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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

NATURAL HISTORY CINEMATOGRAPHY

Pete Barden said:
Nice Crane shots Kyle. Shooting at 120fps really makes a difference over 60fps with Varicam. Those are the kind of shots that make me wish my budget could stretch to an Epic.
Click to expand...

Pete,

We would be delighted to hire you an Epic :-)

Dave
 
Kyle Wullschleger said:
Pete, if you are talking about wildlife work specifically, shoot me a PM - I would consider collaborating on some outdoor work.
Click to expand...

Thanks Kyle. The project I'm working on is more of a labour of love at the moment so I'm going solo on this one for the moment, while I settle into the project and a new life.
 
Dave Blackham said:
Pete,

We would be delighted to hire you an Epic :-)

Dave
Click to expand...

Thanks Dave. My self funded budget will probably soon mean my pocket can stretch to hiring some nice Hi-8 or VHS-C cameras if you have any. I'm sure once they're upscaled and I've chucked on a twixtor filter they'll hold up very well against your 5K 96fps! If I can find a way to start spending someone else's money on the next project I may come knocking. ;)
 
Thank you Christian

Thank you Christian

I want to openly thank Christian for his openness in sharing with all of us in this group
and for starting this group in the fist place as it was through this group that I was made aware that
we are both from the same country of origin and are practically neighbors here in New England.

Last week I had the honor of spending a few days with Christian, learning the ropes of this new Red Craft.

I come from a strong visual photographic background and working with Christian helped clarify
for me many aspects I wanted to attack using red in the wild and eventually for me, underwater.

Thank you again Christian for sharing your craft and talent!

At the same time I must also give my thanks to another member of this forum Johnny Friday, from the underwater world, who has never tired of
answering every one of my technical questions regarding my upcoming underwater Scarlet set up.

We need this kind of openness across the board and platform.

Cinematography, particularly in the Natural History side, both above and below, must continue to be passed on through open communication,
generous sharing in the art and many a good bottles of Chilean wine and Single Malts (in this case not from Chile!).

Thanks guys!


Photo: Christian / left Mauricio/ Right Photo: MH
 

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Mauricio Handler said:
I want to openly thank Christian for his openness in sharing with all of us in this group
and for starting this group in the fist place as it was through this group that I was made aware that
we are both from the same country of origin and are practically neighbors here in New England.

Last week I had the honor of spending a few days with Christian, learning the ropes of this new Red Craft.

I come from a strong visual photographic background and working with Christian helped clarify
for me many aspects I wanted to attack using red in the wild and eventually for me, underwater.

Thank you again Christian for sharing your craft and talent!

At the same time I must also give my thanks to another member of this forum Johnny Friday, from the underwater world, who has never tired of
answering every one of my technical questions regarding my upcoming underwater Scarlet set up.

We need this kind of openness across the board and platform.

Cinematography, particularly in the Natural History side, both above and below, must continue to be passed on through open communication,
generous sharing in the art and many a good bottles of Chilean wine and Single Malts (in this case not from Chile!).

Thanks guys!


Photo: Christian / left Mauricio/ Right Photo: MH
Click to expand...


Totally agree Mauricio!
 
I've finally got my Scarlet up and running this week with a Canon 100-400L and 2x extender. I've been pushing it to 800mm to see how it holds up. Here's a quick test:

http://vimeo.com/39083483

I'm not massively happy with the footage, but I'm going to give it another go tomorrow, hopefully in better light. Just need to get a lens support system built now and do a lot of practising!
 
Mauricio Handler said:
I want to openly thank Christian for his openness in sharing with all of us in this group
and for starting this group in the fist place as it was through this group that I was made aware that
we are both from the same country of origin and are practically neighbors here in New England.

Last week I had the honor of spending a few days with Christian, learning the ropes of this new Red Craft.

I come from a strong visual photographic background and working with Christian helped clarify
for me many aspects I wanted to attack using red in the wild and eventually for me, underwater.

Thank you again Christian for sharing your craft and talent!

At the same time I must also give my thanks to another member of this forum Johnny Friday, from the underwater world, who has never tired of
answering every one of my technical questions regarding my upcoming underwater Scarlet set up.

We need this kind of openness across the board and platform.

Cinematography, particularly in the Natural History side, both above and below, must continue to be passed on through open communication,
generous sharing in the art and many a good bottles of Chilean wine and Single Malts (in this case not from Chile!).

Thanks guys!


Photo: Christian / left Mauricio/ Right Photo: MH
Click to expand...



Back online !!!!

Thanks Mauricio for your comment. It was a pleasure having you here, we must repeat the experience this time with a Chilean BBQ and more time playing with scarlet and Epic on the field .

My door is always open to you or anyone who is interested to learn or share the art.
 
Pete Barden said:
I've finally got my Scarlet up and running this week with a Canon 100-400L and 2x extender. I've been pushing it to 800mm to see how it holds up. Here's a quick test:

http://vimeo.com/39083483

I'm not massively happy with the footage, but I'm going to give it another go tomorrow, hopefully in better light. Just need to get a lens support system built now and do a lot of practising!
Click to expand...



Pete, thank you for sharing your work.

Did you do a first light in RC or the shot is strait from Scarlet with default settings?
 
Kyle Wullschleger said:
Just wanted to share a quick piece I shot a couple days ago in Nebraska of the Sandhill Crane migration. The birds have just started to really move through in large numbers and I spent the night in a blind on the Platte river to get these shots the following morning. For now it's very much just a montage thrown together for the Nature Center to play in their lobby ona loop. I will be spending more time later in March shooting more content to pull together a mini doc about the birds migration through this area of Nebraska. I will be sure to share the finished piece here. For now, enjoy the montage!

Click to expand...

Nice shots Kyle!
Any chance to share some tech info (lens, etc.)?

Thanks for posting.
 
Ok, here there is a spring time treat (here in the Northern Hemisphere)
What was shot on? You tell me.

Some insights later.

Enjoy!



 
Christian,

Thanks for the comment on the Sandhill Cranes! That was shot on my Epic-M with the Canon mount. I used a 70-200mm f/2.8 version II, and mostly a 400mm f/5.6 prime. Most of it was shot in 4k at 120 fps. A few shots were cropped in to 2K just for the reach. I stayed overnight in a blind along the river to wake up with the first light as the cranes warm their wings up to fly out into the fields to feed for the day. All of that footage was shot within 1hr of sunrise. It was quite the experience!

Its a longer cut because its actually playing on a loop at the Nature Center in Hastings Nebraska where you'd drop in before you go out to view the Cranes. I wanted to make it long enough that people wouldn't see the same thing twice while they were watching it. I'm planning on heading out again next week for 2 days to capture more footage of the migration as it is still going on over a month later. A lot of birds fly through the little bottleneck in central Nebraska.

With the additional footage, I'm going to cut together a short documentary with narration for the nature center to use in their theater next year as people come through, they can sit down and watch a 6-10min narrative about the important migratory stop in Nebraska. I'll be sure to share it here when I've finished it.
 
KETCH ROSSi said:
Fantastic stuff Christian!!
Click to expand...


Thank you Ketch. Great seeing you looking wildlife stuff.


Kyle Wullschleger said:
Christian,

Thanks for the comment on the Sandhill Cranes! That was shot on my Epic-M with the Canon mount. I used a 70-200mm f/2.8 version II, and mostly a 400mm f/5.6 prime. Most of it was shot in 4k at 120 fps. A few shots were cropped in to 2K just for the reach. I stayed overnight in a blind along the river to wake up with the first light as the cranes warm their wings up to fly out into the fields to feed for the day. All of that footage was shot within 1hr of sunrise. It was quite the experience!

Its a longer cut because its actually playing on a loop at the Nature Center in Hastings Nebraska where you'd drop in before you go out to view the Cranes. I wanted to make it long enough that people wouldn't see the same thing twice while they were watching it. I'm planning on heading out again next week for 2 days to capture more footage of the migration as it is still going on over a month later. A lot of birds fly through the little bottleneck in central Nebraska.

With the additional footage, I'm going to cut together a short documentary with narration for the nature center to use in their theater next year as people come through, they can sit down and watch a 6-10min narrative about the important migratory stop in Nebraska. I'll be sure to share it here when I've finished it.
Click to expand...


Kyle, looking forward for your next video.
 
Hi guys,

I've just ordered a Canon 500mm 4.5L prime for doing my longer lens work as I haven't been massively happy with the 100-400, particularly because for long lens work I'm using it with a doubler a lot at the 800mm end. It's a tricky balance between versatility (zoom) and quality (prime) but I'd like to have the option of both and I'll still keep the 100-400 in my kit bag. Has anyone ever considered shooting with a prime for wildlife and using the Red's resolution as a 'zoom' in camera? With the Scarlet I've been testing jumping from 2k to 4k and it's quite quick so I can find my subject and then go back to 2k. The only problem is that I might be shooting at 50fps in 2k, switch to 4k and it's changed my framerate to 25fps and when I switch back to 2k it's still 25fps. If there was a way round this then it could be an interesting workflow, if you're shooting 2k that is. I don't suppose anyone else has played with this and found a faster way of doing it? The ideal would be to have one of the user configured buttons that can switch to 4k 25fps say and another that could switch to 2k 50fps for example.
 
Pete, I really think you are better off shooting in 4K (Red One) or 5K (Epic) and then cropping in RC-X. I have tried it both ways and have better quality, although more work in post. It is also easier to keep a rapidly moving animal in frame at 4K than at 2K. I am obviously ignoring your comment on the fps issue.

Judy
 
Thanks Judy. Yep, when I can shoot 4k 25fps I definitely will. Unfortunately the Producer I'm shooting for has been specific that he wants birds in flight at 50fps and I agree that it's much nicer at 50. I think I'll give 48fps 3K a try. Thanks again.

Pete
 
Christian Munoz D said:
Pete, thank you for sharing your work.

Did you do a first light in RC or the shot is strait from Scarlet with default settings?
Click to expand...

Sorry Christian, I missed your post and have just been working my way back through this thread. I keep doing that!

I'm afraid I'm not sure what you mean by 'first light'. Does 'RC' mean Redcode? Apologies, my background has been primarily as a BBC/Discovery natural history offline editor, working on HD and SD projects on FCP/Avid and no previous Red experience. Despite being frustrated stuck in the offline, I knew what I was doing. Now I'm totally out of my comfort zone and I've started school all over again! Quite scary, but at the same time very exciting. I really appreciate all the advice that's been given here as I'm venturing out on my own, self financing my kit so my workflow/kit isn't as good as I'd like it to be and I don't have the level of support/finance that I'm used to when working for the Beeb.

I think in answer to your question that yes it is straight out of the camera, from what I remember. I'm trying to get my head round sharpening at the moment and have been posting on another thread about that. Shooting at 2k at 800mm (100-400 with 2x extender) and no in-camera sharpening it's difficult to tell if my optics are sharp enough or not. Here's another shot I took of a Short Eared Owl (same settings at 2k) with a little bit of sharpening/contrast. I'm afraid it's not HD, which isn't much use. I need to upgrade my Vimeo account:

http://vimeo.com/39367244

I've got to send my new (second hand) 500mm 4.5 L in for repair, but I'm looking forward to trying it out. I also bought the 1.4x extender. Would love to have got an 800mm prime, but my bank loan didn't stretch that far!
 
Hey guys. I am in a slight quandary and wondered if anyone could give some advice. As per previous posts in this thread, I've been shooting with the Canon 100-400L with a 2x extender on the Scarlet with blurry results at the 800mm end. I managed to pick up a second hand Canon 500mm 4.5L for £900 off of ebay. The optics are good, but something called the flex needs replaced which powers the manual/auto focus and the part is no longer available from Canon. I'm sure with a good deal of hunting about I'll find the part and it will probably be worth replacing, but by that time I'll have filmed a series with lots of blurry close-ups! So I now need to very quickly get hold of an alternative lens. I know Christian mentioned the Canon 600mm prime and the 150-600 previously, but I would need to buy second hand and I'm already in the field so getting hands on to test would be difficult before buying. The other consideration is that I'm finding I'm nearly always shooting at 800mm and would go further if I could in several scenarios. I'm on a limited budget but I'm thinking of stretching to something like the Sigma 300-800mm 5.6, which is £5489. It has good reviews and would mean that I wouldn't have to use an extender most of the time. I'd be grateful if anyone has any advice before I make the commitment. It might help me sleep better at night!

Many thanks,

Pete
 
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