How to get this look....

[Brock Burwell]

I'm about to do a short promo for a photographer and I have a quick question. The video below is the video she wanted hers modeled after. it's a very cool little video but I'm trying to figure how how get a really cinematic look to the video.

I currently shoot on a canon t3i. I will be shooting with a blackbird and maybe a slider (not sure yet).

But I want to give the video a cinematic look. Any suggestions?

T-Flo Photography on Vimeo

[Finn Yarbrough]

This video was graded with a pre-made look, probably from Magic Bullet or something. If you want to recreate that color, just desaturate, flatten, and lift your image (to get the bright milky look) and add some blue to the blacks.

There are also some canned light-flares added.
Sometimes you can get those light-flares for free from stock footage promotions. There are paid third-party plugins for them for any NLE, too.

Why she wants her video to look like that is another question!

[Brock Burwell]

Do you have any other suggestions I could give her or any other videos that I could model it after. I've looked at a lot of photography videos and, to be honest, most of them are pretty terrible. This one isn't bad compared to others I've seen. I like the format of it. The color is a bit weird, but other than that, I like it.

[Noa Put]

If she wants her video to look like that example I would shoot all handheld, the shakiness brings some life to it. I do find the coloring very weird at times but if that makes her happy. :)

One important aspect you forgot, what lens will you be shooting with? From that example video it certainly is a fast lens and shot wide open, that soft blurry background in the video matches her photos and that is why she probably likes it.

[Brock Burwell]

Good call on the lens. I think I'm going to end up purcashing a wide angle 11-16mm 2.8 to use for this video. Think it'll look nice for what I'm going for.

In regards to focusing, if I shoot really wide open, how will I make sure my subject is in focus. I know people have suggested a "follow focus" but I don't think I'm on that level yet to be able to purchase one. I feel like moving the camera around while shooting wide open will lead to a lot of unusable shots because of them being out of focus. Most likely I will be shooting most of this on a steadicam so it may be tough to stay in focus if I am shooting, even with a high fstop for that matter. Any suggestions on how to work around that?

[Tim Polster]

This is where you need a a small crew. Seriously, this is why DSLRs are best for certian uses, not everything. DSLRs often have a very small focus plane, so they take more effort to keep everthing in focus. If you want to use a stedicam type of device you need autofocus or a wireless follow focus.

As far as how do you keep everything in focus? Come on man, you know that...talent, experience and planning. No magic button. You just have to start doing the work to learn how to do it. We have all had a lot of help along the way from people on the internet, but at some point you have to gain PRIMARY knowledge and gain your own experience. Don't be one of those people who get "jobs" and ask others how to do them. It gets thin pretty quickly :)

[Steven Davis]

I kinda agree, why would you/me as a photographer want a faded looking promo video unless you're going to wow it with video at some point. Sounds dumb. I would do parts of the video in b/w and then show the color photos.

[Brock Burwell]

Love the black and white video idea with her photos showing up in color. Great idea

[Dave Blackhurst]

Isn't it obvious, she wants the video to look "old fashioned" and out of date, with the photo/stills looking "modern", wouldn't want to open the door to the competition <wink>.

Ok, maybe that's a bit snarky, but it does seem odd that the video is trying so hard to look like an old video camera with low saturation, odd colors and lots of flaring... they make cameras that do better than that at capturing the moment nowadays!

[Brock Burwell]

If you had to guess, what do you think were the settings used here? Or rather, what settings would you suggest in a video like this? I don't know a lot yet about the differences between 24, 30 and 60 frames/second. Any suggestions on which would be best for shooting this video?

[Finn Yarbrough]

Originally Posted by Tim Polster

Don't be one of those people who get "jobs" and ask others how to do them. It gets thin pretty quickly :)

Are we supposed to take our jobs unprepared and screw them up instead?
Brock has been asking a lot of questions lately, but if you head over to his channel, you will see that he's also been putting the answers to good use. If he keeps it up, pretty soon he'll be answering our questions!

That said, Brock, Tim is correct in that we can't pick it apart down to its minutiae as efficiently as you can get pointed in the right direction and experiment a little. I wouldn't fixate too much on frame-rate and in-camera settings if I were you--the main things going on in this video that you will be trying to emulate are the colors, and those light-flare transition plugins. These things are the video equivalent of Instagram filters: they're just plug-and-play with an app like Magic Bullet Looks, which I all but guarantee had been used here. It was most likely shot with the DSLR's default settings anyway.

What's paradoxical about this piece is that the things that give it its "look" are predominately modeled after bad camera technique and improper film exposure. So it seems purposefully unprofessional and kind of nostalgic, like an old home video of your childhood that was shot by your parents. It's a technique that I've seen a lot, actually, and it's not necessarily bad, it's just what it is.

PS, the Tokina 11-16 will help you go handheld without being so shaky, but will hinder your ability to get shallow DOF. The example video was probably shot mostly at around 85mm (except for that one wide shot of the pillow-fight).

[Steven Davis]

The look that she wants is sooooo over done that there are million plus 2 filters out there for it. I know a photog that ever thing they shoot has that look, sure it's popular, but boring imo.

[Brock Burwell]

Originally Posted by Finn Yarbrough

Are we supposed to take our jobs unprepared and screw them up instead?
Brock has been asking a lot of questions lately, but if you head over to his channel, you will see that he's also been putting the answers to good use. If he keeps it up, pretty soon he'll be answering our questions!

That said, Brock, Tim is correct in that we can't pick it apart down to its minutiae as efficiently as you can get pointed in the right direction and experiment a little. I wouldn't fixate too much on frame-rate and in-camera settings if I were you--the main things going on in this video that you will be trying to emulate are the colors, and those light-flare transition plugins. These things are the video equivalent of Instagram filters: they're just plug-and-play with an app like Magic Bullet Looks, which I all but guarantee had been used here. It was most likely shot with the DSLR's default settings anyway.

What's paradoxical about this piece is that the things that give it its "look" are predominately modeled after bad camera technique and improper film exposure. So it seems purposefully unprofessional and kind of nostalgic, like an old home video of your childhood that was shot by your now-ailing mother.

OK Thanks I appreciate it. Sorry If I've been bothersome lately. I'll try to back it off a bit and google some of these little answers I need.

[Steven Davis]

Originally Posted by Brock Burwell

OK Thanks I appreciate it. Sorry If I've been bothersome lately. I'll try to back it off a bit and google some of these little answers I need.

Don't sweat it, we all started at some point. Your questions are the reason for this board. You can try the search feature, that may help as well. The only dumb question is one written in an alien language.

[Finn Yarbrough]

Originally Posted by Steven Davis

The only dumb question is one written in an alien language.

The only dumb question is "why didn't I ask?"