John_Harrison

Oooh, good to know, thanks! I shot on the FS700 + Odyssey 7Q. 

And Mattais, I can't import the Raw directly into Resolve because I need to do greenscreen / motion tracking / rotoscoping / on most of my footage. I realize that I could do most of this stuff in Resolve as well, but I am much more comfortable with After Effects for stuff like this (I've also done the bulk of that work already). 

I am in the final stages of working on a project I directed, and I was wondering if you could help me get my workflow straight. I had to rush through post in order to get everything done by my deadline (It was my thesis project), and now I'm going back and fixing things. Because of the projects VFX heavy nature (almost every freaking shot had VFX of some kind!) I imported the RAW files into After Effects and did all of my color correction there. However, now that I have time I want to be able to do a proper color correction pass in Resolve. My question for you all is how do I get my files from After Effects to Resolve while losing as little data as possible?

One problem I've been having is I noticed that a lot of highlight and shadow information is being lost by After Effects in the imported footage, I didn't mess around at all with ACR on import, but is there a way to change the import settings after the fact? I would rather not do this if possible, because messing with those settings would mess up all of the my keys, but if it's the only way to get back that data, then I'll just have to backtrack a little. 

48 minutes ago, fuzzynormal said:

The "film look" is a combination of the entire craft.  I've even seen (and shot) 16mm film that doesn't necessarily have the "film look."  

Embrace the fact that one needs to comprehend numerous elements of motion picture image creation and you'll be on a path that might get you there someday.  It's not a single tool, it really is the knowledge and wisdom that makes it happen.

...the least of which, IMHO, is highlight roll off.

But, understanding color is a piece of the puzzle.  Knowing how to control color in post does help, but don't expect it to be the answer.  It's just a fraction. 

Yeah you're right about that, "Film Look" is kind of a loaded term. I guess more specifically what I'm trying to say is "I want to shoot Cine D and make it look like Portra"

Like many on this forum, I think there is something innately beautiful about film. Sadly, shooting all of my projects on film is not financially feasible, and until the day that it is I must make do with shooting digital and using emulation LUTs. 

Unfortunately I haven't really liked the look of many of the free LUTs I've tried (FilmConvert was OK, but I'd like a little more control). Lately I've been learning Resolve, and I'm wondering if using it's color matching tools I could emulate the looks of modern photographic (and potentially cinematic) stocks by shooting color chips with my AE-1 and G85 (using the same lens and same lighting conditions) Now obviously getting "the film look" takes quite a bit more work than just matching the colors. I'd also have to put a considerable amount of work into replicating the highlight roll-off among other things. 

Have any of you had any experience doing anything similar? Do you think it is foolish to think that I could better replicate "the film look" than the professional colorists who have made the LUTs I feel so ambivalent towards? Could any of you point me in the direction of any materials that would better help me understand the process of building a Film LUT? 

And also... if I go through with this would anyone be interested in seeing my results? 

G7 and put the difference towards some nice lenses. That being said, the sony will give you more "cinematic" results on account of it having log, but the higher price and overheating issues might not make it worthwhile for you. 

5 hours ago, Charlie said:

I will test them both as soon as the Zeiss arrives and post my results if you want to see it!

That would be great! Differences in sharpness, color, flares, and chromatic abberation would be cool to see. 

I've used the 18-35 on a FS700 with a Speed Booster, and I found that it was useable with light vignetting at 20mm and completely fine by 24mm. Corner resolution might suffer, but I think you should be ok even with a 1.3x crop.

I would be really interested to see a comparison of the Zeiss and Pentax 50mm, both are really solid lenses, and I wonder how different they actually are in practice. 

5 hours ago, jonpais said:

If you watched the video, and I'm sure you did , the shot of the young boy having his portrait drawn and the woman stylist were both shot at ISO 800 to the best of my recollection (I never write this stuff down). And you can already see the image starting to break apart (at least I can). So I would personally never shoot beyond ISO 800. I plan to do some testing at ISO 800 and ISO 1600 with NR dialed all the way down to see if that helps. I believe Jase is shooting the G85/80 or GX85/80 with NR at -5, so perhaps he can chime in. But this is absolutely not a low light camera. I strongly recommend to anyone who shoots a lot of low light to either plan on setting enough aside for fast lenses or Metabones or looking into the X-T2 or similar ASP-C camera. Actually, there is no camera similar to the X-T2: it has the most beautiful sensor ever to grace a mirrorless body. If anyone's curious, all the shots were made with the Leica Nocticron and a Hoya ND8 filter, at around f/2.8 or wider. 

If you had to chose between the G85 (with a speedbooster) and the XT2, which would you pick? I've fallen in love with the XT2, but I'm not sure I can justify buying it when I can get the panny for half the price. The IBIS in the G85 makes this decision even harder because I'm using unstabilized lenses. 

They say here that according to "trusted sources" that the GH5 will be shipping in early spring. (Bhttp://www.43rumors.com/ft5-panasonic-target-is-to-ship-the-gh5-in-marchapril/) Between that and the pre order mess up, and the proximity to the pre order date (the most accurate rumors usually come closest to announcement dates) and 43rumors' track record I would say that there's a pretty good chance that it's true. 

Now of course I wouldn't bet my life on something like this, but it seems to me that the odds are pretty good. 

43Rumors seems pretty convinced, and they have been spot on with everything else with the GH5

http://www.43rumors.com/?s=Gh5

Thank you for sharing this! Miyazaki is one of my favorite filmmakers, and watching his creative process is so inspiring and informative. 

Replace your canon fd 50 1.8 with a 1.4 version. Or for not that much more money you can buy a FL 55mm 1.2. (There's a really good review here http://www.vintagelensesforvideo.com/canon-fl-55mm/) I'd also recommend getting the FD 24mm f2, but that lens will cost you $2-300. There's is a vivitar version in the fd mount that is $100 cheaper which I'd recommend looking into. I haven't used that lens so I can't speak to its performance so please research before you buy. 

There's also, I think, a vivitar 28mm f1.8 which might also be worth looking into.  

Honestly a lot of what I learned in film school was through experience. I'd say if you just challenged yourself to make a dozen small simple short films and a few more complicated / expensive ones you would get 60% of the film school experience. However there are a number of things you can get through film school which is much more difficult to find on your own. 

Most major schools have production equipment and post-production facilities that you can access for free*. This will allow you to play with equipment you probably couldn't afford on your own, and give you experience with industry standard (but slightly outdated) gear. 

*It's actually not free because you're paying tuition

Access to Mentors. Unless you have some friends in the film industry there isn't really another way to get professionals to critique your work. This can be really helpful and can do a lot to accelerate your learning. Good teachers can make a huge difference in your creative development, as they can challenge you and steer you in directions you might not have gone in on your own. 

Most important though is NETWORKING! If you're going to a film school, it has to be well regarded. It has to have active connections in the film industry. Look for notable alums who are working in the industry today. You're going to meet people in school, and some of these people are going to go on to get jobs in film and tv around the world. You want to be able to name drop your school at a job interview and have that mean something to your interviewer. My school has a good network of graduates in hollywood, and finding work can sometimes just be a question of posting in an alumnae facebook group, or asking friends who have graduated before you. I got my current job by responding to a post in one of those very same facebook groups, because my boss graduated from the same school that I did. 

Likewise it can be pretty hard to pull together a film crew who's willing to work for free, if you're not immersed in a community of people who are all trying to get as much experience as soon as possible and who genuinely love film. 

20 hours ago, Grimor said:

No, sorry.

I only own a G85 and Gh4 to compare.

I was looking at youtube and nobody seems to be comparing both colors/skin tones.

If you find a Gx85 vs G85 colors comparison, please post it here.

Grimor, how do you these camera's compare in terms of color, dynamic range, etc.? I'm currently trying to decide between the two of them as a used GH4 is pretty much in the same price bracket as the G85. 

If you skip to 10:50 for the sample footage, you can see some really amazing images coming out of this camera. Dare I say it almost looks Alexa-like in its color rendition and has a certain "filmic quality" to it. Unfortunately this does not extend to the dynamic range... although I bet F-Log would help substantially. 

I'm also stuck between the G80 and the GH4. How different is the color / dynamic range between cameras? 

Has V-Log been improved since it was first released? The reviews I've heard are pretty mixed. 

Oh Also a comparison of all the different film simulations of the fuji with their equivalent DRs, colors, etc (I'm most interested in Pro-Neg vs Classic Chrome)

I would love to see comparisons of dynamic range as well as high iso performance. I'd like to see how far you can push both codecs in post, and I'm interested in seeing how the HD modes of both cameras look, and how they both perform at 60 fps. I'd also like to see how Sony color science stacks up against Fuji's. 

A rolling shutter comparison would be nice too, even though I think that's been done already? 

I look forward to hearing your thoughts! 

I currently have 8GB installed, and I've found my computer to be pretty sluggish most of the time and unbearably slow at other times. I was thinking of throwing 16GB in there and seeing what happens. 

Is the performance boost really that much though? Wouldn't the processor and graphics card hold it back? 

I've been using a 2011 15 inch Macbook Pro for the last 4 years, and my financial situation doesn't really give me the option of buying new computer right now, but I was just wondering would it be worth throwing a $200-$300 into replacing the hard drive with a new SSD and maxing out my RAM? Or would the limitation of processor (2.2 GHz Intel Core i7) and graphics card (Intel HD Graphics 3000 512 MB) negate the benefits of the upgrade? 

Would it just be better if I saved my money put it towards my eventually buying a desktop? 

What are your favorite cheap lighting solutions? And by cheap, I don't mean used-mole-richardson-on-ebay Cheap... I mean light-you-can-buy-at-your-local-hardware-store cheap. Obviously I understand that something you picked up for $30 won't give you anything near the control (or output!) of $1,000 Fresnel, and I don't expect it to... but I'm curious to hear if people have had any experiences with affordable lights that worked better than expected. Or if anyone has any recommendations for a young broke filmmaker who wants to start experimenting with lighting. 

You know, given how responsive Fuji is to user feedback, and how the camera software is still being developed... if enough people request F-Log internal recording, they might just give it to us either at launch or in a firmware update. 

I think this camera will go really well with some Canon FDs or Takumars. The videos I've seen look a little too sharp for me, and I think using older glass would really make the image look softer and more film-like. Definitely a cheaper alternative to pricey Fuji lenses. 

1 minute ago, Dane said:

Here's at least one source from B&H first look on youtube:
https://youtu.be/OU3IgfaeG-A?t=202

Oh ok, I guess I missed that. Dang, I was really hoping it wasn't true.