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Anewway of shooting The newOlympus OM-D E-M1X opens up new creative avenues for filmmakers who want to push the boundaries
E very so often, some technology comes along that allows filmmakers to work in new and interesting ways – driving creativity to new levels and helping tomake movies that weren’t possible before. The Olympus OM-D E-M1X is the catalyst that helped professional filmmaker Janne Amunét change the way he works. It meant he couldmake a very cinematic short in record time, which just wouldn’t have been possible any other way. The camera’s small form factor and incredible image stabilisationmeant Janne could do away with lots of time-consuming set-ups, recordmore shots and experiment with storytelling. “My commercial filmmaking has a dramatic edge,” he says. “I wanted tomake a movie trailer in a different way. We didn’t script the whole film, just had a top-line plan and told the actors what was going to happen. We then documented three days of live action role-play. I’ve seen it done on some movies, like The Tree of Life . I wanted tomake something that feels really real. “As there were somany scenes in multiple locations, there was no way I could have scripted every shot and said ‘I want a dolly shot here and a crane shot there’. The Olympus OM-D E-M1X allowedme to free up how I structured scenes on set. I could go from shot to shot quickly. We’d get 20 shots in tenminutes, which otherwise would have taken at least two hours.” The key to working fast is portability and stabilisation. The camera’s in-body, five-axis stabilisation is customisable and can reduce shake by up to seven stops. “Many cameras have stabilisation, but they don’t seem to have figured out what a cinematographer wants to do,” says Janne. “With the Olympus camera, in the menu you can fine-tune how the stabilisation works. You can set it for a super-smooth look, such as a Steadicam, or have a
“The Olympus OM-DE-M1X allowedme to free up how I structured scenes on set”
“We were shooting in a real hospital and were about to get kicked out,” recalls Janne. “So we took the camera into the shower and it worked beautifully.” Of course, it’s all about the final results and the quality of the finished film is stunning. “We used the new OM-Log400 setting in Cinema 4K at the highest bit rate. It was a pleasure to grade it,” says Janne. “The OM-Log400 is not super extreme, but a really nice middle ground. It’s flat enough so even a novice colourist could get it to look nice. Pump some contrast in and it looks great and has somuch detail. The skin tones make people look more alive. “I don’t care about specs, it’s how a camera performs. I believe in getting results. The OM-D E-M1X delivers.”
loose look, which is somewhere between handheld and gimbal.” When teamed with the stabilised M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 12-100mm f/4 IS PRO lens, the camera provides up to 7.5 stops of stability. This lens was used by Janne to great effect. “That lens is insane,” he says, “the most versatile ever made. We wanted to track guys running across a field. We used the 12-100mm lens and I put the cameraman in a wheelbarrow, which was bouncing as we pushed him. The footage is rock solid. It looks like we set up a track.” For a cinematic look with shallow depth- of-field, Janne used the range of Olympus ZUIKO prime lenses for the majority of the filmwith the M.ZUIKO ED 17mm f/1.2 PRO lens a favourite. “It’s gorgeous. We shot it wide open all the time.” The crew used autofocus for some shots, but many were done withmanual focusing – aided by the new body of the OM-D E-M1X, which features an integrated vertical grip that makes it easier to hold. Keeping a good grip proved vital in one scene, where the weather-resistant kit was used in a tiny shower cubicle for close-ups.
More information bit.ly/OlympusOM-DE-M1X kauas.fi
ABOVE The shots in the trailer were super smooth, even when the cameraman was shooting from a wheelbarrow in motion
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