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“You can get a higher quality, 10-bit 50p file. And ProRes HQ is a really meaty 10-bit codec. You couldmake a movie with it – and people have.” The precious master files are safely stored on the rugged Angelbird AtomX SSDmini drive that fits into the back of the Atomos Ninja V. These drives are available in huge sizes, so you never need change memory during a shoot. And they have no moving parts so are highly unlikely to fail. They are fast, affordable and give a true production-ready workflowwith a low cost per gigabyte compared to proprietary cards – this matters especially when shooting 4K. Even if he’s doing a 1080 HDmaster, Jim always shoots in cinema 4K because he likes the options it gives him in post. “It can get you out of jail in terms of reframing. And you do tend to get better colour and a higher noise ceiling because you’re over sampling,” he says. With the flat, featureless sky and dark sandy soil of the track as well as a dark bike and the occasional blast of low winter sun, Jim chose to shoot in Log to maximise dynamic range and he wanted to try different creative grades. “The Ninja V allows me that freedom to choose Log, HDR or HLG. The colour profiles in the Lumix S1H are very good anyway. If I had to turn something around really, really quickly, I would happily shoot in the flat profile or Cinelike Dwith the contrast and sharpening all the way off. But using the Atomos Ninja V, I can shoot full V-Log to increase the latitude of what I’mgetting. The beauty of Log is that you can change the colours in post. It’s a blank piece of paper and you can decide to try a cool or warmer image.” Shooting outdoors is where the Atomos Ninja V’s bright, 1000-nit touchscreen comes into its own, thanks to the array of tools it offers to filmmakers in getting the exposure and framing right andmonitoring a corrected image rather than looking at the flat, Log footage. “I live and die by waveforms. Some people like zebras but I knowwhere I amwith waveforms,” says Jim. “I like to have it onmy screen but not
help capture the footage right, but actually significantly improve its quality of footage. “When the Panasonic GH5 came out, I used it because it has fantastic colour, incredible image stabilisation and can shoot in 4:2:2 10-bit which is I found is actually the most crucial thing. The difference between 8-bit and 10-bit is massive, and shooting it in UHD 4K is a lovely place to be,” he says. And like many cameras, recording the footage to an Atomos recorder via HDMI means you can get the maximumpossible quality out of the camera that it can’t record internally. For the GH5, that means 10-bit 4:2:2 in 4K at 60p. When Panasonic upped the game by bringing out the full-frame Lumix S1H, Jim was one of the first to realise its potential. “It gives you up to 6K, has a great menu, a better screen and soon it will be able to output Apple ProRes Raw to an Atomos recorder. There’s already a huge range of codecs and data rates so you can pick what you need for the project you are doing. There is a time to shoot 6K Log – if I’m makingmy science fictionmasterpiece, or I’mgoing to grade within an inch of its life. And there’s a time when you’ve got to turn something around really fast where you want a lower data rate.” However, using a smaller camera does bring some disadvantages, such as the smaller screen. Camera handling is something Jim isn’t willing to compromise on. So he rigs up his Panasonic Lumix S1H to work like a full-onmovie camera with a cage, XLR audio inputs, a V-lock battery mount, timecode unit, follow focus and tops it offwith the HDR capable screen of an Atomos Ninja Vmonitor/recorder. “It gives me a bigger screen, which I love. And it gives me all my colour controls such as waveform, peaking and false colour at the touch of a button,” he says. “It’s a fantastic recorder. It can give me ProRes, ProRes HQ or whatever I want and I record a second copy to the camera’s memory card that I can just hand off straight away to be edited. So the Atomos Ninja V and the Panasonic Lumix S1Hwork hand in hand.
inmy face. I have the opacity all the way down and tuck it in the left hand corner in the smallest size. It’s always there, but it’s not distracting. You can personalise the Atomos Ninja V exactly as you want it. Obviously it’s nice to have false colour as well and you’ve got lovely focus peaking. It’s a wonderful tool.” From the outset, Jim knew he wanted to make the film in the Super Panavision 70 widescreen format, which is a traditional super-wide 2.21:1 ratio widescreen format for the cinematic look it gives that’s almost approaching an anamorphic look. “With such an extreme letterboxing of the image, it would be hard to get the framing right in-camera, but the Ninja V allows you to set precisely what you want, so you canmonitor what you’ll see in the final image. And for me, it makes a real difference to the overall look of the finished film– and the client loved it. Which of course, is the most important thing of all.”
More information
atomos.com panasonic.com marks.co.uk
ABOVE For this shoot, Jim needed a kit that gave him the flexibility to get action shots and close-up images of the boots, as well as great audio. So he reached for his Panasonic Lumix S1H with the Atomos Ninja V
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PRO MOVIEMAKER SPRING 2020
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