Shooting with natural light

Suri Grennell · July 31, 2012

Hi,

I'm a new member and a 2nd year film student. I am planning on shooting a video trailer for a piece of theatre (which is pretty common these days even though it sounds odd). The look I'm going for is quite a Terrence Malicky, ethereal, soft, nice flare type look. Some slow mo some shallow focus etc. I'll be shooting with a Canon 7D but am quite new to camera operation and would love some advice. Like is there a specific way to achieve this look? Specific lenses? I've heard if you close the aperture right down you can achieve the type of star like flare that Malick achieves on Tree of Life a lot. I'll be going hand held and I'm based in ireland so the light, while beautiful in the evening can be dull during the day.

Anyway any advice would be hugely appreciated! Thank you!

Darrell Ayer · July 31, 2012

Here's a link to the Tree of Life article on American Cinematographer. It's full of the rules and techniques used to shoot the film. There's no special lens or equipment that created their look, it's more about technique. Go out side and play in the late afternoon to get a feel for how you want it to look.

http://www.theasc.com/ac_magazine/August2011/TheTreeofLife/page1.php

Darrell Ayer · July 31, 2012

::double post::

Edited July 31, 2012 by Darrell Ayer

Manish Singh Baghel · July 31, 2012

http://lensbaby.com/ find this kit it will be helpful to get the desired effects.

Suri Grennell · July 31, 2012

Many thanks for your help! Will check those out now!

Suri Grennell · July 31, 2012

Here's a link to the Tree of Life article on American Cinematographer. It's full of the rules and techniques used to shoot the film. There's no special lens or equipment that created their look, it's more about technique. Go out side and play in the late afternoon to get a feel for how you want it to look.

http://www.theasc.com/ac_magazine/August2011/TheTreeofLife/page1.php

I wonder if maybe you know what this quote from the article you suggested means

"Lubezki shot Tree with two tungsten-balanced Kodak Vision2 negatives, 500T 5218 and 200T 5217, going to the faster stock when the light was low. He did not use an 85 filter because it “homogenizes” the complex color. Instead, he prefers to color balance in the timing"

I understand why someone would us an 85 when shooting outdoors on tungsten stock but I don't understand how someone wouldn't use the filter and do the balance in timing? What does this mean?

Travis Gray · July 31, 2012

I understand why someone would us an 85 when shooting outdoors on tungsten stock but I don't understand how someone wouldn't use the filter and do the balance in timing? What does this mean?

Tungsten balanced film is set for 3200K where daylight is balanced for 5600K. With filters, you can use one stock in the other condition and correct the colors for the film. If you don't correct in camera, you could correct later in the timing of the film (printer lights, etc)

printer lights are for timing, yes? no practice on this so I'm not 100% in the techniques...

Darrell Ayer · July 31, 2012

I wonder if maybe you know what this quote from the article you suggested means

"Lubezki shot Tree with two tungsten-balanced Kodak Vision2 negatives, 500T 5218 and 200T 5217, going to the faster stock when the light was low. He did not use an 85 filter because it “homogenizes” the complex color. Instead, he prefers to color balance in the timing"

I understand why someone would us an 85 when shooting outdoors on tungsten stock but I don't understand how someone wouldn't use the filter and do the balance in timing? What does this mean?

To balance in the timing is balancing with printer lights or with the DI, which is more likely. Lubeski chose these stocks because he likes the grain structure and how it holds details. If you are shooting your project with a 7d I wouldn't go this route, unless you're interested in using colder colors. I would also test to see how much information translates for you in the timing I'm sure, even the technicolor cinestyle, the file will not be able to be pushed as far as film would.

The real important things IMO to look at are Lubezki's "rules" for shooting, which would give you the structure to work with in to acheve the look that they had in Tree of Life.