Why Low Budget Footage Looks Flat (Fix It Early)

All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome

back for another breakdown. You shot it,

we're going to look at it. And this is I

think we're in the realm of low-budget

stuff, but sometimes that's the best to

see key insights because remember

99% of the time when I'm commenting on

these things, I'm just saying what I

would do to improve things like 1 or 2%

but as the budget comes down and you can

start like actually having a little bit

more flexibility, some of these changes

will make a big difference and it'll

make it not only will it make it better

looking, but it'll also make it way

quicker and easier by removing

variables. So these are the times when I

think at least we can go over one

concept on in this whole ad and we can

get way better results for the future.

Not just on this job, but on lots of

other jobs if you just approach your

shoots thinking this way, okay? Before

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Okay, we got dude walking. It's a

haircut commercial.

It's going to be slick. He's got some

product. Here we go. Things are lit up.

I like the product shots.

And snap snap snap. Cut. Oh, this is the

scene we're going to talk about. And

hair down. See he's really stoic when

he's getting his haircut. Not real

chatty. And

product shot. Shoo.

Okay, snort cam.

Perfect lighting setup and we're out.

Okay, you get it.

Actually, let's talk about this first

one.

You had me at hello with this scene.

Why? Because we are doing a little

walking tracking shot which if you're a

cinematographer, you will do this shot

hundreds of times in your career.

You don't think you will? You will.

We're shooting the same scenes over and

over and over and over again.

Right? Change the actor, change the

wardrobe, change the time of day, you

got yourself a new scene, right? But

you've done it before. You're the

experienced one. You're there to tell

everyone else around you, "Relax.

We're going to get this. It's going to

look amazing."

Now, how do you actually make it look

halfway decent?

You do exactly what we've done here.

If we are walking down the street on the

sidewalk,

do we want to be on the street side, or

do we want to be on the building side?

Street side, building side. Which side

do we want to be on?

We want to be on the building side.

That's it. Take one tip away. Don't

forget everything else in this entire

video. Take that away. If you're walking

down the street and you're tracking

someone, you want to be on the building

side.

You're saying, "Patrick, why? Why does

it matter?"

Because this building, if you get the

time of day right, let's go to the next

shot.

Keep going. Whoop.

That

Whoop.

It's hard to get him in focus cuz the

shot is so quick.

Okay, there we go.

Not in focus, but you get it.

Uh this building

is going to act as a neg. You see the

shape on old mate's face here?

This is what you want.

We get ambient overcast sky.

That provides the soft light, and then

the building provides the neg.

Okay, this is what you want. This is why

you want to be on this side.

This is way easier than doing it the

other way. How are you going to get any

shape if you're looking this way?

Right? If you're looking this way,

camera over here.

This is how I draw a camera, by the way,

if you're new.

I don't know why, but it's going this

way, right?

Uh we want to be on the shadow side.

The only way you can screw this up is if

you have the sun on this side of the

building when you're shooting.

You don't want the sun bashing into the

building.

If the sun is behind, you win. If the

sun is on that side of the building, and

this is all in shade, you win.

Why do you win? Because if it's in the

shade,

the level it just flattens off the whole

picture.

And flat is good, especially when it's

in the shade, cuz the light levels are

lower, so it's much easier to manipulate

the levels.

So, if you are overcast,

and you're just walking with a 4x poly

or 4x

uh floppy,

this is going to create a lot of shape

on an overcast day or in the shade.

It's not if the sun is bashing into this

building.

So, already you're winning.

Good choices here, okay? Good choices.

One thing to be aware of, though,

for this entire ad

and just any

work in general, is as we watch through

this, count how many layers between the

camera

and the talent.

The camera and the subject, the less

layers there are in between and then

behind the talent,

uh the cheaper it's going to feel.

It's not going to feel detailed or

nuanced or like there was some depth to

the image, because there isn't, because

there's no layers.

Okay? This is a two-dimensional medium

that we have to make feel

three-dimensional by throwing in lots of

layers, by throwing in lots of salt and

pepper.

So, you take the first one, we got plonk

over on the dude's feet.

Plonk over on his face.

Okay, here,

we got one layer here, maybe what what

that, 20 ft away from the camera? Then

we got another layer of him walking,

then we got the building, then we got

the background.

Okay, that's something.

Uh that's our best so far. Plonk, old

mate, straight to the doors, straight to

the background. Flat flat. Also shallow,

super shallow. I mean, I like what

you're doing with the light to etch him

out, but flat flat.

Here,

we got

uh

dude

in the toilet bowl, and we got ground.

Would it be cool to have like a little

slash here? Yeah? Would it be

100% cooler? No. It feels like I want to

be a little bit further away from him,

too.

Also feels like we're kind of on the

piss here with the

level of the wall in the background.

Although I can't see it. Feels like

might want to rotate, like go right hand

down. Uh

So, again, not a whole lot of layers.

Here, okay, we're doing these I like

these shots, but again, like we got a

thumb and then the subject and then the

background is so out of focus, it's

quite flat.

Same here.

Uh we got this

with your grid on the light and then we

got

dude and then we got flat background.

Like that theme.

Now, I understand why, because layers

are hard. Layers take crew. Layers take

time.

This is the scene that I want to talk

about. Let's do it now.

In this shop, we've seen it from the

outside, right? There's no windows over

here on this side.

There's all windows over there on that

side.

This is the hardest angle to shoot in

this entire building.

Okay? Uh

especially if you are on a low budget.

I like the kind of stuff that like

blends in, unless you're going for this

like spotlight effect on purpose.

Which very rarely are you going for a

spotlight effect on purpose, but

if you are, you know, certainly you've

achieved it.

But I would say if we want to blend it

in,

we don't want to feel like there's a

movie light right here.

Normally. Okay, so let's just say that's

the case. We don't want it to feel like

there's a movie light there.

Um we got to bring these two ratios

closer together. It's not easy when

you're looking out the window with

little tiny lights from inside.

So hard to do. Um why?

As a cinematographer,

one of the main benefits that you can

provide to a production

is you have to look out into the future

and you have to see what is going to

affect the final image

uh

when we actually shoot this ad uh

3 weeks from now or 2 weeks from now.

Okay?

Uh This is everybody will be familiar

with this by now. This is Plinko.

Okay? This is the production ball that's

going to drop in here. It's going to

bounce off of all of these things and

eventually it's going to end up This is

the final output of the project, right?

And you have a couple different options

you can get in here. Like this is good,

this is not good, all you know,

different options where we're going if

we drop it here, it's going to bounce

around, it's going to bounce this way.

It has a chance if we drop it over here,

it has a chance to make it all the way

over here.

But it's more likely to stay on this

side. I don't know the probabilities,

but you can guess. What I'm saying here

is this level

you could, even on a low budget, you

could

affect

the layer that is furthest away from the

camera.

So, anytime you have layers that are far

away from the camera

that you need to control or that you

want to control, you want to control as

many layers as you can. If it's further

away from the camera,

you have to do it earlier on in the

process.

Okay? So, back to our Plinko example.

This is 2 weeks before the shoot.

This layer is 1 week. You can make

changes there. This is 1 day before and

then this is the shoot day.

Right? So, you can see as you get closer

and closer to the shoot day, less and

less decisions that you make will

ultimately

uh direct the project to where it could

have gone.

Right? If you're only here, you only got

a limited number of options. Up here

though, like if I saw this image, even

on a low budget production,

director sends through, "Hey, this is

where we're thinking about shooting. Uh

what do you think?"

I would immediately go, "What's the

furthest thing away that I don't

control? Like do we have to shoot this

angle? Yes."

"What's the furthest thing I need to

control for? Uh there's a big giant

building out there."

"Okay.

Uh is it better Is it going to be better

lit up like a Christmas tree or is it

going to be better darker in shade? In

shade." "Send me the Google Map. Uh I

want to see where the sun is going to be

and at what time so I can schedule it.

If you put that request in 2 weeks in

advance, maybe you get it." Right? Nine

times out 10 you don't, but maybe you

do.

And then you're winning, right? Because

now we have something in shade, which

means we can expose we don't have to

expose down as much to keep that from

clipping.

Uh same with the

background.

It's like, oh, 1 week out, maybe we can

make a change to the storyboards. Maybe

we can look a different direction.

Uh a day out, okay, maybe we can get,

you know, can we get that light from the

rental house that is slightly bigger so

we can push a little bit of level in

here?

Okay. On the shoot day can't change the

schedule, can't change the gear. You can

only change really, at this stage, you

can change whatever this light is giving

us

and you can change the settings on the

camera.

Okay? So, that's another way to

constantly be thinking about

cinematography is how many layers away

from the camera can you control? If you

can control all the way through what you

can't see, you've done well. Like you've

maximized the return on whatever job

that is, on whatever scene that is.

That's what you want to have happen

every time. If you don't have control of

everything and you're sitting on set

looking at the monitor going

"Why don't I have control of everything

in this image?"

If the answer is, well, we I don't have

control of something it's like, what can

I do on the next one to get control of

it? When would I have had to say

something? What would I have had to seen

before? What information that the

production could have provided me or I

could have found myself that would have

allowed me to get control of what I'm

not controlling now.

And then you make a note of it. And then

on the next job you do it. And you look

further and further out into the future.

And you go, man, okay, you really want

to shoot this way? We got to get this

thing backlit so it's in the shade. We

got to get lights to blast through here

if we want it to feel natural.

Uh

all of those things because you can

always, like documentary filmmakers can

always

as you get closer to the camera closer

to the sensor, you're always going to be

able to control way more.

Right? Like especially for the

cinematographer, even if you're doing

documentary stuff, you're going to be

able to control aperture

right? Which is right in front of the

sensor. You're going to be able to

choose ND, which is a step out. You're

going to be able to choose ISO, which is

inside the camera.

So, all of those things you're going to

be able to have control over.

But, as you project out further, okay,

we have control of the subject matter

with this one light. Okay, that's better

than no control.

But, wouldn't it be cooler to have

control of the entire room?

Yeah, how do I get that? Oh, I need more

lights. Oh, I need a bigger budget.

Well, it's not going to be this job, but

I know when I do get a little bit of

budget, I need to account for, okay, I

need to get control of the room.

Um my suggestion here, if you're on a

low budget,

this is the hardest option because it's

the most we don't control.

We know this is a big gray room back

here.

I would just flip the entire script and

look this way, over here.

This way. This is a camera. I want to

face into this corner

where there's no windows, so I control

all of the levels.

So, I can give it a little bit of shape.

It doesn't feel quite as spot lighty.

And in the background, even with a tiny

little LED, I have enough level to be

able to manipulate the image the way

that I want. Like, this is this is nice,

right? This is layers. This is interest.

This is shafts. This is good.

This stuff, again, same like hardest

angle in here. We got a window over

there that we could be lighting from

to make it feel realistic, but we're

lighting into the window

with a big soft light.

Like, big soft light, this looks great

if you're doing like a YouTube video.

I mean, the lighting is nice.

Does it fit, though? Like, does it

I don't know.

And I yeah, I would be thinking again,

layers in front of the camera, make it

make it more interesting. This is hard.

Wide lenses, like, can we go longer

lenses?

The less I want to see less. I don't

want to see more if I'm going low

budget.

But, man, if you can do this work and

you can do it quick, and

people will pay you, good for you.

It's like

there's some

good stuff in there.

But man, we're fighting an uphill battle

with little tiny lights

and looking into the windows, especially

when we don't control out there.

Like all this stuff is good.

Like here, this I like this.

Right? These little one percenters,

slash a light across, that's good.

Yeah, real nice.

Okay.

Uh I hope that helps.

Try and plan and try and Now, it's hard

to do on low budget stuff because it's

not worth your time to think how many

layers you can fit in.

Right? Because you just got to show up

and shoot the thing. There's no

storyboards. You just go there, you wing

it.

But as you're setting up, like if you

can say, "Okay, I got

5 minutes here while we get the hair

product right or something." Like, "Is

there Can I fit a layer in here

somewhere? Can I do something different?

Can I

on the tech scout, can I just be looking

into an angle to get a little bit more

depth? More depth, more layers, more

control.

All right. That's going to do it for

this one. Many thanks. We'll see you in

the next one. Goodbye.