Colourist getting hands-on.

It may not be kosha or generally a good idea to let a colourist get their hands on a camera, let alone get too involved with production, however, Shane couldn’t help but get in there and shoot a few frames for a little music video.

A true guerrilla style shoot, Shane was sent to a rooftop party to capture the band (The Soorleys) chilling with their friends playing their new single “time”. The cruisy song for the perfect winter escape ended up being the idyllic backdrop for the simple shoot with mellow tones intercut with road-trip footage.

THE CAMERA: The clip was shot using a RED Epic MX sensor and Lomo Anamorphic lenses. Shooting 7:1 compression Shane kept everything fairly low key and efficient.

DATA WRANGLING: During the band shoot, Shane set up a modest data station on the kitchen counter, practising what he preaches with paper-based records and a duplicate copy being made on the fly.

With only 2 RED mags, one card would be copying to their drives while the other was being used on set. This rotation method meant that it was only a short break between card swaps – giving enough time to write down the details on the log sheet, and set the card copying.

You don’t get much more basic than this, however, the key elements of wrangling where taken care of, those being 1 – at minimum a duplicate copy of the RAW data, 2 – verified, 3 – a paper log.

The very basic kit consisted of a

Mac Book Pro 13″
YoYotta ID application for automating the file copy and verification process
1 x RED MAG READER going into thunderbolt (via FW800-TB convertor)
2 x portable drives for RAW data
Trusty clipboard with data log sheet (download here)

THE FINAL LOOK: The final images came out quite nice, with a really interesting natural grain like picture and beautiful colour rendition. The colouring process was a simple pipeline using a 35mm LUT on the input and a simple primary grade to create the look. Everything else is thanks to the Lomo lenses, Tony the gaffer and the pure joy of getting out and shooting.

Here are a few frames from the clip as a reference.

"As a colourist, we're often speaking with DP's about their lens choices and camera settings etc... and how it impacts the pictures we're working with on the screen. To actually get hands on and have a play myself was really fun and certainly reminded how amazing a good DP is! Operating a camera is one thing, but what i found hard was directing the gaffer and being able to know what needed to happen with lighting to achieve the look"