Introduction to the B-roll
In this B-roll, my focus was obviously on Weber Workshops HG-1 and On the Hill (North Point)'s shop exclusive deluxe dirty.
Opening
When editing, I realized that the flowers in the open area outside On the Hill are actually pretty colorful. I tried to strengthen the saturation in the hyperlapse part and it is the most saturated scene in this video. This kinda sets the color tone for the outdoor part separated from the indoor part. The audience should subtly separate the two scenes in their minds.
Transition from outdoor to indoor
The transition from outdoor to indoor is by "going through" the window effect. I tried to match HG-1 in the same position when it is filmed outdoor with the shot filmed indoor. Though the end result was not as epic and magical as I wanted to, it proved that I can do it.
Indoor color tone
The indoor color tone was kind of what I wanted. I did some basic color grading and successfully achieved the brightness of the scene originally in my mind. The sunlight was presented naturally the bright white light source. The brown color was soft and kind of cozy to my taste.
Masking transition
I think the audience may not actually know that I did a masking transition for the pour over scene. I used the V60 dripper as the foreground mask. At first, I did not know I can do it so smoothly. I love the smoothness achieved though there may be no one ever noticing it.
Camera motions
When I saw the epic B-rolls on youtube, I immediately fell in love with the dynamic camera movements. I tried to blend the movements in transitions. I kinda achieved this. Even though it is not perfect to me, it is the first step I took and I did it.
Ending scene
The day light was actually gray the day I filmed. I did purposely not to correct it in the ending scene. The saturation was also set to the lower side. I think the color tone should imply the end of the video.
SLog3
This was the first time I filmed with my a7siii and filmed in log format. I read that it is actually quite difficult to do color grading on SLog3 from scratches. I think that I achieved the basic color grading. Actually, the exposure differs from shot to shot. I did the color matching to make the outdoor scene, indoor scene and ending scene to be like in the same continuous shots.
The drinks by On the Hill (North Point)
My friend and I had a pour over and deluxe dirty on the day. The single origin beans for pour over were ground by HG-1. The beans by On the Hill are generally of high quality. I am not sure whether HG-1 did add something to the final taste of the coffee. Both of us agreed that the cup was simply brilliant. The taste notes listed for the beans were so obvious that you may not think that was simply a cup of coffee. Thus, I should be able to make a conservative conclusion that both the barista and HG-1 did a brilliant job brewing the cup for us.
The milk used in Deluxe Dirty was after a lengthy filtering process (for around 6 hours). The water was filtered out from the milk such that the mouthfeel and sweetness can be greatly enhanced. I remembered that I asked the owner of On the Hill whether did she provide latte with half and half (caffe breve) as the milk base. She said no at the time. I love caffe breve offered by Lazy Creature. I think that Lazy Creature may be the only coffee shop in Hong Kong which makes caffe breve? And now, On the Hill (North Point) makes Deluxe Dirty. Deluxe Dirty simply becomes my number 1 milk coffee I have ever had. The drink combines hot coffee and cold milk. The rich flavours of the milk do not take away or cover the distinctive taste notes of the carefully selected and roasted single origin coffee beans. The significant density difference between the coffee and the milk enables the two layers of drinks seating on top of each other as long as the customers would like. This also let the customers to taste the ever-changing coffee flavours along the variation of drink temperature.
After words for the B-roll
It has been 7 months since my first post on my youtube channel. It was just not easy to really publish videos of basic quality. I think that all my previous videos were of subpar quality. This video is actually the very first video, I think, up to the basic standard. The color, the transitions, the compositions and the flow of speed are up to my baseline.
The very first video was the unboxing of Niche Zero filmed by Osmo Action. I immediately found that the normal setup of indoor lighting is almost bad for filming all the time. The indoor light flickers and are too dim for cameras. Not even going into the contents, the shot quality were just poor! Even wore, I found that the 4K format simply tore my Surface Pro 4 apart. My PC could not even handle 1080p editing properly.
My first on-site filming was conducted at On the Hill (Tokwawan). Special thanks to the owner and the baristas for letting me playing around! The video was filmed by Osmo Action and my mobile phone. In my editing, I found that 1080p, fps and resolution of the video filmed by my mobile were not stable. It was better than Osmo Action but it was not up to par to myself. Due to the resolution limits of 1080p, the drop in the resolution can be clearly seen after I applied the post stabilization for my poor hand held shooting and in the magnification editing effects.
I turned to my old camera Panasonic GX7 for the subsequent on-site shooting at PHLVO Hatch and Elixir. I found the shots were nearly unusable when I viewed on my PC monitor. The camera shakes could not be observed on the camera's small electronic viewer. While the color and resolution of the video shot were so pleasing on its own, not much room was available for post processing. I tried color grading the vid for Elixir. I tried to make a selected color on each shot very saturated and bright so that there is something eye catching on each shot. I hoped this could make the video standing out from the crowds a little bit. However, the video was just torn apart by the color grading. This was partly due to my lack of skills and partly the video format. It was so frustrating to acknowledge how limited were my creativity, filming ideas, editing and color grading skills.
Even I was not filming and I was not planning to film anythings, I kept on brewing espressos, pour overs and aeropresses, reading and watching videos how to brew, how to film, how to do composition, how to edit, how to color grade, etc....
I bought Olympus EM5 Mark iii. This is a brilliant camera for photographers. I found its limits in filming not so long after I had it. This has perhaps the best in-body stabilization in the camera industry. I can do hand-held shooting with ease with EM5. However, this does not allow tethering control by my gimbal. The 120fps filming does not provide autofocus function. Without the two functions just mentioned, it is very difficult to nail the focus in 120fps filming if not impossible. My filming format always stays at 1080p 60fps. The video quality is great on its own right. There is not much room for me to play around with in the post editing. I can only do 2x slow motion and I love slow motion. This is just not enough for my editing preference. Moreover, EM5 does not do log footage.
Still, I had a great time using it to do some photo shootings, learn the compositions and getting to know more about light and shadow.
I thought I would have lost so much precious opportunities to practice my filmmaking skills without Sony a7siii. I bought it finally.
The first time I tested out on 4K 120fps slow motion log footage shooting at night. I was blew away by a7siii on spot. I could not believe I could shoot such a beautiful flower footage. Even without color grading, I could see the power of broad dynamic range offered by a7siii.
After spending so much efforts on learning filmmaking, the audience may not see anythings special from this video. To me, this actually means a lot a lot to myself. The stable footage, the colors, the light and shadow are finally reachable by me.
I know the quality is not outstanding. I will keep on filming.
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