Gregormannschaft

Edit: Crap your last video had a lot of trees in it.... THAT VIDEO IS DIFFERENT FROM WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!

Edit again: Sorry I had a Rockstar, a Coca Cola, and a Monster today.

Hah, I hadn't really realized until you said it but, I guess Tasmania does have a lot of trees. 

 

Interesting topic/subject, but why only highlight the 'bad' example?

Included two in the opening post but didnt embed, here they are:

 

 

 

I ​ really like both, especially Watchtower of Turkey and it's use of...that technique where you float and zoom into thing...I have NO idea how to do that and it's an incredible use of the technique.

I'll throw my Tasmania roadtrip video in here just for good measure, had a lot of fun filming it although in hindsight I'd scrap the music and put together a soundscape. At the time I was all about the visuals though.

 

 

 

​Totally agree, balance is always best and each is just another tool to tell a story.

Did you like the video?

Agree in some respects. I quite liked the Thailand drone video that Philipp Bloom did, there was some heart in there and the moves he made in that short were cinematic somehow. A lot of videos though just have drones for drones sake. Their best use is probably bringing fancy establishing shots to the masses.

I like a good travel video and Vimeo has seen it's fair share of incredible travel videos that have been chosen as staff picks. Watchtower of Turkey sticks out in my mind as an example where, as I was watching, I had my mouth agape wondering how the hell they'd got some of these incredible shots. The relationship between visual, sound effect and music was seamless. Brandon Li's Gateway to the Ganges is another favourite, with incredible visuals and a narrative contained within those visuals that propels you along a thematic journey.

I just checked out the latest travel video staff pick though and had to say I was hugely disappointed.

 

 

Rising ​China. The team did a great job at collecting drone footage but it's pretty underwhelming. The music (a riff on an Interstellar track) feels totally out of place, the sound effects added in feel fake and don't give any sense of place and the visuals are overly sharpened to my tastes. And drone footage. Great, used sparingly. But there is no story here, no motivation to the movement.  I don't want to taint the team's work, obviously they've worked hard at this and the staff pick is a big win, so maybe I'll just ask this instead:

What makes a good travel video now that drones are a common filmmaking tool?

Great work, Andrew. I get the sentiment, it's the same feelings I have when folks in my film class insist on buying Canon cameras (550Ds, 70Ds even) and I'm trying to push Sony and Panasonic. It's not that I have anything against Canon (I have a 5D Mk.3) but they are just so ridiculously overpriced and underspec'd and I want their footage to look good.

As part of my MA program we were asked to create a short clip that tried to capture the experience of getting lost in thought staring at something. Here's my take, filmed with the Sony A7s in SLOG2 and using a DeLUT from James Miller. I'm pretty stoked that I'm finally getting the hang of SLOG2. It's not great to use in low light situations, but I nailed a sunset at the very end of the video, something I'd been trying to do for ages after watching Ed David's Kholi footage a while back.

 

 

I own the Rode Video Mic Pro...it sucks. I have a Tascam DR-05 and thats pretty good, will probably do a similar job to the H1.

There's pluses and minuses for both approaches. I have absolutely fallen in love with the A7s 1080p image recently though. It's beautiful and clean. Once you get a handle on the colours you'll get some stunning results. Just bear in mind that there's always a learning curve with a new camera, you'll get better footage from your 5D on your next holiday than with the Sony A7s because you have experience using the 5D.

In terms of accessories, the batteries do run out quickly. Getting an extra 2 will keep you safe for long days out, but 2 will just about suffice if you're conservative. If you want to use SLOG2 you'll need a good variable ND filter. I have a Genustech one which I really really like. I pair that up with the Canon 24-105 which is a great all round travel lens. I'd stick with lenses that have IS, also.

Speaking of batteries btw, anyone have any good tips for alternatives to official Sony batteries? Don't really feel like shelling out mega bucks for batteries. Amazon have batteries made by a company called Tera for 7 euros each.

All I'll say is just hold off on the exciting pre-order until the reviews come in. Like the A7s, the rolling shutter won't be perfect, and there'll be the typical 8-bit grading problems but personally I love the A7s despite these issues and can work around them. It's been almost a year since I got the camera and I've gotten better and better at filming with it. For the price range of these cameras you're not going to get something perfect. For 4k more, there will still be problems, just different ones.

Sorry to dig this up, downloaded Miller's free DeLuts Armchair LUT and added it to a random family video. It wouldn't work for everything but really loved the results.

Download is here: http://deluts.businesscatalyst.com/deluts-free-lut.html​

 

 

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​Not always a great idea if the subject you want to highlight is in the shadows with a bright backlight, like an open window. But yeah, I find getting as close to +2 as possible without too much highlight clipping works best. Also using Premiere's new Lumetri panel helped me grade footage in post by dropping blacks and playing with whites, highlights and exposure.

​That's actually really good. Any idea how we got the background so black? Would love to experiment with a similar idea.

​Good to know, learnt a lot in this thread already.

​Thanks for the great feedback! I actually did an Autumn Leaves test a few weeks back and found the colours amazing but it was very, very contrasty so I didn't do anything with it. I got the impression that dropping contrast to -3 wouldn't really help but might give it another look. I do love the flatter look you get with SLOG2.

Will also take your tip with the skies and make them a little punchier, it's also very teal-y at points but that might be the LUT at work.

​Cheers! I altered the SLOG2 profile a little according to Kholi's recipe, then used Sony SLOG 2 > SLOG2_Fuji Pro 400_FC.cube file. I always tend to use the FC versions of the LUTS.

​Gotcha, thanks for the info.

​True. I was playing with the exposure, trying to find the right balance and experiment to see what looks best with SLOG2, so on some shots there's too much clipping. Out of interest, what does everyone set peaking to when using SLOG2?

+ Cine2 looked flatter to my eyes than Cine4, retaining more highlights but losing a little shadow detail. I know most folks go with Cine4 and use Cine2 at night but I've not heard the superbrights reference before - any explanation?

​True, you just turn it off. I just think a lot of people, me included, thought of it as something pretty revolutionary. I'd never actually seen the results before and so this kind of puts my expectations in order. I'd still love it to be in the next A7s.

So I've always, always struggled to get SLOG2 right on the A7s. I'm self taught and not a particuarly good colorist. I still haven't learned how to read scopes properly and found myself relying on the presets within FilmConvert to help me get colour and exposure right when using it. I had a couple of tests that were 'OK' but always found there to be far too much noise and ended up switching over to Cine4, and recently, Cine2 when using the camera.

For some reason I decided to give it another shot this weekend after playing around with the new Lumetri Colour panel in Adobe Premiere CC, and lo and behold, it is far far easier to grade and I have finally gotten footage that isn't a noise infested mess. Being able to play around with the highlights, whites, shadows and blacks with sliders instead of curves (as I was previously using) gave me way more control over the image. Below is an example of some quick shots I took walking around Berlin this weekend, graded with a Visioncolor Impulz Ultimate LUT. Also have to add, that while the original footage did have a yellow tinge to it, this was easily taken out with the saturation wheel. Single out the offending yellow hue, drop the saturation of that hue, and its gone.

 

 

Now onto the next mystery of why my Vimeo uploads always end up pixelated when there's any sort of movement...better to download if you're curious.

Either way, if you found SLOG 2 was a nightmare beforehand it might be worth checking out again if you have access to Premiere CC.

​I get his point though. I'd find that 'walking down the stairs' passage better with none of that IBIS that is shown there, horrible jello-effect.

It looks atrocious, but the actual film isn't half bad. They'd have been better off going more for a proper night look, than night to day or half-night or whatever they currently have. 

​Good breakdown.

I'd love to have both the A7rII and A7s but funds wouldn't run that far, more looking for an all in one solution that would allow me to take one camera away on vacations that can make good stills and video. I know from a professional point of view that sounds a bit silly, but it's relatively important for me.

Regarding form factor, I love looking at the Sony A7 series, but handling them is another matter all together. I kind of miss the ergonomics of the 5D whenever I use the Sony. Although big, i could grab the thing with one hand and never worry about it falling out accidentally. The A7 is just, well, uncomfortable in comparison. But it's no big deal really.

At the end of the day I've just got to congratulate Sony on creating a camera that comes close to doing both stills and video so well in one package. I'm sure I'm not the only one looking to switch over to their systems entirely. 

I never really use the Canon for video anymore...maybe timelapse. The only annoying thing is having one camera thats good for stills and one for video. I end up taking the Sony A7s everywhere, which gets some great videos and OK stills. Would love to have one that does both and make holidays that little bit easier. Maybe I'm being petty.

Wondering if cashing in on my 5D Mark III and Sony A7s, for this, makes sense. I kept the 5D for photography as it still produces much better stills than the A7s, and have that, obviously, for it's video functionality.