@Ben - I'm still enjoying the Manfrotto 509HD head/536 legs combo. It's light enough for me to move around with and the 536 legs have proven to be very versatile. More so than I even imagined.
It's been a bit of time since I've updated this thread of Skully madness. Trying to keep it visually interesting and informative with these posts. A lot has been going on post NAB 2012 and I wanted to update with a few things.
3K Low Light
The video above is actually one of the first things I shot with the Red Scarlet X, just about a week and a half after getting it in December 2011. There were three major challenges regarding this shoot. The extreme low light conditions, pulling wild focus at f/1.2-f/2, and navigating through a crowd of about 200 in darkness with sticks. There's a bit of shoulder work in there, one shot I stabilized with the new Adobe Warp Stabilizer through Premiere Pro CS6. Grade performed with a bit of mix and matched work through RC-X Pro, Premiere Pro, Looks, and Speedgrade. Tried to keep it natural to what could be experience in the room.
This was shot during New Years Eve and represents an interesting collaboration between two friends of mine. Andrew Jones who paints live with light with his wife Phaedra and William Close who creates his own unique instruments to create his musical compositions with. William just performed with his Earth Harp on the first episode of America's Got Talent and got a standing ovation from the judges and the crowd.
Adobe Production Premium CS6 - Editing, VFX, Color, and Sound
I did an extremely intensive 6 hour presentation on using Adobe Production Premium CS6 last week. It was actually way more casual than I'm making it sound. It was about 40 people in a room staring at my demonstration projected on a 20 foot screen with food throughout. The focus was on color correction and color grading, but I also showcased a little bit of the editing, VFX, and audio workflow.
The interesting bit here is that I utilized Speedgrade, Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere Pro, and even Adobe Camera Raw demonstrating different color workflows for each of them. I tied in some thoughts about working with Baselight, Resolve, Looks, and some proprietary software over the years. It is interesting that within Adobe Production Premium you have so many different ways to tackle color work. Each has unique strengths and possibilities to explore.
Speedgrade is a nice addition to the suite and is powerful. I've certainly compiled a list of about 100 ideas, revisions, and changes that I'll shoot off to Adobe at some point. I'd also love the ability to add some transport controls and the ability to handle video through Adobe Camera Raw with an effects plugin for Premiere Pro and After Effects as I enjoy that workflow sometimes. In fact that's how I graded my short for the Reduser 4k Competition. You can read all about that here if you missed it:
http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthr...l=1#post991870
Libec Swift 50 Jib
Promptly after NAB 2012 I was fortunate to take a close look at the Libec Swift 50 Jib. I'm in the market for something a bit more robust and a bit longer than the compact jib I currently use. The Swift 50 sports a little over a 7 foot reach at full extension, which is why it caught my eye. I went down to their sales headquarters in Torrance and worked with the jib for a couple hours too feel things out. The Swift 50 has a maximum payload of 50lbs which means it can handle everything from DSLRs up to heavier cameras like the Red Epic, Red Scarlet, and Arri Alexa.
The Swift 50 clearly was designed to be quick to setup on site. This is very important to me. With it's single beam design and single camera leveling extension you can have the jib arm on the tripod with counter weights in about 10 to 12 minutes. That's pretty fast. The center column stays permanently attached to the jib when put away that helps to speed everything up. It certainly lands into an interesting size bracket that's not too big and not too small. Still portable, but built solidly to help keep moves nice and smooth.
The camera platform has a nice bubble level and 100mm bowl. There are also several accesory mounting points around the jib and center column in case you want to attach a monitor or a handle. We built the jib up with Libec's T102B Tripod with spreader and wheels, which is really helpful when repositioning the jib. Move it around and then engage the locking feet and you're done. A neat feature I learned about after setting the jib up is that you can actually retract the whole main arm about 12 inches via unlocking the center column. Really nice if you're in a tight location.
I also tested out the REMO30 which is Libec's remote head/control combo which attaches to the weight bar of the Swift 50. Their catalog states a maximum capacity of 11lbs, but they tested up to 19lbs. I built my Scarlet X out to about 15.2lbs and tossed it up there. Once balanced (it took 66lbs of counterweight) it worked like a charm. There are a couple awesome things about the controller that I should point out. The controller has a built in V-Mount battery plate and can run the remote head for 9 ours off a single 90Wh battery. Nice. Also there's a built in HDSDI pass through tap on the controller and the signal transfers though the control cable. Nice and tiddy. An as of yet undocumented feature I discovered after a bit of usage tracking moving subjects with the different speed settings for pan and tilt with the joystick is that you're able to actual do speed ramping/dampening on the fly by turning the speed nobs while moving. I can see situations where this could come in handy for sure.
Overall I'm really impressed. I can't wait to get this jib out on locations. I love it's height and portability. The addition of the nicely thought out remote head, controller, and really sturdy tripod makes it ideal for production use on both small and large scales. Aesthetically speaking, everything is designed nicely. Rounded edges everywhere, which is nice if you're moving this jib close up around talent. Another nice touch is Libec is selling weight kits with rubberized weights with carrying cases. Smart.
I played around with a few of their higher end fluid heads while I was there too. Libec's definitely got some nice gear suitable for higher end setups and are worth looking at. Their top of the line H100 head had zero backlash and return and I was able to dead stop at 35mm on the edge of a sheet of paper from 20 feet away consistently. Movement was very smooth throughout my brief testing. Solid stuff.
Duclos Cine-Mod - Leica 60mm f/2.8 Macro-Elmarit-R
It's no secret that I love Leica R lenses. There's one lens that has been begging to be Cine-Modded. That is the Leica 60mm f/2.8 Macro-Elmarit-R. Primarily because it's focus throw is 320 degrees and it makes so much sense to get a perment gear on there to assist with that huge rotation. So I took a trip over to Duclos Lenses and the techs over there promptly got to work and produced the beautifully modded lens you see above.
After meeting Matthew and the rest of the team at Duclos Lenses during the SALT II Lens Tests I have nothing but positive things to say about the work they do there. Especially that gorgeous Leica R 80mm f/1.4 Cine-Mod I saw the last time I was over there. Very nice work.
On the subject of lenses here's a shot of the vast majority of the glass that I use on the Scarlet X. Mostly primes, three zooms, and a couple of speciality lenses. 11mm-600mm with a couple of fisheyes in there too.
Life and Work Things
I'm just finishing up another semester of my Sunday class at Gnomon. I've confirmed that I'll be instructing during the summer term (I'm trying to do this as long as it's possible). I finished up shooting another commercial and two music videos since NAB. Waiting on the edit to be done on a couple of those. I'm doing the color and finishing work on one of the music videos and can't wait to get cracking on that. I've been poking around to DP a feature or episodic for the rest of the year. As of now I'm waiting to hear about two projects that will both be awarded in July. A feature in Louisiana decided to hire a local DP that I was previously tapped to shoot. Kind of a bummer, but that's somewhat normal these days. I have a couple small shoots in June. Besides that I'll be taking some time to develop a couple of my own properties. Also, I shot the launch event for Diablo III for Blizzard a couple weeks ago.
I'll leave with a couple grabs from a couple music videos:
Originally Posted by Marko Hocevar
