UWOL 25- A Skyline Monument to a Big Idea Gone Bad by Chris Barcellos

[Chris Barcellos]

Comments welcome here.

Why I do this film ?

Was it new camera needed testing ? Was it an innate desire to create something ? Was it because I needed to get off my *^&^*) and do something ?

Actually, I think it was because Chris promised us some bling of some sort.......right ?

Any ways, I have driven by the subject of this film on many occasion, and it just looks so giant and alone out in southern Sacramento County, that I thought others just might enjoy seeing it. And since it takes up a prominent place on the horizon out there, this theme seemed to fit.

Most of the scenes were shot with the new Black Magic Cinema Camera. This was first test of the camera, and I have definitely learned a bit about settings and exposure since then. The zooming shot was actually shot before arrival of the Cinema camera, with my Canon HV30, feeding my Black Magic Hyperdeck Shuttle 2. (If you look closely at the cows in the foreground on that shot, you will notice I reversed the zoom in the edit for effect, and the cows are walking backwards.

Thanks for watching.

A Skyline Monument To A Big Idea Gone Bad on Vimeo

[Simon Wood]

Hey Chris; I thought those backward walking cows were just mutated; lucky thats not the case...

Yeah, those cooling towers really dominate the horizon. Its an interesting story, especially the closure of the plant; well done on that. You have got some of the 'biggest' horizon shots in this competition, in fact.

Some of the pans you did were a little shaky (or they stop very suddenly). But perhaps that could be just vimeo adding in its usual jerkiness to the video? Have you ever tried the old elastic band panning technique? Works really well.

How is that BMC working out for you? Are you shooting uncompressed?

[Paul Wood]

Hi Chris,

I also think its difficult to judge the camera footage by looking at Vimeo - but I though the concept was good - Im not sure how I would have handled the subtitles any differently, but that would be my only comment - they jump around a bit.

Thanks!

[Chris Barcellos]

Hey Guys, thanks for comments.

I think jerkiness is attributable to just to many things going on at once with learning the new camera. I am not satisfied, for instance, that I handle post properly. Everything was shot in Black Magic's ProRes, on film setting, which meant I had to deal with a very flat initial image. I have worked with Cinestyle on the Canon, and other DSLR before, but this ProRes has tons more latitude. In this first week that I shot this, I was definitely working with a new process, and I think these early attempts should not be taken into account when judging the camera capabilities.

Shot at 24p, so a bit of stutter possible, Also, just didn't look that jerky until I got them in the editor- my bad. And when packing for shoot, I didn't pack, my trusty rubber bands to use to soften the pan. In those pans, I might have been fighting the image stabilization inadvertently left on on the Canon glass I used in some of the shots. As you know, that stabilization can cause a jerkiness in tripod pan situation. Simple solution was to turn it off. But those are things you learn by doing as you go along with a new camera.

My original intention was to have narration rather than subtitling, but just didn't get there, but still thought the story was interesting enough to post something.

[Trond Saetre]

Hi Chris,

Those cooling towers really stand out and reach for the sky in that flat terrain.
Interesting story you tell. I enjoyed watching.
I didn't mind the text instead of VO. Had the same problem myself with time running out.

Congratulations with your new camera!
My XF300 also shoot a very flat image right out of the box. (Great for color editing in post)
But I am often using some custom presets I found online (and then changed a little to my own liking), so I don't have to do any color correcting in post.
Maybe that also exists for your camera?

[Chris Barcellos]

Hi Trond:

No, the camera had only two settings. First is film, second is video. No adjustment otherwise.

I shot film. Cause that is way I am trying to learn it. Film gives the extremely flat look but substantial information is retained to allow tremendous color adjustment ranges. All camera start out like that, but in presets in the camera, you bake in the settings in the encoding. With this camera, you essentially set your presets in post in your editor, or in DaVinci Resolve, which comes with the camera. Just last night I located a turtorial which explains how you can set your input in DaVininci to meet Academy Color Encoding Spec. The idea there is to get all of these cameras to produce files with consistent and standardized color space. Don't know if that is good directly for me, but I understand how a colorist would want to work from a consistent file type. See this link for the article: http://nofilmschool.com/2013/01/tuto...adng-aces-lut/

Here is one tutorial on how Davinci Resolve works, probably similar to what you are doing.

Resolve Tutorial for Film Log from BMCC on Vimeo

[Trond Saetre]

DaVinci Resolve looks like a great tool for color correcting. Never used it, but the tutorial seems to give good information.
In addition to the 7-8 different presets I have for the camera, I basically just use the color correcting tools in Premiere Pro.

[Bill Thesken]

There's a big guy walking by the camera as the captions read ' a big idea gone bad '.
Looks like the camera works well, pretty crisp and clear, kind of a greenish tone, or is that just the camera reading the green color of the surroundings as they are?

[Markus Nord]

It seems that a few of us got some new toys for this challenge, and you got something that a lot of others a still waiting for… I did cancel my two orders, it just took too long time and I decided to continue with the 5DIII with a new UW housing (I had plans for building a UV housing for the BMCC).
Anyway, back to you film… that is some big idea, gone bad…
The greenish colour gave it a 1970 look… I like it. Some jerky pans, but you know that and know what to do about it… I would have liked a VO, or slowed the text down a bit, sometime I didn’t have time to read it all.
Good luck with you new camera….

[Geir Inge]

Hi Chris.

Congratulations on the new camera, hope it meets your expectations :)

Good film that focuses on the towers and their location.
You are right in that the text is a little bit in the way, creating a little disturbing element in the film.
On the other side, it's not that much disruptive that it bothers me too much.
The story is good and the editing is good too.
Relaxing piano music, but misses some comments instead of text.
The green color cast is a little too much, color correction will probably do the trick.

It will be interesting to follow you on with your new camera.

Thanks for sharing.

[Chris Barcellos]

Originally Posted by Bill Thesken

There's a big guy walking by the camera as the captions read ' a big idea gone bad '.
Looks like the camera works well, pretty crisp and clear, kind of a greenish tone, or is that just the camera reading the green color of the surroundings as they are?

That big guy is like Alfred Hitcock... The green cast was something I was playing with to emphasize, well,....the greenness of the surrounding land.... . Against the greyness of the plant. My color correction needed to be more selective, and that is something I am beginning to learn in DaVinci Resolve, after this project.

[Bob Thieda]

Nice Chris...Looks like the new camera has a lot of potential.

Cooling towers are not that unusual here in Illinois, but the colossal waste of time and money that you shared with us, is something I haven't seen. Thanks for the education, (and expanding my horizons...get it? Haha)

As others have said, voice over would probably be better, but the text worked for me. We all know that we can't always do what we want to do.

And BTW....the first time I watched it, before I read your feedback thread, I didn't notice the backwards cows....

[Dale Guthormsen]

Chris,

As always you come up with a great story. The shots are quite nice. I personally had trouble with the sub titles in two ways. The longer ones had two problems for me, I did not read them fast enough before a couple left the screen, the other was it was real distratcting when reading and the scene changed behind the subtitles.

A huge story to tell in such a short time, in that regard I think you did a great job, if it was all talking it would have been to much I think. the views remind of my younger years cruising all about California from imperial valley to Turlock and then up to Alturis.

I thought the pans were rather stuttered even though you panning motion was good, what were you shooting in and was the compression part of the issue? Was it 720P???

thanks for sharing and taking the time to participate, I very much enjoyed watching your video a couple times!!!

I just went and read your post, Using the new camera explains a lot. I looked at devinci resolve a couple years ago but stayed with After effects and Sony Vegas which will do almost all color grading I ever need to do.

must be fun having a new camera to play with!!!

How do you like the Shuttle???
dale

[Oliver Pahlow]

Hi Chris,
I had not heard of your camera until you noted it at the end and I had to look it up. It looks like a fantastic camera. I won't repeat what has already been said other than you captured some wonderful scenery and an interesting story. I did notice the backward walking cows and it put a smile on my face. I also noticed the air rippling near the surface from the rising temperature in some of your shots. Thats a nice touch.

[Mike Sims]

Hi Chris. Nice film. I know it is early days with the new camera but thanks so much for including footage from it. I think many of us are really interested in it. The results look very encouraging to me. I know that by next round you are going to have mastered both the camera and the work flow and that we had all better watch out (just like you have to watch out for those backwards walking cows!). I would be really interested to know what rig you have come up with for the camera. Thanks.