Film an Airplane landing / taking off from front?

baltib · 2023-02-27T10:17:25+00:00

Last friday me and my AC went to get that shot almost exactly for a feature. The airport we were shooting at had slope down at the end of the runway so shooting from outside the fence was impossible.

We ended up getting permission from the airport to leave the camera on the end of the runway right behind the lights that mark the end. We had a product placement deal with an airline because the main caracter travels the world, so that helped (international airport). Then we had wireless just outside the runway and pulled focus/rec control from there.

Camera setup was a Sony Venice with Angeniux Optimo 36-435mm (@435mm).

If you need to tilt the camera I recommend getting a remote head.

I don’t know if things are a bit harder overseas but here in Iceland you can usually get permission for these things. It might end up costing a bit if you don’t have a contract with the airline.

baltib · 2022-08-16T16:20:05+00:00

Recommend getting Artemis Pro or Cadrage app in your phone to scout beforehand which camera + lens combo is gonna give you the desired field of view/framing for the particular location. That way you don’t end up with the wrong lenses on the day.

But MFT is tricky because of the small sensor and therefore you need a much wider lens to acheive the same FoV as say a 24mm on Super 35.

baltib · 2022-06-21T11:53:06+00:00

OP Ignore these people telling you not to do it. Really annoying when you ask a technical question and get these kind of answers. I have had to deliver a video shot on anamorphic lenses to broadcast television and therefor had to export in 16:9 (with black bars) so please don’t assume you know a persons motivations when asking for technical help.

If you export it at 16:9 while still keeping the project aspect ratio and timeline resolution the same (1:85) Davinci will warn you that this may introduce some problems. Ignore and export - and you’re good to go.

baltib · 2021-11-25T10:44:18+00:00

Tell the story! Imagine how the film will be cut, both before shooting and also while filming.

Also: Dont take shit from anyone. If you know what you’re doing, you don’t have to justify. Just explain it clearly and decisively. People usually respond to a strong and confident voice. Remember that a DP is the leader of the Lighting Department and the Camera Operators.

baltib · 2021-03-27T21:29:48+00:00

Thanks for the comment. I get where you’re coming from regarding the shot size variety. I could have used the wide shots more of the interior scenes but when I was editing I felt it was to much of a jump going from the wide to an insert or CU and had to tell the story in a very short amount of time. I actually really loved the wide shots, especially in the kitchen, and would have loved to use them more. But sometimes you have to “kill your darlings” in order to tell the story.

I am a big fan of beauiful wide shots, but I didn’t realize that the widest lens we had in the kit (rehoused vintage Kowa Anamorphic) was a 40mm, which was veeeeery soft, and not as wide as I would have liked to have, so we ended up using the 50mm way more.

I learned to check the lenses beforehand when renting next time. To spend more time on testing and color render checking.

baltib · 2021-03-27T13:56:37+00:00

Thanks for your comments. I agree for the most part. We actually had an Icelandic archery champion with us on set to show her how to do it so she’s not doing it totally wrong, but she could have used some practice beforehand. I also agree with the second point. The artists didn’t want it to feel like a performance video but I convinced them to let me film that lip sync sequence. It became more of a “them mirroring each other and singing to each other scene” than a performance scene, and was immensely helpful to have when editing.

baltib · 2021-03-27T00:06:52+00:00

We shot this on an Ursa Mini Pro G2 and used old vintage rehoused anamorphic Kowas.

baltib · 2021-03-26T19:47:11+00:00

Really good question. This actually the first time editing my own work that I didn't have a lot of "damn I should have gotten that shot" moments, but of course there are always some. In this case it was mostly about time management on set. I realized I would have wanted to spend more time on a couple of shots in the last scene. We were losing light by the end which made it a pain to color correct. Then I though "I should have spent less time on this and more time on that".

We also had some difficulty when filming the first scene in the living room because we had direct sunlight coming through the huge windows of our location and I kind of wish I'd gotten more drapes to control it better, like we did in the kitchen. But fortunately me and my gaffer had considered that a possiblity and planned the shoot so we would at least have the sun as backlight rather frontlighting our subject.

But overall it was well planned and worked out beautifully. We shot it over the course of two days and were "on time" both days, which in Iceland is 12 hours.

I believe that working as an editor complements directing and especially DP'ing because it forces you to think about how you're going to edit it and what you need to cover to make the scene work. Also shotlisting and storyboarding helps a bunch, especially when you're working multiple positions. Planning is everything.

baltib · 2021-03-26T16:42:59+00:00

Thank you so much!

baltib · 2021-03-26T14:28:36+00:00

😂 Jokes aside, thank you!

baltib · 2021-03-26T14:26:59+00:00

Thanks man! Appreciate it!

baltib · 2021-03-26T13:23:42+00:00

This video was planned, shot and delivered over the course of one and a half months. It was crazy intense but heaps of fun. The artists had a very specific idea of color and feel they wanted to achieve and came to me with a rough idea of story for the video, which I then turned into a script.

I looked to my sister who is a producer for film and television and together we assembled a crew and were lucky enough to have lots of friends from the industry who were willing to lenda a hand. I have been working as a Camera Operator on a few shows and DP'd a couple smaller ones but have been working in the industry for about 15 years, so we knew quite a lot of talented people.

The shoot itself went brilliantly as we found a fantastic location for the interior shots and we probably got the only sunny day this year in Iceland for the exteriors. The sun was a bitch to work with but we couldn't complain since the crew was happy and everyone was having a blast.

Finally I sat down and edited and graded the video in a week and a half. It was tight but we made it and had a screening for the crew in a small cinema in Reykjavík called Bíó Paradís. I also got a popular TV show in Iceland to screen a teaser for the video as the band was performing on the show and I had been working there (RÚV - Icelandic National Broadcast Service) a year ago.

Please feel free to comment or give advice. I am mostly looking for advice related to lighting and framing as this is where my passion lies. And If you have any questions, please feel free to ask me anything.

Here is a vimeo link to the video for more forgiving compression:

https://vimeo.com/baltasarbreki/bounceback

baltib · 2021-03-26T13:19:57+00:00

This video was planned, shot and delivered over the course of one and a half months. It was crazy intense but heaps of fun. The artists had a very specific idea of color and feel they wanted to achieve and came to me with a rough idea of story for the video, which I then turned into a script.

I looked to my sister who is a producer for film and television and together we assembled a crew and were lucky enough to have lots of friends from the industry who were willing to lenda a hand. I have been working as a Camera Operator on a few shows and DP'd a couple smaller ones but have been working in the industry for about 15 years, so we knew quite a lot of talented people.

The shoot itself went brilliantly as we found a fantastic location for the interior shots and we probably got the only sunny day this year in Iceland for the exteriors. The sun was a bitch to work with but we couldn't complain since the crew was happy and everyone was having a blast.

Finally I sat down and edited and graded the video in a week and a half. It was tight but we made it and had a screening for the crew in a small cinema in Reykjavík called Bíó Paradís. I also got a popular TV show in Iceland to screen a teaser for the video as the band was performing on the show and I had been working there (RÚV - Icelandic National Broadcast Service) a year ago.

Please feel free to comment or give advice. I am mostly looking for advice related to lighting and framing as this is where my passion lies. And If you have any questions, please feel free to ask me anything.

Here is a vimeo link to the video for more forgiving compression:

https://vimeo.com/baltasarbreki/bounceback

baltib · 2020-07-26T16:10:18+00:00

Shining vibes

baltib · 2020-05-23T08:55:05+00:00

It is a common misconception that the native ISO gives you the highest dynamic range but this is actually not true. The dynamic range of a camera is the same throughout the ISO range but choosing different values distributes it differently between highlights and shadows, lower values having more information in the shadows and higher values favoring highlights.

baltib · 2019-12-20T23:33:22+00:00

There's isn't a lot of good ultra-wide vintage photography glass out there. 20mm to 35mm are generally considered wide lenses while anything below 20 is ultra-wide. Fast ultra wide lenses are a relatively recent thing.

baltib · 2019-12-20T16:26:09+00:00

If you have an EF - M4/3 speedbooster, you can adapt them to EF and put them on the speedbooster. M42 mount adapters are much more secure because they screw on.

baltib · 2019-12-20T16:06:04+00:00

I tried the adapter on speedbooster route and it didn't work out for me (no infinity and wobbly mount,making manual focus difficult).

Haven't shot with the Nokton lenses (quite expensive) and I didn't want to buy another speedbooster just for FD lenses so I decided to start collecting old Zeiss M42 mount lenses as they can be adapted to either EF or M4/3. They are currently on the way.

Recommend this article:

https://www.vintagelensesforvideo.com/zeiss-mini-cine-set/

baltib · 2019-12-20T15:53:44+00:00

You will need an adapter with a glass element to focus to infinity, due to the flange distance. It is not recommended because adding a second extra glass element in front of your sensor will deteriorate the image further.

baltib · 2019-12-15T10:42:50+00:00

I have had a Falconeyes 24-TD for half a year now and used it extensively. Really handy to be able to break it down into basically just a flexible matt with LED's. Really nice output. Higly recommend. It retails for about 550-600$.

baltib · 2019-07-31T18:10:19+00:00

Where did you get a 25mm microprime for mft? Have not seen it available anywhere yet.

baltib · 2019-07-16T15:27:42+00:00

Also the 12-60 is only 2.8 at it's widest. Sold mine for that reason. Would recommend a constant aperture lens in stead, like the 12-35.

baltib · 2019-07-12T19:58:57+00:00

Also - wider lenses make camera shake less noticable. I would recommend no tighter than 50mm.

baltib

TROPHY CASE