Blackmagic Forum

Hey everyone,

Just got done doing a 48 hour contest this weekend and have started to look through the footage again. Kinda wondering if it's too dark. Would love your opinion based on these screen shots what you think of it (since I can't release the footage yet). Feel free to be give any kind of input...I just ask that it be professional. =)

well, without seeing it in context, it's impossible to say for sure.

I don't think it looks too dark...

sean mclennan wrote:well, without seeing it in context, it's impossible to say for sure.

I don't think it looks too dark...

Exactly, some films DO look dark. It looks intentional I think.

On a technical level, read the waveform, on a subjective/creative level, looks fine by me

Do you mean dark in light spectrum or in mood? It does feel like drama. But i do not think the footage looks too dark at all.

Hey everyone,

Thanks for the feedback. Yeah I meant the footage. Sorry, I should have been more specific.
Waveforms look fine, all things considered. Metering on set was around 4.0 average. I was checking because I've just had someone tell me they thought it was dark.
And yes, the piece we did for the 48 hour is a drama (well Sci-fi, but it was a drama, haha).

I'll upload the finished piece next week after the screening. Hopefully it comes out ok, haha

Trevor Roach wrote:Hey everyone,

Thanks for the feedback. Yeah I meant the footage. Sorry, I should have been more specific.
Waveforms look fine, all things considered. Metering on set was around 4.0 average. I was checking because I've just had someone tell me they thought it was dark.
And yes, the piece we did for the 48 hour is a drama (well Sci-fi, but it was a drama, haha).

I'll upload the finished piece next week after the screening. Hopefully it comes out ok, haha

Trevor these stills look great! Considering the tension in the piece, being dark helps it. Too dark happens when you can't see the detail you want to emphasize but this is suitably chilling.

Rick Lang
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Thanks Rick!

We were definitely going for a dark look. I was scared we might have gone too dark, and the sensor lines would maybe come though, but I personally haven't seen that in the footage.

Very happy with the results this camera gave. We were on a super crazy shooting schedule, being a 48 hour contest and all, and thus everything was super rushed. Learned a lot on this shoot about this camera, and I think filter softening the image a little is a must. I kept a Tiffen ProMist Black 1/8 in the matte box at all times, and haven't seen any artifacts pop up.

Looks good!

Trevor Roach wrote:Hey everyone,

Thanks for the feedback. Yeah I meant the footage. Sorry, I should have been more specific.
Waveforms look fine, all things considered. Metering on set was around 4.0 average. I was checking because I've just had someone tell me they thought it was dark.
And yes, the piece we did for the 48 hour is a drama (well Sci-fi, but it was a drama, haha).

I'll upload the finished piece next week after the screening. Hopefully it comes out ok, haha

Love the 48. Good luck. Footage looks pretty good to me, some of the indoor stuff could be a bit brighter maybe, but not sure if this stuff has been graded though. Anyways how many teams compete in your Competition City? And what were your required elements? Just did the 48 couple weekends ago in Des Moines, IA. 51 teams this year. crazy competition this year.

I think the stills look great. The 48 is always a fun competition, but it bothers me knowing that I never have the time I want to work extensively on color

I had a good time during my competition this year in Minneapolis. Actually won some stuff!

Good luck, looking forward to seeing it!

Thanks everyone.

Jon, yeah, it was a lot of fun...lots of stress too, haha. We were a team of six (cast and crew), so everyone wore many different hats. Lots of curveballs came our way too... from our lead actress sleeping in and having to replace her last minute, to only having 6 hours at our main location to shoot everything (antique store), to my co-editor walking out on the project with 5 hours left -- lots of stress.

Wish I could have put all my focus on lighting and shooting and not towards rallying the troops, but oh well.


TZuck, Thanks man. We had 43 teams if I remember correctly. Our required elements were:

Genre: Sci-Fi
Character: Dan or Dana Fox, HR Director
Prop: Purse
Line: "When would you like to start?"

Story we came up with was about an android antique store owner, who killed humans in order to 'capture' their feelings and 'memories.'

How about yours? How did it go?

Trevor Roach wrote:TZuck, Thanks man. We had 43 teams if I remember correctly. Our required elements were:

Genre: Sci-Fi
Character: Dan or Dana Fox, HR Director
Prop: Purse
Line: "When would you like to start?"

Story we came up with was about an android antique store owner, who killed humans in order to 'capture' their feelings and 'memories.'

How about yours? How did it go?

Nice, here in Des Moines we had 51 teams this year.
Genre: Mistaken Identity
Character: Jim/Jana Davis, Coach
Prop: Stuffed animal toy
Line: "Let's call it a day."

the story we had revolved around a mob boss wanting to kill his cheating wife, but the henchman mistakes the mob boss' accent for the wrong person.

anyways we find out who's in the top 12 tomorrow to screen for Best of City.

Again best of luck, and sorry if i've derailed the conversation.

Trevor Roach wrote:... Lots of curveballs came our way too... from our lead actress sleeping in and having to replace her last minute, to only having 6 hours at our main location to shoot everything (antique store), to my co-editor walking out on the project with 5 hours left -- lots of stress.

Wish I could have put all my focus on lighting and shooting and not towards rallying the troops, but oh well.

I've made that mistake of assuming everyone will do their job and you can concentrate on the technicalities, but I've learned, hopefully, that it is all about the people and how you will work with them including lots of pre-production time discussing whatever and listening carefully to them. Some can take the ball running and shine for you when you point them in the right direction. Others, let's face it, require more personal attention, especially the talent in front of the lens, even to the point of stroking a fragile ego or getting them up in the early morning. That 'slept in' behaviour may have been masking her fear! I've never been in a competition that must be a pressure-cooker, but managed to make lots of mistakes with people as I concentrate on the technical and logistical necessities.

I think in an ideal world, you have people do everything technical and logistical and have a fallback position as needed, while you concentrate on the people behind and especially in front of the camera. In a larger production, you even have people that help the people, the "assistant to Mr. Harrison" approach but those assistants need to be very good at what they do. I can't imagine what it would be like to be the assistant to Marilyn Monroe. I can see these competitions are very valuable for learning these lessons in a quick and relatively painless way compared to running into these experiences on the bigger projects you do.

Rick Lang
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD