Our First Shoot With The Canon C100 And Atomos Ninja

The release of the C series of cinema cameras from Canon has garnered a lot of attention of filmmakers as a great alternative to cameras like the RED. After much debate, our studio purchased the camera a few months back and recently flew to Austin to shoot two commercial spots. We couldn't have been happier with the results.

Intro

I will be the first to admit that having the best camera gear doesn't matter if the story isn't captivating. The entire argument of what the best camera is irrelevant if the storytelling side and production is lacking.  There are so many moving parts in motion production that if any one of them is out of sync with the others, the entire production can suffer. As our studio begins to offer motion capture as a service to our commercial clients, and as we commit to producing higher quality BTS videos of our still photography shoots, we were at a crossroads with renting versus purchasing and which camera to actually invest in. The biggest decision was the investment in a RED system or a more affordable lightweight option with the Canon line of cinema cameras. In the end it all came down to the ease of workflow and we pulled the proverbial trigger on the Canon C100 paired with the Atomos Ninja for uncompressed 10-Bit Pro Res 4:2:2 capture. The camera itself is easy to setup and working with the footage is an easy transition from the DSLR workflow. I am not saying that the camera is better quality than the RED by any means, it just happened to score higher in categories like price, workflow, required people to operate it, accessories needed, cost of accessories, and post production.  An Fstoppers colleague Dave Wallace just wrote a piece on why he switched from RED to the Canon C100 and made a compelling argument why he did. We were basically in the same mindset he was.

In addition there are certainly a LOT of benefits to renting your equipment as needed. I know a lot of successful production houses that do this and pass the cost on as a line item in the bill to the client, which is perfectly acceptable in most cases. We considered this option but then quickly ruled it out because of the days of planning required to actually get the camera. There is a lot to be said to having the camera set up and ready to go for any ideas, testing, or filming that we decide we want to do when inspiration hits, which happens a lot in our studio. Having the camera whenever we want is really valuable.

For our first shoot we were hired by Jet Pack out of Chicago with Director Al Wyatt to shoot the videos for a booming juice company out of Austin, Texas name Daily Greens. We had 3 days to shoot 2 spots with the first day spent entirely on planning,  location scouting and testing.

Day 1 - Blocking & Testing

Day one was dedicated to what's called blocking, or getting down your camera movements and getting everyone on the same page in terms of a shoot schedule and workflow. We spent time at both locations studying the light, monitoring the weather, and using an iOS App called Artemis to get an understanding of what lens MM will look like from various locations without having to have the actual camera with us, the perfect director's viewfinder. The App will crop the preview on your iPhone and give you a view of what your specific camera and specific lens will look like from where you are holding your phone, which is a great time saver if you can get an approximate marker for your blocking shots. We had little time for error and the transitions from scene to scene needed to transition smoothly and quickly as possible.

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Above you see a general idea of Scene 2 of the "Mail Man" where the director has outlined the shots that the DP needs to get and the general idea of the camera's movement. This is distributed to the members of the crew so everyone knows the order at which we will be capturing the scenes. Below are two scouting shots that show us light at specific times of day and backgrounds in relation to the subject, which are then noted on individual shots on the blocking document. We took hundreds of photos like these and discussed further shots later that night to maximize the order at which we shot each scene in relation to the sun. We spent all day shooting a scene that was supposed to take place in 1 minute of real time so balancing the sunlight was a major, and technical, task to figure out. We flipped sets in relation to the sun in the AM and PM and used 20 x 20 foot silks to diffuse harsh mid-day light. This is where an experienced crew becomes critical to the flow of the set.

Seen below, executive creative director Kirk Payne and Al Wyatt in a scouting location exercise.

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Day 2: The Mail Man Shoot

Day two was shot primarily indoors at a local house rented for the production. We used Kino Flo's bounced off of the white ceiling with ROSCO #3001 diffusion rolls to diffuse the light when needed. In addition we brought in a  Chapman PEEWEE and 20 foot of rails to achieve the smooth sliding shots needed. These Dolly's are super critical to any film production and can typically only be rented from your local production rental house. In fact these Dolly's are not even sold to your local production house rather they are leased to them and then rented to you, which is one hell of a great business model if you can secure it.

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The dolly couldn't fit into the bedroom so a custom mount was quickly built with apple boxes and standard grip hardware from the rental truck.

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The dolly tracks are quickly leveled with track cribbing (the wooden wedges under the track) from the grip truck by the crew. The dolly itself comes with a "dolly grip," which is required to rent the dolly itself. The dolly grip must be certified to safely operate the piece of equipment. Our dolly grip and entire crew were seasoned professionals and had a solution to everything, which is absolutely critical in motion production.

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Another custom build from the crew to mount the camera to a dolly track using the Sachtler tripod head. It really pays to have an experienced crew that can build mounts to put your camera anywhere for any motion.

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The Canon C100 Cage - Red Rock Micro

The biggest expense for us outside of the camera was the Red Rock Micro Cage seen below. We customized our cage with additional rails, a follow focus, backplate, top handle, and matte box. The total came out to just under $4,000, which is a lot to spend on a cage but critical for our workflow. The cage allows us to easily mount additional accessories like the Atomos Ninja, Marshall Monitor, and any audio mics for syncing audio. This accessory, while expensive, is critical to our workflow and absolutely essential in creating the entire camera package. Without this, we couldn't easily mount the monitor and external recorder without creating a grip nightmare. This will also allow for adding additional batteries, wireless follow focus, and additional accessories in the future.

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Day 3: The Eating Contest Shoot

Day three was an absolute beast with 100 degree temperatures, 80 people on set, and ever changing cloud cover that changed light quality by 3-4 stops every 15 minutes causing production to stop. We had an excellent grip and gaffer crew of 8 guys managing a 20x20 silk, 10x10 silk, running 200 feet of electric to 5 devices, and building dolly tracks on uneven ground with ant hills scattered about. Below you see the crew beginning to setup a 20x20 silk that was used during the suns harshest moments with no cloud cover. This took 6 guys or more to move into place each time the clouds dissipated and the sun became too harsh. An added bonus is that the camera never became too hot or overheated. We did cover the equipment and power down everything whenever possible.

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The shot below is a look at the talent below the 20x20 silk used to diffuse the sun and soften the light. This helped but also increased the temperatures by 20 degrees if you were directly under it. This was a great help but caused the talent to sweat more than usual due to the harsh Texas temperatures.

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Capture and Backup - Atomos Ninja

Just off set was a tent setup for the digital tech for video and audio to backup to. We shot everything on a series of 240 GB Mercury Extreme Pro 6G SSD cards that worked with the Atomos Ninja. The Ninja allows you to label each file as you shoot so organizing the footage for the digital tech was a breeze as no transcoding or re-labeling needed to be done because the Ninja records directly to Pro Res 422 10-Bit uncompressed H.264 files. This is a HUGE benefit because the native CODEC in the C100 is compressed AVCHD 4:2:0, which doesn't give us the flexibility as 10-Bit Pro Res 4:2:2. This same device can be used with the 5D MK III and other similar cameras to capture uncompressed footage as well. And because we were transferring files from an SSD to a thunderbolt drive it took no longer than 5-10 minutes to copy and back up each scene, which was in between 10-20 GB each. We triplicated the footage onto three 1 TB Lacie Thunderbolt drives and never deleted the original footage from the Mercury SSD's we were shooting to. At the end of the day, one drive went with our crew, one with the director, and one with the executive producer. Separating the footage like this was absolutely mandatory considering the amount of time and energy that went into the production. A simple thief or catastrophe to a camera bag could ruin the entire production.

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A good grip crew will rig up the dolly with a sun guard to help minimize glare on the 5 inch Marshall monitor we use on our cage. This also keeps the DP cool and out of the sun.

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Rob Grimm, seen below, with his custom and mobile shade flag. On day two we  rented a bigger, heavier dolly made by J.L Fisher. The Fisher 10 is a similar model but considerably heavier to help compensate for the rough terrain. The heavier the dolly the smoother the shots on certain ground.

 

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Canon C Series & C100

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Canon C100- $4,999
Canon 1D-C- $11,999
Canon C300- $13,999
Canon C500- $19,999

 

"The C100's Super 35mm-sized sensor provides an angle-of-view and depth of field that equivalent to that of traditional Super 35mm film. With a native resolution of 8.3MP and a wider pixel pitch than conventional professional camcorders, the C100's sensor offers enhanced sensitivity and reduced noise in low light environments. The C100 is fully compatible with Canon's renowned EF mount lenses. Even specialty lenses, such as Canon's 24mm f/3.5L II tilt shift lens or the 8-15mm f/4L Ultra-Wide Zoom fisheye lens, are available on the C100. When shooting with EF lenses, C100 features peripheral illumination correction, which automatically compensates for light fall-off in the corners of the image. Furthermore, continuous AF will be available via a firmware update for compatibility with Canon EF Lenses with STM focusing."-(Canon USA)

In addition the cropped sensor in the C100 is a 1.6x magnification. This might take some getting used to and may require you to go out and buy a few more lenses. The 35mm lens that you are used to on the full frame Canon 5D MK III would be more like a 56mm lens, a 24mm would be more like a 38mm, and a 50mm would be more like a 80mm. This can be both a good thing and a bad thing depending on the type of motion you are trying to shoot.

Conclusion

Overall the Canon C100 workflow is pretty seamless. The dynamic range especially in the mid-dark tones is phenomenal at the native ISO of 850. As long as the highlights are protected and detail in the highlights are preserved there is no trouble whatsoever bringing tone and life to the black and underexposed areas of the shot. Overall the footage is more elastic in post than I originally thought and a big improvement to working with the 5D MK III or comparable DSLR cameras. In addition we shot almost all day with one battery for the Canon C100 and two batteries for the Atomos Ninja, which gives us less of an interruption in swapping out gear and remaining cordless. The only cord we had running was an HDMI out running from the Atomos Ninja to a Panasonic display for the director off camera. An added bonus is the three built in ND filters in the C100 body. This really helped streamline our workflow with the ever changing light and saved us on purchasing/renting additional ND glass. 

I am interested to hear people with the C300 and why they purchased that camera instead of using something like the Atomos Ninja. What are the benefits to that considering it is more than twice as much?

 

Big thanks to Daily Greens for having us on set and to AL Wyatt from Jet Pack for putting this shoot together. If you would like to get some awesome veggie juice delivered to your door each week check out the Daily Greens website. Also big thanks to Utopic in Chicago for editing the pieces. Specifically the following:

EP:  Heather Mitchell
Editor:  Kat Pryor
Graphics:  Kevin O'Rourke
Sound:  Brian Leitner
Finish:  Christopher Elliot
Asst Ed:  Christen Nehmer

 

Gary Winchester Martin's picture

Gary W. Martin is a commercial photography producer and founder of PRO EDU. His company creates documentary style Photography and Photoshop tutorials with some of the best photographer/instructors in the world. Gary has spent 20% of his life abroad and once made a monkey faint in Costa Rica. He speaks English and Romanian.

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30 Comments

Are these ads presented before color grading? Absolutely no color pop or whatever, everything looks boring and flat :/

Is there a problem with the color? Sometimes I will present clients with a copy before final color…as long as every things looks solid…but perhaps not perfect. What would you change?

Well, for me the skin tones are pretty dull in both spots, the day was clearly pretty grey to begin with but I find the skin tones are still lacking the proper color correction needed to achieve a tone that matches the music and vibe of the commercial. There's also a wide shot in the first spot that bothers me because it has a vignette (the shot from behind the crowd) and it's really overkill, I don't know if it was added in post or if it was in the lens but I would assume it was added in post and I would tone that down or remove it all together if I was the dp.

In the second spot, there isn't much that can be done through color correction to improve the image because despite the use of a kino here and there, the lighting inside the house was on the flat side at the time of filming, it wasn't dynamic enough to begin with so it's hard to improve what isn't there to begin with. I do believe that it's mainly due to the colors in the set but there's still no depth in the composition/lighting. Those shots really would have benefitted from an HMI blasting through the window to give a cinematic daylight look. Apart from that, I would try to fix the blown out sleeves on the mailman's shirt...The highlights are distracting for me and the awkward cut at 2:10; where it cuts from a wide shot, to another fairly wide shot just doesn't work, it breaks the rules of conventional cinematography; the lens choice wasn't different enough between shots to make for a proper jump cut nor a smooth cut in editing. I think it would play out better for the viewers if it went from shot of him taking a running start and exiting screen left on the pan, then cut right into the interior of the house at 2:12 with the melon juices pouring through the slot, by this point the audience has seen the mailman enough, they know what he's doing, they would still get what he's doing without that awkward medium shot at 2:10-2:12. But hey, who am I to judge.

The initial music was just horrid, but the ad itself was done very nicely.

Great article Gary! Awesome to see what you guys are up to with this little gem.

Awesome post and great work! Really love the mailman one.

with respect to you, I don´t like the spots neither the images, very flat colors, don´t like it at all

This same exact shoot could've been done on a lot smaller budget.

Out of curiosity Adam what do you think the budget was and what could it have been done for?

Not counting the usage fees or the photographers/directors day rates (as they are variable), off the top of my head, I'd say the 8 grips + rentals for 3 days would be easily $20k or so.

However, looking at he commercial, all the production looked a bit overkill to me. I understand that when you're hired by a commercial client you'd need proper production value in your work, but I feel the commercial could've been done using sliders and DSLRs instead. Are you allowed to disclose what the actual budget was for the production?

Having said that the storytelling in the commercials was really clever, and I am looking forward to more footage form your new C100.

From what I can tell that's pretty much what they used was a slider and a really expensive DSLR-like camera. I wouldn't really count the camera into the production costs though because it's not a running cost. It's a solid investment.

It's like telling someone a RED Epic is overkill without actually taking into consideration the the videographer's business. Maybe there are reasons why he's not using a DSLR.

I'm still glad I went with the FS700..

I love the concept of the mail...

I too think the spots would benefit from some color grading. I also think there should have been more lighting on the day of the shoot. These commercials fall into the the the trap of over use of the dolly/ slider move. The edit cuts and shot placements are not great. The commercials are visually slow. Commercials like this should quickly draw you in. tell the story and send you out. I hate to say it looks very film school-ish.

The graphics are great.

I digress : The sliding camera effect is so worn off it gives direct evidence to the lack of imagination displayed by the art director. Sigh. It much reminds me of the instagram effect desperately applied to stills to make photos look hip. Sigh^2.
Apparently it takes directors like Spielberg, Lucas, Cameron or Jackson to bring new life into this genre.

Dolly shots do not constitute a genre, and are very standard in all types of work - features, commercials, music videos... They add dynamism and depth to an image - important factors when you have very little time to tell your story and impact on your audience. The opening shots in the second ad are intended to tease the viewer - encouraging the audience to speculate on what the noise could be caused by, and giving them time to do so. Again, a standard narrative technique. I think people are being unnecessarily harsh. Yes it does look a little flat, and could use some further grading to bring a filmic look to the footage. And I do think that the dolly was overkill for most of the shots. But if I had the budget and the client was paying, hell, I'd throw the kitchen sink at it!

Good idea for the first one. At 1:32 she glances at the camera though. You can't use that clip.

In the second one, it feels amateurish. Lacking ambient noise, pointless interior shots, dolly shots need stabilising/changing to still shots. Maybe start with a unloading a delivery van.

I agree with the colouring on the second one. It looks too much like a home video

Thanks for sharing your experience with the C100. I have also been really pleased with this series of cameras. I bought the C300 last year and I've been using it more and more on my corporate shoots. I don't know if the C100 has the Canon Log gamma, but it is amazing! It really gives me a good depth of color and contrast latitude for post work. I've shot lots of stuff outside with just reflectors and flags and it looks beautiful. The camera is crazy amazing sharp, almost too sharp at times. (Poor talent -- you can see all their wrinkles and blemishes.) Attached are some images from a shoot I did here in Dallas for Chase with my C300. I included examples of both indoor and outdoor shots. I captured all of the footage in-camera at 4:2:2, 50Mb/s, 23.98. Very pleased with the results.

As a documentary camera, i'd take a C300 with me rather than a C100. The all-in-one usability of having a 4:2:2 codec built right in takes a lot of weight, space and possible technical issues (such as charging more batteries, faulty units etc) make sure issues get reduced to a minimum. That said that's a very ideal situation! I'm buying myself a C100 + Ninja 2 next week, why? It's a hell of a lot more cost effective! There will be times I don't even need the Ninja just for sheer run and gun usability. One thing which is a real shame is lack of support for PAL users, 25p is usable, but native 24p would be great and 50p/60p even better!

at 0:58. why I can see some veggies in front of the girl? she was supposed to have just a bottler right?

Wow, everyone's a critic… You come to offer your experience with a camera and we all bash your work and the spot. I typically use the c300 and Arri Alexa, but I found this interesting, none the less. In my market, the Alexa is by far the choice camera, but the c300 gets a lot of love as well, and they actually cut well together when you give it a proper color correct. RED is used, but rarely by choice, usually a client or post dictate when they think they need 5k. I too like the all in one aspect of the c300, and since we rent, price isn't a big concern. My biggest hate about the camera is the signal it sends to the client monitor when shooting in canon log. Just ugly compared to what the Alexa sends.

Thanks again for taking the time to share your experience with us.

Looks great, love the image you can get out of a C100 and
Ninja. Most of the viewers are missing the point of this article, but that’s
ok, such is life on the internet. Color grading is stylistic and
not up to the DP. Editing is also a function that is not left to the DP. Shot selection
is usually collaboration between the DP and Director, but Director has the final
say. Not a fan of the dolly shots on “Delivery,” but I understand why they were
chosen. If I was the editor/director/producer, I think I would have gone
straight to the mail man stuffing the vegies into the slot (thought that was
funny), but you know what, who cares, jobs done and it turned out great! More
lighting to create a dynamic image would be nice, but hindsight is 20-20. I
think most go with the c300 over the c100 for the packaging. It’s nicer to have
the right codec inside the camera and not have to use the Atomos in the first
place. Is it worth the extra price tag? Only if our making money with it…If I
was getting a camera for my personal work, I would probably get the c100/ninja,
but C300 makes too much sense for professional work. Again, this is all ego
talking, some of my best work was shot on a 5D2…so what do I know.

hmmm....were those the actual clips for delivery...? Then I honestly prefer images from the BTS video, since the colors in the final videos looked really...plain or videoish...?

Don't rely on the Ninja too much - those things are buggy as hell. I've gone through three of them (in 2 years) and now just use the C100 footage.

You do not get 10-bit 4:2:2 with any external recorder and the C100. The C100 is 8-bit. Recording an 8-bit source at "10-bit", is still, 8-bit, just wasting time/resources.

Thank you for taking the time to write this and share it. I've got myself a C100 and just finished grading a 13 minute doco shot on the internal AVCHD and C-Log which I was remarkably happy with. I didn't use the Ninja whilst running around a festival site though for the next shoot I'll make sure to give it a try. Not sure why people are taking apart the work, made me laugh and was inspiring.

I'm guessing the cutter on the dolly moving across the line of people is to stop shadows of the operators falling across the cast? 42 seconds into the video?

I had to buy a Zacuto C-finder so I could put my eye against the c100 when I did my run and gun, so I would love a usable eyepiece.. but then it's over double the price for a C300 so right now.. well .. I'm happy, and it's beautiful. If someone gives me $40k in the next 12 months I might go to a C300 as an A-Camera.

Thanks again for your article.

i can't believe they used a dolly and track for those interior shots. talk about overkill. could've used a simple slider. Also, color is freakin' terrible.

Do you have problem with noise in shadows when using c100 + ninja?

The good thing about being a layperson is that I don't have the eye to judge these two commercials as harshly as everyone else who has posted. I think that the eating competition one was perfect and the slightly flat colors doesn't bother me at all, the actual story and what was being promoted stood out more than anything. I say that one was a winner and the average person watching wouldn't have anything negative to say about it.

The mailman one is a bit trickier because the dolly shot of the bedroom and zipping in on one hand seems out of place and on the other hand seems to build interest and makes the eyes follow the scene to the mailman stuffing produce through the mail shoot. I like this commercial to and the message. Like others it could start with the mailman forcing in the produce through the mail shoot-- the inside view and then a cut to him outside but over all it works too.

I simply think that both spots work well and the production value is such that it doesn't take away from the message of the commercial.

The ost important thing to ask is if the client was happy. I know as a viewer I enjoyed watching them both.

I do wonder if it could have been shot with not as many crew members and with sliders vs a dolly setup. I ask as an amateur filmmaker who won't have access to the same level of equipment, save for a c100.