Monday morning just as the teaser trailer went viral, our DP, Jeffrey Waldron flew to Puerto Rico to film the behind the scenes footage for the new Johnny Depp film, The Rum Diary.
I finally got him to write up some more notes of his methods with the Canon 5d Mark II.
Also check out his website to see his work. http://jeffreywaldron.com
“On exposure ‘workarounds’: When I found out how the auto exposure/ASA lock worked, I decided to mostly use it like I used to use my Nikon FM’s internal light meter. If I wanted something other than the overall metered exposure, I’d physically point the camera at something I wanted to exposure for (i.e. sky, or filling the frame with a face). I then locked it in (using the * button) and did any other tweaks to exposure manually on the lens aperture ring. The great thing about using these older lenses is that the aperture ring is still on the lens (some modern lenses are only controllable through the camera’s interface). The LCD on the 5D MkII turned out to be a great indicator for eyeballing exposure using these methods.
On ASA ‘workarounds’: I realized pretty early on that while the camera is really sensitive, the extreme ASAs are quite noisy (as would be expected). I’m always impressed at how fast the new DSLRs are until I see what 3200 actually looks like. Even then on a still shot it can be tolerable, but in video. . . it moves! That said, the camera is super sensitive and pretty darn clear at some really fast ASAs in the 800-1600 range which allowed us to take a natural light approach (though the natural light was shaped and directed with grip equipment), supplemented with moderate amounts of additional artificial light. Just a little extra light in certain situations and you can bring your ASA down and silence the noise. It’s amazing to look up from from the LCD of your shot and realize you’re pretty much shooting in the dark.
On the Nikon lenses: We used Nikon lenses because I have them. I bought a Nikon FM a long time ago and started collecting lenses for it. I would cruise Ebay for older AI’d Nikon/Nikkor lenses and find stuff in the $100-$200 range. I amassed a small collection probably mostly from the 1960’s and 70’s of Nikon optics: a 20mm, 24mm, 50mm, 55mm Macro, 135mm, 200mm. I love them, they look great! I’ve been shooting with them on every subsequent Nikon I’ve owned (another great thing about Nikon lenses). So basically, because this was a low budget thing and I have this comfort level with my Nikons, when Andrew called and asked if I had my own lenses I was thrilled. I have nothing against Canon or Canon lenses (there are no doubt some unbelievable Canon lenses out there), but the price, backwards compatibility and quality (here I’m talking less about craftsmanship/engineering but more that intangible mood of some of the older lenses) I like my box of Nikkors. We mostly ended up using my Nikkor E-Series 50mm 1.8 but used the 135mm and the 55 Macro a good bit too.
On White Balance: White balance-wise I would survey the scene and just manually dial the Kelvin temperature in the menu. Manual Kelvin controls are another great DSLR feature that you don’t get on video cameras in the same price range. I was able to dial in warmth and coolness very easily and try out a lot of options. We mixed light a lot since our little lighting package was tungsten. Various strengths of CTB gel and mixed Kinos (2900 and 5600) helped blend into natural and practical light sources seamlessly but also create color contrast. Since the format isn’t RAW, it’s nice to be able to try stuff and control/view all of your color options so accessibly.”
- Jeff
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