MiguelDelValle

Me too, I havent been active posting but keep reading the forums. I hope with this post I wont be erased. thanks and greetings to all.

I had work on a reality show for a belgium and a huge company from holland, I have a few contacts that will help you at least telling you were when and maybe getting discounts for you. Write to me off list.

congratulations and enjoy the party.

Hi I though Pi was shot with reversal film and pushed.

If rodriguez used short ends or asked Kodak for stock and was bough in Mexico there is a strong chance that the stock is 7248. It was the typical stock for tv movies at that time and there was this under market for rolls that werent used by tv movies production companies. Righ now the offer form kodak is about only 4 or 5 kind of stocks, if there is a need for another you have to ask for them with time so they can get it form elsewere, so the choices are no to wide. On that time there should be only 3 or 4 choices, being 48 and 320 asa the most common.

Can anyone explain to me the difference between this two cameras? thanks

using those rim lights and maybe an 81ef istead of the 85 filter may help to give a warmer look overall.

I had the pleasure to work with him a month ago in méxico on a waitrose commercial, it was a really good team: mark silk, stuart douglas and mr tony brown. They do amazing things, very creative.

Yes there is a general bad shape but there are some movies that are being produced and ocasionally good ones. Its just some luck to find the right friends as in any place, I think. Commercials are starting to rise again since the argentinian boom is slowing down I think, or economy gurus are doing something since elections are comming and they have a big competitor in front. Not that I care for politics but the party that is threatening to win next elections have many film people on their teams like Maria Rojo and they are known to have a better idea of cultural affairs and to be more supportive about it, I dont know if they do it right though :-). Breaking in, is a matter of luck and making the right desitions for what do you want. Becoming a DoP will ask you to shoot anything you can, short movies, experiments, some television, low budgets or no budgets actually, etc and wait for your oportunities. A good idea is to find a director or two whom you will bet your future. Than you hope you earn the "new guy in fashion" title and start your way up. If you like to be AC for a time there are options like asking for work at the rental houses as loader, find a first AC who can help you out and call you to work with him, or the UNION were you could work on foreign films. There are no agencies in México that I now its just you and your contacts. The UNions is a mess I think, the internal conflicts and politics will make you loose some energy trying to save your but from everyone wanting your job, but they get all the foreign and big shows, so you could be part of the team of titanic, el zorro, or movies like that with enough experience and enough public relation work. If they dont mess the productions and make producers stay away from mexico with their internal fights like it happened on the pancho villa production with antonio banderas. There are 2 Unions. STPC that are well known to Sibylle I think since they have a base on churubusco and STIC that as far as I know control rosarito studios (pearl harbour and titanic just to mention a few) at the north of the country. I dont have too much information on those and I have been tempted to join them for a time, but never did. About the DoP you mention and about their carreers at the states I think that they are searching for big names and better projects, perfect case is Prieto who sometimes writes in this forum, he had the oportunities to shoot 8 mile and alexander, if he stayed in mexico he could wait for years to find another amores perros. It just happen that in mexico there are around 3000 commercials shot every year (at least this is an approximate from a few years ago before the runaway argentinian boom) and there are only around 30 active dop´s working and some of them are blessed under the protection of another long time regulars. Its a jealous ambient and the fight for a place is bloody, you will have to go trough the ranks but that doesnt mean that you go from carrying cases to the Oscars, that means that you have to build your relations based on earning a place and knowing people. Normally that means that you have to find a job with a big name and stay there for years until you build your own relations net. And if you survive there is a chance of becoming on something. For example not only the huge talent that Prieto has (I am a big fan of Rodrigos work) but the relation with Alejandro Gonzalez and his company was important to shoot maybe 70 commercials every year earning experience and authority over the time I think. It has been hard for them I guess and it is bloody hard to us too. You will have to make a huge effort on keeping your trust, faith and hard work focused over the years. It is just that in mexico there are so few oportunities that migrating is a reasonable idea and more if you have the talent of those guys you have mentioned, so build your contacts net while you are there. Ok, I hope I didnt sleep anyone, I go back to my day to day fight mode now. cheers

I am sorry it was just a "contact to me offline answer"

I have found that even 45 deg on the shutter will not make the staccato feel too strong unless the camera moves quick over the scene. A few days ago I was shooting in an amusment park were we were shooting a kid on an atraction were a circular "car" moves in circles over the same axe and the whole thing (all the cars) move in circles. (I hope I explain myself). I had two kinds of shot: in the same "car" with a kid were I had a medium shot (i dont remember if it was a 50mm or 35mm) were the camera stays with the kid and the background moves The other shot was done froma different car that the kid was (blocked the movement of the camera car to see the kid moving in circles but at the same time all the background moving) I was searching for a blurry background and shot a few versions: 45 deg shutter at 24 fps and 12 fps and 180 deg shutter and a "non shuttered" shot. the best image or the most blurried background was de 24 fps with 45 deg shutter version on the first 2 versions but the "non shuttered" version was great. The "non shuttered" shot was made on an arri 435 camera pushing mode and set 6 times on the menu. The display gives you the temperature of the camera but desactivates the shuter so when you run the camera the shutter goes crazy without any control. When you stop the camera everything returns to normal. The effect is quite interesting, the background is blurred with streaks of light from the highlights on the background, it was the shot who made it in to the final cut. I guess would work very good for the typical war-fighting kind of shot or maybe a singer with a moving lit background. I will put the quick time on my website pretty soon so you can see it. cheers

or if you know the name in spanish?, a link?, where did you saw them?, anything else?

Wow, so you know everything about what I said. And you had been so close to many shorts movies around, is there anything that you liked from all that time??? I agree, I dont think the "new" wave is going to arise anything soon. Beurocrats needed a hero to defend from themselves from mediocrity and found pretty easy to pick one guy from the bunch an give him something like 8 arieles for a movie shot a few years ago. This guy may have talent, He has it, but the system is something that cant be trusted, they are so obvius, he was a student for the "academy guys" who else could be supported!!!! Lately someone asked me about private ways to produce and I have been thinking about it, many questions few answers but the system is working against producers, just there is no way to have return on a movie. Producing is only a labor of love, I dont know but I think amores perros did some money after they hit the external markets and maybe on video distribution. If I knew that the movie did some money on mexican theatre screenings I would be amazed. cheers

John I should print these and bring them with me next time I have to argue with airport security nonsense agents. When they say that their machines wont fog the film its final, you wont go trough to the airplane if you dont pass the cans trough the machine, period, final, they wont listen any arguments, and your changing bag wont convince them. Frustrating.

see the scene, choose a lamp, turn the lamp on, place it somewere, measure than shoot. How about reading "Lighting for televitsion and film" gerald Millerson. Focal press ISBN 0 240 51582 X or the other 100 books on the subject that you can find in many places like cinematography.com

jajaja, yes. I edited my post, It was said: "I think that anyone here will be interested on this topic, but write to me direct and I will answer all your questions trying not to be to pesimistc" but then Laurent Andrieux wrote that he is interested so we can keep talking about it and in english if there is any use and if you like, Laurent. Ive been a memember of this forum since maybe 5 years ago but I tend to have long internet vacations form time to time. Yes I am a DoP and when the dark side beats me I produce some things, runned away from editing that I did for several years and after a terrible year (2004) this one cought me with a few commercials, wich I received well because I have a few bills to pay. :-) Although I ve heard that this year the feature production was going to rise and I know of a few movies that are shooting right know (with the bad luck that i am not working on one of those), Mexico IS a disaster again, but we all knew it was going to be like that, president fox on his first month as president back in 2000 said about movies and film that the last movie he saw was a western, 30 years ago. Than came the idea of selling studios churubusco to private investors. Can you imagine that?, not that I deffend the actual state of churubusco (for the ones who doesnt know and are interested, this studios were the most important in the golden era, it was a like mexican universal studios; right know they survive renting soundstages, lab, sound facilities and renting production offices, they are owned by the government, and keep alive for the pride of lost times). It is a trip to go there, all the buildings from the 40s and all those ghosts, old equipment, I like it. But there was this mennace to convert the place in a big shopping mall, since president fox was thinking that churubusco was only eating budget without any real use, and although he doesnt care about film industry he was right, SO all the beurocrats started moving some money to keep that alive... and there I was as a coordinator of post production for an IMCINE (goverment film offcie) movie. The money as always went for the usual directors who had been benefited for them for years an never got a good selling movie and we were in plane 2001 editing on a moviola, proyected film rushes on the lab screening room, we had to dig into the trash of the studios to find 35mm sound film that didnt break when we pulled it trough the proyector wich was an old russian model. It was a mess, but that was just a sign of the times to come. The procces of that movie was beautiful it was refreshing for me to forget about avids and cut lists and did everything like they did in the 40s. At the end, the movie was so bad that they couldn even screen the picture anywere, there was no sense of continuity, the editor couldnt edit the movie on some places, terrible, and I am talking about someone who had been directing for many many years, at least 25 government produced movies. This is just another tiny story about our "industry". Why we are talking only of governement sources?, because the private sector is another long story. Enough for today I hope this is not boring as anything.

Hey Andrea How interesting your time in South Africa, I am a mexican who had a close relation with another african country in the past and have been involved in film for 14 years now. Your questions and concerns are normal and I can help you with some opinions although most of them are not as optimistic as they should about the generals of the industry, there are good things of course and we all try to survive to a non existent industry. You have seen some films out there with succes but industry is a difficult word to translate in therms of film buisness, there is an industry in USA and there is one in India but in México I dont think we can call it like that. The days where, as sybylle said, in the black and white era films, the golden era of the mexican movies were 40s and 50s. I dont know if the reason was the US at war, there were a lot of cinemas around latinamerica showing mexican pictures, marathon screenings in places like cuba or venezuela with 3 or 4 movies with only one ticket at the theaters, big stars and faces still in the collective memory, like dolres del rio, ask orson wells about her :-) technical perfection. And many stories like Greg Tolland,s close friend Gabriel Figueroa who culdnt work in hollywood because of Mcarthy´s rules. But, hey, John Ford came here to shoot with him. Lots of big names tarkovsky, buñuel, just to name a few. cheers

Hey many thanks!!! its still under construction and it is not even at 50% but I appreciate your coment.

Lets see, here is a picture of a model, not that a I love the look but i makes for an intersting skin tone to be used maybe with less effect on some products like commercials or musical clips. What do you guys think how it is done?

well yes I have done that but I always end with a difussed image like a double promist, it does something to the skin, yes, but in this pictures I dont find the halo-like texture of the soft focus blend technique. Maybe I should try with less density on the blend. :-)

but there is this silk quality to them that I dont know how to explain, the colors are muted in a way, skin tones are unnatural looking but pretty good. What is it? I know its a photoshop technique but how do they do that? the silky texture.

Hey Andrea How interesting your time in South Africa, I am a mexican who had a close relation with another african country and have been involved in film for 14 years now. Your questions and concerns are normal and I can help you with some opinions although most of them are not as optimistic as they should about the generals of the industry, there are good things of course and we all try to survive to a non existent industry. You have seen some films out there with succes but industry is a difficult word to translate in therms of film buisness, there is an industry in USA and there is one in India but in México I dont think we can call it like that. We can talk anything you like but I guess this forum would not be that interested in this opinions or the state of our "industry" so if you like you can write to me direct and can answer all your questions. alux1(att)hotmail(dot)com cheers Miguel del Valle camera/editor UPM cinesouthmex esarcine.com

Rodrigo Honestly after the hand held work that you did on the dog shoot ;-) you should be giving lessons around here. How about and XTR prod or hire me!!!! :-)

thanks John, I had called Luis Chavez but they say they need one month at lest to get the stock that is why I am searching someone who has it outside here. I could try to sort out the customs problem if I have where to buy it, i think. many thanks

Hi John I need 10 cans of 5231 for saturday but there are no available in México. Do you know how can I get them? or where I can call? thanks Miguel del Valle alux1@hotmail.com mexico