Footage from a feature film shot with bmcc

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Taylor Camarot

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Footage from a feature film shot with bmcc

PostSat Oct 25, 2014 12:33 am

Hey bm community,

A few months ago I posted on here asking about how to manage RAW data while shooting a low budget feature ($55,000), on which I was dp. Well, thanks to a lot of awesome responses we made it through great, without losing any footage or breaking the bank on harddrives. Here is some footage from the film (about 85% of the video is from it, the entire reel was shot on blackmagic though).



We had 3 8tb thunderbolt g-drives, and 3 LaCie 5Big drives. We ended up shooting about 15tb, allowing for three copies of the raw footage plus dailies and audio files (each 5Big was paired with a g-drive). The DIT and I did everything in Resolve, using its checksum file checker to verify all of the data was copied correctly, its color correction for dailies, and even used its (slightly barbaric) editor on set to cut together some of our more complicated scenes, being sure we always had the coverage we needed. The editing feature definitely needs some work, but for a quick and dirty cutting software that will edit our RAW files natively, it worked great.

We shot mostly with one fully rigged bmcc, sometimes with two for effects heavy days. We used the cameras with the speedbooster and zeiss Super Speeds, and the new Otus 55mm. We put these cameras through the ringer, using cranes, car mounts, countless dollies and a ton of steadicam. The only issue we started having was with the weakness of the lens mount, where it wouldn't fit as tight on the lenses and the Bartek follow focus would not bite the lens properly all the time, even with a lens brace. This was more of a minor annoyance than anything, and the only solution would to be using camera equipped with a pl mount.

Anyways, I'd love to hear what you guys think of the look of the film or the process we took!
Taylor Camarot Cinematography
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Simon Lloyd

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Re: Footage from a feature film shot with bmcc

PostSat Oct 25, 2014 6:03 am

Great looking shots -

On set. were you using Mac Pro?

S.
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Axel Roldos

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Re: Footage from a feature film shot with bmcc

PostSat Oct 25, 2014 12:14 pm

Hi there,

I am relatively new to the craft and i've been doing a lot of scouring and reading and learning lol. This may not mean much coming from an amateur, but I found the film to be really impressive. I hope I can learn to create footage as nice as that.

And this was made using the BMCC?
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Rolfe Klement

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Re: Footage from a feature film shot with bmcc

PostSat Oct 25, 2014 12:47 pm

Looks great.

What DIT spec computer were you using to edit on set?

What was the budget split between the depts? Actors, Crew, Lighting, Camera, Post etc

thanks
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Taylor Camarot

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Re: Footage from a feature film shot with bmcc

PostSat Oct 25, 2014 2:12 pm

Rolfe Klement wrote:Looks great.

What DIT spec computer were you using to edit on set?

What was the budget split between the depts? Actors, Crew, Lighting, Camera, Post etc

thanks



The DIT was using the 12 core new mac pro. It had an upgraded video card and ram but besides that not much else. It was able to handle RAW editing perfectly, no dropped frames.

I couldn't say exactly where the budget went as I was just Dp, but it was roughly split to $22,000 for crew, $17,000 for talent, $16,000 for everything else (locations, crafty, effects, etc.)

I do believe they had a separate budget for post but I don't know what that was
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Scott Stacy

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Re: Footage from a feature film shot with bmcc

PostSat Oct 25, 2014 5:57 pm

Hey Taylor,

This looks really nice! Well done.

Was your DIT using Resolve 11 to edit with on set? Also, regarding exposure. Were you using a light meter, UltraScope software, BMCC zebras, or all three methods?
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Taylor Camarot

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Re: Footage from a feature film shot with bmcc

PostSat Oct 25, 2014 6:02 pm

Scott Stacy wrote:Hey Taylor,

This looks really nice! Well done.

Was your DIT using Resolve 11 to edit with on set? Also, regarding exposure. Were you using a light meter, UltraScope software, BMCC zebras, or all three methods?


Yes, the DIT was using Resolve 11. I used a light meter to prelight a scene, and then used false color and waveforms/histogram while filming to be sure I was maintaining lighting continuity.
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Scott Stacy

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Re: Footage from a feature film shot with bmcc

PostSat Oct 25, 2014 6:43 pm

Taylor Camarot wrote:
Scott Stacy wrote:Hey Taylor,

This looks really nice! Well done.

Was your DIT using Resolve 11 to edit with on set? Also, regarding exposure. Were you using a light meter, UltraScope software, BMCC zebras, or all three methods?


Yes, the DIT was using Resolve 11. I used a light meter to prelight a scene, and then used false color and waveforms/histogram while filming to be sure I was maintaining lighting continuity.


Thanks! I have been wondering about the different in exposure values between the UltraScope values, which I believe are off the sensor vs. false color which for me is off SDI output into my SmallHD monitor. Do you, or does anyone else on here, know the answer to this question?
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James David

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Re: Footage from a feature film shot with bmcc

PostSat Oct 25, 2014 7:47 pm

this looks like it could be one of the best 2.5k examples so far. Now I wasn't convinced about the ZSS but am wondering if those lenses have anything to do with it or were previous examples of it just badly used.
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Taylor Camarot

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Re: Footage from a feature film shot with bmcc

PostSat Oct 25, 2014 8:37 pm

James David wrote:this looks like it could be one of the best 2.5k examples so far. Now I wasn't convinced about the ZSS but am wondering if those lenses have anything to do with it or were previous examples of it just badly used.


Thanks for the compliments James. I'm personally a huge fan of the super speeds when working on a tight budget. They have great contrast, are very sharp and obviously fast. Sure, they don't compare with $30k-$40k master primes, but for $4k they make a great bargain. I don't think people are aware that with very high end glass (like panavision primos or master primes), you aren't getting a lens that looks 15X better than cheap stills lenses. You are paying for reliability, consistency, and ease of use. If you don't need that or can't afford it, super speeds will cover you perfectly without a huge lose in cinematic look.

5 of the shots in that video were shot with the $20,000 Zeiss ultra lightweight zoom, and another 5 with the sigma 18-35. The other 95% were shot with the super speeds. In fact, looking back at the reel, almost every shot was with the 35mm super speed (definitely my favorite focal length).
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Scott Stacy

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Re: Footage from a feature film shot with bmcc

PostSun Oct 26, 2014 12:11 am

Taylor Camarot wrote:and another 5 with the sigma 18-35. The other 95% were shot with the super speeds. In fact, looking back at the reel, almost every shot was with the 35mm super speed (definitely my favorite focal length).


It's amazing how well the Sigma holds up against my Zeiss 1.5/35mm SS. All the shots look great. Do you recall what lens you were using for the snow scene?
Scott Stacy, CSI
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HP Z8
RTX2080ti (x2)
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128 RAM
NVME M.2 Samsung 970 2TB (x4)
Resolve 17.4
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Taylor Camarot

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Re: Footage from a feature film shot with bmcc

PostSun Oct 26, 2014 1:30 am

Scott Stacy wrote:
Taylor Camarot wrote:and another 5 with the sigma 18-35. The other 95% were shot with the super speeds. In fact, looking back at the reel, almost every shot was with the 35mm super speed (definitely my favorite focal length).


It's amazing how well the Sigma holds up against my Zeiss 1.5/35mm SS. All the shots look great. Do you recall what lens you were using for the snow scene?


Funny enough those were the Sigma 18-35 at 18mm, WFO. It held up great in my opinion.
Taylor Camarot Cinematography
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