The short film “Get Away” was shot entirely with the Sony FX3. The goal was to produce a film that looks like a high-budget project, but with an affordable camera. The FX3 was the main and only camera on set, and it was paired with the MasterBuilt lenses. Sony Airpeak drone was utilized as well. Read the insights of the cinematographers, and explore the results below.

The short film  “Get Away” was shot on FX3 by DP/Gaffer Ryan French and Michael Gabriele. “Get Away” is a 17-minute indie film that looks and feels like a bigger-budget flick. Set in a remote vacation rental in the desert, the film follows a group of friends who play a mysterious VHS tape…followed by terrifying coincidences. Watch the short below:

“I’ll be completely honest – I was afraid at first,” confesses Gabriele. “At first, I was just like, ‘Oh, man, we’re putting all this work into this short film, and we’re going to shoot it on a tiny little camera.’ But I was so impressed with what I saw from the FX3. As a commercial director, I get to work with every type of camera, and a lot of them are on high-end. But, at the end of the day, with good lighting and good lenses, shooting with the FX3, I don’t think anybody would notice unless we told them. That’s what I think is so amazing. Even 10 years ago, the amount of money that you would have to spend to get something that looked half this decent would be unattainable. With the technology that exists in a camera like the FX3, you can have your idea and just go out and do it.” 

At first, I was just like, ‘Oh, man, we’re putting all this work into this short film, and we’re going to shoot it on a tiny little camera.

This ambitious cinematic short took under a month to write and prep, followed by a four-day shoot, with three days of principal photography and a fourth for drone footage with the Sony Airpeak. Then, Gabriele cut the 4K film in another two weeks. “Sometimes, when you’re working on lower budget short films, you’re usually dealing with these smaller, consumer-style drones. And sometimes because of the drone’s small sensor, the footage doesn’t match your main camera properly,” continues Gabriele. “But being able to use the Airpeak and the exact same camera we used for the rest of the shoot was phenomenal because it all matched perfectly.”  

But being able to use the Airpeak and the exact same camera we used for the rest of the shoot was phenomenal because it all matched perfectly.

“We didn’t have to use any external recorders to record in raw [while using the Atomos], and the two ISO sensitivity played a big part,” says French. “It was great having the native ISO at 800 and then, shifting it at night, we could go to 12,800. Normally, at such a high ISO, you’d have a lot of noise or a weird grain structure-type element in the footage. The amount of noise at that level was so minimal that I don’t even know if we even did a noise pass at the end because it was so pleasing to look at. We started the shoot on Friday the 13th and finished shooting on a blood moon, which was crazy. We were doing a blue hour shot with the moon out, and I remember the moon eclipse happened, and we lost all of our ambient light. At 12,800 ISO, we captured all this ambiance from just the moon!”

“Because we don’t have a big visual effects budget or a special effects budget, we needed our horror entity to be obscured a little bit,” explains French. “Having a full-frame camera with a lens that has a really wide-open aperture, we were able to throw certain elements out of focus when and where we wanted to. We used MasterBuilt lenses, which are beautiful lenses that work fantastic with the Sony line of cameras. I’ve used them several times on the VENICE, but this was my first time using the lenses with an FX3. It has given me great results every time.”

We used MasterBuilt lenses, which are beautiful lenses that work fantastic with the Sony line of cameras. I’ve used them several times on the VENICE, but this was my first time using the lenses with an FX3.

“Most filmmakers on a professional film set are going to have access to $100,000 cameras and lenses and everything,” says French. “Yet the FX3 is a camera I’ve seen used on professional film sets with the VENICE. It’s a little camera that punches above its weight class. I feel like Get Away is a proof of concept if anything. Any filmmaker can afford to get a cinema camera at an entry-level price. Beyond that, it’s just storytelling.”

A gifted creator can create something from nothing. The wisdom is to produce a professional-looking project with modest tools.

Gabriele has a slew of polished commercial directing credits, and French is a DP with tons of industry gaffing and lighting experience. He’s worked on Comedy Central’s Drunk History, The Twilight Saga, and Little Fockers. It’s nice to see professionals using the FX3 for this kind of project. A gifted creator can create something from nothing. The wisdom is to produce a professional-looking project with modest tools. In fact, the word ‘modest’ should be replaced with the word ‘affordable’, since the FX3 (which belongs to the Cinema Line, and also it’s Netflix Approved, BTW) is a very capable camera. Thus, sometimes, it should be preferred to invest more in lighting, lensing, and storytelling, than in high-end fancy cinema cameras. What’s your take on that?

Here’re the products mentioned in the article, and the links to purchase them from authorized dealers. 

Yossy is a filmmaker who specializes mainly in action sports cinematography. Yossy also lectures about the art of independent filmmaking in leading educational institutes, academic programs, and festivals, and his independent films have garnered international awards and recognition. Yossy is the founder of Y.M.Cinema Magazine.

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