I would like to tell you, that from so many cinema screenings, and a screening in one of the biggest cinema hall in the Balkans , NDK, which has a massive screen, nobody was complaining from the image quality. More interestingly was that nobody could guess on what camera was shot the film.
There were suggestions for Red Scarlet, Arri Alexa Mini, Canon C300, but when I told the audience that it was shot on a small micro 4/3 camera with a photo lens on it and without huge lights or shades and diffusers always the reaction was the same. People were overwhelmed at how good the quality of the image, especially when it has been seen on a big screen.
As I mentioned before for the entire production of NoOne we used the Panasonic Gh4 camera with two batteries, two 64GB SD ultra cards, a SIGMA 18-35mm f1.8 Nikon mount lens, a Metabones adapter and a variable ND filter. We shot 4k 24p on Cinema D profile with all of the settings pushed to - 5. We used a cage for the camera's body, a small handheld rig and that was pretty much our gear for 95% of the production. All of the aerial footage in the film was shot with Canon 5D mark II and for the time-lapses were used Canon 6d and the GH4. For the night scenes we used two big LED lights and a few small led.
I will speak a little bit about its cons. The smaller sensor and its small size makes the camera quite difficult to be stabilized. We mostly shot handheld and on a shoulder rig and I found that lots of the footage was not usable at all because of the shake and unstable picture. This practically means that for long takes either the camera has to be on a tripod or with a really good stabilization. Its limited dynamic range wasn't such a big problem neither how the camera held the whites was an issue, but the gradation of the skin color appeared to be a problem especially when the image was pushed in color correction process. However, GH4 was the better and probably the best choice for this film. Firstly because the camera is extremely stable in terms of working long hours without overheating, the batteries are running forever, the codec in which the camera records keeps the 4k files relatively small but with extremely nice quality. For a 4:2:0 8 bit picture the picture looked phenomenal.
I was sure and secure that we wouldn't have a problem with the visual aesthetics of the film.
The crop factor and the lens also helped us a lot to achieve the images which we captured. Sigma's lens was working perfectly attached to the GH4; it is a very sharp and well balanced lens.
However we could have even better image if we had some light diffuses and shades, because the reflector which we used, helped us in some cases, but the bigger problem with GH4 is not the lack of light but in reverse when the picture is overexposed and on the set is with exclusive amount of light. All of our shots which were made under the shade out with a very diffused light set up look gorgeous and I felt that this camera can produce its best picture in a controlled environment with diffused light. For example the scene inside the glasshouse was probably with the best image quality from the entire film. The gradation of the colors, the tones, the skins, shadows and highlight, everything looked so clear and most importantly so filmic.
The much desired filmic look is a complex game on its own. It is a combination of the right camera, lens, light, set, dress, camera movements, editing, color grading and much more.
We were very lucky that we were filming in a cinematographic location so appropriate for cinema, we did very little art direction work on set. We didn't have make up or a wardrobe and the talents were using their own clothes. The cast were putting by themselves the make up too. However we gave them clear instructions about the style of the clothes, their color palette and nuances.
Panasonic GH4 killed the game and it survived the test of NoOne. Despite all of the negative factors this small camera appeared to be a really powerful work horse.
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