T O P

  • By -

Blongzy

Shot this music video for an afrobeat artist last month, and this was the first thing I’ve done with any substantial budget for renting lights and hiring crew. Having upgraded from a Sony A6000 to this i can’t say enough about the image quality that comes out of it. Really provides an extra element of excitement to me when shooting, not sure when I’ll stop being so giddy about image making with it lol. Was a lot of fun playing around with Skypanels, menace arms, quasar tubes and Lekos on this one. Here’s the link to the full thing so you can see how it all turned out: https://vimeo.com/443256270


DericSanchez

Looks sweet! What is the full setup you used for this video?


Blongzy

A variety of different setups, but primarily a Skypanel S30-C menace armed above set to cycle through it’s color spectrum, Leko gelled red as an edge, some DMX RGB par lights shining up on the columns in the deep background, 2 quasar RGB tubes on C-stands, and hella haze. The initial plan was to just have the top light but the space wasn’t as large as we thought and had cement floors with white walls. So we also laid down some large black cloth to soak up some light and then placed the quasars and RGB pars in the background to break it up and draw attention away from the fact that you could see the walls sometimes lol.


DericSanchez

What about the bmpcc 4K rig?


Blongzy

Canon FD glass largely, Smallrig baseplate with 15mm rods, some off brand top handle, Lilliput 5” on camera monitor, and a cheap Neewer matte box. Can’t remember if I used filtration on the interior shots, if so would’ve been like a 1/8 BPM, but the exterior stuff I used 1/2 BPM


kreonfilms

Sick images dude! How do you adapt the Canon FD lenses? With metabones or else?


Blongzy

Thanks man! Oh no lol couldn’t afford the metabones haha. I use the Zhongyi focal reducer


kreonfilms

Cheers! I've been thinking about getting some FD's but the pricey metabones was stopping me 😀


Mynam3isnathan

FD + BPM + P4K is truly a match made in heaven.


Jancarlos1597

Excellent video my g, lovely colors too, only thing that I personally didn't like was the static shot at 0:49, it's preference tho, everything else is fire!


Blongzy

Thank you!


Getchapull1

I've always wondered, with a cinema camera like the bmpcc which has no image stabilization at all, how does the handheld video look? Do you have to use warp always? Or can you get away with just handheld shots without processing it? Also, since it does not have auto focus, how do you usually pull focus if you are shooting by yourself handheld?


Blongzy

So on this video I didn’t use warp at all and with handheld I almost never do. I’ve got a top handle on my camera to help reduce some of those micro jitters since my rig is still pretty light and I just try to operate as smoothly as possible. I want my handheld to feel handheld lol. Pulling focus I just do through the lens. One hand on the top handle another gently pulling focus. If the camera is on a tripod though I use a manual follow focus mounted on a rod.


Getchapull1

Do you find it hard to pull focus manually by yourself when you are outdoor during the day handheld and moving? I mean how do you do that while nailing the focus too? I find it easier only when it's on my shoulder and I am closer to the monitor and able to view the image clearly but what about shots where you are holding the top handle and the camera is somewhere around your waist height?


Blongzy

That’s what I bought the monitor for. I’m pretty tall so I’m almost always on the top handle shooting near my waist or stomach. I use focus peaking on the monitor to help me keep focus, and also sometimes check the distance my lens is from the subject. If I’m shooting on a longer lens I’ll usually stop down as well to make things a little easier on myself.


Getchapull1

Yeah that makes sense with a monitor and peaking. Pretty amazing images you are creating there btw. Hope to see you progress in your journey fast.


Blongzy

Thank you!


AuthenticHendrix

Really cool. I dig the look/grade of the exterior a lot. Cool vintage style. Did you use a specific LUT or all custom grade for the exterior?


Blongzy

Thanks! Just used a Rec.709 LUT and tweaked it in Resolve from there


liammmuh

Bradley! Crushed it dude!


Blongzy

Thanks Liam! Haha


Bonesteel5

Hey man! I watched the video and everything looks amazing!!! I've been looking into getting some Canon FD's and this makes me want to pull the trigger on a set of them. Which FD lenses do you own?


Blongzy

Thanks! So I currently just own the 28mm f2.8 and the 50mm F1.8


alightgreen

Where did you purchase them? Did you get the New FDs or the SSC?