Camera Labs

Yes, another Train Station movie, produced at pretty much the same time as Murdock's piece (Rolling Clockwork). Shot this with my best friend Floris, all handheld, with the D90 + 10-20 lens. Postproduction was entirely done in Premiere, including minimal FX (brightness/contrast). Yes, after effects might've been better, but we couldn't figure that out....

It's still mostly just a test to see what we can do, so don't judge it too hard, but....constructive critisism is always welcome!

The video (be sure to watch the 720P version):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRfuwD-DNBw

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I take pictures so quickly, my highschool was "Continuous High".

You deserve 5 stars for the escalator shots! Really, looks wonderful. The rest though, doesn't do much to me. I'm sure you'll be able to deliver much better results with more practise in both shooting and PP. And with a tripod perhaps...

What you guys are doing though, is making me ever more angry at Sony for not having a video DSLR yet. Then again, once they do, it's probably gonna kick @$$!

- Bjorn -

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Street and documentary photographer | Google+ | Twitter | Blog | Tumblr

Leica M9-P (my article on Camera Labs) | Leica D-Lux 5 | 50mm Summilux

Hehe thanks!
Maybe it's time to make the move to Nikon, finally?

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I take pictures so quickly, my highschool was "Continuous High".

Hi Marijn

I agree, those escalator shots were very, very cool. I should have thought about that myself, hehehehe.

Your handheld shots are also very stable, considering that handhelds are a pain in the a$$, even with IS systems.

Just to things I would like to mention:

1. You got some flickering at 0:31. Just in case you are not aware of it, you correct that by adjusting the shutter speed when you film. I know, I sometimes get flickering too, sometimes it's hard to detect it when trying to view the liveview screen. That's why I got one of those LCDVF viewfinders, among other reasons...

2. Some of your shots seem to have the "horizon" tilted. Look at 0:09. This happens very very often when filming, specially when handheld. I'm not proficient on Nikons, but I assume you can make them display gridlines on the liveview screen to guide your compositions. Of better yet, get one of those bubble levels you mount on the camera.

What's the story with that unfriendly ice cream lady?

BTW, I was exactly on that train station in 2006, nice to see a familiar place again!

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Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 24-105mm f/4.0 L

Agreed, the handheld footage was sometimes a bit wobbly, but I really enjoyed the escalator shots!

I'll have to wait a couple more months for Sony to launch a video-DSLR, I might have to wait forever for Nikon to integrate IS in their bodies and to get AF Zeiss lenses... So, thank you, but no thank you.

- Bjorn -

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Street and documentary photographer | Google+ | Twitter | Blog | Tumblr

Leica M9-P (my article on Camera Labs) | Leica D-Lux 5 | 50mm Summilux

Thanks for the positive response guys, and of course the CC

First off: Stabilisation: My lens and body both don't have IS, in fact, the only stabilised lens I have is my kitlens, which is kind of gathering dust since I have some more lenses. My benefit was that I only used the 10-20 mm lens in this video, which makes shake less obvious.
Of course I should have used a tripod, but I kind of like being able to move covertly. Maybe I'll bring my monopod, that should help at least a bit.

Crooked angles. I should indeed display gridlines in on the viewfinder, I completely forgot about that. Good tip.

Shutter speeds:

Here's a clincher. Nikon, being douchy as hell, decided to upgrade pretty much every current body with a new firmware, except the D90. The D3s, D300s, both can do manual video, so why can't the D90 with a new firmware?

Right now, I'm stuck with the full-auto liveview stream, nothing more than that. The only thing I can do is lock the exposure, and that's about it.
the D90 also has horrible banding when the light diminishes (unneccesarily ups the ISO), and some bad stairstepping (it drops every 8th line).

In short: nikon really didn't pay much more attention to this than "oh just write the liveview output to a file somewhere"


Now finally, the icecream lady. Utrecht CS has this Icecream shop, and i decided it might look cool on film (wideangle + curved counter often goes well). However, after about...2 seconds at most, this girl came out, demanding me to tell me what this was for. I answered truthfully, telling here it was personal, non commercial. She told me that it was not allowed to film...pretty much the whole thing. Crew, store sign, wals, counter. Nothing! I already had some footage so I didn't really care, but...come on. It's not like I'm a terrorist, or peeking under the employee's skirts or anything? Kind of makes you wonder what they are hiding...
Oh wel, their loss. No free advertising for them, and no revenue from me and my buddies anymore. They can "shove their cones where the sun don't shine"


Also, just a final note: wideangle filming is FUN. Pretty much everyone I encountered did not mind being filmed, at all, and those who did mind, stepped out of the picture......or so they thought

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I take pictures so quickly, my highschool was "Continuous High".

Great escalator shots!

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Canon DSLRs: 5D Mark III, 7D
Canon lenses: 17-40/4L, 24-105/4L, 24/1.4L II, 50/1.4, 85/1.8, 100/2.8L Macro, 70-200/2.8L IS, 100-400L
Other stuff: Canon 580 EX II, Canon 430EX II, Velbon Sherpa 600R
Apple: MacBook Pro 15", iMac 27", iPad III, iPhone 4S, Apple TV

My deviantART

Ok, so now ice cream at Utrecht train station, I'll tell that to my Dutch friends

It is indeed a limitation if you cannot have full control on your filming. This is something that I find awesome of the Canon 7D. It is absolutely flexible and fast to set up.

So, what's the next film project going to be? Any ideas yet?

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Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 24-105mm f/4.0 L

I have honestly NO idea. Maybe some short sketches, maybe a zombie sketch....I have no idea. I'm still trying to convince my friends to write a script.

I might be joining forces with a guy who has a 7D and also likes filmmaking, so then we can combine the strengths of both systems (7d for control, nikon for the lenses).

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I take pictures so quickly, my highschool was "Continuous High".

the wobbly parts made it realistic. I don't wanna see sterile videos. That was some awesome footage pal!

Keep them coming.

thanks!

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I take pictures so quickly, my highschool was "Continuous High".

WOW that was really a great video and the music was perfect.
Keep it up and hope to see some more ...

Thank you

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I take pictures so quickly, my highschool was "Continuous High".