Shooting with the F3 on "Key & Peele" for Comedy Central

[Justin Molush]

Keying out DSLR footage even with a properly lit situation can be a pain and Ill build a bunch of comps which combine a chroma key and very mildly feathered roto (if needed) to get all the artifacts out of the footage and get a clean alpha channel.

Appreciate your insight into the technical setup, as most people I end up talking to during/after shoots are producers and don't really have much insight into how exactly everything is setup.

[Sareesh Sudhakaran]

Thanks for sharing your work, Charles. I have a question: do you think the F3 with SLog falls behind the Alexa in any way for television work?

[Charles Papert]

Good question. I'm planning on shooting some tests for myself to get a feel for the quantitative differences between the Alexa shooting Log-C and F3 with S-log. I do like working with the Alexa very much as a camera system, although the F3 will improve considerably with the upcoming firmware upgrade that manages the current issues with both 60p and 422 output in S-log.

[Chris Medico]

HI Charles, are you talking about v1.3 of the firmware? Its out now and does have 4:2:2 output for S-Log.

I was able to get time to watch some TV and checked out the show last night. If it stays that funny it should do well. Really enjoyed it. I didn't notice the camera work. :)

[Charles Papert]

Announced today: we are picked up for a second season!

I will be testing the C300, the F3 and the Alexa against each other in anticipation of this and a feature I'm doing in April--will be interesting to see what we end up shooting season 2 on.

FYI some good looking sketches on tonight's show, including one starring Ty Burrell (Modern Family) as a Nazi!

[Chris Hurd]

Congrats Chas -- looking forward to tonight's show (DVR timer is set to weekly recording)!

[Kawika Ohumukini]

Originally Posted by Charles Papert

Announced today: we are picked up for a second season!

I will be testing the C300, the F3 and the Alexa against each other in anticipation of this and a feature I'm doing in April--will be interesting to see what we end up shooting season 2 on.

FYI some good looking sketches on tonight's show, including one starring Ty Burrell (Modern Family) as a Nazi!

Congrats. Watching the show now and lmao. Great job. GL in the 2nd season.

[Charles Papert]

FYI: this week's episode has a couple of pretty cinematic sketches--may be worth a look for those who haven't watched yet. It reruns virtually every day on Comedy Central.

Here's one:
Key & Peele: Zombie Attack - YouTube

[Matt DeBruycker]

That scene looked great Charles and was also very funny. Well done.

[Jeff Anselmo]

Great behind the scenes stuff Charles! I'm sure the crew cost you a few re-takes for uncontrollable laughter on set. (Which almost happened to me when I was a PA on Martin Short's Jiminy Glick!)

Me and the wife love the show (have it scheduled on the DVR :) and love the Bar/Bat Mitzvah sketch.

Here's hoping for a 3rd season!

[Charles Papert]

There's a few bust-ups, sure!

I thought the barmitzvah sketch was great also! Lot of great improv in that, Christopher Guest-style.

Party Motivators on Vimeo

[Charles Papert]

Well, an old chestnut rolled out of the tree recently. One of the season 1 sketches that never aired was released as a teaser for season 3.

This one was an interesting experiment to see how the F3 would work in low light. We shot with a camera car and process trailer (had several other sketches that we did with the same rig that day). I decided to bump the cameras to 1600 ISO to take advantage of the ambient light levels. Two 2K blondes through double diffusion and ultimately, a lot of scrimming provide the frontal fill. All of the interactive lighting that passes across them is practical. It was nice to to not have to go through the hoops of the classic process style lighting gags of yore (units panning on and off, dimming up and down etc) and just let the street do its thing.

The driveby shot of the car was a very last minute grab at the end of the night, in a particularly dark section of street right by our basecamp. I may have actually nudged the cameras up to 3200 ISO for this. A couple of Literibbon LED cards inside the car gave the guys a little level. I can't remember at this point if we had time to ND the headlights but the vertical smear makes me think we didn't, or if we did, the boosted sensitivity meant we needed to add a couple more stops of ND than expected.

NEW Key & Peele: Weird Playlist - YouTube

[James Kuhn]

Mr. Papert...I'm one of those single camera, owner/operators working with a 'micro-budget'. : ) Rather than scrolling past this discussion, I've read every thread, viewed the videos and looked at the still images. Seeing how the 'pros' do it is exactly why I subscribe to DVI. I love it! I'll probably never reach the level you have in the craft, but I appreciate you letting the 'little guy' take a look behind the curtain.

Best regards,

J.

[Charles Papert]

Thank you James!

I have been slowly amassing a sketch-by-sketch breakdown of the cinematography of the show so that I can start a blog about same--time permitting (it hasn't permitted much, as I have been completely consumed with shooting the third season up until two weeks ago).

When I started out I used to read American Cinematographer, and while it had little to do with my scrabblings around with home video cameras and a couple Lowel lights, there were still plenty of little nuggets to glean. The process, after all, is just the same, regardless of the scale.

To James and others, please don't be shy about forwarding questions!

[Charles Papert]

Season three trailer up:

Key & Peele: Season 3 Trailer - Video Clip | Comedy Central

(sorry for those that can't view in their country, I'll update if the clip goes to Youtube).

Lots of different looks this season! A couple glimpses of two sketches shot on vintage 3-tube cameras, the rest mostly Alexa.