Martin, just wondering how you felt using ML on a high end commercial project like this. Were you nervous? Brave decision assuming the budget probably allowed the rental of Epics or Scarlets?
We made the choice to shoot on the 5D MK3 using ML for several reasons.
1. I'd seen some amazing ML footage and our DOP Konstantin Freyer was shooting a feature on the 5D with ML. The results were very convincing.
2. I've always been a fan of the 5D and was an early adopter of the platform and when ML took that to the next level I was keen to explore the possibilities
3. We were on a challenging production in terms of time and budget so having a camera with a small footprint and being quick to setup was a big bonus. It also allowed us to have several cameras on set for little cost. This meant we could have 3 cameras prepped and ready to shoot for most situations. It was also great peace of mind having that many cameras on set. As it meant if one went down we know we have a backup or two. This also meant we were able to work with a very small crew and as a result work very quickly.
We only had a few technical problems with ML occasionally it would come out of RAW mode and start recording H264. This only happened a handful of times and was easily remedied by a restart. Once we knew this was a potential problem we just kept an eye on the monitor to make sure RAW was displayed.
In all I am very, very impressed with ML & the 5D MK3 it has delivered stunning results with amazing depth and latitude. When you see this on a pro monitor as uncompressed footage it truly is remarkable. In the words of our colourist. "no one will believe this was shot on a 5D MK3" and I have to say this is the response we are hearing.
