the daily grind
Preproduction
The Probe Lens
We had rented the Laowa 24mm probe lens for an upcoming project. It’s a long macro lens that is waterproof and has built-in LED lights at the end.
Laowa 24mm probe lens
It’s perfect for getting a perspective that is almost otherwise impossible to get. This was such a unique lens that our minds started thinking of every possible way we could try this thing out while we had it. Naturally, we explored every nook and cranny we could find.
Concept
Since we only had this for a limited time I thought it might be fun to shoot a quick little side project with it before it needed to be returned. Making coffee and filming it seemed like an easy and small enough idea that could be fun to film with a probe lens such as this. I could already picture the shots of the beans, the steam from the kettle, the water pouring, and splashing coffee.
I recall driving home from work excited to shoot this over lunch the following day. I packed up my coffee supplies that evening. The next morning I brought all the coffee supplies in and settled in at my desk. When it comes to creating, even something small, there’s a lot of moments where it’s easy to convince yourself it’s not worth the time or energy. This was one of those moments. The excitement had faded and I had committed to not bothering. Later in the morning, my additional coffee apparatus by my desk raised questions and I brought up my disregarded plan to film something. That led to an encouraging conversation that ultimately helped push me to follow through with my original intentions.
Combining that feeling with the idea of coffee being a daily habit, where you literally grind to produce your end result, felt like a fitting idea.
Production
Gear
The office had recently purchased two Blackmagic Pocket Cinema 4k cameras (bmpcc 4k). Since we had two and I wanted to work fast over my lunch break I decided that it would be best to use the probe lens on one and the sigma 18–35mm on the other to cut down on time to change lenses. Since I would be filming this solo I also rigged up SmallHD monitor so I could see what I was doing from in front of the camera.
Set-Up
I used a cheap LED 1k equivalent bounced off the ceiling and through a pop-up diffusion to give it a nice soft look. I wanted to try a toppy kind of light to minimize reflections on the glass coffee pot. I positioned the light behind the table that way the light would help backlight the steam. The light was then flagged off the back wall with a bit of black wrap.
Challenges
Since this was just for kicks and an excuse to play with a lens I didn’t really give myself much time to do this, nothing more than a long lunch. And the thing is a video takes a lot longer to make than a cup of coffee. So despite this initially being a way to test and play with the probe lens, I ran out of time and never got to shoot with it. In order to just get the shots I needed to have a finished sequence all those probe shots had to go.
I also didn’t realize that my gooseneck kettle doesn’t produce steam, but luckily I had a fog machine laying nearby.
Post-Production
Music
Editing is fairly time-consuming so it’s one of those moments that’s really easy to cut ties from a project and call it a loss. Music can make something exciting again and help speed up the process if you already know what you are cutting to. I have a music library subscription which makes using music in small little personal projects a lot easier since it’s a flat annual fee and there’s no need to license per track or project. This helps remove one more barrier to making something.
Finishing Touches
After the footage was shot, it was cut together, scored, sound designed, and colored. The footage was also stabilized as needed and some shots were completed by stitching together multiple moments slid around in time.
That’s a Wrap
The creative process is full of ups and downs, even on the simple end of things. It’s good to recognize that that’s part of the process. Pushing through results in either something you can be happy with or a learning experience of what to improve on next time. In the end, I’m mostly happy with how this turned out but if nothing else, I at least got a good cup of coffee out of it.
Shot, edited, colored, and sound designed by
Jordan K. Graff