cinematography test footage from my canon t2i/h4n zoom

bez

bez

Hey guys,
I'm an actor/writer and thanks to a lot of the advice i got from this forum I've made my purchases and have started doing a lot of test footage.

Last night I shot my roommate walking around LA and decided to hit him with do you have any old monologues you could do while we were walking. Totally blindsided. He hasn't done one in over a year. Anyhow, I did this is natural light (well as natural as the street lights are at night), obviously in one shot. and I'm curious what you guys think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUvOLtzV_VM

You guys have some wicked great knowledge...and I appreciate all of it!
 
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Hey, congrats on the purchase. I'm curious how you did handheld, as well as recording audio. Did you have a 2nd test-crew-member on boom? Did you even have a boom, or is this the H4n built-in mic?

You've got a good eye for the camera. Every now and then, our subject came a little too front-and-center for my tastes, but most of this shot looked good, in my opinion. Your shallow depth of field had a very nice aesthetic, but if you're going to do this often, I'd make sure to practice follow focus A LOT -- too many times in this shot, he went out of focus, and it was kind of distracting.

What lens is this? It's not the kit, is it? I'm guessing you used a prime?

Tell your buddy he did well with his monologue, especially considering he hadn't practiced in so long. It started rough, but felt more natural as he continued.
 
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Your friend did a nice job!

And so did you! But as CF said, try to keep your subject in focus unless ur doing an artsy thing on purpose like making a dreamy flashback or something.

@CF: in the utube description it says he used a canon 50mm 1.8
 
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u get.

its around 99 usd, thats y its so popular. it delivers great quality for the price.
the reason its so cheap is because a 50mm is cheap to produce.

i will warn u though, once u use a 50mm 1.4, u will not want to use the 1.8 again :)
 
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Hey guys! thanks for the notes.

I knew the focus was an issue while i was doing filming but since it was just a test for audio sync (and only going to do one take) I figured it would do. Oh and It was just the two of us. I had the actor hold the mic below the frame :). I didn't want to have it mounted there because the cars would have picked up way too much.

As for the basic shot setup...i really enjoyed your little indy film DP "blog" thread you wrote Cracker. Mentioning the rule of thirds and what not kind of spoke to me. In a past life I was a software engineer and I have about 10 years of web design/graphic design background so i think that helped tremendously when you mentioned the rule of thirds.

I've been acting for about 5 years and a lot of the indy stuff i did when i first started out, I was lucky to get to watch a lot of editing..and I asked a crapload of questions.

I've been trolling these boards for about 4 or 5 months...just learning more and more every day. My sole purpose in getting my own gear was for a web series that a few of us have written. We found a great dp, thank god...but call me crazy...I love filming anything and everything. So having a way to do that 24/7 is great!

Color correction is my next big task...also...nailing down some decent lighting tech... Slowly but surely!
 
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in regards to focus...i don't know how you guys pull your own focus... even with a follow focus..that is no joke not easy. I plan to get a follow focus down the road but next up in a fluid head tripod. Right now I'm using a $20 piece of junk....but it works for now. So my main support is my shoulder mount.

One thing i'm not understanding right now is the lens. What is the deal with the lens cropping in regards to my 50mm lens not actually being 50mm. What primes would I need to get to compensate for the cropping? What exactly causes the cropping?
 
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bez said:
One thing i'm not understanding right now is the lens. What is the deal with the lens cropping in regards to my 50mm lens not actually being 50mm. What primes would I need to get to compensate for the cropping? What exactly causes the cropping?
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Uh oh, ur going to get a bunch of replies now which will seem complicated and confusing at first and then ull sort it all out in the end to come to the following conclusion:

it doesnt really matter if ur just shooting video (if ur doing photography, then its another matter).
ur 50mm lens is 50mm. it will look like a 50mm. and the cropped image u get is close to s35 film anyway. u do not need to compensate for the cropping (u would in photography bc in that we are used to full frame cameras).

dont worry abt it, just shoot with the lens that gives u the look u want.




now if ur interested in the information just for ur knowledge, id say type in 'crop factor' and other variations in the search function. it has been debated endlessly in older threads.
 
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sina12345 said:
i loved the sound in this! i wonder how much of a difference it would've been mounting the zoom on top, was it that significant?
acting was lovely too :)
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I tell you I thought about mounting it, but since we were shooting toward the street, just pointing the mic toward the street...the cars going by were a bit overbearing. I love the zoom for ambient sound. Not like I've tried a lot of different options but this one isn't so bad. That said, I did have a redhead on top for my wind screen.
 
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bez said:
One thing i'm not understanding right now is the lens. What is the deal with the lens cropping in regards to my 50mm lens not actually being 50mm. What primes would I need to get to compensate for the cropping? What exactly causes the cropping?
Click to expand...

Don't worry about it. All this talk of lens conversion and cropping only applies to people who are from a photography or 35mm film background. It helps them figure out how stuff will look, in their heads. You're not from of photog background? No? I didn't think so. Neither am I.

This same issue used to confuse the crap out of me (and I'm a smart guy). I couldn't figure out what the hell anyone was talking about. It's because they're talking about mental images in their heads. Seriously. That's about the gist of it. You and I, since we don't have the same background as them, we don't have those mental images already in our heads, so nothing to convert.

A couple weeks ago is when the light-bulb finally went off in my head, and I decided to make a diagram, explaining why T2i/7D users do not need to worry about the difference between lenses, so long as you don't have pre-conceived notions of how a particular lens "should" look. I put it in picture format, cuz that's the only way that cavemen, like myself, will really get it (Oh, just in case you don't yet know the vocab -- EF lenses will fit all Canon DSLRs, EF-S lenses will only fit T2i/7D).

eflens.png
 
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You should KNOW it's cropping though (and generally how it works as CF explained) just because it could lead to communication breakdowns with other filmmakers, or your own DP in the future. When you're talking about a 28mm, but see a shot framed like a 50mm, while the person you are talking to sees a shot framed like a wide angle (which a 28 is).

The whole reason I took up still photography again was so I COULD think in standard focal lengths. The ability to have a shot in my head and know "Ok, that's a 50, then I'll put on an 85 for the cowboy, then a 135 for the ECU", and know pretty much what each of those will look like.
 
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Gonzo_Entertainment said:
You should KNOW it's cropping though (and generally how it works as CF explained) just because it could lead to communication breakdowns with other filmmakers, or your own DP in the future. When you're talking about a 28mm, but see a shot framed like a 50mm, while the person you are talking to sees a shot framed like a wide angle (which a 28 is).

The whole reason I took up still photography again was so I COULD think in standard focal lengths. The ability to have a shot in my head and know "Ok, that's a 50, then I'll put on an 85 for the cowboy, then a 135 for the ECU", and know pretty much what each of those will look like.
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yes u should know its cropping. and the OP already knows that. hes talking about converting equivalents for a FF sensor. this kind of stuff leads to saying i want to film with a 50mm so i should be using a 35mm for my 1.6 crop. and then hes getting the 35mm look and not the 50mm look like he wanted.
as i said, 1.6 crop is close to s35 neway. so just use the lenses on ur 1.6 crop camera and then u get used to what a 50mm looks like on a 1.6 and wat a 35mm looks like and wat an 85mm looks like.
and then when u want the shot u want, u yell for the lens which u know gives u that look.

i agree its good to know all the stuff, but i think if your into film making only, its more important to learn ur craft this way first and then get the info on the photography background. it would be great if u could go the other way but ive seen too many ppl become confused and learn things the wrong way when theyre starting out and start worrying about the crop factor.
 
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