TV BLOG

Daniel Graham 1/14/22 Daniel Graham 1/14/22

The Legendary Three Elements of Exposure

The Legendary Three Elements Of Exposure and how they shape our work

The Legendary Three Elements of Exposure

Legend has it that the first camera was forged in the ancient volcanic caves of mount Fuji . The three tribes Iso, shutti and iris were living in peace and joined forces to control over exposure and maximized dynamic range. But the volcano gods felt this was too great a power for only a few elite photographer tribes and Mount fuji erupted and consumer cameras flooded the market lowering the premium rates and putting cameras in the hands of Uncle's and nephews accross the world.

Now we study these elements to due away with automatic exposure and better the quality of our work

Jokes aside.

The Three elements of exposure or “The Exposure Triangle” consists of Shutter speed , Aperture and ISO.

Shutter speed

There is a mechanical shutter in most cameras that opens and closes to alow light to a hit the sensor for dialed in amount of time. It opens up allowing light and then closes stopping the light. This can determine the amount of motion blur in an image. Before you go jacking up your shutter speed to 1/8000 I want to remind you that you wont always need a fast shutter and sometimes a slow shutter can be used to tell your story creativly or create really cool effects like Shutter Drag. You can also use a slow shutter to capture motion in a single image called a long exposure. you can also create an illusion of frozen time.

Aperture

Apeture which we cover here. Is the size opening of the mechanical blades within a lens that allow how much light passes through it. This is partly responsible for your depth of field.

ISO

Iso (International Standards Organization) or what used to be ASA (American Standards Association) is a tricky one. Its the sensitivity of your film or sensor. I reccomend you learn the limitations of your cameras ISO becauase this can greatly increase the amount of digital noise on your camera and using film you’ll produce a much grainier image.

conclusion

While these are not as mythical and mysterious as you may have first thought they take time to master and learning them will greatly improve the quality of your work

Daniel Graham 10/18/21 Daniel Graham 10/18/21

The filming of Nani Wells music video "Dark"

The production for Nani’s music video “Dark” was a blast to make. We shot it over the course of two days, with a relatively loose concept.

The production for Nani’s music video “Dark” was a blast to make. We shot it over the course of two days, with a relatively loose concept. We filmed it all on the Sony fs5, while recording Raw Cinema DNG to our Atomos Shogun Inferno. For most of the video we used our Movi m15, with an Easyrig Mini Max to save our arms. We also used the Proaim Camera Jib to get the some overhead shots in the bathtub.

While we originally planned for 3 locations, the Vernon Boardwalk footage didn’t end up making it into the final edit. But with how cold it was that day, Nani was obviously freezing and who could blame her. It was 7am on a brisk, mid January morning.

Joey shooting a scene with Nani on our Movi M15.

For the edit, I colored all of the raw clips in Davinci Resolve and then exported them separately. Then I had Joey cut it together in Premiere Pro, using proxies so that we could exchange project files, and after I would do the final export on my computer. Cinema DNG can be huge in file size, so we recommend WD Black Drives for their mix of large storage capacity and performance. A raid DAS or enclosure might be necessary to mount them externally. We recommend using QNAP TR-004, Synology 4 bay NAS DiskStation DS920+, or for enclosures without raid a Mediasonic HF7-SU31C.

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Things we think we did great

We worked well on the fly without a defined plan
We were able to keep the production relatively minimal
Shooting raw on the Fs5 was really great, despite the extra storage requirements

Things we think we could improve

We needed more B-roll, we started running out of shots during the edit

Our schedules and budget were limited, but both would have benefited from a thorough plan
We probably could have traded some of the gimble shots for tripod shots, to minimize strain on our two-man crew
We would have benefited from having more crew members. Some lighting sacrifices were made, due to limited mental bandwidth

Visit Our Productions

How much should a video cost?

Most people don’t ask us this directly. However, I think it’s safe to assume that most business owners are always cost conscious. And if you are throwing an event, then you may be thinking about your own budget as well.

When factoring the costs, you’ve likely already determined the importance of video and how much you should plan to budget for. You might also be worried that it might cost too much and that your marketing plan will fall apart and leave you empty handed.

I’m going to give you a rough idea of what you can do to minimize costs overall, and hopefully enlighten you as to where these costs are established from.

DIY - Free

Yes, I’m starting with the freebie. Tik Tok, Instagram, Facebook and plenty more are all flooded with videos that are super successful. This is primarily because of cell phones, and what we associate the quality with. When a cellphone video is relatable, the content’s success is almost directly a result of the story or the information that it tells. The quality of the video is not what sells this kind of video. However, that doesn’t mean that it’s easy to make great content on your phone. Timing, aesthetics and tone all have a huge influence in how relatable your content is. If you can make your audience/ideal clientele feel connected to your brand, then this part will be easy.

Have a plan - We’re not necessarily making a Hollywood blockbuster, but you do need to have an idea for your video. First, decide your goal, then think creatively. What in life reminds you of this goal’s outcome? And what may remind others of it too?

Don’t drag it out - Cut to the chase! Only show the important parts of your video. Don’t make viewers watch the extra 6-7 seconds that you took to cut the ending of your Instagram story. If you bore the audience for even a brief second, you lose the effectiveness of your video.

Be patient - Don’t rush to post your newly created content immediately. I know you’re probably thinking, “Holy HubSpot Batman! We’ll never have time to make all of this content!”. And while that might be true, the important thing here is to not panic. Focus on quality of your content, and not necessarily on the quantity. If you need to, try posting less frequently.

Edit, edit, EDIT! - There are plenty of free programs out there like Davinci Resolve, iMovie and Wondershare’s Filmora. And unless you are telling stories that are carefully planned and timed out, you’ll likely benefit from cutting it in post. Acting requires lots of practice, and not everyone is going to nail their take on the first try. You can easily run the risk of either spending way too much time on your video, or compromising with an inferior product.

Put your video together with a few simple cuts, that are timed to tell your story. There’s an illusion of time you can create using cutting and lots of other little tricks can progress a day, months or years into even a 15 second video. If the idea of sitting at a computer for a few hours and developing severe nerd neck seems dreadful, you can always hire a video editor to help out with some of the heavy lifting.

Record Clean Audio - My audio buddies are most likely smiling while reading this. Audio plays a massive roll in video. Bad audio can ruin a good video, as much as a bad video can ruin good audio. Make sure that your audience hears what you want them to hear, and don’t become too distracted by the background fuzz or any passing cars. Practice yelling “QUIET ON SET! “ at your neighbor mowing his lawn and then record yourself clearly telling your dog that they’re a good boy. Because then people will know who’s a good boy.. he is. But it is always worth investing in a decent microphone, if you plan on doing this alone.

Add Music - Unless it’s a montage, the music should be mixed into your video, in order to not drown out any dialogue. Music can be extremely moving, so make sure that it’s moving people in the right direction. Hopefully that direction doesn’t result in hard work being removed, for copy right infringement or worse, penalties and fines. Be sure to purchase or acquire royalty free music, with an appropriate license whenever necessary.

Bonus - Beef up the video quality with a DSLR or Mirrorless camera and a decent lens. Below are some good entry level options.

Hire A Team

Be a video producer and create a team. Be sure to have a plan fleshed out for your content. Ultimately you, or your marketing specialist should be guiding the content that you need efficiently. If you just need to make engaging content for your businesses’ social media page. It may be most efficient to do most of this yourself, and hire professionals to fill in the gap. All of these positions can be learned by yourself, but the key take away here should be that you are in the business of your industry. So focus on your industry and not necessarily learning a new one. However, it’s always helpful to have the knowledge needed in order to guide the team efficiently.

I reccomend using Fiver if you are looking for affordable services. It’s a gamble to use people without a trusted referral, but you can search for services that compliment potentially existing strengths.

Timeline Visuals - Video Editing “Battle-Station”

Video Editors

Editors can cost between $75 - $150 per hour or more. The amount of time that they take depends greatly on the direction you’ve given them. If you want to cut costs, try to give good direction. Write out a paper edit, with what clips you want included, how long you want them and in what order. Pick the music ahead of time. The less that the editor needs to think, the faster they can turn around. But also consider the rendering and exporting times. If you deliver massive video files to your editor, it will take them a lot longer to render them, compared to a simple 30 second video from your cell phone. Though the mp4 files probably look pretty sweet from your new a7III, any experienced editor is likely going to transcode them to an editing format. And depending on your resolution, this process and the amount of time that it takes to export can vary. It’s likely going to add an hour or two by default.

Production Behind the Scenes by Timeline Visuals

Videographers / Cinematographers

A good video guy is going to cost between $100-$150. But they may also want to book a guaranteed 2-3 hours, to ensure the time was worth lugging all their expensive gear to the shoot location. Be considerate that this is their profession, and they often invest a large amount of money into quality gear. If you are looking for cheap work, than you’re likely going to have a lot of hit or miss projects. If that’s okay with you, then ask away. Personally, I believe that paying people a fair wage and being considerate is the best way to bring quality help. Be collaborative, and form strong working relationships. You will find that it will go a long way in the quality of your content.

Yves - production sound guy - for Timeline Visuals production company

Sound Op - This is often a dedicated person. Like cameras, there is a lot of complex functions of microphones and recorders. Hiring a good sound guy helps ensure that there are no missed sound bites, just because the camera guy was to busy pulling focus to notice that the levels were peaking. Or while fixing their lighting setup, they didn’t notice that the lav mic battery was low and ended up missing a whole take. Do yourself a favor and avoid putting too much pressure on a single professional. It will eventually burn them out.

Hire a Production Company

This is more of a premium concept. It might only be worth hiring a production company, when you need a premium video. Like a branded video, that needs to stand the test of time demonstrating your company values for your website. Or when you’ve grown your company to the point that you want to leverage your business as being of higher value, through beautifully crafted videos. Investing in your image, is investing in your brand. Hiring a production company, giving them a goal, allowing them to a source write and handing off creative control, can give you the freedom to focus on your business. Or even on just enjoying your personal life. Allow an experienced team like us at Timeline Visuals handle the production end of things, so that you can sit back and relax!