I just got back from a beautiful collaboration of sound and image in the countryside of Georgia, shooting Quiet Hounds' 'Beacon Sun' with director Scott Lansing. We had a vigorous three-day shooting schedule, fighting through torrential downpours, blistering heat, sleep depravation, and fire ants and it was totally worth it ...
'Beacon Sun' tells the story of the struggle of those who died at the Andersonville prison camp during the American Civil War.
Strapped with a very tight budget we decided to shoot with the Red Epic for its size, portability, and ability to shoot 48fps without windowing the field of view. I opted to use an older set of primes (Zeiss Standard Speeds) for their brilliant flaring and vignetting properties (especially the 16mm and 20mm), their subtle optical aberrations, and their speed. The song paints an incredibly poignant and melancholy atmosphere that I knew I'd need to echo visually by using fast lenses in the twilight hours of the early morning and late evenings.
Because of our tight-schedule and many company moves, I opted to employ a very small crew and this was the first shoot I've ever done where we didn't plug in a single light fixture. We scouted our locations extensively, enjoying the luxury of scouting the locations multiple times throughout the day to ensure that we'd be able to capture the location's natural beauty. The only "lighting" we did was through overheads, negative fill, and bounce.
The weather was incredibly unpredictable and cumbersome on this shoot and we certainly got a taste of what the soldiers went through nearly 150 years ago ... In a one-hour-period it would go from blazing heat, to thundering lighting storm, to overcast with full humidity. We fought through the elements through soggy socks, dehydration, and mud-splattered garb and used the weather to our advantage. The weather really is a character in itself and I made sure to capture it in the highest quality possible, using ND se & he horz grad filters where appropriate, and using the Epic's HDRx function. I was told early on that the colorist for this project is top-notch and I wanted to give him the greatest amount of flexibility in post. I shot nearly half of the project in HDRx mode (+3 stops), allowing me to overexpose the image like I would with film. This extended latitude got me much closer to the dynamic range I'm used to with the Alexa and F65.
Shooting exclusively day/ext, I maintained a shooting stop of T4 through the midday, opening up to a T2+ in the early morning and late evening. The only filtration I used were Polarizers and ND.
Here is a link to the video:
You can check out the Quiet Hounds' other work on their website: http://www.quiethounds.com/
Capturing a storm cell with Eric Toledo (Lead Singer)
'Beacon Sun' tells the story of the struggle of those who died at the Andersonville prison camp during the American Civil War.
Strapped with a very tight budget we decided to shoot with the Red Epic for its size, portability, and ability to shoot 48fps without windowing the field of view. I opted to use an older set of primes (Zeiss Standard Speeds) for their brilliant flaring and vignetting properties (especially the 16mm and 20mm), their subtle optical aberrations, and their speed. The song paints an incredibly poignant and melancholy atmosphere that I knew I'd need to echo visually by using fast lenses in the twilight hours of the early morning and late evenings.
Because of our tight-schedule and many company moves, I opted to employ a very small crew and this was the first shoot I've ever done where we didn't plug in a single light fixture. We scouted our locations extensively, enjoying the luxury of scouting the locations multiple times throughout the day to ensure that we'd be able to capture the location's natural beauty. The only "lighting" we did was through overheads, negative fill, and bounce.
On location at Marietta Civil War cemetery
The weather was incredibly unpredictable and cumbersome on this shoot and we certainly got a taste of what the soldiers went through nearly 150 years ago ... In a one-hour-period it would go from blazing heat, to thundering lighting storm, to overcast with full humidity. We fought through the elements through soggy socks, dehydration, and mud-splattered garb and used the weather to our advantage. The weather really is a character in itself and I made sure to capture it in the highest quality possible, using ND se & he horz grad filters where appropriate, and using the Epic's HDRx function. I was told early on that the colorist for this project is top-notch and I wanted to give him the greatest amount of flexibility in post. I shot nearly half of the project in HDRx mode (+3 stops), allowing me to overexpose the image like I would with film. This extended latitude got me much closer to the dynamic range I'm used to with the Alexa and F65.
Shooting exclusively day/ext, I maintained a shooting stop of T4 through the midday, opening up to a T2+ in the early morning and late evening. The only filtration I used were Polarizers and ND.
Instagram of early morning setup with the Quiet Hounds
Here is a link to the video:
You can check out the Quiet Hounds' other work on their website: http://www.quiethounds.com/
