African Doco Q&A

[Russ Fill]

Just in the planing stages to shoot a doco in a remote African village focusing on people and the way they live their lives. This will be for theatrical release.
Using the RED and wondering if any one has done something like this. This is not my first doco 30 + years experience Directing and DP'ing all kinds of film and television, but for sure the first on the RED.

This will be the first of quite a few trips to this location over a year or 2 so I want to get it as right as possible the first day out so I don't end up scraping what we shoot and going with a different format or what ever in a year when we need to close this story.

Just met with the Producer today and talked about formats and extra footage from other cameras we would bring along. Im thinking of using 2K 24fps 2:1 or 16x9 to help with file management and to be able to match other 16x9 HDV mini cams footage easier if we need to be in 2 places at the same time. Maybe the Z1U or the P2 machine. 90% would be shot on the RED but there are occasions that it would be great to have a little camera (no scarlet yet) to get other elements that may be on other side of village at same time we are shooting RED. Would really like to keep it all on the RED but don't know how possible that is. And realize the value of a small camera in some situations. Most of the lighting will be natural and bounce board/reflector, and maybe a LED panel lights or any combo of that as there is very little if any eletric. Lensing is a really big question. A little help as to what would be a good work horse of a zoom and maybe a few extras like a wide prime and maybe a 300m Im waiting on my 18-85 RED, that would be perfect I think for a start but that wont show until probably late summer and we are going to shoot the first of August. And at 2K the crop factor doesn't give me much on the wide side.

Any help on Lensing/Format/frame rate/blending with mini HDv's footage, in put from expereniced DOP Directors who have gone down this road welcome.:help:And thanks

 

[Marius V Graan]

I would say if you need a little camera to take along, then possibly the XDCam EX1, I've used it a lot in Africa and it is a real work horse of a camera, the cards are not expensive and it would keep your workflow tapeless, plus it's a 1/2 inch chip so it looks better than any HDV I've seen.

Something else high on the priority list is your power supply, I've found in the Congo that even the wall socket sometimes doesn't give enough power to give the batteries a full charge. I would go as far as saying take one charger per two batteries.

 

[donatello b]

"Im thinking of using 2K 24fps 2:1 or 16x9 and to be able to match other 16x9 HDV mini cams "

IMO forget 2k ..from my test ( build 15 ) i would not shoot a Project 2k - i would shoot some sections 2k ... if you want to save data space then shoot 3k ...

do your own 2k, 3k, 4k test under different lighting conditions and take them thru post then decide ...

also IMO forget shooting to match HDV ... Red is allot of weight to carry around to match 1-5lbs HDV camera's ( let alone the different lenses, tripod , batts etc you'll need to bring for it) .... if HDV is the " look" then save time & $$ and just shoot HDV camera ( or EX-1 ) ....

remember, if you decide to shoot 2k you can always shoot vista's and any special shots in 3k or 4k ... also maybe consider shooting low light shots in 4k ( less noise when you scale down to 2k in post) ? do TEST ..

 

[Emmanuel Cambier]

Shooting 2k seems like a bit of a waste, I have to agree.
In terms of lens you'd better pick up some super 16mm so it will match even better with 1/2 sensor camera.

But really the quality of 2k is not on par with 4k, and I would only use it for high speed.

Another solution is to shoot with 2 reds, it may cost a little more, but not that much, and the result could be exellent.

Emmanuel

 

[Russ Fill]

Thank you all.
Just finished packing and jamming my camera in to a check on able pelecian with batts and drives in tow.
Im off tomorrow and will have quite a bit if time to run some test to see what works best for our project. Im feeling the 3K love and think that is the best of both worlds of keeping the drive space down and keeping the quality up. 4K would be nice And your right, I will use it in low light, and other things I want to shine, but I just have this big giant drive working all the time in my dreams in a small mud hut where we call post. And sending smoke signals or beating a drum to the near by computer store asking to send a few more terra bites down river. The power issue seems checked out and we will have our own generator, but from my experience working in central Africa the power is dirty to say the least. 2 Reds would be great but not doable right now maybe next trip to fallow up with this project. Im pretty sure we will have more money for the next fallow up. I like the EX 1 idea. But want to stay away from to much small camera stuff.

Thanks again all, and Ill try to keep posting to let you know the good and bad of working in a very remote part of Africa with the camera.