Until the Devil thinks you're Ready from Oliver Brandon Swartz on Vimeo.
Until the Devil thinks you're Ready is my second short film using the Sony A7s, this time with a Canon 16-60mm Prime and Carl Zeiss 35 CP.2 in combination with the Metabones V.4
I used one of my very first DIY handheld rigs (see older post) for the very first shot, reason why I could tilt that far down for a close-up on Mariana and still push-out for Jordan's reveal. There's a nice little "Frame-within-a-Frame" compositional throwback to one of my favorite directors Akira Kurosawa.
All my footage was shot using the fastest possible sd cards I got get from my local rental house, which allowed me to shoot in XAVC-S in S-Log2 at 50mbps. Record settings were I shoot using 24p 50m. I've only ever tried slow motion once (on my first short film Invasion) where I shot the entire first scene with Ryno running from 'something' @ 60p and converted in post to 24p or 24fps. This allowed me to keep the HD resolution whereas if I chose to shoot @ 120p it would downgrade the footage to 720p *yuck You can get away with this if you're shooting shallow depth of field because a wide shot will draw attention to the artefacts in your image.
Manual Focus is a must. I won't go into detail about what I consider the basics, sorry, like shooting in manual over aperture priority mode or movie modes or any of the other modes. My personal preference really.
PICTURE PROFILE is KEY!
PP1 = Movie Gamma.
PP2 = Still Gamma.
pp5-6 = Cine 1+2 Gamma.
PP7 = S-Log2 Gamma.
I tend to shoot in PP7 because it defaults to S-Log profile which is basically a flat picture profile and is wonderful for post. The only caveat is your minimum ISO is 3200. Which is not great for shooting outdoors! Normally I tend to use ISO800 outdoors or wherever there is an abundant source of light, but in S-Log profile you will have to mitigate that by using a plethora amount of ND. [Update] My latest short film Tekkies vir Trevor, I did exactly that! Shot in S-Log profile with a ND 9 and ND 6 (that's 15 STOPS of ND! INSANE!) plus a polariser, unnecessary but mainly because I was dealing with reflections in a car window. The things we do for shallow depth of field *rolls eyes.
The upside to shooting this way is you get the most out of the Dynamic Range on the Sony A7S, remember this camera has 14/5 stops, which gives you the most information in the shadows and the highlights.
If your production doesn't allow for ND filters in your budget, I suggest you shoot in Cine 4. You will immediately notice you can bring your ISO down to 200, albeit without the flat profile of S-Log2.
SETTINGS:
Gamma = S-Log 2.
Color Mode = S-Gamut.
Detail = -7 (you cannot turn it off, but you can bring it all the way down. DO IT!).
Always overexpose so that you can underexpose in post. Great advise from Phillip Bloom.
Just because you can shoot in crazy high ISO's doesn't mean you don't light!
Shooting on the Carl Zeiss CP.2 optics allows you the ability to change the Iris manually, all the way to f1/8. This is great for choosing an ISO before the image become noisy, then opening the Iris to an acceptable DOF, provided you can pull focus. This is not advisable when shooting any sort of action or moving scene!
CONTROLS:
Top Dial = Aperture.
Back Dial = Shutter Speed.
Thumb Wheel = ISO.
FN = Function/Quick Nav (Use it!)
Manual Focus Assist = ON.
This is one I wish I used! APS-C Size Capture mode. Turning this on will essentially allow you to 'punch-in' or get in tighter to your subject. This helps for two reason. `First, like I mentioned you get tighter shots, when needed. And two, it mitigates rolling shutter! So if you want to do a whip Pan of some kind of tracking shot, trust me, you do not want to depend on the EVF or any kind of small monitor, because you will not see the rolling shutter in your image until you view it on a big screen aka when it's too late!
MORE SETTINGS:
Peaking Mode = Mid = Red.
ColorSpace = Adobe RGB.
Movie = Enable Steadyshot.
Flexible spot in focus mode for fine tuning focus area.
Histogram is a must for monitoring shadows and highlights.
MF Assist + C2 to magnify.
Focus Magnify = No Limit.
Choosing a proper white balance is always important. This camera has every WB setting from daylight 3200K, Fluorescent, Tungsten to Cloudy and more. In case you forget to bring a grey card or white board on set
The Sony A7s will allow you to snap a still and view it with all the on-screen displays turned on to view the colorspace and other information essential for a DP to help put the Director's mind at ease knowing that he/she is in good hands.
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