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I recently visited Shanghai where I saw the Chinese premiere of ‘Ten Thousand Waves,’ at ShanghART Gallery, a film by UK video artist Isaac Julien. It is a nine-screen installation shot on 35mm film and transferred to HD with 9.2 surround sound and filmed in Guangxi Province and Shanghai by top Chinese cinematographer Zhao Xiashi. It stars actresses Maggie Cheung (In the Mood for Love – Wong Kar-Wai) and Zhao Tao (Dada – Zhang Yuan).

I mention this because more filmmakers/artists, outside mainstream Hollywood, are exploring different ways to present their narrative pieces to increasing visually sophisticated audiences. The film ran for about 50 minutes and during that time different images appeared on different screens, but not all at once. It was hard sitting in one place, as you could not see all the screens, so I moved around and amongst them to see as many images as possible. My eyes were constantly flitting from screen to screen trying to take in all the rich images, as I was hungry not to miss any. It was an exhilarating experience, visually exciting with each screen shouting for your attention before the images changed or moved to different screens. If you find yourself in London anytime between October and January 2011, go to the Hayward Gallery at the Southbank Centre and see it, you won’t be disappointed.

Issac Julien is a British video artist known for his provocative works that explore gay and black identity. Born in London’s East End he studied at Central St. Martins College of Arts and burst into the mainstream with 1989’s ‘Looking for Langston,’ a moody black and white drama loosely based on the life of gay jazz poet Langston Hughes during the Harlem Renaissance. Nominated for the Turner Prize in 2001, he has produced everything from installations to documentaries and dance shows and continues to challenge preconceived notions of how we consume film and art.

“All my work has involved an element of documentary actuality, combined with reconstruction and fictional elaboration.” Julien says.

His most recent work has focused on China with ‘Ten Thousand Waves,’ prompted by the drowning of Fujianese cockleshell pickers in Morecambe Bay, Lancashire in 2004.

The film took three years and a Chinese cast and crew of 100 to make, and mixes documentary, fiction and poetry in three narratives, jumping between past and present, rural and urban, real and imagined, to give the viewer a dynamic visual experience on nine screens of China’s cultural journey to the present day.



Maggie Cheung in Isaac Julien’s ‘Ten Thousand Waves’

What do you get when you bring together an Oscar nominated film director and award–winning painter? You get a multi-media installation that centers itself around a narrative painting.

Moulin Rouge director Baz Luhrmann and painter Vincent Fantauzzo, both friends, collaborated on ‘The Creek, 1977,’ which was created especially for the recent ART HK 10 fair held in Hong Kong. The work comprises of a large Caravaggio-style painting hanging in a blackened chapel-like setting of a young man apparently being rescued from a car that has gone over a bridge. By engaging the audience in much the same way as a scene in a film does, the two artists are inviting their audience to ask, is this the beginning or the end of the story and the all important question, what happens next?

“A lot of classical art was narrative…you have to get a lot of stories in a single frame,” Luhrmann says.

The painting was created in much the same way as making a film, with storyboards and casting well-known actors to appear in the image, which also featured Luhmann and Fantauzzo.

Narrative paintings have influenced filmmakers since the early days of cinema. Way before film, paintings depicted scenes from classical history, mostly religious and historical, that invited the viewer to engage with the painting and wonder at the story unfolding within the frame.

Usually, the title of a picture is the only indication of what the story is about, by inviting the viewer to imagine the situation; the painter hoped they would get the full story for themselves.

The principles that the painters employed to depict a scene were picked up by film directors and played a part in influencing the approach to staging and composition of early cinema.

For example, the diagonal layout of action in ‘The Creek, 1977’ creates dynamic and strong composition and depth, which guides our visual search, allowing us to discover a great variety of postures and facial views as the scene reveals itself.

Luhmann and Fantauzzo used pockets of light as well as a sound track of ambient sound and voices in their installation to guide viewers through the scene and add emphasis to the most important parts of the picture.

When you shoot with Canon HD DSLR’S you will no doubt spend a lot of time in post editing your masterpiece and trying to get that cinematic look. Fortunately, there are plug-ins on the market, such as Magic Bullet Colorista, that will give you that ‘film look.’ However, there is another way to get your movie looking like a Hollywood blockbuster and that is by using picture profiles. Not the ready-made ones out of the camera, but custom picture profiles. I came across this amusing tutorial, with good video examples, on how to add custom picture profiles which give you much more flexibility than you would normally have by increasing the dynamic range of the Canon 5D Mkll/7D.

I prefer to shoot clean in order to avoid too much processing in post, but when it comes to shooting video on HD DSLR cameras, you are going to do a lot of tweaking in post to get the look you want, as the footage that comes out of these cameras is highly compressed.

If you want that ‘film look,’ you must shoot flat. Custom picture styles show you how to do this and produce very flat, high dynamic range footage, which will allow you to get more detail in the shadows without blowing-out the highlights and produce the colour you want.

The convergence of art and commerce continues with David Lynch’s new film for Christian Dior, Lady Blue. Shot in Shanghai and starring French actress Marion Cotillard, it is typical Lynch combining high style with film noir lighting and effects, as well as a haunting soundtrack. This short film is part of the “Lady Dior” series and features (read product placement) Dior’s iconic handbag. It is the third film in the series of mini-features and advances the storyline of the first short online thriller Lady Noire, directed by Oliver Dahan (La Vie en Rose). Part two went online in January: Lady Rouge, directed by music video and film director Jonas Akerlund.

This is not the first fashion film for Lynch. Lynch was dabbling in this way back in 1988 when he directed an advert for a Calvin Klein fragrance in which he created a cinematic mood devoid of heavy-handed branding. Since then all manner of film directors from Ridley Scott to Baz Luhrmann have directed ads for the top fashion houses.

Lynch believes in ideas first and that ideas will appear a little different each time you pass them through a different machine, be it a still camera, video or film. Lynch continues to ask the same question through his work, “What is art, what is film?”

How many times have you heard this? Good storytelling is what makes your film stand out, not the equipment you use. Here is a great example of good storytelling and superb use of music. Remember the visuals are only 50%, the other 50% is sound.

http://www.vimeo.com/6320464

With only a snippet of information about Megan and Narbeh’s true love story, director Kevin Shahinian, crafted this love story thriller for the couple to act in and live again the unforgettable moments that brought them together.

If you missed Vincent Laforet’s live online HD DSLR camera courses or want more insights on using these cameras, then it is worth hearing HD DSLR guru Philip Bloom’s interview with Chris Jones, authour of the Guerilla Film Makers pocketbook. They discuss the use of HD DSLR cameras for shooting narrative pieces that require a shallow depth of field and that certain ‘film look’ that these cameras offer.

The interview has a lot of useful information worth listening to, but only if you’ve got one hour to spare.

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Here is the schedule of the 3-day introduction to HD DSLR Cinema starting tomorrow.

If you are new to filmmaking then you will find these courses useful as they promise to guide you through the process of getting your project up-and-running and show you the skills required to realise your vision.

The courses will kick-off with the difference between shooting stills and video, the crew involved and working practices.

Everything from equipment and workflow to audio and post-production will be covered with the exception of lighting, which due to its complexity and time/gear constraints will have the least amount of time spent on during the workshop.

There will be an emphasis on the gear, showing you what equipment is best to accomplish the shots you need to tell your story. A whole section will be dedicated to HD DSLR’s, the challenges they present and practical issues, such as, how to set them up for best results. Also, comparing them with video camcorders and the RED Cameras.

Other video gear will be discussed, in fact, everything from fluid heads to LCD monitors, including ND filters, lenses, grip equipment and much more.

Don’t worry, it won’t all be talk. You will see practical demonstrations of this gear and those that attend the course in person will get to use the equipment to shoot their first short film.

The 3-day event, although ambitious, promises to give you a good grounding in what it takes to shoot your first narrative piece.

Don’t forget this must see workshop on HD DSLR cameras and HD DSLR Cinema presented by Vincent Laforet. This multicast event, starting next Friday 30th April at 11am, is streaming live from Seattle, Washington and will be hosted by creativeLIVE.

The workshop is totally FREE throughout the 3-day event. But if you are like me, the time difference is too great or you won’t be online during that period, then you can download a discounted copy of the workshop for US$79 prior to the workshop. Note: As these are not prerecorded events, the course downloads will not be available until at least 24 hours after the live event.

Who is this workshop for?

Anyone who is shooting video with HD DSLR cameras, but especially Photographers making the transition into video and first-time filmmakers.

I will post a list of topics and a schedule of events next week as they become known.

This is a very simple guide to get you out there and shooting with your HD DSLR camera.

Why shoot HD on a video-capable DSLR when there are numerous HD video cameras on the market to suit your budget?

The simple answer, apart from affordability, is because most people want to get the ‘film look’ without spending the big bucks on real movie cameras and lenses.

Cinema look

What is the cinema or ‘film look’? As usual everything is in the eye of the beholder, but put simply the ‘film look’ is associated with a shallow depth of field (DoF) – keeping your subject in focus and throwing the background out of focus allowing the filmmaker to control the audience attention and draw them into the story.

Let’s look at what these pro stills cameras offer. Firstly, unlike video camcorders, professional stills cameras are full-frame (35mm) or have a cropped sensor, which is bigger than the largest 2/3inch broadcast camera sensor. These cameras allow for interchangeable lenses, unlike most video cameras, which have fixed zoom lenses. With interchangeable lenses you have the choice of primes (fixed focal lengths) or zooms. Fast lenses (low F-stops) give you shallow DoF, which is what you are looking for to get that ‘film look’.

Other than lenses, in order to achieve the ‘film look’, video should be recorded the way film is made. Film cameras run at 24 frames per second whereas most video-capable stills cameras run at 30p (progressive scan or one full frame), which is slightly slower motion and will cause audio sync problems. The Canon 7D supports various film rates including the all-important 24p and the Canon 5D Mark ll has had a recent firmware upgrade to 24p.

Low light is another advantage HD DSLR’s have over video cameras and can be used to great effect.

Size counts

Next up is form factor. HD DSLR’s are small and light and are great for tight spaces where most professional movie cameras would be too big for such spaces. This has huge advantages on a movie set saving you time and money. For example, if you were shooting on a kitchen set and wanted a reverse angle on one of the actors you may have to remove one of the walls of the set to get your movie camera in the right position for the shot you wanted. With a HD DSLR on a much smaller rig you would have no problem.

On the move

For a steady shot handheld on a stills camera you would need to shoot at 1/60th of a second. These cameras are not designed for 24 frames per second. However, many companies produce support systems to stablise these cameras, which allows you to get stable shots even on the move. One simple and inexpensive solution is Steadybag. For more professional dolly shots there is Glidetrack.

Audio

This is HD DSLR’s Achilles heel. The built-in mic does not feature professional XLR input. Also, monitoring the audio by headphones is difficult as the LCD is turned off when you attach a head-set. Again, there are companies out there that sell devices to solve this problem. Here is one such device for pro audio recording and suitable for HD DSLR shooters, the Zoom H4n. It is a mobile recording jack-of-all-trades at an affordable price that includes built-in stereo microphones, professional XLR and ability to record four independent channels at the same time. For portable recorder reviews and ratings go to WingfieldAudio.com. This excellent website also gives sound samples.

Synchronisation is done in post with a reference signal. A simple clapper board will suffice for this purpose.

Viewing while you shoot

The cameras viewfinder is blocked on DSLR’s when recording and it is difficult to see detail on the LCD when light is falling on it. Therefore, having a separate LCD screen can prove useful. If you are working with a crew, especially a focus puller, a separate screen is a must have piece of equipment. Smallhd certainly lives up to its name with a screen size of 5.6” and exceptional resolution for its size.

Rolling shutter

Better know as the ‘jello effect’ when the image wobbles. This only affects cameras with CMOS sensors (Cannon, Nikon to name but a few) and not ones with CCD sensors. The effect occurs when the camera is panned or when fast moving objects enter the frame. The solution for both problems is record slowly and speed it up in post or if you are only panning across a static frame try doing it very slowly and smoothly. Here is a plug-in for After Effects and Nuke called RollingShutter, which will solve the problem.

AVCHD, Canon 5D Mark ll and Canon 7D editing

AVCHD uses the H.264 codec, which requires a lot of compression. The colour (Chroma) signal is recorded in a format known as 4:2:0 (composite video) which is half the colour resolution of professional (component video) 4:2:2 formats.

With software like Neo Scene by Cineform, your difficult to edit footage will be converted to industry-standard AVI or MOV files for more accurate colour processing during editing. Neo Scene supports most Windows/Mac software including FCP, iMovie, Adobe Premiere, Sony Vegas, Movie Studio.

As more and more people start using these cameras we can expect more stunning images in content made for the web that look like they have been created using professional movie equipment.

Carl Zeiss has been quick to see the direction HD DSLR filmmaking is heading and announced last week at the NAB show in Las Vegas a set of cine style lenses designed specifically for HD DSLR cameras.

The Compact Prime CP.2 lenses will fit directly to HD DSLR’s without adapters, allow for extreme accuracy of focus and greater aperture control and will also cover the full sensor area of cameras such as the Canon 5D Mark II.

Richard Schleuning from Zeiss talks to Cinema5D at NAB 2010 about the new line-up of cine style lenses.