This past Friday I got a call from Chris Brock of 
Please excuse some of the picture quality as they were taken on location with the iPhone 4. While I love my iPhone 4 to death for it’s improved camera, it’s no 5D Mark II or D700 when it comes to low light capabilities. These shots were taken using the HDR function of the in-camera app which definitely helps to even out the lighting in these challenging areas, however you can definitely see the grain from boosting the ISO. Enough about the iPhone pics, more about shooting video!
We filmed with three cameras, 2x Sony HVR-Z7U’s and 1x Canon EOS 5D Mark II. Chris operated the two Sony’s: one as a static wide shot which was hooked into the remote microphone, and the other a floating camera used for close-ups. I operated the Canon EOS 5D Mark II from the other side of the table using a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens to the greater aperture setting. As you can see from the above scenic shots, the softboxes were facing towards where the 5D Mark II was located, making light a challenge. With lighting a challenge I really needed to go for a lens with an f/2.8 aperture, I tried using a 24-105 but the f/4 was just too small and requiring an even higher ISO setting.
My settings with the 70-200mm were 1080p Manual Mode:
Shutter 1/30,
Aperture f/2.8,
ISO 1600.
I didn’t want to overlap the shots too much with the angles the other cameras were getting, so I didn’t switch to a 50mm or something “wide.” The 70-200mm was able to capture some great headshots and detail shots to be used as b-roll. Given the cramped quarters of doing the shoot as a dinner party I think we did a great job. I did have to move the tripod around slightly to try to get better angles but you always have to be conscious of the other cameras that are filming so I only had a small area in which to move to stay out of their shot!
After the dinner scene we moved upstairs to film the interview session. Since this was a reality TV show pilot, you can imagine the one-on-one sessions that occur during the filming to provide a bit of backstory and depth to the characters you just met. This was an even simpler shot with just one camera and the two softboxes.
All in all it was a ton of fun to actually be working on a real video shoot job, as opposed to just photography. I have been slowly getting more and more into HD DSLR video so any exposure to video is a positive one to me! You can view the trailer for now on Chris’ Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=173707879322136
