I approached Klein Imaging to shoot, direct and edit a mini documentary for their bespoke framing arm of the business.
I wanted to make something as visually interesting as possibly whilst still telling the story and demonstrating what goes into creating a bespoke picture frame.
The shoot took one full day (approx 12 hours). This was partly because I wanted as many setups as possible to show depth but also because making a bespoke frame takes quite a lot of skill and time.
Camera
For this film I utilised my trusty Sony FS7 and Samyang Prime Lenses. I knew I wanted to grade the film later so I shot in the super flat profile, Slog 3. I covered everything on the 35mm and 85mm T1.5. I shot almost everything wide open to get that super shallow look. Thankfully the studio space was really edgy which meant wherever I pointed the camera I got an interesting background. I wanted a dreamy, calm look in camera to reflect the patience required to build the frame and therefore shot everything in 60 frames per second.
I used a variety of in camera tricks to get the light leaks effect. A selection of prisms and wine glasses, when used correctly help add interest and intrigue to a shot.
The key is to not overdo this effect as it can get distracting.
Lighting
The studio was lit with a selection of florescent tubes overhead. Whilst they’re very practical for building frames and printing art work. They aren’t very flattering on camera. They also produced horrendous flicker on camera when shooting 60fps, 1/120 shutter. I decided to kill all the overheads and light the scenes myself. I used 1x Arri 300W light with a blue gel and 3x F&V LED panels daylight balanced. I added diffusion to all the light to help reduce any harsh shadows.
Sound
I had a selection of questions in mind and gave David a heads up beforehand. I didn’t want a normal corporate talking head style interview. I wanted the audio to be as conversational as possible. I chose to simply have a chat and capture as many nice soundbites as possible. We set up a small sound booth in his studio and used dappeners to reduce the reverb. Everything was recorded using the zoom H4n and Rode NTG2 shotgun mic.
Editing
I edited and graded this film in Adobe Premiere Pro CC. I used a LUT from Impulz as a starting point and added curves and film grain to get the correct exposure and look I was after.
The editing process took approx 1 day to get everything lined up. David asked for a couple of tweaks here and there but was generally really happy with the film.
I sourced the music from Premium Beat. Once complete, I put the film on my Facebook page. It gained >2K views in 24 hours. You can watch the full film here: