Canon 5D Mark III Review for filmmakers/Videographers!

Disclaimer: This post talks only the Video side of the Camera

Canon(Released on 2nd March 2012) did the best it can in order to bring Full HD movies to a new height.Although the 5D Mark III won’t bring Ultra HD resolution, there are some improvements that worth talking about. The EOS 5D Mark II DIGIC 5+ processor in combination of the new sensor will improve image quality of videos and minimize the appearance of moire, and many kind of artifacts that aren’t welcome when shooting video clips.

With the 5D Mark III you have full manual control over exposure and the type of video compression (ALL-I and IPB are supported). For those who don’t know what ALL-I and IPB means, here’s a short explanation:

• IPB – B stand for Bi-directional compression. This type of compression works by predicting the content of future frames. Offers better compression compared to ALL-I.
• ALL-I – or ‘Intra-coded Frame’ is different from IPB because all frames are treated as key frames. No further compression is applies, just a frame compression. This results in better image quality, but up to 3 times the file size. Editing individual frames doesn’t hurt image quality. Furthermore, playing ALL-I compresses files take less computing resources in playback. ALL-i is also referred to as “Editing friendly” format.

So ALL-I only compress the information for the current frame, but not the information between those frames. IPB compression use interpolation and therefore requires more computing processing power, as well provides lower image quality because it deals with part of the image that is the same, and the data that is changed from frame to frame. Because repeated data can be stored only once, the intraframe IPB offers much superior compression but at the cost of image quality and video editing capabilities.




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The Canon EOS 5D Mark III can capture videos in various frame rates and resolutions (including size/min per compression method):

• 1080p (1920×1080) @30/25/34 fps
  IPB: 235MB / minute
  ALL-I: 685MB / minute
• 720p (1280×720) @60/50 fps
  IPB: 205MB / minute
  ALL-I: 610MB / minute
• 480p (640×480) @ 30/25 fps
  IPB: 78MB / minute

The 5D MKIII features a soft-touch mode dial at the rear of the camera, which gives you the option to change video settings,the mic won’t pick up the clicking sound. Other than that, the 5dMKIII features a headphone jack for monitoring audio in greater precision and a 3.5mm mic jack for connecting external stereo microphone for a better sound quality. Now you can record a single video up to 29 minutes and 59 seconds.

Rolling shutter distortion (sometimes called “jello” distortion) is a long standing enemy of DSLR video. DSLR sensors do not typically read out the entire frame in one instant. Instead, they read downwards from the top to the bottom of the sensor. This means that the top of the frame is recorded slightly before the bottom and, if the camera pans quickly during this time, the image is skewed like a wobbling jelly.

Improving the colour sub-sampling from 4:2:0 to 4:2:2 would be welcomed by many, especially those that typically do a lot of heavy grading (colour work). 

Increasing the colour depth from 8 bit (256 possible values) to 10 bit (1024 possible values) could also give a nice improvement in video quality in many situation.

Color Sub-sampling in Canon 5D Mk III:- The 5D Mark II can output a video signal via its HDMI port and, if you want to, you can record this video stream to an external recorder such as a Nanoflash or Atomos Ninja. These devices are capable of recording at a very high quality, much higher than the Canon 5D Mark II’s internal recording. Unfortunately, the feed that the Mark 3 provides is 4:2:0 compressed video. The new Nikon D4 and D800 can now both output clean (i.e. uncompressed 4:2:2) HD feeds via HDMI meaning that they can be readily used with these external recorders.

Canon 5D Mk III Indian Price: Rs.1,74,950 approx.

Sources: http://www.cameradebate.com/2012/canon-eos-5d-mark-iii-review/
Canon 5D Mark III - Photographer Ross Fairgrieve's Ideal Specs ...
http://philipbloom.net/2012/03/02/mk/

DSLR Filmmaking Kit in India

Embrace Video's DSLR Rig (Mattebox separately available)

For the last 2 years I ve been searching for DSLR filmmaking kit in India. Alibaba dotcom also known as Cinecity in Chandigarh was the only online store where DSLR filmmaking kit in India perhaps existed. But they don’t ship in India. I ve requested them several times for a DSLR rig, Camera Slider, Pocket Crane (or Arm jib), but they just don’t ve the right to sell in India. Bad luck for me and equally for those like me in India who are dreaming to buy a DSLR filmmaking kit in India.

Nakul's Design: Camera Slider

Eventually I was ready to buy from US or Singapore and ready to bear the mountainous price. But it was last week, when I was trying the keyword “DSLR Filmmaking in India” on Google search engine as a part of the SEO programme of this blog, and then I saw an Indian site called EMBRACE VIDEO owned and managed by Nakul Sood. Voila..!!! I saw all the DSLR filmmaking accessories in his website and the price was remarkably lesser than the international prices (almost ONE THIRD). So I immediately called him up and fixed a meeting on last Sunday (19th Feb 2012). His factory cum office was located @ F-43 Noida Sector8, INDIA .

God must be Crazy!!! I was shunned, shocked, taken-aback, stupefied or aghast to see those DSLR filmmaking kit in Nakul’s factory. He has:-

• · DSLR rig 
• · DSLR camera slider 
• · Pocket Crane/Portable arm jib 
• · Tripod-Track Dolly upto 20 feet 
• · Steadicam Full gear 
• · Steadicam CASPER(handheld) 
• · Matteboxes 
• · Follow Focus 
• · Boom Mics (his own creation for DSLR filmmaking) 

Embrace Video's Steadicam CASPER

I tried all his equipment at his place. It was the nicest experience I had ever had. Thanks Nakul Sood..Thanks EmbraceVideo.com and Thanks GOOGLE.

DSLR filmmaking kit in India-Jai HO

EDITING RULES : DSLR Filmmakers' Report

Film/Video editing is an Art as well as a Science. We need to master both the Art and the Science with rigorous practice and Observation. Editing is all about making multiple decisions at one time: decision about what shot to use and what not to, how long it should be, how should it appear, what should be the color, brightness, contrast, How is the audio and a lot of other relative decisions. Some important decisions are mentioned below:-

1. When cutting from shot to shot, have at least a 30% change in shot size. Wide to Medium is good. CU to wide works. Medium to another Medium of same angle looks weird.

2. Try to cut on a motion to hide the edit. A raised hand, a head turn, a slammed door.

3. If you think a cut is too long…you’re right. It’s too long.

4. If a scene plays great in one shot…leave it alone. You don’t have to cut to CU, reverse, wide, medium. Let the story tell itself.

5. Overlap any action by 4 or 5 frames. Someone turns their head in a medium shot, on the next shot start the head turn 4 or 5 frames earlier (then the previous shot) and for some ridiculous reason it looks and feels right.

6. Don’t go bonkers over every cut. Often performance trumps continuity. Now if the lead actor’s shirt is a different color in two consecutive shots…you’re on your own!

7. With DSLRs you can scale a shot up to 40% and still have adequate sharpness if you need to reframe or make a medium shot a close up. Sneaky but it works all the time.

8. As much as an editor feels he is saving the film, he’s probably not.

There were a couple other people involved before he started editing.

9. Anyone who says “We’ll fix it in post!” needs to be made aware that they need to get it right during shooting.

Last by no means the least learn how to put "Filters in order". To learn how to put filters in order visit my previous post.

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DSLR Filmmaking: Color Correction

Color correction is just one step of the entire filmmaking process…but oh, what a difference it can make. You can take average footage and really make it pop, sing and enhance the viewing experience of your project. If you have excellent footage, then the sky is the limit. You can also make images look garish, ugly and destroy all the hard work the crew did to capture those images on the day of the shoot. The challenges and choices are many and it comes with great responsibility if you are the one applying the Color Correction and Color Grade. What is Color Correction & Is there any difference between Color Grading and Color Correction?

3 Way Color Corrector Filter in FCP

COLOR CORRECTION is the process where every clip is manually tweaked to get a good exposure and balance of light. Each clip is adjusted to match color temperature to a predefined choice for each scene. This tedious and mechanical process is essential and in its own way, an art form. The use of SCOPES (Waveform, Vectroscope, Parade) is critical to this step and luckily most NLE’s and Grading software have them built-in. Without them you are literally flying blind and solely trusting your eyes, which have to adjust to room light ambience, fatigue, funky monitors and other factors constantly. Trust the SCOPES and let them guide you into accurate and creative decision making.

COLOR GRADING is the creative process where decisions are made to further enhance or establish a new visual tone to the project through software including: introducing new color themes, re-lighting within a frame, films stock emulations, color gradients and a slew of other choices. Being that this is purely creative, there is no wrong or right…only what the DP, director and colorist feel is appropriate for the story. It can be subtle and invisible or over-the-top and uber-stylized. Therein lies the challenge…The challenge of choices. The tools available are so numerous, powerful and often free (Davinci Resolve Lite!) that you have no excuse not to explore these options further before you embark on the Grading journey.

3 Way Color Corrector in Adobe Premiere

ORDER OF OPERATIONS

To maintain image quality and to preserve as much info as possible, it’s important to do things in the proper order.  Just as you wouldn’t ice a cake before you bake it, when you apply an effect is critical. Doing Color Correction on your footage in this order will help you maintain extremely high quality in the interaction of all the effects you use.  Not all steps are needed for every shot but in case you have to use them all, here they are:

1. Remove artifacts and de-noise.
2. Balance your shots by adjusting BLACKS/MIDS/WHITES, SATURATION and WHITE BALANCE.
3. Relight within a shot using power windows or masks.
4. Add gradients, diffusion and other lens filters.
5. Add vignettes
6. Grade your images
7. Simulate a film stock of your choice
8. Resize and sharpen

3 Way Color Corrector in Final Cut Pro

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How to make zero-budget films: DIGITAL MOVIE-MAKING !

So You Want to Be a Filmmaker

Film is a powerful medium. With the right script under your arm and a staff of eager team players, you’re about to begin an exciting ride. The single most important thing that goes into making a successful film is the passion to tell a story. And the best way to tell your stories is with pictures.

Filmmaking is visual storytelling in the form of shots that make up scenes and scenes that eventually make up a complete film. As a filmmaker, you have the power to affect people’s emotions, make them see things differently, help them discover new ideas, or just create an escape for them. In a darkened theater, you have an audience’s undivided attention. They’re yours — entertain them, move them, make them laugh, make them cry. You can’t find a more powerful medium to express yourself.

Filmmaking: Traditional or Digital?

Today, you can shoot your movie in several different formats. You can choose analog video or digital video, high definition (HD) digital files, or a traditional film camera using super-8 or 16mm film, or — the choice of studio productions — 35mm motion-picture film stock. The medium on which you set your story — whether it be actual film celluloid on which the images are developed, videotape, or digital (standard or high definition) with a film-style look — engender specific feelings and reactions from your audience. A movie shot on film stock tends to have a nostalgic feeling, like you’re watching something that has already happened. Something shot on video elicits the feeling that it’s happening right now — unfolding before your eyes, like the evening news. You can use this knowledge to enhance the emotional response your audience has to your film. Steven Spielberg, for example, made Schindler’s List in black and white to help convey both the film as a past event and the dreariness of the era.

Going digital: Standard or high-def

In this age of digital technology, almost anyone with a computer and video camera can make a film. You can purchase or rent a 24-frame progressive digital camcorder (like the Panasonic AG-DVX-100B) that emulates the look of motion picture film, without incurring the cost of expensive film stock and an expensive motion-picture camera. For a little more money, you can shoot your movie using an HD (high definition) digital camera (like the Panasonic AG-HVX200, or Sony’s PMW-EX1) that uses memory cards to store your footage. If you can’t afford one of these digital cameras, you can purchase computer software called Magic Bullet Frames (www.redgiantsoftware.com) that takes a harsh video image shot with an inexpensive home camcorder and transforms it to look more like it was shot with a motion-picture film camera. Many new computers come preloaded with free editing software.

High definition (HD) is the new-age technology that takes the camera image one step farther. The picture is much sharper, richer, and closer to what the human eye sees as opposed to what a standard definition (SD) video camera shows you. Watching HD is like looking through a window — the picture seems to breathe. The new HD digital cinema cameras combine HD technology with the 24-frame progressive technology to emulate a unique film-like picture quality in an electronic file format, without the use of physical film. When talking about inexpensive HD full resolution camera, DSLR cameras are the favorites among many Indie-filmmakers and Industry people. DSLR cameras can give you not only stunning film-look-alike visuals but the flexibility to try plethora of photographic and film lenses already available in the Market. And the Cost: NOTHING LIKE IT. Which DSLR camera to Buy, Plz read my earlier post “Top DSLR Filmmaking Cameras !”

 Keep Reading! Keep Knowing: SCENEMASCOPE

DSLR Filmmaking in India (Bollywood)!

Stanley Ka Dabba director Amol Gupte, for example, didn’t want to intimidate the child actors in his movie with big cameras and burning lights. So he used a small Canon 7D DSLR (5.8 x 4.4 x 2.9 inches) to shoot the entire flick.

                                     

“It didn’t need any set-up time and would ensure the kids weren’t pakaoed too fast,” he says. “Children lose their spontaneity if they are made to wait while lights and set extensions are adjusted.” The DSLR worked well in low-light and SKD was shot without any extra lighting.

                                                                                              

Indeed, shooting with a DSLR is convenient for different reasons to different moviemakers. Sometimes it helps save costs and time, and sometimes its compactness allows the director to experiment more.

Where no camera has gone before“More than the ‘cost and time-saving’ factor, I was most attracted to the DSLR because its size made it possible to create a different language of cinema in terms of angles and movements,” Varma says.

The weight of the Canon 5D Mark II is 810gms when compared to the 6.5kgs of film cameras. “This is the technology of the future. It can do whatever a conventional camera can do and a lot more,” he says, while recommending these gadgets for suspense, action and horrormovies.

The DSLR can go to places a film camera cannot. It can be smoothly tracked under a bed where a conventional camera on a trolley cannot fit; it can pass between window grills, and even trace the body of an actor from foot to face.

Other filmmakers who’ve experimented with DSLRs include Raj Nidimoru who used it to shoot city scenes for the title track of Shor in the City.

“It’s handy and unobtrusive,” Nidimoru says. “The camera, because of its size, didn’t attract attention and could capture candid shots of traffic in Mumbai. It was handled easily from the backseat of a two-wheeler that sped through traffic.

“We’re always looking for smaller devices,” says the US-based filmmaker of Indian origin who will be shooting with custom-made cameras, half the size of DSLRs for his next film.

                                      

Budget bytesThe minimal size of DSLRs also allows for incognito shooting, thus avoiding the red-tapism of seeking permissions to shoot, say directors. Permissions to shoot in cities such as Mumbai are a long process and involve shelling out lakhs of rupees.

Anurag Kashyap circumvented the obstacle by opting to shoot with a DSLR. For That Girl in Yellow Boots, which stars Kalki Koechlin and Naseeruddin Shah, he borrowed money from a friend and went hunting for a 5D Mark II camera. He ended up buying a 7D on which the entire film has been shot.

At the time of the film’s launch in 2010, he boasted on his blog, “We found out about Canon 5D and went looking for it and ended up with the new Canon 7D… We decided to go digital. Our guerrilla teams were ready, we decided we will shoot on the streets while the city celebrates Diwali; shoot we did, in front of the whole metropolis, only they did not know it.’’

For newcomers and directors who have tight budgets, the DSLR makes life easier. They don’t have to spend on lighting, film camera rentals, or film stocks.

On a film camera, to shoot 4 minutes of footage, a moviemaker needs 400 feet of film (1 can) that costs Rs 10,000. So for a film that runs for 2.5 hours, filmmakers end up spending huge sums only onstock. On an average, filmmakers use 400 cans. Compared to this, reusable memory cards used in DSLRs are highly economical.

                                         

“You can own a very good DSLR camera for a price of around Rs 3 lakh, which is much cheaper than even renting film cameras,” says Nidimoru.

School of thoughtFilm schools such as Andheri-based FX School are also using DSLRs to train students who want to become cinematographers. “We started using DSLRs in 2009. The main advantage of the camera is that it gives near film-like quality at a fraction of the price of professional gear,” says C B Arun Kumar, the director of the school. Kumar has used DSLRs such as the Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 7D, Canon 60D, Panasonic GH2 and Nikon D7000 to shoot movies.

“It has democratised moviemaking. So now someone with an idea can make a flick and you don’t need a hell lot of money,” he says.

Veteran cinematographer Ranjan Palit used the 1D Mark IV and 7D Canon cameras, along with the regular 30mm film camera, to shoot 7 Khoon Maaf starring Priyanka Chopra, Neil Nitin Mukesh, John Abraham and Irrfan Khan.  “The DSLRs helped us save at least Rs 10 lakh,” he says.

Lokesh Todi (see pic at the right)—who dabbles in short films,and who is the founder of a Facebook group called ‘DSLR camera revolution for filmmaking’—agrees. He recently shot his short movie Poor Scum, for which he won a ticket to Cannes, on a DSLR camera.

Finishing touchesStill, there are reservations about the quality of movies shot digitally on such cameras as most directors continue to use film and opt for the DSLR only to shoot secondary shots, which they use after seeing the quality of the output.

“The results of scenes shot digitally are good, but we end up tweaking them to ensure they match film quality,” says Palit. “This includes changing the colour contrast, saturation and sharpness.”

SKD’s cinematographer Amol Gole agrees, “The post-production of a digitally-shot film is an important process that can make or break the film.”

Interestingly, cinematographer-director Santosh Sivan believes that final results don’t depend on the camera as much as they do on the skills of the cinematographer.

                                                   

“It has a lot to do with your sensibilities and that reflects in the final product. If you look up YouTube you can see both good and bad stuff shot with the same camera,’’ he says.

Gole also likes to think the benefits of shooting with DSLR are much more than the drawbacks.

Having been a film promo photographer for films such as Mangal Pandey and Maqbool, he knows his DSLR inside out and even owns a kit of 13 lens, which he used for SKD.

“The DSLR let me capture the natural movements and expressions of the children without intruding into their space. It didn’t intimidate them,” he says.

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