TVP and 7Directing

I know it's been a while, but I'm still getting used to living in Poland and having to work again. The four reportages Aurelia Frydrych and I prepared during our stay in Kenia have been optioned by Krakow division of polish public television. They also optioned one material of our Cyprus friend Ivan Charalambous and our another Czech college - Vojtěch Pařízek.

For starters TVP Cracow published some of photos from our trip on their website here. Some of them were shot by Aurelia Frydrych and some by other people connected to the project.

On this one you can see Aurelia getting the sound and me shooting.

Heavy trials

After nearly three weeks of shooting in Africa, I must admit that I'm really tired of being on alert all the time. The shooting conditions in term of safety are not really good. Today we nearly spent a whole day in Kibera again. It seems that all of our topics are related to it in one way or the other.

We spent a day with a main character of our "Albino Story" (working title;) - Gideon, who is the presenter of Pamoja Kibera Community Radio. Here below you can see me, while having a break over a cup of tee at Gideon's place.

You can see some of my equipment tagged on this blog's Facebook page.

Black magic related albino killings!

It's crazy around here! Just now some Kenyan people were stopped by the Police while trying to sell an albino, so parts of his body could have been used in magic rituals. You can read the story on BBC news page here.

We are also covering the story and tomorrow we are meeting with an Kenyan albino lawyer activist, who has been handling this case.

The witch-doctor that pay for the albino parts are the one that command Majinis - African demons that I wrote about earlier.

Yesterday we covered the Miraa market and as you can see on this frame from our footage, there is a lot of traffic out there.

Albino in Kibera

Sorry for the lack of post yesterday, but there was no Internet connection unfortunately. Today it's back, but we are leaving for our slum shooting, so I will write just quickly that we met an albino living in a Kibera and we had a very interesting interview with him.

Lazy sunday

So... it's been a lazy day after the party. We woke up quite late and just took a small tour through restaurants. Beers, pizzas and coffee. Nothing more. After a whole week of running through the slums we needed one of those days, you know?

So no photos from Aurelia today. Please just take a piece of my birthday cake instead, that she gave me though.

Miraa and OG!

Miraa, Khat, a friendly stimulant or a deadly drug? Today we did a lot of shooting about this subject so it was a really interesting day. In the morning we met with some people from and organization that deals with addiction. They told us about all the negative effects that human body can suffer from a Khat.

Then we spent a really interesting afternoon with a Gsu Kisu a real hip-hop gonna be star. He is a Khat and he's using it and says that there are no really side effects.

So who is right? I think have to decide for yourselves after seeing the final movie. For now please have this 7D still taken from one of the clips of Gsu Kisu doing his thing! For real! He's really good!

An old security trick

We are still in Dubai, as we had a transfer that lasts for 15 hours. We are killing time at the airport doing some photos and shooting videos. Of course if you do this for several hours the local security is bound to develop some interest in your person. And when they do they will usually ask you kindly to delete all photos you took.

So how to cope with it? I have a trick that saved my footage on more than one occasion and I introduced it to the people I'm traveling with. It saved all of our photos today:)

So what do I do? Please check this guide on fooling security in 10 easy steps.

Step 1:
Take some bullshit photos at the beginning of the shooting.

Step 2:
Take the card out and put it in the pocket or some other place easy to reach without drawing attention. It is our Bullshit Card.

Step 3:
Put a new card in a camera. It is our Precious Card.

Step 4:
Start taking photos and footage for real. Have fun while doing it!

Step 5:
When you notice that security is becoming interested in you switch the Precious Card with a Bullshit Card.

Step 6:
Keep doing photos close to the security officers so they can see you.

Step 7:
At this point they should come to you and ask to delete photos. Be nice and do this (you have a Bullshit Card inside either way).

Step 8:
Wait till they will go away. Make some more bullshit photos.

Step 9:
Switch to your Precious Card:)

Step 10:
Keep doing the good work!

And for a desert one of the photos the trick helped to save:)



Keep reading! I will try to post new stuff every day while I'm on my Kenya trip!

It's been a while... Kenya time!

It's been a while since my last post. Sorry for that, but I had a kind of busy time at work. Did a lot of shooting and editing. I even directer a cinematic ad on a 7D!

You can see it here:

LG "Dodaj coś od siebie" from Ostecx Créative on Vimeo.

Dominik Danilczyk was a DOP on this one and Locomotive.pl did the posproduction.

But the main reason I was out was the fact that I was preparing for my leave to Kenya. Right now I'm at Dubai Airport, where they serve a free whiskey;), while I'm waiting for my flight to Nairobi.

I will stay there for the next three weeks, doing a documentary with our beloved 7D!

I promise to keep you updated!

Dragon Forum Report

It's already a third day of Dragon Forum. What a great workshop! I'm here with my DOP - Andrzej Daniluk and a co-producer - Tomasz Chichłowski. Our Fambul project really benefits from the classes. We have some really good new ideas.

Interesting fact is that we are the least experienced crew that was accepted to the workshop. It is a great thing if you think about it. It means that we have a potential and we can really learn a lot from our senior colleges.

Some of the projects are wonderful. Unfortunately I can't write anything about them. All the info is strictly confidential. Especially one makes me so excites, that I can barely stop myself from describing it to you. I will just tell that it is an Israeli director project - Yariv Mozer. The movie's title is: "The Invisible Men”. If you will ever encounter it - watch it!

More about Fambul soon.

Cheers!
PJM

Guns & Dragons

First Dragon Forum seminar starts a day after tomorrow. I'm so excited! This 4-day workshop will be dedicated to creating and developing documentary scenarios! I will write from there every day, so keep reading!

In the mean time - I decided to write a new script for my directing diploma. The thrilling story will take place on a Magnum Shooting Range in Poznań.

You can check out some test footage from this place here:



The music is: "THIS LIFE" by Curtis Stigers from a great TV show "Sons of Anarchy".

It was shot with 7D of course. The noise is quite noticeable (ISO 6400), but we had no external light, so I guess it is still ok. Keep reading!

Low light with 7D?

Just a quick post today. I took my 7D on a clubbing tour this weekend. I was a bit scared as my backpack with all the equipment in it cost me a small fortune. More then my car is worth - that's for sure! But I just could not resit and I knew that I have to be able to take it anywhere without fear. Otherwise what is the point of having it? Next year I intend to make a documentary with it in Sierra Leone, but that's a whole other story that I will write about some time later.

So if you want to know how it records in really low light - check this movie. How bright it was? Think: a pub.



Quite nice isn't it? It was shot with my all favorite lens right now - 17-55mm IS USM 2.8.

But still a pub is not that dark, right? How will it do in a totally dark place - like an underground club dance floor?

Let's see! Same lens. Wide open.



Not bad, right? Of course let's not judge my skills:) Oh! I forgot to mention that I was using Z-finder and Rapid Fire all that time, but a deeper review of this stuff I will post some time later, when my new editing PC will arrive. Right now I have no patience to even render this clips properly. My iMac is pretty old so I does not have enough power to do this.

Cheers.

7D DOF - is it satysfying?

So, as promised I will write about a first thing I checked once my 7D was here. Is DOF shallow enough?

I really wanted it to be! So lets check it out.

SETTING

I decided to use dices to mark distance. Our object - a silver key - is our reference point.

First white dice in one centimeter behind the key. Second - with two dots is 2 cm behind the key and obviously 1 cm behind firts dice with one dot. The distance between the key and each white dice is marked by amount of dots.

Two red dices are 15 cm behind the key - one dot and five dots - simple right?

A book I'm reading now is 50 cm behind the key.

NON METRIC?
If you don't use metric system, then please know that 1cm = +- 0.4 inch, so 15 cm (red dices) are more or less half a feet away from the key, and the book is nearly 20 inches away.

QUESTION?
Can you guess what I read?

TEST 1
Let's use Canon EF-S 17-55mm 2.8 IS USM lens. I believe it is the best EF-S lens Canon made so far. I really like it and it is my favorite lens since I bought it yesterday. It costs around 1000$. That is 3300PLN if you live in Poland.

Important shopping tip: Never ever shop in your local store or any kind of media market. They tell you that they are cheap. Well... they lie! Especially big media markets. Go online and use some price comparison engine - you can really save a lot of money this way.

Ok - lets see a movie! Aperture wide open at 2.8. Focal length is 55mm. Watch in Full HD or at least 720 and make it full screen.





As you could see - a total range of sharpness is about 1cm (0.4") forward and backward. That gives us a 2 cm (0.8") wide DOF. Not bad, ha? Once we got to the red dices - nothing in the front was recognizable!

Also I have to say that manual focus ring is very comfortable on this lens - it's big and well placed - close to the camera's body. Really nice.

By the way - you could not recognize the title of the book, right?


TEST 2

But I can't spend a 1000$ on a lens! Sure - I would never spend that amount of money when I was starting my photography adventure. So let's try some cheaper glass. Let's say: EF 50mm 1.8

It cost 10 times less then the previous one - 100$ or 330PLN. Not very expensive.

Let's see a movie, but before we will let me say this: Buying photo equipment is like buying drugs. The longer you do it, the more yo need. One day you will buy 1000$ lenses! For sure. It is only a matter of time. Ok, you've been warned.

Apperture wide open at 1.8. Focal length 50mm.



As you could see with aperture at 1.8 DOF is even narrower. I would say it is 0.5 cm (0.2") forward and backward. That is 1 cm (0.4") total DOF! Neat.

Of course you must have noticed that a whole video was much more shaky. That's because this lens is much lighter. Light is bad. Memorize it. You want your equipment to be heavy! Why? More stable shooting and of course heavy gear is much cooler when you hand it to your friend:)

The problem with this lens is also this that it has a focus ring far upfront, like most lenses do. Bummer. But for this price? It's ok and with half a decent tripod you should have it stabilized enough to follow focus nicely.

And of course you have not recognized what am I reading!

TEST 3

Ok. But what if you don't want to buy an additional lens? What if you want to go with a 7D KIT lens? Well I don't own it but I have an old EOS 500N KIT lens. It is 28-80mm 3.5-5.6.

With focal length 50mm it has an apperture open to 4.5. It should be somehow similar in terms of DOF to this new 7D KITs. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Here we go.



Ok. Now we now know why KIT lenses are called that ugly. I don't know what KIT originally stands for but kit is a polish word for something rubbish or an obvious lie - like bullshit. I think you will agree with me that DOF with KIT lens is... well. Not so good.

It is obviously at least 2 cm (0.8") each way. 4 cm (1.6") total. And by the time we got to red dices you could have read the author's name on the cover. Then I showed it to you fully as the fun was over either way.

Yes - it was Hunter Thompson's Rum Diary! Good book I must say. I intend to finish it by the end of a week. Maybe I will drop a line about it.

CONCLUSION

So? Is DOF od 7D nice? Yes it is, especially if you pick a right lens. And with all this money you can save buying 7D instead of 5D you can get this fine 17-55 2.8 IS USM lens from TEST 1. That's what I did.

But well honestly - even with some straight awful KIT DOF is still not so bad. Remember that when you make a movie a few cm each way is not that much. You can always tell your actor to take a step or two away from the background. In my opinion a 5D DOF is not something you would miss.

7D is a winner!

Next test coming soon. What will it be about? I was told that my Rapid Fire and Z-finder are going to be delivered to me by the weekend. :)

7Directing is online now!

Sooooo.... probably no one is reading but still: Hello World!

OK, I'm starting a new blog today. It's a first time I ever created one, so please be gentle with me, ok? What is 7Directing going to be about? Where the idea came from?

Recently I got my hands on some money (god bless European Union grants) and wanted to buy a video camera that would let me make some indie movies and commercial work as well. Soon I discovered that the best quality gear I can get with this money is one of Canon's DSLR still cameras.

And then it has began! I spend 4 weeks of intense research wondering whether to buy a 7D or 5D. Booth choices had various pros and cons. About a lot of them you van read at Philip Bloom's blog, whom I would like to thank for answering a lot of my questions on his QA page. I've visited hundreds of website pursuing other answers. I found a lot of information. Often misleading and contradicting. New questions seemed to appear with every step I took into this world

Should I go with 5D extreme DOF? Should I choose 7D with it's 25 and 50p modes? What's up with this crop factor? What kind of equipment should you get with it? Which lenses? Yeah - ok L-series lenses, but what if I don't have like a bazillion dollars? Is overheating an issue? Can you shoot scenes from handheld? Will these be watchable? Low light performance? Do you need an external mic? Is Zacuto equipment worth the price you have to pay for it? Can't some people answer simple questions without a ton of mumbo-jumbo technical jargon? Why there is no simple DSLR video tutorial written in English anywhere? What about picture styles?

In the end I bought a 7D, that have just landed in my hands! Oh, yeah! But there are still questions - whether it will be a really satisfying choice? We will see!


A bit later today I will write and post first video about 7D's DOF. This was one of my biggest concerns. Is it shallow enough? Keep reading!


Cheers!
PJM

P.S. You can also count on some scriptwriting and directing tips in the future. I'm no expert - I will graduate from film school in June 2010 (hopefully) or October 2010 (a more realistic deadline) - but even though I think can provide some good advices for beginners.

P.P.S. I think my English is pretty good, especially combined with a spell-checker :) , but I'm no expert by any means, so please let me know if my writing is hideously non-grammatical or something like that!