Alex Fine: Following the Ravensbourne 3

Alex Fine

Author: Alex Fine

Published 1st March 2013


A lot of young people studying film production such as myself are always looking to set up as a film production company.
We do little jobs where we make studio diaries for young (or old on the rare occasion) musicians; low budget music video’s, [very] short film’s about nothing in particular, or corporate video’s with clich dolly- moves and scratchy sound.
I’m writing this after having just returned from having done one of these young musicians studio diaries for a band called ‘Ayre Point’, named after a surf in Cornwall [somewhere]. This was for a new organisation in Hertfordshire called ‘NUStars’. My friend/Business partner and I shot on a 5DmkII with a ‘24-105mm f4’ lens, and a ‘Canon T2i Rebel’ with a ‘Nikkor 50mm f1.8’ (with Canon converter) and a ‘Canon 70-200mm f2.8’; all popular student camera equipment.
This friend of mine & I run a little organisation called ‘WeCreateStuff’. So far we have done a couple of little jobs for ‘Matalan’, ‘Lloretfest’ (student party) and various small student projects like Hertfordshire university’s ‘Go2Clubs’ and ‘FAME’ magazine.
In fairness to the general video-camera-wielding population, not all of them are like this, but the use of the Canon DSLR revolution that seems to have struck at least the western world has made it easier for those who usually DIDN’T do it, to now DO it. The trouble I find with this is that those of us who have been making these particular video’s with these particular camera’s are looking for something else now. The DSLR (in general, NOT just Canon) only satisfies for so long before the urge to move on to something else strikes us. The popular option is of course the ‘RED Scarlet’ or the ‘Epic’ (known as R3D when written for some reason rather than RED, but always with CAPTIALS which I quite like).
The trouble with the use of the RED is that until now, it has been blindingly expensive to the average-student-Joe, as all the Joe’s will know, but when most of these videos are being made for the internet or private use by the companies they are for, the use of the 4K/5K function seems pointless.
A popular function that the ‘R3D’ camera’s have is the slow motion function, which is what caused so much “hoo-haa” from Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit, which was filmed at 48fps.
Being a student writing his dissertation on the development of storytelling, I am struggling to understand the extra immersion that the 48 frames per second and 3D is supposed to give. I say the immersion comes from the story, not from the technology used to tell it.
My last little rant is that my year finished with a high, when I was asked to time- lapse the set- up of the premiere of ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’ in London’s Leicester square, which despite my opinions on the technology in the film, was a great experience, watching the event from the Odeon balcony.
The previous night to that in mid December 2012 I had been a part of a team helping to shoot a video pitch for a documentary about a recently deceased yet renowned and very skilled fashion photographer, ‘Eugene Vernier’.
The time-lapse I promised on the subject of testing the Dynamic Perception sliders in my last article unfortunately wont be seen as the footage was lost before a chance to back it up came around. There will be others.
See the ‘We Create Stuff website at www.wecreatestuff.co.uk and the Hobbit video at www.alexfinephotoimagery.com.
Also follow me on twitter: @alex_d_fine
Thanks for reading.
Alex Fine

Related Listings

Related Articles

Related News

Related Videos

© KitPlus (tv-bay limited). All trademarks recognised. Reproduction of this content is strictly prohibited without written consent.