Beckham - Into the unknown - Shot on Red

[Ben Scott]

Just watched this documentary last night on UK television about footballer (sorry, Soccer player) David Beckham and friends getting out of the limelight and going on a bike/camping excursion in the Brazilian rain forests to 'find themselves' - culminating in them meeting a remote tribe.

Directed by Anthony Mandler, the film was very funny, very poignant and it looked great. Seemingly mostly handheld, without even a shoulder rig of any description. Even elements like rolling shutter from shooting from the back of a bike on a dirt road were used to great effect to crate a sense of excitement and chaos. Lots of close up and intimate framings gave the piece a real warmth I felt.

DP is listed as Neil Harvey - If you're a reduser member Neil, please do come say hi and chime in - Neil's site states he used an Epic and Cooke Panchros, although I thought I saw CP.2s being used in the earlier UK segment.

Anyway, if it comes on where you it's definitely worth a watch, firstly as a great fun doc, and secondly as a great example of using the camera under challenging conditions.

 

[Ben Scott]

For those in the UK it can be found here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b046prs6/david-beckham-into-the-unknown

 

[Ivan McCullough]

Have a look at last weeks Sunday times magazine with Beckham on the front. One of the BW photos inside you can clearly see the Epic in the background.

 

[Ben Scott]

Oh the camera is in shot all the way throughout the doc. It's an Epic alright

 

[Ivan McCullough]

Cameras in shot are part of the Beckham story alright.

 

[Ben Scott]

Ha! To be honest though the lack of that sort of thing and him just being a bloke with his mates is what made this a much more fun little film.

 

[Jordan Buck]

Just finished watching it this morning, really enjoyed it, and made me like him much more.
It was really interesting to see the camera being used in some pretty harsh conditions and shot by his friend so it was kind of along for the ride.

Was trying to make out what lenses he was using in the shots where you could see the camera, couldn't quite work it out, but definitely running quad redvolts, I wonder why he chose the extra length over some V mounts, either way, great piece.

 

[Ben Scott]

The opening stuff in the pub I thought was a Zeiss CP2.

From Neil Harvey (credited DP on the doc)'s website:

David Beckham Into The Unknown
Directed by Anthony Mandler
Produced by Wendie Ottewill
Exec Producer MIchelle Curland
XIX Entertainment
1 ×90 mins BBC1
Red Epic/ Cooke Pancros

I loved the slightly muted tones he got. Assume he was running astronomically high levels of ND at some points. And while I'm usually not an action camera fan the stuff they got of Beckham riding the bike in the pissing rain was amazing.

I think he was running redvolts ealy on and then v-mounts later into the rain forest, wasn't he?

 

[Jordan Buck]

Im going to re watch it and be a gear nerd and work out his setups, I noticed he had taped a pad under the redvolt module when they were in the pub... or it may have been on bars... definitely would of been interesting kit list, he had quite a few different configurations I am curious as to why it changed, I personally would of tried to find a solution that worked for most situations so that I could travel lightly.

 

[Ben Scott]

I figured redvolts might have been harder to get hold of in Brazil which is why I thought he switched to V-mounts for that section of it. I know it sounds silly but I was very impressed he wasn't using any sort of shoulder rig. My arms are usually killing after a little while of handholding the Red.

I might drop him an email and ask him to chime in as it really was great work.

 

[Jordan Buck]

I was also considering the idea that he took just a bunch of batteries, different and the same, as he probably didnt have too much access to power for charging.

Let me know if you do drop him an email or not, I would love to send him a little Q&A and post it up here about his experiences with using the camera in the field and in that kind of situation.

 

[Ben Scott]

I dropped Neil an email just now inviting him to come say hello in here. Hopefully our desire to know the whys and hows of his battery selection won't put him off

 

[Sam Taylor]

It would be great to hear from him. I am interested to know how he juggled media backup, recharging batteries, etc etc in the heat and humidity of rain forest Brazil, and having fun with his friends!