Shooting on 5D MkIII RAW - Secrets Short Film

Gabe is scared of the dark - RAW Image - Canon 50mm 1.4

The short film Secrets is about a small boy who learns about the paradoxical world of secrets. Early in the pre-production discussions with Director Jason Akinaka, we both found ourselves facing a many different requirements. We wanted to have raw, almost lumiere-like feel to the film, and to be able to capture/document the  interactions of the actors and their environment. However, with a micro-budget, this means we be careful in our camera selection and how we used it.

Here were a couple criteria that were established early on:

1) We needed to be able to shoot RAW, with a large dynamic range.
2) We needed to be able to shoot both hand held AND with a steadicam.
3) We needed to be able to have deep focus
4) We needed to be able to have mostly natural light.
5) We needed to have slow motion capabilities.


Well. When weighing all of these criteria, We decided to cut the slow motion, and that narrowed our options come down to two: The Black Magic or the Canon 5D MkIII. We eventually chose the 5D for it's full frame capabilities, which allowed us to get the wide shots we needed in small rooms and tight spaces. This became essential when I found myself laying behind the actor on a bed smashed into a corner in order to cover the whole scene in an OTS wide. Just think, 80 years ago, they would have had to cut a hole in the wall (and probably the bed too) in order to achieve such a shot.

However, this was not without it's own challenges. In the words of Tyler Stevens (B Cam operator) "You are using a $3,000 camera to do what a $20,000 does." With this in mind, many of the holes 5D Raw shooting requires one to jump through are very much worth it.

1) Loading Magic Lantern 

My B-Cam operator and friend Tyler Stevens was the man who installed Magic lantern onto the cameras, and it took a decent amount of time. The process and latest firmware was found here:

http://www.cinema5d.com/news/?p=17898

2) Shooting on 1000X CF Cards

     These little guys are the work horse of the whole process, so the fact that they cost $120-$220 is nothing to sneer at. We used two types of cards, Komputerbay (150mbps) and Transcend (120mbps). Both were rated at , but we found (through failed takes and later benchmarks) that the Transcend cards weren't fast enough to do long takes. After about a minute they dropped a frame and thus, stopped recording (you can set your camera to continue recording, but it's ill advised). Later testing proved that Transcen cards might need the boot setting 'Card warm-up' activated.

Family Dinner - RAW IMAGE - Rokinon 24mm

    Keeping your cards cool is key! On the latest firmware update, it shows you a temperature of your card, and once it hits 50C, it will shut off at any moment. By keeping the camera off as much as possible, one can keep their cards pretty cool.

   Later firmwares didn't let you see how much was left on the card, so we had someone on set timing each shot and letting us know how much time we had left to shoot on each card. Training with shooting on 16mm film and keeping track of feet became invaluable here!

3) Constant DIT

      With CF cards filling up pretty quickly, we needed to have DIT dumping almost all day long. It wouldn't have been possible without the super speeds of USB 3, so make sure you have one of those AND a USB input to your DIT kit.

4) Painfully Slow Playback

      The playback is at about 8fps, so its literally faster to reshoot it than to look at the last take. This being said, it makes one really have an opinion of the last shot rather than just relying on playback.

Maria reads a bedtime story to Gabe - RAW Image - Canon 50mm 1.4 

5) Magic Lantern is custom to your needs

      Magic Lantern turns a 5D into a very customizable production camera. With audio levels displayed, focus peaking, highlight peaking, and even sound sync speeding (camera beeps when you roll) came in handy for the AC to know when to slate. It was a joy.

Overall, working with the hacked 5D was a very new, yet very enjoyable experience. Coming in a small size and on a budget, this camera can do amazing things! While it wouldn't replace what a decked out high end camera, it will certainly give you your moneys wroth and give you a great image.

Run 'n' Gun with Red Dead Redemption

It's not often that one goes to bed at 4 am, and then 2 days later wakes up at the same time. However, when I had the chance to work on a short film with John Lyde and a bunch of other good friends of mine, I'd do a lot more.

Like wake up at 4am, drive 260 miles to set, shoot all day in the sun, then drive 260 miles back home?

Yep, did that too. Didn't get paid a dime, but what I saw and learned was invaluable.

Arriving on set, I immediately met with the camera teams and signed on board, as this would put be in the middle of the action all day, and from this vantage point I was able to see how John was able to direct a 10 minute short in the space of two days. Here are a couple things I picked out.

1) He's a one man directors team.

He effectively conducted the set like the 1st AD, supervised the continuity/script like a script supervisor, and place the background like a 2nd AD. When you combine the 4 of those jobs into one person, it eliminates a lot of space on set and time spent on communication.

2) Simple story and simple action.

With this short film, it was pretty straight forward. A man is killing a bunch of bandits in order to rescue the damsel in distress. Most of the days were spent doing comical and action packed assassinations. Just think Assassins Creed but with Cowboys. Running, stabbing, shooting. He kept it small and manageable. The rest of the scenes were simple yet powerful dialogue with only one scene involving more than 2 people. This makes for scenes that are relatively easy to shoot.

3) Professional and practiced help.

I found that the people who were working on the shoot had worked with John before, and knew how he liked to operate and run things. The best example was Paul Green, who would always watch and wait, and be ready to place camera on the fly, but never until John told him where to put it. He related a story where he once followed John all the way up a large hill, only to have John tell him to place the camera down at the bottom. "I just wanted to see what it was like up here". Lesson Learned.

The stuntmen of CBR were also incredibly talented, took care of themselves, and even added great ideas on how they could be killed. Very excellent collaborators and often nailed the performance on the first take whilst being safe as well.

The actors were especially great and came knowing their parts. This alludes to the fact that John had worked with them ahead of time to develop within their minds their characters and the  story they are involved in. The big thing? THEY WERE PREPARED!

4) He's fun on set!

He didn't stress out, yell, or rely on a set storyboard. He was always cracking jokes, easily approachable, and very enjoyable to be around. He knew he was making a fun, action packed passion project, and his countenance resembled the exact feel he wanted the audience to have.

All in all, it was amazing to see how a small film crew (no more than 8 at any given time) and nearly triple that in actors, were all able to come together, run together, shoot together, and in the end die together to create this wonderful little film. I can't wait for this little short to come out on MainStay Productions youtube channel.

Thanks for tuning in, and stay tuned for more on set experiences and insights.