Wildlife Cinematography Master Class

[Bob Safay]

I remember how much I learned when I took Doug's source on selling stock videos, and how excited I was when I actually started making money that I decided to sign up for his Wildlife Cinematography Master Class. Since about 85% of the clips I have sold on Shutterstock and Pond5 were of nature or wildlife this course should give me the edge to selling more clips. I am really looking excited and am forward to taking this course. I will let you all know how it goes. Bob

[Doug Jensen]

Hi Bob, thanks for signing up for the workshop! I look forward to hearing any comments you may have -- both positive and negative. Take your time, though, I tried to make it easy to digest the content in small chunks as you are ready for each new chapter.

[Paul R Johnson]

I've included a few random clips from when I was doing a job this morning, and noticed a black swan - never having seen one before. This nature thing is a lot harder than it looks as they don't keep still!

YouTube (Short URL)

[Bob Safay]

I finally finished the course. It was really a learning experience. Even though he spoke about the settings on his Sony's it was easy to apply them to my Canon. I always wondered why Doug's video clips looked so good and now I know. I learned some techniques I would have never thought about, like shooting in 24p with a shutter angle of 144 instead of 30p at 180 for slow motion. Why didn't I think about that? I was always disappointed with trying to grade Clog3. It turned out my main problem was that I had the zebra stripes set all wrong, now that I know better, I am going to shoot more in Clog3 and, following Doug's simple examples, grade on DaVinci Resolve. Years ago, I met up with Doug and we spent the morning filming birds at Merritt Island NWR in Florida. We were literally 15 yards apart. He had his Sony, and I had my Canon. When I got home, I looked at my clips and thought "these are pretty good shots", then I looked at Doug's and thought "WOW, these are GREAT shots". I'll never be as good as Doug, but now I know how to get some of that WOW factor. Next week I head up to Cades Cove, Tennessee to practice what I just learned. Thanks again Doug! Bob

[Doug Jensen]

Hey Bob, sorry for the slow reply I almost missed your post.

Thanks for the great feedback. It always makes me feel good when people can point to the specific information that they found most useful. It's really interesting to hear which pieces of the puzzle I was able to help put into place and in order to elevate someone's shooting skills. I know you are downplaying the quality of your own video that you shot when we were on Merritt Island, but I appreciate the sentiment. If I can help you get a little better, I feel successful. I hope you'll decide to post some video from Tennessee.
I'm itching to go out and do some filming here in Massachusetts but I can't find any worthwhile wildlife this year.

[Andrew Smith]

Doug, before you ever think of retiring, you ought to put out a video of all your stories from filming various interviews and other setups from over the years. It would have to be entertaining.

Andrew

[Doug Jensen]

I appreciate the thought, but that would be a pretty boring video. :-)
Like anyone who has been in this business a few years, I can think of a few interesting stories I could share but I think you'd surprised by how few . . . and how boring most of them would be.

Your post did dredge up some old memories, though. A lot of stuff I'd rather forget!
Do I smell something burning?

[Andrew Smith]

Doug, even your driveway is cool.

I'm sure you have good stories, maybe a few horrors thrown in there too? It's gotta be interesting!

Andrew

[Bob Safay]

https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/841479580

I made it back from Cades Cove. My timing was perfect. Filmed black bear, deer, elk, wild turkey and even an Osprey on my way home. I tried many of things I learned from Doug's course. Now remember I was only up there for a couple of days.

In the first clip I videoed the bear in Clog3 at a frame rate of 23.98, shutter speed 120fps and a shutter angle of 144. I used Doug's suggestions for color grading and for the first time I did not get frustrated. I do think that 23.98 might be a little too slow for this large, slow-moving animal. I also found out that it is a lot harder to focus in log.

Next is a shot of a deer at 23.98. This looks better than the bear, but I think I can improve the color just a bit.

Next is an Osprey taking off. This is one of my big "I can't believe that just happened" moments. I was driving down the Foothills Parkway and decided to pull over and look at the river. Just as I was stopping, I looked up and there was this osprey. I set up my tripod, set focus and exposure, and made sure my video head was not locked down so I could track the bird once he took off. Everything was perfect, until I reached down to get my hat and he flew away. Oh well, I knew where he lives.

I think I will be shooting a lot more in Clog3. I now have the confidence to start getting better at color. Now that I know how I am starting to use scopes more in my grading. I need to think more about what I am filming that day and then leave the settings alone. I wasted to much time going from Rec. 709 at 90% zebra to Clog3 at 70% and back. One time I was in such a hurry switching back to Rec. 709 that I forgot to change my zebras back to 90%. In the case of the bear and deer I set up by the side of the road and let them come to me.

There is a lot more information from the course that I was to try. Right now, I will continue to practice what I learned, and most of all, I will take my time, check my settings and focus. A great course, thanks Doug.

[Doug Jensen]

Hi Bob, I'm glad to hear you had a good time at Cades Cove. Having a good time is more important than the footage we shoot.

If you don't mind, I have a couple of comments on your video. The deer is a unwinnable situation where you have a dark animal in shadow situated in front of sunlit green foliage. There's nothing you can do that will turn that into a top-notch shot no matter what camera you have or skills grading in post. I'm not saying you shouldn't shoot it anyway, but that's the kind of thing I know while I'm shooting it that isn't going to pay off unless a wolf comes out of the grass or something.

The osprey sure looks like one of my own shots!
What I would do with that shot in Resolve is to freeze where its wings are outstretched and you see the maximum amount of white on his body. Then adjust the grading controls to bring that patch of white down below 90% in the waveform. Right now it appears to be clipped but you might be able to recover it and get some detail if it was not clipped in-camera.

Then, on a different node, I would use the white balance eyedropper tool to click on the white feathers to set a cleaner white balance.

After that, you might need to make other adjustment to get the colors/black leves better, but those would be my first two steps. I hope you don;t mind the suggestions. It is close, but could be better.

[Bob Safay]

Doug, Happy 4th of July. Thank you for reviewing the clips and for making suggestions. I always want to learn and improve. I agree with you about the deer, that is a bad shot. I am going to try your recommendations on how to improve the osprey clip. But before that I am will rewatch the chapters on color grading. I always value your comments. Thanks again and stay safe. Bob

[Doug Jensen]

Hey Bob, you might be ready for a little more in-depth training on Resolve than I was able to put into the wildlife course. In appreciation for taking a chance on the wildlife course, I'm going to send you an email with a promo code for the Resolve training course I produced a few years ago. It's getting a little long in the tooth because Resolve has had a lot of extra bells and whistles added, but I watched it again myself a couple of months ago and 95% of it is still accurate and pretty much the same way I'm using Resolve today. And even though the title woud imply it is only about grading Sony footage, over the years I've come to appreciate that one brand of LOG and RAW is not so different from other brands. The main difference being that you just have to use a different LUT, and then it is pretty much the same. I hope you find it useful.

https://vimeo.com/ondemand/resolve

[Bob Safay]

Doug, thank you so much. Your course definitely gave me the confidence to start shotting on Log. I can't wait to start learning more on color grading. Safe travels post some clips from Maine. Bob

[Bob Safay]

Doug, I just finished watching several chapters over again for about the fourth time and I am still learning new things. In chapter 16 you talked about videoing sand hill cranes at the sewage treatment facility. If that's the one in Titusville thanks to you I have been there several times. Wildlife, it's all around us. Here's a short video I did about finding wildlife. I shot this with my old Canon XF300 for one of the old UWOL challenges. Enjoy, Bob

Wildlife on Vimeo

[Doug Jensen]

Hi Bob, very nice video. I always enjoy your relaxing, laid back narration. As you know, I agree completely with your premise that wildlife is all around us and you don't have to travel to Africa or Antarctica to find interesting animals to film. I especially liked the footage of the bears. It feels like you were pretty close.

Yes, the sewage treatment plant I talked about in my video was the one in Titusville. The juvenile hawk in the bush was also at the same place, as were quite a few other shots throughout the series. It is a good resource to have so close to home. Speaking of home, I had to travel down to Florida for a couple of days to take care of some business and just and got back to Massachusetts yesterday afternoon. Boy was it hot down there and no animals in sight. A single ibis was the most exotic bird I saw. I'm glad I migrate north in the summers just like the wildlife! And I look forward tp the cooler winter months. I have a feeling the birding will be better this year if we don't get two hurricanes coming across Cape Canaveral again. I really think that ruined things last year. Fingers crossed.