Jamie Metzger

Hard Tape, Soft Tape and Laser Tape all have their own purpose. They are the right tool for most situations but not every situation. Carry all 3 so you are always covered ;) I use a Fatmax which was $100 and goes to 100'. Ryobi makes one that is the same price (I think) and goes to 200'. Check Home Depot.

www.filmtools.com

www.animatedknots.com learn every knot on that site and become a man.

I was supposed to be driving tomorrow for a 3 day commercial in LA. Funny that I came upon this thread, since my biggest fear is that I'll be halfway down the 5 and I get a call for a cancelled job. It's risky business, but I enjoy the drive and I have friends down there that I can sometimes work with on the same job. I don't check this forum too often, but feel free to email me if you are heading down, and vice versa. I might be driving as well and we can carpool. I've flown for a 2 day job, cheapest rental car was $50/day. It sucks to drive, but it gives you the most flexibility.

Why would anyone use Red Alert anymore? It's not supported by RED, and it doesn't utilize Red Rocket Hardware rendering. That being said, the only way to go is to use Redcine-x to grade "one-lights" of your footage. I'd highly suggest using the SDI out with a calibrated monitor, as making any kind of critical adjustments on a computer monitor is not going to transfer through your pipeline well. I suggest using Redcine-x to render out Pro Res files. Use LT if you will conform to the R3D files; LT will give you a smaller file. Use 422 HQ if you plan to finish on the ProRes files (commercial productions are doing this. it's totally fine). Do not ingest using FCP. FCP does not give you control over what flavor of ProRes that you want. It also DOES NOT SUPPORT the new color science (build 30+). FCP log and transfer is also software based and will take quite a while to transcode the footage; albeit incorrectly.

Was on a food network shoot the other day as a 1st. The DP chose the F23 over the F35/Red/Genesis because he needed DOF; it was a Green Screen shoot and we needed the focus to carry quite far. It was a great call on his part. The F23 is a beautiful, wonderful, ergonomic camera. Pleasure to work with!

Ofcourse it's worth the trouble! I've talked with other scripties, Ac's, Dp's...etc about the same kind of idea. Everyone loves it, especially with the EPIC *supposedly* being able to stream video to the ipad. If the program was available for ipod/iphone/ipad, this would be greatly helpful as well. (android support would rock as well)

btw, one of the easiest ways to light a cyc or greenscreen :)

yep, you got the right idea. Bag the stands, and tie off the frame. When it's not in use, "table" it, so it catches less wind.

do as much paperwork as needed to keep yourself sharp.

I like the 2nd video in; with the girl infront of the car. The first video should go. It doesn't show much "talent". Start with the nice looking stuff, and if you want to keep that 1st video, put it in much later.

There is something to learn from every postion on a film set. Why not give every job a try, and see what's required to be the best. I believe that the new, cheap, VDSLR isn't helping the director/cinematographer relationship. I also think that confident DP's can see no reason to work with a director on a music video per se, since in my experience directors don't do much on the day of.

Dane Brehm has been doing a lot of work with RED and a new Element Technica rig. He's on the forum, look him up :)

LTO would be a great choice as well, considering the cost of HDCAM tapes. The 7D does not generate as much media as a RED, so don't be worried about storage space. If you want a tape backup, LTO4 is the way to go. BTW, I know you want a submaster on tape, but I was also thinking about archival reasons too.

Depends on if you want a file based workflow or a tape based. Seems if the project were a commercial and going to air, it would end up on tape anyways.

That makes no sense. Have you tried it yourself sats? If so, did you make sure you were doing it 100% correctly? I don't mean to question you like that, but it seems rediculous that aja wouldn't have considered those things.

Just worked in Purebred productions studio on North Canal Street in SSF... Very nice place. Lots of thought was put into the design.

You SHOULD love the camera more than your other camera that shoots to tape. read up on the some different settings to use. I know a lot of people turn down the sharpness to help with anti aliasing, but there are different settings for different scenarios. Are you converting the footage to Apple Pro Red 422? H.264 is a delivery format. Convert to pro res and edit in fcp.

Dude. That looked great!

Condor with the 6K = much more flexibility. Start off with a spot lens and add diff as needed. If you only have that small doorway to content with, the 6k should be fine. Someone mentioned building a set....always a good thought. Ps... those ruby lights look sweet as well! 4K with medium lens 20-30' away. The Center of the light was hitting more of the building than the windows and it was still super bright!

I've used the Cam-wave on a few shoots as well, and as much as I like it, it's pretty big. It does have very nice range, and I've even used it between 4 apartments (numerous walls) and it still looked great!

Wesley: Go to City college. After your first day, get on the T train and head down town. Get off at the montgomery station stop and head to 79 New Montgomery. Proceed to the Academy of Art University and start making friends. I promise you (and satski, bowerbank, and kevin can attest) that the Academy has it going on. I encourage new students to make friends with academy people and work on their shoots. If you stay in the city and start working professionally, you will always find an Academy student on set. We work. We are stubborn and think we are all that. But we get the kind of hands-on experience that you can't compare to any other school. Save your money.

Go by eye. I used a marshall monitor recently and liked it very much. Sometimes you can't even judge the exposure off the back LCD in certain viewing environments... BTW, the new "unreliable" technology is fantastic, and looks great. On a recent shoot I used (2) 7D's and (1) 5D (music video). We were able to get the camera in rigs, and spaces that would have not been possible with most other cameras. After bring the footage into a professional Telecine Facility and seeing what it's capable of, I wouldn't hesitate to use it again. Bars and Tone...yes, they should fix that. Bear in mind though, this camera was made for people who shoot documentary photographs, buy also want the option to shoot video. No need for Bars in that situation. jamie

Make sure you ask the producer, upm, production coordinator...etc when they hire you what the expected time frame is for checks. Be polite, but get in the habit of always asking; it's a very common question. I have heard many times from the aforementioned people that I asked "good questions". I don't like not knowing.