Stefano Stroppa

Lol that'a good one ! Never watched an Oscar night and won't ever watch one I guess. But sure, people love to speak a lot, then they all act the opposite.

Commercial breaks… What is sad about this decision is the fact that once again we’re proving to ourself how we are slaves of a society ruled by Capitalism, and so Consumerism. It got us used to have more and more and we can’t really think of ‘a future with less’. Ours is a society which can’t change, and won’t change and maybe doesn’t want to change. And so, paradoxically, I find this decision so similar to what’s going on with the climate change. We should treat it as a crisis, but we don’t, we can’t get out of our confort zone: I agree with Tyler when he says 'If they don't change this decision, nominee's in those categories should not attend the show’. But would the nominees really boycott the Oscar ceremony to make a firm point that we really need to change something? I don’t think so: if cheap mass produced goods flow endlessly, people will buy and buy and buy. Can we imagine the global airline industry being dismantled, as an extreme fight to global warming, when hundreds of new runways are being built right now all over the world? No. As Humans, we are all so ignorant.

‘On Film-making: An Introduction to the Craft of the Director’ by Alexander Mackendrick.

A few personal opinions from my little experience: - The strong blue light is up to you, depending on the type of film you’re shooting (so I guess such a blue might fit well in a sci-fi scene for instance), also if the scene requires the actor to open the door, would that blue light all come out, in that case overpowering the practical you placed above the door? - What’s inside the door? 1. If that’s a sort of back entrance of a pub you can set up something like an LED emergency light? On the other hand if that's the main entrance of a pub you could place a red sign or something: this way you could really play with colors and contrast. 2. You could just hung a bare bulb with a shabby rain protection, that would fit that kind of place (just experiment with different sizes, types and colors)? - Don’t use any practical and you can give the main actor a torch to play with it. - I personally feel that this big street light off screen left (the existing lighting in the street) is somehow killing a little bit of contrast in the foreground, as if the wall is flatter than what you want it to be. And if you really want that practical above the door be the key light maybe you can diminish the intensity of that big source: if you can’t move it, you can wrap it with some NDs or kill it completely with a huge flag and replace it with a smaller fixture that would fill up a bit in case it'd be too dark. I guess the darker the alley the more powerful would be that practical you put above the door. Can’t really say much with just a picture and knowing nothing about the story and the type of film you’re shooting, but I hope this can help you out and inspiring you at shaping your ideas and solutions on the matter :)

If I’m not wrong, Native 4perf S35 (which is simple the original frame size that was used in silent 35mm) is something like 24.86mm x18.66mm, with a x1.39 crop factor. The APS-C sensor which is 23.6mm x 15.5mm has a x1.5 crop factor. I think the F5 sensor is somehow between these two values, with a sensor size of 24mm x 12,7 mm (native aspect ratio of 1.89), so it falls into the S35mm sensors range. I’d not say that the 18mm becomes a 12mm, since the focal lenght of the lens doesn’t change, what changes is the angle of view. So a 18mm lens on the F5 (without the crop sensor mode activated though, which would allow you to use S16mm lenses) has the same field of view of a 27mm set on the reference format (35mm). The correct process is 18 x 1,5 = 27mm That’s the reason why with small sensors like in the black magic pocket camera you will find hard to get a proper wide angle shot. I hope I’m all correct with what I wrote :) Cheers, Stefano

If I were you, I’d try not to use much lighting, as they could create problems with multiples shadows, and you are using two cameras, so you might have some space problem? I’d keep it really simple, using a naturalistic approach (and you save on the budget, especially if you're thinking of renting an HMI, which may be quite expensive) Depending on the look you want to go for, it seems to me by looking to the attached pic of the location that this has the right part of the diner, where the two subjects wii be sitting, which is sort of hidden from the direct sunglight of the windows, because of the closed door, and the bluish daylight coming in blend with the warmer top practicals of the diners. - You could place an HMI outside the window, you could bounced on the left wall where the paintings are, so it doesn’t come direct on the two subjects. And this gives the ambience, you could slightly overexpose these windows. - Maybe then you use soft (so not to cast ugly shadows on the eyes, unless that’s wanted) light faking the warmer top practicals, if you can rig any, or just shape the practicals with black fabric if you want it to just hit the table and not for instance all the wall behind the actor. - Or if you think you don’t want to blend in a warmer color, just keep the window as the main natural source and work with a few black fabrics to create contrast on the actors’ faces in the close-ups. Just slightly filling in if necessary: as you don’t see the windows in the close-ups you could (and you won’t see the windows you’re free to place a light closer to the subjects, as it it comes from the window itself). I don’t know.. I’m just giving you some tips from the little I can do, hopefully will motivate and inspire you to find the best approach for lighting your scene :) Stefano

Depends on how much you want to invest for the camera. Personally, the cheapest option, which would give you the best in quality of footage is probably the Blackmagic Pocket camera: it allows you to shoot RAW, Pro Res,10bit,…, sure you’d learn so much in term of color grading, you could pair the camera with a metabones speedboster to reduce the 16mm crop factor and gain 1 stop. (It doesn’t have slow motion though, and it doens’t record more than 1080p). I think the Blackmagic micro cinema actually records slow motion, and it has all the features than the pocket has. If you searching for something to shoot slow motion with (good camera also for photography), I personally really like the Sony a6500 (yet it records 8bit 4:2:0), and it's cheaper than the A7s II. I haven’t tried the GH5, but never really liked the GH4. I don’t know, there’s something about that camera which I never really liked (even if people keep saying it’s got lots of better features than the sony a6500), but again this is just personal taste. Sony FS7 is great, but way more expensive. As Robin said, you could find a used one, which could be quit cheaper!

Right, I didn't think about it. Thanks Mark!

Hi all :) When using a metabones speedboster, how do you really gauge the true aperture the lens is giving you? I mean from a practical point of view, you keep it mind that you get +1 stop of light hitting the sensor. But from a tech point of view, if your lens is set at let’s say 2.8 (and it’s the fastest the lens can get to), does the camera shows you the added stop? Or is it a passive speedboaster that doesn’t trasmit aperture values? In case it doesn’t trasmit that, you just keep in mind that if the lens is set at 11, you could set f/8 on your light meter? So in practice can you use a ND 0.3 paired to the speedbooster to get a slightly shallower depth of field without having to change your lens aperture? Thank you, Stefano

Try to ask Aperture in London (http://apertureuk.com/). I know they have in-house repair service for film cameras and lenses so it's written in their website. I don't think they repair 8/16mm and such, but I’m sure if you write them they’ll know where to address you.

If it's a very low budget project I find it easier, just in term of rigging, the 2K to light the subject, than the kinos (and it's also easier to control, than something softer like the kinos are) Once you do the blocking you could adjust the 2K so it lights the subject and you shape it accordinly. I guess it’s easier if you have a room enough big so that your subject isn’t too close to the background, since then it’d be harder to separate the colors.

Thanks Landon for sharing your feedback on the BPCC, I'm really that close to buy one, but still wondering between a Sony a6500 (what I like the most about it is the low-light sensibility and slow motion possibility) and the Pocket (what I like the most about it is video quality), and can't make up my mind haha!

I did a similiar research a few months back, and found Lee filters website extremely helpful if you want to go tech. You might find this interesting for you as well: http://www.leefilters.com/lighting/diffusion-list.html

Do you have any fresnel lens attached at the front?

Thank you David for sharing this. I agree with you on the 8bit, I don't understand why there's so much running forward to get all DSLR shooting 4K if they really want to be used for video, when you can only record 8bit 4:2:0. It'd be amazing if Sony alpha series managed to step up and go 10bit 4:2:2. I understand you can use an external recorder, but if the camera is 8bit, you are just putting a 8bit content into a 10bit container, but the image still stay 8bit no? (Alright even though the external recorder codec can be much better). One thing, when you shoot full HD on the a6500, does the camera record on a crop mode of the sensor, unlike shooting UHD which uses the full native sensor of the camera?

Yaaay! That was my very first choice, a small pocket camera shooting ProRes 422 HW at 220Mbps for less than £900 seemed so cool and interesting! but there are a few factors that threw me off that original idea :/ - no slow motion - the ISO doesn't perform well with low light situations since I think you can go higher that 800 no? - you can't really choose your own white balance - the battery really doesn't last long If ever Sony came up with something like an a6700 with 10bit 4:2:2, that would be great haha!

You’re right it’s frustrating Sony can have so many good features, and then you’re stuck to a low bit rate and 8bit codec. Then again I read from this guy who knows everything about Sony, Alister Chapman, who writes ‘Contrary to popular belief heavy grading 8 bit footage does not necessarily lead to banding in footage across smooth surfaces except in extreme cases. Banding is more commonly a result of compression artefacts such as macro blocking. This is especially common with very highly compressed codecs such as AVCHD. The 50Mbps XAVC-S codec used in the A7s is a very good codec, far superior to AVCHD and as a result compression artefacts are significantly reduced, so banding will be less of an issue than with other lower quality codecs. If your going to shoot using S-Log2, some grading will be necessary and as we only have 8 bit recordings we must take care to expose our material in such a way as to minimise how far we will need to push and pull the material’. I was wondering why most of the DPs (from what I read and experience around) would choose the Sony alpha to play with as a hobby cam or whatever, then a GH5 that from spec is much better than the Sony?

I shot a few times already with the a6300 in S-Log, graded in post, and I was really happy with the result. Then true that, the GH5 (whose V-log I think it's a 100£ upgrade) 10bit 4:2:2 is the only main reason why I'd choose it over the 6500. For those of you talking good about the sony a6500, is it true from what I read around the forums, that the UHD 4K is recorded using the native sensor, no crop, instead the full HD looks quite poor by current standard, even taking a step backward from the original a6000? It's the HD recorded from a cropped sensor?

Judging from all your comments around the forum I reckon you're quite a big supporter of film cameras :) nice to hear that. Not really what I'm looking for in term of cameras thought, prefer much more a small digital camera I can put in my pocket, but cool to hear of these possibilities, thank you!

Heeya guys I'm considering buying a small camera for travelling, just got back this summer by a crazy hitchhiking trip to Nordkapp and the only regreat I have was not having a camera I could have put together a sweet 4min video with. My first choice is the sony a6500 (also considering shooting in Log, I do lots of grading for work). Also buying an adaptor to the E mount. If I wish to spend a bit more money, I'm considering something between GH5 and alright the a7s II but that might be slightly too expensive for a travel camera, compared to a a6500 which can be 1000E cheaper. I've never been fond of the GH4 model, I don't know why, I guess it's something subjective but I prefer a camera that works really well in low light than having a true 10bit 4:2:2 like the GH4/5... Any consideration on the matter? Thank you :)

Hey David, Cheers for your feedback! I might be editing a new reel adding in a few shots from the last project, then I’ll take up on your suggestion and see if losing that shot where the highlights are blown out (if you meant the shot as the guy get up from bed toward the girl?). Thank you, I just watched your reel. Solid amazing reel, love the colors. Keep up the good work :)

Quoting from an article I read a few months back: - For her first video in several years, both wanted to make a clean break from Lorde's previous videos, which led to the bold artistic choice to shoot it on 16mm film rather than on the compact digital rigs typically employed these days. "To me, 16mm film has a thickness to it, and it feels timeless to me," Singer said. "And that was really important: to not make it feel like a video made in 2017, but to me the quality of the film, the music video itself feels more timely, and that was definitely intentional, at least on my part." Though they didn't share anything about lenses used.

Hey guys, I put together a reel for 2017. Especially after I edited the reel, so I saw it thousands of time and I don't look at it anymore with a fresh eye, I'd love some feedback, sure they will help me learning more and more. Thank you :) https://vimeo.com/223875179

Hey Eric, I do not have experience with the Sigma zoom but I do have it with the Rokinon. Personally what I feel like to suggest you, it’s not to compare the two types of lenses here, but the use you may have for them. If you work more on a guerrilla type of filmmaking, live events and such, I’d definitely go for 70-200 Sigma zoom. You won’t have to change between focal lenghts with the risk you may miss some of the action that can be interesting to shoot, plus the Sigma is quite fast as a lens, being it a zoom, and opens up to 2.8, so no bad! If you but the 14 and the 135 Rokinon primes what about all the focal lenght in between, which you may want to use a lot? I recently shot for a weeding, and put on a zoom lens (24-70), I found I never had to switch to a different lens than another zoom (70-300). Again, it’s just my feeling, for the use you do, you may want to go for the zoom :) cheers, Stefano

I've been reading around the internet and it seems like this is a question which's already been asked lots of time, and it's frustrating to see there's never a precise complete answer as for the perfect workflow to follow for a roundtrip Premiere-Davinci. A. We shot in 3.2K with the Arri Mini, (so 3200x1800 1.77). Final release will be in 2K 2.39 scope DCP. B. The proxy in Premiere are: 1280x720. The editor sent me the XML of 2048x1080 where he also added the the 2.39 letterbox. In Davinci I'm setting up a 2048x858 timeline - scale full frame to crop. Is it correct? And I relink my original footage to it and do the grading. When it comes to export, I export on the same 2048x858 scale full frame to crop and XML? Back in Premiere for the final export, the editor connects the xml with the original file, on a timeline of 2048x1080, adds credits and such, and then export. Is it a correct workflow? Thank you! S.