I’m pretty proud of Puberty Blues. It’s fantastic television. Here’s a sneak peak. Shot mainly Arri Alexa (supplied by Video Australasia) with some of the longest lenses Ive ever worked with. it wasn’t unusual for us to have the 150-600 canon on with two 2x doublers. There’s a great shot of a surfer going right to left in slow mo in the trailer below at 2:30 that was shot at 2400mm @ 100 FPS.
We also used a couple of Canon C300′s as well as the new Black Magic Cinema Camera, though there don’t happen to be any shots from that camera in the promo.
Here’s the direct link to the promo on Ten’s website.
Looks great mate..strong images. You and the Alexa deliver again.
Why did you choose for the long focals?
Was it due to slow mo + long focal being super fast, or was it the depth of field/deep field?
cheers
There were a few reasons. Longer lenses were necessary for shooting surfers from the beach. We shot with a RED EPIC for in the water and up close.
The longer lenses also made it easier to exclude non-period backgrounds as this show is set in 1977.
It also looks really cool ! Especially super long lenses. We often would shoot drama scenes with 4 figure focal lengths !
jb
Nice stuff, John.
Looks great John. Wish I could have joined you on that one!
Great use of such a warm palette. Makes me miss Australia from over here across the pond.
Very compelling stuff, John. I want to see the series now! Maybe on DVD someday~
It will be on DVD by the end of the year.
Looks great and interesting. Best of luck with it!
I went through puberty once…
Okayyy…Twice.
Do you think that if you didn’t know for sure because of working on the project, as to which shots were done on the Alexa, c300 and BMCC, do you think you could accurately identify which shots were done on which camera?
All footage is Alexa, aside from
1:07 RED EPIC
2:21 Canon C300
2:39 RED EPIC
Thanks for the detailed reply, its interesting to know – what I was really asking though (and should have worded better) was more about how well those 4 cameras intercut in your opinion. (looks great by the way, Great work!)
In early pre we tested the C300 and the Alexa pretty heavily. In the end we decided to use the C300 sparingly, mainly because the DR didn’t match as well and we found that there wasn’t as much “bending” room in the grade, mostly because of the codec with the canon being still fairly compressed. Our conditions were going to be tough in terms of contrast. Australian sun and beach isn’t very forgiving. We decided to try and use the C300 wholly within a scene if we decided it was the right camera for that scene. So if we used it, it wouldn’t be so much for intercutting with Alexa, but for sequences where it would be the only camera. That way, you’re not trying to match it to something.
Setup director Gelndyn Ivin and I decided to try and use it sparingly. It did mean however, that we could simply give a camera to our second unit / surf director, and he often could shoot little sequences by himself, without having to wrangle an Alexa. That would have required him to have an operator and probably an assistant.
The BMCC was used more and more towards the end of the shoot as the easy version didn’t even shoot 25 FPS. I haven’t done the same kind of “direct” testing, but so far, it intercuts with the Alexa footage really nicely. We’ve used it within Alexa shot scenes as a third camera. I’d often get my focus puller to operate it while I flew solo for hand held shots. More often than not the so called third camera bonus shot is getting used.
jb
Looks amazing.
Thanks Ez !
Great work John… saw the promo on tele last night after Masterchef and was captivated from start to finish. Looks beautiful.
Thanks chris !!
Hey John,
Really looking forward to seeing the show. The art department look like they’ve worked overtime as well, girls in bikinis on horse back, classic. The long lenses will certainly give the show a distinct period look as well. Like those classic surf shows we grew up watching in the 70′s and 80′s. Probably used the same lenses! Ahhh sweet youth. Talk soon. Sean
Dear John,
very nice work!
“The BMCC was used more and more towards the end of the shoot…”
Will we see some resalts from BMCC (updated version..) very courious.
Thx
WOW! Too bad that the video has been removed from this site. The direct link is not working ether. The window displays “Video not Available. Player cannot be used in your location”
Legal issues?
Private Video… can’t see it.
You can click through using the link at the bottom of the post to the TEN webiste. I’ve been asked to take the clip down. I’ve seen a version on YouTube.
The website won’t allow me to see it (again) because it’s not available in my area? I live in San Francisco, CA, John. Thanks
YouTube.
And in 720! Thanks
Sorry. I can’t permit a link to it.
Hey, it’s back up!
Looks great! I was wondering how the takes were coordinated since the cameras were really far from the actors.
Yeah it was tough. I had a loader and video split operator and they would both slate for each of the A or B cameras and we had radios, so they would know when to mark. But it makes everything slow. Sometimes you just want to give an actor a note about staring a few inches to the right and it would literally be a 30 second walk to get to where they were standing….
Dear John,
now that you are “unemployed” as you say, why don’t you go out with your BMCC camera and shoot some footage for us eager fans to see and salivate? There is a lack of updates, we are starving, would you feed us?
I am shooting a lot with the camera and it’s continually improving. It’s certainly good enough right now for primetime. There will be some more footage released soon.
Hey JB,
Congrats on the promo, good to see that first scene i shot cut together a treat. Looks great as usual, nice soft palette and warmth, perfect ’70 Australiana.
Catch up soon
I liked the car
Hi just wondering if the series puberty blues needs more classic original cars for the film set I have a classic gts monaro 4 door in original condition it’s been used once in a country music film clip by mcalister kemp for the song “home” on cmc channel and also on cd album cover if you could point me in right direction as to who to approach to maybe get my car on the tv series that would be great cheers , mel