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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

Larry Kelly said:
Great shots Christian, I would like to know what shutter angle you often use for shots like these, do you find that you have to stabilize your shots in post at times with these long lenses you are using and assuming light level allow, would you run 90 or 45 degree shutter instead of 180 to keep the motion blur to a minimum allowing you to stabilize later?

Larry
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Larry, is interesting you asked that. I had never stabilized my shots in post until this project. I did try with several shots on the bobcat sequence but it worked in just a couple of them.
I shot almost everything 180-shutter angle, but the Bald Eagle sequence (below) I shot it at 120fps 90 degrees shutter angle. I tried to stabilize the end of the chase when the eagle dropped the fish to eliminate some jerky movement, without success. At last I used the shots as shot.
Now with my Epic I am putting together a more stable lightweight kit that will allow me to use 800-1200mm without big issues to avoid any post tricks. I will post the details of this set-up on this thread after using it in the real world.

 
Yes I did hear about that one, but it was just a short news blip and then nothing else about it. Did you happen to catch any of the Nat Geo Big Cat Week shows that aired a week or so ago? A couple of my old classmates produced a show for them about Mountain Lions in Montana. They did a great job and captured some amazing shots. Over the past five or so years there have rumors about a cougar roaming around the Door County peninsula, but nothing definitive ever was found. I will keep looking and let you know if I get lucky.
 
Mike Van Laanen said:
Yes I did hear about that one, but it was just a short news blip and then nothing else about it. Did you happen to catch any of the Nat Geo Big Cat Week shows that aired a week or so ago? A couple of my old classmates produced a show for them about Mountain Lions in Montana. They did a great job and captured some amazing shots. Over the past five or so years there have rumors about a cougar roaming around the Door County peninsula, but nothing definitive ever was found. I will keep looking and let you know if I get lucky.
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Nop, I missed it, I will keep an eye on the show.

Here is the official info about the cat found in Connecticut:

http://www.ct.gov/dep/cwp/view.asp?A=4013&Q=483778.
 
You're a great wildlife cinematographer Christian, and you're even greater being willing to share info on a forum, any forum. It's heart warming to know your sons are following in you footsteps too. Let's hope they're as good.

You might want to lean on the side of caution though, in giving away too many of your personal secrets. I had a very good contract working on Irwin Allen's "The Swarm" yanked right out from under me because I said too much. You live and learn. And, that wasn't the last time either. Once people know your secrets, you've lost your edge over the competition. I don't know, maybe I'm paranoid.

Anyway, I'm very happy to see the thread, and I hope Red makes it a major category.

Keep up the good work. Shine on Dude!!

;)

.
 
Mike Van Laanen said:
Did you happen to catch any of the Nat Geo Big Cat Week shows that aired a week or so ago? A couple of my old classmates produced a show for them about Mountain Lions in Montana. They did a great job and captured some amazing shots.
Click to expand...
Mike, are you an SNHF alum? I'm currently in the program and was an assistant editor on that show. Very exciting to be a part of. The rest of the season should start trickling out on Nat Geo Wild soon...
 
Thanks for the explanation and the clip Christian. Great shots! So what you are saying is that even though you are using a fairly fast shutter speed you still couldn't stabilize due to motion blur? or was it some other reason?
 
Ian, Yes I am a SNHF alumni and actually attended classes with most of the crew on that show. Great group of people, loved learning and working with all of them, very talented and creative. Good luck in getting your MFA and don't let them scare you too much about the thesis defense - not as bad as I thought it would be. Can't wait to see your films on lifeonterra.com.
 
George D. said:
You're a great wildlife cinematographer Christian, and you're even greater being willing to share info on a forum, any forum. It's heart warming to know your sons are following in you footsteps too. Let's hope they're as good.

You might want to lean on the side of caution though, in giving away too many of your personal secrets. I had a very good contract working on Irwin Allen's "The Swarm" yanked right out from under me because I said too much. You live and learn. And, that wasn't the last time either. Once people know your secrets, you've lost your edge over the competition. I don't know, maybe I'm paranoid.

Anyway, I'm very happy to see the thread, and I hope Red makes it a major category.

Keep up the good work. Shine on Dude!!

;)

.
Click to expand...

Thanks George, I try to do my best.

I am not the trade secrets kind of guy; I got all my experience mostly in the field and learning from the work from guys like Huge Miles and Sean Morris. The only personal secret I have, and I believe is not a secret at all, is to learn what you are doing and do it well.

IMHO, wildlife filmmaking is the most difficult area to work in cinematography and the less acknowledged of all, not many filmmakers work with wildlife. You must be a biologist and a filmmaker, if you don’t know in deep your subject you will be wasting your time, the time of your client and the time of your crew ( if you are lucky to have one), and at the end you will lost your job.

In Natural History, especially working with animals and the environment, is very unlikely to get second chances …if you do not get the shot, this is the end. No rehearsal and recreations are possible, no controlled conditions, no chat with your cast about the scene. When I work in fiction, commercials; when I lit a set; when I review my dailies, etc. … oh god!…. I which I can be able to do the same with my wildlife projects.

On this thread I will try to pass along my experiences on different projects I work on. In 90% of those projects I am hired under NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement), so I hardly can comment on it or show BTS pictures or footage, but often I do tests for myself to apply to any given project which I am happy to share with everyone.
 
Mike Van Laanen said:
Ian, Yes I am a SNHF alumni and actually attended classes with most of the crew on that show. Great group of people, loved learning and working with all of them, very talented and creative. Good luck in getting your MFA and don't let them scare you too much about the thesis defense - not as bad as I thought it would be. Can't wait to see your films on lifeonterra.com.
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Very cool. Thanks, diving deep into the books again for comprehensive exams next week... Can't say I love giving up production time for exams, but it's part of the package! As for Terra, keep your eyes on the site... we've got a radical redesign coming up soon. And some cool new science films showing this season.
 
Thanks for the heads up on the site news, can't wait to see it and the new docs. Ya, it is hard sitting inside studying with mountains and wildlife beckoning outside the door. I miss just hopping in the truck with a camera and heading into the Park for a day - wolves, lions, bears, bison, elk and others just doing their thing for us to film - so cool!! Good luck on the test, sure you'll do great.
 
Larry Kelly said:
Thanks for the explanation and the clip Christian. Great shots! So what you are saying is that even though you are using a fairly fast shutter speed you still couldn't stabilize due to motion blur? or was it some other reason?
Click to expand...

You are very welcome Larry.
Yes, I believe is the motion blur. I will try to do some tests with my Epic using faster shutter speed and I will post the results here.
 
Time-lapse Transition BBC Planet Earth/Life Style

Time-lapse Transition BBC Planet Earth/Life Style

Time-lapse Transition BBC Planet Earth/Life Style
​


Without doubt time-lapse photography is one of the most time consuming cinematographic techniques. Hours, days or moths will take to get 20 seconds or less of usable footage and depending on the complex of the shoot, can involve a good amount of equipment that we must keep in the shooting location all the time.

Here I have a demo of a simple transition technique often used on big budget Natural History series like BBC/Discovery “Planet Earth” and “Life”, made with the Dynamic Perception motion control system, a Canon 400D and standard canon 18-50mm. No matter the camera or MOCO you are using, the technique is the same.

This time-lapse sequence took one week of shooting and similar time on post-production. The camera equipment and time lapse system was on-site the entire week.
The main problems during the shoot were the light changes, wind and snow weight on the trees, this makes the trees and branches move from their original position creating ghosts on the final composition. The ideal situation will be same light conditions on each shot and no wind. I guess this is the price we need to pay working with Nature.
I chose the three best shots and here is the result.



[video=vimeo;35074786]http://vimeo.com/35074786[/video]



A few screenshots from After Effects for reference:

screen1.png




screen2.png




screen3.png




screen4.png




screen5.png
 
Russ Fill said:
Christian thank you so much for sharing and for creating this forum to share info.
Is this post only for your work or can we post other Natural History work here also to share?
Thanks again
Russ Fill
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You’re welcome Russ!

I created this thread not only to share my work. I would like to have feedback and experiences from other filmmakers working in Natural History. I would like to see what everyone is working on. So, this thread is open to anyone who has something to share in Natural History. You don’t need to be a landscape, time-lapse or wildlife filmmaker; fiction filmmakers are welcome to post here their experiences working in the wild too. Sharing with our little community is the main objective here.
 
Your footage is great Christian! Really beautiful. I'm about to make the leap from television wildlife editor to wildlife cameraman next month on a self financed project. As my budget is tight I'm having to compromise on some of the kit, but I'd be more than happy to share my experiences here. I would love to have got the Epic, but I had to stretch my budget to afford the Scarlet! This is my current setup:
- Scarlet with titanium Canon mount
- Canon 100-400L (push and pull so no good for zooms! I might have to change, but will test once the Scarlet arrives)
- Canon 2x extender mark 3
- Canon 24-70 2.8 L
- Tokina 11-16 2.8
- Canon MPE65 Macro
- Sachtler Video 18 2
- Canon 550D for timelapse (might upgrade if not good enough)
- Dynamic Perception MX2 dolly
- A cheap jib (not sure which yet)
- Possibly a GH2 with something like Nauticam u/w housing, using the high bitrate hack on GH2.
- Need to build some sort of polecam for boats.

Out of interest what do people find works best for ND filters for wildlife? I've been debating whether to go for a variable ND filter like the Heliocam and use the Canon lens hoods or go the full hog with a matte box and 4x4s. I've read a lot on these forums about the Variable NDs being problematic, particularly when you go telephoto. But then on the flip side I'm wondering if a mattebox would be problematic for long lens work and size of setup for portability.

Cheers

Pete
 
Thank you Pete.
Not sure what your target is or what your project is about, but I always recommend for wildlife cinematography a super telephoto or a large zoom like the Canon 150-600 f5.6 or the new Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM Telephoto Lens(Expensive) .Thinking in a tight budget you can get the 150-600 with the original FD canon mount for a couple of thousand dollars and you can use it on the Scarlet canon mount with a 100 dollar EF adapter. Off course you will have all manual on the lens, but worth the pain. Normally I do not use extenders on my shoots, but good idea to have one on hand in case of need.
The Canon 550D is good enough for Time Lapse photography if your deliverable is for broadcast TV, but if you want to have your footage future-proof I will recommend the Canon 5D or similar. The 5D will give you more choices for third party accessories too.
For a cheap jib the Glidecam Camcrane 200 will be a good option, small, light weight and portable.
For filters the new Schneider Platinum IRND Screw-in are the best option. Super telephotos use rear-holder filters, they make your life a lot easy in the field. A no-no to matte boxes for wildlife filmmaking unless you have no issues with weight, space and portability.
 
Christian - heard a short while back about a new Canon zoom with a built in 1.4x. Have you hseen anything new on this one? Gibby suggested going with zooms vs primes for wildlife, do you find that you use your 600mm more than a zoom?
 
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