In my short film “Sky on Fire,” I take the audience on a journey of awe and adventure as we relive a moment experienced by our character, Luke. Being able to witness extraordinary moments in nature means taking on some extraordinary environments on the journey. We follow Luke as he takes on the harsh and beautiful conditions on the Island of Madeira, where he ventures to the top of the island and experiences the sky on fire.

My favorite feature on the FX6 is definitely the variable ND filter and the option to use it in auto mode. This feature was fundamental in me being able to keep the look of my film consistent throughout, and not compromising on the image quality to achieve the correct exposure. With a variable ND filter, you can keep your shutter speed and depth of field constant, which gives that consistency I was looking for.

Another improvement I appreciated while shooting was the color science. It has to be the best I’ve seen apart from the higher end Sony cinema cameras, Venice and FX9. The colors are extremely accurate and even more with the S-Cinetone picture profile, whilst also including the 10-bit internal color depth which gives the image better highlight roll-off (no clipping in the clouds in a bright sky for example), along with the added benefit of more flexibility in post-production.

A final welcome improvement is, for me, the rolling shutter performance. I’m a huge fan of handheld operation with quite a lot of camera movements and panning. The rolling shutter is almost non-existent in this camera, and allows me to confidently operate those movements without worrying about too many straight lines bending in the background of my shots.

To achieve certain looks, you have to pick specific lenses with different focal lengths to express different emotions and tell your story. For this short, I used the Sony G Master FE 16-35 mm f/2.8 at 35 mm for a lot of my shots. I wanted to get that mid-range of seeing our character close up, whilst also being able to see him in his environment, as this was a big element of our story. For close-ups on the main character, I used the Sony FE 85 mm f/1.8 to isolate the character from the background and focus certain scenes on his expressions and emotions. With the fast aperture of f/1.8, coupled with the full-frame sensor of the Fx6 and the internal ND filter, the look I was able to achieve gave me the option to have a super shallow depth of field when I wanted to isolate the character, while not changing my look. It was important to jump back and forth with these two lenses to show the evolution of emotions of my character and the changing environment he was in.

A quick tip for anyone shooting with the Sony FX6 would be to rely on the new variable ND. If you have a vision or a look in mind, don’t feel that you have to make a compromise on that look to keep your exposure correctly. The variable ND filter will help you be more creative and give you more freedom in your style of shooting.

This camera is an amazing tool for us filmmakers: Full frame, great low-light performance, variable ND and great 10-bit color science. It has been designed to help us create great cinematography and achieve your personal look. Just set up your lights and start rolling.