Andrew Redd

I've heard a lot of really good things about the JVC GY-HD101 as long as you are wanting to shoot HDV projects. If you're just wanting a good DV camera to learn with, try the Panasonic DVX100a. You could pick up a used one fairly cheap or even a new one would still be within your budget. -Andrew Redd DP/Gaffer Dallas, TX

Thank you for the advice. I think taking apart someone's stove or dryer in order to hard wire it to my distro box might cause some alarm in the location owner's sense of ease. While I agree that is a much more secure way to properly tie into the existing power, I think the odds of shooting at that location ever again might be slim to none unless the property owner fully understands the situation and procedure. The school of thought I was trained in is to always leave a location better than it looked before you arrived. Messing with someone's appliances might make them a little uncomfortable.

Mitch I understand and I appreciate the warning. I wouldn't build/use it if I had any doubt in it's construction. That's why I started this post to begin with so that I can hear expert advise and suggestions from all of you, my peers on the proper way to go about making one. Thanks again.

The scene is definitly underexposed unless that is the look you are going for which it very well might be. If you don't already have one, I would suggest using an incident meter for the next time you want to determine your f-stop. I rarely use the spot meter for determining where to set my lens. I tend to use the spot meter more for seeing the differences in my various light sources in helping me tweak my lighting set-ups to better support (or not support) my incident reading on my subject. This is how I was trained, it may or may not be the correct way to approach lighting a scene and shooting it at the correct f-stop, but it works for me. If all you have is a 1k to light your interior scene, you might want to try a faster stock, like Kodak Vision2 5218 500T. It's a great stock with minimal grain and it would give you a little more latitude to work with. -Andrew Redd

I have a 35mm commercial coming up that I am going to be shooting and it takes place in a movie theater. I was wondering if anyone has lit a similar setting and found a really good way to reproduce the look of light bouncing off the movie screen onto the audience members. I was thinking of shooting two 4k HMI's through some tough silk and back lighting with tungsten units or possibly just one source 4 as backlight for hero (shooting on Kodak 5218 500T, not positive yet). Let me know what you guys think. Thanks, Andrew

I still go with my mechanix gloves for the grip jobs and my $20 leathers (the ones with the donkey head on the them, not sure the brand name off the top of my head) from Home Depot for electric work. Never had a problem with either. Also I've gotten them wet many times and never had a problem with them prematurely falling apart because they got wet.

Are there any DP's or gaffers out there that have built their own Distro Boxes? I basically need a box that I can use on smaller budget location shoots where I can plug into a stove or dryer 240V plug so Im not limited to just the wall edison plugs.

Im trying to find detailed instructions on how to build my own Distro Box with a list of materials needed to complete the job. Can anybody help? Thanks, Andrew Redd