New short film “Sea”

DSLRs Film

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I shot this over a couple of hours on a rotten windy day in San Francisco. It was filmed at Sutro Baths ruins.

The opening shots of the frothy water are straight out of the camera with no colour correction, real black and white, the light flickering is all natural light.

The “alien” cave shot onwards is all graded with Magic Bullet which you can get 20% off with code bloom 20 at the redgiantsoftware checkout.

Music is by James Newton Howard from Lady in the Water.

I will have some of these shots up soon with natural sound recorded with the Holophone Portamic Pro 5.1.

I used the DP slider for the dolly shot. Review coming soon.

5DmkII conformed to 24p and also Twixtor plug in used.

Lenses. 14mm F2.8L, 50mm F1.2L, 100mm Macro F2.8L, 90mm F2.8 TS, 70-200mm F2.8 IS

Sea from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.

Photos all courtesy of Sara Collaton


 

104 comments

  1. Not bad Mr. Bloom. The black and white bits are gorgeous, I like them a lot. You should do more B&W stuff, I mean you shouldn’t force it, but embrace it a little more. B&W combined with your eye would make for a killer combination I think. I’m also particularly fond of the last shot, nice grading overall.

      1. Hi Mr Bloom,

        Beautiful work!

        First time commenter, so im a bit nervous! =)

        Quick question, I’m at a crossroads.

        Which would you recommend:

        1) A 5D with fast L primes OR
        2) A 1D with slow L zooms & primes

        I’ve been doing some numbers… By the time i get a collection of fast primes on the 5D – i might as well have bought the beastly 1D. What do you think?

        1. There are lots of nice fast primes that are significantly cheaper than L lenses. In Canon land you’ve got the 28 1.8, 50 1.4, and 85 1.8, not to mention all of the great zuiko, older nikon, rokkor, etc primes that you can get for a bargain. For the price of one fast L prime, you could have a full set of completely serviceable lenses.

  4. Awesome mood here phil. I wonder, you make great tutorials and it seems like color grading plays such an important role in great videos. Any thought on giving some 101 on these vital techniques?

  5. Awesome mood here phil. I wonder, you make great tutorials and it seems like color grading plays such an important role in great videos. Any thought on giving some 101 on these vital techniques?

      1. YouTube stopped removing audio and instead, started adding ad’s for the music with a link to iTunes. Unless it is for profit (commercials, film and so on), record labels have kind of chilled out as long as you drop a plug for the artist.

  21. Awesome little peice Phil – really moody.

    Absolutely kick ass shots at 1:11-1:25 or as you called them the “alien” cave shots 😀 – was that the 50mm ?

    Also loved the foamy tide coming in , so awesome the lighting was all natural! At times the foam looks silky / creamy like some sort of sci fi liquid.
    very cool.

    Holophone into new beachtek (?) into 5D , w/ dre beats coming out of beachtek yeah?

    happy with audio side ? – how are the headphones?

    Cant wait for more….

  22. Very nice, Philip! I love it! And I guess you weren’t shooting wide open all the time which made the picture look more professional. This is my personal little discovery and a tend to shoot at no wider than f/4 if light allows. What do you think?

  23. Philip,

    I see you have the beachtec. How do you handle that the mini plug that connects to the canon cam is pretty slippery and pulls out easily? Is the beachtec connector stronger and holds properly in the cam?
    Let me know.

  34. Hey Phil,

    What shots are done with the 100mm macro? was it the shots in the beginning? just wondering. Those are amazing, especially the clarity. And is that lens still broken?

    thanks ,
    tom

  37. Hey Philip,

    I have a question. So you conformed your footage to 24P which I can see. But some of the shots after 2:20 with the people walking on the wall or the kid sitting on the wall look to not be slowed. Am I just mistaken, or did you conform to 24P and then speed up those particular shots. Just curious.

    Regardless, it all looks amazing! Great work!

    -Albert

  38. Hi Phil

    A really beautiful looking piece despite the limitations of my work PC which is pants at video. Looking forward to seeing it in its full glory tonight at home. One thing I can tell now though is how well you have used the music. It felt like it was a custom composition.

    I was wondering how well you were getting on with your lightweight tripod set-up? Would it be up to taking a follow focus set-up like an RM or Zacuto Cine bundle? I played with the Miller DS10 at BVE and it is great but its a lot of money for something so specialised. I would still like to find something more portable and versatile (eg stills work) if I could.

    With the 5D firmware in mirage mode still, have you made any changes to your 5D workflow recently? I noticed you used Twixtor, is that because of the water?

  43. Great video. I love the DP slider. I’m actually working on a design for a slider close to this. I’m having some mechanical engineering students build it for me! Pretty excited about that. Great work.

  46. wow it looks black and white in the beginning but its straight out of the camera aint it ?
    nice work as usually i really admire your work
    and as you know we are from Brazil in south America and we just love your videos from down here…
    keep on rockin

  50. What is the box device under the camera? and the audio extra under the mic, on the camera attachment?

    Is this gear talked about anywhere on your site?

    Cheers,

  51. Great work as usual.

    In the past you have asked for comments about training subjects. Your work flow for color grading is of much interest to me. I have bought your 5D DVD and learned a lot but it does not cover much of post except the basics. Please.

    Also, please make your training available to those of us who live in remote locations. I would love to attend a workshop but it requires more time and travel than I can afford.

    A follower

  52. Just beautiful, the image the colors stands-out genius. I’m soo excited I will be getting my (Canon Rebel T2i) tomorrow morning, check out my previous got some info there. I’m ready for the (F-Stop Academy) keep us updated on that end alright Philip Cheers.

  53. Hi Philip,
    First of all congratulations for your blog, it´s wonderful.
    One question: You usually choose really well the music for your videos, Could you please tell us where do you normally find this fantastic pieces? Is there any website with a selection of this kind of themes?

    Thanks in advance

  54. Hey Philip,

    i really love that place since Maude falled down that hole in the ground after she was “attacked” by Harold.

    Although i have never been there myself – i think your pictures catches in an indescribable kind of mood or atmosphere of that place. I really like it.

    And again i think about how charming such a tiny little L-lens would look on my 7D *sigh*

  55. very cool shots at the start it almost looks like you slowed it up a bit too!

    well done again!

    Did you borrow your winter hat for a wind screen for that holophone mic LOL!

    look forward to the review on the beachtek and the holophone

  56. Gorgeous stuff! So, has the 7D been relegated to time lapse only? For all the great advantages the 7D has, people still seem to prefer (and produce the best results) shooting with the 5D.

  57. Philip,
    quick question. Do you recommend shooting with picture styles?
    I remember in an earlier one of your videos, you said to make the style as clean and uncompressed as possible so that it can have enough info to color grade. However, I just watched this video and am confused: http://vimeo.com/7256322
    I want to be able to color grade with alot of information, should I use picture styles or not?

  58. Bravo! Beautifully filmed! The light and color at the beginning are amazing.
    May I ask which tripop head are you using? Is that the one you recommend for the 5D or 7D? Thanks!

  59. Hey Philip, your work is nothing short of inspirational. Can you tell me how you source your music? Do you have to pay for it or do you just credit the music? Do you get their permission to use it? I shoot many corporate jobs and get to go to some stunning locations but then I use 2 or 3 seconds of it in my corporate edits. Would love to put my footage into montages like you do but getting the ‘right’ music is a constant battle.

    1. any paid jobs i buy a license for music or get royalty free. I only use music like this in my personal shorts and always credit the artist. I know wedding guys use copyright music all time but it’s a risky thing if they are paid jobs.

  60. Brilliant Phil, interested in the twixtor plug in do you use this in After Effects or FCP. Thinking of getting the 5d and this would be useful to make my slowmos look smoother.

    Great work, you are inspiring! Seeing you work made me do this for MFC

    http://www.vimeo.com/9376644

    keep it up fella!

  61. Mr. Bloom can you elaborate on what kind of profile you used since the first part was right out of the camera? Neutral, Standard, Custom? If custom what settings?

    This is a work of art, looks beautiful

  64. Great video, the water is hypnotist. Also great colors en the second half of the video.

    I found some troubles with Twixtor and FCP an dis that I am able to make the slow motion, but keep the original duration i.e.: 25 secs. after proccess 50% of slowering I found that I heve my first 12.5 secs at 50%: total 25secs instead of 50 secs. Philip do you know what I am doing wrong during the workflow? Thanks in advance.

      1. Sorry Philip about my english. For example I have a clip of 10 seconds, running the Twixtor un FCP in theory if I apply 50% to make it slower, the clip will have a duration of 20 seconds?

        By the moment, if I apply 50% make me slower the first part of the clip, mantaining the duration in 10 seconds. Seems like the duration is fixed taking just the first part of the video in slow motion.

        Probably I am still not quite clear, sorry.

  65. Another question…

    The light that’s fading in and out at the top of your clip, is that natural or have you done this in post? If natural what was causing it? If in post how did you do it?

  67. great video, absolutely beautiful. is this exported to a 2.35 aspect ratio? if yes, did you do it through compressor? and how do you frame your shots if you’re planning on the 2.35?

    thanks
    ilia.

  68. This video is absolutely beautiful. I love your style. I’m following you on twitter as well and I love the photos you post of the places you go, but I absolutely love seeing the videos you do.

    My hubby, @dpringle, has the 5DMk2 and is just learning to use the video function of the camera and he’s having a blast. He’s a photographer, weddings & portraits, and he wants to include small bits of video in what he gives to the brides and grooms. He looks to your teachings to help guide him. Thank you. 🙂

  69. Oh man, everytime I see people with the Canon 70-200mm, I figure that should be my next purchase. But I just have the Canon 10-22mm EFS and the 50mm 1.8 for my 3-month old 7D. (I’m just an amateur… still learning) 🙂

    I love the 70-200mm but I have been pondering if I should get a 24-70mm first and then get a telephoto later. Also, Sigma just announced a new 70-200mm f2.8 with IS so I’m wondering if I should rather just wait for that to come out instead of going for Canon’s more expensive 70-200mm f2.8 offerings.

    Would love an opinion as to what my next lens should be.

    – A fan from India

  70. In those first few shots it looks like it’s a sea of Guiness with a nice creamy head on it washing up inside the cave. Did you perhaps strike that form of black gold?

    😉 Ha, ha.

    Nice piece. Beautiful as ever. I notice a slight refinement in style/ flow and edit over your earlier pieces as you share more new ones. Just goes to show that with practice even the best keep on getting better!

    Missed you at BVE, hope all went well with the Lucasfilm shoot.

  71. You are too predictable…can’t you shoot any “crap” footage.

    DP slider… looks promising. Can you give a brief comment on it?

    As always…beautiful, inspiring stuff

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