Robin R Probyn

good luck with the shoot

ah ok now I see.. this is a very different look to a Japanese sushi place.. ! I think you can do what ever you want sir.. but I,d still go with soft light for tight long lens food only shots.. shame about the white wall right up behind the bar..and watch for big shadows on that wall too.. get them to put some nice dark wood panelling in :).. you,ll get quite a bit of bounce up into his face from that white cutting board too.. also will burn out or hard to see white fish,squid being cut into very thin slices on a white board.. if they have wood go with that.. looks much better..

Hi Jan Sorry the video doesn't play says private .. Im not really someone who is doing alot of big lighting set ups.. but I live in Tokyo and have shot in alot of sushi bars over the years.. with all sorts of people from Steffi Graf to Bjork.. and also done alot of cooking/food shoots.. Actually was in Norway,Sweden and Denmark last year for 6 weeks on a food shoot.. All I would say is that in reality in Japan anyway... Sushi restaurants are very flatly lit.. with over head florescent lighting.. (like alot of Japan).. and this soft lighting continued in your own set up.. will usually make life easier as far as shadows and generally how your faces will look.. but the lights you have available are not soft lights .. you can dim them but they will stay directional and get warmer in colour .. so I would advise some diffusion frames to at least give you the alternative if you want to.. for the food itself I would advise soft light for sure.. There are other people who have much more experience with lighting eg David Mullen ASC than me.. but its really down to the look you and the director want.. and what lights you have available .. or budget to rent..

Well they arnt really moving around that much . they will make the sushi in one place standing .. but they will reach out or take a few steps to those glass box,s in front of them along the counter for different ingredients .. and the rice tub.. I presume your not in Japan as Ive never seen a large sized sushi restaurant there.. except the converyer belt type .. I mean if you have just a very spotted/directional source they will be moving out of it as they grab stuff.. its totally depending on the look... atmosphere you want.. The thing Ive found hardest is the way they make sushi in their hands.. they press the rice together and then press the fish on top.. its all very hard to actually see whats going on.. and they do it very fast.. you really need an over the shoulder shot to actually see any rice/fish or what they are actually doing.. although of course that speed and dexterity is part of the magic too.. But its very easy to make it look good for your plate shots.. they dry out quickly so some spray at hand is good .. just water is fine.. I find with food just one big soft light.. about 3/4 back lit is good.. long ish lens to throw the back ground out of focus.. not too high.. the stills guys often go for a much more over head shot.. but I prefer a bit of soft focus back ground for a video shot.. you cant go wrong really shooting sushi.. lots of good colors and textures.. Anyway you have actors and control which is a huge bonus.. the Dino,s are multi source lights and you,ll be close so you,ll get multiple shadows from them.. and the fresnels are of course hard and directional..I would get some diffusion frames and stands for sure.. the sushi restaurants in Japan nearly always have pretty even flat,floursent lighting.. never moody like a bar .. but thats totally up to you what mood you want to create ..

Are you sure you mean Dino,s.. .I doubt you,d get one in the door of the average sushi bar... and would be quite a bit of over kill ... and cook your sushi :).. 5K lamps seems a bit more than you would need too TBH.. I would be inclined to go with Kino,s .. Diva or Celeb,or LED,s.. . Astra 1x1 panels.. etc.. battery power even better in kitchen,s /restaurants ..

I think the F3 is 10 bit 422 SDI out to ext recorder.. could be wrong.. yes agree C300 Log is not a real log curve ,because of 8 bit.. its pretty much Hyper Gamma 7/8 on a Sony.. XAVC Intra SLOG 2/3 from the F5/55 is alot better and linear above grey.. F3 is a very cheap camera these days though.. a few thousand dollars or cheaper.. Fs7 pushed the price down alot..

Hi Mark.. yes copy /paste worked ..

Mark.. your link is not working for me.. ? incorrect parameters or some such error message sir

Yes totally agree sir.. thats why the OP records to external device.. which is often a pain as he has found .. so for the quick shots he wants without the hassle of the ext.. I believe the internal recording.. although not great is good enough for 90% of shots..for HD.. and you can see really nice footage shot on F3 internal.. The sensor is very good IMHO.. its always been a shame on the F3. that 1 no proper EVF.. 2 no internal 50 mbps 422 recording.. thats how the C300 got such a foothold .. Maybe the OP will trade up to a second hand F5 someday ..

Hi Jan Ive done alot of shooting in Sushi bars in Japan.. not sure if yours is in Norway or not.. but the lay out looks the same.. i.e. very cramped and narrow ! and the bar right in front of them.. Im my experience the chef moves around quite a bit grabbing the ingredients from small glass boxes in front of him.. to avoid alot of shadows all over the place Ive always gone with large as possible soft lights.. Kino or LED.. you dont want big lights that will give off alot of heat.. plus your chef.. some of them are quite moody types !.. wont like them anywhere near, drying out their fish ..!! For the plate shots.. 3/4 back light with kino,s through diffusion looks good.. and keep a water or glisterine spray bottle around as this really helps pick up the light.. and as soon as the rice/ fish/topping gets dry the chef wont want you to shoot it.. and it looks crap.. The motion is very quick when they are making it.. and you cant really see anything either as its all in the palm of their hand.. a bit of slo mo can look good..

Personally I wouldn't worry too much.. there has been alot of great footage out of F3,s internal recording.. Tyler has a very keen eye for detail and is a hard task master. ! . but as he rightly says.. if you are thinking to shoot log,or do alot of post tweaking it will be limiting for sure.. 8 bit 422 Slog on the F5/55 is not recommended either.. I would argue that 422 to 444 isnt going to make a huge difference 99% of the time and actually Bayer sensor camera,s cant do real 444 anyway.. only stripe or 3 CCD.. but 420 to 422 is a bigger difference ..

Luckily it was only the seed vault that was that cold.. but it was pretty cold outside too.. depended on the wind alot.. yes we were pretty good with the condensation .. I would leave the camera in a bag for about an hour .. before shooting inside after being outside.. alot better than tape camera,s .. were the sensor would just shut the camera down ,for up to 3 hours I had once !! Totally agree re the Arri cine plate.. before i got my camera i used one with that plate.. 100% useless for HH.. would dig right into my shoulder.. one shoot was an operation so only had surgical gown on.. no tripod allowed.. I think my shoulder was in worse condition than the guy being operated on ! and the shoulder pad way too far back.. Arri can get it wrong !

Yes that would help alot !

Many years ago there was a very interesting David Attenborough nat hist doc on C stands.. over a ten year period they tracked sightings,mostly around the Ealing environs of London..and Pinewood studio in rural Buckinghamshire.. long know in the past, as an area full of C stands,well into the late 1980,s.. fascinating interviews with aged DP,s and camera assistants from Kajagoogoo "pop" video,s.. where flag forests would abound.. and knuckle arms would be festooned with tennis balls and polglystarine cups.. Finally there was grainy footage of perhaps two maybe even three.. it was hard to tell .. in the dark recesses of Ealing studio 1 .. lit only by one dusty 40W club.. a sad legacy of the 90,s austerity cuts.. but then in the wink of an eye.. they were gone.. the enigma of the C stand.. from abundance to nothing within 20 years.. and why.. well we just dont know..

Any camera thats right for your work is the right choice.. for me, unfortunately it would just look nice on a shelf ..

But isn't cutting flare off the lens still the job of the AC.. I haven't worked in the UK for a long time .. but I don't think mattbox design has advanced to the point where it can flag off flare completely.. this was always done with flags on C stands.. or that every flare now considered art.. :)..

Yes if I was just doing commercials or drama I wouldn't get the easy rig really.. its much nicer to just be on the shoulder.. and if I could palm off the beast to an assistant after 30 seconds it would be heaven.. !

Hi Satsuki Yes its a trade off for sure.. . Ive done my best to balance it with the Zacuto base plate.. the camera is way back.. my shoulder is basically under the mount.. and the plate has really nice gel filled sacks for comfort..( I dont have shares in zacuto BTW !).. but anyone using this lens should really look into this base plate.. I had others before.. and really looked into it.. its the only one that you can get the camera way back with.. but even so yes its just plain heavy.. but I can get all my shots quickly.. rather than changing primes,and often in places I dont want to be doing lens changes.. eg on that shoot -30C seed vault in the arctic circle ! with a clock running.. and a guy with a gun.. actually that was to ward off polar bears.. :).. hence the easy rig .. takes a bit of getting used to and best really for people talking shots ,rather than general B roll (GV,s).. Re the s16.. in CC mode.. yes good alternative and for sure lighter.. but you would be getting less shallow DOF .. and so much stuff is now 4K..

I guess it was just for the stills picture.. but I see that only one shot does the operator have their eye actually to the viewfinder.. I wonder if thats a young generation thing,used to looking at screens.. obviously when shooting they would have to be looking right into the finder.. just wondered.. Great what your doing..

F55 had HDMI out native.. as well as SDI.. but if Satan,s child was cable,it would be this one .. . and so seldom used .. I think your alot better off with a second hand "real" video monitor and HD SDI .. than carting around cheap computer monitors and all their artifacts and dealing with the devils whip.. (HDMI cable)..

Hi Mark Yes exactly why I bought it.. one lens.. glued onto a decent PL mount the whole shoot.. I have a couple of primes now just gathering dust on the shelf.. I would only use them in some horrible environment where I would be worried about screwing up the CN7..! For doc,s I,d be totally lost without it.. for the corp shoots that have more time and budget I also just use the CN7 now.. its just quicker to get the exact frame you want than moving the camera around.. its 4K spec.. and tiny for a 35mm zoom of that range .. My F5 is now also 10kg with lens mattbox etc.. so I did have to get an easy rig last year for any long HH shoots.. had a 6 week shoot with alot of HH and for the first time ever..had to tell the dir I just had to have a break.. with film you got a break every 10 mins,then tape 30/40 mins.. now I can shoot for ever on 128GB cards !!

What a strange thread this is.. its almost Monty Python... I think Stuart is very clear what a professional shoot is.. there isnt really any room for debate.. either its their job or it isnt their job.. as a main source of income.. as it says in the book.. sorry but I have to say its nuts to put forward crews don't use C stands in the UK on professional shoots.. a certain DP may choose not to use them .. but if there is a lighting/grip truck there will be C stands for sure.. its like saying there are no bacon butties if you have location catering :) Phil if you include doc,s,corps,weddings as well as drama/commercials there must be at very least a few hundred people making a living as a cameraman/women...in the UK.. of course some are making alot more than others.. who are all the sound recordists working with.. and why are they driving Merc,s..

But why not be a camera assistant on digital shoots..? I was a loader on 16/35mm and was also told I was doing a monkey out of a days work.(mostly in jest I think :).. I think more cards have been re formatted before down load than mags get opened by mistake..loading mags is no more difficult than card management on a big shoot.. Im presuming you are not wanting to be a professional loader for the rest of your career .. because you may have a working life span similar to a rear gunner during WW2...

Hi Mark Ok got it.. I dont have FF etc hanging off my rods.. and yes I totally agree.. I just want things to work .. its worth just about any cost gear wise to just make life as easy as possible, with the least amount of extraneous stress.. thats why I bought the CN7.. Good luck with the 19mm set up

Hi Mark Just wondering why the need for 19mm bars.. I have an F5 with the Canon CN7.. just shy of 3KG ... with Zacuto universal base plate.. with Vocas lens support..15mm rods.. it works very well.. helped by the F5 having PL mount too of course.. Not saying anything wrong to go with 19mm.. just wonder the need for CZ 2 zooms .. out of interest.. Thanks