What camera would be best for me when it comes to color grading?

[Paul R Johnson]

Ryan - do you have some kind of memory loss - we have answered this very question multiple time now.

Your film making process is flawed. Story is everything. If you cannot afford to shoot that story, find another.

You seem to do everything backwards. Could the director of 1917 have made it if budget had let him have 10 extras instead of 1000. Could he have changed the story to cut the night scenes because lighting it was too expensive. Could he have replaced the cranes with a gimbal gaffer taped to the back of the head of an olympic retired champion?

Can you not see that you ARE continually trying to emulate big budget shots from random movies, then tinkering with your product to shoehorn these in? Every movie has some scenes that none of us on here could recreate on a budget.

The really crazy thing is that YOU write the scenes you can't shoot on your budget.

I'm grateful you don't want to set your next movie in a desert, but for budget reasons want to shoot it on a local beach in winter, with no sun, and sort it in post.

You need an injection of common sense - if you really misunderstand people so much, is working in a communications medium ever going to work?

Last question. You got banned it seems on that other forum. Did you consider why?

[Ryan Elder]

Oh well I thought I could shoot a scene at night on a budget if done right. I just thought it was possible as long as I don't get too crazy with it.

As for why I was banned on the other site, I was told it was because of some of the content in my screenplay that I posted for review.

[Paul R Johnson]

One thing in that sentence, Ryan - if it was done right.

What can I say? All I know that if I was considering this scene with my camera, I'd be out every night trying everything I can think of.

I fancied doing some Milky Way night shooting that I'd seen, so I spent three cold quite scary nights trying it only to reveal that while I could do it, my results lacked that wonderfulness others have. First two nights were a total waste of time, and while I got the shots on night three - they were poor.

Do you have the test material you shot still? I assume this is where you got the noise problems? Did you try all the things you mention - the work lights, the generators, now perhaps the car headlights I suggested.

Tell me you read the car headlights and went out that night and tried? I bet you didn't. This is the problem. It's like you are a student at university collecting information but never actually trying it for real?

How long would it take to set up a car, a subject and your existing equipment - just to say it works better or worse? Please tell me you try these things for real. It's then fine to reject them, but I think you read papers, ask friends, and then post here without ever trying these things!

[Brian Drysdale]

Many ears ago I made a 50 minute drama that some people on the local arts council film committee said I couldn't make, However, the difference was that I had been trained by the BBC, I had made number of films shot on 8mm film one with a professional actor who had some screen presence.

I had a crew of university students and, for part of the time a National Film & TV School student. A mixed cast of professionals and non professionals, although I'm not sure if a former professorial wrestler counts as the latter.. The students went on to work on high end TV dramas and feature films, so they knew their basic stuff at the time, but what we were doing was high end film school stuff in a risky environment

There was no internet, so information was gathered from an industry magazine, which had long interviews with A list cinematographers and some books (there was a lot less of these). The sound design was inspired by a sound track LP that had sections film soundtrack with the music.

The film was shot on 16mm black and white negative, so there were real costs involved and you had to edit on film. Mistakes were made along the way, together other mishaps, so it is possible to push the envelop. The best thing I did was hire an Arriflex 16BL, instead of using a Bolex with a home brewed sync system and blimp, life is so much easier with the right kit.

The film was finished and shown in festivals and I recently saw a scene projected in the local art house cinema and looked like it belonged on the big screen with the main actor shining. So, although flawed, it has held up pretty well.

The point being, that you can't keep on endlessly asking the same questions, you have to gather it yourself and analysis the information, so that you understand the underlying pattern. You may say you're doing this, but you're not, all you;re doing is going around in endless loops, You need to take a personal vision of the story and push it far as you can, not keep asking the same questions.

You should know yourself, and try to work out what in this stroy is about yourself and the world you live in and people you know. If you have to keep asking questions on writing forums, which go around in circles, perhaps you don't know the world of the story, so need to think again. Ian Fleming worked in navel intelligence in WW2, so James Bond came out of that.

[Ryan Elder]

Oh well I didn't have any subjects who's skin tones I can test it on, but I can do my own. But I had to decide on a better camera first, with much better noise quality, compared to my crappy T2i before I do any more tests though I figured.

[Brian Drysdale]

I'm not sure why you're changing the subject to skin tones, when the thread is discussing something else.

[Ryan Elder]

What I mean is, it's hard to judge my tests unless I have actors skin in the frame, to light the skin to see how the exposure is, at night.

I can do some tests, but I do not have enough car headlights. I only have one car, and need more to test light the locations.

[Brian Drysdale]

You only need one car for a test and a friend to stand or sit in the beam, it's not really a huge deal.

[Ryan Elder]

Oh yes, I'll do a test with my car headlights and see what I come up with.

[Paul R Johnson]

This is EXACTLY what we mean Ryan. Instead of doing the test, you generate problems. Why?As Brian said - where did the skin tone thing suddenly come from? We are talking about illumination. You might even discover your camera is not crap at all and the issue is at the other side of the viewfinder?

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay, I just thought it was hard to judge lighting without skin in front of the lights. But I can do it.

I was told the Canon T2i was crap before, and to get something better. I was told it was too sensitive when it comes to noise but also when it comes to color grading, as you cannot push anything very far either after. I was told that on here long before as well, so don't people have a point, and that I should get a new camera therefore?

[Paul R Johnson]

You were happy with it, weren't you? Why dismiss it now based on people's opinions when you have one, and know how it works in low light. The grading issue never was a problem before, was it - only discovered when you wanted to do strange things, and not gentle strange things but radical turn one colour into another stuff.

I just don't see why you don't put the computer away, go and shine some headlights on real people and shoot the results. Skin is optional for what you are doing. Just take a normal person, try lighting them and see what it looks like. Not remotely rocket science here!

It could be awful - but you would then be able to make a better decision on fact, not opinion.

[Ryan Elder]

Sure I will wait till night time and do a test with the car lights then.

But as for the camera, I find that not being able to do much grading without their being noise and artifacting is a huge problem, though, unless there is a way to fix that. However, one person told me that with magic lantern, you can turn the camera's codec into RAW and improve the grading from there, if that's true.

[Brian Drysdale]

No one is telling you not to place a subject in the lighting test.

Again, doing a lighting test with your current camera will confirm the lighting levels with these particular lights and a ball park on how the skins tones look like. It will reveal if the headlights are suitable or not, in the past I would've taken an exposure reading with a meter as the starting point, but you can use your old camera instead..

The production camera on your film is entirely different and decision for the future. Why create unnecessary problems at this stage? If you do that nothing happens and you live in a land of procrastination..

[Ryan Elder]

Sure, I will do a test tonight with the car headlights. One of the locations I was planning on shooting in, a car would not be able to physically go into it though. It' s a park, so we would have to walk into it with lights. Maybe the car headlights can be removed? But I will do the test tonight with car headlights and see.