Sofia’s People: Canon 5d mk2
Shot over a couple of nights, taking the 5dmk2 out on the streets and getting shots of the inhabitants and visitors. No lighting, no grading. This is what came out of the camera image wise. All handheld and helped by using the Z-Finder from Zacuto to give the camera a proper viewfinder and improve stability.
All shot using one lens. A Nikon mount Zeiss ZF 50mm f1.4
New version converted to 24p. Watch the tutorial on how this is done by clicking here
Music is by Stacey Kent: You can’t take that away from me. Written by Irving Berlin. Buy on itunes by clicking image below.
Thanks to Dennis Lennie and Teodor Stoyanov.
If you want to download the quicktime version, then please go my vimeo page and download from there. But you need to be member to do this. Membership is free!
Steven Carubia
January 28, 2010 at 03:36Philip,
I’m seriously considering the Zeiss ZF 50mm 1.4 for my 5DmkII.
3 quick questions:
Which adapter did you use?
Were you able to mount and go or where there any internal contact issues?
Did the distance marks on the lens remain accurate?
Keep up the good work!
pbloom
January 28, 2010 at 06:36why not buy the zeiss ZE 50mm? it’s made for the EOS.
The adaptor i do use for my ZF is the fotodiox pro, its very simple piece of metal and on the distance marks remain accurate.
Steven Carubia
January 29, 2010 at 02:11That sounds promising! How does one properly measure?
Heard that the fotodiox pro is an excellent adapter with no play.
Cheers
P.S. Would love to see a People film shot in Toronto! Enjoy your upcoming stay here.
oscar
February 16, 2010 at 12:53Hey Phil,
where is that new 30p to 24p conversion tutorial you mentioned about in may 2009?
I saw comments about “Sofia’s people” video being jerky. I hope this new tutorial can also expand on video and audio being in sync at 24p. thanks!
jschn04
January 20, 2010 at 12:19I just found your search via some forays into the Digital Harizenumi. You’re site rocks and you are very talented. I have to experiment with some Super8 stuff I just got but after that, I am on to the GH1 or 5dMKii or 7D…what choices. Probably leaning toward the GH1 as I am definitely an amateur.
Best,
Jonathan Schneider
Palm Beach Gardens, FL
Skywalker Ranch Video Tour
December 16, 2009 at 19:45[...] big screen. “Venice’s People”, “San Francisco’s People”, “Cherry Blossom Girl” and “Sofia’s People”. They all looked incredibly good on the big screen. Better than I could ever have imagined. We [...]
San Francisco’s People | We Are Indigo
November 1, 2009 at 20:35[...] Director and film maker, Philip Bloom, brings us his third film in his People series. First came Sofia’s People and Dublin’s People. San Francisco’s People is 4 minutes and 30 seconds of pure [...]
San Francisco’s People (video) | Yotubos
October 29, 2009 at 15:31[...] de un visor Z-finder. Otros cortos del mismo autor dentro de la serie ‘People’ son: Sofia’s People y Dublin’s [...]
David
September 25, 2009 at 13:40Hilarious! That’s me with the 5D Mark II in your video! We met on the bul. Vitosha while I was doing night street photography.
Beautifully shot. Makes me want to do my own video now…
Cheers!
David
pbloom
September 25, 2009 at 15:10Ha! Great you’ve seen it! Many people have contacted me after seeing glad you have finally too!
Damien
September 22, 2009 at 22:46Hi Phil, just wondering where you sourced your music from?
I’d like to use some on my website.
Cheers,
Damien
Fantron
September 12, 2009 at 17:26Looks like a cool city! No wonder that so many Brits are now living permamently in Budapest, Bucharest, Sofia, etc.
Philip Bloom » Blog Archive » Dublin’s People: Shot on a Canon 7d in native 24p
September 7, 2009 at 23:36[...] So take a look at this fun little sequel to Sofia’s People! [...]
Philip Bloom » Blog Archive » Review of new Zacuto Z-Finder V2
August 21, 2009 at 13:19[...] this flaw it was still essential and I couldn’t shoot handheld without it. In fact I shot Sofia’s People with just the Z-Finder, no additional support and it turned out [...]
Canon mark II « a sense of justice in the world
July 12, 2009 at 20:13[...] http://philipbloom.co.uk/films/dslr-films/sofias-people-canon-5d-mk2/ [...]
Punk Rock
July 8, 2009 at 11:27Awesome!
Canon should license this footage from you and make a new 5D MK2 advert!!
Did you use any particular picture styes or white balance settings??
Cheers
Jay. L
pbloom
July 8, 2009 at 19:03no all standard settings and tungsten white balance!
Pavel Badzhakov
July 8, 2009 at 07:32Great one. And although I love it… It shows how many people in Sofia are smoking… Great characters and available light usage.
Greetings
from Bulgaria!
pbloom
July 8, 2009 at 19:04I chose the smoking ones!
Philip Bloom releases TV spot with Canon EOS 5D Mark II | planet5D – Dedicated to the Canon EOS 5D
July 7, 2009 at 14:00[...] Bloom (imdb profile), who brought us “Sophia’s People” a little bit ago, announced on his blog today that he used his Canon EOS 5D Mark II to shoot [...]
Philip Bloom » Blog Archive » Shooting a broadcast commercial on the Canon 5dmkII handheld with the Zacuto Tactical Shooter and V1 Z-Finer
July 6, 2009 at 19:53[...] off a little history. Am sure by now you have seen my little short film “Sofia’s People”. Something I shot on my way to dinner whilst doing the first F-Stop Academy Workshop in Sofia, [...]
ivan
July 2, 2009 at 11:29Hello !
Phillip I am amazed by this little short and the qulity that came out off 5D. Mind me asking how do you get nikon mount on this DSLR camera? As I intend to buy 5D, got tired waiting for RED scarlet
thanx ivan
pbloom
July 2, 2009 at 17:46i use a cheap adaptor from ebay Ivan
ivan
July 3, 2009 at 08:20Hello !
Ok thank you, thats the answer I was hoping to get. I am glad I wont be stuck with only super expensive lenses. I guess there is some light loss as with any adapter?
ivan
Philip Bloom » Blog Archive » Turning “Sofia’s People” into a commercial
June 27, 2009 at 20:18[...] Sofia saw my short film “Sofia’s People” and approached me at the beginning of last week to go back to Sofia and shoot a broadcast 30 [...]
Philip Bloom » Blog Archive » What is my work?
June 23, 2009 at 18:51[...] like Sofia’s People, Cherry Blossom Girl, My Autumn’s Done Come, Return to Dungeness, Love from Southend, Alone [...]
drew
June 23, 2009 at 16:44sad when your work attracts tech questions, “which is best…
Love your mastery of focus and comp and brass neck. So the sound must stink else why the hell am I spendalotting on HD video cams.
liked “Sofias people” a lot.
pbloom
June 23, 2009 at 19:07Thanks Drew. A lot of geeks here (me amongst them) and always happy to tell them what I think “is best” (always different depending on application) but always thrilled to receive comments about the actual work itself. I love this piece and I may be going back to shoot a commercial for a mobile phone company at the weekend off the back of this…
Woody
June 22, 2009 at 13:07Beautiful.
Is Canon 5D markII better than the GH1 in term of image quality ?
Philip Bloom » Blog Archive » What is my work?
June 20, 2009 at 20:10[...] like Sofia’s People, Cherry Blossom Girl, My Autumn’s Done Come, Return to Dungeness, Love from Southend, Alone [...]
Hamaz
June 17, 2009 at 14:50So beautiful
Luke
June 14, 2009 at 22:58Nice work, I love the depth of field you can get with a 50mm.
On that note – I wanted to ask a question – if you could have only 3 lenses in your kit, what would those lenses be & why? (length, brand etc)
Daniel Gutierrez
June 14, 2009 at 22:05Congratulations,really amazing video.with such a shallow deep of fied.It’s all in auto?aperture iso shutter?
I just receive my 5d Markll.I hope some day could do it almost like you.
Regards from Mexico.
Dr.Daniel Gutierrez
joe
June 6, 2009 at 20:54Great shooting! Nice edit! well done guys!!
Chester Dent
June 5, 2009 at 08:17Absolutely beuatiful, Philip. What a wonderful eye you have. I was going to pick your brains re the 5DII but I’d prefer to share the moment instead. Nice one!
pbloom
June 5, 2009 at 18:07thanks very much!!
Ben Vallack
June 3, 2009 at 08:07Just wondering how you go about using commercial music in this kind of work – do you get permission from the artist and/or pay for a PRS license?
pbloom
June 3, 2009 at 23:22i will be doing a blog soon all about this
How to convert Canon 5dmk2 footage from 30p to 24p »
June 1, 2009 at 10:52[...] http://www.philipbloom.co.uk/films/35mm-films/sofias-people-canon-5d-mk2 [...]
Philip Bloom » Blog Archive » How to convert Canon 5dmk2 footage from 30p to 24p
May 30, 2009 at 23:19[...] Final Cut Studio 2 on how to convert footage shot in 30p to perfect 24p…Used in the short Sofia’s People http://philipbloom.co.uk/films/35mm-films/sofias-people-canon-5d-mk2/ Thanks to Denver Riddle for [...]
jouni helminen
May 29, 2009 at 16:57awesome. really beautiful. interesting looking people.
the motion looks a bit jerky on the canon DLSRs though – do you think its the shutter speed, or just a propery of the rolling shutter? the canon 5d and 500D both seem to exhibit this – both on camera movement and subject movement.
can i ask which lens you used for this?
many thanks – my first visit to your website, defnitely not the last!
pbloom
May 30, 2009 at 19:32it’s down to the poor compressor conversion. A new 24p version is being uploaded as I write this along with a tutorial. The 500d is 20fps in 1080p which is useless! do watch the new version and let me know. I used just a 50mm zeiss zf nikon mount f1.4
Adlai B. Grayson
May 26, 2009 at 03:24I picked up the Canon mk II in mid April, but I’m waiting on “Redrock” to really to really kick some butt.
Adlai B. Grayson
May 26, 2009 at 03:23I picked up the Canon mk II in mid April, but I’m waiting on “Redrock” to really to really kick some but.
Philip Bloom » Blog Archive » Video DSLRs, the death of 35mm Adaptors?
May 25, 2009 at 05:22[...] with the Canon 5dmk2 and GH1. I have shot a few things on them recently and I am really impressed. Sofia’s People, Kauai Sunset, Always Returning and Joshua Tree. But do check out stuff I have done on the Letus [...]
Philip Bloom » Blog Archive » Artist of the Week from Crimson Kaie
May 24, 2009 at 16:42[...] little short film Sofia’s People has had a wonderful reaction. Especially from people from Bulgaria who say they have never seen [...]
stoiqa
May 22, 2009 at 02:32relaxing clip phil
Adam Loretz
May 21, 2009 at 20:54Really beautiful. It always amazes me how engaging just a group of faces are. Great DOF shots too, like the Beemer behind the couple. Nice also to hear you use MPEGStreamclip….it’s one of my favourites too!
Denitsa
May 20, 2009 at 20:17Hello there, I saw myself in ‘Sofia People’. Thank you for including me as an image representing the spirit of my spirit. I really liked it, the whole of it. Good Luck
pbloom
May 20, 2009 at 20:25thanks! who are you in the film?
Mark Holmes
May 20, 2009 at 15:57Hey Philip, nice work as always. And thank you for sharing the original file. I’m curious though, you said the Exposure Room 750 MB file is the original, but do you mean in the original codec, straight from the camera, or after compression and conversion to 25p in Compressor?
pbloom
May 20, 2009 at 20:25when i say it’s original i mean it’s straight out of compressor H264 .mov 25p best quality. Not the usual compressed .mp4
Imran Uppal
May 20, 2009 at 11:04I was thinking any brand…Full-frame with a more evolved video feature.
Am hoping Nikon will release something soon after lessons learned from the MKII
Philippe
May 20, 2009 at 11:02I’ve tried the GH1 at a photo show last week. It was a pre-production model and the resulting video turned out weird even after the reps intervention. I hope it will be possible to buy it without the stock lens; it’s not wide enough. Also, if we could buy the body only, price would drop by 50%. However with the stock lens there’s autofocus which would be useful for my weddings and other events requiring quick operation, but the image quality isn’t anywhere as good as what I see above….
Imran Uppal
May 20, 2009 at 02:08Hi Philip,
I’ve heard a lot of people complain about dropped frames. Did you find this to be a problem?
I’m torn between the GH1 and MKII. I really want the benefits of a large sensor…Is the operation really that bad? Also I heard it’s not possible to manually control the aperture or ISO during filming on the MKII…
Is it worth waiting for a full-frame model with a better video feature or is that going to happen, do you think?
pbloom
May 20, 2009 at 04:07you can change the aperture of the mk2 with nikon lenses during filming but not the canon…not had any dropped frames yet!
you want a full frame gh1? won’t happen!
Denitsa Blagoeva
May 19, 2009 at 22:26philip, that is lovely! it almost made me cry : ]
stlkr
May 19, 2009 at 13:10This is really nice, thank you!
Frank Bongers
May 19, 2009 at 10:33So … do you like the 5D better than the GH1?
pbloom
May 19, 2009 at 22:17i like the low light, bit rate, ability to use all my nikon lenses and overall image BUT Gh1 is about a million times more easy to shoot with!!
Benjamin Marra
May 19, 2009 at 00:03When you go from 30p to 25p is this an initial step or something you do after grading? Perhaps you could time line your work flow with the 5d mark 2 assets. I am a stills guy intent on this camera but a complete rookie at video, any help would be great! Fantastic video!
Peter Matthes
May 18, 2009 at 23:06I like they way you often have various odd people dressed up as super heros in your personality based short films.
A psychologist would have a field day with that one.
Angel Haralampiev
May 18, 2009 at 08:24Great job Philip. Thank you for your visit in Bulgaria
pbloom
May 18, 2009 at 10:55Great to meet you Angel. Hope you learnt some stuff!
Kingofpunk
May 18, 2009 at 08:02On some scenes I feel that you use the stabilization plugin from FCP, isn’t it ?
Anyway your night portraits shootings and Jazz music is a nice combination..
pbloom
May 18, 2009 at 10:55new version up with less smoothcam. kept it on 3 shots and converted it all to 25p
Derek VG
May 19, 2009 at 18:32Is it in some of the opening close-ups that you kept the smoothcam? I noticed a similarly strange effect when stabilizing a handheld shot in a short film recently; it gives it an odd see-saw-like feel; I think it’s because it can only correct for “x-axis” and “y-axis” movement, if that makes any sense… you start to really feel the slight changes in z-axis (forward, backward) that normally go unnoticed in a shaky handheld shot. Small shifts in perspective.
It’s an interesting effect actually, I could imagine this being deliberately employed for a certain aesthetic.
jehu
May 19, 2009 at 20:23yup, the 25p is a whole lot better, why does our brain like the slower frame rate of film over the video?
pbloom
May 19, 2009 at 22:13because we are so used to the look of film…
pbloom
May 19, 2009 at 22:15i have actually removed smoothcam from all but the first shot as I think it works so well on first shot…also you can now download full hd h264 file from exposureroom.com/sofia if you are a member
jehu Garcia
May 18, 2009 at 04:45Love the images, and the look of them, but i hate the motion, its so…so..video
pbloom
May 18, 2009 at 06:5430p for you…i will try and do a 24p version
Nel
May 18, 2009 at 03:08Now that is beauty.
Philip Bloom » Blog Archive » “Sofia’s People” Low light short on Canon 5d mk2
May 18, 2009 at 01:27[...] So click here or on any of the frame grabs below to have a look at the edit I did of that footage an… [...]