Sunday, February 5, 2012

The revolution...

There is a revolution going on in the movie making business. This movie is being shot on Sony's latest digital cinema camera, the Sony F3.

Its a video camera, but then again it isn't. Imagine a video camera crossed with a movie camera and you'd have this camera.

Video cameras usually have little tiny 1/3" sensors. This camera has a huge Super 35mm sensor. Its the same size as a Super 35mm movie camera. It gives a unique look. Notice how the camera is in focus but the man in the blue shirt is out of focus? That's how an S35mm film camera works, and how this camera works. It draws the audiences attention to certain things to help tell the story.



Also video is usually 30 frames per second, but movies are shot at 24 frames per second. This camera will do both and capture twice the color data at the same time. And with S-Log can see the depth of color ranges like the human eye.

Another important feature is that this camera isn't stuck with the one cheap little lens like a video camera. Each lens has a look, and this camera can accept almost any lens, from still photography lenses to the huge cinema lenses costing tens of thousands of dollars each.

What people don't realize is that it isn't just indie producers that are using digital cinema cameras. Many of the big award winning feature films like Avatar, Benjamin Button, Slum Dog Millionaire, etc. were all shot digitally.

The revolution is that these cameras are opening doors for innovative and creative people which benefits all of us who don't want to see another movie that's nothing but explosions.

Photos by Hannah Gweun.

3 comments:

  1. Found you via an email from Linnea - you're right, great camera, turns out gorgeous footage. Just shot a 28 episode series with Jewel using them and my cameraman's still giddy over his new toys (he chose them over the Scarlet).

    Looking forward to the release of 'DHAB'.

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  2. Duke tested the F3 against the Scarlet, Epic and Red MX. With S-Log it does better at low light and dynamic range than all of them. And of course the depth of field control is fabulous.

    Did a pilot episode for a series and the editor said "Wow, that looks like a movie!" :-)

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  3. Funny, we did the same! Just finished filming with the Epic, since we were shooting slo-mo (it'll do 360 fps at 720p vs. the F3's max of 120 fps).

    Nothing beats the F3 in low light. We had flicker issues with the Epic.

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