"Kinefinity's Exceptional High ISO Saved My Shot."

"Under such extreme conditions at the salt lake, many of our other pieces of equipment had to be sent back for repair—but the Edge 8K kept working perfectly throughout the shoot and came back virtually unscathed. That kind of reliability is truly remarkable."

DP Fang Ming

From initial concept to completed film,the "SEMIR SMARTECH X RICO LEE" concept filminvolved shuttling between Qinghai's salt lake and Shanghai, a script that went through numerous revisions, and a delivery deadline of just one month.

"In a corner of a desolate post-apocalyptic world, a burdened young person awakens from chaos. Starting from two different scenes, they each encounter cold, rain, and changing weather—until finally, on the heavenly salt lake plains, they converge and discover a light, vital, green new world."

For this short film, the production used two Kinefinity cameras—MAVO Edge 8K and MAVO LF. We invited the film's DP Fang Ming to share the behind-the-scenes story.

Zhuoyao The concept for this short film is very distinctive—what was the creative angle?

Fang Ming We started with just three elements—salt lake, wind turbines, and sand. We built an alternate world around these three elements... but due to various complex reasons, the final version of the story diverged somewhat from the original concept. The protagonist is a fashion designer living in the city, while his parallel-world counterpart cycles alone through an outdoor landscape.

Production on set

Zhuoyao How long did it take to finalize the script? What visual style was established in pre-production?

Fang Ming: This short film went through a lot of twists and turns, but because of the tight schedule everything moved very fast. Pre-production was about half a month, and shooting plus post was roughly another half month.

We initially planned to shoot a somewhat futuristic subject in a more retro visual style, and tweaked a 250D LUT to make the images feel less saturated. The final film has a slight vintage lean—not pushed too hard.

Short film screenshot

Zhuoyao What were your shooting parameters?

Fang Ming We used theMAVO Edge 8K and MAVO LF, paired with Atlas Orion full-frame lenses that we happened to have on hand.4K 6:5, with a 2.4:1 crop ratio.I really love what this ratio does to widen the frame—it perfectly matched the effect we were after. We had planned many exterior shots, so I wanted the frame to preserve as much of the landscape as possible while also framing the characters. And the anamorphic flares from the widescreen format look great.

MAVO Edge 8K with Atlas Orion 100mm anamorphic lens

The delivery schedule for this short was very tight—we basically shot during the day and came back to edit at night. So to be able to cut while shooting, I chose to record in 422HQ. No proxy conversion needed, no complex equipment—just a laptop and an SSD. All the material on the drive plays back directly without lag.

Zhuoyao How were the two cameras distributed? Which was the primary camera for exterior shooting?

Fang Ming The interior scenes shot in Shanghai and some of the salt lake footage used the MAVO LF; the majority of the exterior footage was shot on the MAVO Edge 8K.

Since this production involved a lot of location changes, I really appreciated the Edge's portability.The Edge mounts very conveniently on a gimbal, and its built-in stepless ND means no extra filter adjustments—efficiency goes way up.Also, when we were in the desert shooting backlit scenes, it was thanks to the Edge 8K's high dynamic range that we were able to retain enough detail in the highlights.

MAVO Edge 8K shooting into the light in the desert

Zhuoyao: What were the shooting conditions like at the salt lake? Did you encounter any particular difficulties?

Fang Ming The salt lake water is very corrosive—most equipment becomes unusable the moment it comes into contact with it. And the shooting locations were very far from the shore, requiring long walks to reach.The conditions were harsh. Every crew member wore boot covers and tucked their pants inside them. Except for light stands, nothing could be set on the ground, so the weight of the camera system was critically important.The Edge 8K is relatively light, and with our custom-built rig, we could mount it on a 'fishhook' rig quite lightly. It was genuinely very convenient.

MAVO Edge 8K on a 'fishhook' rig shooting at the salt lake

The lighter the camera, the more the cinematographer is willing to try different things.For example, when I tried a certain angle during a shot and thought it was pretty good, because the Edge 8K system is relatively light, I wanted to keep searching for an even better angle. With a heavy camera, after one take you're often too exhausted to try again. If we had used a certain competitor's mini camera at the salt lake, we would have needed significantly more crew.

Under such extreme conditions at the salt lake, many of our other pieces of equipment had to be sent back for repair,but the Edge 8K kept working perfectly throughout the shoot and came back virtually unscathed. That level of reliability is genuinely remarkable.

ZhuoyaoHow did the MAVO LF perform during the urban shooting portion?

Fang Ming Compared to the exterior at Qinghai's salt lake, the urban shooting conditions were obviously much better—but we still ran into some challenges.Fortunately, the LF fully demonstrated its key advantage: high ISO.

When shooting the rotation shot on the rooftop in Shanghai, our shooting direction happened to be opposite to where the sun was setting. But it was only from that angle that the building layers looked right. In the end we used the LF's high ISO to push through that shot, then used gradient and mask tools in post.The final result was much better than expected.

MAVO LF on the rooftop shooting location

Another problem was that we lost control of the optimal window and missed the best density of light. But we still had to stay on the rooftop waiting for the sprinkler system to finish before we could continue shooting. The light was getting dimmer and dimmer, and by then everyone was exhausted and anxious. In the end we pushed through with the LF's high ISO, and only after post-processing did we achieve the image you see now.

The MAVO LF solved our fundamental problem of whether we'd get the shot at all.With any other camera, those images simply wouldn't exist.

MAVO LF on location

Zhuoyao The MAVO LF also handled some of the salt lake exterior shots—which specific scenes?

Fang Ming The final scene in the short film with the light frame. There was a problem with that light frame—it would flicker whenever it was plugged in. Although dusk comes late in Xining, we didn't get the lights working until around 9pm.In the end, it was precisely this camera's exceptional high ISO that gave us the image we needed—and saved my shot.

MAVO Edge 8K shooting over the salt lake surface

Selected as an outstanding work for KineMoment 2022,the "SEMIR SMARTECH X RICO LEE" concept film's refined and vintage-tinged imagery has been widely praised. The MAVO Edge 8K's body design and stability, combined with the MAVO LF's exceptional high-ISO capability, guided the production safely through complex shooting conditions and a compressed delivery schedule.

We look forward to seeing many more outstanding works shot on Kinefinity cameras in the future!