What could be improved?

[Ryan Milliron]

I recently graduated film school, but we did all DSLR unless you were able to afford renting your own.
I was able to save up and rent a Red Epic with Primes to shoot a commercial for a local MMA gym for my cinematography reel this past weekend.
Now this was a fast paced one day shoot and first time shooting with a RED.

RED advertises a lot about the big productions shot on RED recently OZ, The Great Gatsby etc. I feel like I fell short of capturing images that are maximizing what RED is capable of. I'm wondering what am I missing or doing wrong that is preventing me from achieving such pristine looks.

I have attached some screen shots from the shoot, an untouched, and a final color grade.

Gear used was:

RED EPIC, Prime lenses(older), Arri Tungsten Lights, REDcolor2 and Redlogfilm

 

[Bob Gundu]

Can you describe what you mean by pristine looks? My first reaction is that the lighting isn't great and the it looks very underexposed. You would have had the same problem with any other camera too.

 

[Ryan Milliron]

The first picture is the way it came out of the camera. The rest our the color graded versions. I wanted a darker low key image for more of a dirty training rocky feel. I wanted the background very dark.

 

[Andy White]

I'd post your reply in the other thread... as one of these will probably get locked - there's no point having two threads discussing the same thing.

 

[Christopher Mills]

going to agree.. underexposed... it takes MORE light to make things look dark...

 

[Timur Civan]

You need contrast. eBay a couple 2k blonde , powerful and affordable. Rear cross lights with a key, and no fill would have gotten Yu the look you're going for.

 

[David Battistella]

Ryan,

thanks for posting.

The actors are lit ok, ratio wise if you were going for a gritty look it does not always mean using less light.

With regard to your comments about the expectations of the camera images and without sounding harsh here are my comments.

I'd say the difference is really the lighting budget and the overall budget. That and experience and the benefit of a huge crew art department, wardrobe, etc but mostly the difference, lighting. It takes good lighting and powerful lighting to create pristine images. Not to mention the whole crew on set with the one goal of making the shot look great.

Lets not forget the post production phase.

There is so much that goes into a the final image you see on any given large budget feature that comparing it to a quick run and gun shoot you do at a local gym is a bit unfair to the camera and to your budget and experience.

This shot is missing lumens in the key and also it is missing pocket lighting and good separation.

What was your exposure, lighting diagram? What did you rate the epic at? That might help a bit, there are a lot of people on reduser who could give amazing tips toward improving your next shoot and your craft.

It's acceptable work, but to get the pop you are looking for would require a rethink to approach.

david

 

[Joe G.]

You may also look into the film LUTS (Kodak 2393) that were discussed recently.

 

[Wey Wang]

Your exposure doesn't look horrendous. For me, it's how it's lit. All the light seems really hard, giving it more of that video quality. And then when you "graded" it, you crushed the blacks, reducing the dynamic range in the shot, making it feel more videoy.

You look at the big hollywood productions shooting RED, you'll find that the difference is in the lighting. They primarily do a lot of soft lighting. And then the way it's graded tends to push a very specific color palette.

If you don't like what you captured, what was it that you don't like? How would you rather have had it look like?

 

[Ryan Milliron]

Your exposure doesn't look horrendous. For me, it's how it's lit. All the light seems really hard, giving it more of that video quality. And then when you "graded" it, you crushed the blacks, reducing the dynamic range in the shot, making it feel more videoy.

You look at the big hollywood productions shooting RED, you'll find that the difference is in the lighting. They primarily do a lot of soft lighting. And then the way it's graded tends to push a very specific color palette.

If you don't like what you captured, what was it that you don't like? How would you rather have had it look like?

It's not that I don't like it, i'm not complaining at all. Its some of my best low key work so far. Having graduate from school I just know it's not good enough to get real work so I'm wondering what could I improve on to be better for next time. Also from school I know it's a human error on my part with the Lighting Im just perplexed as to how to do this shot better. I spent a considerable time planning the day of shooting as I put my own money into it renting camera and lights. Consulted a professional photographer friend with lighting diagrams. Just in the end I feel like it could be more professional looking and I don't know the answer that's why I posted.

ONE thing that I know I messed up on that slipped my mind bc of our limted time was I bought cool vintage Edison lights and wanted to be able to see the filaments and use a lot of light on the actor to make it look dim in one shot but that was just a stupid mistake.

 

[Wey Wang]

Im just perplexed as to how to do this shot better. I spent a considerable time planning the day of shooting as I put my own money into it renting camera and lights. Consulted a professional photographer friend with lighting diagrams. Just in the end I feel like it could be more professional looking and I don't know the answer that's why I posted.

If you don't mind, could you share your lighting diagram? That will go a long ways towards explaining why it looks the way it does.

Even though there's a lot of overlap between what photographers do and what we do, the fundamental toolsets make the two worlds very different. So, even though, in theory, your photographer friend was a good person to ask, I wouldn't expect him to have the same experience with cinema lights or the conventions of lighting for cinema.

 

[Mike Wing Ho Kam]

tone down and be subtle, don't crank everything up to the max (geling, spoting, crushing) , learn the direction of light, low key is a contrast thing, blast frontal light and crush your background to black doesn't seems to show you are knowledgeable about the term yet. Use your space too, if you got a gym, use the gym to tell some story for you, and watch your skin tone, learn what colors can do for you, and when it can hurt you. But afterall, don't worry and just shoot, few projects later, come back and watch this, and you will answer yourself what you need to do to improve.

 

[Dennis Hingsberg]

Here's maybe something similar to the location you were shooting in and lighting you were after. There is also some behind the scenes and explanation of the lighting in the link below.

BTS: http://nmatthewsfilm.wordpress.com/type/aside/