Cajun Shrimp Boil | With Keeping It Dutch

Today I'd like to take you behind the scenes of a recent shoot where we used more expensive gear alongside the budget-friendly stuff, to see if we can get a cinematic result from both. So this project was a fashion video, and while the concept was pretty simple, we had to use a tiny crew because of the pandemic. I was the DP for this shoot, on camera and lighting, while Tiara was directing. The plan was to quickly film as many setups as possible, including hiking up to some nice scenery, and we only had permission to film for one day, so the clock was ticking. So let's go back to the beginning. Now the first shots on the schedule were some informal interviews with the cast, and so even though we'd already scouted the location before, I headed out for a second look while the cast were being made up. As the DP, my job was to choose a spot that had the right lighting and the right background. That area could be a nice background, but I know we have tons of dog walkers coming through all the time, and that could be our shaded background with basically backlit though. I decided to grab the camera so I could see how it looked on screen. Everything was filmed with one of two camera setups, and just to clarify, this shoot didn't involve any gear that was truly pro-level, there weren't any $40,000 PL lenses. My definition of pro-level kit is gear that many indie filmmakers can afford to rent, whereas budget, to me, means kit that many independent filmmakers can afford to buy. So I rented most of the gear to build this monstrosity, which I consider professional because despite using a 3-year old GH5, the full-size matte box and accessories all powered by one battery that can last all day make it suitable for bigger productions. There are plenty of expensive and heavy components here, but the shoulder pad keeps the weight off my arms and it can be easily dropped onto a tripod without needing to remove any accessories, which is very convenient. That's important when you're a one-person camera team, and having a wireless follow focus controller right next to my hand helped us move quickly too. In the end, I found a decent location where the light would work from the two camera angles we had planned. I checked with Tiara that it wasn't too flat, and she agreed that it would be suitable for this part of the video since we wanted to save the beautiful vistas and bold colours for the shoot. So I went ahead and set up the second angle on the Zhiyun Crane 2S, which would give us full flexibility of movement. And I'd like to take a moment to thank Zhiyun for sponsoring this video, thanks Zhiyun. So this setup is a little more budget-friendly than the shoulder rig. The 2S is designed for mirrorless cameras, but can handle some pretty hefty setups too, as well as powering accessories like this focus motor which was plugged into the USB port. It's smaller, lighter and more flexible than the shoulder rig, but if I shot with this all day, then I'd have to switch out various batteries which would slow things down a bit. I started out by using the gimbal basically as a really portable tripod, but then I did use some subtle movements later when filming the performances. We had set some marks on the ground so I could see how close I could get without being visible in the wider shot, and that's a very helpful trick if you're one person running two cameras. Now shooting like this, I noticed that both the budget and pro gear have their weaknesses. The bulky weight from the big camera was tiring on a hot day, but on the other hand, it kept the camera naturally stable since it was well balanced on my shoulder. And I have to admit that I do appreciate the big battery powering the larger rig, I was even able to use it to charge the gimbal's batteries over lunch. But on the other hand, configuring that rig ready for the shoot did take a good few hours and about 37 allen keys, so there are pros and cons. Now Tiara had dug up some really striking photography references that staged the models with a lot of depth, so we were heavily inspired by those when setting up the next set of shots. My role here was to frame up the camera and pull focus, which was pretty straightforward since I think the staging and posing were more influential than the cinematography for these setups. But since we were filming with anamorphic lenses, let's talk about pro vs budget anamorphics for a second. Now I've put an asterisk here because although this lens costs far more than any glass that I've ever owned, and renting it regularly would get expensive, it's still many times cheaper than nearly all of the anamorphic lenses that the pros use. This one has a Micro Four Thirds mount and pairs nicely with a GH4 or 5, since those cameras can shoot in 4x3 mode, which desqueezes nicely to a cinemascope ratio. Although this is a pretty weighty lens, I do appreciate the long, smooth focus and iris rings, both with built-in gears for a follow focus, which is a pro-level feature. So while there are plenty more expensive options out there, I'm happy with the anamorphic bokeh this lens was able to give us in the background. That's looking classically cinematic to my eye. But screw-in photography filters don't work with big lenses like this, so I also had to rent some obscenely expensive ND filters and a matte box so we could shoot at fast aperture in the bright sunshine. As ever, it's pros and cons though, because despite adding some cost and weight to the rig, the matte box did help control lens flares a little more precisely. Now if you're wondering why I keep talking about weight, it's because it was a really hot, humid day, especially for the cast wearing thick clothes and us carrying the heavy gear up into the hills. So we took a break from the sweaty hike up in this forest area that we'd scouted, which had just the right density of trees to look great on camera, and colour contrasted nicely with the red outfits. Tiara had planned out all of the poses and emotions, so I was able to focus on the camera work, for example here using a lower angle and more movement for these shots that were now supposed to be more energetic and powerful. And that's where our budget anamorphic lens came in handy, here using the Sirui 35mm f1.8, which is a fraction of the cost of the It's only a 1.33x anamorphic, which makes the stretched effect look far more subtle, but it allows you to de-squeeze the widescreen look from a regular 16x9 image rather than shooting in 4x3. Plus it costs as much as a regular photography lens, which is easily 20x cheaper than the anamorphics used in Hollywood, and yet it still has the de-clicked iris and focus gears included. And you still have the option to use smaller, lighter and cheaper filters, so long as you have time to screw them on each time you change lenses. Anyway that's enough gear chat for me, we climbed up to the very top of the clearing and by this point we were losing light and needed to let the cast go soon, so things got a bit hectic and we had to cut a shot from the schedule. To be honest the thing that would have really saved us time would have been having one extra pair of hands, working with either an assistant camera or assistant director would have sped things up so much that we probably wouldn't have needed to cut a shot from the schedule. Now having the right kit did help a little, particularly that shoulder rig that could swap onto a tripod so easily, and the cheaper gear was much lighter and easier to carry in a backpack, but swapping batteries and unscrewing filters did cost us some time. So what I'm seeing is that in most cases spending a little more affects the workflow more so than the image. I mean this shot was filmed with exactly the same gear as this one, yet they obviously look totally different. Same with these two, which were both So looking back I reckon most of the fancy gear that I rented saved us time during the shoot more so than it improved the final image, whereas what really affected the visuals was the camera placement, the location, the light and costume and makeup. That's why I've got the opinion that if I want to film cinematic visuals I should invest money and time into what's in front of the camera rather than the gear itself. But anyway I'm curious to hear what you think, is expensive gear usually better, and how do you define better? Lightweight gear or kit that helps you move quickly? Let's chat about it in the comments, but until next time I'm Simon Cade and this has been DSLRguide.