Before any major gear change is implemented in a production shoot, I test extensively to understand the strengths and limitations of new pieces of equipment. One of my long running tv commercial projects has outgrown the 5D, and we are rolling the new RED Epic into the production. I’ve used the Epic many times, but it is new in this context (set/lighting arrangement). So today we tested for this use in particular.

We are also looking at changing from the Zeiss CP2 cinema lenses to an Arri/Fujinon 18-80mm 2.6 zoom to be able to do transitions faster without lens changes. I LOVE this lens, it’s my new favorite for cinema work and will increasingly be rolled into my productions. The trade-of for the convenience of a zoom with such sharp glass is size. The weight of the rig just tripled. But happy to make that trade in most situations.

With the ability to jump between 5k and 4k in the Epic (and the equivalent shift in sensor crop), I can get an equivalent range to the 5D of 28mm-100mm. Perfect for my kind of shooting.

Photos after the break…

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Since the earlier post detailing the HDSLR rig we were using for the ABC Family commercials, my team has done several more tv commercials and along the way we have extensively refined the kit. The last setup was highly functional but a bit of a Frankenstein monster.

The new rig is more compact, cleaner and more functional, especially from the standpoint of pulling focus — which is kind of a big deal. You can see the new rig in the slideshow below. The major changes outlined underneath.

The major changes have been:

1. Viewfactor Cage with power routing – tighter, cleaner, more compact, better balanced, and better power routing.
2. Zeiss CP2 cinema lenses instead of Zeiss ZE still photography lenses – wider focus ring travel for more precision, geared, same size diameter on all lenses for faster lens switching with Matt Box, smoother focus ring.
3. Preston wireless follow-focus instead of Bartech – smoother, more precise and more reliable motor.

All of these changes were a big step forward toward dialing-in the system. This rig is solid.

With the world headed toward cross-platform advertising (i.e., digital + print + broadcast + digital + digital), any investment in marketing artwork will soon require both still images and motion pieces from the same production.

Clients will be doing fewer and fewer still-only photo shoots, or just shooting 30 second spots on their own. Now they will need a range of creative material for the increasing range of marketing channels.

Increasingly these distribution channels for the artwork will be digital. And digital channels crave both still and moving images, often together, but certainly each in various contexts.

The most valuable resource on a shoot is time. There’s never enough of it. And now doing two things (stills and motion) in the production, time just got even more scarce.

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Echoing my thoughts on the importance of low light performance, but adding the additional insight that the increasing dynamic range in the new crop of cameras will bring deeper shadows (as well as highlights) into range even when iso is not quite there, cinematographer Ryan Walters shares is view on how this will change how he works:

“Going forward I do see a decrease in the lighting budget, but it will not disappear. Instead of having to rent larger lamps, smaller lamps can be used. However, at the same time, I will be renting more flags, nets, silks, and other modifiers to control and shape the existing light in the location. And there will be an even greater savings when lighting night exteriors. With these kind of DR capabilities and speeds of the sensors the available light will play a much greater roll in the lighting setups. So in the end it will be a balance between using existing sources, modifying those sources, and supplementing those sources when needed.”.

See Ryan’s full essay “Preparing for 18 stops” here.

The killer app for new video cameras is low light performance and high ISO capability.

Budgets are collapsing for advertising. They have been minimal for a long time in music videos, documentaries, and short films. Feature film production is dividing into studio mega-blockbuster special-effects spectacles on one side, and low budget character-driven films on the other — the middle is vanishing.

Working on a low budget film or video means finding ways to reduce shoot days and get more done in less time. Every hour or day of production time is burning money. One of the most time consuming parts of prepping a set is typically lighting, particularly if there are more than one setups with multiple lighting transitions. The ability to use small low-powered lighting, often mixed with ambient light, is among the most effective strategies for delivering on a tight budget.

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In the past year, TV commercials and short branded films have taken over the commercial side of my business (after years of advertising photography, aside from the book and exhibition work) — which is great, I love creating motion content.

I work with whichever camera is most appropriate for the job, ranging from Red MX cameras to vintage low tech options such as Super 8 film. Sometimes an HDSLR is the right combination of look, economics, weight, light sensitivity, and workflow. This has been the case on a series of commercials I’ve been shooting for ABC Family.

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