Shot a dance demo with Director Rome for choreographer Romeo Casellas. The video featured 10 dancers highlighting Romeo’s choreography.
We shot at Embassy Nightclub in Toronto on my 7D. Despite the camera’s many shortcomings I’ve really been digging the images coming from it with the last few jobs I’ve done with it.
Below, some of the rushes with a preliminary color grade and some production stills by Jeremy Bernatchez.
Lighting, grip and 7D package by barrycheong.com
Lining up a shot with my 7D. I like how modular the camera can be and how simple you can break it down. In this case, a camera on a tripod…no bells and whistles when you don’t need it.
Everyone gathering around Rome and I checking themselves out after a take. Everyone looks better at 60fps!
Just completed shooting a music video for my dear friend, and arguably the most talented girl I know, Stacey Kaniuk for her track Yellow Broken Lines. It was a one day shoot at Wallace Studios (a rarity for me - I’m always on location!) directed by my equally dear friend Darrell Faria.
The concept, quite simple, Stace being Stace on a white background conducting her infamous sketches on plexiglass which later pays off as a full composite of her work by the end of the video.
We shot RED using the 2x Red Zooms, the 18-50mm and 50-150mm both T3’s. Never used the 50-150 before - nice range, a little slow, but I love the lens data read out! That’s a first for me - nice to know exactly where you’re at on the T-stop. I also can’t wait for the new Scarlet/Epic cameras and their module design, and what I’m hoping is a camera that’s a lot more compact and lighter, RED-one is not fun handheld! Parts of the day I wish we were shooting 7D!
Our lighting package was quite stark and a was a bit of a struggle to get enough stop on the white cyc and keep it even- not ideally how you would do it, but the budget was super low and I was happy to make it work. Producer Mike MacMillan (aka Uncle Mike) came in HUGE by securing some more gear and gak. We had 3x 2K blondes as our biggest lamps. The flexibility with the Raw files will help a lot.
Thanks to my tech team - usual suspect Cliff Ramnauth gaffing, new faces Tony Smith and Jackson Yeung and 1st AC James Hellyer. As well as line producer Kristina Small, Production Designer Marty Kyncl, Hair/MU team and of course Uncle Mike for pulling the extra gear and studio space together.
My photographer sister, Lauren and her friend Nicole Abram (nicoleabramphoto.blogspot.com) stopped by to shoot some pictures. Also a little BTS action from my iphone, rigged to our RED camera. Of course I only have a few clips and I forgot to actually get anything while Stace was doing her thing… I swear one day I’ll get it right!
Our jungle of lights…(photo by Nicole Abram)
Darrell and I lining up a shot. (photo by Lauren Cheong)
A few weeks ago, on probably the snowiest day in Toronto this year so far (and hopefully that’ll remain), I shot a commercial for Basch by Brandon a new fashion collection by designer Brandon Dwyer.
We shot in the historic Distellery District in Toronto with model Andi Muise on my 7D package. Mainly shot with the Canon Zooms (16-35mm, 24-70mm and 70-200mm) with some of our interiors on the 85mm 1.2 and 24mm 1.4. Schneider Low Con filters played in front of the lens the whole day. The 30 sec spot will be featured this spring, at Fashion Week in Toronto, as well as other forms of media.
Despite the extremely streamlined crew size, and adverse weather, I think we got some really great looking footage. Thanks to director/producer Sebastian Lyman for bringing me onboard and to my tech team.
Here are some behind the scenes videos I shot with my iphone. My intention is always to shoot lots of BTS stuff, or at least the interesting parts, but it never works out and gets progressively worse as the day goes on…oh well! To make up for it, some of my favorite screen shots! (captured from the h264 rushes and futzed with a little in photoshop)
Lighting, grip and 7D package by barrycheong.com. Additionals by Mike Armstrong. Filters from Image Gear and additional lenses from Headshots.
The actual shot from the mirror/bathroom setup seen in the clip above. It ended up being a 650 flown in to key instead of a Kino. I find I’m always putting up Kino’s only to swap them out for tungsten heads and some diff. on the doors instead. There’s still a Long 4 raking the back wall and highlighting her a little when she moves.
The master shot from the dolly setup outdoors.
Part of a 60fps pass of Andi walking. One of my favorite shots of the day. This was pulled from Final Cut with a quick 3-way color correct. I like the deeper, more red tone of the brick in the master above. Will have to try to match in the final grade.
I worked as a guest cinematographer on a cooking segment for a new web series being produced by the Kapisanan Philippine Centre. I’ve now had a fairly long standing relationship with the centre and it’s people, often shooting in their facilities in Kensington market, and was happy to get involved with this new project - especially with it combining my two favorite things - food and film!
I shot the segment with the 7D which lent a great look overall. The first season will probably feature a wide range of different aesthetics as various people have shot each episode. I brought up my concerns about consistency with the production, about lending a totally different look with the 7D and overall more lighting, but they were happy to run with it as they further develop the project.
The series should debut with the launch of Kapisanan’s new website sometime this spring.
Here are pics from the day. Thanks to Jodi and team.
Having a traditional Filipino lunch with the crew. Thanks Paul for cooking!
My friends at Exploding Motor Car have just put together a 2 part behind the scenes video of the making of the music video “New Years” that I shot for them last year.
Check out some of the hard work put in and fun we had making it:
Spent some time grading “Inside” for director Yaz Rabadi, a short film I shot with him in early July. We did the grade at REDLab in Toronto, the first for me. It was a pleasure working with senior colorist Walt Biljan and to have his expertise on our project. The footage looked great on their Christie projector! I highly recommend that all projects factor in some money for post so that you can grade your project properly. Desktop color grading has become immensely powerful and I still do a lot of my work that way but if you can take it somewhere like REDLab to have it done it’s well worth the money.
My friend Stacey Kaniuk (www.staceykaniuk.com) just recently performed at the Cameron House in Toronto to a full and enthusiastic turn out. I was there capturing some of the performance with my new 7D plus a 2nd 7D package. The A-cam down by the front of the stage was mainly shot on a 50mm 1.8 and the B-cam in the back was on a 24mm 1.4. Camera’s were at 640 ISO (I think..can’t quite remember).
The footage is going to be cut together and will probably go up on her site. Here are some screen grabs:
Every once in a while when I get into an adventure in my kitchen, I’ll drag out some lights, setup at my kitchen table and photograph stills of my latest creations. The only thing better than shooting or food is probably shooting food.
With the advent of my new 7D I decided I finally had something accessible with high enough quality to start shooting moving pictures with my food.
A few things I’ve noted:
- Might shoot my next spot at 30p. There’s a noticeably strange jitter with 24P panning. My computer is a little slow and the issue becomes noticeably improved once I down rez to the final output but it still seems a little more staccato compared to an HVX200 for example. I might shoot 1/30 shutter also to increase smear, which from conducting tests after I shot this, seems to help a little. Might also try shooting 60p. Other people on some of the forums have been noticing this jitter issue also. There’s a chance it might be improved with Canon’s rumored 7D firmware upgrade coming soon.
Tech specs -
Camera: Canon 7D 24p 1080 1/50 shutter @ 100-160 ISO
Lens: Canon EF 24-70 f/2.8 shot @ 2.8
Edit: Final Cut Pro w/ 3-way color correct.
Just finished shooting a music video for director Darrell Faria and producer Mike MacMillan of Lithium Studios. A few months back, Darrell and I, on a whim and a free evening with a camera package from another job, decided to shoot a little video in my garage. The on-the-spot concept that Darell came up featured a character named “Dr. Science” (played by Dare) explaining, visually, scientific things that slowly become less scientific. The setup was very typically hip hop with a grey backdrop with a token hotspot. Cut to a few months later and Darrell got some hip hop artists to cut a track themed with Dr. Science’s explanations and us shooting (or reshooting depending on how you see it) the video with the artists and this new track.
This time around we shot at Studio 101 in Toronto owned by photographer and friend Maciek Drozdzik (www.maciekdrozdzik.com). A similar setup was used with a grey backdrop. Actor Troy Matthew Martin replaced Dare as Dr. Science and we got some great performance stuff out of Tim and Jo Run with some of their buddies and Playboy model Anissa Holmes making an appearance also.
I shot using my new 7D with the 24-70 f/2.8 lens. It turned out quite well. We used a standard photo backdrop which is about 9ft wide which is a little limiting with this kind of setup but it worked out ok. A traditional studio cyc would be better for this kind of application, easier to deal with shadows, etc but our budget was extremely limiting. The 7D worked out really well though I definitely have to figure out something for a double monitor setup…
Here are some screen caps (uncorrected @ 50%) and set photos courtesy of Maciek Drozdzik.
