Mick Jones rides the Waves for Dean Lewis with the Sony PMW-F55
New Australian music video
SYDNEY, 6 October 2016 – For Dean Lewis’ new single Waves, well-known Sydney-based Director and DoP Mick Jones decided to use his trustworthy Sony PMW-F55 as the main camera on the shoot.
Jones explained, “As an owner of an F55 it’s been my go to camera for almost four years now. It’s basically my workhorse camera and I used it once again on this music video project because of its versatility. It’s light and compact and I used it entirely handheld on this three day shoot. I also used lightweight stills lenses to keep the overall size and weight down.”
On Waves, Jones and the crew had to be particularly quick, nimble and flexible so his choice of camera and lenses was key.
He continued, “I shot at multiple frame rates 25, 33 and 50 fps and wanted to have a 4K master so the camera ticked all those boxes. I shot with Zeiss, F mount lenses using an FZ-Nikon adapter. The FZ mount highlights how versatile this camera is. I can use PL, EF, or Nikon mount glass without any problem and it’s a matter of seconds to change the mount if need be. The fact that the camera has very low noise means I can use it in a variety of lighting conditions. Some shots on this shoot were lit, while others were done only with available light. So that meant I was dialing up the ISO to 2000 and above on some shots and the image handled it without any problems.”
Having worked continuously with the F55 for so long Jones is used to the results it can produce but he says others who are not so familiar with the camera are surprised by its quality.
On the Waves shoot he had some particularly interesting comments, “So far the feedback on this music video has been extremely positive, with the overwhelming feeling that everyone likes the “cinematic” look we achieved. We very much set out to make the music video have the tone, feel, shooting style and performances of an indie movie referencing films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Good Will Hunting. The music video has been chosen to premiere at the Clipped music video festival along side some amazing international talent, so the reaction so far has been very positive.”
For this shoot Jones used the camera in a lightweight handheld configuration with a Zacuto baseplate and side handle. He mounted a Small HD 502 to the top handle and used Zeiss ZF primes for glass.
He added, “The overall weight of this rig let me work very fast and go handheld for long periods. I shot internally with the XAVC codec in 4K resolution using S-Log 2 gamma. I love the combo of Slog2 and the Zeiss ZF primes. The lenses gave a very nice organic softness that just takes the edge off 4K sharpness and helps give that film texture and analogue quality to a high resolution image.”
There were lots of locations and lighting conditions to encounter on the Waves shoot with many of the more typical shots covering human interaction, intimacy, love and conflict.
Jones said, “We put the camera inside a clothes dryer at a laundromat as one of the opening shots of the video which was kind of fun. Good job it’s small enough to get in there comfortably! I also shot in a video game arcade location so mixed colour temps and exposure constantly but the colour held up amazingly in the grade. One shot we had inside a movie theatre with a 1.8 HMI blasting and flaring straight at us. Using the cinema screen as a bounce it lined up a nice exposure for the cinema mood. I also shot a lot of exteriors with available light in a pine forest location, tracking through the woods with the two cast members. As mentioned, it was all handheld and the great dynamic range of the F55 really came into play on many of these setups. Some high contrast interiors were shot with no lighting inside and a HMI out the window as a key light but also providing the ambient levels and falling off to shadow inside. The narrative pieces were blocked through and we generally covered it from a number of angles and with wide and long lenses. Keeping the camera floating and moving to give an energy to compliment the mood and energy of the shots.”
For Jones the search for the best image and look is a continuous one. At this moment in time it’s the F55 that helps him achieve both as he explained, “I think the F55 compares favourably to anything else out there at the moment. Its dynamic range, low noise, 4K internal with a solid codec, multiple frame rate options and general low weight and small size make it top of my list for a versatile camera that I can take onto any job and be confident I can get a great result.”
It’s not unusual to hear Jones promote the size and flexibility of the F55 and that was particularly evident during the shooting of Waves as he concluded, “I feel that the edge the F55 gives me is in speed. I can work so fast with this camera. I have used it for so long that a lot of it becomes muscle memory. That said I’m not fiddling around in the menus from setup to setup. I have my go-to settings that I leave it in and just go for it. In this case it was XAVC 4K, SLOG-2 base of 25fps. The side panel and new menu interface makes it super quick to change frame rates which I was doing a lot of on this shoot. I had a base of 25fps, with performance sync shot at 33fps to just give a slightly dreamy slow motion effect and then 50 fps for some of the drama scenes. I have to say the camera performed amazingly well on the Waves shoot and the images were exactly what I set out to get. I wanted a slightly analogue and organic feel to the image and I achieved that with a combo of Slog 2 gamma and Zeiss ZF primes. These lenses aren’t quite perfect so they have a lot of character that really comes through in the tone of the images. The global shutter I feel also gives it a nice motion cadence.”