SHOP TALK Episode 2 - Canon C500 Mark ii

Hey there. Welcome to our little BTS chat and inside look into how we shot the short “Ain’t Got No Money Honey” using the Canon C500ii, Celere HS primes, Aputure MC lights and Sound Devices 888 recorder.

To start we had 12 hours to shoot this 9 page short with 3 locations and having to talk bts bits about each product while shooting. We knew we were going to have a quick day and we had to have a small footprint so we could unload and load very quickly at each of our locations.

For our first and last scenes inside the convenience store we tried to keep things pretty minimal and non intrusive since the business stayed open while we were shooting and we had to knock off takes in between customers. we used all of their overheads and just chose what banks were on. We used the Aputure MC lights to pepper around the register for some fill and uplight. We used the feature in the app to color match to what was inside the store and it worked pretty well. We only had two other lights in play. A 4ft PavoTube sitting above the ATM and a 4ft Pavo Tube tucked up behind the register to simulate the faulty light. We were shooting 5.9k RAW on the C500 and just monitoring on set with the built in rec709 LUT. We were on Steadicam a lot, which was operated by Billy Nicholson. Since there was pretty much constant movement, we really liked seeing the lenses in the T2.8 Range really only saving the WFO shots for special close ups or wider shots. We used almost all of the focal lengths inside including the 18.5, 25, 35, 50, 85. For inside the ATM shot we used a single Aputure light tucked inside at full brightness and we ended up using the Laowa 24mm Probe lens at T14 to get that shot. Was great that we were able to get enough light using just one MC and taking the camera ISO to 3200 from 800. Didn’t see much of a difference in the grain. The only other special shot was the ATM POV shot which we used a S35 Tokina PL 11-16 at 11mm to get a vignette then dirtied that shot up in post.

Once we got to the Steadicam shot outside of the bar where our female here Daisy enters, We had a few more lights in play. We stuck an Aputure MC to the roof of the car to simulate a dome light. Then we put more Aputure lights inside the bathrooms to give some color to the window fixtures. We also had a Hive 200-c Blasting some color effects from inside the bar onto the side of the wall. As she approaches the door we have a PavoTube hanging from the overhang at 50% intensity to give her some light to pass through. Also rigged on the wall was a rayzr MC200 in HSI mode set to a pretty orange color to get that sodium vapor look. That is aimed and barndoored at her windshield. Then to give her some edge we also had the Rayzr7 on a stand to hit the building and car a bit. it had a gel and was around 30%. In terms of camera we had things set at 800ISO and were at about a 2.8/4 split on a 50mm. It took about 60 mins to unload the van, build and light that shot as it was our first shot of the day, while we were pre lighting the bar scene.

Once we got to the bar scene where she approaches the bar. We had that scene light with 2 Litemat 4’s rigged overhead with 1/4 diff and using the control grids, and then we had various PavoTubes and Aputure MC’s peppered around for fill. All running maybe 50% intensity. we went for a very warm light inside the bar and set everything that was non RGB at 2700 and the other fixtures were all HSI mode somewhere in the orange spectrum. We shot that one shot on the 35mm at T2.0 and let the scene play out within that frame. We Shot coverage but the Director wanted to keep that coverage out of the final edit.

Moving to the scene after Karaoke in the same area, we more or less used the same lighting and lens setup but moved everything a little brighter to feel like an after closing vibe. This was also just on the steadicam using the 35mm fairly close to wide open.

Now the Karaoke scenes. I’m a big fan of light it once if you can let everything be what it is to some degree. We blacked out all the windows in the bar which was a chore, but from there we used the Hive 200-c for some color scrapes along the wall, then had the 2 Rayzr MC-200 panels on the floor aimed up at her almost like floor speakers. We put a couple of Aputure MC’s on the wall to give us some interest then we just tossed all the Pavotubes we had around the room using various colors of orange blue and pink. We kept most of the light on Daisy’s character while keeping things dim in the background. We were running out of time with some of these scenes so we had to move quick. The battery power of the MC’s and Pavos was great because if we didn’t like something it was just as easy to move them somewhere else. We just kind of free floated with the Steadicam at that point just picking off shots until we get to Daisy singing. I think we used the 35 and 85mm at T1.5 for a lot of the singing stuff. We just wanted her to fall in and out of focus. Wanted to portray her getting more tired and less composed as it went on. Then we get to her moment where she sings. This was mainly on the 18.5 on the dana dolly at t1.5 and just let this run while picking off shots on the 85mm with our second cam on the Steadi. These were real takes and used in the film so we had three takes to get it right and nailed it on the third one. After that our total load out took roughly 30 mins to pack into a Ford Transit 250.

All in all, for staying at 800iso and T2.8 for most of the short, I was surprised with got away with so much using mostly fixtures that were less than 200w only. Overall there were some things we didn’t get to try like anamorphic or autofocus, but it all works well. Camera performed well and the Celere’s are still some of my favorite lenses. They flare great, low con, sharp past T2.0, but feels really nostalgaic wide open. Also using them on the Steadicam was great since they are all the same weight and center of gravity, we never needed to rebalance the rig.

So that’s it. The full look at how we shot the short on a more in depth level. Thanks for stopping by. :)