Miguel Angel

Vivarium, Directed by Lorcan Finnegan, 2020. 

Being one of my most expected movies of the year I'm a bit sad that I wasn't able to catch it in the Dublin Film Festival because due to the coronavirus pandemic Vivarium has gone through online distribution without having a proper cinema release (at least in Europe, maybe it did in the States).

Lorcan Finnegan and longtime collaborator (and member of this forum) @Mr. Macgregor are able to tell a pretty interesting and original story (which is A LOT nowadays) and they do so in a very tasteful way without forgetting about their European roots (I personally think so!).
The mix between sci fi, horror and their backgrounds creates a movie that stands out in the middle of superhero movies and remakes because it does have a lot of subtext!

The script is fantastic and it introduces you in the world where everything is going to happen within 5 minutes and no complications. 
Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots are splendid in their roles BUT the character which steals the show is Eanna Hardwicke, his portray of "old boy" is superb! I had the chance to work with him on a Tv Series last Summer and he is very very good!, better than the two main characters in my opinion!

Really good movie to watch if you're at home, and if you're not at home, you should! ? 

Have a lovely day!

On 3/27/2020 at 3:14 PM, David Mullen ASC said:

Here's a photo I took in Miami of a crew member trying to set up props on a beach just as a storm was coming in. I titled it "The Optimist"...

Wonderful!

On 3/25/2020 at 11:33 PM, Marcel Zyskind said:

Thanks Miguel, I've tried to put the photos in there in a way so that they represent a little story of my journey. In a subtle way.

The grain in the Mono Lake ones are probably because of expired film. And at the same time being Porta 400VC. But I love it!

I think that you've achieved it!
 

10 hours ago, Marcel Zyskind said:

Sorry, I had some DNS forwarding wrong when web address was linked with www. It's needs to update so try this.

http://pointandshoot.dk

Thanks for sharing them Marcel!!!

Love them!
The colours and grain in the Mono Lake ones are fabulous!
That series and the one in Shanghai are my favourites!

I need to get a scanner! ?

35 minutes ago, Brian Drysdale said:

There are a number of online courses being offered at either at discount or for free over the next three months. This may be of interest.

https://www.provideocoalition.com/shane-hurlbut-asc-makes-illumination-experience-workshop-free/

 

It is a very good one. 

Here is the direct link:

https://www.hurlbutacademy.com/illumination-experience-workshop/

Shane Hurlbut has made his Illumination Course free for the next 90 days!

https://www.hurlbutacademy.com/illumination-experience-workshop/

Worth watching it! 

16 hours ago, Phil Jackson said:

It is very uneven to me. I think I've gotten too used to seeing tentpole streaming shows like some of the Fincher stuff be really well thought-through in terms of how it is presented.

The anamorphic photography is nice but also, perhaps a bit squandered with a lot of tight closeup handheld stuff shot on some very long lenses. There's also no real apparent rhyme or reason as to whether or not something is shot handheld or locked down. It almost has a CSI kind of feel to it. Large aspects of the show feel under-developed to me. It's all competent but that's it. Nothing really jumps out as being extraordinary. The two Jonathan Frakes-directed episodes looked noticeably more put-together but he's easily the most veteran director on staff though having now done TV since TNG's "The Offspring" in 1989. I probably would have made him the producing director on the show instead of Hanelle Culpepper who is great with actors, but I'm not sure is as good with establishing a consistent setting, mood and tone -- something I think a lot of TV directors struggle with because it just isn't asked of TV directors as commonly as with feature filmmakers who have to invent it all. This show sort of lacks a coherent visual point-of-view.

The production design is pretty good and they've updated some things nicely. If it were me, however, I would want the Borg reclamation cube to feel more menacing, like the Nostromo or something where there was real sense that bad things could happen there. The visual effects philosophy I'm not a fan of. I just personally don't like cartoony looking space shots. Especially in Star Trek because, again, those old model shots gave Star Trek a grounded realism that made it feel plausible. The Enterprise-D even 30 years later feels so much more "real." (especially compared to the Enterprise E in the movies). This feels too slick and over-produced to me. Too much like concept art, especially if you watch great representations of space like Interstellar, Gravity, or even the last two Ridley Scott Alien films, Prometheus and Covenant where you really get a sense of an actual vehicle in space. Picard has that over-set-extensioned Guardians of the Galaxy feel to me, which just isn't my cup of tea.

I agree with Tyler that this entire saga could've easily been told in a single two-hour movie as there's not 10 hours worth of narrative here to carry it. But the thing that takes me out of it is that the writers and producers seem to take the story-world a little too willy-nilly. When you're making a show like Picard which is a continuation of a story world that has been developed over generations you have to be careful with what you evolve because there are rules to this story world that have to be obeyed otherwise the narrative becomes nonsense and implausible according to the rules of that world. Not just the obvious stuff like what about Data's brother Lore or the fact that he has an android "mother" -- all things that were established in TNG. But things like the F-bombs and contemporary parlance can really kill it. Star Trek has a way of speaking that's almost Shakespearean, that was deliberately intended to place this universe in contrast with our own. When you have androids running around saying "Hell yea" or Admirals saying "shut the **(obscenity removed)** up!" it's jarring. it's as if Darth Vader started talking jive. It breaks the rules of the story world.

That to me is the problem I have with the show. It's competently produced (though not anything special when you put it up against something like Mindhunter or House of Cards or even The Mandalorian where the framing, design, acting, lighting are just exquisite), but the premise of the show defies the premise of Roddenberry's story-world. One of the complaints I hear over and over again is that "this doesn't feel like Star Trek," and that's what happens when the world of the film gets messed with in counterproductive ways. You can't have Albus Dumbeldore be exposed as a pedophile, even if that would make for a more interesting Hogwarts storyline, because that is a violation of the premise of the Harry Potter story-world. Similarly Star Trek is meant to show a world where people, while not perfect, have nonetheless figured some things out and managed to construct a better society (or at very least have pushed all the problematic people off to some other colony somewhere like Tasha's homeworld). It tells us that Earth's future can indeed be brighter than our present and past. When that premise is discarded and Starfleet/Federation is made the villains (and not just a wayward Admiral which can be dismissed as human foibles) and you have an Earth with people with drug and alcohol addictions, that might make for a compelling drama in the abstract, but that fundamentally isn't what Star Trek was trying to do. The point of Star Trek was to draw a contrast between our modern day and a potential better future, not make the future as bad as our modern day. The problem with Kurtzman-era Trek is that its filled with people who are basically unsavory in a world that, quite frankly, is just as messed up as our own. I mean the total destruction of Mars by androids is worse than the current pandemic we are facing. That's like Star Wars-level darkness. So much for a great big beautiful tomorrow. Say what you want about JJ/Kennedy-era Star Wars, they were very careful to not mess too much with the Star Wars story-world. Even though we may have issues with their narrative choices, the actions of the characters all feels correct. Rogue One feels like a plausible prequel to A New Hope whereas I'm not sure Picard really feels at home as a follow up to Berman-era Trek. The DP of Rogue One Greig Fisher said that for a franchise followup film to work they had call back to Star Wars not necessarily as it actually was but "as everyone remembers it," because it is the emotional connection people have that has allowed the story to endure. I think was a wise observation. Picard and Discovery clearly have a different philosophy.

Furthermore the antagonists of Star Trek were there to create situations for our characters to realize their better instincts. Where modern-day humans might've just hauled off and killed out of revenge, Kirk, Picard, Sisko, Janeway, at the end of the day always took the higher road, even if they didn't want to (which is the point of a film like Star Trek VI). Those characters and their crews had a nobility that this show seems to think is quaint, which just makes it cynical. I just re-watched The Best of Both Worlds the other night and the difference in maturity is striking. Who cares that the VFX (which by the way still hold up after 30 years) aren't what we would do today. The way the late Cliff Bole directed that with such simple moves like Picard walking in and out of frame waiting for the cube to show up or the shot of Guinan sitting in the dark staring out into space in Ten Forward give that episode more of a palpable sense of dread than anything I've seen on Picard so far.

Amazing analysis Phil! 
I'd love to read more of your thoughts on every tv show or movie you watch! 
 

Thanks for sharing it!

Not a photographer but a super interesting painter. 

Shaun Downey
https://www.shaundowney.com

1 hour ago, Anders Ledin said:

Hi, would really appreciate some advice here. How would you go about lighting this scene? Looks like there is some high, long narrow bounce that create the light-strip on the upper part, with a strip of blacks underneath, but I am in no way sure. Would I need separate lighting for the rims, and If the bounce I need would have to be very big, is it possible to get away with some big soft lights?

 

Hi Anders and welcome to the forum. 

Will you need to light just the car from a wide shot or the car and the interior of the car with people in it?

Thanks!!

Have a lovely evening!

Looks great Tiago! 

Congratulations!!!

13 hours ago, Shawn Sagady said:

Beautiful use of available light and stunning locations.  Really it’s a whole package between costumes, performance, blocking and shots. A real visual treat.  
 

I work in theatre so I particularly appreciate the convergence of modern dance and film. Editing and cinematography felt super in tune with choreography.  
 

We’re you using a gimbal or steady cam? Lots of very smooth movement. 

Hi Shawn! 

Many thanks for your post and feedback!!! 
Jota and myself always work with the same people (production designer, editor and sound designer, the 3 of them did an amazing job!) and we were all super excited about this ? I do think that you can feel that in the piece (hopefully! ?) 

We shot 90% of the video on steadicam with a super good steadicam operator called Andres Lopez-Herce, the other 10% was me operating hand-held.

Thanks again!!! ? 

Last Summer I had the chance to work with my friend Jota on a really really really small project that was going to have a bit of narrative in it. 

I was absolutely delighted when Jota gave me a call and told me that he wanted me to shoot it because I had wanted to work with him on something with no client / agency since we started working together (we have only worked together on narrative commercials yet still commercials). 
When I first met him he had finished directing his first movie, IRA, which I thought that was extraordinary and having seen how he directs, the way he blocks actions and  how he likes moving the camera to add dynamism I jumped onto the wagon and said: yeah!. 

The video was going to be for a dance teacher friend of him and, obviously,  the budget was pretty thin (kind of around 4K if I remember correctly).
They had the money to pay for the location, we made a deal with a camera rental place and a lighting rental place in Madrid that I'm friends with and we shot for one day. 

We shot on the Sony Venice at various ASA (from 2500 to 10000) with a couple of Zeiss Supreme Prime lenses, and we had a lot of fun! 

My lighting package was: 2 mirrors, 1 china ball and 1 x 2.5K. 
Colour grading was done in El Colorado with my usual colour grader Noemi Lallave, who did an amazing job with the little time that she had available for us. 

And here it is!

Expulsive

Thanks for watching it and hopefully you like it! ? 

10 hours ago, Michael LaVoie said:

Just caught this today at IFC.  Unusual 4:3 framing similar to Xavier Dolan's films. Hysterical headroom with odd eyelines.  A new trend in cinema?    After a while you get used to it but I wonder why people are doing this?  Do they want everyone to watch films on their phones in a vertical position?  Doesn't make a ton of sense.  Otherwise the film is decent with pleasant frames and lighting.  Some snappy dialogue and overall, the audience liked it a lot.

 

It looks like a fantastic movie! And the framing doesn't seem very unusual to me, probably because I like that kind of framing and I feel like they wanted to be able to see the world where the characters live in the way that large format photography shows it when you shoot a portrait with a large format camera in a wide shot. 

Looking forward to watching it  when it is released over here. 

Also, you might want to watch "Homecoming" from Mr. Robot's director! ? 

Have a good day.

On 2/27/2020 at 6:50 AM, John Holland said:

Looks great . I don't think you used to much diffusion.

Thanks John!!! I appreciate that you liked it! ? 

On 2/27/2020 at 11:26 PM, Gregg MacPherson said:

Really enjoyed the photography in the trailer. I admire anyone who has patience with the conceptual and aesthetic development of an idea. Most films that I like were developed this way. I am sad that there is so much pressure to shoot quickly. We either need a lot of money, or we work absurdly quickly, or we develop concepts that work with less money and a longer timeline for execution.

I don't mean a film where two people sit in a dark room for 90 minutes.  Say, if my concept was founded on the minutiae of the creative life of crickets, and if I caved to the common tendency of looking for images in the literal forms of the subject, his actions or that things acted upon,  I would still be free to explore, with very little money. And if I was bolder, interested in visualizing the experience of a cricket, or using analogy or metaphor to express that, might I still be in a place where creativity, vision and ingenuity was more useful than money.

Thanks Gregg! I hope that some day at some stage we can all work on things where there is no pressure of any kind! But I don't think that that will happen ever ha! 

Last December I was super fortunate to work on a passion project / short-film about teenager's vulnerability with a director, Steve Kenny, that I had wanted to work with since I saw his previous short-films. 

Steve and myself had met last year and we instantly discovered that we liked the same types of cinema and stories, so with similar tastes we kept meeting from time to time to talk about different movies / tv series that we saw and we developed a friendship that led to this project that I lensed last year. 

We shot for one day in several locations around Dublin with the support of a wonderful production company called "Banjoman" that we had both worked with before. 

Through the different months that the project was imagined we talked about camera movement, framing, lighting and something super important, aspect ratio. 
When Steve sent the script to me I kept thinking that it would be great if we could see more of the actor while he was acting so he could emphasise the things that he is going through not only with the look but also with gestures since a teenager's body is changing constantly. 

These nuances in the body that I wanted to capture led me to a 1.66:1 aspect ratio because I also thought that it could be great if we could see a bit of the places where he is at. 

Regarding camera movement, we wanted to shoot the whole short-film on steadicam, with very fluid movements all  the way through.. but on the recce our producer told us that due to budget issues and operator's availabilities (we had €6000 to make the whole project) we weren't going to be able to use steadicam. 
Even though we thought that steadicam was a fundamental part of the piece we quickly changed our plan and decided that we were going to keep the camera locked when the actor was not moving and hand-held when our character was going through some internal conflicts or was moving.

On the lighting side I lit it in a very simple way, I just augmented the natural and available light that was there on the day but we were very lucky because the locations were fantastic and totally fit the story that we wanted to tell. 

And that's pretty much it, we shot on an Alexa Mini @3200ASA while underexposing by 2 or 3 stops sometimes and I think that I should have used less diffusion on the lens  ? (I had a Glimmerglass 2 and a Black Diffusion FX 3 at all times) but I wanted to break the images even more. 
I asked our colour grader (Peter Oppersdorff from MPC in London) to keep the noise and he gave me even more so I'm in love with that. He was also super respectful with the images and they look like he didn't do anything at all (which I like!)

Anyways! I hope you like it! ? 

Have a lovely day!

3 minutes ago, Igor Trajkovski said:

How much is the shutter rolling?  ?

180º most of the time although I had to shoot at 360º at one stage because I had the 2x extender and I had, literally, no image in the monitor ?, hopefully they won't use that take ?

We actually shot a lot of movement with ambulances and jeeps going from a to b and everything looked superb!

7 hours ago, Phil Connolly said:

It does look like the perfect camera in its sector - nice quality, cood for doc and broadcast work.

I know it's not really going to be used for professional "Drama" productions that much, but I'm working in an University and our students make short films. We don't quite have arri/red budgets, we have FS7's at the moment and the FX9 seems like a nice upgrade....but the only really issue I've encountered with the FS7(beyond the menus) is breaking the codec on grading. Although I guess if your starting with a better/cleaner image - the codec holds up better. 

Basically I'm looking for a camera we can afford, that I can borrow over the summer and shoot a movie on. 

Those images I posted are stills from the camera, ungraded, shot at 8000ASA.

I shot some tests before going to Sierra Leone (the ones I posted in another FX9 post from Robyn :D) and in order to break the image from the camera you have to shoot at 16000ASA, 2K and underexpose at least 3 stops.  
If you do that, you don't have any bright points and you try to recover the image, you've A LOT of noise.. that I don't really like, but as long as you have a bright point you're absolutely fine.

It is an absolutely wonderful camera!

By the way, do you know that a lot of the TV Series that you watched over the years were shot in 2K Prores 444? not raw at all ?, such as Vikings, Game Of Thrones and Penny Dreadful to name a few! 

8 minutes ago, Robin R Probyn said:

Glad you liked it .. yes its king of low light .. you can wind it up more than 8,000.. its like the A7s but less noise .. !..  I got the kit lens but waiting for the new Sony cine zooms.. and hoping g they are not too expensive !.. yes sensor is just about big enough but no de squeeze etc.. but 3rd party EVF / Monitor would work..  and no 17-9 till the spring with V2.. I sold my F5.. surprisingly emotional moment !.. so now this is my only camera ..just pimping it out with some Vocas parts ..  if you need V mount I recommend the Core one as I have ,with mini V mount batts ..

We were actually looking for that accessory that you have but it wasn't available in Spain and the different vendors didn't have a delivery date available so we went to Sierra Leone with 12 sony batteries with dtap and we powered everything off just one battery. 

Surprisingly it wasn't consuming a lot of power!
We put a Sony Venice plate on top of the camera to attach all the things that we needed to attach to it. 

And the files are really lightweight! We shot around 21 hours of footage in the highest codec available in 6KFF at 25fps and we only filled 1.3Tb!!!

Ah, I'm sure that you've already forgotten about the F5.. other than when you look at the menus in the FX9 ? ? 

I've just finished that short documentary in Sierra Leone with the FX9.. and I'm truly amazed.  

We kitted it out with a Teradek, WCU4 and a 5.6" minimonitor for me (instead of the one that the camera has) and it has all gone really really well.  

We shot almost in darkness since it was a documentary about the lack of electricity in hospitals in Sierra Leone at night and how the people there perform difficult surgeries with just the light of a phone.. and shooting at 4000ASA / 8000ASA has been absolutely eye opening. 

There were moments where I couldn't see anything but the camera picked the light from the phone super well. Definitely a great companion for a Sony Venice as a B cam or even to shoot commercials or features if there is no money for a Venice / Alexa.

@Robin R Probyn we tested anamorphic lenses as well and it is not that difficult to make it work as of now ? 

I'm looking forward to working with it again. 

6 hours ago, Varuj Chapan said:

Hey Miguel,I really like this idea.This could be a good option.Unfortunatly there is only one window and I would need to hide the main light somewhere for the wide shot so that the window doesn't clip too much.Thanks.

No worries Varuj. 

As you can see from the frames, there is no clipping, just white under 100% because I covered the litemats with diffusion and depron. 
On top of that I put the sheets to make everything a bit more natural. 

I lit that kitchen to shoot 360º at any time so if you want to make the windows less white you can always light the close ups ? 

Have a good one! 

Beautifully lit and blocked, I'm enjoying it a lot!

@Varuj Chapan, I lit this kitchen (twice because there were two different sequences in it with different tones) with 8 litemats on each window from the top to the bottom (there were 3 windows).

It was on a 4th floor with no access to balconies, scissor lifts, cherry pickers, etc, etc.

There is nothing else inside the kitchen other than a 8 x 8 net behind the camera on the wide shot and on the right side of the camera on the close up of the girl.  

The stills are ungraded by the way!

8 hours ago, Robin R Probyn said:

Yes like the f5/55 it will definitely get better with FW upgrades .. V2 due "in the summer".. northern hemisphere hopefully..!

 1 ..V2 will apparently have a 5K mode which will allow 50/60fps in FF .. I would avoid 2K FF for  S&Q 50/60 fps.. better to drop down to s35 scan mode..which allows 50/60 in 4K  (less sensor to read).. crop your lens and move back a bit .. but better IQ .. FF2K only for 100fps or over..

2 Find ..Gamma Display Assist setting .. ( I think shoot menu).. this is a REC709 800 MLUT.. its for the EVF only but can be applied on any Cine EI setting .. including S&Q..  but beware it is possible to have display gamma assist AND a LUT applied at the same time by mistake.. should be greyed out in menu .. hopefully addressed in V2.. if you use Gamma assist,I would have it set to ON in display menu.. so you will see when you are using it .. just in case..

3/4 Yes limited in the LUT,s.. and no false color..  I think the main target market is not needing to load user LUT,s or shoot anamorphic !..which it could also do.. but if there camera travels up the food chain as a Venice lite.. things could get added.. but at some stage they will have to not tread of the much more expensive Venice toes ..  false color I have in my monitors .. throw up a tiny and light weight small HD focus on board ..

5 Didnt know that .. about the handle needed for Zebra.. ?.. I dont use them but handy to know .. I changed the handle on my f5 but so far have kept the handle on the fx9.. the hot shoe audio mount might be handy for me to get scratch track from audio.. without needing any cable into XLR..

Yes the almost total lack of nasty noise is amazing ..dual ISO very good.. if you google Vocas Fx9.. there is a 3 hour video presentation by Sony guru Alister Chapman .. that he gave in Holland at the Vocas showroom .. there is a ton of Fx9 info in this pre release video.. his site XDCAM USER also has fx9 info as he has one too..

Dont be afraid to sling on some  f1.8 Sony stills lenses .. the AF is quite incredible.. I've had to eat my hat after being such a strong opponent of AF.. it really is useable in many situations now.. face detect is amazing and you can even register a face with one button ..  not to be used all the time.. but can safe alot of time of a super tricky but straight forward focus pull .. eg walking ,running straight to camera .. it really is better than any human could do.. well except Greg !.. 

 

Thanks for the tips!! 
I'll keep an eye on  the Gamma Assist thingy! 

So far I think that it can become a Mini Venice. I was surprised by how robust the codec is in terms of colour grading and how well it handles underexposure and overexposure. 
Definitely a really well thought out camera!

By the way, any LUT that you have made for the Venice works on the Sony FX9 footage straight away and with no problems. Fascinating!

I have a 35mm in my Sony A7s2 that I might be using on the FX9 after reading what you said about the focus ha! 

Have a lovely day! 

Brilliant one @Justin Hayward!!

That's great news! 

I'm shooting a documentary with it and the Supreme Primes next week and we went through a lot of testing yesterday.

There are 3 things that I don't like that I'm sure that future firmwares will correct:

1) It can't shoot 50fps in 6K Full Frame although it can shoot 50fps in 2K Full Frame.
2) That would be amazing if you could see the LUT that you have in the monitor while shooting in 50fps 2K Full Frame!!! at the moment you can only see the Slog image ?
3) It doesn't have false colour!
4) I can't load a LUT in the camera. 
5) It is quite annoying that the cebras only work if you have the handle and the mini mini monitor that comes with the camera!

Other than that is a wonderful camera!!!! We shot a lot of the tests at 16000 ASA underexposed by 2 stops and the images were gorgeous. I love the noise!

Looking forward to your impressions @Robin R Probyn!!