Amazing African Wildlife footage 5D Mark III RAW

[Andre Meyer]

After doing a few random test shots of landscapes etc, I decided to take Magic Lantern RAW and the 5D Mark III to the game reserve to film some animals. This was a very good test to see how the raw hack puts up in various lighting situations.

I used the 3x crop mode on a lot of these shots. I discovered that the crop mode has the same effect as the 2x extender in that it magnifies the image, so any imperfections of the lens get more noticeable, although this is hardly noticeable as you will see from the footage. Turning my 200mm 2.8 into a 600mm 2.8 with a click of a button was really great. I tried a few shots with a 2x extender and the 3x crop mode combined but then the quality is just not usable. All the shots were filmed from a car with a big pillow rested on the window.

Workflow:
Import into Davinci Resolve and export proxies. Edit sequence in FCP. Import xml into Davinci. Automatically relink to original RAW files. Grade and export beautiful proress 444 sequence.

Once you get to know this workflow it gets really easy. It's surprisingly similar to my h.264 workflow which was the following. Transcode to Proress with Mpeg Streamclip, edit in FCP, grade in Color, export. The only drawback is hard drive space but its absolutely worth it when you see the quality.

The part I loved most about Resolve's workflow is that you can apply the BMD Film color space and gamma to all the clips which turns them into super flat gradable footage. An excellent starting point.

For archive of the footage I decided to render all clips in Resolve to Proress 444 with the BMD super flat color space applied to it and the white balance and exposure set as desired. I did a few tests and applied the exact same grade from a RAW clip on the same Proress 444 clip and even at 400% there is no difference at all. The only difference between RAW and Proress 444 is that you can change the white balance and recover exposure, so do this before you export to Proress 444.
By archiving Proress and not RAW you save 60% on storage. Proress HQ is just not good enough as you can see the difference so be sure to use Proress 444.

Tech Spec:
Camera: Canon 5D Mark III
Lens: 70 - 200 2.8 IS II
CF Card: 2x 32gb Lexar & 2x 64gb Lexar (all 1000x)
HDD: NextoDi NVS1501 750gb
Support: Pillow

Software:
DaVinci Resolve
FCP

[Stedda]

WOW.. excellent work!

Super Sharp!

[Canon eos m]

Wow Andre. Cool stuff!

I too am a believer of the ML + 5D RAW revolution.

I want to learn this work flow using Premier Pro + After Effects + Resolve.

Any ideas on how or where I could start from?

[blainesuque]

What do you mean by export the proxies? what are the advantages of exporting them as proxy?

[Africashot]

What do you mean by export the proxies? what are the advantages of exporting them as proxy?

You make small copies that are manageable for your editing software but of lower quality (so called proxies) and once you are done you link them back to your original dng's to render the highest possible quality without introducing unnecessary compression artifacts during the workflow, depending on your NLE this may be a more or less painful experience...   

[Andre Meyer]

Wow Andre. Cool stuff!

I too am a believer of the ML + 5D RAW revolution.

I want to learn this work flow using Premier Pro + After Effects + Resolve.

Any ideas on how or where I could start from?

Hi. There are two workflows. One is with After Effects + Premiere and the other is with Resolve + premiere. Both have advantages and disadvantages. Just do a few google searches about it. For example "magic lantern raw resolve roundtrip" etc...
It will take way too long to explain here.

Hope you come right.

[s---70]

It looks really great!
Did you have any issues with magenta fringing in Resolve?

[Andre Meyer]

Yes I did, but I solved it by using this technique. http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=6845.0

[1berto]

Great defenition and color on the video, I'm amazed!!!

Can you please tell us your settings?

1920x1080?
FPS?

[Andre Meyer]

Thanks Berto.

Its was shot at 1920 by 1080 25fps

More info in the description.

[Zelalem]

Superb quality and amazingly realistic color. Well done Andre!

[painya]

What kind of tripod do you have?

[Andre Meyer]

Thank you. I did not use a tripod. I placed the camera on a big pillow filming through a car window.

[painya]

That's incredible. You sir, are the definition of creative.

[Canon eos m]

Hi Andre,

Any tips on grading the scene of the lone giraffe at the 0:40 point. Love the light and popping out giraffe.