Is Hollywood’s $100,000 Camera Worth it? - First Experience with ARRI Alexa Mini LF

okay guys so we recently just wrapped production on no good Legend it was this really cool Western directed by Lucas DPed by both Britney and Brady bassette and then operated by myself and Kofi Boya so this was actually our first experience using the Arie Alexa mini LF and it was your first experience as well was that right Kofi yes sir it took a little bit of preparation it was a new experience but it was a lot of fun did you like do anything before we actually using the Alexa to kind of prep yourself to learn how to use it yeah actually so my thing is is I have a maybe an irrational fear of uh embarrassing myself so whatever preparation I could do before something happens I T I typically would end up doing that so um when I was at home I reached out to a local GP that owned anari themselves and I got to got get a feel for the camera itself get a feel for how to rig it out and get a feel for like how to do multiple things on the camera from a menu setting perspective and then also before I even did that um Ari actually has a simulator for their menus so you can go on there you can pick the cameras and you can control the menu settings on the website so that way when you're on set like you know where all the buttons are you know what all like the terminology and all the stuff looks like internally so that way when someone's like hey can you change your uh shutter speeder can you go to the time code settings like I know where that is already so I'm like let me just figure that out so at least when we get into actually camera prepping the night before I kind of feel like I know what I'm doing and I'm not going in dark 100% yeah I'll make sure to link that down uh in the description for you guys so you actually know where that is but for me how I how I did it is I just showed up on set with absolutely no knowledge other than the fact that I have used the uh Amira and also the classic the Alexa classic so I have some you know knowledge of the Alexa cameras prior to using the mini LF uh but I just went up to our first AC Adam I mean he's an incredible first AC maybe the best first AC I've ever worked with directly andely say that yeah and I I literally was like okay give me the the two-minute rundown of everything I need to know and it was really a simple camera to use honestly um there's like a handful of like quick buttons on the side and then most everything is controlled on the evf LCD screen uh and again that's really easy as well because like if it says shutter at the bottom you click the button right below shutter like visually right below it and then you're messing with that and then for any of your other settings so they made it really super simple but what were your first impressions using the camera did you like it did you not like it what are some of the positives and negatives when you were using the Alexa LF I think what the things with uh using more exensive Cinema cameras especially in like settings like these is if you have like everything else that goes around on set is enhanced by the AR Alexa so for example uh there are some shots where we were just shooting um just out in the open with no lighting no control or anything like that and it would look just like any other camera honestly um but what ends up happening though is that when we were shooting with like the the mirrors for the external shots or we shooting with like negative fill or um when we were setting up the saloon for different situations that's where you started to notice the difference in the quality between the two cameras it happens lot more when you control the other variables in film making and not just say I have an AR X and some Atlas Mercury let's go and shoot something there's uh there's a lot to be said about once you kind of dial everything else in having anari makes it that much more it's almost the last thing on the list when you're talking about production um when you're using a setup like that in an environment when you have really talented DPS and directors and Gaffers that's where the camera starts to shine and that's like going in there I kind of assumed that was the case but when you're using it that you really notice a difference yeah 100% so you're you're are you referencing the image itself um when you're actually all set and done yeah um absolutely there's a certain I mean there's a reason why all these movies are shot with Alexa they didn't just pick it on a whim it's because that sensor is so dang pretty there is this Mojo or this extra sauce I don't know how they're doing it it has to do with color and how the the sensor is actually reading the light uh and I'm not smart enough to understand that but basically what I am smart enough to understand is that there's a reason why everyone picks it is because it looks so gosh darn beautiful now we did actually shoot with the gh7 as well the Lumix gh7 and Kofi actually has a video where I I kind of tag in say hey what's up uh so I'll have that video linked down below so you guys can check out our thoughts on using the gh7 um now what was your impressions because you actually shoot a lot more uh Productions with production style cameras like the Komodo right is that the red camera you've been using yes I've I've like when everyone asks me like what camera is my main camera my answer is just yes cu I've used everything and like I there's a cycle of C my house is just a conveyor belt of different cameras um and I'm starting to learn that like when you could run things you just rent things but um I shot on the red Koto x a bunch I have uh I'm gonna give the Pixis a world for a little bit but the kodo X and the Venice one um I would say are the ones that I've been using a little bit more often and the Venice is actually somewhat comparable in size to the Lumix or in uh to the area Alexa or is it larger the Venice is larger the Venice is okay the Venice one is cuz it has a big like um has like a raw recorder on the back and it's huge so it like imagine the barano but like if you took like half a barano then added it to the back of the brono but then you put a vount battery in the back so it's a thick it's absurd you can't you I tried to go no easy rig with it terrible decision oh yeah that's tough yeah okay because the point that I was about to bring up is for me most everything I've been working in the YouTube space the social media space so every camera I use uh most times is like a small mirrorless camera of some sort like fx3 eosr back with the a73 you know something along those lines so for me this camera felt ridiculous and heavy and cumbersome but also lended itself to making the footage a little bit smoother handheld obviously with the easy rig but I was going to ask you did the the size of the camera impact you which it sounds like it wouldn't because you've been using the Venice um I think it's just the idea of like you just have to be aware of your support like you don't necessarily want to willy-nilly go and handhold that and like not use the right support in order to use the camera you don't want to not rig it without a top handle because if you do have to kind of get a low angle um making sure you have your side handles kind of configured way that you wanted to so there is a little bit more care in terms of how you operate but in terms of knowing that but like in so knowing that it doesn't bug me too much which is nice um one second though my laptop's about to die cuz I unplugged it to plug my light in and I got to just put another okay I was going to replug this somewhere else yep just I could see it Dy this is making the video so I hope you know that yeah guys we make mistakes too especially Kofi oh I make so many mistakes and people think I'm perfect and it's I hope people don't think I'm perfect actually um Kofi I think you're perfect and I think you talk better than me give me like one second before this laptop dies I'll be here it's better not make the video One eternity later I found it hallelujah hallelujah we just barely made it at 2% left oh that would have ended awfully um all right yeah I think the point that you were making is is that when you're properly supported the the camera Size Doesn't Really Matter and that's actually a note that I have right here is that this camera took a village it took a village to get it to work properly we had a first and second AC and they literally kept the machine moving it was incredible in fact often times he had very intimate moments with Adam because I'd be hooked up with the whole easy rig and he would just walk over and like lift the camera so that it would take the weight off of my knees and we' just be staring into each other's eyes it was beautiful beautiful moment and stuff like that but then also what was really cool is like often times if if need be I had a Hol land monitor set up on the top uh which worked out great for me to monitor when I was on the easy rig but then the evf screen could be flipped around so either br RTP could look at it or also um Adam the first AC could be making changes as he needed and it wouldn't mess with me looking and making sure my stuff was good too so it was pretty cool how many people it took to get it going but again it it makes sense at the end because you're trying to get the best image possible yeah no that makes like the the amount of care that these cameras need especially on set a is just super nice like it's really nice when I'm like hey we have to move the camera this way and Adam literally like glares at me he's like do not touch that tripod I will carry it and I'm like like awesome but I could just I could just move it like I've lifted things before I think right and he's like no no no I am doing this you save your back and I'm like oh this is kind of nice but having that support is an incredibly important I mean the a lot of those bigger style cinnamon cameras you do need have first AC second AC's and stuff like that and that's also it's a risk management thing right like if you had to run that all on your own you could in theory but the amount of injuries that you would have by doing so would be significant right you don't know if you might try to get the camera off a tripod but because you're doing it by yourself it falls down a set of stairs or like you try to handheld a camera without an easy rig because you can't put it on on yourself and then up slipping a disc like a lot of those things are risk management and also like technical support there might be things that an operator or a DP doesn't know about the camera that your first AC does and that makes things run a bit smoother and also it's less stress on your operator and DP to have that yeah 100% I mean and honestly maybe this video could be retitled to why you need a first AC because I had never used that camera before and there was so many times that things would come up and he would just walk over and click click click click click and it' be fixed right or oh we need to do a lens change and I'm already rigged up and they could walk over and switch the lens without any issue or whatever right there's so many little things that come up and again when you're using a camera that requires that many things to get it to be functional I assistance is it really is almost it's a it's a necessity um it first AC is super duper important another thing I wanted to talk to you about in terms of the uh Alexa is heat management when you were using it did I mean it was 103 degrees Fahrenheit you want to translate that to Celsius too hot too hot it was very very hot um when we were operating and I did notice that we did have a few mirrorless BTS cameras go down because of the heat but the Alexa seemed to maintain uh just fine well I feel like the that thing's built like a tank like I feel like the other reason why Alexa cameras or just re cameras in general get used on set is because they're like they're meant to withstand all of the elements right um being especially a camera that big it has a gigantic fan right and that's something that's going to help dissipate heat a lot more some of these smaller mirrorless cameras unfortunately don't have things like fans built into them or they might not have fans that are big enough that even when they do have some sort of ventilation if it gets hot outside like that it might not still it still might not hold up right so those are some things you need to consider but yeah no I think the the Ari camera is worth its weight and its price point based on not only its image quality but the fact that you could throw it around anywhere and it still be okay yeah 100% And and what's cool about how the Alexa minf handled heat is that it it does have these fans in it and they are wicked loud I mean when it turns up it's like a turbine right uh especially I especially noticed it when we were shooting in the saloon in fact I think arm tapped on my shoulders a few times and was like it's freaking loud uh but once you actually hit record obviously they understand that you're recording audio and you can't have the fans going turbo Blaze and so they completely shut down or at least go really quiet so that you can't hear it during the actual takes and then again it's really hot so it'll just turn them right back up between takes so it it knows what it needs to do and when it needs to do it which is great I just kind of want to hit the final Thoughts with you I mean this is a $100,000 camera that we were using without all the extra things like lenses and extra and extra do you think that um do you think that there's a reason in today's world to be using these cameras extensively or do you find that it just needs to be saved for like the most important shoots that we do in like Hollywood or whatever I think it depends like I think the every single camera has become a tool now right and there's so many cameras out now that have so many specific little quirks to them where knowing that knowing what a camera what the camera is and knowing what it does will answer that question for you it's kind of hard to say like you across the board every Hollywood production should get shot in an Ari or Venice 2 that'd be a hard thing to do because I don't know the parameters of the shoot right but I think what's happening now is that we're coming into this space where everything has a particular need and every user has a particular preference some people that might operate on an AR Alexa might prefer the Venus 2 for whatever the reason might be prefer uh Canon c500 who knows right I think what we're into now is because there's so much saturation of these things is your context in use case is far more important than associating a brand name to a production size if that makes any sense because if we could run no good Legend on g7s we would but there are things about the gh7 that it might not work the best as an a camera with the set that we had particularly with a smaller sensor you have to do a lot more making sure you're dialed in with your lighting or some of those imperfections get highlighted right so there are some things where it might not make the most amount of sense and there are a lot of things where it does yeah 100% And um guys this this isn't the only camera that we were using on no good Legend as you just alluded to we used the Blu miix gh7 which also shoots in a log C3 this is a pretty crazy thing that is happening right now um and so we will have more videos on my channel kofi's channel everyone's channels and they'll be proper uh be behind the scenes videos about the no good Legend production so definitely make sure you're keeping an eye out on YouTube this is pretty cool pretty exciting times it was a fun production to work on and yeah this was just our first experience using the Alexa Mini LF we're not exactly professionals when it comes to it but hopefully our thoughts and opinions were useful to you guys so I hope that you all enjoyed this and Kofi thanks for coming on hey not a problem man

Channel: Connor McCaskill

Views: 10,985

Keywords: Lumix GH7, Panasonic GH7, ARRI Alexa Mini LF, Western Movie, Hollywood, Alexa Camera, Camera used in Hollywood movies

Id: 5VrEq9R2kEQ

Length: 14min 40sec (880 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 21 2024