Corporate video shot entierly on Canon 7D

Se bâtir un avenir confortable on Vimeo

This is the first time i'm using the 7D on a paid job and I am really happy with the result and the workflow. The video is in french (sorry) but anyway you are more interested in technical aspects ;-)

The sound was taken with a Rode NTG-2 on a boom and recorded into the Zoom H4n.

Lens used: Sigma 17-70 for the stock shots, Nikon manual 50mm 1.4 for interviews, and one take on an old Opticam m42 135mm f2.8.

This video is about a new technical program for a post-secondary education institution.

Let me know what do you think about it!

[Imran Zaidi]

Very nice. I especially like the natural look of some of the interview footage. Specifically, can you possibly mention how you lit/used natural light/color-corrected to get the look you have in the interviews of Dominic and Joel? Especially Joel, I love how that looks.

[Jean-Philippe Archibald]

Dominic: The area was surronded by large windows and the day was overcast so I had a nice natural even light. I just added a 1k fresnel in a chimera 24X32 softbox with a full daylight screen at 45 degree right to the camera.

Joel: We shot it in a conference room the same day. This room had a very nice large window. I opened the store wide open and placed the camera to have the window at my right as my key light (lighting the left side of Joel's face). I added a foam core on the other side, close to Joel as my fill light. I added a 1k fresnel with a sheet of lee 216 and a sheet of lee CTB filter as a separation light opposit of the window. I completed this setup with an ARRI 600W open face with the same filters directed to the wall on the background.

I love to use as much natural light as I can. Thanks for your comments. If you have any other questions, just ask. I hope I was clear enough,

[Chuck Spaulding]

I have no idea what they're talking about but it sure looks good.

What setting/profile did you use?

[Jean-Philippe Archibald]

Neutral, with contrast and sharpeness down 2 notches, saturation down 1 notch. A touch of grading in Magic Bullet.

[Dan Brockett]

Jean-Philippe:

You have a good eye. I like your lighting a lot.

But your angle on the interviewees results in a very detached feeling to the interviews. Next time, locate your interviewer much closer to the lens to bring their eyes and eye line much closer to the camera axis. The way the interviews are shot, the viewer feels very detached from the subjects, probably not the feel you were hoping for.

Dan

[Richard Gooderick]

Hi Jean Philippe
I like it very much. Great pacing. I really like how the focus pulls and the transitions work with each other.
It looks great (I watched 3.5 mins - I don't speak French) but one thing that surprised me was that some of the shots were a bit shaky and I don't know why you didn't use a tripod.
Well done. Loved it.
ps glad to see that you used a Nikon manual 50mm. I love that lens too.

[Jean-Philippe Archibald]

Dan: Thank you for your comments. Yes you are right about the angle. I should have corrected the position of the interviewer, but we were somewhat rushed by time.

Richard. I didn't used a tripod for all the shot because I have access to the students for only 1 hour and I had to take a lot of differents shots. I simply didn't have time to set a tripod and I don't own a fancy hendheld rig like the zacutos or redrocks ones (yet!).

[Andy Wilkinson]

Hi, I loved it too (I speak some French...but the imagery was excellent). I also noticed the shaky shots - and I understand your reasoning as I had to do some quick run-n-gun shots this afternoon for a client where a tripod would have slowed us down much too much.

I don't know what NLE you edit in but the Smoothcam Filter in FCP is very impressive at sorting those types of shots out from my experience.

Well done. Really excellent video and it's given me some inspiration to try and master my 7D for corporate work rather than just get my EX3 out all the time.

[Chuck Spaulding]

Originally Posted by Jean-Philippe Archibald

I simply didn't have time to set a tripod and I don't own a fancy hendheld rig like the zacutos or redrocks ones (yet!).

If your considering purchasing a handheld camera support you may want to check this out: Shape WLB - Camera supports I purchased one of these, you can mix and match the components to build what you need. The quality is excellent at almost a fourth of the cost of the ones you mentioned.

I'm not affiliated with them in any way, I just own one and like to share when I find an affordable product that works well.

[Cristian Derois]

Great work.

But I disagree about detachment feeling yelded from framing. As far as I know, through my directing study (btw, solo), giving space in front of the subject, framing 2/3 of empty space put audience in the common space betwin the subject and the audience, and thus, creating the feeling of atachment.

It is used widely in cinema, every dialogue follows this rule. If you want to detach a character from audience, you give it 2/3 of "empty" space behind the subject, or you dolly out.

Forgive me if I misunderstood something. Again, it is a great work. Pity I can understand very little from french, to many verb conjugations et liaison...

[Jon McGuffin]

I really enjoyed it and thought, overall, this was very very well done. I didn't have a problem with the 'shaky' shots, and though I see the point others are making regarding the interview angles, I think they were completely fine. Your lighting was very well done.

The *only* aspect I didn't care for was pulling focus on too many shots. A shot on the first female interview has her out of focus for far too long to make the effect work in my opinion. In some places (opening scene) it was done beautifully, but in most others I don't think it worked...

It's a minor quibble, this was very professional, well put together, and looks gorgeous.

Jon

[Richard Gooderick]

Ha.
Everyone likes it.
And almost everyone has different views about what could and could not be improved.
Make what you can of that ;-)

[Jean-Philippe Archibald]

Thanks for all your comments.

Jon: I guess I wanted to show the strenghts of the big sensor too much! ;-) About the slowliness of the focus pull, I don't have a follow focus unit yet and it was the only way to pull the focus on the 50mm without shaking the camera. Very tricky at f1.4. I'm glad you liked it!