Where did June go? It feels like just moments ago we were stressing over graduation, family in town, and packing all our equipment to head to Alaska. I had a birthday and began teaching for summer quarter. It has been a crazy month and we’ve only just settled into a routine.
And with that routine comes Filmmaker Fridays
This week I wanted to share the video that has inspired us most in this business. It really explains how less is more when creating a truly cinematic event film.
As we have been learning filmmaking, we have encountered loads of good advice along the way. It is easy to be overwhelmed by numbers and settings. Should you shoot 60i or 30p.. and what is this crazy 24fps update? What lens should we use and at what aperture/ISO? But seeking advise from experienced friends or anonymous forums seems to reveal a multitude of opinions. After a while it feels like numbers, numbers, numbers as you choose settings.
Shooting on a DSLR camera makes it even harder. For each shot, we must white-balance our camera (usually using Kelvin settings), choose appropriate ISO, choose a lens and aperture as well as film speed. If we’re shooting on 2 or more cameras, you’ll often hear me and Alex shouting back and forth settings as we try to match color and light as well as compensate for our different angles.
So behind all of this technical knowledge, we need to have a philosophy guiding our choices. And that philosophy has become “less is more.” We shoot 24p because it actually gives your eyes less frames to digest. We like wide apertures because of the creamy, glowy colors but also because of the awesome bokeh (or bluriness) so that we can direct your eyes to the most important part of the frame. Although we’re known for our smooth steadicam shots, we’ve realized that they have the most impact when we balance them with solid tripod shots or gently moving dolly shots. Less.is.more.
The video that crystallized this thought process for us is an interview with Stu Maschwitz, awesome filmmaker and software genius behind Red Giant software (where you can find the rad Magic Bullet color-correction plug-ins). I cannot embed the interview–instead you will have to follow this link:
Stu Maschwitz: DV Rebel @ MacVideo
This video is about 10 minutes long, but it really drew both me and Alex in, so I’d encourage any filmmakers–aspiring or pro–to take the time to watch!!
no comments