Scarlet #904 "Fluffles" - Showcase

[Monte Casey]

I've been a busy bee with the lovely Scarlet since I received it in late February. I spend my working time at studios as a compositor, however I've shot with it in quite a few different scenarios and the camera has handled most setups like a champ. Today is literally the first free day I've had in a long time.

So, without further ado, ladies and gentlement, I'd like to present some content created with my camera -
'FLUFFLES'.

First off - a film I shot for an Expedia contest just won the grand prize ($10k) shot on Scarlet, iPhone, 5D and webcam. I was invited to create a film for Expedia, it just so happened I was in Europe in the time on vacation with my girlfriend. It seemed like the perfect opportunity.

I shot a ton of footage abroad on the 5D (1700 clips) and plenty of stills (around 4500). When I returned to the US, I had about 16 days to cast and shoot my LA pickups, edit the whole piece together, and do 19 VFX shots. Plus color grading and finding royalty free sound. Ofcourse, having access to a camera that can record @ 16bit 444 helps. Tough for a one man band, but I like how it turned out.

and the making (faking) of teaser

Here are some of the selects from the Scarlet footage:

 

[Monte Casey]

 

[Monte Casey]

 

[Daniel Peters]

great work and compositing, looked like a lot of hard work
did you composite everything in after effects or a mix of programs
C4D 3DSmax etc

 

[Monte Casey]

Thanks - I one manned this one. Direct/Edit/Color/Comp/Sound. Had about 3-4 days to do the VFX shots. All of it was done within Nuke whose strength, in my opinion, is being able to create a setup that works, and then spread it among several different shots. Conform was in After Effects. Grading was doing in Premiere.

Only downside is that Nuke currently doesn't support the new RED raw files. So openEXRs were necessary.

 

[Monte Casey]

So I went on a location scout at an amazing house yesterday. The house has a storied history and is primarily used for film shoots now. We brought the Scarlet, a small solid, and a few different colors of bounce. I love the idea of being able to bring the actual camera and lensing options I'll be shooting with, to determine what will work on the shoot day. We did a ton of problem solving and were able to determine how we would have to alter staging for some of the dimensions of the rooms. Check out the motion samples and stills:

direct link:
http://youtu.be/4rTW5FxuvM4?hd=1

 

[Robert L. Mickles]

WOW, Monte, pretty amazing work! Keep it up! I read some comments and and I was watching the first video, I was like, "What compositing?" Then I watched the behind the scenes and my mind was blown! Congrats!

 

[Les C.]

Monte - great work!!!

Very creative and imaginative - and your use of the outdoor sunlight green screen really made everything more real!!!

I've got a few questions:

1. What are you tracking with? I'd love to see some more in depth "making-of's" on the tracking/stabilization/compositing workflow you're using.

I really liked how the stationary green screen actors blended into the moving camera plate. It made it far more 'real' than if the camera was locked.

2. Where did you get that small treadmill used in the outdoor shot?

3. What are you grading with? Is that done in Nuke, or are you using Resolve, or grading in AE?

Thanks so much for posting!!!

Also, your split screen was very effective. It made me think of the every elegant and complex meeting scene in Rules of Attraction:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6EPa9Fw3Lk

The effect is about 4:45 on the video, but start watching from 3:40.

There's a making of on how they put it together on the BluRay.

My guess is that you'll find it interesting.

BTW - Have you ever looked at Fusion? It's had RedGamma3 since March, and from the users who use both (Nuke is certainly far more used as their early 3D workflow made a LOT of converts), it's much faster.

 

[Gavin Greenwalt]

Nit picking but at 1:02 in the "dailies-1 parallels" video there is a flickering in the key. Sorry, hard to get out of comp sup mode haha.

Cool concept though. And really goes to show what some small creative concessions can do to make 'simple' shots look great without a huge budget.

 

[Maik Müller]

Great stuff Monte, congrats. Inspiring. Thanks for the insights.

 

[Monte Casey]

These are some screengrabs from the shoot in the house. It was nuts. Mostly 6x6 muslin, 1k globes and 2x2k HMIs, and some reflectors. I shot and lit everything, we did about 15 pages a day for 4 days. Will update this post later with full details when time allows.

 

[Monte Casey]

WOW, Monte, pretty amazing work! Keep it up! I read some comments and and I was watching the first video, I was like, "What compositing?" Then I watched the behind the scenes and my mind was blown! Congrats!

Thanks man. A more in depth making of is in the works. It was really quite insane, doing a one man show, shoot edit and post with no turnaround was a battle. Thanks for checking it out .

Monte - great work!!!

I've got a few questions:

1. What are you tracking with? I'd love to see some more in depth "making-of's" on the tracking/stabilization/compositing workflow you're using.

2. Where did you get that small treadmill used in the outdoor shot?

3. What are you grading with? Is that done in Nuke, or are you using Resolve, or grading in AE?

I'm using NukeX and camera tracker. The issue with this project was that I was shooting the stuff, off the cuff, and chopping it at night on the laptop while travelling by train. There was a massive amount of footage and stills to deal with, and this was exacerbated by the fact that it had to be a dual timeline happening in parallel. Once everything was locked then it turned out I had 3 days to post all of 36 shots. So i simply set a timer for 45 minutes and wherever the comp was after that amount of time I would render and pop it into the edit.

Hero shots (ie Intro, Final Shot, a couple of plate integration shots that require more work) I gave myself 6-8 hours and a second pass of about 1 hour the next day. It was basically a "go to sleep at 4am wake up at 7am work all day, rinse, repeat" type of situation.

The treadmill I bought from Walgreens for 160 dollars. I actually have built a standing desk at home and now use the treadmill whenever I'm doing any computer work (since I've started writing this post I've walked half a mile).

Also, your split screen was very effective. It made me think of the every elegant and complex meeting scene in Rules of Attraction:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6EPa9Fw3Lk

The effect is about 4:45 on the video, but start watching from 3:40.
BTW - Have you ever looked at Fusion? It's had RedGamma3 since March, and from the users who use both (Nuke is certainly far more used as their early 3D workflow made a LOT of converts), it's much faster.

[/QUOTE]

Yeah - that scene is sweet. Got a link for the making of? Another project utilizing this technique in recent memory was a Mark Webb music video, but I don't think it has the 'breaking apart/coming together' of the two different screens, which requires a bit of post work.

I haven't checked out Fusion but I know some people who use it and swear by it. Some guys at Blur love it. I don't know, I mean comping is comping at the end of the day. Nuke does a fine job, and is currently integrated into most pipelines. Because of this, the jobs are plentiful because, like you said, it was one of the earlier tools to have a good 3D workflows, so companies adopted it and continue to do so.

Nit picking but at 1:02 in the "dailies-1 parallels" video there is a flickering in the key. Sorry, hard to get out of comp sup mode haha.

Cool concept though. And really goes to show what some small creative concessions can do to make 'simple' shots look great without a huge budget.

Yeah, 3 days to finish 36 shots. Needed more time, or to not have to do all aspects solo. But I think like you said those small touches make a big difference in terms of the bigger picture. It's all about that immersion factor. Thanks for checking it out

 

[Alvise Tedesco]

wicked cool

 

[dennys bisogno]

Absolutely wonderful work Monte!

 

[Daniel Pearson]

Wow, until I watched the making of I thought it was all shot on location, great work.

 

[olivier burri]

Really amazing stuff. I really like it!