Video Update
My recent purchase of a Sony mirrorless camera for video capture didn’t result in the smoothest inauguration to be honest. I shot some stuff at a large holiday home on the coast which was described as “stunning”. When I got there, it was a second home containing all the stuff you’d have at home.
When I’ve shot premier video in the past, the properties have all possessed one particular thing: impeccable styling.
When the house is full of period features, devoid of any clutter, and styled with appropriate accessories, there are a myriad opportunities to shoot atmospheric footage resulting in lots of clips that can be edited into a final output showing a spectacular house. This takes some effort on behalf of the people organising the shoot. In this case, the house was just a large space which had been hastily tidied a bit before the owners went back home. The bedrooms were just plain white boxes - some with washing piled into corners, personal belongings stuck under bedside tables, stuff on top of desks, unkempt garden spaces and so forth. The duvets were wrinkled, and the whole house just felt a bit utilitarian. There were no features to highlight anywhere - it was just two houses knocked into one huge space. In addition, there was virtually no light coming in apart from the kitchen, and that was looking out onto shade. A nightmare for natural light video capture.
I’d balanced the gimble properly, but there was a weird back and forth motion happening when I was panning the camera. I made the mistake of shooting in S-Log, which flattens all the tones ready for heavy editing afterwards. This didn’t work out well as I’d never used the colour profile for years. The views were just a bit too wide as well. Luckily, I’d brought the Osmo pocket camera as well, so I shot all footage again using that. It was way better.
It’s going to be a steep learning curve with the Sony, so I’m going to have to practice using it before committing to a workflow professionally. I clearly need a tighter lens as well, so I’ve ordered an adapter which allows me to use my existing Nikon fit lenses. I can see the cost climbing all the time, with no return on my investment in the short term - same as the last time I tried to accommodate requests for “cinematic” video.
Anyways, the video is shown below - complete with some context clips of the local area. We’ll see how it goes down with its intended audience in due course.
