Matt Workman Posted August 6, 2008 Share Posted August 6, 2008 Production: Ludacris "KO" Director: Parris DP: Matt Workman Photo: Diana Levine Set Photos: http://www.dianalevine.com/events/20080731...lery/index.html Just wrapped a two day music video in Las Vegas for Ludacris. We shot with RED #81x from www.red4kla.com with Matt Garrett as our AC/DIT. Great package, fully recommend it. We had a 1 ton truck and a Fisher11 from JR Lighting, who are really great to work with and have some of the nicest kept trucks I've seen. We shot Standard Speed Zeiss Primes, which are great but I'm definitely getting a 18-80 Optimo for anything else Hip Hop related. This was my first RED shoot and everything suited me and the shoot just fine. I like the 8 gig cards because it makes the production's pace a little less crazy than with video where we are constantly rolling. And then situations where we were more run and gun we just used the 320 gig hard drive. I believe we only shot about 300 gigs of footage, which was way less than I had planned for. People were saying 1 terabyte etc. Maybe for a rock video. Notes: - My biggest gripe is not having a traditional extension viewfinder and leveler. The LCD and ViewFinder are great but big moves and pans/tilts get unwieldy quickely. I jokingly suggested a helmet with the viewfinder attached to it wirelessly. If you are listening Jim. :tongue: - The color temperature being natively 5000k was interesting. We shot around 4300k under tungsten, Matt said build 15 introduced a noticable amount of grain if we went to 3200k. We are probably doing a 2k proxy transcode to PRORES 1080, because of time. So our ColorTemp is pretty much baked in. - Having a viewfinder, LCD, and monitor out all going at once is great. Much easier than with a F900 or Varicam. Didn't realize there is a safey zone in the VF showing more than the taking frame, that is really great. - All of the operator functions like focus assist 2x, exposure thermal/predator mode, sharpness, etc. are really great though I did constantly bump into them by accident. Mostly my fault I suppose. Overall great experience and I'm planning on using the RED on all of my projects I can't get 35mm on. Cheers, Matt PS: I'll hopefully be able to share a 720p version of the video when its out. At the least at Vimeo one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jesse Anthony Posted August 6, 2008 Share Posted August 6, 2008 Those set photos look great! can't wait to see the video. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Wallens Posted August 6, 2008 Share Posted August 6, 2008 (edited) The columns... how did you light them up? And just with stuff from the 1ton? :) Edited August 6, 2008 by Daniel Wallens Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Brinkhaus Posted August 6, 2008 Share Posted August 6, 2008 Looks like a lot of fun! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Lowe Posted August 7, 2008 Share Posted August 7, 2008 Really appreciate these terrific set photos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Brinkhaus Posted August 11, 2008 Share Posted August 11, 2008 Ok, spill it. I also want to know how you lit the pillars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Garrett Posted August 11, 2008 Share Posted August 11, 2008 pillars were existing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Satsuki Murashige Posted August 11, 2008 Premium Member Share Posted August 11, 2008 Congrats, Matt! The stills look great. So our ColorTemp is pretty much baked in. I don't see why, Color temp is just metadata in the raw format. You can change the color temp setting in Red Alert or Redcine before transcoding to ProRes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ronney Ross Posted September 8, 2008 Share Posted September 8, 2008 How was the light ratio on the CU's of Luda. It seems that the fill was about 1 stop over just not sure. I ask b/c I think my problem when I try to light I don't seem to get enough fill in my shot's. The technique you on Luda seems to be the same route Monte Zucker(rip) used when lighting dark skinned ppl. -Ronney Ross Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Workman Posted September 9, 2008 Author Share Posted September 9, 2008 Satsuki: We didn't go the REDCINE route using the RED code, we used a transcode to PRORES 1080 so the color temp I believe was the one we used in camera. Though I wasn't the colorist or editor... The video should be out soon also. Ronney: Depending on what photo you are talking about that may be true. On the first close ups (the photo) that was actually a medium dolly shot going from Ludas hand up to his face, but the still camera was capturing a more staight on angle, so you see more of the dark side. On the next photo close ups, that was actually a wide shot for the camera dollying to a medium. So I usually keep the lighting harder and a little brighter. I'm not familiar with Monte Zuker but I try to keep the close side of the face at key or slightly above and then the far side of the face a stop above that. Ludacris is actually pretty fair skinned so I don't really do anything different for him. Also I pretty much put my light meter away after the third shot...things got crazy and we had to move. I think I actually overexposed the farside of his face on a lot of the performance stuff... :unsure: I was actually just in Atlanta shooting another video for Ludacris. The production designer was Tim Barrett and our gaffer was Marc Henderson from GetaGripAtlanta. Have you worked with them before? Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ronney Ross Posted September 9, 2008 Share Posted September 9, 2008 I wish. I am very familiar with there company though. Between productions in Atlanta and Savannah they seem to be top dog. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitchell Yount Posted September 19, 2008 Share Posted September 19, 2008 better than 35mm or same? worse? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Workman Posted October 2, 2008 Author Share Posted October 2, 2008 Hey, I just put up a decent sized quicktime of the video on my site: http://www.mattworkman.com Its the first video in music videos. It also premiered on 106 & Park on BET last night. FYI we did a 1k Proxy edit and grade in FCP6. No REDCINE or DaVinci on this one...maybe the next one. Cheers, Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Workman Posted October 2, 2008 Author Share Posted October 2, 2008 Here is link to the BET version with an introduction and outro with Ludacris on 106&Park. http://www.vimeo.com/1857409 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay Rodriguez Posted October 2, 2008 Share Posted October 2, 2008 Matt, you're a stud dude.. congrats on your on going success in working with good people. I love the way the video looks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Simpson Posted October 2, 2008 Share Posted October 2, 2008 So how did you like working with the viewfinder? Ive yet to get a red with one yet, but last I read into it, there were mostly negative comments? Were you shooting alot of handheld with it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Workman Posted October 4, 2008 Author Share Posted October 4, 2008 Thanks Jay. Mike S: The VF was fine, I especially like it for handheld because operating off a LCD is difficult, especially outside. When I shot with it there was not eyepiece leveler, but now Element Technica makes one, though I'm not sure its out. Once that is out this system is much better. Optically I think its fine, I didn't judge the lighting based on it, just framing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Brinkhaus Posted October 8, 2008 Share Posted October 8, 2008 Great work Matt. The studio and ringside lighting scenes were my favorite of the video. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Plank Posted November 9, 2008 Share Posted November 9, 2008 Beautiful set photos! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Chris Keth Posted November 9, 2008 Premium Member Share Posted November 9, 2008 Thanks Jay. Mike S: The VF was fine, I especially like it for handheld because operating off a LCD is difficult, especially outside. When I shot with it there was not eyepiece leveler, but now Element Technica makes one, though I'm not sure its out. Once that is out this system is much better. Optically I think its fine, I didn't judge the lighting based on it, just framing. I'll add one bit about the RED EVF if I may that annoys me a bit. It still displays 720P like all of the monitors. Here we have a camera that can shoot somewhat better than 3K (or 4K if you believe the manufacturer) but no way to monitor what is actually being captured. Not people at the monitor, not the operator, nobody. As a focus-puller, it annoys me that nobody can see if I'm sharp or not until it's too late. Also the buttons on the side of the viewfinder are always getting bumped; there needs to be a way to lock them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Garrett Posted November 10, 2008 Share Posted November 10, 2008 build 17 now has 1:1 viewing for focus checks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Chris Keth Posted November 11, 2008 Premium Member Share Posted November 11, 2008 build 17 now has 1:1 viewing for focus checks. The focus check thing is nice but doesn't really help because no operator is ever going to operate a shot with that turned on so they can judge focus throughout the shot. They are going to view the image normal size. As for checking sharps, I can do checks with a tape. What I think is needed is a viewfinder that displays 4K so the operator, during a shot, can actually see what is being recorded. This whole thing could be avoided with an optical viewfinder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Garrett Posted November 12, 2008 Share Posted November 12, 2008 you can get a optical viewfinder with the ims mount. also, what ac gets to look in a viewfinder during takes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Chris Keth Posted November 13, 2008 Premium Member Share Posted November 13, 2008 (edited) you can get a optical viewfinder with the ims mount. also, what ac gets to look in a viewfinder during takes? I wasn't talking about me looking through the viewfinder during takes. I was talking about it allowing the operator to be able to watch focus during takes like one does with a film camera. Edited November 13, 2008 by Chris Keth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Garrett Posted November 13, 2008 Share Posted November 13, 2008 personally i think being able to check focus on a laptop at 1:1 pretty much instantly is way better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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