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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 :)

Best option with SCARLET for super slo motion shots?

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flean

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I'd like to get the advice from DPs who have worked with SCARLET in a super slo mo mode considering Scarlet limitations. May be with the help of a third party material....
I'm planning to shoot some slo mo (240 fps) shots for a doc. I know the Sony FS700 can shoot a great slo mo 240 fps at 1080 but I've read when shooting that at 2k the quality suffers (apparently some people reported that it will become under exposed and image will get some noise). I'd like to use Scarlet but it can't shoot above 120fps. I am trying to find the best way to capture super slo-mo at 2k with a cam under 10k-15k while keeping an optimum quality when projected on a theater screen, without having to rent a RED Epic or Alexa and without having to do it in post which I am assuming will lower its resolution.
Has anyone achieved this and could share tips and advices?
 
What you want can't be accomplished on your budget without renting. You could wait a couple of years and maybe 2 generations of cameras from now will be able to do budget super slow motion, but if you need it today you are going to have to rent an Epic or Phantom.

When properly exposed, 1K slow motion on Scarlet is completely usable for web


Above video was shot 1KHD (1280x720) at 90fps
 
In terms of underexposure, while I haven't used the FS700, I'm betting the problem is user-error. Whenever shooting at a faster framerate, you will need more light. Period. It's the nature of how the physics of the situation work. If you're shooting 240 frames per second, then each of those frames is getting 1/10th of the light as a frame shot at 24fps, assuming the shutter angle is kept the same.

That being said, for what you want, your best option is: Rent an Epic. Or maybe a FS700, I guess, but the Epic will certainly do what you're asking for.

Or rent a Phantom. But the rental cost is much higher for a day of that than an Epic. Though it can get much higher framerates as well.
 
Also make sure the lights you are using don't flicker when shooting higher frame rates. If you decide to rent a Phantom, you will need a lot of light if you plan to shoot 1000 fps. 3K at 48 fps still looks good on Scarlet in my opinion. Beyond that I would take the other's suggestion and just rent an Epic, or a Phantom.
 
Depending on your deliverable, you could record at that 1k 90fps with a higher shutter speed than 180 degrees, then use post software like Twixtor or Motion to interpolate those frames to slow things down. Increasing the shutter speed will definitely help with the interpolation.

When shooting this way, try and isolate your subject from the background as much as possible, whether with lighting or compositionally. Software is always more successful when there is not as much "noise"going on behind your intended focal point.
 
Thank you guys for the suggestions. Any advice on best, uncomplicated workflow to post, using an Epic for slo mo (2k @ 200fps) and on exposure and lighting for an outdoor shot of the blades of a flying helicopter going super slow -Apocalypse Now style.
 
Well, in terms of post, it's fairly simple. You shoot an FPS of 200, but leave the editbase at 23.976. This makes the 200 frames play back at a rate of 23.976 frames per second. Bam: every second shot is about 8 seconds to watch.

You could, of course, take this footage and slow it down more using Twixtor or Kronos or one of a few other plugins/methods. Thing is (as was mentioned above) these programs work best on certain kinds of shots moreso than others. If you have a guy skating up a ramp and into the air, with crystal blue sky behind him, you have a good chance of slowing that 200fps waaaaaay down with a post plugin. If that same person is behind a chain link fence and infront of a dense forrest and there's a bunch of otehr stuff he goes in front of and behind, well, you could get a bunch of artifacts that render such a method useless. You'll also want your shutterspeed to be as low as possible, so that every frame is as sharp as possible, with as little motion blur as possible.

Keep in mind, all of this conspires against you. Shooting more frames per second = less light hitting the sensor per frame. So you open the aperture way up. Well, that = less sharp frame if you open all the way, since almost all lenses are less sharp at their widest aperture. It also makes your depth of field real small, blurring out the foreground and background which, again, depending on the shot, could make slowing it down more in post, difficult.

Really, slowing something down in post is not something I would promise without doing ample testing with similar footage to what is being asked for.

But, if you aren't going to slow it down more, then the post workflow is the easiest part: if you know how to work with Red footage in post, you know how to work with overcranked Red footage in post.

The only other think I can think of is, if you're shooting at 2k, your crop factor is around 4x, versus the 1.3x of the 5K and the 1.6x of the 4K. So your lenses will all be more telephoto, by a significant factor. This will make it even more important to use really sharp glass, as this will exaggerate any softness.
 
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