Atomos Shogun Review

This is my review of the Atomos Shogun. It started out as a short look at it and I just kept talking :) To check out more of my stuff, check out www.capturingpassion.com

I delivered some FCPX training for the folks at Atomos last year and afterwards they asked if I'd like a Shogun to have a play with for a while once it came out. I have used some of their gear in the past and particularly since I had just gotten an A7s, I was very keen to try it out with the Shogun.

I used the Shogun on my shoot for "The Local Framing Studio" and got my mate Micheal DeFlorio from POVMedia to bring along his Movi, so we could try it out with that too.

The shoot was a lot of fun. The review part took me a lot longer than I expected it to. I had a lot of work come up and so this kept getting pushed back and done in the few breaks that I had.

Also it kinda turned into a hybrid Review/Tutorial, I can't help going into educator mode sometimes. :)

I'll have another post to follow up with the process that I went through to shoot the actual review, as it took a bit of experimenting to get a setup that worked for me. 

I hope you find it interesting and educational.

Only I would bring more toys to an Airshow!

A collection of shots taken at the 2015 Australian International AirShow. I was having a play with the Nebula4000 Lite and my GH4. I also had a play of grading it with Color Finale. Check out my posts about how I shot it and what I learnt from shooting it on my website - capturingpassion.com Music by Cinephonix Get 10% off the purchase of any music with the code MAK10 This can be used as many times as you like, so pretty much 10% off forever at cinephonix.com :)

I got my Nebula delivered about 2 weeks ago, but I’ve been flat out with corporate gigs and so have not really had a chance to take it out and play. I was very lucky to have a day off and get invited by my mate Simon to go to the Australian International Air Show with his mate Kevin. I thought this would be a perfect chance to try out the Nebula.

I haven’t had much experience using “small” stabilisers before and I think it shows in the footage. I’ve used a Movi a few times on set, but I found using the one-handed Nebula a bit more challenging.

First the good. I balanced my GH4 with it’s 12-35 lens at about 8:30am when we arrived and the battery on the Nebula lasted until 5:30pm when we left, and it was still going. I shot 1 hour and 46 minutes of footage, mostly in 4K and about 35 minutes of it at 96fps.

So I am very impressed with the battery life of the Nebula.

As you might expect, the Nebula was a lot lighter than any other stabiliser I’ve used in the past , though having said that, I did have to switch hands from time to time if I was shooting for 5 or more minutes continuously.

Now some of the challenges I faced and what I learnt. To begin with, I learnt that I need to move the camera a lot slower. When I got my footage back on a bigger screen, I saw that there were a lot more jerky actions than I thought. My pans/slides were way too fast to be usable and when I would rotate, I would come to a stop too suddenly. I need to learn to be smoother.

So when shooting with this, think like when you are public speaking, no matter how slow you think you are going… go slower.

Walking shots! I can see I am going to need a lot more practice to get those steady with the one-handed Nebula, or get a Fig Rig and attach it to that for more points of contact and stability as Erik Naso has done.

Another challenge was monitoring. It’s a no-go really. I was talking to a guy earlier in the week who has a Nebula and he showed me how he had velcro’d an iPhone attachment to the back of his Nebula and would mount the iPhone, connect to his camera via wifi and use it to monitor his camera on the Nebula. Great idea and the lag wasn’t too bad. The only place it let me down was when I wanted to use the Nebula held up above my head, so I couldn’t see the phone screen either. Still really good for walking shots.

Because I couldn’t really monitor the camera screen most of the time, I set the GH4 to use autofocus, which is fine when you are just experimenting and don’t have to nail every shot. I was pleasantly surprised how well it did. I only found it hunting for focus a few times. Having said that, I’m not sure I would use the autofocus on a paid gig, unless I had no choice.

You’ll also notice that most of the shots are, at best, a little over-exposed. I’d love to say that this was a style decision, but in truth, I’d had a 12-hour shoot the day before, I got home at about 11pm and I forgot to pack my variable ND. This turned out for the best, as I had to shoot most of the day around an aperture of f11-f13, so even if autofocus wasn’t nailing it, it didn’t have a lot to nail.

I graded it with Color Finale and I’ll upload a second version to show the before and after of the grade. I actually found that some of the shots got really bad banding when I tried to push them too far in FCPX and this is where being able to record 10Bit out of the HDMI port to something like a Shogun instead of the 8Bit that the GH4 captures internally makes all the difference.

Overall, I am pretty happy with my first day out with the Nebula and I can see how I am going to get some great footage out of using it in the future.

Below is a version that shows a bit of before and after for the grade.

These shots start off with the non-graded footage and peals back to reveal the graded version. Check out my posts about how I shot it and what I learnt from shooting it on my website - capturingpassion.com Music by Cinephonix Get 10% off the purchase of any music with the code MAK10 This can be used as many times as you like, so pretty much 10% off forever at cinephonix.com :)

Pacific Belles

I had some serious boy fun yesterday. I went to the Australian International Air Show yesterday with a couple of mates of mine and thought it would a great opportunity to take along my new Nebula4000 and have a play with it. One of the big birds that we really wanted to see at the show was the USAF B-52 bomber. We could walk right up to it and even walk into the bomb bay which was the only part open to the public. While getting some shots around the plane, two WW2-looking jeeps pulled up with people in period costume. Next thing you know, one of the women walks up to us and says “We are the Pacific Belles and our photographer hasn't shown up, could we get you to take some pictures and email them to us?” So we follow them up into the big bird and next thing, I’m shooting an impromptu music video in the cockpit of an active service B-52 bomber. I do love when life gives you these random little treats! Please bear in mind that I’m still getting to grips with the Nebula and realise now that I was moving it way too much and too fast. Still pretty happy with the results. A big thank you to the Pacific Belles, for grabbing some random guys to capture their passion :) It was also my first chance to use Denver Riddle’s new colour correction plugin Color Finale to create the vintage look. I am very happy with the results and can most certainly see myself using this plug A LOT! -http://try.colorgradingcentral.com/colorfinale/ All shot in 4K on the GH4, on the Nebula4000 Lite.

I had some serious boy fun yesterday. I went to the Australian International Air Show yesterday with a couple of mates of mine and thought it would a great opportunity to take along my new Nebula4000 and have a play with it.

One of the big birds that we really wanted to see at the show was the USAF B-52 bomber. We could walk right up to it and even walk into the bomb bay which was the only part open to the public.

While getting some shots around the plane, two WW2-looking jeeps pulled up with people in period costume. Next thing you know, one of the women walks up to us and says “We are the Pacific Belles and our photographer hasn't shown up, could we get you to take some pictures and email them to us?”

So we follow them up into the big bird and next thing, I’m shooting an impromptu music video in the cockpit of an active service B-52 bomber. I do love when life gives you these random little treats!

Please bear in mind that I’m still getting to grips with the Nebula and realise now that I was moving it way too much and too fast. Still pretty happy with the results.

A big thank you to the Pacific Belles, for grabbing some random guys to capture their passion :)

It was also my first chance to use Denver Riddle’s new colour correction plugin Color Finale to create the vintage look. I am very happy with the results and can most certainly see myself using this plug A LOT!

All shot in 4K on the GH4, on the Nebula4000 Lite.

Part 2: Things that I learnt from the Knafeh Noga shoot.

STOP!, before your read this post, go back and watch the clip in part 1 or watch it below and then read this post.

A passion project that I shot whilst on my last trip to Israel. Check out my posts about how I shot it and what I learnt from shooting it on my website - www.capturingpassion.com Music by Cinephonix Get 10% off the purchase of any music with the code MAK10 This can be used as many times as you like, so pretty much 10% off forever at cinephonix.com :)

As I edited this, I realised that it was going to make things harder because I only interviewed Danny. Watch most things that are longer than 3-5 minutes and very rarely will they have only one person talking. It was going to be a real challenge to cut this in a way that would make it engaging and keep people’s interest for 10 minutes or so. But, as I always say, the best way to learn is to really challenge yourself and so on I went.

Cutting down the 30 minutes of interview to 10 was, as I expected, a challenge, and I really worried that I hadn’t manage to separate it into distinct sections within the whole story. That’s where the music came in. I spent about six hours finding just the right combination of tracks that I think struck the right notes and created the right moods for each “section” of the video. I know it’s far from perfect, but imagine how it would have been without any music or the wrong kind of music?

It’s amazing how the music made such a huge difference.

I was really excited that I had just gotten my shiny new Zeiss 35mm f1.4 lens and so I shot just about everything on it the whole day on the A7s at f1.4. It looks lovely in some shots, but not in all them. Sometimes it would have been better to have a little more depth of field for variety and detail.

For the interviews I shot at f2.8, so every time Danny leaned back or forward he would go out of focus. He’s a very passionate guy and not one for keeping still! I applied FilmConvert to the footage and it helped hide some of that, but you don’t have to look too closely in some of the shots to see that the shirt at his neck is more in focus than his face. I have asked subjects in the past not to move back and forth as they will go out of focus is I am shooting very wide open, but these people aren’t professional actors or presenters and they forget.  Even professionals who are on camera all day long forget. The lesson I’ve taken from this experience is that, unless you know your subject isn’t going to move much, don’t go wider than f4.0 when shooting interviews.

The other thing I noticed as I cut it was that I didn’t get enough medium and wide shots to use as establishing shots for the lovely shallow depth of field close ups. I think those sort of shots work really well. For example, at 06:31, I have a wide of Danny separating some herbs and then cut to a close up of his hands doing it. I wish I had shot more sequences like that. Not necessarily for every one, but it’s nice to have a few options. The time lapses helped me get away with not having a lot of wides and I am pretty proud of myself that I thought to get them and use as establishing shots. Still, I will know for next time get get mediums or wides of more things.

This is also a good lesson in regards to planning. It is totally possible to just show up, shoot some footage and make something out of that. Every event that I shoot is pretty much that. Most times I haven’t been to the venue before and so it’s totally possible. BUT, if you have the option to plan things out, it’s going to make your life a lot easier when it comes to editing.

For example, the next passion project I am working on, I plan on shooting the next week, but I’ve been thinking about this shoot for a few weeks now and so, when I had some free time, I went to the location last week and shot some test footage. I now know what compositions are going to work, which ones aren’t going to work. The shots that I might need lights for and the ones I can get away with natural light with.

You don’t have to go to the extreme of going to the location and shooting footage before your shoot, but if you can just go and take some pictures or even check out on Google street view (far from ideal, but better than nothing) The more preparation you can do, the better. 

I didn’t get a lot of shots of people and for that I need to grow a pair. I am super aware of not shooting people in public places as I am terrified of confrontation. I am sure most people would be cool about it, but I am just a bit of a coward and have to get over that. I suppose this was also a even more weird case because if people asked me what the video was for, I didn’t have a really good answer. I was just shooting and figured I’d do “something” with the footage later. Yeah, that doesn’t sound at all dodgy.

Another thing that I am getting better at, but still wasn’t 100%, is being more forceful. You’ll hear in some of the clips that the music in the cafe is so loud that it can be heard whilst Danny is talking. It took me about 10 minutes into the recording to ask Danny if he minded if we turned it down a bit. He was more than happy to oblige. So I really should have said something sooner. 

There is a balance of course. The reason I didn’t ask sooner is that I was hyper aware of the fact that everyone in the cafe was helping me out of the kindness of their hearts and I don’t want to come across as a bossy douche when people are being so nice.

Having said that, as long as you ask nicely and politely, most of the time, people are happy to help.

Every time I re-watch this I see another thing that I am not 100% happy with and more bits that I want to change. There is a saying in the video production world “No job is ever finished, you just run out of time and money”

So even though I know this isn’t perfect, I’ve been working on it for a while and I am really excited about sharing it. I hope you enjoyed it and I really hope you find my insights and thoughts on the process helpful.

Part 1: Being open to new things (and capturing them!)

Blog post coming once this goes public.

While on a recent trip to Israel, Mandy’s cousin invited us out for dinner. As it turned out, she lived very close to where we were staying in Jaffa and so we met her on the far end of the Tel Aviv beachfront.

She mentioned that she really wanted to take us to a great little place near her that made knaffe. We had no idea what knaffe was and when we asked, she said it wasn’t easy to explain and best that we just see what it was.

This led to one of those lovely travel adventures. Knaffe Noga, the restaurant she took us to, is a lovely little place on a street corner in the very vibey Noga district of Jaffa. But what is knaffe, you ask? I am not even going to try and describe it, but let’s just say it’s very yummy.

Now anyone who knows me will know that I can be a pretty cynical grumpy old grouch and I don’t really go in for most spiritual mumbo-jumbo, but this place really does have a great energy to it. I think it’s a combination of the passionate friendly staff, the delicious food and bohemian feel of the area.

As we were leaving, we started up a conversation with Danny, the owner. His passion for what he was doing really shone through and I immediately knew I wanted to capture his story. I asked if he was camera shy and when he said he wasn’t, I asked if I could come back in a few days with my cameras, interview him and shoot some footage of his place. 

So few days later, we came back, laden with gear, and set up the interview. He turned out to be just as comfortable on camera as he mentioned and we had a great time learning about his journey and seeing him light up as he talked about his passion. I had a moment of brilliance, if I do say so myself, while he was talking. I noticed that he was talking a lot with his hands but I didn’t want to interrupt his flow to adjust my set-up. I was shooting with my GH4 and A7s, but Mandy also had her GX7 on the table. So I quickly grabbed that and shot some clips of his hands as he spoke. I was really happy I did as I think they cut into the final story very well.

Funny side story about those GX7 shots. The other cameras were shooting on the flatest profile possible and so even after I colour corrected them, I had to desaturate the GX7 footage of the hands so that it would match.

I then shot tons of B-roll around the cafe as Mandy guarded the GH4 across the street while I set it up to shoot some time-lapses. This showed just how much my wife loves me. She stayed outside for two 20-minute time-lapses in the sun and it was “warm”. That is true love! 

As for what I was going to do with all this footage, I really didn’t have a definite idea. I had assumed I would just do your standard 2-3 minute corporate promo-type edit but, as I started going over the footage, I just found Danny’s passion so engaging that I decided to try my hand at a longer form video.

I have some ideas for some documentaries that I want to shoot over the next few years and I figured this would give me a perfect opportunity to practise long form. It’s one thing to hold a viewers attention for 3 minutes, but 8 or 10 minutes? That is something I haven’t done yet. Well I did do a 20-minute clip while I was at Apple, but I can’t talk about that… :)

I am thrilled and humbled that Danny helped me feed my passion by allowing me to capture his.

Be sure to also read part 2 - Things I learnt from the edit.

Music by Cinephonix
Get 10% off the purchase of any music with the code MAK10
This can be used as many times as you like, so pretty much 10% off forever at cinephonix.com :)