David Pritchard

True ... But actually this is what works yeah. 3d modelling is way more difficult than purchasing models and editing them in this software! Very intuitive! 

I just installed Unreal Engine after a lot of reading comparisons... It seems unreal engine is a lot more user friendly with a nicer overall, photorealistic result. I actually contacted Ian Hubert, trying to pay him for this exact job but I couldnt get in touch. Looks like he relies on his patreon and youtube and no way to hire him.

Yeah, the terraforming is the tricky part, that animation you sent is great btw ? I'm thinking of recommending we scrap the idea, only a few thousand dollar budget... could look awful! 

Hello, I would like to create a shot, where the planet around my green screen subject suddenly starts growing nature, sky blues up etc, after he drinks a drink.

Does anyone here think they could pull this off? If so, please let me know, budget is available ? 

The bigger issue is losing the blue sea and sky when it gets overcast! Only one light can brighten them up...

Thanks Satsuki, fantastic feedback!

Firstly for the sun. Luckily I got the wide angles first, closeups are easier to push the key/bounces closer. We had some sun but it went a bit cloudy and lost color in the sky faster than planned so I just had to over saturate in post.

Totally agree on the script... It's really my weakpoint and for the next video I will encourage the client to make budget for someone to create the story for me to shoot. They also insist on it being 1 minute long but Im going toake a much faster cut for myself and (probably them when they see it). 

P.s if you happen to know any affordable script writers for this kind of thing, you would like to send a little bit extra work, feel free to message me their details! 

Oh as for studio style shots... Again totally agree. Wish I'd had more time but it was about 24 shots in 4 hour timeslot. Ended up just shooting everything in the same setup and bringing in a black flag for a couple of closeups. 

Cheers!

Hi guys, just about finished the edit, thought I'd get a little feedback and show you guys what I ended up coming up with, just before I do a few final touches in the morning before posting. What do you think? ? Just to add, we lost the sun middle of the shoot, first day in months ? Think it just passes though!

Thankyou, I'll hopefully get a nice result and share some stills here in case it's of any interest ? Shooting tomorrow.

Whoops... Swap the position of the rim light to negative fill side at least now I look back. Decided on the led anyway in case it's of anyone's interest, shall post some stills after shooting this Wednesday.

One thing is, Do you guys think a silver bounce 45 degrees to the left would be better than 300w aputure ledsx2 for the hairlight?

Thanks as usual Satsuki! Great advice and close to what I am thinking already, just having to shoot a little earlier in the day due to not wanting to lose the vibrant blue background. Wish the sun was a bit more to the right! I Guess I'll start with the product closeup then get the other shots ? 

Hi Satsuki. 

It's mostly shots of the models having fun together, play guitar, chit chat. Some wide then some closeups. The worry about shooting much later in the day is the sun would come into the shot as it sets directly in the background I want to use. I.e the distant palms and horizon. 

Do you think what I'm proposing won't look good?

Hi guys! So I thought I'd ask some feedback from some of you seasoned cinematography gurus here. This week I'll be shooting a low budget fruit juice TVC on a tropical beach. My plan that id like feedback on is as follows.

Start shooting at 11am so I can use the sun. 10 foot overhead 1.5 stop diffusion with foam or silver reflector to the left, and negative fill to the right. The 5 models will be sitting on brown towels on the sand. The sun will set directly behind my talent, slightly off to the right. So I'm aiming to shoot from 11 till 2, the shots where I need that scene at least. Oh I'll also have a couple of aputure 300ds with bare reflector for a rim light since that seems to be the TVC style.

 How does that sound? I attached the background that shows sun position. I figure the sky will still be nice and blue at 2. 

The latest gen 5 out for bmraw is really quite low contrast. In the past it really killed a lot of the detail and often looked pretty ugly. I would be confident in saying the above was at best gen 3 color cause or the age but likely gen 1 or 2. 

Anyway thanks guys a lot of good info here ?

Great advice as usual! Ah I see I'm confusing the term specular highlights then. I just meant any hard ugly bright spec of highlight that has exploded way out of control. On skin, polarizers do a great job with them when placed 90 degrees approx from the camera. Actually it's too many filters stacked together though, I'd need to use a mattebox or slimmer profile filters to do this realistically. 

Well after that above video and a discussion with another cinematographer who was slating the highlight handling of the Ursa I did a little test... Similar lighting setup to that lovely lady video above and I used a variable polarizer. Without the polarizer, specular highlights are pretty nasty with side lighting like that but a circular polarizer and blackmagic pro-mist 1/8th I personally think looks pretty nice now apart from the fat model/cameraman/me. Not sure if my grade is a little funky, playing with transforming the footage to both arri log and red log before grading.

Just to add, specular highlights are quite ugly and blown out without the polarizer, I didn't fully engage the polarizer however to leave a slight glow... I think it's a nice combo?  

That's some beautiful work Satsuki! Yes I guess I'm clutching at straws for getting the same look on my Ursa Mini Pro lol. 

Hrmm good points! 

Ohhh I see so now I understand you clearly. Well I guess I'm no closer to figuring out why the red highlights look much nicer there! Maybe the sensor simply has much more stops in the highlight range and/or the angle of light hitting the face was less harsh. 

I'm not sure I was being too clear. What I'm speculating is, pherhaps red has a polarizer built into the Olpf. In that comparison it's the same lense and filter but the specular highlights on red seem very diffused Vs the Ursa. I think a polarizer would soften speculars in the same way no? Maybe it's just the sensor... 

Could it be the Red Olpf contains a polarizer?  

After watching the below linked video... It made me wonder are those extra highlight details just down to polarization? Cause a polarizer would fix that on any cam and on another comparison, red was 1 stop darker than he Ursa mini pro. So it would make sense? Or am I crazy? 

Very nice man, the lighting is nice to ? 

Thanks so much for the feedback!! Actually I had a good few hours to light, it's just they didn't finish the ring until half my shooting time was gone so meant way less time to shoot the main sequence with all those people so didnt get quite a few closeups in the action I wanted but oh well...Also those hanging lights behind the ring were meant to be tungsten/incandescent but they bought none dimmable leds by accident. Far too bright so had to move them quite far back. 

Totally agree the "story" blows hard. It really fell apart when I had no time and client didnt wanna hire the main people for another day.  So i'm treating it as more an example of lighting lol. Nice analysis of the guy at the desk. Again it was a rush and I decided to just use practical's already there such as an already hanging overhead tungsten par... I just attached some diffusion to soften it a little and probably hazed a bit much ? Was also a lot of daylight leaking in as it was in the corner of a large factory actually.

As you say onto the next one, nice experience!

Thanks for your help guys. Think I got some ok shots, was actually rushed into 2 hours  ?

Yes strangely I felt less pressure once they weren't ready and ended up 3 hours late... now i could only be a hero lol, shot off my shotlist like a machine gun, composition and perfect shots went to hell probably but it ended up looking ok!