DSLR Time Lapse Light Streak Cars Magic Lantern

Photography by Bradley Stearn

A time lapse I have been wanting to make for years now, I have just been procrastinating about it. I finally persuaded my friend to drive me to make this last night, and I am very happy with the result. I have always liked the light streaks that you get from long exposures and car lights at night.

I shot this time lapse with the Canon 600D / T3i DSLR, with the EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 kit zoom lens. I used the Magic Lantern V2.3 intervalometre to make the time lapse, I shot at 5 second exposure at 7 second intervals.ISO 100, f/5.6, 18mm focal length.

Equipment used in this video -
Canon 600D / T3i DSLR w/ EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5 - 5.6 kit zoom lens
Manfrotto 700 RC2
Magic Lantern V2.3
Integral Ultima pro 32gb
Sony Vegas Movie Studio 9.0

Time Lapse is something I really enjoy, I am shooting another time lapse during this week, so expect to see that on my YouTube and blog by next Monday.

Psychological Thriller Short Film Teaser Trailer - DSLR Filmmaking

A few weeks ago I shot some test footage for a psychological thriller film. At the time of shooting the test footage we did not have any idea of a clear narrative, apart from the idea of having a psychologically challenged character walking through the woods. The protagonist in the film is troubled in life, and the idea that in the film we will hear various voice-overs from key moments that have led to his insanity.

I am working on this film with a friend, he is helping come up with the 'psychological' elements to the film, as he is a big Christopher Nolan fan.

''The person the main character kills could actually be a colleague or a friend (as inspired by Christopher Nolan's 'Insomnia'). He might have killed him accidentally whilst he was apprehending the real criminal. And because of it, he kept it a secret - this could be the cause of his coma''




The test footage/ teaser trailer was shot on the Canon 600D / T3i DSLR with the EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 zoom lens on the Manfrotto 700 RC2 fluid head. For the super wide angled fisheye shot I used the GoPro HD Hero camera, to create a sense of distortion to the shots to help represent the protagonists state of mind. 

If you would like to be kept up to date with the production of this short film, please like my facebook page by clicking here.

Canon DSLR 60fps Slow Motion Video Footage

A video I shot yesterday for the fun of it involves an air rifle, cans and bottles and a dslr filming at 60 frames per second, all of that equals a lot of fun. I have never tried slow motion before, so when my friends started shooting an air rifle in the garden, I decided to film the impacts of the air rifle pellets with my Canon 600D DSLR, at 60fps (frames per second) to capture the full explosions of the cans and bottles being shot. I then took the footage into Sony Vegas Movie Studio 9.0 and changed the playback rate to 24fps (frames per second), which resulted in the footage being in super slow motion, whilst being smooth at the same time.

I used my Canon 600D/T3i DSLR along with the EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 kit zoom lens to film these video clips.



Below is the same footage, but played back at normal speed. The original footage really shows how slowed down the slow motion video is above -



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Canon Auto Zoom 318M Super 8mm Cine Camera Overview - Kodak Ektachrome 100D

I hope everyone had a great Christmas, I certainly did and received some fantastic presents. One of my presents was a vintage Super 8mm camera. I asked for a Super 8 camera because I am a big fan of the style of film that they shoot, with scenes in films such as Paranoid Park and Somers Town inspiring me to shoot on this small format. I received the Canon Auto Zoom 318M Super 8 Camera, in very good condition, I would say almost brand new with all the original packaging inserts, and even a leather case. In this post I just want to do a quick overview of the camera, I will be sharing digitally processed footage as soon as possible. 

The Canon 318M has a zoom lens that can be altered automatically with the Wide or Tele switch, or manually with the zoom ring. It has a focal length of 10mm wide and 30mm tele, with an f stop of f/1.8, I am excited to see how it performs in low light situations. The lens does have an optional macro mode, with an orange switch on the left hand side of the camera triggering focus for anything below 22.5cm. 

A fairly large dial is located on the right hand side of the camera, this is for the focus. It goes from infinity which is 15 metres/50 feet, down to 1.5 metres/ 5 feet. I have found that this focus dial isn't the smoothest, I am not focus pulls are something people do with Super 8 cameras though, I think I will have to set the focus, and then film without changing the focus.

A switch opens up the battery and cartridge compartment on the rear of the camera. It takes 3 AA batteries to run this camera. I also received Kodak Ektachrome 100D Colour Reversal Film 7285 to use with this camera. I will use it wisely though, as it is limited to under 5 minutes of film. I am aware that Kodak have recently discontinued the Ektachrome 100D film, so I was very lucky to get a reel before they ran out, as they are currently not even available on eBay. I predict that limited supplies of the reels will result in much higher prices, I definitely need to think twice before filming anything with my reel. I am aware that Gauge Film currently have Ektachrome 100D in stock, I think I will be stocking up on some more reels. 

I am extremely excited about learning this new format, and you can follow my process with Super 8mm on my photography and filmmaking related facebook page.

I found a short film that was shot on the Canon 318M Super 8mm Camera, I hope to create similar edits to this one. This video seems to have been cropped from 4:3 to 16:9 aspect ratio, doing this means the top or bottom of the image has been cut off.



Below is one of the skateboarding sequence's in the film Paranoid Park, directed by Gus Van Sant and cinematography by Christopher Doyle, one of my biggest inspirations in filmmaking and photography.

Starscape Timelapse Test Canon DSLR

This is a short starscape time lapse that I produced for a college music video project. I wanted to produce a much longer time lapse to share on my channel, however I liked how this version turned out. We used this 4 second time lapse in our music video. Also it isn't a shooting star going through the sky, it was actually an airplane.

I really did want to produce a longer time lapse to share on the channel, however after a week of attempting most nights, I just couldn't produce it. It was either too cloudy to see the stars, too foggy, or once it was okay, and 20 minutes into the time lapse the clouds appeared ruining the video. I decided that this version worked the best, with the airplane.

I shot this on my Canon 600D/T3i HDSLR with the EF 50mm f/1.8 II prime lens. I shot with a 20 second exposure, with 25 second intervals using Magic Lantern on a 32gb SD card. Auto white balance, and ISO. I left the camera shooting for around 16 minutes.

Equipment used in this video -
Canon 600D / T3i HDSLR
EF 50mm f/1.8 II
Integral ultima pro 32gb SD card
Magic Lantern firmware hack with the built in intervalometer

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