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The first Hollywood movie shot on A7SII

Audy Erel

Audy Erel

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Director of photography Lennert Hillege says the biggest challenge with the a7S II was the compression, but he adds that technical perfection was not the goal.

“The biggest challenge was the camera’s 8-bit compression,” Hillege says. “It’s not like the conventional shooting we are used to with ALEXA. There are definitely limitations to be aware of, but the image is spectacular.

“If you work with a director who wants to shoot anamorphic, and we work with a producer who really wants to change the whole vision of how to shoot a cine movie, perfection is not the most interesting goal. It’s how you are telling the story and whether that works.”

https://petapixel.com/2018/12/03/th...movie-shot-on-a-full-frame-mirrorless-camera/
 
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I don't see why? There isn't any shot that a Genesis, D21, or 535 coulnd't have done it. If their argument to choose this camera is to change the way to shoot. All shots are aimed at technical perfection in the classic way of doing it.
I wonder the weight of the rig. If it's more than 3 kg the only advantage to shoot with an A7s2 is to make a Sony commercial.


Nice head for a DSLR
download-6.jpg


Pat
 
Technical perfection is almost never the goal in movies. Some people just have to say something for the sake of saying something. Anyway I don't know if this camera is a smart choice, but it's smarter than a DSLR for sure. I wouldn't use a hybrid camera for a major production either way. I do like the size, but look at all the crap built up around it.

However, this is interesting:

Instead of lens swaps, the entire camera and lens pairings were swapped in and out.
Click to expand...
 
Sterling Williams said:
^So it wasn't necessarily a budget issue since they clearly had enough for multiple camera bodies.........interesting choice indeed.
Click to expand...

Hawk Ana is not a budget choise ever.
I bet it was a producer's idea. Like, look - we can cut the shooting time with lens swaps excluded. Heck yeah, now we're waiting for make-up instead. I don't believe they couldn't afford something like Red One, Scarlet MX or even EVA for the production. Instead, they cut off the time necessary for a lens swap, but there is always something you need to make pause for.
 
yet another look-what-I-can-do-with-that-POS-camera flick, is this the best they could do to get any extra attention to the movie? and btw, it looks very decent, not in terms of the image tho, they didn't mention any external recorders and 8 bit is a disaster :)
 
i heard that it was a sony sponsored or owned production company and it was done to say we did it on a sony dslr. that's the only reason.
they were using hawk anamoprhics for christ sake!
i would of liked to see them shoot it with all sony lenses too to make their point legit.
that being said, i think it looks pretty nice but this might the extent of the publicity the movie gets.

That being said, i bought an A7III for scouting locations, gave up the bulkiness of the 5D, and for the autofocus and ease ive wound up shooting 4 doc style projects on it and one dance music video n a gimbal, all sent to professional colorists and look great. the 8 bit thing really only comes into play shooting log, but these kids found and tweak some profiles to give you great dynamic range for color grading but still dont stretch it too thin.
i wonder what setting they shot this film on.
 
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Paramon Ivanovich said:
yet another look-what-I-can-do-with-that-POS-camera flick, is this the best they could do to get any extra attention to the movie? and btw, it looks very decent, not in terms of the image tho, they didn't mention any external recorders and 8 bit is a disaster :)
Click to expand...

A7SII is far from POS, it has an excellent sensor but crippled by compression.

Since Panasonic, Canon, Nikon and Fuji now all offer 10 bits...not much time for Sony to keep the its mirrorless dominant.
 
Hello!

Of course it was Sony sponsored... I can't understand how swapping the whole monitoring and wireless setup (unless they had tons of those) can be faster than swapping lenses. And Hawk lenses were probably the only choice the cinematographer found to make the image of the A7s2 interesting for this story (and an expensive choice). To promote a project based on the camera it was shot on is never a good idea, no one cares.

That said, I like the A7s2 for what it is. For some projects, it can be a good solution. I shot a TV series with the A7s in Belgium that was later released internationally by Netflix. It's called "The Break". Here's a link to a small dop reel I edited: https://www.olivierboonjing.com/tvseries

We shot UHD Slog2 to Prores422LT on Atomos Shogun recorders for an HD release. Why? Because we had only 250K USD per episode and needed 3 cameras (two for the main set, one for second unit) for a period of 4 months. I wanted UHD so the editors could reframe and animate zooms, I could stabilise,... Back then (summer 2015), it was the cheapest 4K solution available and we needed a very light sensitive camera because of our small lighting package (we shot nights in forests with only battery powered LEDs). We didn't use fancy lenses either, mainly Tokina zooms (28-70 and 80-200) and Nikon AI-S primes.

Color grading was more difficult than with an Alexa or Red. Everything went through denoising (with Neat Video) and a little grain was added.

For season 2, we went for Sony FS5 in RAW to Prores. It they ever do a season 3, I hope we'll move to Red Helium, fingers crossed.

Many nice looking and interesting movies were shot with lower end cameras (Frances Ha, Upstream Color, Tanjerine,...) but usually they had at least one good reason for it. Usually it's budget of course or more precisely the choice of putting the money into what's in front of the camera and decent salaries. Sometimes it is to be more discreet,... but for this movie, I truly see no reason. And by the way, who puts top 19mm top rods on an A7S2? That rig is huge ;-)

Olivier
 
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Nice reel Olivier,

Greating from Switzerland. (I'm a good friend of Robin, wich is actually one of my favorit colorist)

Pat
 
Thank you Patrick! Say hello to Robin when you see him.

All the best,

Olivier
 
Olivier Boonjing said:
Hello!

Of course it was Sony sponsored... I can't understand how swapping the whole monitoring and wireless setup (unless they had tons of those) can be faster than swapping lenses. And Hawk lenses were probably the only choice the cinematographer found to make the image of the A7s2 interesting for this story (and an expensive choice). To promote a project based on the camera it was shot on is never a good idea, no one cares.

That said, I like the A7s2 for what it is. For some projects, it can be a good solution. I shot a TV series with the A7s in Belgium that was later released internationally by Netflix. It's called "The Break". Here's a link to a small dop reel I edited: https://www.olivierboonjing.com/tvseries

We shot UHD Slog2 to Prores422LT on Atomos Shogun recorders for an HD release. Why? Because we had only 250K USD per episode and needed 3 cameras (two for the main set, one for second unit) for a period of 4 months. I wanted UHD so the editors could reframe and animate zooms, I could stabilise,... Back then (summer 2015), it was the cheapest 4K solution available and we needed a very light sensitive camera because of our small lighting package (we shot nights in forests with only battery powered LEDs). We didn't use fancy lenses either, mainly Tokina zooms (28-70 and 80-200) and Nikon AI-S primes.

Color grading was more difficult than with an Alexa or Red. Everything went through denoising (with Neat Video) and a little grain was added.

For season 2, we went for Sony FS5 in RAW to Prores. It they ever do a season 3, I hope we'll move to Red Helium, fingers crossed.

Many nice looking and interesting movies were shot with lower end cameras (Frances Ha, Upstream Color, Tanjerine,...) but usually they had at least one good reason for it. Usually it's budget of course or more precisely the choice of putting the money into what's in front of the camera and decent salaries. Sometimes it is to be more discreet,... but for this movie, I truly see no reason. And by the way, who puts top 19mm top rods on an A7S2? That rig is huge ;-)

Olivier
Click to expand...

Hey Olivier,
I am glad you post this. I was totally hooked up by the show „The break“ right from the start. Love how the story unfolds with many unexpected twists. I watched all episodes on a single weekend, which doesn’t happen often.
And because I was so soaked in I really didn‘t care what camera or lighting was used. Although I like the color and tone.

What does that tell me? A good film doesn‘t need fancy cameras, expensive VFX or CGI. Just good story, great acting, dialogue and pace - and solid camera work.

We camera geeks are often too much bounded in our little tech world that we don‘t see the whole picture.

Now back to „The break“. When did you finish season 2? Currently Netflix only list season 1. I tried with VPN using proxy in the US, Belgium, France, Switzerland - nothing.
Can‘t wait to see season 2!! Hopefully it is as good as 1.

Thanks for sharing!
Thai
 
It's always bizarre to me people using mirrorless DSLRs and rigging them up to be larger than a similar cine camera...
 
Stephen Pruitt said:
And just look at those great reviews!

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_possession_of_hannah_grace/
Click to expand...

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/unsane/

And 80% score for a filmmaker who actually knows how to make an interesting film and shot it on an iPhone.

Those horrifically grainy lowlight shots in Interstellar didn't seem to hold it back much either. It's almost like the filmmakers using the tools are more important than the tools themselves...

Tools are there to make the job easier, not to dictate the final result. There have been absolutely horrific films with large budgets shot on every camera ever made.
 
andrewhake said:
It's always bizarre to me people using mirrorless DSLRs and rigging them up to be larger than a similar cine camera...
Click to expand...

If it's a serious cine workflow, rig is needed for proper set functionality.

Mirrorless camera is not a DSLR. Because it's mirrorless. : )
 
IMHO it's nuts to do it for any other reason than they were forced to.

As anyone who has moved from shooting with low end, prosumer and onto proper cameras can attest the extra crap that goes along with prosumer, both in production and post production is often much greater than shooting with a 'proper' camera.

I have an a7sII, i've shot parts of a feature with it. It's a lovely (stills) camera but i would never shoot a full feature on it. I've shot a feature on Sony prosumer cameras, complete with years of post on them.

It such an odd choice, i've not seen the film but the rolling shutter in the Sony is crazy slow. Any post work with a jello sensor is going to be a crazy nightmare. Tracking work, comping work and so on.

Yes, it's nice in low light but actually my Epic-W isn't *that* far off by the time you go 8k -> De Noise -> 2k and plus there are these things out there called lights.

So has anyone actually given a real reason for a7sII beyond marketing?

Anyone have an idea what the post implication was in terms of time/cost?

cheers
Paul
 
Maybe Steven Sorderbergh's iphone film was pushing it too far- the quality is not there and the limitations are too constricting to the creativity. The A7S2 however is a different story- you can shoot for TV and even big screen with it and capture the audience just the same. This is fantastic news and fantastic time to be a film maker- only the creativity and the vision (or actually the lack of there off)are the limits and this feature is the proof.
Congratulations, forget the marketing conspiracies- just enjoy the ride!!!;-)
 
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