How the Z6III Answered the Wedding Filmmakers’ Challenge
Not just the wedding day, but moments in the journey that led to it. Cinematic storytelling at its romantic best.
“What we’ve learned from wedding filmmaking is you have to be quick on your feet and always ready to adjust and adapt,” Calen and Kristine Rhome, the husband-and-wife filmmaking duo, White in Revery, explain. They know it’s a balancing act.
“There’s been a big move in the [wedding] industry to tell cinematic, film-inspired stories,” says Calen. But as Kristine adds, “You don’t get a do-over, so you have to make the best of what you can get.”
Added Flexibility for Wedding Filmmakers
White in Revery knows the challenge posed for today’s wedding filmmakers: to make something cinematic with only one chance to capture it right.
And it’s this challenge that makes the Z6III a viable solution for wedding filmmakers. Built compact and capable of 6K RAW with 240 fps in FHD, the Z6III…(another feature)
“We were able to put the Z6III through its paces and really see all that it’s capable of doing,” says Calen. “We have like six different brands of cameras. We felt we could come in with an unbiased opinion,” We found that because of all the features packed in it, and its affordability, it’s a great contender.”
What we’ve learned from wedding filmmaking is you have to be quick on your feet and always ready to adjust and adapt.
Calen and the Z6III, on a DJI RS2 gimbal, framed by a Tilta cage. “I’m using the seven-inch monitor for a better look at viewing angles. We added a handle, attached on the right, to give me full control of the camera without having to remove my hands from the grip. I can change where I want my autofocus to be, or change my ISO, f/stop or shutter speed without putting the camera down.” With his left hand he can tilt the gimbal “and keep it really smooth.”
“The V-mount battery allowed us to pretty much film for an entire day,” Calen says. “We connected a five-inch monitor to the top handle.” The front matte box blocks light flare, unless they want it to flare, and it protects the lens. “It’s all hand-holdable—we did a lot of stuff that way.”
Capturing Beautiful Skin Tones
Using the new RED LUTs for N-LOG or the internal 12-bit N-RAW codec, capturing over 68 billion colors, filmmakers can create beautiful skin tones.
“With N-RAW, whenever we start editing or color grading, depending on which software we’re using, there’s information embedded that we can change as if we’re changing it in camera, which is really cool,” Calen says.
“The big thing is that we didn’t have to run an extra monitor or storage device to record N-RAW,” he adds.
Creating the Cinematic Look
“When it comes to how we want to tell a story, one of the ways we evoke emotion is our choice of frame rates,” Calen says. “We really wanted to focus on the way the couple’s eyes would look at each other—the moments at the firepit, for example, where slowing the motion draws you into what’s happening, [so] having 120fps and 240fps was really special.”
Another way to evoke emotion is through the choice of lenses.
“We used the major S line NIKKOR Z lenses,” Calen says, listing them as the NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/2.8 S • NIKKOR Z 50mm f/1.2 S • NIKKOR Z 85mm f/1.2 S • NIKKOR Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena • NIKKOR Z 58mm f/0.95 S Noct, in addition to an F-mount lens on a Mount Adapter FTZ II.
“We wanted to draw attention to [the couples’] hands reaching out to each other, but we also wanted a lot of separation between the bride and the touching hands,” the duo says, as they explain their use of the PC-E NIKKOR 24mm f/3.5D ED, a tilt-shift lens. “It worked beautifully.”
What’s possible when the Z6III is put to the test? Pretty much everything creative wedding filmmakers can think of.
Flexible Filmmaking with N-RAW
An important decision in shooting with the Z6III was to shoot in N-RAW, Nikon’s compressed RAW format.
RAW video’s bigger files mean more choices in post-production for control over color, exposure and white balance. Light sources with two different color temperatures can be adjusted and balanced, exposure problems fixed and footage saved.
“With [internal] N-RAW, whenever we start editing or color grading, depending on which software we’re using, there’s information embedded that we can change as if we’re changing it in camera, which is really cool,” Calen says. For example, if he decides in the edit that there’s footage that was exposed too dark, he can make a change with a slider to brighten that section. “Or I can change my white balance as if it's changing in camera. That [flexibility] was also a really cool feature to have, and the big thing is that we didn’t have to run an extra monitor or storage device to record N-RAW.”
To find out more about the capabilities and benefits of N-RAW andwhat they can mean to your filmmaking, check out the videos featured here.
The website for White in Revery, Calen and Kristine’s wedding filmmaking business, offers a selection of their films as well as information about their workshops for wedding filmmakers.
