A few tests

[david evans]

So excited. New short film coming up next month. Beautiful story, so I started testing for lenses with the actress. Unfortunately, not an ideal test, as the rental house didn't have any lights, but for now, I was just interested in the look of the lens.

Please don't mind the completely overexposed ugly windows. This was just so I could really expose for her and see how the lens would render her skin and separate her from the background. JPEG banding also looks like crap...

I tested an Angenieux Optimo 45-120. Really beautiful lens. But I'm thinking, more and more, that the S4 will be the kit I'll be using for this one.

Anyway, a few frame grabs (recorded with my Mini 4.6k):

[Samuel H]

(I can't see any images...)

[david evans]

(I can't see any images...)

Yeah, I've been having the same issues with other people's pictures. It just shows the name of the images and that's it. Are you watching on the mobile version or desktop?

[david evans]

And the testing continues. Today I went to the location to do some tests. Really like the location and these tests were made using only practical lighting. This won't be the case when the actual shooting comes (I'll be taking some Kinos and tungsten softboxes and maybe a few LED), but I really like the mood that this room creates.

Sorry about the noise, it's from the jpeg conversion and not the footage.

There's a lot of room in front of the bed to work with and the ceiling is quite high, so a lot of cool options there.

[NorBro]

(I can't see any images...)

Yeah, I've been having the same issues with other people's pictures. It just shows the name of the images and that's it. Are you watching on the mobile version or desktop?

Have to be logged onto www.bmcuser.com vs. bmcuser.com.

Use the www and you'll see pictures.

[david evans]

In an attempt to continue to use this thread to document my latest short film, we just finished shooting this weekend. I was watching some of the stuff I shot and throwing a simple normalizing LUT:

[Seanzzxx]

That looks so good! Did you end up going with the S4's?

[Michael Sandiford]

Interesting to see the difference between the recce and the shoot. The walls colour change to turquoise was that due to lighting or post?

[david evans]

That looks so good! Did you end up going with the S4's?

Thanks! I went with the Master Primes instead. I wanted some shots at T1.3 and the MPs are superb at that aperture.

[david evans]

Interesting to see the difference between the recce and the shoot. The walls colour change to turquoise was that due to lighting or post?

Actually due to white balance of the camera. Since I was shooting RAW, I didn't balance the camera to the actual 2800K of white balance and just left at 3200k (which means more yellow on the walls, which means turquoise)

[david evans]

Here are a few with correct white balance:

[LochnessDigital]

For what it's worth, I much prefer the "wrong" white balance to the proper ones. Without knowing the full story perhaps the colder look is more appropriate, but to my eye, the warmer look just feels better.

[david evans]

For what it's worth, I much prefer the "wrong" white balance to the proper ones. Without knowing the full story perhaps the colder look is more appropriate, but to my eye, the warmer look just feels better.

Hey Aaron. Final grade will probably sit somewhere in between both, but this is definitely a film that is not supposed to look comfortable. From the very beginning I knew I needed the coldness of a room with blue walls to get some sort of oppression and claustrophobia.

[Light&Color]

The first grade makes the images feel a lot more positive because of the warm tones. If your goal is oppression and claustrophobia, the cooler tones will do the job.
Subjectively, without regarding the context, I like the warmer tones more, but for the scene the cooler approach is probably more suitable. Maybe some green tones will even increase the uncomfortable vibe you want to convey.

[david evans]

A few BTS: