Casino reloaded

[Noa Put]

So this morning I decided to go back to the casino and reshoot it but with some primes now and try to do a bit more effort to make it look good. Must say now after have used the primes I"m very satisfied with the camera. Here it is, If you have any questions, shoot :)

Casino on Vimeo

And for those that wanted "movement" after my "coalmine" video, you have been served :D

There is also a spot in the footage on the wideangle shots, I found out afterwards some dirt got on the lens halfway the shoot :[

[Lee Berger]

Nicely done Noa. Are you using some type of steady cam? What are you using for the tracking shots?

[Noa Put]

I"ll just copy the comments I placed under the video on my vimeo account below as it has additional info, but to answer your question, I used a crappy home made slider which requires you to redo your shot a gazzilion times and the steadicam used was a blackbird, with that one I only have to do the shot once :).

comments copied from Vimeo:
I went back for a second time after shooting with the stock lens before, then it was just a quick shoot testing the camera for the first time but now I decided to do it again, and better, with my prime lenzes.

Shot with the Sony nex ea50eh with 3 primes, a Samyang 14 mm f2.8, a 35mm f1.4 and a Tamron macro 90mm f2.8. I used a custom build slider with a manfrotto 701 head attached to it. Steadycam shots done with a blackbird. The footage has been sharpened a bit and some contrast and saturation was applied, I used the Factory PP3 setting, this one gives you the most dynamic range.

About halfway the shoot a spot is visible on the wide angle shots, apparently some snow or dirt got on the lens and I didn't see it, main reason for that was that I didn't use the long loupe to check focus but looked directly on the viewfinder with peaking enabled. With the loupe I probably would have noticed.

Note to myself: During a shoot often check to see if the lens is still clean! :)

It was -3 and had to shoot with my gloves on, not an easy thing to do with all the small buttons on the camera.

I didn't use a vest for the blackbird and the whole set up is too heavy to use for extended periods but the blackbird handled much better then with my 550d which is much ligher, there was more inertia in movements giving me more smooth tilt and pan controll.

The music is an adapted version from Andries de Haan's "Extraction" and "Fader": youtube.com/user/AGMediaNL?feature=watch

So far I"m really enjoying this camera.

[Chris Harding]

Hey Noa

Nice footage..it really is a nice camera!! I'm doing a wedding today so I can also play with the 50mm prime at the reception and see how it works.

Wow you are brave ! At minus 3 I would be inside tucked up in bed!! Even the 50 must be a killer on your arm with a stedicam ...I'm using a full vest and dual arm and it's a delight compared to the much heavier Panasonic !! I had to drop over half the balance weight from the lower stage of the sled when I used the Sony so the entire rig feels like a feather in comparison!!

Chris

[Evan Bourcier]

Wow, looks amazing! Great job man!

[Rod Pike]

Noa,
AAAAARGGHHHH! You have really pulled it off with that! Beautiful flow and structure- as I said earlier, stuff the camera (A set of high quality paintbrushes don't make you Rembrandt!) I want to see more of your work so thanks so much for sharing.

I particularly like the traverse down stairs and the turn to the next flight- that is a b**tard of a manouver, probably one of the most difficult with a steadicam ( I fly a steadicam pilot and vest so I know, having nearly killed myself on several occasions trying to get that right).

So , thanks so much for sharing ( the camera looks pretty good too!!)
Cheers!
Rod

[James Manford]

Thanks for sharing this.

I can not wait for my EA50 to arrive next week ...

It's so true. It's not the camera, but the person using it!

And this is the perfect example ...

[James Manford]

In reference to the 'blackbird' your using.

Isn't the whole set up really heavy? how do you, or any one else for that matter use such a device for extended periods of time without a steadicam vest / arm? I had a Flycam Nano, and with my VG20 I could literally use it for short 5 minute bursts and just realised it wasn't worth the hassle of setting up for such short useage!!

Now I just stick to my slider for cinematic shots and try to mimic flying shots using a monopod, or record as steady as possible by walking around the room and then use minor stabilization in post and slightly speed up the footage. It works for me without any visible quality loss.

[Steven Digges]

Noa,

Absolutely beautiful. To shoot that in one morning, cut it and post it on Vimeo the same day is amazing. The quality of your work is inspiring to me. You have quite a repatwaur of shots you put together in a perfect mix. You took the inanimate and gave it life and feeling.

The consistency of your exposures in that dark high contrast lighting was very impressive. That clip is another study in what an artist and technician can create with the knowledge to do everything in manual. I am actually grateful that a camera has not been made yet that could have pulled of those shots in auto. I guess I'm old school but looking at that piece reminds me that there are still guys out there that truly understand the craft and the limits and capabilities of the technology. I commend you for your skill as a photographer.

Steve

[Noa Put]

Sorry for the later response but was working yesterday but thx for the positive feedback so far :)

To answer Chris and James remark about the steadicam set up, yes, it's a killer to fly the ea50 on the blackbird, for me at least it was. Normally I use my 550d which incl the 14mm is a featherwheight compared to the ea50 with the same lens. That set up I can fly for extended periods without much effort. In that case there is only 1 small weight on each side which is the absolute minimum.

With the EA50 I had to add 3 large weights on each side and that adds up, it did have some very pleasant advantages as I had much more tilt and pan controll because the inertia in movements was much higher. With the 550d The rig is very sensitive to touch but with the EA50 I could more easily control any movement I wanted to make, only I couldn't use it that long before the muscles in my back started to get really painful.

I think that if I would have to use the rig on a paid assignment for a small company or larger corporate firm I definitely would use the ea50 for it, just because of the added controll, the 50p and the sharper image I get compared to my 550d but for weddings, no way, there my 550d will stay attached permanently.

My slider is really a crap one, I have mounted a 701 manfrotto head on top of it but with the least friction caused by moving the tripod head during a move the glide stalls so you have to apply some kind of counter force on the platform where the tripod head is mounted on with your hands so it stays smooth.

Thing is I hardly use a slider at a wedding because it's too much effort to drag along. But for these kind of shots, like in the casino, but also when doing a video for a small company it becomes much more valuable. I just have to wait and see if I can get some paid assignments where it will be beneficial so I have a reason to buy a much more expensive one with real bearings that can withstand any friction if you move the tripod head in any direction.

I don't know if you have noticed but there are quite some focus pulls in there during a slider shot. I just used the viewfinder to check focus and used peaking in yellow at it's max strength and it performed great with my primes. Pulling focus was easy and accurate.

I still wish there was a small (short) loupe that could be placed over the lcd screen just for quick focus checks and then I probably would have noticed the small smudge on my screen. The location was not exactly a clean place to work in and dirt stuck on my gloves which each time would get on the camera.

This time I didn't go over 1600 iso and have to say the camera performed really well, the very first steadicam shots in that larger space the f-stop was at 2.8 and shot at 1600 iso and the image is a bit brighter then what I could see with my own eyes.

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by James Manford

or record as steady as possible by walking around the room and then use minor stabilization in post and slightly speed up the footage. It works for me without any visible quality loss.

If you are doing live interviews walking backwards following a person that is being interviewed I think the ea50 would work out fine with the stock lens and a person watching your back :) but if you intent to mimic a steadicam move by walking around that never will work in the way a real steadicam move is supposed to look. Especially not when you start to start to mess with your footage in post to smooth out any bumps as the image will start to deteriorate.

With a "proper" steadicam you can you use the raw footage and if you will change speed it's better to slow down then speed up, if you speed up you will enhance any wrong moves you made and it will show. Slowing down the footage, which is easy to do when you film in 50p makes it even more smooth.

You also at least would have to buy a merlin, blackbird or glidecam 1000 to 4000 which are at the low end of handheld stabilizers that use high quality materials and have high quality engineering. They are not "that" cheap but that's the minimum prize you have to pay to pull of some decent steadicam shots.

[James Manford]

Valuable advice, thanks.

[Noa Put]

Yeah! Just got an approval to film in "the glass house" about 15 minutes from where I live, I have mentioned it in one of the other threads but couldn't find it back. I live in an area where the dig up sand destined for producing glass, I can see the factory where they process the glass from my home window.
The glass house is a centre for glass art where they handcraft this art and they also give workshops and so on.

It's not easy to get in with a camera and you need approval first, I wish I could film the place where they actually make the glass but I think that is restricted (lets hope I"m lucky :)) so normally I only have access to the exposition room.

This will be a real test as it is a aliasing hell in there, see images here: Panoramio - Photo of Het glazen Huis

I can only go each monday so it can take a few weeks before I"m scheduled in but this will be my next "fun" project where I can also, if weather permits shoot in the town. Will be interesting to see how the camera holds up with all that fine detail.

(Sorry for any spelling errors but chrome"s spelling checker doesn't work again)

[James Manford]

Can't wait for the video Noa!

[Noa Put]

Me neither :) Did your ea50 arrive yet?