Back Down To Earth!

 Hey guys;

Today isn't really an article, but more of a ramble. A discussion on something I've seen a lot of, and do experience as well. This is written as advice not only to those budding and otherwise talented film makers (and other creative types), but to myself as well.

It's starts with something simple. We have that creative urge. Pick up that pencil or paint brush, pinch Mum and Dads video camera, start a new word document, grab the beat up guitar with old strings... and we make do with it. Because we don't have a choice. We want to explore our creative minds and we'll use whatever we can to begin that process. I remember starting out first with a video camera I borrowed from my then-girlfriend. I had a film idea, a rough word document to explain the story... and a few cap guns. I ran outside with my siblings and filmed what would be my first foray into "directing"... A film called Car Lovers Revenge. It was a nasty little SD JVC Everio camera, on board mic system and a horrible built in lens. But, it's what I had.
I had a split with that girlfriend a month or two later, and unfortunately lost the footage before the film could be made. All that survives from that project is a Youtube based trailer that proved how bad the film truly was going to be. But I didn't care. I was learning, I was creating.
Fast forward, after my few months of pining "lost love" and I dived into my new love... making short action clips. I was armed with a nokia N95 stolen (or "eternally borrowed" as I preferred to say) from a friend, my mothers brand new Acer work station and a pirated (yes, sadly) copy of Sony Vegas Pro 6. I also had siblings, Skye and Patrick who were my crew and actors. We made about 5 short films or more using that setup, each in their own ways really BAD.. but I was learning my craft still, and doing what I loved.

Fast forward at least a year later and I was looking at getting a new camcorder to replace the phone. I was developing some films I wanted to make that I knew the phone wouldn't be up to the task, so I purchased a brand new Canon HV30, $1200 later. From there on, I was more choosy with my projects. I found myself not writing "just any action scene that came to mind" and wanted to start making more serious projects. I had a few false starts, a few "bad eggs" in scripts that turned out to be terrible films... and suddenly it slowed to a crawl. I stopped shooting films, I started doing videography work... and thats when the "gear collection" started.

My "GH1 collection".

You see, what I'm getting at here in my "ramble sesh" is that we all get lost at one point, when we stop seeings stories and start seeing other peoples work with amazing sound, cinematography... and compare our work to that. I know, in my case I was watching short films with slider/dolly shots, steadicam sequences, decent audio, not-that-shaky-handheld that looked good... And I wanted to put all that into my films. I bought my GH1 because I wanted the shallow depth of field that removable photographic lenses provided, and better low light performance than my HV30. I'm one for al-naturale light, not lighting setups. Better dynamic range/sensor-tivity made my job a little easier. I found myself caught up in the "what else can I add to my gear?" "What else to I need?".

This week I finally woke up to that fact. After I'd bought my LX7, and my new slider... and I was looking for the next piece of equipment to add to my gear. I look at all the work I've done over the last 8 months of owning my GH2... and I don't see a great deal to show for all that money invested in gear. I do a lot of videography stuff, but my original reason for picking up a camera... I don't seem to do that much anymore. Lost in the world of being a "dude with a camera", I no longer write scripts because I'm afraid I'll write another stinker of a film. I do more work tweaking scripts for others, lending my knowledge in gear and cameras to friends and other interested peoples... and I forget about my original 'plan'.

So my advice to you all out there is this: Don't get lost in the world of technicality. I did that. I started reading forum posts, I started reading stats and specs sheets for gear... I stopped seeing "any camera can be used to tell a story" and started seeing the distractions instead. Too many times have I seen other film makers (and myself) not do a project purely based on the fact that they're just waiting for "that next bit of kit before they start filming". Forget that. Use whatever you have, get out there and make that bloody movie. Stop letting the world of specs and gear lists weigh you down. If you fall down that hole, it's hard to get out of.

Things are a bit different for me now that I'm a videographer primarily, and a film maker secondary. What gear you have, can definitely help your production values (as I discovered recently with the 'MySong Award' music clips ) but it can distract you as well. While I do raise the quality of my projects, I run into a variety of other situations where I don't spend enough time really "testing" my new toys, and instead learn 'on the fly'. Whilst it's a good way to learn quickly, it can be frustrating when you're filming a wedding and you can't figure out how to balance your damn flycam. In the end you chuck the bloody thing and refuse to use it ever again.

As a film maker, you have creative license. There is a reason why people out there are able to create films on their phones and use cheap cameras creatively. I keep wanting to "go back to basics", and I may do so one day in the future. The point of film making is to focus on the story you're telling, not the gear you use to tell it. Your most important "gear" is your script, and your actors. Your directing skills help, but I think that one is a learn-as-you-go kinda deal. Pull that phone out of your pocket and go out and make that film you've been wanting to make. Take that challenge, you never know how much better it'll make you as a film maker.

Thanks for reading my post. I do apologise if it was a long one. I hope it was informative and you learnt something!

Lumix LX7 - A tool for beginner film makers! (Review)

Hey all!

Today I wanted to share with you my thoughts and feelings about the Panasonic Lumix LX7, and how I believe it would make a very very good beginner film making tool.

In todays world of camcorders and DSLR's, it's good to know that point and shoot/compact cameras are becoming more feature packed. Nikon have a camera that shoot 4K for about a second (not exactly usable, but hey...), GoPro's now shoot 2.5k in 30p, and the Lumix LX7 has a wide aperture lens at f1.4 for creamy bokeh'd portraits.

I purchased the Lumix LX7 a few weeks ago to replace my aging Canon HV30, as I was beginning to get tired of transferring tapes to my hard drive... and having a hard time matching the footage from it with my Panasonic GH2 and GH1. I shoot weddings a lot at the moment, and the best thing about moving away from tape... is how quickly I can drop the footage onto my hard drive and start editing. So, when I sold my HV30 for $300, I began looking for a replacement camera straight away. I knew straight off that I didn't want another DSLR, and I wanted something that at least worked like my GH1 in low light conditions. The LX7 jumped out at me when viewing a forum post over at Personal View (the Panasonic Hack community).

I bought the Lumix LX7 on a whim, impressed with the low light performance and the quality of the footage I'd seen on the web. 24-90mm (35mm equiv) f1.4-2.3 lens, 1080 - 50/60p AVCHD, With a promise also of 120fps in 720p (MP4) as icing on the cake. I got the camera in the mail a week later and began playing with it. Here's a few things I shot within a week of owning it:

And I fell in love. This camera, while nowhere near the image quality I can get out of my hacked GH2... completely CRAPS all over my Canon HV30. The slow motion feature ('Lock N Load' was shot in 100fps/720p) wasn't great, but it was certainly useable in some environments.

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So, the point here is to sell to you, the beginner film maker looking at this blog post, the reasons why this camera will help you achieve better looking videos.

The first thing that comes to mind, is the manual control in video mode. Once you flip the camera in to creative movie mode, select the big red "M" symbol... you suddenly have the ability to control your aperture (using the ring on the lens, which is really nice), your ISO, and your shutter speed. These are the three components you need to worry about. Beginner photographers need to grasp how all these work together, and in a way... so do serious film makers.
Once you look past the manual settings, you look at the wide aperture lens. f1.4 is almost unheard of in a compact camera. This is a portrait lens on steroids, making your head and shoulders dialog shots a lot more "filmic".  The built in ND filter (often unheard of in compacts, let alone many cameras in general) comes in handy when you're outdoors, and want that f1.4 aperture and don't want to mess with your shutter speed too much. The ND filter will cut light sensitivity down by about 3-4 stops (at a guess).

A raw sceenshot from footage shot on the LX7. Click to see larger image.

In the right situations, you can use this wide aperture to isolate your subject from the background, and give a nice creamy bokeh to your "background blur".

Although there is a lack of '24p', in reference to the framerate one would usually use in a film making situation (a throwback from the days of film, where they shot 24 film frames a second), it isn't that hard to manipulate the 50/60p video stream into a 24p timeline. I've done this with the "Lumix LX7 Various Clips" video above, and never lost quality. This 50/60p video stream can also be manipulated into slow motion clips, without a loss in resolution (in the past, you were only able to shoot 50/60p in 1280x720, half the resolution of Full HD)... therefor keeping the detail and sharpness. The hidden 128x720 - 120/100p mode isn't as useful, but if you have a want/need for extreme slow motion.. it's there. The clip above "Lock N Load" was shot using this setting, and as you can see... the quality just "isn't there" when compared to the other clips.

Wide apertures and framerates aside, the film maker can use any tool to make a movie. Webcams, Mum's handycam, your iPhone/Samsung Galaxy (which is pretty common actually), DSLR's and full blown prosumer camcorders. Not to mention 8,16 and 35mm film cameras, RED, Arri, Panavision. But the camera is a simple tool. There are films out there, that have had a wide cinematic release.. that were filmed on much less feature packed cameras such as the LX7. I highly doubt those of you reading this article are looking for a cinema-quality camera, and just want a decent tool for making Blu-ray and web-release movie making. In which case, the LX7 is more than capable.

Obviously, your limits with the LX7 will be obvious. No mic input or headphone output. These things aren't useable on most consumer products anyway, due to AGC (Automatic Gain control) and crappy preamps. A dedicated sound recorder (The inexpensive Zoom H1 for instance) and a decent microphone are the ideal capture method. You can sync these feeds by ear in post production, with the help of a clapboard.. or simply clapping your hands once at the beginning of each scene (after rolling camera and audio recorder, obivously). 

Feed the camera as much light as you can in dark situations. Although it isn't too shabby in 'low light', in complete darkness... you will find pushing the camera beyond 400 ISO tends to introduce chunks of grain the size of your fist. This should be expected of a $300 compact. Feed the camera light, then stop down to get the effect you want.

To prove this point, my next short film will be shot primarily on the LX7. There are some things I wish to do that will require my GH2... but only small pieces of the entire film.

The LX7 will most likely be the best money you ever spend as a young/beginner film maker. You will find yourself learning to work around the limits of this camera, using it with ease... and being very happy with the images you come back with. If you mix this with a cheap shoulder rig, leave image stabilization on (it's pretty damn good!).. you have an excellent little rig. Turn off the stabilization if you stick it on a tripod though.

So, in closing, this is a VERY good camera. I'm not a camera nut, I haven't owned 20 cameras in my life... and I'm certainly a stickler for video quality. I own three cameras besides the LX7, but the LX7 has quickly become my favourite. It won't replace the GH2 as my primary cam in most situations... but it will certainly compliment it! If you don't own a camera, and you're looking for a good starter camera... the LX7 is hard to beat for out of the box use.

Take care!