Digital 8mm with ML

Started by cantsin, August 25, 2017, 11:37:54 PM

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cantsin

Shot this concert/event with an EOS-M in raw crop mode - which gives an effective sensor size equivalent to 8mm film. Used an adapted Super 8 film camera zoom lens (Schneider Optivaron 6-66mm/f1.8) and a chestpod originally made for a Super 8 camera to approach the look and feel of an 8mm home movie as closely as possible:

https://vimeo.com/222128427

[edited and graded in Resolve.]

goldenchild9to5

WOW... Amazing video & color grading.  I think you captured 8mm to a T.  Got one question what was you color grading process in Davinci Resolve can you break it down for me because I love you color grading.  Did you use any LUT's?  Lastly what version of Davinci did you use?  Keep up the great work that was amazing cheers.

g3gg0

impressive. really feels like an old super 8 movie.
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cantsin

Quote from: goldenchild9to5 on August 26, 2017, 08:59:57 AM
Got one question what was you color grading process in Davinci Resolve can you break it down for me because I love you color grading.  Did you use any LUT's?  Lastly what version of Davinci did you use?

Didn't use any LUTs, only an X-Rite Color Checker Passport color chart and Resolve 12.5's built-in color chart matching function. The resulting automatic correction was applied to the whole project via a Timeline node, plus a slight (15% or so) increase of color saturation. Then, I color-corrected every single clip (a) with basic white balance settings in the raw video panel and (b) Lift/Gamma/Gain adjustments. Applied Neat Video denoising to the low-light/indoor shots at the end.

In other words, it was just the run-of-the-mill work required for any type of raw video in Resolve. I normally shoot with Blackmagic cameras (Pocket and BMCC) and could apply my usual workflow 1:1.

The video was shot in 720p/24p/14bit which worked smoothly without any dropouts or camera hangups. I still struggle with the ergonomics of the camera though - missed focus quite often and don't find that focus loupe and peaking give me reliable enough feedback.

Here's another pseudo-8mm video that I shot with the same workflow. This version was graded as above, without any LUT:
https://vimeo.com/221185158

This version used a Kodachrome25 LUT based on DxO Filmpack (thus matching the film stock most commonly used for Super 8) :
https://vimeo.com/221350421

Applying that LUT had the consequence, however, that I needed to redo the individual color correction of many of the clips observing the scopes (Waveform, RGB parade, Vectorscope). The main mistake people make with grading LUTs IMHO is to just throw them on their footage and think that this will automagically create good images. And even in the video above, you can see that a grading LUT always degrades color. In most cases, it's better to depart from the camera's original, best, most differentiated colors and never apply one blanket filter (IMHO).

- The audio drop-outs and asynchronicity, btw., were a result of using raw2cdng which doesn't seem to properly work with MLVs from the EOS-M (and doesn't seem to be maintained any longer anyway). In this case, I just accepted them as a glitch to creatively work with...