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Alfio's Gear

So this is our kit basically from pouches two lenses to bodies recorders which I kind of already touched on a bit, but I kind of go in more detail so we have a mark three and a mark too. And it's a two two men teams so usually it's two of us going to shoot so no way both have cameras and between us we have, you know, we have seventy. We have also seven days I could back up it's good to have a backup. So the mark three has beena massive improvement in terms of your range and the dynamic range. Is it a little bit better on dh? You've got you can you can monitor the audio. You got audio output. So were the marked tree. We've got the mark two and as a back up, we have the sorry that's the seventy and mark too. Okay? And you probably looking, you're wondering what's that plate like a photography plate. We use these play because I find that it's a lot quicker to remove, and I could just quickly very quickly demonstrate everyone has their own preference. I'm just showing you like what works f...

or us, but like, you know, I just found the the standard manfred of places like sliding eyes it isn't in there like oh, hang on um so it was a little bit awkward so this one here is like, bang good to go all right, quick. So these air these a call there's a quick release plates so you can get them at being h um so that up and it comes in two sets so you've got the actual actual plate the system that quick really system that's what's called a natural plate that goes on the camera really? Rico and I use this on everything on its on my tripod on my my ipod special the mono pod I need to be very quick and we'll go through the application with money so in terms of the different bodies you know it's you don't need the mark three the mark three in terms of diesel I range obviously you got the one d c that shoots for kay and has other features but in terms of what you need wafer we need is we find that the marked tree the seventy and the mark too is a very, very nice combination. We obviously factor in that the seventy has a crop crop factor and but other than that like, for example, we would use we might use this for like, you know, most of the creative creative footage and then maybe the mark too could be like part of the docket, you know, the the the same with the safe shot but you know the shot that we probably should on the tripod that stationery and then the seventy because it's two of us we might look you know what? I go through what we do in the I'm jumping a bit believe that filleted at what we do and ceremonies and receptions don't give away too soon um looking at them with lenses we have way pretty much only work with prime lenses except for this thing seven hundred which I mentioned I'm a big fan of saying two hundred and I'll go through in a moment as we go through like specifically how I use it and what I think it works you know why we use it in what's beneficial for us? What how do you feel about him an image stabilization that's with some of these lenses do use that or do you not? Yeah well it's on and I find it helped especially when you're on the fly and you getting candid and beginning candids with money put and another which is part of our gear we have again we have the secure and we'll go through in a moment how we use that it's not just to you know, check your exposure and get a clear sense of what's happening in the picture but there are other ways you can use this and I'll show you a little bit later how we have we touched on the recorders to get the audio we have just recently this came out the h six orson recorder this thing is is really need and you have four outputs right? So you can have you do a number of things you could have we have our radio mikes between may and no and no and I and other other crews secondary crew um that helped us out we have you know enough teo I got a couple sets he's got a couple sets and I'll show you later how we kind of get audio but the great thing here is you got different outputs and later on I'll show you how you can not just plug into these things but you can get other ways to get there's other ways to get audio we'll touch on and we get way too much too soon but these great you can kind of select the channels so you got once three to four and you press it and the lights off and then it it triggers it so it's on tweaking and here you've got attachments you could put an extra two output it's essential you can have six outputs really cool you can also put a little attachment like I feel like like a kid like christmas and got these dancing toys um actually I've been a good boy and I could get some more gifts coming christmas so so with with the h six it comes with these attachments becomes with it you don't have to buy them that it's part of the kit they retail at four hundred four hundred four fifty and what you do so I just hold it up you can attach it to the zoom recorder right? I'm sure you got an idea how you would use that but in a moment I'll show you explained how we can use this mic and we'll talk about wave patterns the way sounds picked up we'll go through that in a moment so I just hold it up to really really simple neat cool and it's got like ten it on it's got a the screen lights up I'll show you all the levels yeah really need is that your volume control's he just adjust accordingly but the first thing you should be controlling is the levels on your well this is a receiver is the source so let's say using a lapel and we'll go through later how we use the lapel at venues and toasts and things like that but the levels on the source need to be right before you before like for example if it's too hot right and you adjust it here on the recorder doesn't work that way yeah you need to go to the source so if it's too loud you need to go to the source and reduce that first because if the signal from here is not good too hot and you do from here it's not gonna not gonna help you so so you would have to actually go if say, the groom had that actually stays with the zoom correct that right there there was this one and you are the one that stays with zoom okay is the receiver the receiver but if you wanted to adjust the mic level you would have to go directly to that might to adjust it correct you need to get to the source that's how you effectively control the levels and at the right levels um okay, so we've got the recorders and we still use these so what we do is we have you know, we we both for them as a just pair them up so I'll go through like how we use but it's like a back up so if you have one dies and you just get another one things like that so between allowed receivers that we have we may have someone here some there on dh then this could be getting audio in another way which I'll show you in a moment yes and then the mama pod again, you know, these things and I I've got the actual the model name there which is the five six one b h d v one fluid video and when I put these great um they've got these thieves legs he's three legs that help you with um stability but also it assist you in the movement of your shot it's just a very smooth and you probably need to put like we have do you have wd forty yeah you have in the states okay, so some sort of yeah I haven't been in the studio what you mean the state's yes okay, so you need to put like, some sort of like you know you can't because when you first by it they actually quite squeaky you actually want that in the ceremony you mean like you kind of like going at it happens it will happen because you need to do that so very versatile I'll go through in a moment how versatile they are give us some examples shooting examples but highly recommend them and then as I said before when you get your tripod get good tripod um look an ira has different budget but you should be able to get a decent tripod and by getting a decent triple what that means is that the head is good it's um it's smooth right um and you've got the option to you know, do your panning and it's the money isn't in the head obviously one could sticks you know, but then the day like obviously you've got these dears elisa quite small so you don't need to get like massive like vincent you know film tripods but you should invest in a decent one there's different price ranges so you just have to range from, like, five thousand two thousand I pushed you having miller I don't have with me back back home are back in portland and the firm a the miller was just preference for me because I'm actually thinking it's a d twenty so I could probably put a heavy camera on it some kind of stinking ahead so it's also where you need to do like you thinking okay, what can I what trapper would be enough for this little camera, right? But then you also need to kind of way up well, maybe in a year so on amy to shoot with the c three hundred with a city camera which is a little bit heavier and you might have different mounts and like a grigg, right? Because man you guys you see now we're talking about winning stuff, but you know we're about growing and doing other things as well, so you need to think ahead like him we had the glide cam it's you know, not the essential thing tohave but it's great to do that you're moving shot point of view shots where you walking with the bride when she's walking down the aisle amen any moving shots where you you're following the subject it really draws the audience in and then that the boarding party thinking projector stand for audio well, let me put it this way right imagine having to turn that off say the power imagine having one of these with all these like receivers or these cables on the floor or like on the bench in a church or on the grass at adult ceremony or at the beach you're at the beach and the sand everywhere I'm thinking standing here not cool, so we have I don't have it here but it's basically you've seen that before the middle they like the project the stands so they're about little bit bigger than that would be bigger than that on dh it's basically a little like stand and sits there and you could just basically have your recorders lot beginning this and you're sweet and they're pretty cheap so when if if it's something that you I recommend you get it when you look for it just some sort of project to stand um cool, so just moving on so we're looking at lenses. Okay, so the question is primes or resumes, you know, we use predominately pretty much all primes even we have an eighty five mil on the only assume that we have is the seventy, two hundred okay prime lenses as a lot of you know, our a lot faster aperture, so you can control and I'll show you this you can have more control with isolating the subject that's important they're a lot sharper that they are actually looks like a lot lighter and smaller but then the catch is well, you know they're smaller but then I need a few of them which is true right? But you want it we have basically way actually don't own I think it really owned that many lenses we have between us we have like a couple semi two hundred's that's between two of us but on the island were looking one person, twenty four mil, fifty mil macro and a seventy two hundred pretty like it's not like we got like ten lenses you don't need him in, but throughout the course I will show you specialty lenses including the macro asleep but that here other lenses like the fourteen mill and how you can use that and I don't own it but I rent it because I don't use it all the time I use it for specific shoots and I'll show you how so don't be afraid like you can you can rent stuff have like the bear it like the stuff that you're going to use the most and then from there you can rent zoomed show their lot heavier um they say there's definitely more risk for things to go wrong in the image because it's moving parts and things like that they are actually more expensive because the construction is a lot more complex, but there's this specifically the semi two hundred it's a lot more versatile and has an image stabilization, and in a moment I'll kind of go through how we way while we use it. So with the prime lenses I've already touched on, you know, it's the sharper, and they're a lot faster when I mean by faster that you can you can you can shoot shelagh, right? But also it will force you to shoot manual in the way you, the way you move in, the way you shoot. So what I mean by that is with the fifty, and I'll show you an example where I've used the fifty the one lands for many different shots, it will force you to get one short, actually move in and change your frame because you can get very lazy with zoomed in general, if it's not for the specific reason I'll show you why you seven hundred does it sound like I'm contradicting myself, but I'm not. But eugen, we want to use mostly primes and for certain things, use we use the seven hundred, but the great thing about the prime lenses as well is that it will force you to move because when you zoom in to a subject it actually looks different when you're moving forward your whole body yeah so you need to think about that there are different looks fifty mil um you know it's the nifty fifty it's the go to linz I pretty much use it use it heaps you know I love this land you know really versatile it's like not too wide not too not too long and but then you probably thinking you know I you know I got the city I got the fifty one point to write because I just budget for it okay? I could justify it at the time I was ready to buy it and to create lens you know I mean look at it the way it's it's solid really solid and you also have to think about when we're looking at winnings with do issued every weekend you know? I mean like you're going through a lot of like changing and putting away it's going through a little wear and tear that's another like thing I had to weigh off is I'm going to use that a lot and great weather ceiling I've used it in like pouring rain it was actually shot at me like to sing point raining just you have the peace of mind obviously you clean it later wipe it down you sweep the one point for just very briefly I haven't used a lot haven't used it a lot but that is a great lynch um kind of put myself out because I actually don't have examples but I can tell you from firsthand from other shooters that have helped me out they've got a one point four the great lens you just need to be careful with the shop nous when you when you quite shallow like around one point eight two point zero um it's still a great lands and it's a lot cheaper let's say you haven't budgeted for the one point for or the one point two and ah you're still maybe you like me and blown all your money on something else like lights or audio eso you have the one point eight still the plastic lens and you also have I'll just say me I also have the twenty four to one or five lets them in a situation where I have an amateur like five or eight should I shoot twenty four to one or five fifty or should I shoot the fifty one point eight? Well look, you know I haven't used them in that context but I'm guessing you're probably better off with the fifty one point eight because you're forced to shoot manual, which is what I'm about to show I'm gonna show you a clip there's, different frames, different composition, different angles or with one lens you really need to get into that mentality so I would say go with fifty and I've seen cem cem some images with the fifty one point eight not for what it is it's not too bad pretty good for what it is pretty cheap but you need to bury mind because the way it's built you know you're going to be quite busy on dh and obviously you know it is what it is but it's great lands so what I'm about to show you is an example of clip it's just fifty mil and just to demonstrate how versatility so here's the bridal waltz is nice down here to go through it's what I'm doing I'm constantly moving and photographer and I were in like terms here you know? I'm watching him making sure that I'm not you know shot and we're talking and you know in her way some bridal prep you know, just using different techniques different like frames and different angles because you need to think about the editing control what you what you're showing me that was like a run like a very rustic ballroom crap everywhere but with the fifty being a prime lands he kind of like to be very specific and what you should you should subtle movement so we'll go through like different techniques in terms of like in achieving great shots but again this is all fifty mil this is all fifty mil and all with the money part as well you know silhouette you know you constantly moving setting your frames that's it and then you got the wide angle lens way using twenty four mil super shop like this land is a machine one point four and like I say, we use it for glide cam we use it for is grateful for moving shots on the black hand and the twenty for it's also good todo like yourself to be shot for, you know like off just to establish the scene could be off the house, but the twenty four as you can see that like you shouldn't be using like a wide angle lens just to fit more into the shot I know I'm sure some people may think that because man it's really tiding there and everything and I'll show you tomorrow like it's gonna be pretty compact in that chute where they will live bridal, shoot but what you need to do is you need to change your way till the story, the way you shoot and we'll show you that twenty four has like it has higher distortion so it's not really ideal it'd kind of make people look appealing, you know, especially when you're really close slight distortion, but you can actually use it to your advantage and I'll show you have a little clip here and it's actually a couple of shots off of that little vincent a little dog they saw from julian, john and it's a great lands for a dance sing one of the lindsay I used for dancing I should use differently this for dancing not just one um just quickly show you that vincent they're crazy little looking dog and I just got in that close and don't exaggerate that she might have a face he has okay so billy craziness twenty formulas good lot of it this is actually handheld go think about twenty four you can actually move around handheld because it's so small and being wide you know what could be so jerky so yeah that's twenty four one thirty five verses seven two hundred look it's a hot topic of discussion and was talking about it's like well one thirty five it's a lot sharper the bit of boca yes yes yes correct your truth we use the seven hundred for the ceremony because it's a lot more versatile. Too simple is that because you forget you forget those times when you shooting who's who's who's shot video is houston anyone else? Yeah quinn quinn right, right. So you find that you're shooting with a dslr right? Because you two close especially like during ceremony they get this it's like they were watching their their daughter like you at the at the front all of a sudden they're looking at the camera it's like don't look at the camera and they get all quit and the like is not working all right is that happen? Has happens everyone right I'm not saying this is the only way I'm not saying this is the correct way this is we find we wanted its content is king so I prefer to have that liberty to zoom in from further back and not be in the shot and just get those reaction shots because really it's it's critical you know, when they're especially the dad when he's watching his daughter like exchanging vows, they get really emotional, you know, as an example you want to capture that you don't want even like a split second of him like doing this even this that's a destruction, even the eyes moving right you want you don't interrupt it that's, why we up for the seven hundred, um, specialty lenses? Okay, this is really fun. So you saw some shots from julian john off the ring and these lenses are perfect for them because you get really close, extreme detail and, you know, with brides, all of them it's all about the details it's important to incorporate that in your winning films because it's a reflection off, you know, because when they for example, the ring like they're spending time to, like, get the ring this obviously a bit of a story behind it, so you want to get good ring shots or any type of detail shots with your macro getting really close and then other cool lens eyes the fourteen mill rectilinear lens and its rectilinear because the distortion is a lot more pleasing than the sixteen to thirty five sixty mill and sometimes I use that to exaggerate the movement depending on the shoot so I find out what shoots all about what what decorations they have and I'll show you some examples and we'll have some examples off the macro lens so that's from fire asian sandra that bible there into the bible church staff he proposed just as a little bit of dimension that's a fourteen mill yeah exaggerates the movement but in a in a cool, pleasant way yeah their lines look stray there's not not much notice ball highly noticeable distortion there okay? So just jumping onto stabilizers as I said the mono part is super super versatile I pretty much in a bridal crab ninety percent of my shots might get the slider and I'll get it on a tripod and distant detail shots with that or, you know get a couple shots tio kind of reveal the bride but most of time I'm using this so versatile and you noticed in that clip with the fifty mil that was all money pot push in and the thing is this in terms of technique you know you want to move with the body you want to move the bodies that's what you want to move with the mono pod so all right if you do that you're going to let this more chance for it to kind of jerk around but if you just use your whole body and move with the mono pod and you think south american you need to get this it's like it's like dancing with a woman now but you want to move the money part right on that way you get a lot smoother uh shot tripod gone through that now the secured oh he's also a stabilizer this here's a stabilize and you're looking me like that what so it's not because it is I'll show you it is an awesome stabilizer I shoot the dancing sometimes on a fifty million health and when I do that because it adds it makes you edgy dancing especially with great dancing arabic dancing cultural dancing um that's twenty four um so just shift just leave it on there just not about the lanes at the moment so bye bye tucking in and using the secura you're creating another point of off stabilization right because you securing the lens um so the camera to your body you're centralizing it like when you have when you bring your weight into one spot say if I kind of like do that is more chance for it's a be shaking by doing this you talking elbows in right and I at a desperation I sometimes I should be something's happening it's like really quick for some reason you know, they're about to answer and, you know, I've got a way with, like, just bank and you try and I assure you work for you. So this thing here, they're not cheap for what it is they're not shave, there are four hundred dollars, or more, but they're so with it, they sew with it because you can you need you need this. This is like something you must have so exposure wise getting make sure that everything sharp and your linings good when you're shooting outdoors in the sunlight in your way, and also you can use it as a stabilizer. Handheld dancing. I should sometimes and it's really cool. Then looking at audio, as I said, bad audio is just unforgivable. You just can't have bad audio. You want to make sure that you have you've got some backup, you could have maybe one of these and two company that a wide system or three, we have a ll the above but you want to have two different systems. That's the rule. Okay, you don't need to get something like this. You can. You could even get the zoom. Um, look, if you have to get a second hand, but just kind of be careful and make sure that it's from a reliable source, but you know, I wouldn't I would personally advise to invest in brand new gear when it comes to audio because there's a lot of different make mechanical parts and stuff so maybe you can borrow like tripods and things like that, but when it comes to like elektronik stuff I don't know I would like yeah, sometimes you can get like maybe two h ones and then and then one of these like two of these and one of the like you just you just need like two systems yeah doesn't matter which one it is this is what we use but it's up to you now with the wireless system, you need to understand that the lapel mikes which are here that's omni directional in case you don't know what that means, it means that the the way pattern in terms of the way it picks up the audio is kind of like in a circular so it's important as we did with the interview places, you'll appeal like a few marking up the groom for the ceremony make sure you make him up back it up fairly close, not down here right here and you know windjammers are fluffy's for outdoors shotgun they're great for interviews probably you probably won't need to use them quite a bit for wedding stuff, but the direction is very sorry the white panties directional so it's coming from just more from the front so we've gone through we've discussed you know the the many recorders which is a wide system and then that's your wireless system okay and it's important to you know monitor these things that the wildest set up because they do drop out sometimes right so when you were a rock up a ceremony get need to kind of set that up early and we'll go through that in a moment all right so with lighting we again we use the one fifty data light and the other light as you can see there it's like the light panel I'm going to say that I don't actually own it needed all the time but it's grateful bride and groom print if it's too dark and you need to turn the lights the actual house right off and it's not enough daylight coming through the windows they're awesome to bounce off wars bounce off the ceiling and it just gives this nice soft light so you know the generally like a little bit bigger than that way have actually someone can it's not exactly this but it's it's a lot more compact thiss one here it's not run by cables it's like pretty much of that signs and that that big right and the led led penalty led lights and you just put a battery on it in a little light stand and then you got a nice soft light move that thank you very much with the data lights again they so versatile because you can use them for speeches slash toast okay, make sure you kind of like it's important to put the having me and I don't have the diffusion paper on it I think that helps just to soften the light you can use it to bounce at a dance floor or you can use it for the bright like the bridal waltz all the first dance as a spotlight kind of cool um so they're extremely extremely versatile eso ya again all the equipment is really expensive, right? You're probably thinking but you know if you don't have the gear, you could just rent it you know get in contact with your your rental place and usually after while they give you deals and they can look after you the question had come up from l m photo tampa and you already answered this the question was during during the bridal prep, but I'm wondering more just the whole video in general what percentage of the time are you hand holding? You said ninety percent on the mono pod generally is the other ten percent handheld or are you on the slider? The other ten percent could be on a slide on okay especially if you're getting detail shots I have got details for the money, but I didn't particularly way that it's it's acceptable but you should be on a tripod for details in the second half of the question is like how much as far as being on the slider, how much movement what percentage of the time are you moving? I mean, I know that you want the subject to either be moving or you're moving can we just talk about like movement in video sure, how important that is or how much movement like in terms of moving the camera and getting like executing a shot yeah getting slider shots or things like that specifically with the slot of shot you actually don't need to move that much what of the sliders? I don't have one here but you know they range from what with this this table two maybe half and you actually don't need I believe effective salata shots don't have to be that long that one day that I showed you with fourteen mill I was longing that I think is needed but I just wanted to kind of dragged it out a little bit so you can kind of see it you know, it's we'll touch on this later on with shooting techniques but it's about subtle movement I believe once like it's also like the life span of a shot you know how how long do you want to stay on the shot as well so you don't need to answer the question? You don't need a lot of time on the slider just enough to kind of make it give it impact. All right, we did have some gear questions that came in people were kind of asking about, you know, how important you feel like the l series is but you kind of talked about the one point for an other lenses, so I mean, I know that it's not absolutely important to have the best lens and like you said, you can always rent exactly if you have a cheaper lens, if you want to try out an l series lens, just run it first, see the difference always always like my my rule is when it comes to, like you go to lenses trying like it the best you can just do whatever you need to just to kind of investing those and then the rest you can kind of like, rent and maybe get, like, a different brand or, you know, look, the other brands of great, but you just need to know that there are limitations because they built differently and just very quickly just wanted quickly to show I forgot these things. These cables, you need them, right? They they seem like they're like what? Who cares? But when you go to a venue and you want to get like, feeds to the mixer, which I'll show you and explain to you how it all works these things a really important it's. Another way to get audio. So I just sort of unique cables. And I'll go through that when I'm actually explaining how we set up for the venue.