Video Essays

Kevin B. Lee, a frequent video essayist, explains how to make a video essay look visually great. I didn't expect that there are more video essays in Vimeo than I thought. There is the article, he wrote and recently updated, about other video essays made last year.

The video essay is expanding our notions of film criticism and appreciation. But do these essays offer a key to let us out—or lock us in? A desktop documentary by Kevin B. Lee. Full story and list of Best Video Essays of 2014: https://www.fandor.com/keyframe/the-best-video-essays-of-2014

Grading Log-Gamma

Since normal Rec709 can only contain a certain amount of Dynamic Range, camera makers came up with an innovative way to bring out as much detail as possible, by squeezing the higher dynamic into the space of standard 709 screens.

The result doesn't look entirely pleasing, it usually results in a greyish, flat, deadpan image that is in no way nice to look at unless you wanted a super washed out feel. However when graded it becomes some of the nicest looking imagery imaginable.

When you unleash the footage hidden behind the greys you notice just how much the sensor has retained, with dark shadows but also white highlights in the same shot well exposed.

However this footage is a lot harder to grade that traditional footage, and even requires different settings when shooting. I found out in a vimeo tutorial that the best way to shoot the footage is between 1-2 stops overexposed, as Log tends to underexpose the footage significantly, and while it can be pulled up in post it for some reason makes the footage look incredibly ugly to look at, with noise everywhere.
 

With my new A7S, it has the ability to record Sony Log (S-log 2) onto the SD card, as of such I was quite excited by this, though soon learned that there is indeed a lot more to Log than you expect even if you are prepared

Even when Luma and Colour corrected the image still looks annoying, aesthetically pleasing, but still very annoying. The footage has a cinematic quality that is unrivalled by anything except perhaps RAW.

I have since posted onto movie pages on Facebook to see if I could get some answers on the best way to expose for S-log. The main response that I got back was to make sure that when I overexpose I watch the face of the subject and make sure that I do not blow out the mid tones (skin) otherwise as you can see despite it not clipping my face is a little too bright even when (as seen on the left of the screenshot) the levels have been brought down far below he top of the highlight range. 

Another problem might be to do with colour temperature, this camera does not do good with badly set colours and as you can see my face does not look very well done, I look like a mix between an Avatar and a ghost.

I am looking forward to working with S-log and all the other picture profiles that this little camera comes with, I've always wanted to get more cinematic visuals out of my footage and this I found was probably the best way to do it.


Great video on Composition

Tony Zhou from 'Every frame a painting' has done it again by making a fantastic video essay on shot composition.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGc-K7giqKM

Using The Bad Sleep Well as an example, he shows how power dynamics can be incorporated visually by using geometric shapes. Whats great is that this is a very simple technique that can make your shots superbly more interesting, and could even be understood if watched without any sound or subtitles. 
Very good to watch and incorporate into our films as it genuinely feels like something that would not be particularly difficult to pull off.

Nantes Treatment

The Adventure

The storyline will carry out all in first person capturing feet and hands therefore breaking the fourth wall between the camera and the audience.

It will start off at London St Pancras station, capturing the journey on the train, to then arriving in Paris then taking the metro across France to Nantes. When arriving in Nantes, the ‘first person style’ will capture a variety of architecture, history, transport, food/music culture, nature and nightlife.

All of the above will cover the Green Capitol aspect of why they are a Green City. Without making a documentary on selling the city to a holiday audience with facts, statistics and talking heads, we are portraying a lifestyle through the eyes of the general public or a tourist (ourselves).

The narrative will be covering all the days/nights including waking up, reaching for the alarm, opening the curtains, walking in amongst crowds, taking pictures through an iPhone, ordering a drink, listening to live music, visiting the architecture, walking through the Botanical Gardens etc.

All of these will not only be visually pleasing but sound driven. Just as Jimmy and Rich have both been reiterating for the whole process.

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