stateside, but they were set in South Korea and Japan. The third part was here in Dhaka, where a young girl comes back to visit her orphanage, where she was adopted from before her new parents took her back to the US. Shooting began in Banani, DOHS, by a small school near a field. My friend Abe decided to come and help me as an AC, making him the first honorary JERICO. It was the day after the Giants Superbowl win and since both of are Giants fans, the morning started off a lil slow. Halfway thought the shoot, the local "authorities" decided to stop the shoot since the army did not like the idea of a white person shooting anything there. This is so like peeps over at that side of town....bitches. Anyway, I ended up scouting a slum near BCM's building where we finished the shoot. The slum actually ended up being a better more realistic place. Unlike Stain, the girl who acted in this short ( British expat) was really good and her facial expressions were actually dead on.<br />
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Here's the stuff...<br />
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Well now its time to go finish some TVCs, hire some JERICOs and start my pro bono for this year. I'll keep y'all posted.MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13877474502663785570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605763854895351209.post-79678140850431122872012-01-09T14:54:00.000-08:002012-01-09T14:54:40.389-08:00Goodbye 2011, Hello 2012First of all Happy New Year. As I sit and type this blog, I'm reminiscing the great year that was 2011. Sure, it had its lows, but overall 2011 ended up being one of those years that will be bookmarked for sure.<br />
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Lets recap. The year started off my moi getting my first ever gig as a director of a television commercial, something I never look forward to. Then there were documentaries, more commercials, a music video and while on vacation, a reality TV show and a short film (outside of a place I'd call home, with zero scouting). Apart from a few mishaps here and there, mostly successful projects. It reunited me with my LA brothers Lance Hobbie and Shane Glick, finally got to an SC tailgate, had a 20 min conversion with the man himself, David Fincher (where I couldn't put 2 words together without stuttering like a 6 year old Rob Pattinson fan) and of course found a directing "force to be reckoned with" in Sara Baumann. 2011 ended with news of making not one, but 2 feature films in the year ahead.<br />
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Which brings me to these 2 movies. In December I went with old friend and director Jahirul Hasan Badhon to Kurigram, a district north of Bangladesh. We went to shoot the documentary part of the feature film, which will be shot in the pattern of <i>Band of Brothers, </i>so real life interviews of Bangladeshi Freedom Fighters followed by live action dramatized events. The 7D with a Rode Video Mic and Zeiss primes (the now famous "Frayed" kit and slowly becoming my favorite piece of hardware) came along. Kurigram was ummm.....cold. On top of that, I tried the local "delicacies" and got extremely sick. Amidst all of this, we shot over 8 hours of footage in three days, met some real life Bangladeshi heroes and heroines and sadly also got a taste of how people who fought for the freedom of my nation are pretty much lost and forgotten (by their own people I might add) among the hoopla.<br />
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Here are some screen caps.<br />
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</div>The other movie I'm gonna be working on is kinda about 3 stories in one kinda deal ala <i>Amores Peros</i>. Not a remake, not a copy, but 3 different couples brought together by a tragic event. I really can't go into details about this movie, since the copyright issues haven't been solved as the script is being finalized, but believe me, it sounds great. Really stoked about this one, as is anyone who listens to the idea/story. I volunteered to direct one of the segments myself. Hopefully I can get JH Badhon and Sara Baumann to do the other two.<br />
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Moving on to 2012. Apparently, the year we will all vanquish according to those Mayans. What a tragedy that'll be, since 2012 is the year I'm most looking forward to, as a camera gear ethusi....umm...screw it.....addict. If you love digital filmmaking, you're jumping up and down with joyful exuberance. New cameras from RED (new sensors for the EPIC and finally the Scarlet), ARRI (who else's celluloid heart will the ALEXA conquer), Sony (finally 4K CineAltas) and even Canon (C300 people??). If you're a celluloid lover, you're counting down the days till you're gonna have to make the shift eventually, with your film transfer machines, film processing labs getting shelved right next to the Moviola in the local film museum. I'm not the first one to say it, but here it goes again, 2011 was the year celluloid found out it was dying, terminally and 2012 will see digital starting to pull on the plug that controls its life support. The 2 best films of 2012 were shot digitally. <i>Hugo</i> was amazing and <i>The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo</i> was breathtaking. I had a discussion with Lance once about how everything would eventually become digital, where he vehemently opposed my views. Now, like his guru Scorsese, his motto is "who needs film?". I would personally like to congratulate Jim Jannard and the RED team. Had it not been for them, we would still be selling our houses to own a 1080/24p shoulder mount cam that shoots 422 8bit. Downsize, downsize, downsize and we now have a nuclear reactor in the palm of our hands like the EPIC. 444, 16bit, 5K, 120fps at under $50k. Bam!<br />
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Now will come the age of words like aliasing, moire, bit depth and of course my least favorite, ingesting, flying though the air. Unlike choosing film stock (bye bye Kodak and Fuji), DPs will be choosing sensors (by choosing different cams), LUTs and dailies, which will now be hourlies. Good times. The only people who are safe are the Lens guys. All the new cams come with a PL mount option, so cine glass will still have its charm. Zeiss and Cooke are still the big hitters, but new lenses from Leica (the Summix C) and Canon (Cine EOS) will give us more variety. Fujinon and Angieneux are cranking out great zooms.<br />
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So here's to a great 2012. A good friend suggested this title...."Film is dead, but cinema is ever so alive". Thanks to everyone who has read my stupid blog. I hope I given you some insight to the world of cinema and television as I live through it.<br />
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Here's the new 2012 Damage Inc. Productions showreel.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/jhzi8taY90Y?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13877474502663785570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605763854895351209.post-60025122656395159592011-11-16T15:54:00.000-08:002011-11-16T15:59:04.893-08:00Getting Frayed in Traverse City and Sutton's Bay, MI<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">It was a fine late summer day in Dhaka. Sara Baumann decided she was going back home for Thanksgiving. I decided I was going to buy a RED when I was gong back to LA during that same time. As most film ideas happen, the director just had a random thought: "Why don't we shoot a short film in Traverse City?".</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">"Sure", I said, thinking it was just her wanting to shoot like a music video or like a touristy thing.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">What transpired shortly after was a 20 page short film, which was originally going to be shot on my new RED Epic. Thus "The Frayed Ends" was born.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Everything fell apart shortly after. No real producers and finally no real RED, cause the buyer of my old camera backed out at the last possible minute. Yeah, life sucked back then.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">We finally decided to shoot with DSLRs and try our best to come up with something that would show the awesomeness that is Traverse City.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">After the entire Yogi show in LA, I was mentally and physically exhausted, knowing fully that I had more late nights ahead, shooting this short film. I flew up to Michigan. What happened after was truly one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">The entire community of Suttons Bay/Traverse City sort of rallied around one of their own, Sara Baumann, to get this project rolled out. A big shout-out goes to Mr Scott Tompkins, a school teacher who teaches media/TV production to high school kids. He got a group of kids together, who were all crying out for some practical experiences in the field. They all shared a common thing: a love for making films. These kids were awesome. They weren't payed anything. They didn't have any proper experience. They worked their asses off. They never threw hissy fits. They never even thought twice about anything that was told to them. Dhaka, Hollywood are you reading??</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
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</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Everyone in TC/SB welcomed the film. We shot in the winery and the owner gave us access to everything, even his 1970s Ford Truck. We shot in a Lighthouse and the caretakers let us do whatever we wanted. THIS NEVER HAPPENS!! Usually its people being "okay" with shooting and then once the shoot is done, you're greeted with frowns and pissed off peeps looking to score money. Like I said....amazing.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Another awesome experience was getting to meet the Baumanns. Mr Warren Baumann aka "The Mayor" makes the best food, ever. Sorry mom, he wins that battle. I usually don't eat when it comes to shooting, apart from the usual caffeinated beverages, but holy cow was his food amazing. At one point I ate a quarter of a big aluminum pan of chicken pot pie and then licked it too.....spotless.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Ms Baumann and I drove up and down Michigan as well, going to Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids for casting and of course hitting up Zingerman's Deli while I was there. So I think I got more Michigan than I hoped for.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Sidetracking before the filming itself, while we were location scouting, Sara's sis in law, Jetty Rae (aka Britney Stewart) decided she wanted us to film a cover of Pumped Up Kicks. Her husband Jason, a really cool guy, came up with the concept of a sped of slow motion of the video, ala Coldplay's Yellow. One shot, one scene. The video was done in 3 hours....thats shooting, editing and color grading. Here's a look:</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
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</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">The shooting itself was good. I had recently purchased a Steadicam Merlin. Its a thing of beauty. Awesome shots, everytime, well most of the time. I brought my Zeiss primes as well and put them on the 7D. Brilliant images. I'm gonna start not recommending Canon glass to people, as the Zeiss glass is so much more cinematic, better contrast, better sharpness. But then again, they are about 5000 dollars more. Some of the shots don't even look as if they were shot with a DSLR, might I dare say, CineAlta-ish.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">We shot for 5 days straight. The weather was ridonculous. I shot a segment among sleet that hit me square on the face. Oh yeah, that was with a steadicam too. Next time, I'm getting an operator while I'm cozying up with the rest of the crew. Yeah, like thats gonna happen. I only had one light kit. 4 Lowe Totes and 2 small fresnels. The dolly was made by the Mayor, but it worked fine. No jibs. But its when you have absolutely nothing, that the best stuff comes out from you. This being a prime example. My camera crew were awesome. Micah, Jeff and Curtis. They were carved of wood once they passed MK's school of hard knock DP-ing and they never bitched about it either. The art dept. was kick ass, the costume designer was straight (yeah, you heard me) and the make up was freakin awesome. All for free, unless you count smiles, hugs and Mr Baumann's cooking, which is payment enough in my book.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">All in all, a great shoot with great people in a great place. I wish most of the "film communities" I've been in are more like Sutton's Bay/Traverse City. It would make my life much easier. With guys like Mr Tompkins and all those involved helping the young kids out there, I'm sure its gonna go places. Maybe I can even help setup (shameless plugin from the movie) the Jericho Swanson School for Kids Who Wanna Make Good Films and Do Other Cinematic Things Also. Food for thought. Oh and if anyone from Sutton's Bay is actually reading this....you guys need more coffee shops (aka Starbucks) to get us film folk out there.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Here are some snaps:</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
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</div><div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj21xplubBcCSki6lzQC6Mmox7f415cP-_NrqAcarf6CQRm3eWptwCir5er1Pq2-XHZvwTPqsM8sJ3FYuwP2iJSdrNW9R_mVTQJQVfAFngSa0lL9gU6rXOMmVXa-mXlOQITzMQ7lmf4ekpW/s1600/297581_158578690907253_131738633591259_223848_1068452622_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj21xplubBcCSki6lzQC6Mmox7f415cP-_NrqAcarf6CQRm3eWptwCir5er1Pq2-XHZvwTPqsM8sJ3FYuwP2iJSdrNW9R_mVTQJQVfAFngSa0lL9gU6rXOMmVXa-mXlOQITzMQ7lmf4ekpW/s320/297581_158578690907253_131738633591259_223848_1068452622_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>The Merlin kickin ass<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNGX-nadG24hCCtUrWGE8EQa74EefYddLz-csccM_jJ4oFcW35NEQI1cjABRN961_hreQezRQJPN7JsrUbyDdSgl6LeP2sL54faUms1Ac4u2kicyit1TGUsABu90unJLCkUThaoTNdYHC9/s1600/305802_10100992569250083_2205433_67219601_1245778777_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNGX-nadG24hCCtUrWGE8EQa74EefYddLz-csccM_jJ4oFcW35NEQI1cjABRN961_hreQezRQJPN7JsrUbyDdSgl6LeP2sL54faUms1Ac4u2kicyit1TGUsABu90unJLCkUThaoTNdYHC9/s320/305802_10100992569250083_2205433_67219601_1245778777_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> Its cold, see how everyone leaves the DP to freeze<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBV1541QkD11gg_-J3CtQAeoLmEUs7bhxwNj3PxCcSIOVY_rhgBEC0sMatJUt3bJMjGfWNxr4EDcMcfVSBX3WZgGGbm55Wz_war3jzVqJJbY3pbuPtYEFpkflFvv7iohl0DoZf8vXMH0vz/s1600/308222_10100990395616063_2205433_67210039_1251202498_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBV1541QkD11gg_-J3CtQAeoLmEUs7bhxwNj3PxCcSIOVY_rhgBEC0sMatJUt3bJMjGfWNxr4EDcMcfVSBX3WZgGGbm55Wz_war3jzVqJJbY3pbuPtYEFpkflFvv7iohl0DoZf8vXMH0vz/s320/308222_10100990395616063_2205433_67210039_1251202498_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> Marisa, my beautiful<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEissR2rzTagj2WlVx_9pixSpE7p-LvpYAksKA_XYCL2WTtD_Zv7f5FqF7JR62sm-1YE5oZ_Wik2GxTz0iB1otgEef4H5cULqox0-VjgwMDRTfgXtjCbXfmm0shhniPjRJV9PnaNOTIxOiUR/s1600/312792_10100990395910473_2205433_67210042_694377058_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEissR2rzTagj2WlVx_9pixSpE7p-LvpYAksKA_XYCL2WTtD_Zv7f5FqF7JR62sm-1YE5oZ_Wik2GxTz0iB1otgEef4H5cULqox0-VjgwMDRTfgXtjCbXfmm0shhniPjRJV9PnaNOTIxOiUR/s320/312792_10100990395910473_2205433_67210042_694377058_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> Cam crew....FIGHT ON!<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgg4U6WXbeTtR6I8NiHzMTt3k_swSNetZjfeWMteqXpk1pbMwO-vnOBdTE05hg_wa6B44EGr66id9MfeNduUS6PybuxyadFzPcAKa5sAfdl0EFd-4IIahZ4CZTBXbynaPWU1fptu23cjPJ/s1600/373958_10100990396639013_2205433_67210048_1597018042_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgg4U6WXbeTtR6I8NiHzMTt3k_swSNetZjfeWMteqXpk1pbMwO-vnOBdTE05hg_wa6B44EGr66id9MfeNduUS6PybuxyadFzPcAKa5sAfdl0EFd-4IIahZ4CZTBXbynaPWU1fptu23cjPJ/s320/373958_10100990396639013_2205433_67210048_1597018042_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Wrap! The Director is happy she doesn't have to argue with me about epic wides<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeyN792SP144GfGb6_x5Qg8vlDrP_2_boV9c_JWx_H8b3s7y4W0jQiiy5Yw_N_g4rHahVJiHnHrZCo9Igq-BdbiIMScdZ_-14pDFPeYW18J9KHIGlX4JNTyxwt0xVqX9edmWqYpQ-KqFT6/s1600/384675_10100992562623363_2205433_67219533_638941887_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeyN792SP144GfGb6_x5Qg8vlDrP_2_boV9c_JWx_H8b3s7y4W0jQiiy5Yw_N_g4rHahVJiHnHrZCo9Igq-BdbiIMScdZ_-14pDFPeYW18J9KHIGlX4JNTyxwt0xVqX9edmWqYpQ-KqFT6/s320/384675_10100992562623363_2205433_67219533_638941887_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> Grilling the kids<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDwnNSZV4h22B9xn7qfvl_4OD6Ok1UaVSQRXJs0VTe5N25BjOtXfaIvzi1Y1vQpaS4ef4ZVYdiEBjblM6GhsR_XqdzJACQ-a0Lfzf-bJHPfzGUXHDI5zT5K7dqKCu2ajuzNJpKH1UWjOw3/s1600/388808_10100992568606373_2205433_67219592_568392568_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDwnNSZV4h22B9xn7qfvl_4OD6Ok1UaVSQRXJs0VTe5N25BjOtXfaIvzi1Y1vQpaS4ef4ZVYdiEBjblM6GhsR_XqdzJACQ-a0Lfzf-bJHPfzGUXHDI5zT5K7dqKCu2ajuzNJpKH1UWjOw3/s320/388808_10100992568606373_2205433_67219592_568392568_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> Yeah, I'm Steadicam approved<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZlaiQ2JDfSyhyElYpttbhSRqneTMmSgUSUeC_vkrJM9ivLshQDDNoPBfKfeKTRLEMAdUpJBlYjtpsj3XltaWmx77Cc-qvZlw1ua4Oc9DSi5QYquKRNCFESSnxiIDH0ARBnhs4xpqhsklM/s1600/393191_10100992563496613_2205433_67219542_1413610140_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZlaiQ2JDfSyhyElYpttbhSRqneTMmSgUSUeC_vkrJM9ivLshQDDNoPBfKfeKTRLEMAdUpJBlYjtpsj3XltaWmx77Cc-qvZlw1ua4Oc9DSi5QYquKRNCFESSnxiIDH0ARBnhs4xpqhsklM/s320/393191_10100992563496613_2205433_67219542_1413610140_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>When it came to cutting people, it was my job.....thanks Sara<br />
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<span id="goog_2061938340"></span><span id="goog_2061938341"></span>MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13877474502663785570noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605763854895351209.post-82452507184048348212011-11-16T15:02:00.000-08:002011-11-16T15:02:12.575-08:00Yogis...So I finally boarded a plane and left Dhaka, from what seems ages ago to visit LA after almost forever. I was looking for some RnR, some good food and finally some surf. I was greeted by an (almost) wired Lance Hobbie. After the initial chit chat, I found out that Lancelot was shooting a reality TV show about yoga divas living in Venice Beach (aka yoga world central).<br />
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Since Lance was so jazzed about the show and it really seemed like an awesome concept, I volunteered myself to shoot part of the remaining stuff and "oversee" the editing part. If I had only knew......<br />
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Official quote: Yogis are craaaaazzzzyyy.<br />
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I'd heard some of the most ridiculous things ever while I was shooting. Most of them made it to the "sizzle" reel. When I first heard "sizzle" reel, I thought it was a porno thing, but later found out it was only an extended promo, supposed to "sizzle" the viewer to watch some more, or some shit like that. So LA.<br />
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Little did I know that I was going to have to give up almost everything I had come to LA for. Late nights, loads of caffeine (no nicotine though, which I started again btw, due to a moment of sheer stupidity and anger, only to regret quitting it in the first place) and finally hours upon hours of looking through crappy footage taken by the DP used before me and arguing with Lance over what needs to go where. The final result, with some help from the awesome Shane, turned out to be actually something a lot of people in Hollywood are "sizzled" with.<br />
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I got to meet Rainbeau Mars, a former Adidas yoga model and a larger than life character. Rainbeau is quite simply.....awesome. She said I had the light of Budda in my eye, which I think is a good thing. She also loved my shots, which is always a good thing. Also got the opportunity to show the stuff to Lon Rosen, who is the VP of Magic Johnson Enterprises and the manager of Alex Rodriguez, amongst others. What a man...(oh yeah he loved it too)<br />
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Overall, this being my first stint into reality TV land, I was really happy for Lance, who finally had a great thing going. With peeps like Rainbeau and Lon backing up the show, watch for it when it gets picked up soon.<br />
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Here's a rough demo of the "sizzle" reel:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><object width="320" height="266" class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://i.ytimg.com/vi/AfqxvJK_p2o/0.jpg"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/AfqxvJK_p2o?version=3&f=user_uploads&c=google-webdrive-0&app=youtube_gdata" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/AfqxvJK_p2o?version=3&f=user_uploads&c=google-webdrive-0&app=youtube_gdata" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object></div>MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13877474502663785570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605763854895351209.post-88550843707291753132011-09-20T10:28:00.000-07:002011-09-20T10:28:41.872-07:00Seaplanes, speedboats, soccer, chinese food, earthquakes and malnutrition'd children (and director)While the Red One MX/Epic/Alexa/F3 battles in my head were finally put to rest, thanks to some input from Ms Sara Liza Baumann, she did convince me to help her go shoot part of her Save the Children documentary in Barisal, a small town south of the capital.<br />
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I have never been there before, so I really I had no idea what was in store for me. Firstly, I was thrilled to get on a seaplane again, since Barisal only has an abandoned airport and amphibious air transport is currently the safest option to get there. Its been ages since I got on a Cessna airplane (as my faded PPL would indicate). But within 20 mins after taking off in Dhaka, Capt. Emille got us down on Barisal waters. Then came the speedboat that picked us up from the plane. Now these aren't the Scarabs you LA peeps see up by Santa Monica pier either. Think of them as Kawasaki superbike engines put on rickety ass (locally built) mini SUVs, i.e they pack a punch but are unstable as hell.<br />
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We got to the jetty, met the Save the Children peeps and were down in the mud and rain shooting within an hour. This was Ms Baumann's new 5D Mk II's first gig. She decided to name him Max. Along with Marisa (my 7D) we began shooting the doc. The 5D was pretty much the A Cam used for the interviews armed with a Rode VideoMic, on a tripod and the 7D was handheld, shouldermounted by yours truly as the B cam. I came up with a way of making my own steadicam, handheld and shouldermount all-in-one system using a Noga Israeli Arm and a RedRock shouldermount. Change the arm settings to 90 degrees vertical and you have a steadicam with the shoulderpad acting as a balance for the 7D, or the 180 degree horizontal and you have a shoulder mount and finally a V shaped arm making a chest support that helps in unwanted shakes when taking handheld shots. Yeah, ingenious....I know.<br />
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We sometimes shot in the pouring rain and sometimes in extreme heat and humid conditions. Max and Marisa never dropped a beat or frame for that matter. These DSLRs are beasts. Good job Canon. Also, Baumann only had one spare battery and I had none. Only 3 16GB CF Cards were used. We shot for 3 days and ended up with about 200GB worth of data getting every shot that was needed and sometimes even more. Shooting conditions weren't ideal. Lots of mud making movement kinda hard. The indoors were dark, since these houses can only have one 50-100W bulb on at any given time. Having a blonde director made the locals flock over and ruin almost all my steadicam shots. At one time I even had to get on the hood of a moving minivan since we didn't have a dolly. Improvise, implement and execute.<br />
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Then there were the other stuff. You see these UNICEF ads on TV all the time. They show these little kids, suffering from diseases and malnutrition. You feel for them and then move on and do your daily thing. Maybe sometimes you even donate. But when you're 3 feet away from a near dead baby and visibly feel the situation, boy is it different. I try to keep this blog about film related posts (most of the time) but to all those who are reading this, please donate whatever you can to your nearest health organization. I personally guarantee you that: a) it'll be put to great use b) these people really need it and c) you owe it to the world you live in d) I promise to dance in your wedding (which, if you know me, is not an easy thing to get me to do)<br />
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There were some other stuff that happened too. We found a great Chinese restaurant and the waiter was awesome and even served us beer, risking his job (cause local restaurants can't serve alcohol without a license). There was a minor earthquake that freaked out my director. The director herself became anaemic and had me freaked out, so I had to force her to take iron pills (thanks Pops). We took an evening walk through a village neighborhood and the local kids forced me to play soccer with em after I dazzled them with some Ronaldo-like moves on the street. They might have not gotten the chance to see Messi, but they sure got to see some MK. Btw, the tea in Barisal sucks.<br />
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All in all, another shoot done. I was really happy with the results, depressed with the many problems infants face in these remote areas, glad for organizations like Save the Children caring for these kids and with so much time without any internet, without my favorite TV channels on TV and a semi-lonely hotel room, got some insights on the foreseeable future. And thanks to my mom for suggesting a name for the new camera I plan to buy. What is it you ask? Thats a another post for another day.......MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13877474502663785570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605763854895351209.post-34426197718269331722011-09-04T03:52:00.000-07:002011-09-04T03:52:30.520-07:00New camera woes.....even before I get oneHello, my name is Mehran and I'm a cameraholic.<br />
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Its been a week. A week since I've last slept properly and yes, I'm on vacation. Given my line of work RnR is something that I really look forward to. More than 4 hours of sleep is a luxury I can only afford when I'm on vacation. I just quit nicotine too, so that doesn't help. Why do I keep tossing and turning in my sleep? Its easy.....a new camera system I'm about to purchase.<br />
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I've lived on one general principal so far: don't worry about tomorrow, as tomorrow takes care of itself. It has gotten me through relationship issues, exams, numerous "life changing" injuries and any other thing that has been thrown at me. My "code" made me snore off any such challenges. Sleep it off and start again tomorrow and carpe diem baby. Now I can't even do that.<br />
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The good thing is, if you're a digital filmmaker, life cannot be any better. RED has the EPIC and the RED ONE MX, ARRI has the ALEXA, Sony just came up with the F3 and the list goes on. Remember the days you were just happy shooting an HVX? Seems so long ago. Now your camera is a joke unless it has 13 stops of Dynamic Range, 2K-4K-5K, 100+fps.....the list goes on. The bad thing is, when you have about a $100K saved up and all the above are options, which one do you get?<br />
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Two years ago when I bought "Nicole", my CineAlta, the choice was kinda obvious. The EX-1R with an external recorder, Zeiss lenses and a RedRock Micro lens converter. It wasn't crazy expensive and it got the job done, done extremely well. Unlike the RED that was available at the time, it didn't shut down when it overheated in the crazy weather in Bangladesh, or produce "plastic-y" images. It gave a more organic look than the Panasonics and it carried the "CineAlta" name (read my earlier post about the intro of "Nicole" into the Bangladeshi industry against 35mm).<br />
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Now, two years later, "Nicole" is on the verge of being sold, just awaiting on her payment. Once she gets adopted, her new owner will be on his way to renting her out and making bank. While her old owner will have about a month to decide on his next camera that is going to debut in a short being shot in Traverse City, Michigan before coming back with me and residing as the new digital powerhouse in Bangladesh.<br />
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But I digress. The reason I'm writing this blog is because of the anxiousness of the question I'm facing everyday.....what the hell do I buy??? My choice has narrowed down to one of these 4 cameras.<br />
The RED EPIC, the RED ONE MX, the ARRI ALEXA and the Sony F3 with S-Log/444 enabled.<br />
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As a Fincher fan, you'd probably think I was swaying RED all the way. I kinda am. I saw the <i>Social Network</i> (shot on the MX) on the big screen, it looked awesome. I just saw <i>The Winter's Bone </i>and <i>Beginners </i>(thanks Rikhia!!) on DVD, both shot on MX and both looked awesome. Its the closest to 35mm I'd seen in quite some time. Truly, RED finally put a camera out there that I didn't laugh at (not a good thing btw) when I saw the images. So its easy to say that the RED ONE MX is really high on my list. Then RED drops a bombshell by coming up with the new EPIC. It has the same sensor as the MX but, it produces a cleaner image with less noise, Dynamic Range increased by a stop and of course 5K instead of the MX's 4.5K. Plus it can go to 300fps, is only 5lbs, about the size of a DSLR, doesn't chew up the battery like the MX and loads up in 10 seconds, whereas the MX loads up in nearly 2mins. Even Fincher is shooting with em. He's got 5 and along with the MX, he's finished up <i>Dragon Tattoo</i>. So I scratch my plan for the MX and now I'm thinking EPIC. But wait.....further reading.....the EPIC has its own problems. Firstly, it has no playback. Right, no playback, on camera. So to view your last take, you gotta get some external recorder, just for freakin playback. They say that they are working on it and "its right around the corner" and "no hardware will be required", but RED's motto has been "everything we say can change, anytime". So that scares me. Then I think about the first generation of Red Ones (non MXs). They used to have so many problems until RED finally addressed them and finally after 2 years came up with the MX, which truly had better images. Is this gonna happen again with the EPIC? Initial reports say no. The RED ONE MX has made movies (that I love and adore) but the EPIC is currently making movies (<i>Spiderman, Hobbit) <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">that I haven't seen</span>.</i> The EPIC is new. Bugs will appear as it does with anything new. The MX however is tried and tested. As far as image goes, the only thing I can go by are indie shorts on Vimeo that look marginally better than the MX, so not really worth about double the price tag. Sigh....now I'm thinking MX again.<br />
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Then there is the ARRI ALEXA. The camera 35mm enthusiast and Coen Bros. DP Roger Deakins swears by as the celluloid killer. For $80K+ it better kill something, apart from your mortgages. But price isn't the only issue here. In a world where RED is throwing K's at you like Roy Halladay in October (sorry non baseball fans), the Alexa is still 1080p. Good enough for my world but down the line when I'm making (God willing) a movie to put up on a theater? Of course you may argue many 1080p movies have been on cinemas so far (<i>Avatar, </i>nuff said). However, I read more again and find out that for the best possible results, the ALEXA needs to record ARRIRAW on an external recorder, which costs $50K itself. Ouch. This doesn't affect the Dynamic Range of this baby, which btw is ridonculous (its 14 stops, no wonder Mr Deakins loves it so much), but it records (compressed) Pro Res (444 or 422) onto SxS cards. But raw images are so much fun to work with, fun enough for an extra $50K, don't think so. You do get the ARRI name with it though. In this country thats worth its weight in gold (which is kinda high now, as my mom keeps reminding us). In Bangladesh, the name ARRI produces what I like to call, a filmmaker's boner.<br />
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Last, but not least, there is the lil beast from Sony called the F3. Continuing the love I have for the CineAlta series, this baby caught my eye. The "big-daddy" F35 is still one of my favorite cameras. The F3 with the new upgrade that enables S-Log and the 444 output puts it right up there with the F35. At about 1/4th the price. Which means more new furniture for my soon-to-be apartment and possibly more money in my Audi/Porsche fund. The F3 is being hailed by many as the baby ALEXA. It has more Dynamic Range than the EPIC (without the HDRx, which is another story, but from what I've seen HDRx on the EPIC is something I'd stay away from as it makes the final image look kinda bad) and second only to the ALEXA. The F3 is actually more low light sensitive than the ALEXA. I'll need to get an external recorder though, but Convergent Design has the Gemini 444 coming out (interesting story, I got a text from a local camera rental company in Dhaka saying that they already have one, which is weird since the thing is not even out yet....hmmmm.....) which will record uncompressed S-Log/444 from the F3 onto SSDs. All Sonys come with one thing for sure. It'll be bug-less and reliable. Wont shut down even in extreme heat/humidity. But at the end of the day it still is 1080p, just like the ALEXA. Not future-proof.<br />
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So I take into account all these factors and I'm still sleepless and scratching my head. Just talking about the RED (EPIC or MX) made one director start jumping up in joy and start posting on Facebook about shooting on RED. A recent client pushed back my shoot to accommodate the RED, with a nice grin on his face. The guy buying my "old" camera had this to say, "RED!! WOW!! Isn't that camera like ten million taka (or $150K)?" That's what Jim Jannard's company has done. RED now means "business". Fincher, Pirates 4, Soderberg shoots on it, so it must be good. It really is. People here are still mystified by the RED. There are a couple of non-MX Red Ones around here. People have used it and rightly haven't been satisfied. So unless its not an EPIC, they won't understand that its a "new" camera. Then I'm spending 20 mins more just replaying the damn footage as it has no playback. I could get the F3 but there are some non S-Log F3s around as well. Some clients won't even care about the extra features. From a business perspective they'll think about the F3 and the RED ONE MX as its already been here for a while, why pay more (ala the CineAlta syndrome I previously had)? So, I could get the ALEXA and have clients slob all over it and charge ridiculous rates, only knowing that option and the 1080p might also be possible with a camera worth $60K less, so it'll hurt me on the inside. So it comes down to business vs Fincher vs functionality/reliability. As of right now, there are no clear winners. So if you're reading this, please make one for me. Which one would you buy? Oh yeah, I'll need a name for the new cam, whatever it is, got any??<br />
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MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13877474502663785570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605763854895351209.post-22718013656034897282011-08-09T09:03:00.000-07:002011-08-09T09:05:11.524-07:00The "Fincher" Cam and the pouring rainAs all of you probably know by now, I pretty much have a man crush on David Fincher. The man is just well, awesome. Fincher's movies always have some sort of camera tracks that make me go WTF. Most of my tracking shots are pretty much trying to emulate those. Sadly, Dhaka doesn't have the luxury of electric cranes (actually we do have 1 of those, but no "real" operator) as well as a proper steadicam that can mount a 35mm/Digital Cinema cam and have a wireless follow focus unit.<br />
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So, I took in upon myself to build a system that part steadicam/part jib arm and can mount a Canon 7D with a follow focus. The idea is to balance the camera via a counterweight and add handles to it so you can hold the rig with one hand and maneuver the camera (while focusing) with another. It may sound like rocket science, but actually its a semi-easy rig that can allow me to get those Fincher-esqe shots. All you need is balance, just like you'll need for operating a traditional steadicam (heel-toe steps, pivoted on your hip and bent knees).<br />
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Its been raining cats n dogs non stop here, so I could only take it outside for one shoot for about 15 mins, without drenching myself and the 7D. I also tried it inside my parents' living room, so you can check out how to handle the rig in small spaces as well (although the room's kinda big, there are a lot of obstacles and the ambient lighting is more to my liking).<br />
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Here's the vid:<br />
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvEv7gP4GRg">The Fincher Cam</a>MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13877474502663785570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605763854895351209.post-19681133088105122902011-08-06T09:36:00.000-07:002011-08-06T09:36:30.245-07:00Iron Man shoot for RFL PipesSince I got my CineAlta, I always wanted to shoot something that required a lot of CGI, pushing the limits of the 4:4:4 footage. The only problem was the lack of support for almost everything required for such a shoot. No proper green screens, no proper lighting for green screens and more importantly no proper animators. I've seen some stuff that the so called animators have conjured up, but the final product was almost always.......mediocre.<br />
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Recently however, I met a free lance animator, Miss Moushumi, who has since changed my views on Bengali animators. She does what she is told and does it well. A real oddity in the local market.<br />
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Old friend and director Zonayed (aka the "Z-Man" as a good friend nicknamed him) came up with the idea. Basically, just a smaller version of the <i>Iron Man 2</i> "JARVIS" interface, kinda borrowed from Spielberg's <i>Minority Report, </i>where<i> </i>RDJ and Tom Cruise respectively end up using a 3D Holographic Interface. Given a multi-camera environment this is kinda easy to do, leaving it all up to the VFX peeps to take care off. But with a single camera, a one woman VFX crew and limited materials, it was gonna be a challenge. Then again, why else wouldn't I undertake such a risk??<br />
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As always, it started up with the set. We wanted it simple. A desk and a chair. The props were just lab stuff like petri dishes, beakers and other apparatus I forgot the names of. There was only one actor. Everything else would be animated. When we shot the footage without the CG, it looked like the most ridiculous thing ever and the grips were quick to crack jokes. Even amongst the fun, I had to make sure about the positioning of certain shots and the "interaction" with the "interface". So if the actor was pulling up a screen that was blue, I needed a blue key/fill light on his face, so on and so forth. I also wanted the camera moving on every single axis available, since static shots would just be boring. That meant that tracking would be a big issue since the actor was pulling out holographic screens from thin air. All this meant, a lil bit more hard work for lil ol' me.<br />
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In the end though, I was happy with the results. Check it yourself.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><object width="320" height="266" class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://i.ytimg.com/vi/dZQo6_KIf7Y/0.jpg"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/dZQo6_KIf7Y?f=user_uploads&c=google-webdrive-0&app=youtube_gdata" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/dZQo6_KIf7Y?f=user_uploads&c=google-webdrive-0&app=youtube_gdata" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object></div>MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13877474502663785570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605763854895351209.post-8848837971718258412011-06-27T17:43:00.000-07:002011-06-27T17:43:43.172-07:00Grading the 7D footageIf you've read the previous posts about me raving about the Canon 7D, (and I know you have) then you'll probably enjoy this little short I put together with color graded B-Roll footages from various projects I was busy with during the last few months.<br />
2 different Picture Profiles were used for the short. The streets of Dhaka was shot with Marvel Film's gamma setting, while the "latrine" shoot (ie shots of the blue uniform garbed school children) were done with my own custom gamma settings. Both ended up being pretty good.<br />
The last post I put up had the ungraded screen caps from the school shoot. How do the graded cuts hold up?<br />
Notes on the grade itself. I wanted a saturated, gritty and cool tone. Sorta like Fincher meets saturation land. Some of the shots were graded with a yellow diffusion (I kinda wanted an angelic warm glow) over the street children. The wide shots had some sort of gradient applied to them, like a grad filter added in post, mostly for a stylistic effect and somewhat for a way of taking down blown out highlights.<br />
The shots are all jerky run n' gun, no time for checking focus marks, no time for steady cams. Capture the moment as they come, all improvised. So for all you Michael Mann fans.......cheers.<br />
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I do apologize for the low quality. But thats the only way I could get the short to upload on YouTube, without eating into my monthly download/upload cap of 12GB, thanks to my ISP.MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13877474502663785570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7605763854895351209.post-65225985667481386642011-06-23T16:57:00.000-07:002011-06-23T16:57:29.293-07:00Shooting Shit (no....literally) with the 7DCalm down, get your mind out of the gutter, this is Bangladesh. Shooting latrines for NGOs, for Dr Richard Cash is commonplace here. Especially when its free work during a free day (those are hard to come by). Sara Liza Baumann was upto her MPH ways when she decided to shoot some promos about the latrine systems that local NGO BRAC decided to put in public schools across rural areas. Although I was promised a home cooked meal (which I didn't get) for doing this, I decided to do this since I wanted to try out a new picture profile for the 7D and new ingenious idea of using a DIY webcam mic to record interviews.<br />
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Firstly, the ingenious idea of the mic. I hate to toot my own horn but I think I'm gonna make a lot of indie HDSLR filmmakers happy and a lot of mic makers angry. I got a Chinese made Logitech copy of a goose-neck webcam mic, about $5, from a local computer store. Then I stripped the entire mic from the base and cut off the wire. I searched my tool shed and found some old Creative Sound Blaster AWE 32 speaker connectors (same as the stereo 1/8" jack as the mic) and attached those to the mic. Thus I ended up with a goose-neck directional stereo mic with a 10m long jack. Attaching it to the camera, perfecto. Clear sound, perfect for interviews. I didn't know my director didn't want the mic to be in the shots, so for future projects I'd hang the mic from a DIY boom pole. I know, I know, I'm awesome and you're welcome.<br />
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Next, the new Picture Profile. This one was built for maximum latitude with minimum lighting. The skin tones (mids) were also bumped to give more of a yellowish tone off even in overtly green/blue settings. Since the school where we were shooting did not have electricity, ie lights, we had to shoot with ISO's upto 3200. The results?? Here are some screencaps.<br />
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