The Canon C300 on an El Pollo Loco Spot
The Canon C300 had just been delivered to my door step, and I got a call from John Krueger, a director whom I met at our HV Bootcamp 2 years ago. John and I first worked together about one year ago. The current spot was for El Pollo Loco, and the concept was a very action oriented camera, with snap zooms and quick handheld push ins and pull outs. I thought the C300 would be the perfect camera for this job, lightweight and maneuverable. Taking advantage of Canon log to expand my latitude for the day exteriors as well as interiors for shooting with flaming chickens would be essential. We rigged the C300s with lightweight zooms and readied for ACTION!
D.P. Shane Hurlbut, ASC and director John Krueger discussing a shot.
We scouted two stores and settled on the one in Long Beach with many windows and orientation to the sun. John wanted the look and feel to be fresh, filled with early afternoon sun.
El Pollo Loco exterior
Derek Edwards and Marc Margulies pulled focus and were getting used to a new platform once again. They felt really positive about the focus on the job, and I was constantly at an f2.0 most of the day.
Elite team member Mike Svitak slating the shot
Elite team member Derek Edwards checking focus.
Here is the finished spot. I think it has a fresh look. Vashi Nedomansky did the edit on Premiere Pro, and Matthew Macar did all the graphics. Thanks to Derek Johnson for the BTS photos in the post. Enjoy!!!
Thanks for the detailed info and pics, Shane! As usual, you continue to be a great source of knowledge and inspiration. Very much appreciate you taking the time to share with us!
Completely all right with you Stats. Thank you very much to team and you Shane for this excellent sharing! :D
Thierry Dauga, you are so welcome, thanks for the support
Stas Tagios, thank you again for all of your kind words and support
BTW, the spot looked great:) How are you liking working with the C300? Are you impressed with the quality of the image you’re getting? How does it hold up through post?
Post went very smoothly. It lasted 15 days and I cut and colored at my studio in Santa Monica. We cut a 30 second spot, a 15 second lift, a 15 second Spanish version, and 2 alternate versions in English and Spanish. I edited on Premiere CS 5.5 natively with the C300 MXF footage. I used Davinci Resolve to color grade and outputted Pro Res HQ (1920×1080 @29.97) for QC and final broadcast. Shane got the image so close in-camera that my grade was just tweaking the C-log footage to make it pop and add contrast. In a couple shots, I added power windows to flag a couple areas and direct the eye towards the talent…but never had to adjust white balance or overall hues. Shane destroyed it with his consistency and raw image creation and capturing. Made my job easier and quicker to the finish line. I created the sound design in Audition and Margarita Mix in Santa Monica did the final mix in 5.1 and Stereo for broadcast. Hope that helps!
Stas Tagios, the C300 looks a little video for me, trying to figure out the right cocktail with it. I think Vashi did a great job coloring it. Looked sweet
Dear Mr. Hurlbut
I just want to really thank you for putting up post like this show which lights you used and the finally product. It really helps students like me in school ensure want were learning is currently used in the industry.
Thank You,
Edward Martinez
Edward Martinez, you are welcome and that is why I am hear and what makes the HurlBlog different. Spread the word my friend.
Great post and insight, Shane. Interested to know what kind of lenses you used for your setups. I assume PL glass but could be wrong. Thanks for sharing!
KShaw, Thank you so much for your kind words. I used Panavision lightweight zooms on this. Loved the look and feel. 17-35, 28-70mm.
Really nice, illustrative and Interesting Post as always!!! Thanks very much to all the team for the time and effort sharing so valuable and detailed info!!!
Nacho Martinez, you go it and you are very welcome.
Wow. Such an incredible amount of thought and attention to detail. End result? You are thinking solely about the product and the brand. Mission accomplished. Thanks so much for sharing. Impressive package too. (Lighting..)
Oli Kember, hello my friend. Thank you so much for those wonderful kind words
Hey Shane, if you don’t mind me asking what was the total cost to rent all the equipment minus your own Shane Hurlbut equipment a day? With the C300 being an awsome low light performer did you find that you did not need all of that lighting?
I’ve always wondered what it would cost to have a truck like that with all those goodies in it would run too.
fairly easy to do the cost for Grip and lighting for this one, you can goto the equipment house and pull all the info from their webpage,, looks like standard 5 ton grip package, then add the day rates for the HMI and Kinos, add the supercranks, these items and the lights are usually as used on a spot like this, add the 1200 amp gennie thay had to bring. take 20 to 30% off the day rates, for the local PM who always uses this equipment house. there are no discounts for the fuel costs, that gennie drank about 60 gallons that day at 5$ per gal. base truck package no discount, gennie maybe discounted somewhat. add the expendables, gaff tape snot tape gel etc,, add the drivers day rate A strong 5 figure invoice from the grip and lighting provider.
I sould have said strong 4 figure invoice from grip house,,,
mel haynes, the grip truck goes for like 550 a day and then the lights for this spot without discount were 10k.
Spots like this need to pop, hoping that the low light ability of the camera will save you is not the case here, Ya gotta light it up to make it pop. Shane gives very detailed information here about the light and color selection,, ( adding CTS ) etc. even with the stills to help ya out you have to read it two or three times to grasp the setups.. Thanks Shane for the details.
Hi Craig, I didn’t mean any disrespect to Mr. Hurlbut, he is by far a hell of a lot more knowledgeable than myself and has done a lot more and larger projects than I have, but I know that the C300 has a crazy low light iso range and I was just wondering since it sounds like this is Shane’s first shoot with the C300 if he found that he didn’t need to use as much of the kit than he thought he would need. I have a small production company and I can only dream at this point to rent this amount of equipment, but even at my level of productions I find myself loading everything but the kitchen sink, but I found in this business it is always good to be safe than sorry.
Joseph, This is a great question. Just because the camera has a sensitive sensor means absolutely nothing if you are shooting with the influence of mother nature. If you put your self in a darkened stage then you can light with a flashlight if you want to. But I have to balance windows, I have to balance to the flames. Flames are about a f16 at 850 ISO, so I have to bring the level up so the flames look real and not some nuked out junk that you see when people don’t light. Just because this camera has high sensitivity it doesn’t mean that can lower you’re lighting budget or that you don’t have to light. Biggest disservice to this revolution, is not to light.
Shane,
First great job! Yes, I agree with you 110% and love this statement at the end…”Biggest disservice to this revolution is not to light”.
PS. I was in the audience when you came to San Mateo to talk about shooting with 5D on “Act of Valor”. Also, a great talk and really loved your energy!
Joseph, 10K was the total price.
great post as usual Shane. I guess this spot was also the marking of the end of the Hurlbut family expansion. Steam…ouch
mel haynes, LOL, yes that seems to be true, boy that was steamy
Looking good Shane!
Donald Bérubé, thank you so much for your kind words
I’m sure shane doesn’t know the actual cost of the lighting and grip equipment, but thats a pretty standard 5-$6000 dollar package, then you are talking about 10k in crew needed to run and manage it all.
also, thank you shane for the tiffen indie filter kits you put together, just got mine and have to shoot my first video on the 5DMK3 by myself this weekend, no assistants! so this is going to help me immensely. what a nice sweet package and well worth the price.
Thanks for the dollar amount jlevy. My production company is realitivley small and I haven’t had the client yet that will pay for a large productions as this. For small production companies like myself were always looking for dollar amounts to better our knowledge for posible future shoots. I rent lens, but beyond that I own most of my gear for the level of shoots I do.That’s what I appreciate about Shane is that he’s always helping the little guy like me better ourselves by giving all this wealth of information, thanks Shane.
no problem, yes I’m impressed with shane’s explanations and transparency on his lighting techniques. i know that most DP’s would never give away what they do. i find that’s the reason why the articles in American Cinematographer magazine are so vague.
jlevy, that is correct. I am an artist, and I am transparent. The days of holding shit close to the chest are over. I love giving back and pouring gasoline on this revolution.
very rare, indeed. i’ve been locked on the website for the past couple hours…thanks shane!
jlevy, That package was 5500K. Big discount as well. You are very welcome, I am glad you like them. I love those filters.
Is that part at 0:23 a zoom or a push in? Looks cool.
@Aaron, That looks to be a push but speed ramped in post, pay attention to how well the focus pull was executed, Nice!
@Aaron, On a second look, it actually could be a zoom, then cropped and keyed the position, Not sure now need to ask vashi.
Hi Darryl… That was pure Shane manual in-camera-snap-zoom action! Luckily for me…no digital zoom, keying and repo-ing needed!
Aaron, that is a snap zoom on a 17-35 lighweight Panavision zoom. Loved the feel of this baby.
Very cool.
Many thanks for sharing so much detail on your blog. It is now on my ‘must watch’ list. Much appreciated.
William Tuke, thank you so much for your kind words and support. Great to have you. We do things much different here. We actually create!!!
Great commercial, thanks for posting this on the C300. By the way what was the total production budget on this?
Aydin Odyakmaz, I think it was just around 350K.Thank you so much for your kind words.
Thank you for taking the time for writing these posts.
Your website has been a great source of information for me.
I´m hoping I can get to watch Act of Valor here in Brazil.
Keep up the good work!
Congrats!
Roberto Seba, thank you for those wonderful words of support. Love to hear your comments once you see it.
We’ve got a release date of June 15th for Act of Valor in Brazil.
Wow! That´s great news! Looking forward to it!
Thank you!
Great spot and BTS post. As others have already mentioned, your willingness to share is a great testament to your character and stills. I’m looking forward to learning more in future posts.
Oren Arieli, thank you so much for your kind words and support. Much appreciated
Shane, love the spot. Your blog is one of my favorites. Thanks for the transparancy and doing what you do. Earlier you talked about lighting for flames. Was the idea to bring up all the light around them so they weren’t so bright in comparison? Am I understanding this correctly? Also, any quick tips for lighting food? The salsa and avacado shots look great.
Bridger, you are very welcome and thank you for your kind words. Yes I had to bring the levels up so that the flames did not blow out and look all video clippy, if that is a word. The food photography I did not do, that was another DP.
Thanks for the info! I definitely appreciate articles like this. You can’t just find stuff like this anywhere.
Shane – I just found your blog after recently viewing the Act of Valor behind the scenes, and I have to say thank you so much for the in depth analysis and honesty across the board. Such an excellent source of info!
Karl Stelter, you are very welcome. Glad to have you aboard.
You are so welcome and thank you for your kind words of support
Steven Moses was the Director/DP on the food scenes which he did with the Alexa camera w/ T-Rex & Arri Macro lens systems.
Shane,
Thanks as always for sharing precious info.
I would like to know if you have any tips for setting up the picture profiles on the C300, or any settings you may recommend.
Thanks!
Paolo
Hi Paolo. I shoot in either Canon log or use a custom picture profile with the Cine 2 gamma curve with R-G channel set to -8 If I don’t want as flat of a look. Check out this site for more detailed info on recommended settings http://cpn.canon-europe.com/files/news/video_expert_produces_eos_c300_report/Alan_Roberts_on_the_Canon_EOS_C300.pdf. Thanks for the comment and support.
Shane,
Thanks a million!!
Paolo
ooops the site is missing….could you please re-post it?
Thanks again!!!
Paolo
http://cpn.canon-europe.com/files/news/video_expert_produces_eos_c300_report/Alan_Roberts_on_the_Canon_EOS_C300.pdf
Thanks!!
Hi Shane:
Great spot; nice and snappy. On your footage, how did you accomplish the delightful flames on the grill, yet not cause the chicken to burn and smoke? They come off as an neat caricature of grill flames.
Cheers.
Bob Demers, those were all flame bars under the chicken, not a true grill, so we could control the size and color. I think the C300 handled it very well.