Video made in Ireland & Uganda

I bet you all cant wait to see a corporate video, right?! :woohoo:

Anyway ... this stuff pays the bills.

This Irish entity does a lot of good work in Africa; outright aid can be a liability to 3rd World Countries, so its refreshing to see people come up with practical solutions to development problems.

This contract required filming to take place in Ireland and Uganda; so through the power of THE INTERNET (a filmmaking site and paypal respectively) I was able to arrange it remotely.

The client wanted no shaky cam, and not so much narrow DOF, so its a mostly locked film. The turnaround was very quick, had to be shot and edited in a number of days, though this involved a lot of travel internally in Uganda, and coordinating with filming in Ireland at the same time.

I have put up an SD version for the time being (HD version will come later):


vimeo.com/53689067

I did no grading for this; I just tried to get the look in the camera for the turnaround.

There were some problems with the edit in the early stages. I managed to track the source of this to corrupted video clips (they became corrupted when transferred to an external hard drive). Luckily I still had the original clips on my laptop (I usually delete clips from my laptop when they have been saved to an external). This goes to show the importance of backing up your work! Sometimes I miss tape.

The idea was to do a natural looking 'documentary style' video that highlighted the groups work in Africa, showcasing a couple of examples.

Good job, Simon. Perhaps because of my advancing years, I'm becoming quite a softy, I found it a bit emotional (yes, a corporate video!). We've all grown tired of the lies from politicians, so to see something so positive, really blessing those people & their country, was moving & uplifting. I greatly enjoyed it.

Understandably the firm wanted the documentary video look & not one of your filmic masterpieces, but that's ok, the message stands on its own. The warmth & sincerity of the Africans really comes thru & your contrasting varied businesses works beautifully. At first I was a bit confused by your statement "outright aid can be a liability to 3rd World Countries," but now I understand it, & agree actual real strategic solutions are the only way to go. The tales I've heard of hundreds of pallets of chemical baby formula baking in the sun on an airport runway, while corrupt bureaucrats try to flip them for cash to line their thieving pockets. So, your message is great & the Irish group behind this, commendable. Top marks there.

It's my understanding you didn't do the editing on this, please correct me if I'm wrong. The music works well, probably an endless loop? It's set at the perfect level, a seemingly trivial detail, but you'd be surprised how many get it wrong. Your interview sound levels & quality were excellent. Previously you'd had some trouble with an audio track, are you using the same equipment & the Rode mic? Perhaps some folks here would like to learn your gear details, camera included. The titling also works for me, looks a bit like Keynote animation. Loved the first guy's name, could it possibly be any more Irish? I particularly appreciated the aspects of your interviews which conveyed that this program had changed their lives & made them better people. This came thru in several, with one outright affirming it. It's definitely a noble cause.

There was one peculiar choice with the veggie farmer's subtitles. Instead of appearing a few words at a time in a larger font as is customary, we had what looked like two full sentences stretched side to side in a smaller script. I think that constraining our subtitles to fit within the parameters we've been conditioned to, makes our projects appear more professional. Varying those parameters for whatever reason, forces upon the viewer a slight disconnect.

All in all a great job for a worthy mission, thank you for sharing with us, Simon.



PS: For the other farmer ...

Q: "Pigs & pineapples seems an odd combination... what's the connection?"

A: "Have you ever had a Hawaiian pizza?"

Hey, thanks for looking. Like your joke regarding the Hawaii pizza; very good!

Yes, I filmed and edited this, but it was a very quick project with zero pre-production and no planning; I essentially got the contract and started filming the next day; hectic schedule with a lot of traveling to remote locations. I filmed a vast amount of footage, over 120gb, with many many people and places that were not able to fit into the 10 minute cut.

Editing was an absolute nightmare because I had a great number of very long and detailed interviews that were not really conducive to getting snappy soundbites. I had to really work on this edit, more than on any recent project I can remember.

I hired a professional sound-man to record audio, so that really took the strain off the audio section, and I was happy with the the results. He was using a Zoom H2N with a Sennheiser shotgun microphone in a blimp; averaging around the -12db and peaking at -6db. Audio was synched in post.

Filming was with the T3i and a 35mm Nikkor lens and the regular stock Canon EFS 18-55mm lens. Shallow DOF was not wanted in this piece so I was able to use that slower lens (also no need for a variable ND filter in the outdoor scenes - which I usually use). Having a zoom lens is really handy; I had forgotten how useful they are after a number of years exclusively using prime lenses.

The song was by Kevin MacLeod; called Artifact, its not a loop as such, though it is repetitive. The second half of the song changes quite drastically so I actually chopped it short at 2 minutes and repeated that through the course of the piece. Kevin does free music; though it is recommended to donate him $5-$10 every time you use a song, which I do. He has a number of African themed songs which I have in my library and get pulled out quite often.

The titling is a stock title lower 3rd preset from FCPX (I just changed the font colors to match the green & purple of the logo).

You're right about the subtitles; I am going to change these in the final cut to stagger them a bit better (they also fall outside the title safe area for DVD delivery, which I need to correct there and for the graphic summary sequence).

Due to the fast turnaround I did no grading; I was happy enough with the colors coming out of the camera (that old faithful Canon look). I did apply a slight vignette on a couple of interview scenes, and I also used the Alex4D Grow/Shrink filter in one or two interviews (very cool little subtle effect that one) - I got that free effect through this site BTW.

Very interesting report, Simon, thank you. To go thru that volume of footage while under a time restriction sounds stressful, fortunately the project didn't suffer. In fact, I think it's stellar, even without additional grading, effects or camera tricks because you've excelled at the most important factor; content. It's an excellent message that's presented in a concise unambiguous manner.

Appreciate the gear list details, I'm sure that will help many here. Had to chuckle to hear of your using Alex's Grow/Shrink effect, I'm continually recommending it here & think it's fantastic. Coincidentally I just bought a T3i, though haven't sprung for any prime lenses yet. Have you tried the Magic Lantern with it?

Glad you enjoyed the humour, I've run into more than a few who don't. I used to write comedy.

Keep up the good work, Simon.

PS - Just watched it again, looking for instances where you used Alex's effect, I've heard of subtle, but you've taken that to another level. Saw some vignetting but the Grow/Shrink is virtually undetectable. What did you use to put the yellow national borders around what looks like a Google satellite photo? There's a very interesting edit contrasting words with visuals, when our pineapple pig farmer says "... business relations" we see the pig. Then "access to other markets" we see all the little chicks. I like the idea of reversing these two images because "relations" alluding to networking with others suits the social number of the chicks rather than the solitary pig. Also on the subconscious subtext level, our relations, we hope, are slightly less porcine. Seeing our porky pal gobbling away on "other markets" hints more towards consumers & expansion.

Alex4D Grow/Shrink was used on both the Robert and Maartens interviews (that second one also had a vignette); they were both relatively long sound-bites with no option for cutaway's, hence the slow zooms. I had it set at a 5% zoom, so its very subtle (when you skim over the clip in FCPX its very noticeable though).

There is another smaller video based on this (its on my vimeo site, a 5 minute cut called Tullow) which has tighter editing and some more subtle vignetting in nearly all the interviews and more Alex4D usage - somehow that cut seems to look more pleasing to the eye...

Pigs; there is no getting around metaphors no matter where you place them!

Ahh, now I see that subtle zoom, I have to scrutinize the edge of the frame to catch it. Over 10 seconds 5 percent is very nearly imperceptible.

Forgot to mention another pleasant contrast you blended into the mix, the workers fabricating the metal, with accompanying sounds & sparks, a nice juxtaposition to the clean pressed shirts of the offices. Did a double take on the front of the church, the curvature of the steps looked like an anamorphic lens at first glance.

One thing about the Canon DSLR cameras is that they produce quite a soft image, so I don't feel I can zoom too far into the image before the quality suffers a loss. ND filters, grading and vimeo compression all add to the softness too. 10% would probably be as far as i would be wiling to push it.

You will enjoy your T3i - its the best bang-for-buck camera I reckon. I do have Magic lantern, but to be honest I don't use it that often. The best features of ML are the manual audio controls (I think this may not have been unlocked on the T3i - but as I always record dual audio this is irrelevant to me). Also handy are the zebra stripes; which is the only feature I regularly use from ML. Focus peaking has lots of potential, but I just never found it to be worth the hassle - I usually just eyeball it these days,

The best accessory you can buy would be a LCD loupe that attaches onto the lcd screen and offers some magnification (and allows you to use the lcd screen outdoors in sunlight).

The distortion on the edges was caused by the Canon EFS at 18mm - that distorition is everywhere in that video - in some of the interview scenes it looks like the camera was not level. I have just bought a set of Rokinon Cine Prime lenses in EF mount - I should be receiving them at the end of the month. These are extraordinarily cheap, but very fast prime lenses, with proper T stops, and geared for follow focus usage. Really looking forward to using them. They are Full Frame lenses though (so they might become a whole lot more popular when RED releases the 6K Dragon sensor - it looks like most cine lenses will have trouble covering that sensor - but the Rokinons will do the job easily). I'm planning to get the Canon 6D when it is released next month too; Full Frame on a budget.

With regards to the map; I guy I know provided the map and he did the Uganda borders in photoshop. The small zoom in was just done using the Ken Burns effect.

Will look into your loupe idea, thanks for that. Not crazy about the soft image situation, so the percentages of Alex's little marvel will have to be monitored closely. Having seen the Rokinon name online, I'll now take a closer look. My assessment of the T3i was as you say, most bang for the buck, I almost went with the Nikon D5100, but its lack of manual control during video nixed the option. Just checked out your 6D which has the coveted full frame, but I've yet to find a reasonably priced camera with all the things I want for video, including full frame, articulated LCD screen, 24 to 60p in 1080 & low light. The 6D has some of those, but I don't need GPS, I already know where I am. However, just when I was ready to write off the 6D's wi-fi I read you can have video Live View thru your iPhone, how great is that when the camera's on a jib?

EDIT ::::

Ok, just bought the loupe online. Now looking at ND filters, I kind of like the variable idea to dial in densities, but a good brand like Heliopan is over 300 bucks. Any recommendations on an inexpensive name that won't degrade my image quality too much?

thanks

I use the Lightcraft Workshop Variable ND filter; it does soften the image a bit, but there is no getting around that. Its available on Amazon. BTW - get the biggest ND filter you can get, and then buy step up rings for all your lenses - that way you can use 1 filter on all your lenses.

With the loupe you normally have a metal frame that attaches onto your LCD (and the loupe attaches to the frame with magnets). A minor irritation with this is that once the frame has been attached to the LCD you will no longer be able to close the LCD into the camera with screen facing inwards (only with the screen facing outwards). But its worth it - just keep your camera in a case when traveling to protect the screen.

The lack of an articulating screen on the 6D is a real pain; the most annoying thing about the 5D is that its so damn hard to frame things if they are not at eye level. With an articulating screen you can even stick the camera in a corner on a tripod and frame it effectively; this is impossible on a 5D without an external monitor.

The wi-fi is really exciting; you will be able to control and monitor your camera from a smartphone (in theory). The refresh rate will not be as good as a proper monitor obviously, but it will work for framing and probably for focusing static shots.

The GPS thing is going to be really handy for photographers (having all that info in the metadata), but less so for videographers.

I am thinking that the 6D with a full set of Rokinon Cine lenses will be 'full-of-win'.

BTW; I think the only FF camera with an articulating screen is the new Sony Alpha A99 - probably worth a look if you have not invested heavily in other brand lenses (though I believe the Sony/Minolta mount is adapter friendly like the EF mount, unlike the Nikon F mount which is not adapter friendly).

Just looking at it now right here. It certainly has all the video features I like, including 24-60p at 1080, low light (though some reviewers aren't overjoyed with low light performance), articulated screen & uncompressed HDMI out. Plus it's the lightest FF camera on the market. But at over six times what I paid for the T3i with a lens, I think I'll play with the Canon first.

Also, there's a new Cam coming out every month it seems, so by the time I'm ready to move up, the models should be amazing.

(just now waiting for someone to come & rap our knuckles for getting off topic - but they're generally pretty accommodating round here.... you gotta love this site)

I really like the idea of beginning one's life long collection of glass. The bodies may change but the glass remains. A quality lens for every situation...

TrixTrax9000 wrote: Also, there's a new Cam coming out every month it seems, so by the time I'm ready to move up, the models should be amazing.

(just now waiting for someone to come & rap our knuckles for getting off topic - but they're generally pretty accommodating round here.... you gotta love this site)

I really like the idea of beginning one's life long collection of glass. The bodies may change but the glass remains. A quality lens for every situation...

So true. The new Canon 1DC is a dream camera; 4K at S35, and 1080p at FF. The price is still crazy high for todays standards, but its the very first of its kind (in that form factor). We have to assume that there will be a 4K FF camera in 2 to 3 years at an affordable price.

Glass is the best investment; the hardware becomes obsolete every couple of years but the glass remains. Real cinema glass is so expensive, but photo lenses seem to do an acceptable job for most HD work. People on RedUser are saying that those Rokinon cine lenses are fairing well on Scarlet cameras at 4K.

When the whole 35mm ground adapter craze started I managed to get a full set of vintage Nikkor lenses from ebay at a good price; and those are the same lenses I'm using on my Canon DSLR today (back when I bought those Nikkors the 5Dmk2 was a fantasy camera - people could only dream something like that could be invented).

The thing is those Nikkor lenses were made back in the 1960's - one can only imagine all the cameras they have been used on before they got a new lease of life on a spinning adapter on a DV camera, and then back on to digital SLR's for video work.

Those old Nikkors are made totally of metal and very robust. I dropped my 50mm a while back (I picked up a camera backpack not realizing that the flap had not been closed) - it fell about 3 foot down onto a concrete floor, and not a scratch or rattle afterwards. Pretty sure the new mostly plastic Rokinons will not be so forgiving....