*CAUTION*

*Long post ahead!*

Coming from a post-production background, I’ve heard this phrase tossed around too many times from the DP, AD, Directors, AP, even Producers saying, “Fix it in post!” This cry for help when it comes to digital processing can solve the problem to a certain extend, but definitely not 100%. While I was still studying for my Diploma in Music and Audio technology, I had a lecturer that goes by this rule when we’re recording anything in the studio, “Sh*t goes in, Sh*t comes out…”. And I’ve stayed by that rule till today, and when I’m out on shoots such as the one we did at the multi-story carpark, I was trying to avoid having Sh*t recording into the camera.

Over these past couple of days, I’ve been working on the edit from the recent shoot the group and I did. Since we focused on just a small sequence, the actual duration of the clip is just slightly longer than 30 seconds. Which isn’t really a bad thing, as the final screener we have to submit is 30 seconds each. I also did a basic colour grading, trying to achieve the post-zombie apocalyptic look by boosting some greens in the shadows to bring out the “hospital” “sick” look, and then boosting a bit of yellow/orange/brown on the highlights to give that dusty, deserted, sandy look you get from sci-fi films such as Elysium, or I am Legend. However, since it was shot on our DSLR, the compression from the h264 mp4 format didn’t really give much room to work with, but I did what I could to achieve an overall grade.

I was in awe to find that I took rather long to colour grade than editing the 30 seconds trailer. Tweaking sliders, colour wheels, adjusting different values and parameters took up a lot of time, especially when you’re trying to match a grade to the previous shot that you have already applied an overall grade. A common misconception I get is that most people think that once you’ve applied a grade to a particular shot, you could just copy and paste the effects setting to the next shot. That is just a lazy and poor quality way of working, as every shot has different lighting conditions. More so that we shot on 2 very different cameras, a Canon EOS 650D and a Nikon (not too sure what model Trong was using), but both manufacturers would debate who’s camera is better in colour and so on. Therefore, I approached colour grading this trailer, shot by shot, trying to achieve an overall balanced piece. I really hoped I’ve done that, and even if I failed, at least, I could go back to the sequence again and tweak a bit more here and there to achieve that. I had to go by eye, as that’s the only way I know how to match a grade from shot to shot. If anyone could suggest any better way, I’m all ears.

Just to sidetrack a bit, I’ve given up on shooting RAW on Magic Lantern, period. As I find myself diving into another world of formats, compression, bitrate, writing speed, resolutions, aspect ratios, and so much more technical geeky stuff, which one day I would love to find out more, but in the duration we have for this assignment, I don’t think I will be able to accomplish everything all before our deadline. It may or may not be my fault in time management for not getting all these covered, but then again, going into this, I didn’t know what lies ahead of me and how much information I had to dig out before I could actually start rolling camera and start recording in the format and resolution I want. It just takes more time, practice, experiments, trial and error. That doesn’t mean that I have given up all hope, it’s just maybe not for this particular assignment. I’m glad I’ve taken on this path, but sad to admit that I didn’t finish what I started, at least not for now. Currently, I’ll just stick to shooting on the stock Canon h264 mp4 format, which means it would limit the headroom I get to play with when colouring in post. As long as I know my limitations and know when to stop pushing the highlights/shadows/blacks, it should be fine.

Sidetracking a little more, in research on newer DSLR cameras, there are quite a few that are able to shoot in AVCHD which is similar to shooting in RAW. (Ie. very little data will be crunched during compression.) Being a student on a “student budget” I know the industry standards, Canon 5Dmkiii, Nikon D810, Sony A7R, Panasonic GH5…. are way beyond my price range, and hence not worth looking at, as ultimately, they are the industry standard for a reason. My main interests would be those of a lower tier, being on the cheaper range of the scale, and seeing what kind of technology comes along with that slightly lower price tag. And I must say, some of this inexpensive cameras are catching up with the industry standard, being able to record in 4k, or in AVCHD format, 120 fps for doing slow motion sequences, and so on. I think it’s safe to say that my interest in photography might overlap with what we’re doing, and it does come to aid in some cases. I just hope that I don’t break the bank even before I get my first pay cheque.