[Music]
as cinematographers we're you know we're
constantly in high pressure situations
and we have to
take responsibility for equipment
choices we have to fix the problems uh
when they arise you know
so i'm very suspicious of this
particular tool and i was pleasantly
surprised
you know much more so than i expected
and not not to say that i wasn't
expecting to be actually because dji has
consistently impressed me you know in
the ronin in particular and the inspire
too and i i mean it's
the track record for success is so high
but this particular thing um this camera
being that it's a standalone camera and
it's not a gimbal and it's not a drone
is felt like such a departure
from from the product line that i was a
little bit suspicious and and in the end
i could not be more impressed
prores raw is you know it's totally new
uh
for me anyway you know i just started
that's a completely new format for me we
opened it in baselight which opens it
natively it seemed to have
plenty of dynamic range
uh sharp
didn't see any aliasing issues we didn't
see any um banning or breakup you know
it's it's clearly uh it's clearly got
plenty of bit depth and dynamic range
and and we were looking at it in hdr
actually so we looked at it in wpq and
uh in dc ip3
and and it looked fabulous i mean it was
it was on par with anything else for
sure
i was really interested to see how it
would handle the sodium vapor and the
mercury vapor stuff we had shot down
downtown those are always tricky colors
to work with especially these kind of
narrow band you know narrow spectrum
lights
and skin tone and how much how much room
we have in the skin tones to move it
around
you never expect it to be able to
correct anything back to you know a
normal a normal full spectrum skin tone
but i was curious to see how my how much
i could manipulate the color you know
taking the sodium vapor from canary
yellow up to orange and you know and how
we how we could move that around and
where the image would start to break
because it it always does you know on
every camera
and you know the camera had more color
than i expected
there was no shortage of color you know
which is refreshing because in many
times in many situations you end up with
kind of pastely looks or desaturated
looks in those kinds of situations
because the camera can't render all the
colors uh accurately and it seemed to do
it was extremely extremely good i mean
that's the other thing the highlight
retention is spectacular and we were
we did some shots were on the beach
looking straight out to the sea with the
setting sun and it's reflecting in the
water and in the di it really held up
you would normally expect that to start
to look a little bit digital and clip
around the edges and
and look kind of hard and it didn't it
rolled off in a really soft and smooth
way which i was surprised about
i think lens choice is a huge part of
the cinematographer's tool kit and how
we help the director tell stories and
and lenses
have an enormous effect on the way the
image looks and and and also the
resources that are
required to shoot scenes in many cases
for example we were shooting in a
downtown location that that was
relatively low light both didn't have a
lot of resources in terms of lighting
but also didn't want to use a lot
because i wanted to push the camera a
little bit and uh but i but i knew that
i i would probably still need to shoot
close to wide open in some situations
and i wanted a set of lenses that would
let me shoot at a one four or one seven
or what have you and and so we we went
with the leicas but they also those
lenses also have a have a spectacular
quality to them
especially in terms of the bokeh and the
softness
so it was exciting to give that a try
you know but having the freedom to make
that choice to support both the
resources of the project we were doing
and also the aesthetics that will and i
were going for was important and and the
fact that the camera supported that
opportunity was great
i didn't have to do very much operating
with that at all if i set the camera up
to follow my hand movements and i could
operate it much more like a handheld
camera and use the use the stabilization
in the gimbal
to absorb those those
movements and still allow me to operate
the camera so you know for example in
the short that will and i did there's a
shot looking down the staircase as the
the actress comes up the stairs and we
just lift the camera up and pan with her
it'd be a very difficult handheld shot
to do with any other system you know uh
and i tried it with the thumb the thumb
wheel and it was in near impossible and
once we just kind of locked the camera
and i just held over the edge and pulled
it up
it worked great
you know i found that the the z-axis
is a really interesting concept that had
never had never crossed my mind as being
something
that would work but it works great
you know it's uh
you know we're we're so used to doing
passive z-axis stabilization you know
like with a flow city black arm or with
a vibration isolator or you know even an
armed car you know we're we're absorbing
all this with springs and and dampeners
but to have it active and and and
electronic was super interesting and and
especially being able to set the camera
up to say okay i want i want the camera
to stay here work regardless of what i
do
or i wanted to dampen my move you know
i'm going to boom the camera here and i
want the camera to
help me with that help me keep that
smooth
and learning when to apply those
settings
was a new experience for me but the
result is fantastic you know
in my work i really think of focus as a
critical storytelling tool you know it's
really important as a
uh as a method to to tell the audience
where to look and it's a it's a
director's tool
so i i love that dji thought to make a
focus unit that an assistant could use
as a storytelling tool not just about
focus but you know something that
actually functions like a piece of
equipment we're used to using but the
fact that the autofocus works is great
and the fact that you can control and
adjust the autofocus from the the
assistant's handset is really cool you
know maybe you're doing a quick a really
fast run-up
or a tight insert or you're shooting a
six-year-old
you know those things come in incredibly
handy
wow the video transmission is amazing
i it's i've never seen anything like it
i uh
i want to take it off the camera put it
on all our other cameras you know it's
so cool uh it's so impressive being able
to roll the camera remotely uh which of
course we can do with other systems but
but in an integrated way it's fantastic
you know we're not bolting aftermarket
stuff on the camera we're not there
aren't a bunch of cables and brackets
that are required it's all
self-contained so being able to change
nds roll the camera set iso it's a color
temperature and ride color temperature
in between takes is a must at this point
i mean i'm so spoiled now it's like oh i
can just
in between takes you know switching nd
quickly and drop the color temperature
200 degrees and and we're going again
like that and um i i wish all cameras
did that
every manufacturer these days they're
making you know they make a box that you
put a lens on
you know and that's what it is and
everyone has a variation of their box
with the lens and and and that's that's
perfectly great i saw this thing and i
was so excited because it's
it's
at least in in terms of what i'm used to
completely out of the box thinking in
terms of how we um what we associate a
camera as being you know
because it it takes the the box with the
lens on it
uh idea and expands on it in this in
this really interesting way
this tool
takes all the things that i like like
stable or you know level horizon
elegant elegant camera movement and puts
it into a very mobile package and uh
and that's super fun
i like the freedom that handheld
operating gives me as a filmmaker i like
the idea that i can
it's especially in a scene where um
where the actors are very expressive
uh and and it needs to be free and open
and you're not you're not relying on
people to hit marks or be super precise
and it's sort of it there has to be a
fluidity to the storytelling that
supports the story and so so
in those situations
being handheld is great i think
the camera doesn't replace the dolly
you know and i wouldn't expect it to
but it does make
the mobile the process of moving the
camera and the resulting image of moving
the camera
easier
in many ways especially if you're used
to moving the camera with a gimbal you
know if you're carrying a traditional
camera in a in a gimbal with a cage and
and you have a you know you're wearing a
rig that's that's suspending the gimbal
in front of you so you can manage the
weight you know those things are
cumbersome
and tedious and heavy
and they affect the shots you can do
so if you want to work in that way
which we often do myself included this
camera frees you up in an enormous way i
think
uh and makes it easier for certain
and it you know frees up the filmmaker
uh
in in many ways can free up the cast i
think and allow you to experiment a bit
you know i do i do believe in that you
know i think it's really important to
work with the actors and work with the
director and think about staging and the
relationships of the camera and be able
to just grab it and well what about from
over here and let's look at it from over
here and okay you know and during a
rehearsal for example you know you're in
a traditional filmmaking environment you
know you might set up a shot with a with
a director's finder and you get some
positions and you work it out with the
actor and no one can see it and you kind
of you know you find that shot uh and
then you commit to it you lay the track
and you do that and and that that has
its benefits and i love working that way
and i usually do this particular tool
gives filmmakers an opportunity to do
things that
they otherwise wouldn't have been able
to do
with this much ease prior
you