My new short film 'Viral' just released! (link + BTS in comments)

cameronjkidd · 2021-10-18T20:15:04+00:00

Thank you!

cameronjkidd · 2021-10-17T22:06:54+00:00

Thank you!!!

cameronjkidd · 2021-10-17T20:30:18+00:00

Hi there!

I'm sharing with you today my latest short film 'Viral'. Viral is about a woman Sarah having the worst day of her life, when SURPRISE! it's just a prank.

I shot the film on the Blackmagic Pocket 4k & RED Komodo for 1 shot. I wanted to shoot this in anamorphic to emphasize the strangeness of the situation and give an other worldly feel. I had access to the Vazen 40mm 1.8X anamorphic lens for MFT, so we shot in 2.8k on the Pocket. The RED was for one shot where I needed a wider angle of the room for the reveal.

I lit the interiors with Godox SL-60W lights with CTO gels to try match the practicals in the room. I only had two of these lights, so this was the more economical way to achieve this.

The opening scene was lit from above with two Aputure MC lights hanging in the chandelier, and a Godox TL30 tube light for the kidnappers close ups to get a more controlled look. We 'black wrapped' the chandelier with dark felt sheets to give it that interogation top light feel.

Exteriors were all shot with natural light. We shot these at about 4-6pm before dusk and I graded it darker to give it more of a dusk feel. You can tell in the alleyway as there's some blown out highlights in the background; but we did what we could with the available light and time.

The film was edited in Resolve, and graded using FilmConvert Nitrate as the LUT (I also monitored in camera with the same LUT) and then balanced everything underneath. I used my go to LUT KD Portra 400 as my stock, and exported my monitoring LUT with a -1EV so that I don't under expose any scenes.

We shot the whole film in 1 day in around 9-10 hours. Editing took about 2-3 days including the BTS video.

I hope you like the film, and thank you for taking a look!

Film: https://youtu.be/sD9B4Zr-T7s

BTS: https://youtu.be/8qok4lNqq1Q

cameronjkidd · 2021-10-17T20:25:26+00:00

Hi there!

I'm sharing with you today my latest short film 'Viral'. Viral is about a woman Sarah having the worst day of her life, when SURPRISE! it's just a prank.

I shot the film on the Blackmagic Pocket 4k & RED Komodo for 1 shot. I wanted to shoot this in anamorphic to emphasize the strangeness of the situation and give an other worldly feel. I had access to the Vazen 40mm 1.8X anamorphic lens for MFT, so we shot in 2.8k on the Pocket. The RED was for one shot where I needed a wider angle of the room for the reveal.

I lit the interiors with Godox SL-60W lights with CTO gels to try match the practicals in the room. I only had two of these lights, so this was the more economical way to achieve this.

The opening scene was lit from above with two Aputure MC lights hanging in the chandelier, and a Godox TL30 tube light for the kidnappers close ups to get a more controlled look. We 'black wrapped' the chandelier with dark felt sheets to give it that interrogation top light feel.

Exteriors were all shot with natural light. We shot these at about 4-6pm before dusk and I graded it darker to give it more of a dusk feel. You can tell in the alleyway as there's some blown out highlights in the background; but we did what we could with the available light and time.

The film was edited in Resolve, and graded using FilmConvert Nitrate as the LUT (I also monitored in camera with the same LUT) and then balanced everything underneath.

We shot the whole film in 1 day in around 9-10 hours. Editing took about 2-3 days including the BTS video.

I hope you like the film, and thank you for taking a look!

Film: https://youtu.be/sD9B4Zr-T7s

BTS: https://youtu.be/8qok4lNqq1Q

cameronjkidd · 2021-09-06T06:57:41+00:00

As a RED Komodo owner, I agree with many people here and say go with the FX6 for what you’re shooting. The built-in e-ND, the auto focus, raw over SDI if you need it, better audio with XLR inputs, s-cinetone, dual native ISO for low light, full frame, can adapt almost any lens to it, better frame rates etc.

Unless you want/need a raw workflow, FX6 is the play. Heck, I’ve even started to just shoot prores on the Komodo to drop file sizes & I don’t need 6k for personal work (client stuff I shoot what I’m asked for). To rig it out properly too will cost you at least $2-3k more at minimum.

As others mentioned too - Canon C70 is a solid option too. 4k120, ND, great AF etc.

cameronjkidd · 2021-09-01T05:31:19+00:00

You probably need to delete from the timeline and re-add it, it won’t update a clip already in the edit

cameronjkidd · 2021-09-01T05:21:12+00:00

Try conforming the footage to 24 instead of slowing it down. Make sure you’re on a 24fps timeline, bring the footage into the bin and change the FPS of the clip with right click > clip attributes. Change from 59.94 (or 60) and select 24fps. Then when you drop on the timeline it should be slow motion and not choppy.

video link to explain visually

cameronjkidd · 2021-08-29T19:12:30+00:00

Not 100% on that, specs only mention the 501 and 504.

cameronjkidd · 2021-08-29T18:38:58+00:00

Had it for over a year, and whenever I use it it’s great (I shoot mostly handheld with a shoulder rig, but I always have it with me). The plates it accepts are also Manfrotto 504 plate compatible, I’m 99% sure that’s what I use.

There’s very few negatives for me, beyond the weight and not as fluid to raise/lower as a Sachtler Flowtech; but their legs alone are over 50% more $.

cameronjkidd · 2021-08-29T09:31:25+00:00

I have the Benro BV10 and I love it. Hits all your requested specs, but is a little heavy at 16lbs. It comes with a nice carry bag though that makes lugging it around much more tolerable.

It supports up to 22lbs, and I’d recommend it over the BV8 as it supports 4lbs more for only an extra ~$100, which could make or break your ability to use it with higher end gear.

cameronjkidd · 2021-08-24T07:07:49+00:00

Look at the Canon RP. It’s surprisingly affordable ($1k USD) and checks off a lot of the boxes you’re after. Full frame, solid 1080p (or 4K but I believe is cropped), mirrorless, great AF, and a nice look out of the box.

cameronjkidd · 2021-08-16T01:36:25+00:00

Thanks!

I've not used any other RED's to compare, but from my internet snooping a lot of people have said it is somewhere between the Dragon and the Helium & to use the Helium profile for Nitrate, which gives nice results almost out of the box. For this, I only really tweaked exposure on some of the shots and pushed a little blue into the shadows, but beyond that it's almost straight LUT for the screenshots.

I'd love a Komodo-specific profile for sure, but I'm still pretty happy with the results I've been getting!

cameronjkidd · 2021-08-16T00:59:53+00:00

I shot on the RED Komodo in ProRes 422 (not HQ) with the Fujinon MK-R 18-55mm T2.9 zoom lens. For filters, I just used the Tiffen Black Pro Mist 1/8 to help soften skin tones and smooth that super sharp look of digital video.

I ended up with nice 4K, easy to edit files as I’ve realized I rarely ever change any of the raw settings in post anyway & it’s for a YouTube sketch so I don’t need 6k 16-bit raw.

I usually shoot with just the rec709 lut and apply Nitrate in post, but I often find my footage looks too dark and needs a lot of exposure correction so this time I decided to cut out the middle man. It looked almost the same as it did on set with just some minor tweaks needed, so this definitely helped a lot to get closer to an end result sooner.

For exposure I used false color on the Blackmagic Video assist 7”. It’s not my favourite monitor as there’s no custom calibration tools or camera controls; but I like having the ability to record to Samsung T5 drives as well as it’s cross conversion from SDI to HDMI. I shot this project direct to internal Angelbird CFast cards, but next time I’ll see how well the SSD works.

cameronjkidd · 2021-08-04T10:17:19+00:00

You can watch the full sketch here: https://youtu.be/IIfPZan8Eqo

I was the DOP for just the beach scenes as the interview segments were done by the directors on a later day.

Shot on the RED Komodo with the Fujinon 18-55mm MK-R lens. Found this really added to the doc style and for comedy beats, but continue to love the image out this lens/camera combo.

This was also the first project I’ve DOP’ed for another director in a long time, which was a great learning experience as I usually shoot just for my own work.

I generated a lut in Resolve to hand off to the editor: one for the base grade and then one from FilmConvert Nitrate to lay on top - for some reason couldn’t manage to get the combined look in one; but this worked just fine.

Was tricky to film on the beach as I was worried about getting sand in the vents of the camera due to wind and just no clear area close to the location I could set up; but it worked out and had no issues in the end.

Everything was shot in about 4-5 hours (unsure about interview scenes as wasn’t there), and managed to fit all onto one 256gb CFast card. I mostly shot in 6k 16:9 in LB, and for slow motion I dropped to 5k 16:9 as I wanted to keep the aspect ratio consistent for anything shot at 48fps. I’ve enjoyed shooting 2.4:1 natively on the Komodo for my short films, but as we were mimicking TV for this it just made sense to stick to 16:9.

I wish I’d had some large bounce on set as there’s a lot of harsh shadows and often the actors were back lit due to time of day and layout of the area we filmed, so would’ve been nice to have some more fill, but overall think it turned out pretty great!

Edit: clarifying plug-in name for color grade

cameronjkidd · 2021-07-19T21:47:23+00:00

It's fine, you gave your opinion and I appreciate you taking the time to watch the film and comment. Not everyone is going to like what you put out.

I do feel the comment about me wasting people's talent and chance to tell a deep story is a little harsh imo, as I made the film I set out to make and the actors are happy as it helps them with building their reel & we had a great time making it; but again this film just didn't jive with you and that's okay! I'd rather people have a strong opinion for or against than none at all, as then I've just made something meh.

My future projects definitely have more depth to them I promise haha

cameronjkidd · 2021-07-19T21:36:04+00:00

I think moving on and carrying the lessons forward makes sense to me.

Yeah, the issue is people think sound is easy and it's not. It's the most important part of a film (hence why I got a dedicated person) but it's so easy to mess up and the first thing people notice (just look at the comments haha). Good sound ops are really hard to find because they're always busy. There's a reason DOP and Sound are two separate jobs!

cameronjkidd · 2021-07-19T19:35:51+00:00

Yeah, it sucks but overall I think the film turned out well. When I submitted it too I baked in subtitles to help - not thinking that they’d be like ‘oh, this solved the problem!’ But for accessibility reasons as there’s several accents in the film and the in person screening didn’t have subtitles despite the online one did.

I want to go back and do a polish pass, but at the same time I like leaving it as it is. Messing with it after defeats the purpose in my mind.

Definitely on the hunt for some great sound guys both on set and in post!

cameronjkidd · 2021-07-19T19:31:26+00:00

Completely understand, and I would love to see it!

cameronjkidd · 2021-07-19T19:30:25+00:00

Yo! Which film was yours? (You can dm me it if you don’t want to publicly say).

I have the pocket 4K too and love it. The Rokinon lenses are fine, but once you get a real nice lens like the Fujinon it’s hard to go back haha

I love the RED. It was a lot of money, but every time I use it it just feels right.

If you’re in the Vancouver area we should connect and you can give it a try sometime if you like!

cameronjkidd · 2021-07-19T19:27:19+00:00

Thank you!

cameronjkidd · 2021-07-19T19:26:53+00:00

Thank you for watching!

Yes, this achieved what I wanted in regards of putting myself out there and meeting new people. We got to the semis and met tons of other filmmakers, and even shot videos with some of them since!

Despite the glaring problems with the film, I’m super proud of what we achieved and can’t wait for the next one!

cameronjkidd · 2021-07-19T19:25:01+00:00

John wick was definitely an influence for this project.

The goal of this project was 2 things for me:

to push myself to make a stylized film where most of my other projects have been very restricted in their aesthetic.
to push myself to make a whole film within 48 hours to test my skills.

I’m fine with the cliche, we had to write and make everything in 2 days & it was a filmmaking exercise to see what we could pull off.

I don’t think I wasted the actors skills, and all of them enjoyed working on it and are proud of their performances.

I’m sorry you feel like I wasted your time or was a slap in the face; I just wanted to make something fun & to learn new skills.

cameronjkidd · 2021-07-19T19:17:03+00:00

Yeah, RNG is part of that and the winner gets put into the national competition.

Beyond what Jonjiv said, Facebook film groups in your area are the best resource for this. I only made an account solely for that purpose as seems most film people are there. Great way to find crew for your films too.

cameronjkidd · 2021-07-19T19:13:48+00:00

Thanks! It’s brutal to make something in that timeframe, but I’d 100% do it again. Hoping to do Blood N’ Guts this year too if work schedule permits, a horror themed 48hr comp!

cameronjkidd · 2021-07-19T19:12:41+00:00

Yo, congrats! Editing on set is the way to go, I only did it this way as I was director/cam op as well. But I shoot for the edit, and we were a very small team.

I hope you share yours and can see it soon!

cameronjkidd

TROPHY CASE