So in the first article I went over camera bodies and lenses I use along with the basic kit you need such as a viewfinder/ND filters. For part two I’m gonna go over extra bits of kit you might use along with post production processes.

RIGS

Companies like Zacuto, Redrock, Cinevate and CPM Filmtools all offer rigs designed to hold your DSLR whilst shooting which gives a feeling and form factor of using a traditional shoulder mounted camera. Most importantly they are there to steady the camera and offer a good level of stabilisation.

Zacuto Crossfire

I have the Zacuto Crossfire, the build quality is fantastic (its guaranteed for life!!) but do I use it? … not really. Y’see for me, the beauty of using a DSLR is their size; it allows me to get in amongst whatever I’m shooting without feeling like I’m intruding. Don’t get me wrong, there is a time and a place for rigs, obviously they can hold additional kit, monitors, batteries etc .. But for the most part I really do prefer shooting completely handheld with just a viewfinder.

Redrock Shoulder Mount 

As with most things DSLR related which rig you might choose is entirely budget dependant, the likes of Redrock produce the Shoulder Mount which is a good price, CPM film tools are similar in terms of pricing with Cinevate being a little more expensive.

FOLLOW FOCUS

A Follow Focus unit is designed to offer you pin point accurate focusing and on scripted shoots, where your shots are rehearsed, they are an essential piece of professional equipment. A big advantage of using a FF unit with DSLR’s is they stop your hands touching the barrel of the lens, which given a lot lenses have no image stabilization is a very good thing.

Zacuto Z Focus 

Do you need one though ? .. Well it depends on what types of shoots you are planning on doing. If your films are largely scripted drama type shoots then a good follow focus unit will be a fantastic investment, if however your shoots are more guerilla, documentary style then they really aren’t necessary at all. In fact using a FF on this type of shoot can sometimes be a pain, particularly if you tend to change lenses a lot as it WILL slow you down.

Which units would I recommend? … Welll I’ve used Shoot35′s, Redrocks and Zacuto’s.. Zacuto’s system is hands down the best however it is more expensive than the others Value for money wise I’d have to say the Shoot35 system is very good indeed at around £400.

Shoot35 Follow Focus 

There are cheap units out there made by the likes of Cinecity, please please please do not waste your money on kit like this, the whole point of a FF unit is its accuracy, the cheap units are hopelessly inaccurate which really defeats the object. Lastly bear in mind that you have to factor in a set of rails when buying a ff unit.

CRANES/TRACKS/GLIDECAMS

Over the last couple of years support equipment such as cranes/Jibs have started to become more affordable and companies like B-Hague (in the UK) and Kessler (in the US) offer excellent crane packages to cover all budgets. The possibilities of shots you can get with a crane are endless, they can be very precise and are extremely steady so can be a fantastic investment.

Kessler Pocket Jib 

You can have a simple set up or you can throw money at it and go for a full powered head and monitors.. It really comes down to your budget and how much use you’ll think you’ll get out of it. Do bear in mind though these are big heavy pieces of kit, you will almost certainly need a couple of people to move and carry this kind of gear around.

Offering similar ‘flowing’ types of shots to that of a crane are Glidecam’s .. Glidecam produce lots of versions however I would recommend the HD4000 as its works very well with DSLR’s.

Glidecam HD4000

The HD2000 will suffice but with a DSLR and lens mounted its right at its weight limit. A word of warning with these, you must put time and effort into using them, you have to learn how to shoot with a Glidecam so please don’t just expect to place your camera on the unit and suddenly have super smooth shots, that’s not gonna happen. I promise you.

The other problem I have with Glidecams is on all but a few films I’ve seen Glidecam shots just stand out .. Its like the film jumps out and shouts GLIDECAM !!!!!!! at you.

Lastly is the slider/track …. There are a ton of companies doing these now, two of the best are Glidetrack and Kessler.

Kessler Pocket Dolly and Glidetrack HD Hybrid

These little pieces of kit offer you the ability to do smooth lateral tracking shots where previously this would have meant using a full track and dolly. Add a good fluid head on top and you can come up with some real trick moves .. Just don’t over use them !!!

SHOOTING

PICTURE PROFILE SETTINGS

This is a personal thing and it really depends on how much work you want to put into your images during postproduction. All of the presets in the camera’s picture profiles will add contrast, add colour, add sharpness etc … Ideally you don’t want the camera sharpening anything, or adding anything, you should be doing that in post yourselves.

If you plan on grading your film then at the very least head over to your menu, create a custom profile setting and knock down the sharpness by 2 clicks, the contrast down by 2 clicks, saturation also down by 2 clicks and the colour tone down by 1 click. This will allow you to get more out of your footage when colouring.

If you’d like to take it a step further and shoot with a ‘super flat’ profile then there is the brilliant Technicolor Cinestyle Profile. You simply head over to Technicolor’s site and download the profile however be warned, this will give you a VERY flat look. It is designed with a proper grade in mind so I’d only suggest using this if you know how to get the most out of your grading software. Here is an example of a pre and post grade on footage shot using the Cinestyle Profile.

Technicolor Cinestyle Profile can be found here : - http://www.technicolor.com/en/hi/cinema/filmmaking/digital-printer-lights/cinestyle

SOUND

This is obviously the Achilles heel of these camera’s. You have one option if you want to record proper sound and that’s to do it externally on one of the many recorders available. RODE video mic’s are fine to a degree but it still gives you mono sound, just slightly better mono sound which in my opinion is pointless. You are better spending your money on a ZOOM H4N or equivalent and recording proper sound.

SHOOTING SLOW MOTION

I get asked a lot about Slow Motion … using the overcrank feature on these cameras can give some amazing ‘fake’ slow mo. Just make sure you shoot at the highest possible shutter speed you can get away with, 1/4000 is ideal, 1/2000 is minimum. You also have to make sure you shoot with your edit in mind, your subject should be against the cleanest/simplest background possible, if there’s going to be a lot of movement within the frame then try and narrow the angle, reduce the movement etc .. If a person is running from hard left of frame to hard right you aren’t going to be able to slow it down too much, however if the person is running towards camera you’ll be able to slow it down much more. I don’t use TWIXTOR … don’t even own it. I just use Optical Flow in Apple Motion.  I have to say though, if slow motion is crucial to whatever project you’re shooting then hire a proper high speed camera.

STORYBOARDING

Do you need to storyboard your films ? .. I guess not but I do. Even if it’s the bare minimum such as opening/closing shot, general look and feel of the film this will pay dividends in your edit. If you are just starting out then try storyboarding your shoot, eventually you won’t be able to do a shoot without one, I promise you.

POST PRODUCTION

The single most popular question I get asked is ‘What software do you use to make the films’ which is an odd question. Software just assists you, it doesn’t make the films, YOU make the films. There are lots of different edit packages out there, Final Cut, Adobe Premiere, Sony Vegas, Avid Media Composer etc .. I have a fairly simple set up and just use parts of Final Cut Studio … Final Cut Pro to edit, Motion for the odd graphic and then Color to grade. The only plug-in I have in Final Cut Pro is Magic Bullet Looks which I occasionally use for effects, I don’t use MBL to grade as I personally don’t get on with it as a grading tool … Lots of people do though, I just prefer Color.

THE FUTURE

The introduction of video into DSLR’s has been incredible for film making .. Will they die off or be replaced ? .. Not in my opinion and even if they do I cannot see it happening anytime soon.

What are your options if you are thinking of upgrading ? Well in terms of pricing, the next cameras up from a DSLR are the likes of Panasonic’s AF101 and Sony’s FS100 however I’m not really sure they are an upgrade as such. Yes you have things like inbuilt ND and stabilization but I’d argue that a 5D would give both these cameras a run for their money.

Camera’s like Sony’s amazing F3, RED’s Scarlet and the new Canon EOS C300 are exciting but are aimed at a completely different market so for the moment at least the little Canon’s offer incredible value for money. Make no mistake though, they are not without their problems .. Horrendous line skipping / moiré patterning and aliasing and of course the sound problems but as long as you learn to shoot round these issues you will be fine. I have to say though, no matter what camera I shoot on I still absolutely love the images I get out of my 5D.

Having said all that …. It’s not about the camera, It’s the person operating the camera, that’s who makes the film.

Enjoy !!

2011 SHOWREEL

Featuring footage shot on Canon 5D MkII, Canon 7D and Phantom Gold.

Music

The Warning (Ft Idris Elba) – Pharoahe Monch
Ghosts N’ Stuff (Nero Remix) (Ft Rob Swire) – Deadmau5
Both available from apple.com/​itunes

stephenbrooksfilms.com

THREE | FIVE | SIX – brought to you by stephenbrooksfilms.com & Scene Media featuring Jason MacLean’s Porsche 356 and Charlotte Louisa Moran.

Music: The Glitch Mob – Fortune Days
(available from apple.com/​itunes)

Model: Charlotte Louisa Moran facebook.com/​charlottelouisamoran

Location: wealdaviation.com & facebook.com/​players.show

Porsche 356 built by T2D: type2detectives.org

Special thanks to Russell Smith, Jason MacLean, Paul Medway, Carl Taylor & Jay Mac and glidetrack.com

NVASION .. coverage from the fifth round of the Maxxis British Drift Championship from Silverstone Circuit.

Special thanks to Jonny Jones for helping out on this shoot and to Paul McCallum for driving the chase car.

MUSIC : End Credits – CHASE & STATUS
available from apple.com/​itunes

Stephen

facebook.com/​britishdriftchampionship.bdc

thebritishdrfitchampionship.com

stephenbrooksfilms.com

A short film about Awesomefest 2011, an incredible event held at Mallory park, no comps, just a fun weekend of driving, skating, bikes, motox and great music.

Huge thanks to Al Clark for driving his M3 chase car all day so we could get the onboard shots and a very special thanks to driftworks.com for allowing me to shoot their event.

Soundtrack : TMS – I Need You (ShockOne Remix)
Available from apple.com/​itunes

Stephen

I just want to point out what I say here is my own personal opinion based on my experiences, I’m completely independent and have no affiliations to any companies so any equipment I recommend is done so on the basis that I’ve used it or I own it. Filming is something I do for fun, It’s not my day Job and nor will it ever be.

Which Camera ?

Simple answer is it depends on the job but given the incredible impact DSLR’s have had on independent filmmaking I’ll concentrate on those, in particular on Canon’s range.

So why a DSLR ? .. Well lets not forget these are stills cameras, the fact they can shoot full HD video is almost offered as a bonus. So why choose these cameras to shoot your films on ? .. Two reasons, firstly the images defy the price tag and secondly, and most importantly, the ability to control depth of field. Using depth of field to draw your viewer to certain parts of a scene was something previously only available to Pro’s with cameras worth tens of thousands.  When Canon introduced video to their DSLR’s and gave film makers the ability to control depth of field on such cheap cameras it completely changed the game.

Having said that this isn’t a review as it’s not really fair to review camera’s that differ so hugely in price, they vary for a reason, largely to do with their stills capabilities. Also with Canon releasing new bodies constantly this article would be out of date very quickly. Its safe to say that any of Canon’s range are more than capable cameras, the 550D/T2i is a fantastic bargain with the likes of the 600D, 60D all offering excellent features.

550D/T2i – great performance given the price

Obviously the two pro bodies canon offer, the 7D and 5Dmkii are priced well above their counterparts and they are both truly fantastic. The 7D with it’s 1.6x crop sensor is ideal for sports shooting, has the option of 50/60p and all wrapped up in a true weather sealed body. However the 5Dmkii is the one camera I use constantly, the huge full-framed sensor gives a picture its little brothers can’t match. Sure it has no 50/60p but who cares when the images look that good.

Canon’s two pro bodies, the 7D and 5D mkii

Which camera would I recommend? .. the one that suits you best ! .. is that a kop out ? .. No not really. It comes down to lots of things, budget, what you want to shoot, how much use you plan to get out of it. Of course I’m going to say the 5Dmkii if pushed but it has its drawbacks (not least price) however that full frame sensor offers you the ability to shoot wiiiide and the image, in my opinion, is SO much better than the others.

Lenses ?

Wouldn’t it be lovely to shoot with a full compliment of Canon L Series lenses ? .. Well, yes and no. I get asked this question so much and don’t get me wrong, L Series lenses are supreme but they are ridiculously expensive and you can achieve amazing results with alternate glass. Rather than suggest lenses here’s what I shoot with, please remember though all these lenses were purchased with filming in mind, not stills : -

14mm Samyang F2.8 – Amazing lens and super wide on the 5D, despite being new it’s a fully manual lens with aperture controls on the barrel of the lens, focus ring is nice and smooth and picture quality is crisp. Build quality is excellent and all for a couple of hundred pounds.

20mm Canon F2.8 – I’m not really sure why I have this lens, the image is so so, it’s poor build quality and as with all modern Canon lenses the focus ring has no bump stops.

24mm Olympus Zuiko F2.8 – Supremely sharp old lens purchased on ebay and converted for EOS mount. Cost around £130.

35mm Zeiss Flectogon F2.4 – First of two 35mm lenses I use, this is VERY sharp and for the price is unbeatable, good copies can be had for £150 ish and they are worth every penny.

35mm Canon F1.4L – Yes an L Series lens, Incredible and hard to use anything else once you’ve tried it, no bump stops on the focus ring are the only thing that lets it down.

50mm Sigma F1.4EX – I know some film makers use this modern lens with great results, I hate it, the focus ring is AWFUL for manual focus. The image quality is fantastic given its price however the jittery stupid focus ring which tries to fight every move you make stops me using it all together. Did I say I hate it ?

50mm Super Takumar F1.4 – This is hands down my most favourite lens I own. Fully manual old lens, doesn’t really get sharp till around F2.8 however when shooting at F1.4 it has an amazing diffused softness, M42 fitment lens easily converted for a few pounds on ebay. Lens cost was around £130.

85mm Samyang F1.4 – LOVE LOVE LOVE this lens, fantastic build quality, super fast and super sharp lens from Samyang. Manual aperture ring and manual focus new lens all for £225 !

70-200mm Canon F2.8L IS -  My only zoom lens which only gets used for motorsports, for all other types of zooming I have my legs. Its obviously a very good lens though because its big and white and one of those lenses photographers geek out on. It took me a while to figure out what all the damn buttons on it do though.

So the key thing here is you really don’t need to spend big money to build up a nice compliment of lenses to shoot video with. There are obviously all sorts of other great lenses to use such as the 30mm Sigma F1.4 (which seemingly doesn’t have the ‘stupid’ focus ring) the Super Takumar 85mm F1.9, a ton of Nikkor/Nikon lenses too.

In conclusion though a good 24mm, 50mm and 85mm should see you covered for most things. All three could be had for under £500.

Basic Kit

There are two basic bits of kit you need to turn a DSLR into a viable filming tool, a viewfinder and a variable ND filter. You can pimp it up with a TON of other kit such as rigs, follow focus systems, monitors, support systems, rods and rails but none of it is actually necessary, yes it helps but its not needed.

So which Viewfinder ? .. There are a few on the market, LCDVF is the best bang for your buck, at just over £110 it does the job perfectly with excellent build quality.

LCDVF

Other option is the Zacuto Z-Finder range, these are much more expensive than LCDVF and will set you back around £325, I’ve used them and didn’t particularly like them. Yes the build quality is incredible, it almost looks like it was designed by Canon but I just prefer the LCDVF.

Zacuto Zfinder Pro 2.5x – Note these ship with Zacuto’s mounting plate.

Variable ND filters are crucial when shooting video with DSLR’s, the vari-nd becomes your exposure tool. You twist the filter to the desired ND to hit exposure .. simple. A good cost effective way of covering all your lenses in one go is buying something like large 77mm ND and then buying various step up rings for your smaller diameter lenses (available from Ebay) so your single ND fits all of your lenses.

Lightcraft workshop FADER ND are probably the most popular choice,. a 77mm version should set you back around £170. The other option is the SinghRay VARI ND .. this is slightly more expensive than Lightcrafts offering however I’ve found it to be optically better, although it does seem to suffer from vignetting more on big wide lenses. Singh Ray also offer special versions of the filters with additional polarisers built in.

Light Craft Workshops FADER ND on the left and Singh Ray’s VARI ND on the right

Clicking on the link below will show you a short clip on how these filters work.

varind

Settings

Ok so these are the settings I use, I’m not saying they’re right or they should be followed to the letter .. they are what work for me. First thing are frame rates, aside from shooting 50 or 60p slow motion I stick religiously to 24p, for no other reason than film is shot at 24 frames per second and 24p has a ‘look’.

Next is shutter speed, for 99% of the time its best to maintain a 180-degree shutter rule, which basically means your shutter speed must be twice that of your frame rate. So for 24p it should be 1/50^th of a second, if you are shooting 50p then it should be 1/100^th of a second. Why a 180 degree shutter ? Well, anything over this and your images will have an odd look to them.

Now, shooting outside on a bright day with your nice new Olympus Zuiko 24mm F2.8 lens on your camera, setting the aperture to F2.8 and your shutter speed to 1/50^th will result in a completely blown out over exposed image. Sure you can stop the lens down to suit, but then everthing will be in focus and you’ve lost the ability to control your depth of field. You can throw a ton of shutter speed at it, but then you’ve lost your 180 degree rule and the images will appear jerky ..

So by adding your variable ND filter you can now twist the filter and add in ND as desired to hit exposure. So now you’re shooting at 24p, wide open at F2.8 and at the correct shutter speed of 1/50^th …. But due to the ND you are correctly exposed.

Ok  so thats it for Part one, in part two I’ll cover the rig, extra kit side of things, picture profile settings in the cameras and then post production.

Hope this article has helped !!

Stephen

INTO THE ARENA .. coverage from the second round of the Maxxis British Drift Championship from Norfolk Arena.

MUSIC : BLIND FAITH – Chase and Status

Congratulations to :

Remmo Niezen – Super Pro Class Winner
Grant Laker – Pro Class Winner
Matt Campling – Semi Pro Class Winner

Stephen

www.facebook.com/​britishdriftchampionship.bdc

www.thebritishdrfitchampionship.com

Two Beetles from the Low n’ Slow VW club in the UK … sure there’s running your car low but Aaron and Simon scrape and bang their dubs everywhere they go.

Both cars are static drop, form over function ….

Enjoy

Music – Stellamara : Pituri Se Planinata (NiT GriT Remix)

The Battle Begins .. coverage from the first round of the Maxxis British Drift Championship from Donington Park.

ALL slow motion footage was shot using a PHANTOM HD GOLD. Huge thanks to DoP Paul Lilley and his crew for coming along with their camera..

MUSIC : REQIUEM FOR A TOWER – London Music Works

Congratulations to :

Mark Luney – Super Pro Class Winner
Grant Laker – Pro Class Winner
Danni Murphy – Semi Pro Class Winner

Stephen

facebook.com/​britishdriftchampionship.bdc

thebritishdrfitchampionship.com

stephenbrooksfilms.com

cameracrewing.co.uk