Working with 5D's and Premiere Pro in practical terms

I have just completed the first 6 episodes of a documentary series to be broadcast on Maori Television later this year. This series was shot entirely on 5D's. It was also my first time editing with Premiere Pro. Here are a few observations.

Production
Though my primary role on the series was that of editor I was also called upon to camera operate on the odd occasion. Our shoots were fairly basic - mainly talking heads plus various GVs. We were required to travel to various locations around the north island. Our relatively compact kit included: 2 Canon 5D's, 3 Zeiss Prime Lenses, tripod dolly, lighting kit, Zoom H2N, shotgun & radio mics.

Over two months of shooting this kit was put through its paces. The kit was light and compact. During the 20+ interviews the 5D's performed without a hitch. The only annoyance being the 11 min record time limit and having to change batteries regularly. 16G CF cards gave us 40+ minutes so 32G cards were plenty for the average I/V. At times changing lenses got a bit laborious but the images produced by the Zeiss 100mm in particular were very pleasing. We did miss the slo-mo capabilities of the 7D and also the HD signal to our 6" HDMI monitor. Recording audio on the Zoom was pretty painless, however, we did come across a fault when the battery of the Zoom died mid-interview and the data was lost. we only discovered the data-less file a number of weeks later by which time it was too late to recover. A known issue and costly technical error as the interview had to be re-done.

Post Production
After Final Cut went bonkers with FCPX I decided to give Premiere (CS5.5) a shot. I also decided to go with a PC running Windows 7 64bit. Having spent most of my time using Apple Macs I hit a steep learning curb switching to a PC. Lacking  in knowledge and experience I decided to get a ready-made desktop Dell XPS 8300 opting for the highest specs available - i7 chip, nvidea GTX 570, 8GB ram (upgraded to 12GB), USB 3.0 ready, Blue-ray Burner, Dual 23" UltraSharp Monitors. For storage I purchased two WD Mybook 3TB USB 3.0 drives (one for back up). This was soon insufficient space for the new and archival material so I acquired another 3 TB of storage.

Premiere CS5 introduces a sequence preset for DSLR material which allows native editing of 5D and other DSLR footage. The smoothness of playback depends on the speed of your computer. On my PC the footage played back pretty well but wasn't completely smooth at full res (you can reduce the playback resolution in settings). The nvidea GTX 570 isn't listed as supported by the GPU acceleration but a quick google search lead me to a link that showed me how to make the simple modifications to allow it to work.

One fatal flaw I encountered with the GPU acceleration is that it doesn't like working with still images. While manipulating still images in a sequence premiere would inevitably crash after a number of minutes. After googling the problem it seems it is a known issue that has been around since CS4 and has not been resolved to date. The best way around it is to turn off GPU acceleration while working on stills and turn it back on when rendering or exporting.

Other than that, Premiere ran pretty well considering the size of my project ballooned as I created five 26 minute episodes in the one project (the project takes a minute to re-link the 6000+ files upon opening). I particularly enjoyed the dynamic link between Premiere and After Effects. I was less sure about dynamic linking from Premiere to Encore and opted rather to export using the DVD or Blue Ray presets.

The only other programs purchased were Plural Eyes and Mc Drive.  The former was an absolute essential and massive time-saver in syncing up the 5D footage. The latter was also very important in moving between platforms without issue.

A second major issue arose when exporting an OMF for sound mix. Where  I had a stereo signal split into two single mono tracks the OMF only exported one of them. This occurs when those tracks are also located in another sequence as a stereo track. I'm not sure of the exact details but after many failed attempts to work around the issue I resorted to rendering and replacing the affected tracks and then exporting them separately. The problem with this is that you don't get the usual option of adding handles to each clips. This is also a known issue that Adobe will have to address pretty quickly if they want their product to complete with the other NLE's.

Once sound-mix was complete I exported the shows as Quicktime movies using H.264 compression. Each episode took about 45 minutes to export and were about 10-12GB in size.

Overall we were pretty pleased with the results. For this kind of filming we were able to work around the limitations of the 5D and managed to get some stunning imagery from this inexpensive little kit. Though far from perfect, in a professional setting both the 5D and Premiere Production Suite 5.5 get a steady tick and a bang for buck rating of 8/10.

shutter speed test using Fader ND

I was extremely excited about the ND Fader, a variable neutral density fader that attaches to the front of the lens, because it offered an alternative using the iris or shutter speed to control the light / exposure. As we know shutter speed effects the blur or lack there of. Films have traditionally been shot at twice the frame rate, i.e. 1/48 sec if using 24 fps, giving a smooth look to the motion. This is what we are used to seeing and may seem like a natural look. Some movies and music videos, however, looking for a different look shoot at faster shutter speeds.

To achieve the desired shutter speed while maintaining a certain aperture speed (and iso) we use ND filters. Normally video cameras have these built in and film cameras use a matte box with slots for interchangeable filters. I don't yet have a matte box and am putting off getting one until I have to. So I have gone with the cheaper option - screw on nd filters. You can get various fixed ND filter i.e. 2,4,8 or you can get a variable ND fader that works like a circular polarizer - rotate to increase or decrease effect. 

I bought my ND Fader from trademe.co.nz and it isn't the genuine article from france but a cheap Chinese knock-off which is always a risky road to travel but also kinda adds to the excitement. So here I have done some very basic comparisons of video shot at 1/50th, 1/100th, and 1/500 of a second, (using an ND Fader to control the light).

The tests were done on a Canon 5D mk2 with a Canon 24-105mm L lens at f/4 and 25fps.

Note the difference in motion, colour temp, saturation, and flare from sun.

 

my complete shoulder rig for under NZD $1.4k

I have finally assembled my complete shoulder rig, which is more difficult than it seems if you are on a tight budget. My rig includes: Proaim Shoulder Rig, Fotga DP500 Follow Focus, Lilliput 5" HDMI Monitor, 2x batteries, 7" articulating arm.

I ordered the Proaim gear from www.cinecity.co.nz (though I later discovered that the .com site is cheaper). The kit actually includes components to be configured as an off-set shoulder mount to be used with an LCD Viewfinder / Loupe but I prefer to operate with a monitor so I have gone a straight configuration. I was pleased to find the rig was easily adaptable and I had a number of options to choose from.

I ordered the Fotga Follow Focus and Lilliput 5" monitor from www.dhgate.com. I found a seller by the name of Kennyzhu particularly helpful with my inquiries. I also ordered two batteries to power the monitor and an articulating arm and clamp to mount it with. The postage was free and there was no tax either.  The Proaim gear took about a week and a half the dhgate gear only a week.My initial impressions are good and very satisfied the considerable savings made.

 

Full assembled shoulder rig with follow focus, 5" monitor and rode video mic.


 

FOTGA DP500 Follow Focus. Nice all metal feel. Smooth action with very slight play. USD $145.72











One rubber lens belt included. (Additional belts available from USD $13.00)

Proaim sholder rig NZD$789.00 (including postage and tax)

Lilliput 5" HDMI &YPbPr monitor. 800x400 resolution. limited ratio options. Displays full screen but stretched image on record. Full screen correct aspect ratio playback. Goes blank for about 6 seconds before and after rec. USD $224.61











Rechargeable Lithium Battery 6600mAh + Charger. USD $42.75










7" Articulating arm plus clamp. USD $49.95
























Counter weight

Riser, Tripod base plate, Camera base plate,

























Extra parts that I am not using in this particular configuration.

Alternatively you could buy this Redrock Micro Kit from B&H for NZD $4531.00 (not including postage & packaging)

John Galt - the truth about 2k, 4k and the future of pixels

http://magazine.creativecow.net/article/the-truth-about-2k-4k-the-future-of-pixels

Zeiss ZF.2 Prime Lenses

My friend recently purchased three Zeiss ZF.2 lenses - 50mm f/1.4, 85mm f/1.4, 100mm f/2. He picked them up on eBay from a store in Hong Kong. He said they were a little bit cheaper than B&H.

They are indeed well designed lenses. Solid construction, flawless mechanics and great aesthetics. the picture quality is second to none. 9 aperture blades provide very smooth bokeh. accurate colours and rich tones. Film makers like to go with the ZF.2 nikon mounted variety because of the manual aperture ring. The only issue when using cheap lens mount adapters to fit Canon bodies is the play cause by the adapter. This becomes even more frustrating when using lenses with the kind of precision of zeiss primes. 

Something to note about the 100mm which lived up to its high billing as a terrific image-producing lens is that when it focuses the entire front section (about half the length of the lens) rotates and moves forward. This forward movement causes two issues 1) when using a matte box the front of the lens will rn into the filters 2) the lens belt will move away from the lens gear. also, when focusing, the lens rotate more than 360 degrees causing an issue with lens belts that clamp on via screws as they will collide with the lens gears.

Camelion Batteries for Canon 5d mk2

I picked these after market batteries made by Camelion from E-Infotech for $40 each. They power the camera but do not accurately display their level of charge. A2Z stock a battery made by Swit for $70 that do, so I would suggest going with those. The Canon LP-E6 goes for $115 at the same store.

kingston Ultimate 16GB 266x CF cards

I picked up a couple of these cards from E-Infotech in Glenfield. They are selling them for NZD$100 each. I had seen them on B&H for about USD$34 or NZD$42. I asked The guys at E-Infotech about the huge price difference and they explained that bought them in NZ and they paid a high price for them too. They offered me a discount on my next purchase. E-Infotech has been usually around the cheapest in the NZ market but it shows that it always pays to shop around.

The cards work fine with my 5d mk2 and are still loads cheaper than the Scandisk CF cards. Stay away from the 133x as they will not allow you to record the maximum duration clips.