Michelle Tofi

Xander’s “Requiem for a Dream” video featuring Amzo dropped at the start of this week and has already racked up over 13,000 views on youtube. Here’s the link from my Vimeo page.  I shot the video and it really was a fun shoot - Xander has an incredible amount of energy and creativity and brought loads of ideas to the shoot we got to try out, including shooting 50fps for most of the piece on 550D, then time-remapping in Motion’s Optical Flow in post.  I hope you enjoy the video!

If you like jazz or Annie Lennox you might like this, which is not really jazz and definitely not Annie Lennox.  It’s a clip of a live event I filmed for The Evening Standard newspaper, in which British jazz singer Clare Teal performs ‘Why’, quite brilliantly I might add.  I co-ordinated this shoot on 2 5D MK II’s (one of them mine) and my 550D, using a 50mm lens, a 24-70 Sigma and a 24-70 Canon L lens (a beast, which belongs to my good friend Mahdi from http://mtnproductions.co.uk/.  There’s plenty more footage from the night that I’m slowly uploading to Vimeo.  But if you’re after a live event camera op/director or editor, let me know! I’m getting pretty adept at all this :)

- Michelle (michelle.tofi@gmail.com)

4 Piece Close-Up Lens Kit Review

New toy time! This past weekend over at Vimeo there was a Macro video project. The challenge was to create a video of no more than 3 minutes using only macro shots, with a complete narrative told through the images. A great project and one which inspired me, but unfortunately my only macro-capable lens is a Sigma telephoto that really doesn’t get close enough to anything to be true macro. So, I bought myself a set of 52mm Close-up lenses - including shipping these set me back about £20, a total bargain for what I got. 

The set includes four glass lenses in various strengths (+1,+2+4 & Macro) which screw onto the front of a standard 52mm filter size prime, such as Canon’s EF 50 mm f/1.8 II Lens.  Below is a test of three of the lenses, compared with the standard shot achieved using the Canon 50mm.

As you can tell, the Macro Lens alone is incredible - as soon as this kit arrived (the day after I ordered it!) I’ve been playing with the macro lens all day - my Flickr has a whole new album dedicated to shots taken with this filter, and you can see more examples running along the bottom of this page.  I highly recommend checking them out - For a cheap glass filter you can really achieve some incredibly detailed work, and I can’t wait to put these lens filters to good use at the weekend, taking advantage of the great sunshine we’ve been having to make my macro film. Ok, it’ll be a week to late to get it entered in Vimeo’s project, but it should still be something pretty special! Pick your set up today! If you’re not yet convinced, here’s another snap shot I took using the filter this afternoon:

New Toys/New Skills

Last week I was finally able to take a short break from working on the post for my film, Sacrifice and concentrate on other projects. Our film is currently being graded in two different countries; we have managed to get a studio in Soho, London, to grade us their version of the film (for free!) and a freelance colourist in Barcelona is working on his own take for the look of the period.

Of course, free time in this industry is always both a blessing and a curse - I’ve got a busy month next month with two corporate shoots and a music video scheduled within a week of each-other but right now I’d be glad of something to fill my time (and boost my bank balance) a little. 

I love gadgets and anyone who reads this blog regularly will know I can’t go too long without acquiring a new bit of kit for my shooting set-up. Last week that new bit of kit was the ‘Shoot RS-60E3 Remote Cord’ - a shutter release remote for my DSLR that means a) I can finally be in family/group photos and b) I can finally do some sweet timelapses using controlled shutter photography. 

Now timelapse and HDSLR is admittedly becoming something of a cliche but it is still a useful skill to have under your belt and makes a nice addition to various projects - long establishing shots that introduce both a location and scene change in a fiction film, a quick fly-through of the creation of something in a documentary, a stylish effect in a music video that seems to isolate your artist from the fast paced world around them. Me, I just sat my camera on my windowsill and shot the street below it, but that’s guerilla filmmaking for you! So here’s my ‘Bethnal Green Timelapse’. Anyone in the know will recognise that this is the corner of Approach Road - next time you’re down The Approach for a swift pint you can ruefully smile to yourself at the art that might be happening incongruously around you. 

Of course, there’s a lot still to be learned about timelapse from my position, but for something put together a few minutes after I ripped open the remote’s packaging it’s not too bad. There is, however, more to this story than just a tale of new toys. As I mentioned in the title of this post, I’ve also been honing a few new skills this week and as a freelance editor my focus has been on colour grading. As I’ve said, my current film is being graded professionally right now but that doesn’t mean grading isn’t something I enjoy and am able to offer my clients. Here’s a little side by side comparison to show you what I managed to achieve with the colouring on my timelapse stills:

There’s room for improvement, clearly - the reds I think I pushed a little too far into magenta in some cases, but I’m really pleased with the colour and shine I brought back to the car that sits stationary throughout the timelapse footage, and how much the flower bed ‘pops’ off the screen. I clearly also should have set up my camera to take better pictures in the first place! That washed out grey looking ‘before’ picture is frankly terrible, but it’s a great indication of what a talented colourist can do to a film. 

As always, if you’re looking for a freelance camera operator/DOP/Director or Editor/Colourist please do get in touch. Until we meet again, I’ll be refining my colouring skills and finishing the screenplay for my latest short. 

I made a new film! Here is the rough cut. Obviously it’s yet to be coloured, and I will be looking at adding some Hindi narration courtesy of my lovely co-conspirator and partner in crime, Kim. This was an excellent chance to get out on the streets with my fellow filmmaker Adam and shoot some DSLR footage. I used IndiSystem’s glorious IndiSlider Deluxe (Mini) for the glidetrack shots, and my own Zacuto inspired Viewfinder for body stabilisation on the handheld stuff. All in all, it was great practice for our shoot in February ‘11 for Sacrifice and remember, if you like what you see here you can help us get Sacrifice made with a small donation over at our funding page! This is what I can do alone, but imagine what your funding could do combined with our two HD camera set-up, lighting rig, a whole church set to shoot in and a professional camera crew shipping over just for our shoot!

Anyway, here’s Brick Lane in all it’s dirty sexy glory. East London never looked so Hi Def. Enjoy!

I’ve been exploring Tilt Shift for a little while now, watching its use in advertising and music videos (and now, the fabulous Tilt Shift iPhone App) while enviously wishing I had the skills to incorporate it into one of my shorts. Today, however, fuelled by the twin motivators of having nothing to do and the internet at my fingertips I leant out of my window and shot a few seconds of footage before throwing myself into Apple’s Motion & Final Cut in order to knock up a tilt of my own. The video above is the result.

Now, on reflection I realise to get a better ‘toy box world’ look I’m going to need a telephoto lens and a higher platform from which to shoot, but I’m pretty pleased with the look of this. Especially when you consider what went into it. Here’s a before shot from the raw footage: 

Add to that image about 15 minutes in FCP and 15 more in Motion (maybe longer with rendering times factored in) and you’ve got the following: 

Anyone with a basic knowledge of editing can probably guess what went into this; e.g. tripling the speed then utilising FC’s Strobe to even out frame rate at a steady 30fps, exporting to Motion to layer the footage then using masks to add blur where necessary and sharpen the cars, before finally sending back to FC for vignetting and colour processing - vital for bringing out the rich over-saturated colours common to many Tilt Shift films. I’m fairly happy with the result and can’t wait to get out in town with my Canon 550d and a couple of lenses to shoot something better. Expect more Tilt Shift work soon! For now, check out The Vimeo community’s selection of excellent Tilt Shift shorts, there’s a huge collection with some real gems waiting to be discovered.

At the weekend, our flat got productive and made a film. Here it is, in all its unbridled glory. Yup, there is even an awesome cameo from yours truly!  We shot this on my Canon 550D/Rebel T2i in full HD and I have to say for something conceived as a bit of a mess around for a Sunday afternoon, the results look great. Enjoy!