This one was basically Brandon thinking “what if we did red flower petals as blood hits?” because it would let us be ridiculously violent, yet not appear so because it’s, well, flower petals. We went from there – sunflowers for muzzle flares, flowers shooting up with the ground hits, general 70s look and vibe (although the G36 is most definitely not a gun from the 70s). Once we got the VW Bus, it was on.
For this shoot, we wanted to put the Canon 7D through its paces in a very fast, run-and-gun scenario. Due to skew issues we also shot with the Panasonic HVX200 for any effects shots where we knew we would need to do 3D tracking for. We’ve heard nothing but love for the 7D, and after trying it out here, I have to say it’s not a very good camera for action.
The biggest issue is that we need to be at f5.6 to f8 in order to catch all the action without having anything go soft. In my opinion, shallow depth of field is overrated. For people sitting around and basic dialogue, it’s great, but when there’s a lot of stuff going on, you can’t afford to have things soft. I think you lose a lot of the visceral feel if you’re forcing your audience to pay attention to various details by controlling planes of focus, especially given that depth is a big part of defining space.
The problem with shooting at 5.6 or 8 is that you’re forced to crank the ISO, which makes the footage noisy as hell. The low light of the 7D is great, but that’s assuming you’re shooting wide open, which allows the ISO to be at a more reasonable level. Additionally, the skew killed handheld shots, and also killed any shots where I move quickly in frame – there’s a shot where I jerk my head back and the camera is dead steady but my face is warped due to my speed
Final verdict on the 7D is it’s a great camera for shooting movies without a lot of action or a lot of movement. Everyone’s gone so far into the “I love shallow focus” side that you have totally unacceptable crap like one eye in focus but the farther eye out of focus. Pick up any American Cinematographer and you’ll find that movies aren’t all shot at f1.4. DPs will use f4 or f5.6 all the time because sometimes it’s nice to see things in focus.
As a side note, I will say that I don’t think we did the best job with being clear with space here. There are a lot of shots I think we should’ve got – after we shoot the ceiling, the camera should dolly from the kitchen back over to the main room to make sure people understand that we’re coming back to the room that we started in. As of now, it’s a little bit disconnected. Kevin’s house didn’t lend itself to good wides outside, so we compensated by playing this scene more as a “siege” sequence. Ideally, we would be able to see up to the road where Rico pulls up from the room we start in to lock in exactly where everyone is from the start.
Hey Freddie,
I was wondering where you got the flower pedals falling, did you record it on green of something and key it in? please reply.
Oh my gawd. Oh my gawd. What does this mean?
I like how as an internet meme you spoofed, mmm…referenced, another internet meme.
Which canon dslr cameras work good for shooting movies with action in them?
[...] “Flower Warfare” a psychedelic action scene by Freddie Wong where instead of bullets, guns shoot flowers. [...]
What did you use to record the on-set audio?
Best video ever! Congrats…
Did you compose/play the soundtrack yourself?
[...] on Freddie’s blog he talks about some of the problems they had when producing it I really, really love this short. I [...]
What a great approach to shooting an action movie. I agree with your comments about shooting with Dslr’s, they are simply a tool to get a type of shot. They are not the be all and end all. Know what sort of shot (mood) you are trying to create and find the tool that best delivers it. Once the frosts thaw here in New Zealand we will be out seeing what we can create. Thanks for the great tips and inspiration.
Due to their skew, I can’t really recommend any of the Canon DSLRs at this point for handheld action, or shots requiring any sort of 3d/2d tracking. For everything else, they’re great cameras.
Yes, music is composed/performed by myself. It’s an Apple loop and my bass playing on top of it, mostly. The end theme is just twangly guitars.
On set audio is recorded just off the HVX, which would run simultaneously when we needed to grab lines, or with the 7D’s built in mic, which isn’t as bad as everyone seems to think it is
lol,Why don’t we just use my camera? offered that it’s much more convenient to use.
Thank you! Feels great that I’m not the only one thinking shallow DOF is overused! People finally get the opportunity to use shallow DOF now with dslrs and then they use it everywhere, no matter what they are trying to convey in the shot.
Why not use a 5dmk2? Better high ISO performance, and they’re pretty cheap now…
Who are the actors?
No DSLR will work well. ALL CMOS cameras read in an image line by line of pixels. They will all have a skewing effect to one degree or another.
Freddie, love how accessible you make this kind of work to regular people like me! Keep it up!
Winston:
Most camcorders have CMOS sensors now days. Even professional cameras like the RED one are CMOS and they all have the wobbling/skew effect but as you said, to different degrees. Even film cameras have wobbling effect since they also have a rolling shutter.
LOL “Double Rainbow All The Way!”
Seriously that made me laugh out loud. Great effects and ingenuity as always… extra high marks for the rainbow reference.
This would be AWESOME as a FPS game. Infact im gonna make that. When I get round to it. (I’m very lazy)
the flowers popping up from the ground kind of reminds me of the whole “pushing daisies” up from the ground once you’re dead concept.
this was awesome
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ow0AdH7V8s
I just got after effects trial and this is my first video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ow0AdH7V8s
Everything makes sense, your edits are comprehensible, it works good but I do feel your DP was a bit amateur. I found your shots to be nothing more then usual and not very surprising. I loved your concept and hard work. Overall 4/5 stars
[...] Warfare Share“Flower Warfare”, a psychedelic action scene by Freddie Wong, where instead of bullets, guns shoot [...]
Well if aperture was your worries, then just get a different lens.
great post what looking for something like that since some times !
Freddie,
First off you rock. Second of all, fight on. Third of all, I’d love to shoot an action scene for you with my 7D and try and prove you wrong here. Yes, the rolling shutter (skew) issue is a problem, but as for exposure and scenes having soft focus, that’s more to do with lens choice and camera operating technique.
Hi to Welch and Bicycle Dan from me.
Best,
Drew Walkup
I understand the issues you have with the Canon DSLR cameras. You need some high quality glass and a fairly sophisticated rig in order to shoot anything remotely fast paced. However, the rolling shutter can be managed in post – http://www.thefoundry.co.uk/products/rollingshutter/
It won’t be perfect, but it helps a bit.
Unfortunately, the amazing DSLR low light performance everyone boasts about is a myth. These cameras actually require a good amount of light, otherwise blacks and dark areas get extremely noisy.
Also, if I was going to shoot a quick action scene with a 1.6x crop sensor such as the 7D, I’d look for an ultra wide angle lens, like the Tokina 11-16mm. As this will dramatically help with movement and focus problems.
Thank you incredibly much for the game review. I suppose I will have to head out to purchase it the day after tomorrow!
Sonhei que o show do intervalo do Super Bowl ia ser com o cara do Rebolation. :s
I bookmarked this guestbook. Thank you for excellent work!
hi freddie u are an inspiration, you inspired me to make videos and have fun doing it,the sad part is, i work so hard on videos, i usually spend all day filming, and all night until about 4 in the morning adding effects, and i get only get about 30 views, so if u could help me and my cousin to get some more views, that would be awesome. and there is one more question i have to ask, do you know if you have a relation to a family with the last name of fennel, or simsich, because my grandmas last name was wong to, her name is seleina, and i china her name was fung hang wong, so e mail me at duncansimsich@yahoo.com please help me out!
Good info. I’ve been shooting with the 60d and 7d. But now that I’m getting into tracking more, maybe I’ll trade one in for an hvx. Thx for the tips!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lxiucy02Rq0