More News At 11pm – Sony F3

This was the first time I’ve shot with the Sony F3. The camera is bigger and heavier than the AF-100 but it’s also a higher end camera and has a nice PL mount, so no $1K adapter needed. I haven’t used a Sony camera in a while so I had to get used to the menu system. That was a breeze, it’s very straight forward. The F3 like most cameras these days are not designed for handheld use. Sure theirs a grip and a viewfinder on it but if you tried to shoot the F3 like a handicam you’er going to blowout your elbow and forearm.

This promo required a lot of camera movement so I attached a Tilta BS-T03 baseplate to the F3 and it worked very well. The only issue was the quick release adapter plate for the Tilta was to small. I needed the camera as far back as possible on the clamp and it didn’t get a tight fit. When I was focusing with the follow focus I got a little wobble. I was able to fix the issue by using a Monfroto camera adapter that also fits the Tilta baseplate. It’s the long one and gets a very tight clamp down. Solid. I don’t think the Tilta was designed for a big camera like the F3. It’s more for DSLR’s, FS-100 & Af-100 sized cameras, but hey! It worked.

For lighting I only used two LED Cool Lights with Gold Mount batteries. I love these lights. They’re bright and light and with AB batteries they last for hours. Perfect for this shoot. Heck perfect for 90% of my work. And they cost around $600. Great value.

I used my Zeiss CP.2 85mm a lot for the shallow DOF shots, as well as the Red Pro Zoom 17-50 & Duclos Tokina 11-16 PL. These three lenses look very good together and I have a hard time visually telling them apart. The CP.2 85mm is a favorite. Love the bokeh of the street lights. So much color in them. The tail shot was the Red Pro Zoom 17-50. I did a push with the follow focus. Love that lens as well. Ok, I love them all!

I wanted to have a warmer tone for this spot so I balanced the camera closer to tungsten, That was a mistake. It was way to warm and I had to work it with color correction more than usual. Skin tones looked bad. I don’t usually shoot with a in camera look since I edit my own footage but for some reason I wanted to on this shoot. Lesson learned. Maybe I will forget in a few years and do that again. God I hope not!

My favorite part of the promo is with the reporter when the ambulance goes by. I saw it coming down the street and said “ Lets use it! Point and look at it and talk. Report like it’s breaking news.” He nailed it. We had a good laugh afterwards. Fun stuff. Then we got even luckier. The ambulance turned around a block away and a firetruck pulls up. We ran down to the location and again I just directed the talent to start reporting like it was live news. We had no idea what was going on but it sure made for a great background. I couldn’t have planned this any better.

My first shoot with the Sony F3 was a good one. In fact I liked it so much I’m renting it again for a second version of this promo.

Happy Shooting!

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