Daniel Madsen

As I wrote in an earlier thread, I can send you (or anyone) DOF tables that I got as part of a Panavision CD catalogue. Peace be with you. e-mail me

Lets say I want to place lights near (read-"near") the surface of a swimming pool with people in the water. What procautions do you take? Can you put individual GFCIs on every light? And just for my own education, is DC used exclusively to shoot underwater or is there an AC system? I read that using ground fault protection is best on small light sources, certainly not an entire power plant. Unrelated question- where would I find underwater speakers to be used by an artist to lip sync to while....you guessed it... underwater (and not being fried)? Peace be with you.

I would suggest more in the way of art direction. Not a lighting suggestion, but if you don't have anything to light the overall project will suffer. It's supposed to be safe house, no? It looks like a huge empty, apartment that you happen to access through a grimy alley. I liked the alley scenes and would expect you to continue the same underworld theme in the safe house. The mood is dark and depressing so the lighting should reflect that- read shadow. The shot where they look through the window at the approaching thugs doesn't work. It's a back alley. Maybe if they go to the second floor, but there is no indication from the angle that this is the case. Well edited.

Hello all, I'm looking for work after having dropped out of school and was wondering where is the best place online to look for crew listings. I've tried mandy.com and craiglists....any others? I'm in the LA area. peace be with you Dan

What techniques do you use to ensure your masters match closer coverage? What do you tend to change from one to the other, if at all (i.e. f-stop, lighting intensity)? -dan

you wouldn't be white balancing with the warming filter on the camera would you?

for those of you who have experience doing tape to tape color correction- what software is used and what are the typical costs and advantages over those in fcp and avid? thanks

http://www.cinematography.net/Pages%20DW/R...nProjection.htm

So photometric data would never serve you in a situation like this?

Karl- The only reason I brought up Roe vs. Wade is because it proves up bringing contributes to what you do with your future. The Wade vs. Roe case study is discussed in the book Freakonomics. I recommend it highly. The authors use the tools of economics to come to interesting conclusions about social trends. Not even noting the data that they refer to , it's obvious that abortion would have this effect on crime. After all, women often have abortions because they can't provide proper care for a child. Now unless you think children thrive in a foster home setting, this discussion (at least my end) is over.

That's all art is- politics. Actually in Russia, trying to supress revolution the artists where the first people to be dragged out in shot by the White Army. This has happened through out history. Don't let anyone ever tell you can't change the world through your art. The best art does. Not only is this not true, it is a piss poor excuse for mistreating your employees. Up bringing plays a huge role in what you do in life and especially your social mobility. Here's the proof- Roe vs. Wade in the 60s, the court case that legalized abortion proved to decrease crime in the 90s, because people who would have had children with poor up bringings (crime prone, walmart prone) weren't alive. Eric- poor attitude, but I still love you.

This is sort of an off-topic question, but does anyone know the circle of confusion for 1/4in and 1/2 CCDs?

There are several technical and aesthetic reasons. Technical 144-degree shutter- used to film a CTR (tube) TV/monitor connected to a 60-hertz power source 150 - used to film at 25fps with lights connected to a 60-hertz power supply. 172.8 - used to film with lights connected to a 50-hertz power supply. With 144 and 172.8 you can change your fps as long as your exposure time is divisible by 120 and 100 respectively. Aesthetic Significantly less than 180 (i.e. 90, 45. etc) will cause any movement to be very choppy but clearly defined. You can experiment with any video camera. More than 180 will cause motion blur because the film is being advanced though the shutter is till open. This effect can be enhanced further with duel motor cameras.

When home for vocation in MA the Williams College Museum of Arts had on exhibit the works of two artists that should have pursued Cinematography, the late Edward Hopper, a classic contemporary American painter and Gregory Crewdon, a photographer whose primary influence was Hopper?s paintings. It was fun to look at the very cinematic work of Crewdon and guess what lights he used, where. The first hyper-link shows a photograph that required over 100 lights. I?m sorry I couldn?t find larger photographs. Hopper's work- most of his subjects cater to a dominating light source

I?m sure Eric is amused by the direction this discussion has gone. I propose a new section, ?Propaganda: A cinematographer?s Role? to be added immediately to this forum. And, yes, the Batista Regime can burn in hell!

The potential for change lies with the masses and a general social consciousness. You can always play the blame game. ------- Our task is to prevent the present generation, torn asunder by its conflicts, from becoming perverted and from perverting new generations. We must not bring into being either docile servant of official thought or scholarship students who live at the expense of the state ? practising "freedom." Ernesto Guevara

Eric, knowing your reputation as a cinematographer, I have no doubt that your camera and lighting work contributed greatly to the commercial’s overall form, but the content is quite bothersome. As cinematographers we are the drivers, if you will, of the vehicle that is story (in the case of an ad, a commercial story). The message…. Examine the vehicle before you drive it and… Hollywood, it’s time to wake up!!! www.hel-mart.com www.walmartwatch.com www.wakeupwalmart.com www.walmartmovie.com

In panavision's CD catalogue there is a very useful calculator in the form of an excel file. I can send it to anyone that's interested. Dan

Ralph Nader is correct when he said today's youths are numb to anything political on TV, because they are too busy being bombarded by corporate advertising. What does this mean? We grow up corporate with our 30 sec sound bites and put politics and the potential for tremendous change at the wayside. There is not a third party in the US which means people are fine with corporate influence in our government (we have it in our lives everyday- why not in politics) ........so the trend continues. We complain like everyone else or we fight the power.

Now I can see why impressionable young men go off to fight for their country. It's going to be like playing paintball. Wonderful. Besides what the movie implies, I loved the color palate, the texture and use of overexposure. With little trouble you could have added more dimension (story) by suggesting who the operatives are after or a comedic element (when someone gets hit the audience is immediately transported from Fallujah to oh poop this isn?t a bullets that would have severed my spine this is a ball of paint?. lets see if mom can fix us some hot chocolate) Dan

Robert thank you for bringing this up- it is a topic that is very important to me. Global warming and more broadly environmental degradation is a huge problem. Individual productions can do much more to help the environment than they think. Everything for production creates waste- power (smog), food (trash), it is a sad fact. What productions need to work on is not creating excess waste. Another thing is the film making process and respect for the environment don't mix well. Everything in prod. is about speed, so if that means leaving trash in the forest after a shoot that's what happens. On every shoot I pick up trash after people, not because it is my responsibilty to the production but because it my responsibility as a resident of planet earth. It gets in the way of people's egos if they have to pick up trash so few people do it (especially on student shoots). Is it true that generators run cleaner if they are loaded near capacity. I was on a shoot where we used a generator that was 5-6 times the size we needed- that cant be good. dan

I think as a DP you bounce far more information off the gaffer than you do the AC. Gaffers often carry light meters, so they quickly become aware of a ton of information- ASA of film, post process (pushing/pulling), filtration and how the DP exposes his images (i.e. contrast ratios, under/over exposure). After all, few still work in foot-candles. The only thing you?re not doing as a gaffer to complete your educational experience is looking through the lens, and even that skill set can be mastered through observation (glance at the monitor unobtrusively and contemplate the frame !!!^&*$) If you interact a lot with the person whose job you would like some day, it makes sense that you become well versed in what exactly he/she does. Don?t get me wrong, I love ACing too. It?s like being in the military except instead of a gun you have a camera (break down/ build up, calibrate, clean, load, aim, shoot, mag out, reload). Then there is focus pulling (which I suck at) and ....I can't continue the analogy dan

definately a new word for me...."bokeh"

For those of you who have used this meter, is it good or bad? How does it compare in price to the Sekonic 558? Thanks

What is the difference in cost (stock, scanning, lab) between the two formats? Does it take longer to shoot a scene in 35mm than in 16mm? A friend of mine wants to shoot a project on 35mm so it can be handed into the festivals on a DVD. Is it worth it or is he better off spending his money somewhere else? Thanks