Tag Archive: 5DMKII


Perth Street Car BTS Video of Brett Stewart’s LS1 Walkinshaw featuring Christie-Ann

Filed Under: Automotive, Behind The Scenes, Video
Oct.27, 2011

A big thanks to Luke Brooks and Peter Clarke who jumped on board to film this BTS video. It’s been really cool having someone different shoot each of the behind the scenes videos I do.  This shoot was very chaotic with the weather changing on us and a small amount of time to get the photos and video we needed. It worked out ok though in the end.

Check out a few behind the scenes photos I posted from this shoot in the post: A Tribute to Tom Walkinshaw in the Latest Perth Street Car Magazine

Publication: Perth Street Car Magazine (http://www.perthstreetcar.com)
Photographer: Brodie Butler (http://www.brodiebutler.com)
Assistants: Ralf Schubert, Jay Wells
Videographers: Luke Brooks, Peter Clarke

Car: Brett Stewarts Holden VL Walkinshaw (http://www.formulatech.com.au/)
Model: Christie-Ann

Video shot on 7D
Photos taken on 5DMKII
Music: Dangerous Nite composed by Michele Vanni

PERTH STREET CAR:
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/perthstreetcar
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Perth-Street-Car-Magazine/119479901417967

BRODIE BUTLER PHOTOGRAPHY:
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/brodiebutler31
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/brodiebutlerphotography

 

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On Set filming “The Manuscript”, a Perth Short Film

Filed Under: Behind The Scenes, HDDSLR / HDSLR, Miscellaneous
Sep.16, 2011
The Manuscript Directory of Photography Brodie Butler

Photo By Ian Greenwell

Photography certainly isn’t on the back burner for me, I’m very much keeping it alive but I have been dividing my time up to pursue my love of filmmaking and allowing it to take up a larger portion of my schedule. Most recently I have signed on as the Director of Photography for a short film here in Perth called “The Manuscript” directed by the Perth Film Network founder, Debbie Thoy.

The film is about… well.. just wait and see!  It’s an action-comedy and it’s actually not that short. It will probably end up being a 30-45minute film which so far has taken up 14 days of filming and we still have quite a few to go. It’s been pretty intense so far and a steep learning curve for me, but thats what I love. I learn fast then I step up.

The Manuscript Directory of Photography Brodie Butler
Photo By Ian Greenwell

THE HURDLES

So as the DOP, I’m in charge of the camera and lighting departments. I guess one of the hardest things starting out was that film lighting was completely foreign to me.  Light is light, and it’s pretty universal to understand, but film lighting equipment and the tools used are very different to still photography.  So being able to know and have a “feel” for all this was a hurdle I had to jump over quickly.

When I’m taking pictures I know exactly how many Watt seconds of light I need for certain situations and I have experience with a lot of different types of flash systems big and small to know how to achieve what I want. It all changed a bit with this film though. I had to learn what each of the lights we had could do, how much power they each had, and what that would equate to on camera. I’ll post more about the lighting in a later post including what we used and how we used it.

Another hurdle that I’m still slowly making my way over is the language barrier. The film industry speaks in a completely different language to the photographic industry and they have silly little names for everything.  I usually pick these kinds of things up very quickly, and I had to.  I still consider myself quite a newbie in this field so to work effectively on a film set with over a dozen other people this is something I had to pick up fast as well as understanding the roles of all the other people including my own.

I hate handheld but sometimes it’s warranted and easily possible with HDSLR cameras. Here’s me going handheld for a quick and tricky over the shoulder shot of Priscilla Forder playing the role of Chantel, one of our main characters.

The Manuscript Directory of Photography Brodie Butler

Photo By Ian Greenwell

Obviously with me behind the reigns, this film has been shot on a HDSLR camera, the Canon 5DMKII. We used my camera for the entirety of the film and had a backup 7D just incase but we also intend on using it to shoot some slow motion. The downsizing to 720p for the slow motion was something we had to live with as we were unable to obtain a better alternative, and the slow motion shot is a crucial one! I’ll be making a post about the camera gear we used very soon!

The Manuscript Directory of Photography Brodie Butler

Photo By Ian Greenwell

Thanks to some help from Camera Electronic we had all professional Canon L Series glass to go with our 5DMKII. The main lenses used were the 24-70mm 2.8 L, the 70-200mm 2.8 IS L, and the 16-35MM 2.8 L. These are my favourite lenses to shoot with in stills and motion.  I cant work as fast as I like to with prime lenses, but I still love primes.

Here’s me being me, sporting one of my Arri leather gloves, crucial for setting up and adjusting lighting equipment to prevent burning my skin off.

Brodie Butler Director of Photography on The Manuscript

Photo by Elliott Vassila

Below is Taufan one of our camera assistants operating the slate / clapperboard.  For those that don’t know this is used to sync the audio and the video together in post production, because they are both recorded on independant systems. The audio recorded by the 5DMKII is used for nothing more than a reference for the real audio recorded by a sound professional, which in this case was Peter R. McIntosh.

Matt Zappala in The Manuscript

Photo By Brodie Butler

Have to place a big thank you to Camera Electronic, who as per usual have been extremely supportive of me and this production and have helped us out with equipment and continue to do so. Thanks Saul, Howard and all the team. Don’t forget guys, when you can’t afford to buy it, Rent it! You can rent just about anything off the showroom floor from Camera Electronic, and I know they’ve got a competitive price if you’re ready to buy.

Camera Electronic

Stay tuned for more in-depth posts about the camera and grip equipment we used, as well as the lighting!



B.

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5DMKII HDSLR Steadicam rig with an iPad Teleprompter

Filed Under: Gear, HDDSLR / HDSLR
Aug.02, 2011

5DMKII teleprompter on a Glidecam HD-4000

Check this out! A teleprompter solution that uses an iPad and it’s perfect for use with HDSLR cameras since it’s a rather lightweight unit itself.

In the image above I have my Glidecam HD4000 with a SmallHD DP6 monitor attached at the base (not connected in this photo). Then on the top I have my 5DMKII with a 24-70mm L lens and an iPad teleprompter! obviously the iPad is missing, I dont own one of those yet and one was to be provided for this job.  The teleprompter is a ProPrompter HDi Pro2 available from http://www.bodelin.com/proprompter/product_hdi_pro/.

The trick to get this mounted was that I needed to raise the camera high enough, So I could add the teleprompter and still be able to move the whole setup backwards over the cheese plate of the glidecam, far enough in order to be able to balance it properly. Having a teleprompter and an iPad hanging off the front of a Glidecam would tip it faster than you can say “ohh $#%*”.

So as you can see, I have my Manfrotto sliding plate adapter sitting on the Glidecam cheese plate. Then on top of that I have a Manfrotto quick release plate adapter which is then connected to the baseplate and rails that mount the teleprompter. Then on the very top of the base plate is where the 5DMKII is mounted.

There’s probably a more glamerous solution but that’s what I managed to create with the parts I had, and it worked fine. It’s also a nice modular system. I can remove the whole unit using the quick release plate so that way I dont have to move the sliding plate and lose my balancing point. This is great for transporting it, and when i ned to set it up I dont have to re-balance anything.  If I need to put the rig onto a set of sticks (tripod) then I can remove it using the sliding plate quick release instead. Then it will slide straight into my manfrotto 504HD fluid head. If I bring it back to the Steadicam though it will require a fairly quick & simple re-balance.

iPad teleprompter mounted on a 5DMKII Steadicam Rig

Now there is no way you are going to be able to operate this handheld, so thats where the Steadicam Merlin arm and vest comes in handy. All up I think I had about 7-7.5kgs (16 lbs) of weight. That’s including the 5DMKII (810g),  24-70mm lens (950g), the monitor, glidecam itself, and of course the teleprompter. For the Steadicam merlin arm this was no issue. I believe this is the same arm used on a bigger brother version so it can handle the weight no problem at all, however it was getting very close to the limit. I have read about guys flying up to about 18 pounds with their Steadicam Merlin arm and vest. The recommended weight limit advertised with the merlin is about 3kg (7lbs) but this is referring to the handheld part of the unit, not what the actual arm and vest can hold. Personally I’m not a fan of the Merlin Steadicam, but the vest/arm is a winner!

Worried about just how much weight the little gimbal on my Glidecam could handle I contacted Glidecam and found out that I should be ok. They advertise the Glidecam can only really handle 4-10lbs, but that is purely just the camera weight. So only up to 10lbs on top of the Glidecam. The total weight of the whole unit should not exceed 18lbs which is about 8kgs. So this rig is pretty much running on the limit. I wouldn’t want to be adding any more weight.  Being a fairly heavy rig though makes it so much more stable, and a bit easier to fight wind and keep your verticals when moving around.

iPad teleprompter mounted on a 5DMKII Steadicam Rig

Unfortunately I don’t have any images to share of the actual unit in use. This teleprompter was borrowed for a gig, so maybe I can get my hands on it again and give a further in depth look at it.

Anyway, just thought it might be of interest to some people out there.

B.

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Becoming a Director of Photography PART TWO

Filed Under: Behind The Scenes, HDDSLR / HDSLR
Jul.18, 2011

Perth Showreels Elite Scenes

Recently I officially became a Director of Photography (DOP) here in Perth, Western Australia working under Director Mark DeFriest and you can read my behind the scenes look at my first day right here. I even include some tech talk and explain the lighting. This first DOP experience lasted over two whole days of filming and my previous blog post only covered day one,  so here comes day two!

Day two brought us interrogation scenes! Whoohoo! I love a good interrogation scene, and we had to film three. Once again I was lock & loaded with my 5DMKII rig complete with SmallHD DP6 monitor pictured below.

5DMKII with 70-200mm L 2.8 lens for filming

Above is my 5DMKII riding the back of my 70-200 2.8 IS L series lens, complete with a B+W UV filter. The lens is connected to a basic Genus baseplate with rails and theres a Genus follow focus unit sitting on the rails but not being used. (it was fitted to suit the 24-70 lens but not this lens).

Below you can see up close the SmallHD monitor and the beautiful Sergio standing in while we refined the lighting so the talent can prepare themselves off the set.

SmallHD DP6 Monitor connected to 5DMKII

Ok so here’s the setup. You’ll love this. To light this scene I actually used some old studio lights I own. As in still photography studio lights, and they certainly needed some dusting off after I pulled them from the dark depths of my garage. These lights were only some cheapies(Visico Lights) I bought years ago before I could afford all my Elinchrom gear. They need power and they didn’t get a huge amount of use but still worth the purchase, and they never failed me! Go China!  Anyway… these lights have constant 150W modelling lamps built into them, and after setting up a test interrogation scene in my garage, it turned out that was going to be all that we needed!

Shooting on the 5DMKII shooting at 25fps, with a shutter speed of 1/50th and ISO640 I was able to get about F5.6 which was perfect.

The other reason we ended up using those lights, was because I had a beauty dish to fit them, and the beauty dish was exactly what we needed for our main light above our interrogation table. We struggled to find anything else suitable in the short time frame we had, so knowing I had the beauty dish, I carried out a full simulation in my garage to see if it would work. It did! We still had some other lights on hand as a backup such as a 4-bank Kino flow, some Redheads and a Dedo.

Filming a interrogation scene with Director Mark DeFriest

In the image above you can see the main light with a beauty dish hanging above the table thanks to a boom stand. The boom was stretched out as far as it could go so we could keep the stand out of frame while we shot a wide tracking shot of both actors. On the left in the background you can see another light which was acting as a backlight for Matt who was one of our actors. The black rectangles are cutters, they are hanging off C-Stands thank to some handy grips from Bunnings (USA: Home Depot). These were placed to fine tune where the light was going. I had to try cut down the amount of light hitting the walls because I didn’t want the whole room illuminated, and this is also why I placed these backlights nice and high.

Now here’s me closely listening to the Directors wishes…

Brodie Butler talking with Mark DeFriest

Here’s another shot of the setup but here you see me operating the camera at the back there. You will notice we have the camera on a Dolly, and the rails stretch the entire width of the room so we can track the camera left and right as desired. This was for our master shot, something nice and wide to establish our scene.

Showreel Elite Scenes

Ok last shot…

Here’s a similar shot to before, but we have our actual actor in here now. You will notice the addition of a recflector on the table. This particular shot when our actor had to stand up was getting a little bit too dark so I wanted to bring some fill light in to illuminate his face just a little bit more. Just the tiniest bit of fill light can work wonders and in this case a bit of reflection from our main light worked a treat.

Filming with 5DMKII

So there’s a rough break down from day two of my debut DOP experience. Now I have to get back to editing some other goodies due on the blog soon! Drop me some questions below if you like!

B.

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More short action films to come from Perth

Filed Under: HDDSLR / HDSLR, Miscellaneous
Jun.30, 2011

Perth Action Film by Brodie Butler and Elliott Vassila

Well I have to say I never expected to be getting emails from Los Angeles filmmakers and old high school buddies sending me their “well done” praises.  My little muck-around short action film that I did with Elliott Vassila (watch it here) triggered an incredible amount of feedback and to be honest I am truly very humbled by all the positive responses, not to mention completely suprised by it all.  It’s been an excellent source of motivation for what I’m about to mention below.

Elliot and I set out just to create something for the sake of creating, and to use some special effects for the sake of using special effects.  I beleive that to improve and progress as a photographer or filmmaker you have to get out of the house and shoot as much as you can. Thats when you learn. 

So what was intended to be a weekend bit of fun and testing, has turned into something a bit more. Since its been such a positive result, I am happy to say we are definitely going to be filming more of these and we are starting this weekend!  Elliot and I have recruited some extra talent and throwing in some extra little stunts too. So stay tuned in the coming weeks for another instalment of … well.. whatever this is. Maybe we need a name.

Thanks everyone and I hope you enjoy the next one.

B.

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Best ISO Settings when shooting video with your 5DMKII

Filed Under: HDDSLR / HDSLR
May.03, 2011

ISO Settings for Canon HDSLR Video
There’s been rumours around for quite some time now regarding ideal ISO settings for shooting video with the Canon HDSLR cameras such as the 5DMKII. Until now I havent bothered to mention it because it hadn’t really been proven and it took a while for all the industry heavyweights to get on board and acknowledge the findings. More importantly though I haven’t had a chance to really get out and do a comparison myself. This post finally puts an end to the questions and confirms what we have been hearing.

The general recommendation for shooting video is to always shoot with an ISO setting that is roughly a multiple of 160. This means shooting at 160, 320, 640, 1250 etc.

The secondary rule to that that HDSLR filmmakers will tell you is to not go over 1600 ISO. That starts to enter the danger zone, although it can be done and has been done successfully.

Vincent Laforet has stated in his recent HDSLR training workshop on CreativeLive that shooting on these ISO levels is the way to go and he has tested it in the field.

Phillip Bloom I believe has also blogged about using these ISO settings when shooting video.

Now a chap called Andrew Schär I found via wiegaertnerfilms.com has conducted a test which demonstrates this phenomenon in a short little video shown below:

Testing Canon’s ISO noise in Video mode on the 60D from Andrew Schär on Vimeo.

So according to his video test, the ISO levels in ascending order of noise levels are:
160, 320, 640, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1250, 125, 250, 500, 1000, 1600, 2500, 2000, 3200, 4000, 5000, 6400.

So this confirms are previous thoughts, the most ideal ISO settings for filming with HDSLR cameras in ascending order is:

160 – 320 – 640 – 1250 – 1600.

 

Happy Filming!

B.

 

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SmallHD DP6 External Monitor for HDDSLR Cameras

Filed Under: Gear, HDDSLR / HDSLR, Reviews
Mar.24, 2011

Being a filmmaker you need to see what you are shooting. Being a HDSLR filmmaker, the little LCD screen on the back of the camera just isn’t sufficient for monitoring what you’re filming, and certainly not sufficient for pulling focus on your subject with a high level of accuracy. Many have turned to the viewfinders such as the Zacuto Z-Finder and the Hoodman Loupe to magnify this little LCD screen and be able to more accurately pull focus and monitor footage. However… what if the camera has to move? What if your Director wants to see what you’re filming, what if you have a focus puller that needs to see too? At some point you’re going to want to upgrade to an external monitor, maybe even two.

As for myself, I love to move the camera around a lot on dollies and also on my Steadicam rig and you just can’t use LCD loupe’s on these rigs. So I needed a monitor, and after much research I decided to go with the SmallHD DP6. It’s a brilliant 5.6″ Monitor thats sports a higher resolution than most others displaying at 1280 x 800 pixels!  One of the other most appealing things to me was the fact you can easily attach a battery plate to the back, which makes it compatible with the Canon 5DMKII batteries (LP-E6). Also the same battery as the 7D. I already have these batteries and I know they can last pretty well, and I think they are rated at about 4 hours with this monitor. That sounded good to me. They snap in and out so easily and quickly, and the monitor is then completely self sufficient and only requires a HDMI input. This is perfect for my Steadicam. No need for an external power source.

When buying a new item, I know that weird feeling you get just not knowing all the little things, and of coruse you are always going to have questions, so here I am going to try and answer some questions for you if you are looking at buying this monitor.

When it arrived it was well packaged and protected. Thanks SmallHD. Its these little things I like. It also got here very quick, in just a few business days which is good (to Australia). They sent it via UPS and this service sends you an email with a tracking number so I was able to track it all the way here.

Anyway… Once I hacked away the cardboard I got to the actual packaging which was quite impressive as shown below.

SmallHD DP6 Packaging

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Dual Monitors for HDDSLR Filmmaking thanks to Marshall’s new HDMI Pass Through Monitors

Filed Under: Gear, HDDSLR / HDSLR, Video
Feb.17, 2011

Marshall V-LCD70XP-HDMIPT Loop-through Monitor from Vincent Laforet on Vimeo.

Vincent Laforet has managed to get his hands on the latest Monitors from Marshall Electronics (lucky bugger) and he has made this little video to show you what they are capable of. It’s good news for HDDSLR filmmakers like me.

Marshall Electronics Monitor with HDMI Loop through

The monitors address a couple of important issues for us HDDSLR filmmakers. The first one being that they allow HDMI pass through. So you can plug one monitor in via a HDMI cable, then you can run another HDMI cable from that monitor to a second monitor, and share the same HDMI signal. Brilliant!

The second great feature is that when you hit the record button, and the feed goes back down to a smaller resolution, the monitor automatically resizes the feed so it still stays full screen. Obviously the quality will be less great but thats a shortcoming of the camera.

Check out the video above, and jump over to Marshalls product page here.

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Filming the Miss Ocean One 2011 Calendar Photoshoot with the 5DMKII HDSLR Steadicam

Filed Under: Behind The Scenes, Gear, HDDSLR / HDSLR
Dec.13, 2010

Brodie Butler filming with the Steadicam Rig

Fellow HDSLR enthusiast and filmmaker Liam Underwood gave me a call last week and wanted a hand to film behind the scenes footage of the Miss Ocean One 2011 Calendar Photoshoot with 13 beautiful finalists over 2 days. Any excuse to get the camera out and meet some lovely ladies right? I also used this as an excuse to get some more practice in with my full steadicam rig. Perfecting movement with a steadicam is quite an art! One which I am still getting the feel for.

All photos taken by Liam Underwood. Thanks buddy!

Brodie Butler with the Miss Ocean One 2011 Calendar Girls

As you can see in the photos I am using the full vest and arm, its not just a handheld steadicam. My vest is the genuine Steadicam Merlin arm and vest and it is coupled together with the Glidecam HD4000. You can read more about my setup on an earlier blog post right here.

Brodie Butler filming with the Steadicam Rig

Brodie Butler with Tiffany & Magda from Miss Ocean One Calendar Photoshoot

Here I am using a set of Genus rails to which I had a Genus Mattebox attached with a large french flag. However being down the beach I removed the mattebox because it was too hard trying to fight the wind while filming. Steadicams are very delicate and the slightest nudge from you or the wind will ruin your shot. I didnt have any troubles with glare/lens flare so I had no issues operating without it.  Under the rails is a Manfrotto 577 video quick release plate which makes it much easier to remove the camera and plonk it onto other rigs. I cant mount the camera direction to this quick release plate though because the battery grip blocks the locking mechanism from locking into place. So thats the other reason for the Genus rails/mount setup in there.

Brodie Butler with Tiffany & Magda from Miss Ocean One Calendar Photoshoot

Stay in touch with me on facebook and twitter!

B.

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Canon offer upgrade to let you lock the mode dial on your 5DMKII or 7D

Filed Under: Gear, Miscellaneous
Dec.03, 2010

Locking Model Dial Upgrade from Canon for 5DMKII and 7D

So many times I have accidentally bumped the mode dial on my camera and missed a shot as a result, or wondered why on earth I cant change my shutter speed all of a sudden. When the 60D came out Canon introduced a locking mechanism which allows you to lock the mode dial in place. Brilliant!

It seems to have been so popular that Canon are offering this as an upgrade to all 5DMKII and 7D owners!  It comes in at a price though, at just over $100 AUD/US.

This will be available in the US but I am unable to confirm if this will be available in Australia yet.

(Source: Photography Bay)

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Why do I use the Canon 5DMKII?

Filed Under: Gear, Miscellaneous
Nov.23, 2010

Brodie Butler Photograhing Carly Hanson & Renae WahoupSimple! It’s Brilliant! Well for me anyway…

I have been asked this quite a bit by various people so I thought it’s something I could address on the blog and share with you all. This isn’t a post on how fantastic every aspect of the 5DMKII is, its simply a psot on why I bought it.

I first purchased a 5DMKII some time ago now due to its large full frame sensor which I just have a thing for. I can’t explain it I just love full frame. You can get closer to your subject without having to go wide and distort the image, and obviously with a larger sensor you can achieve a shallower depth of field which is also more appealing for me to create depth.  I usually don’t care much about mega pixels, as long as it has something sufficient to achieve quality prints from, and at approx. 22 megapixels the 5DMKII wasn’t going to let me down there. Especially with the increase of magazine and commercial work I was doing I was really warming up to the 22 megas pixels.  What put the icing on the cake though, was when I initially borrowed one to try out. I was absolutely amazed at the jump in quality from my Canon 30D. I was so amazed and right there and then I pretty much knew I had to have one.

…

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Behind The Scenes Filming James Cameron with the Canon 5DMKII

Filed Under: Behind The Scenes, HDDSLR / HDSLR, Video
Nov.15, 2010

Director A.J. Carter with DP Guy Livneh, Arnold Schwarzenegger & James Cameron. Photo by Rafael A Leyva

Recently, I made an intial post announcing to the world how another exciting project involving a couple of Hollywood heavyweights adopted the Canon 5DMKII. Well now it’s time to spill the beans so to speak and reveal all behind the scenes!

Pictured above is Director A.J. Carter with DP Guy Livneh who are the gents behind this post and have allowed me to do this so a big thank you to those guys for sharing and hopefully I’ll see you back in L.A. soon! Next to them on the right is… well, you know who. All Photos are a credit to Rafael A Leyva.

Click to read the article…..

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