Cole Webley

I threw this on to youtube for the moment...the edit is sloppy and quick...shots too long (especially the tv knobs...I don't know what happen there) but regardless I am looking for specific feedback: What shots work in the reel and which shots don't...please think like an agency looking to represent cinematographers and less like a cinematographer ( I know...that's counterintuitive) In general...what works for you, the sound, the images? Thanks everyone. Everything is on 35, except for a couple of shots on 16 and S16. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEnFBNMPI6E

What did you shoot it on?

The stills look great. The thread doesn't work though, I would love to see it...hope you get that working. I am shooting two shorts in the next couple of months. We, too, were going to use the HVX with an adapter (most likely the M2 or P+S Technik because thats what we have available to us) but we recently had a Sony CineAlta F900 come into our possession, so we are going to shoot with that camera. Have you used it before? Anyways, try to get the URL to work so we can see it!

Hey I just emailed you- talk soon.

in my judgment the P+S technik eats up the most light...although they don't have this problem with the Pro35 Adapter...must be going through more glass on the HVX setup. If you don't have a lot of lights and you have time to play with it...i would get the M2. I have been speaking with their people and they tell me they can manufacture lens mounts on to the M2. We have a set of old canon cine lenses with the mitchell BNCR mount and they said they could machine one for that mount. Anyways, Redrock does take a lot of time to ship and while their stuff is under warrenty you can't return anything because you decide you don't want it. PLUS you can only communicate with them through email...lame. Best luck.

So are you from Utah?

Looked great. Nice stuff. Looks like most of those where commissioned commercials not spec right? You shoot a lot of super35? Constructive criticism: too long, I would cut it down to 3min...4min tops...what does everyone else think about length? Best of luck.

The hardest part for me was trying to get into the film during the opening scene...the "smearish" quality of the motion really pulled me out during that first hunt scene. I agree with the D. Mullen's assumption that if it was shot at 180 degree shutter angle most of us wouldn't have had many negative reactions. All around, I liked the picture...I didn't like it as much as the Passion or Braveheart, but Gibson has established himself as a world-class director.

I noticed it as well, mostly only in the time window room with Kilmer, Goldberg, and the other cast members--Watch the Apacalypto trailer, I just don't like the way it captures fast motion.

we didn't use any other lenses, no mini 35 adapter, etc. Just the camera and everything that comes with it. Thanks, Cole

Rolfe, I agree that the shots that are moving alot are distracting. I wish we had more tripods but we only had one and three cameras. We were only able to have the band play the song three times and the director told me that we needed to have done it a couple more times -- I wish we could have gotten more coverage, this seems to solve some problems. The smoke/fog is a good idea for the background or maybe some kind of material, like you said is a good idea. I am trying to learn more about using complementary colors etc. to make things more visually interesting and maybe I could have done more in the background. Hopefully next time we will be able to get inside the place sooner then 30 min. before the shoot. Thanks again.

Satsuki, We did indeed have mutiple cameras - we had three cameras all equiped with 2 8G P2 cards. We had thirty minutes to pre-light and they only had time to play the song four times after their sound checks. I had a 2ft. Kino Flo kit, 4 mini moles, and 1 2k softbox. With such little time I knew I needed to focus on making sure their faces were lit enough to get good detail and I knew I wanted a strong backligt to really create a nice border between them and the green background. The bands name is "Tilly and the Wall" check them out on their website. http://www.tillyandthewall.com/tatw/ The way we got this "gig" was from a previous video we shot of them on S16 film. After seeing that they asked us to shoot this song (which is the lead song on their new album). We had planned on doing it on 35mm but they weren't able to come into town a day earlier like we had hoped - they had been on tour for a month and were exhausted. Since we weren't going to have time to shoot it right on 35mm we decided to shoot it on the HVX's - anyways thats how it came about. go to our preliminary website www.j-four.com and choose "Tilly and the Wall" to see the earlier video of a different song shot on S16 film. This was also a three camera shoot - we had an Eclair, an Aaton, and a CP-16 --- some of our film was really old which would explain some of the ultra grainy shots. So, in answer to your question -- No, I wasn't able to spend a lot of time lighting them -- in fact, they didn't come in until I had already lit for them (I had to ladies their helping us with camera stuff that I had stand in at times to check my lighting) when they did arrive I tweaked their backlights a bit to make sure they were all in their lights. It worked out well enough I think for time constraints. In fact, the manager of the band called from London asking for a copy on Beta SP because he was sending it to MTV 2. So the last few days we have been putting final touches and getting it ready for broadcast. Great deal for the band - since everything was on our dime but also great deal for us as I am sure this will help with our ( J-Four ) reel. Thanks again for the comments and interest.

Thanks Mark - Just yesterday as I was watching the video over again I said to the director - "I can't believe I didn't have another light on their feet!" Since I didn't have any other lights what I most likely should have done is gotten rid of one of their backlights and dropped it down on the ground for some kind of a kicker on thier feet. Great comments about the BG - I think that is very true. I would agree that the few shots of the cieling are not as visually stimulating -- except (like you mentioned) when there was a light up there that occasionaly would give me bit of a flare and such. Looking back at my student work this collaboration with the DP and the production designer and the director was something that was overlooked and underappreciated. I wish I could go back and have the production designer use colors/shapes/etc. in the background and foreground to help keep things interesting. I shot a short in a mobile home trailer and the walls were white and only part of them got covered with wall paper --- it looks so dull and flat w/ white walls!! Unless carefully thought through they can be your worst enemy. Anyhow, I appreciate the dialogue. It was a lot of fun -- and somewhat challenging to light it w/ so few lights in so little of time. The band played the song four times for us after their sound check. I can't wait for the days when there will be a budget and something of a little more time. Take care.

Here is yet another example of the HVX at work. An example of its latitude etc. It is also posted in "please critique my work" but I thought I would drop it in here as well. http://j-four.com/videos/Rainbows.mov

This was a great exercise to test the workflow and latitude of the HVX-200. This is a performance video that I shot on the band "Tilly and the Wall" in Salt Lake City -- I didn't have a lot of time to pre-rig any lights. I used four mini moles for some back light and a 2" kino flo kit and a 2k soft box. Still, the over cranked shots (at 60fps) are a bit underexposed. All in all, the shoot went pretty well and I was pleased with the work flow. The only problem we had was when I asked for another P2 card at my assistant ejected the one out of the camera that I was recording too -- my fault, it was loud and I didn't make myself clear...she felt horrible. I lost everything that I had recorded on that file up to that point...in other words, I lost all the footage I had captured since I pushed record...in the scene file that thumbnail had a big X on it...so I'll remember not to do that again. We had three cameras, each with 2 8G P2 cards. This band is really great, their manager is the same manager as Sigur Ros -- which means someone else is confident that they are going to do well. Anyways, take a look and let me know what you think and if you have questions. here is the url: http://j-four.com/videos/Rainbows.mov

Just transfered this TV stuff at R!OT -- they did a great job and were willing to work with our budget. I would recommend them to any and all. I will post some stills when we transfer them from the DigiBeta. Thanks again everyone. Cole

Thanks Brad. IMO your not crazy.

Thanks for all of your replies. We shot it the other night. We ended up having four television sets. And, I ended up just shooting them all blank -- I couldn't find the equipment to sync them all up. 98% of the shots were static the other two shots were just a slow push in and a slow move out on a dolly -- I have been told that it shouldn't be too hard for the post guys to drop our images in on the televisions. We'll see. Once again, thanks for all of the remarks and ideas. Cheers.

I've seen this so much "IMO" what does that stand for? Thanks gentleman.

I was shooting something for a doc in a park in New York when i came across Uma Thurman who suspected me and my camerman to be paparazzi. She was with her young child so we didn't blame her for being concerned. After we informed her that we were filmmakers shooting our own project she was perfectly cordial. She was just protecting her child - having just become a father for the first time, I would have done the same. Clint Howard was a lot of fun to work with - and interesting to listen to his stories at lunch about films he has worked on with his brother. Fred Willard was really nice and worked well under difficult conditions. -Cole

For me the weaker spots would include the shots of when the two men come into the office and sit down and are speaking with the other guy...to me the weaker shots are those that don't showcase any particular element of cinematography-such as your use of line, depth, color, blocking, use of lighting, camera movement, (refer to Bruce Block's "The Visual Story" it is a great reference) etc. Hope that helps. You have some nice stuff, and I am sure you could even make it looker better by cutting some of those "weaker" shots. Best of luck. -Cole

Can you give us some technical specs? Thanks Cole

I also liked the tempo of your reel. Looks pretty good. I wished that one of the songs lasted the whole length. Can't decide which song I liked best but I wish it was one continuous song. Good stuff. The length was good -- not too long. I like what someone said about ending on a note and having your name appear again at the end. Cheers. Cole

I agree that the music starting and stoping seemed to be "bumpy" and "didn't work for me" in particular. I think the attic stuff looks great and my favorite shot was a close up on a hand picking up the knife off of the floor in the attic? The vodka stuff, while it looks decent, is somewhat a strange starting point. Maybe cut that stuff into a commercial reel -- it just doesn't fit in with the other stuff. Also, I agree that you should leave the dialogue out. I would be interested to know how much of it was on film. I noticed some video stuff. The music can be sooo hard to figure out. I know that I was cutting my reel sometime ago but I couldn't even start building a timeline because I haven't found a song to cut it to yet. I am looking for something without dialogue. Great first cut (even if it wasn't your first that's ok) I think you can make changes and improve it by following some of the constructrive criticism of these posts. Good work. If anyone has any suggestions as to what song they have cut their reel to, or songs they really like that would work on a reel I would be happy to hear them. Cheers. Cole

Thanks guys. I called a place called TV Specialist and spoke with one of thier rental guys and he wasn't able to give me any information as to what kind of sync generators I would need - or any information for that matter, unfortunantly. I think using PAL television sets would be great, if I could find some -- but again I have been unfruitful in this attempt - Utah is a long ways away from Europe. I am leaning towards composing it on the screens -- which would bypass a world of technical issues while at the sametime creating another level of post work, work which doesn't seem to be too heavy in comparison to the number of VHS players to DVD players + sync issues, etc. etc. We have a really good After Affects guy on our crew so I will try to convince him of my plans. -Cole