Cold

Cold
Cold

There’s not much to say about this one really, it wasn’t planned it just seemed to happen by itself.

All shot on the Canon 5D & 7d using a combination of 50mm and 24mm lenses. The slow-mo stuff is shot with the 7D at 1280×720/50 and then slowed down using the batch conform function in cinema tools.

One of the great things about the DSLR is it’s small size allows you to place the camera for shots that would never have been possible with a 35mm adapter. For the shots where the camera is under the swing I just used the glidetrack shooter as a base and pointed the camera up at the swing.

It’s obviously very difficult to set focus and exposure with the camera on the ground pointing up, I tend to use a quick auto focus and set the exposure using the meter on the top of the camera, I can generally get close to what I need that way and then if the shot doesn’t work out I adjust accordingly and have another go.

Workflow wise this is what I’m currently doing with DSLR footage.

1. Offload footage as Movs.
2. Conform the 128 x 720/50 7D clips to 25fps in cinema tools
3. Conform 1920/1080/30 5D clips to 25 fps in cinema tools
4. Transcode everything to ProRes (LT) in compressor
5. Edit in a ProRes 1920 x 1080 timeline and enlarge the 1280 clips to fit
6. Export a 1280 x 720 h.264 for vimeo upload

I’m not sure if this is common knowledge or not but one tip when transcoding to ProRes in compressor is to make sure you disable the ‘auto gamma adjustment’ in the video settings of the transcode. With it enabled the footage would do a sudden colour change every minute or so.

7 Responses

  1. Mark Thompson says:

    Hey Paul. Thanks so much for your blog / review / how to – posts. Awesome info and so nice to see you share your how to’s on your work flow. Really cool to learn from. As a self taught editor, the more guys like you share what they know, the more I learn and the better our work gets.

    I wanted to ask you about using Cinema Tools to convert 50i to 25p (is that what you did with the 7D clips)?

    Please would you let me know how to do this. Have tried to work Cinema tools out and just cannot get my head around it. Also, would love to know how to create proper slow motion as you said you have done in this COLD video.

    Thanks again for your posts. You have an awesome way of doing a write up review on gear. Helped me make some future buying decisions.

    Cheers

    • Paul Joy says:

      Hi Mark, thanks for the nice comments.

      I normally shoot 50p or 60p to create slow-mo, I’m not sure of the process to convert 50i to 25p it’s going to be different and would probably require different software.

      Click here to see how I use Cinema Tools to create slow motion.

      Paul

  2. Andrzej says:

    Paul
    I just started to visit your blog recently – looks like I am going to do it on regular base now :). COLD – great pictures, fantastic feeling, technicly perfect. Music and SOUND (wind, kids …) also perfectly chosen. But not a great movie. Reg your next “Cheap bokeh” entry – you could do a GREAT movie using e.g. Adrian idea about “lost child” story – it is almost there! Why don’t you think about re-cuting this one into “lost child movie”? It could be georgus one! Terence Malick (one of my favorites) is almost there!

    Wish to do so great stuff like you one day!

    • Paul Joy says:

      Hi Andrzej, thanks very much for your comments. “Cold” really wasn’t meant to be narrative, I just didn’t want to produce yet another piece to music without any reason so I decided to give it some subtle meaning. I'[m glad the ‘lost child’ thing comes through as that was the intention. This was two hours work though, it was never intended to be anything bigger. I am currently working on something with a lot more of a story so look for something soon :)

  3. Adrian Price says:

    Great work Paul.

    Really very evocative, felt it uncomfortably in my bones!!

    Some beautiful framing and a sense of a ‘moving’ still life study. The music is a great vehicle for the images, and the wind whistle adds just that edge of cold dripping nose.

    It’s amazing how ones mind starts to construct a story around some images and the feel of music, I imagined for some reason that this piece could almost be about the loss of a child from a family.

    Sad but very meditative.

    Thanks for taking the time to post, informative and inspirational as usual.

  4. Paul Frederick says:

    Paul,

    Really loved it! Some great images there. Well thought out and perfectly timed to the music. The music choice was great as well. Sort of reminded me of Terrance Mallick movies! Just goes to show you, great works don’t have to come from stunning vistas or landscapes. you found magic in an everyday setting.

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