Shooting Sony Music video ‘Bellevue’ by Tobias Rahim on BURANO
Introduction
Oskar Folmann is a Director of Photography and colourist based in Copenhagen, Denmark. He’s known for his short films and music videos, recently working as the shooting director on a video for Sony Music artists Tobias Rahim and Dimi (D1MA). The result is Bellevue – a stylish video shot on location in and around Marrakesh in Morocco.
When planning the shoot, it became clear they would need a camera with a very large dynamic range as many scenes were to be shot in the desert under the harsh Moroccan sun. Oskar also wanted a camera that would be quick to shoot with, it had to be a camera that could quickly go from being on a tripod to handheld or be quickly mounted on a gimbal. The camera he chose for the shoot was a Sony BURANO.
Fluid shooting style
Oskar liked to play around with the shots, trying different angles and camera positions. Sometimes he would shoot with a long lens from a tripod, then he might quickly switch to handheld so he could walk and move with the camera. The compact size and light weight of the BURANO camera made this very easy.
“My 1st AC could take it from a handheld setup to a gimbal setup in like 10 minutes tops,” Oskar says. And when using a gimbal, the lightweight nature of the camera meant that he could use a compact gimbal with simple handles or a frame. There was no need to use a ready rig or other bulky or complicated external support system. This gave Oskar the ability to move freely with the camera, to get smooth flowing shots from high or low. It also meant that shooting with BURANO for long periods was less tiring.
“Just to grab the camera and go to check something out was really important for me and it was nice for my arms too,” Oskar says.
My 1st AC could take it from a handheld setup to a gimbal setup in like 10 minutes tops
Oskar Folmann
Minimal crew requirements
The film contains a wide and varied range of shots. There are shots on busses and cars, shots in city streets and from city roof tops, as well as shots taken out in the desert far away from the city. Having a very portable camera that doesn’t need a large crew to support it was highly beneficial for the project.
Whether shooting in the city or in the desert the entire film was shot using the naturally available light. In parts of the song the artists sing about the sun, so Oskar gave it a prominent role in the video. Often, he would shoot directly into the sun, perhaps shooting during golden hour with the sun in the shot and the warm light touching the actors. The hard sunlight and deep shadows creates shots with deep, striking contrast.
“The dynamic range of the BURANO was really helpful for that because I could shoot almost directly at the sun and still get details in the shadows,” Oskar explains.
The dynamic range of the BURANO was really helpful for that because I could shoot almost directly at the sun and still get details in the shadows
Oskar Folmann
Codec Choice
The BURANO camera has a good choice of recording codec options including a new 8K XAVC-H codec, based on H265, plus Sony’s tried and trusted XAVC-I and XAVC-L codecs. But for this project Oskar chose to use the camera’s X-OCN codec. This is a raw codec that takes everything that the sensor has to offer and records it in a compact 16 bit linear file. The advanced compression algorithms used by X-OCN ensure that despite the compact and computer friendly nature of the files, the quality of the recordings remains exceptionally high.
Oskar says that the X-OCN codec was a real blessing for this shoot. It allowed him to pull back and control the extreme highlights in the grade, delivering a balanced image at the same time preserving punchy colours and deep shadow details.
“It was really important for me to stretch the contrast of the image a lot while shooting, and the camera allowed me to do that.”
It was really important for me to stretch the contrast of the image a lot while shooting, and the camera allowed me to do that.
Oskar Folmann
On-set monitoring
To understand what the camera was capturing, Oskar used several different monitors on set. One of the monitors was set up to give a punchy, contrasty image, close to the final look. Oskar would manually tweak the manual controls of this monitor to get the look he wanted.
Another monitor was set up to show a flatter less contrasty image, he used this to see how much detail was being captured in the darker parts of the image.
As well as Sony’s well established s709 and 709(800) looks, the BURANO camera comes with four new pre-installed Looks. These new looks are called Warm, Cool, Vintage and Teal and Orange. Each has its own distinct look and this new wider choice of built in looks gives film makers more options. As well as the built-in looks, you can also load in user 3D LUT’s should you wish.
For this shoot, Oskar chose to use the new built in Warm look. This look produces a contrasty image that has a pleasing warm feel. Oskar felt that this look gave an image close to the way the final film would look. It offered a great way for the client or talent to get a feel for the way the shot would look in the final film.
Tobias Rahim x D1MA - BELLEVUE
