Final version of the Cantine Italian Cafe and Bar Video project. from Kirk Tuck on Vimeo.
A fun look at Cantine Italian Cafe and Bar. Shot by James Webb and Kirk Tuck with Olympus OMD EM5.2 cameras and assorted lenses. All production and creative thought done in Austin, Texas
edit: just uploaded the final, color corrected, 1080p version to Vimeo. The version you see here is 800 pixels wide. Click through to Vimeo to see the hi-res version. Thanks!
I am extremely happy with my collaboration with talented film-maker, James Webb. We shot together over the course of a day and a half at Cantine. James selected the scenes and had the vision for the final edit. I worked as a second camera person and as the producer.
For this project we used two Olympus OMD EM5.2 cameras and an assortment of Olympus lenses as well as older, manual focus lenses, adapted to fit. All of the material was shot handheld with the exception of three or four beauty shots of food, which are
hi-res still files from the camera's special, hi-res setting (40 megapixels). We were very pleased with the image stabilization and I was frankly surprised at how noise free the cameras were even at 1600 ISO.
If you live in Austin you may want to take a trip to experience Cantine. It's a wonderful addition to Austin's world class food scene.
Thanks, Kirk
A fun look at Cantine Italian Cafe and Bar. Shot by James Webb and Kirk Tuck with Olympus OMD EM5.2 cameras and assorted lenses. All production and creative thought done in Austin, Texas
edit: just uploaded the final, color corrected, 1080p version to Vimeo. The version you see here is 800 pixels wide. Click through to Vimeo to see the hi-res version. Thanks!
I am extremely happy with my collaboration with talented film-maker, James Webb. We shot together over the course of a day and a half at Cantine. James selected the scenes and had the vision for the final edit. I worked as a second camera person and as the producer.
For this project we used two Olympus OMD EM5.2 cameras and an assortment of Olympus lenses as well as older, manual focus lenses, adapted to fit. All of the material was shot handheld with the exception of three or four beauty shots of food, which are
hi-res still files from the camera's special, hi-res setting (40 megapixels). We were very pleased with the image stabilization and I was frankly surprised at how noise free the cameras were even at 1600 ISO.
If you live in Austin you may want to take a trip to experience Cantine. It's a wonderful addition to Austin's world class food scene.
Thanks, Kirk
39 comments:
Really like that - my favourite of your video projects that you've posted so far.
I'd say the only jarring thing (for me) was the panning still shots of the table and wine rack at the start, which didn't seem of a piece with the energy and modern cutting of the bulk of the rest of the clip. The high-res food shots near the end, by contrast, work nicely to provide a lingering look at some of the food that's been teased up until that point.
Great stuff & certainly made me want to try eating there, so job done!
Mark
I love it. Can't believe it was done with small sensor cameras!
Very nice video. I was looking for a music credit at the end. Then I replayed and used Spotify to identify Django Reinhardt. I guess he's in the public domain now.
Just too long for me, lost interest well before the halfway point. Beautiful cinematic work tho.
I enjoyed the video, nice audio track too. Just three tiny comments that distracted me:
1- The shadows and tones just before middle gray are a bit dark. Makes me want to increase the display brightness, but I notice that the whites are already at their limits. So maybe ooen shadows a bit?
2- Sometimes depth of field is to shallow, and then you pull focus to the food, all in what seems like 2 seconds. This was a bit jarring. I would have used motion instead of pulling focus for a scene that would last one more second before transitioning to something else.
3- The best shots were the ones under warm lighting. It seems that parts of the shooting was done under CFL. It looked a bit pale and green. I don't know how you could've solved that. Would a tweaked warmer white balance as opposed to the correct one make a difference?
Once again, this is not to say I didn't enjoy the video. I really did. The most exciting part was the spaghetti machine. I wanted to see more.
I can see why you like working with the EM5 II hand-held. Many of the shots in this piece would be impossible without a full cinema lighting rig, lighting director, and a complete shutdown of the business for a couple of days' shooting in the endlessly repetitive studio style.
There's a lot to like, but -- since everybody's a critic and that grants me automatic license -- I have to say the music works totally in opposition to, rather than with, the video. It's disruptive and distracting. It even superimposes a rhythm which constantly fights with the flow of the video content.
I would be the last to speak ill of Stephane Grappelli or Django Reinhardt. But there is a damaging clash going on here between audio and video that undoes a lot of good work.
Sigh.
Your never going to please everyone however if the client is happy that is all that matters. I liked it however I agree with some of the caveats above. I always view an advertising video like this with no sound on first to see how I react to it both consciously and latter let the unconscious pluses and minuses percolate to the surface. I have to admit though that it didn't leave me with the feeling that I just have go there when I'm in Austin. I am sure the client will really enjoy all the "technique" and "hustle" centric shots and naturally you need some of that but maybe not so many. My son in law is an executive chef so I know how they think. But then again I'm not privy to the original request from the client so I might be way off base. I liken the video to a major slide rule carrying geek trying to describe his first kiss to other geeks.
Everyone will have an opinion but I will say that I find it refreshing to see such a well done video created with nothing more than a couple of thousand dollar still cameras. As Matthews said above it would have taken a crew and a lot of gear and time to do this as good before this kind of image stabilization came along. That you did this while the restaurant was open and busy is amazing to me. Yes to everyone above, they could have done "Heaven's Gate" or "The Last Mohican" with endless time and an endless budget. This one feels just right to me.
Thanks to all for commenting. Obviously I like the video and the music so I'm chalking some responses up to a difference in taste. I will say that I'm in some way happy that we're not discussing the gear of it but actually discussing the aesthetics instead.
I enjoyed watching this, but like one person said, it ran long for me. Perhaps attention spans are shorter than they were years ago? Or else your client asked for it to be a certain length?
Only a few clips seemed out-of-place, and the overall effect was of a busy and delicious place to eat. Luscious colors for food, and a complementary sound track.
I'll mention the equipment only because I'm also considering the OM series (from a 5DII); I can't tell a difference. The total system is, for me, quite appealing; I'm retired and don't need a wagon full of stuff. This seems to work well for your projects.
Thanks very much Bill. I appreciated the earlier "save" as well. I must say that even though (in theory) there are cameras out their with better video files I sure like being able to handhold these and get in really tight. That and being able to use so many different brands and focal lengths of lenses. I think the Olympus EM5.2 delivers above its price point.
One thing I saw a lot of from the better Olympus lenses was amazing Nano-Acuity(tm). Just saying.
Well done Kirk,
Visually appetizing.
Some have mentioned it was too long.
I think the length is not an issue, but would have liked a much slower pace.
I suppose the fast pace is just a sign of the times.
Liked the video, but even before reading the comments, was curious about the music which seemed more French than Italian - but as has been said, as long as the client likes the end result, it's fine.
Made me hungry and curious to visit the restaurant. Nicely done and effective, in my opinion.
Well, maybe it's a bad thing that I actually liked the video, stayed interested to the end, and felt hungry and curious about the restaurant when the video finished. Bad because I'm probably older than their target audience, and I hate the current video fashions and styles. Really hate them, usually can't tolerate more than 20-30 seconds. So while I really liked your video, I guess you have to ask yourself what that means....
Antonio and Roberto, Thank you! As I've said I think it's a very subjective measure. Les said, "if the client is happy...." but really I like it and I always want to be happy before I turn a project over to the the client.
I just had supper and now you went and made me hungry again. I guess that means the video is successful. As for critiques, the first question I am going to ask myself " could I even come close to replicating that? " answer "NOPE". nuff said. I like it Kirk. Thanks for letting us have a peak inside your world.
Ed
I think it's well done, and it gets more lively and interesting as it continues. The plating shots were great.
The video on Cantina... wonderful! If I lived in the Austin area, I would want to experience Cantina! Made me hungry.
Very well done!
My three-year old granddaughter couldn't get enough of the video. But then again, she's a San Francisco foodie.
As a food lover and e-m5 II owner I loved it. I will definitely be stopping by if I am ever in Austin. Ice cream and espresso anytime for me! In a previous post you discussed how you thought you had hit upon a good balance of settings for video on the e-m5 II. Did you employ those here?
Well timed, good aesthetics, nice lead in followed by action and wrap up. What more could you want?
Great video. End of story.
Well I happily stayed to the end and ended up wanting to eat there.
So job done. !
Makes me want to go out for Italian tonight.
I like how it lets the food and staff "do the talking" without a voice-over. A great change from what we expect in commercials.
I really liked the video, the technique, edits, quick cuts, pull focus, etc.. The music however..... Just another subjective opinion. Glad you and your client were happy with the results.
Hi Kirk, English is not my first language and I am a terrible speller. But I have a weakness of being able to see other people's error more clearly than my own. Do you mean "Take a Peek?" :-)
Excellent and effective - I will put this place on my list for my next pass through Austin.
Wow. No quicker way to kill page views on a blog than to put up an actual video project.... Amazing.
Hi Kirk, I really liked the video - who says m4/3 can't do shallow depth of field? - and the music, which is perfect for a cafe. But using a tune from a band called Quintette du Hot Club de France for an Italian cafe did make me smile.
Chris.
1. Loved the video.
2. Especially the finish -- coffee on ice cream.
3. All that knife work and no blood?
4. Thanks for sharing.
There are a few spots in the cutting in minute 2 where I find that the use of focus-racking gets a little repetitive; particularly the number of "rack into focus" shots in the plating segment, each of which left me expecting a change in rhythm or subject that didn't happen with most of them.
That small criticisms aside, the visual storytelling within each frame is really engaging and the montage otherwise works nicely. I love the hand-held look, and having grown up learning to shoot with 16mm and Canon XL1 video cameras in the late 90s I'm absolutely mind-blown that you could do that all without steadicam gear!
Great job ,. a bit long and I am reminded what a risk music can be to video .... not right or wrong but for me the music seemed inappropriate ... I kept thinking Charlie Chaplin was going to photobomb. Thanks for sharing.
The fact you were able to do all that with hand held, in the heat of the moment (no pun intended) action of a working kitchen is an accomplishment. An RX10 or RX100 might have done similarly (maybe not the 10 since light was too low a few times) but this is an excellent show case of a camera overlooked for video. I did find myself thinking it would have been nice to have a wide, establishing shot with the Oly 12mm.
I wonder if you could get a nicely stabilized, rising segment by shooting at 60P and then dragging it down to 24P to mask hand held jiggle? Just a thought on how to do that hand held without a jib which couldn't be used in a bustling kitchen.
On the whole it's a great series that you can use as is or tighten up through editing to create a 45 second segment that could be used nicely on their web site.
You know you're killing me with this stuff right? I keep seeing these used at a price point that makes me want to impulse buy. The oly high res mode has me intrigued as much as the stabilized video.
What? Putting up an actual video project kills page views to the blog?
Looks to me like it's outdrawn everything recently posted in terms of comments, including your take on the Sony AR72 -- the current hot topic among gear addicts. Comments speak of reader engagement, no?
Or did I misunderstand?
Michael, You are absolutely right! I was just reacting to the plunge in the numbers of people clicking through. My bad. I'll clean up my act. :-)
And, by the way, I'm loving the feedback, it's very bright and I keep learning from it which is exactly what I was looking for.
The clip definitely had the desired effect on me - if I was in Austin I would go to this cafe. I even checked out the web site and menu and I live about 9,000 miles away (they have a couple of problems on their website - in particular http://cantineaustin.com/social).
The fast pace suits a bustling Italian cafe, colours are fantastic, music is fine and the clip is very impressive given the cafe was open for business at the time.
This has even made me think of trying out the record button on my OM-Ds :)
A lovely little visual poem. Loved the structure, rhythm, and the music was great!
The link on the blog page says "canine" restaurant, though, which I'd like to think isn't true...!
Thanks for another great article.
Great! Now I need to eat something good and nice!
robert
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