Lydia’s Story

Who knew that getting cancer could be a way into Carnegie Hall?

When Lydia Miner discovered a lump in her throat, she faced a blistering regime of radiation therapy in order to save her life. But the side effects would have left her unable to speak, or even eat, for a long time. Then she heard about a new form of treatment, robotic surgery, pioneered by a doctor at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance.

I made this film for Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, a tireless organization that works to bring patients new tools in the fight against cancer.

This piece was shot on Sony FS5 (SLOG3), and I cut it on Final Cut Pro X. Thanks to producer Sara Finklestein and crew members Alexandra Watkins (summer intern) and AC Kollin O’Dannel.

2 thoughts on “Lydia’s Story

  1. kent nason

    Well done Dan, positive story and an excellent out-come, again, well done! I enjoy your posts and advice, and if you don’t mind I’d like to ask you a couple of questions… Are you still using the SmallHD 502 to evaluate your exposure, LUT etc? I was a cinematographer for many years and am a bit nervous re S Log, so, was the entire show, interiors etc shot at SLog 3 and did you over expose as Alister suggests? I have just returned from my first shoot with the FS5 filming on Sable Island off the coast of Nova Scotia Canada, and am very pleased with our images, but it was interesting to see your lit sequences in your film. In other words when people suggest Picture Profiles for low light, what defines low light when considering S Log? I appreciate your work and thanks for considering these newby questions. I look forward to following your work all the very best. Kent Nason csc

    Reply
    1. Dan McComb Post author

      Hi Kent,
      I used both the 502 and 702 monitors on this project, using the same LUT with both to evaluate exposure. I shot everything in SLOG3, including the performance hall interior. And yes, I used Alister’s recommended approach of overexposing SLOG by one stop. It’s very important to do that to reduce noise when shooting SLOG.

      The performance hall was actually brightly lit. So that’s why I stuck with SLOG there. If, however, it hadn’t had as much light as it did, I might have switched to Cinegamma 4 there or even to Rec709 if it had been very dark with low contrast. But if I can, I prefer to stick with SLOG for everything on a project, because it makes the workflow easier to treat all the clips the same way in post.

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.