Alex Levin shot this surfing film in Spain over the winter. It features beautiful aerial photography and natural landscapes.
Camera Settings
Source Camera: Sony A7s, S-log2
Film Stock: KD 5213 Vis3
Film Color: 100%
Curve: 10%
Grain: 0-10%
Alex D. Levin – www.alexdlevin.com
For this project I was going for a cool, natural look. We were out in the early morning for most of the shots and I wanted to keep some of the softness of the morning light but emphasize the beautiful blue, pink, and purple tones that we got from the sky. I didn’t want to push anything too hard in terms of saturation or contrast, I thought it would distract from the natural beauty of the ocean and the landscape.
I’ve always been interested in filmmaking and photography. When I was younger I spent a lot of time shooting small projects with friends and trying to learn the ins and outs of my parents’ film cameras.
I learned about FilmConvert from a colleague. Philip Knowlton, a really talented director and editor, told me that whenever he has to do his own color work he uses FilmConvert.
I needed an easy to use but ultimately complex tool to get the most from the log footage. FilmConvert gives me the control I want directly within Premiere so I can see the changes I’m making in real time and adjust as I go along. If my vision changes I can just hop back into the plugin and make those new ideas happen.
Within FilmConvert I generally stick to simple tweaks. I like that they tend to be cooler and push towards green a little bit. Then I make sure to adjust the levels to make sure that my contrast is in check. I generally also turn the film grain down or off entirely. I like the natural noise from the camera to shine through and, at least in this instance, didn’t feel the need to enhance it. In addition to FilmConvert I always use a curves adjustment layer. I find this gives me a little more fine control to pull color casts or add some subtle color back into the image that I feel I’m missing.
