Dojo Drama 2, Commercials and the 5D mk2
April 18, 2010
Yes! I believe that I haven’t written a blog post since January. Instead, I have opted for my lazy man’s method of just Twittering (follow me! @scott_henriksen). I think it’s important to keep up this running commentary on my career and the stuff I’m interested in so I will write more often. There’s been a lot of great work that I’ve been doing lately. The commercials I’ve been working on have all been pretty cool and I’ve gotten to do some rad looks, work with interesting talent and shoot sweet locations. There was the Playboy Mansion and Hugh Hefner, babies, fashion stuff, rain effects -a ton of different cool things. There were some good night shoots but also a few mind numbing days on sets where for whatever reason it didn’t feel like anything was actually happening. I’m still not sure what I can and can’t say in this blog when it comes to the work and details and how clients would react to me writing stuff down for internet consumption. I guess when a job has been on the air I can write whatever I want, but while they’re still in production I should keep my mouth shut. Unless of course the New York Times writes about it and has a picture of my head in the shots accompanying the article. In this particular case I'm talking about: Fred: The Movie has been sold to Nickelodeon. That's pretty cool right? Kids will get to see it if they have basic cable. I happen to think it could have competed in theaters very well. I saw Diary of a Wimpy Kid and I think Fred would kick the Wimpy Kid’s butt. But I’m thrilled that the audience could potentially be as big as what Nickelodeon will bring. I think it will make kids laugh.
The project I have had the most fun on lately is a short called Dojo Drama 2 which is still fully in post production but there’s a teaser trailer out so I bet I can talk about it and not get in trouble. It helps that I’m at least partially responsible for directing it and editing! It follows in the footsteps of Dojo Drama, a short film starring Mike Moh, Medhi Merali, Salar Ghajar and Shane Warren Jones. These guys are all top martial artists and teachers at XMA World Headquarters where Eli takes classes. I was super impressed with Dojo Drama when I first saw it on Mr. Moh’s blog. It made me laugh and was really well done. Sort of inspired by it we made Eli’s New Stocking at Christmas and Mr. Moh liked that. I was really happy when Mr. Moh asked me to help him create Dojo Drama 2. We shot with what has easily become my favorite camera of all time, the Canon 5D Mark II. Having a piece of equipment that shoots such awesome video that I can edit myself on a laptop is insane. I’m looking to add some components to my kit to give me more options and allow me to use stuff like the 4x5.6” filter kit that I’ve got. First of all I think this is the best piece of gear: The Arri MFF-1. It’s really really well made and has cool functions like focus stops for lenses with never ending focus rings. Since it so directly influences the picture I thought spending some money here was a good idea. Also, I’ll be able to use it on other projects and with other cameras. I’m not super sure what Matte Box to get yet though! The Arri one looks good and I want something small so it might be right. I have a Marshall 7” HDMI monitor and I have been using it with the 5D on all my jobs lately. Setup right along side the Panavision cameras, I use it to evaluate lighting and shoot location scout setups and to shoot stills. I have been using stills to color correct in Photoshop and send in for reference for the dailies for a long time. The 5D mk2 replaced a Nikon D2x which I hated. It always looked out of focus. Since I got the 5D mk2 I have been messing around with the video function and using it for different projects including this music video for Eulogies. I shot the Eulogies video before Canon gave manual control options in a new firmware. Back then you had to point the camera at something that was roughly lit to the exposure you wanted and then lock it by pushing the star button!
Shooting for Dojo Drama 2 was just one day and it was about 5 or 6 pages of script with 2 decent sized fight sequences! I asked my good friend Patrick Simpson out to help me as a B camera operator. Having 2 cameras has made the edit so much better! Thanks Patrick! We had 2 5D mk2’s and a bunch of lenses. The Canon 16-35, 24-70 and the Nikon 70-200 seemed to be the most useful to keep the pace of shooting needed to get through all the material. I found a few things that I’d do differently next time. First, have screw on ND filters! The main thing that I didn’t want to have to deal with was focus so I shot at a pretty deep f/stop. It was just Patrick and I and no extra camera crew to keep it sharp but focus fall off is one of the best parts of what this camera does. The footage for DD2 still has a lot of focus fall off, but not nearly the amount it could have! I always want more. The other thing I learned was how important it is to check for dust on the sensor. The sensor is huge but a little tiny bit of dust on the chip and you’re stuck with some crappy squiggle on the image. That happened to me too. It’s ok if you’re going for the old film look I guess. The other product that I’m amazed at is the Zoom h4n. Having 2 system sound gave me a certain amount of confidence. It’s a tiny little recorder and it’s light and easy to use. I run this Sennheiser MKE400 mic on the 5D whenever I shoot motion picture stuff with it and so far the sound has been very good and usable. Even sound from the B camera with it’s tiny built in mic has made it into the cut so far. Dojo Drama 2 was shot on the weekend before the new 24p firmware update came out so I still was shooting in 30.0fps. So far I think it looks great. The story is awesome, the actors are all cool and the dialog has been great. Most importantly the martial arts and fight choreography has been fantastic. I would love for the Dojo Drama series to grow to become a showcase for the best martial arts talent in the world. Now, I’m busily editing in my spare time between work and training at Legends MMA.
I’m having fun perfecting the use of the 5D mk2. I really think this camera is great. It can be some sort of game changer and I think it already has. The evidence of this I saw at N.A.B. Wherever there was a company that was making stuff for the 5D there were crowds. At the Zacuto booth and Redrock Micro I could hardly get close to the gear. The camera isn’t perfect, I know. Everybody on a commercial HD shoot wants a camera that can magically do everything. They want video and sound going in and out which means a bunch of wires getting in the way. They want to avoid any tape transfer costs so using a camera that records to tape is usually out and if the editor isn't used to getting digital footage it's a nightmare. Almost always that equals the Red or maybe now the Alexa but they don’t even want that. The Red has been far too fussy on commercial jobs in many cases. The learning curve has been steep for some, mainly for production but also for us in the camera dept. I find that everybody has some complaint about HD no matter WHAT camera you’re using mainly because it's just new. I always find some way to make whatever I'm using work as best as I can. Although I do often want something small that I can hold in my hands and isn’t fussy or too techno. Most cameras are not even close when this parameter is put on it. To me, the Canon 5D mk2 is like a Bolex. It’s a well made, amateur camera that does professional quality stuff under certain conditions. There’s always so much that can be complained about but there’s so much that it can do. I’m just getting busy doing.
