Josh Hill

You buy me a nice Super 16mm camera and I have no problem flying to Egypt and picking it up. :-) Or I'll pay for shipping to the States. Your choice. Hehe. But definitely check visualproducts.com. They are wonderful. Later, Josh

I have a problem with people constantly bringing up 28 Days Later as a testament for DV. I don't think it had to do with his cinematography skills as much as it did the MILLIONS of dollars that was put into it. As well as lenses that most people will never use on their camcorder. 28 Days Later is not an accurate example of what can be done with a consumer camcorder. The other side of coin is Full Frontal. It's a great movie, but the video in it (XL1s PAL with standard lens) pales in comparison to the 35mm portions of the movie. Don't be fooled by bigger budget pics that use DV as an aesthetic. If you had their budgets, you wouldn't be buying a single camera for yourself. I do agree on waiting for the JVC HDV camcorder. I do believe the FX1 is Sony's first foray into the HDV format (I may very well be wrong on this fact). JVC has already put out one HDV camcorder (HD10U, which you can get on ebay for a couple of grand if you really want) so I think this second generation from them will be a step ahead of the competition. Don't be too anxious to purchase a camcorder. Research what is out now, what is coming out, and if there are any major technological breakthroughs that are worth waiting for. I was anxious to get my XL1s, and after I did the DVX100A came out and I was left standing there saying: "poop, I should have waited another six months."

While you're throwing money around will you buy me a cheap 16mm camera. An old Aaton 54 or Arri SR would be fine with me. :-)

Everything around us is outdated by something. Some people would argue that the HDV compression is not up to par yet. Do you need HDV? Is DV fine enough for you? Are the differences in price worth it? By his argument, don't buy the Sony either because it is outdated by the full sized HD cameras. In fact, don't buy any camera for fear of new technology coming out and making it worthless.

People have been posting various pics of their work off and on, and so I thought I would post some of mine (in video, because it was shot and finished on Video). Most of these shots were lit with 200W fresnels. The night scene outdoors is lit with a single 300W fresnel, and the indoor night scene is lit with a 200W fresnel with barndoors pulled to shoot a diagonal swath of light across the figures with a little bit of bounce light (not much) for fill. Pictures 5, 6, and 7 were shot with a 650W bounced off of foam core. When I shoot with the XL1s I tend to use only one, maybe two lights at the most. My favorite technique is to pull the barndoors so that I get a tiny swath of light (maybe six inches thick) and throw it across the frame at an odd angle. It tends to look good. Let me know what you think of the pics. They're all about 100-200K, so I didn't bother posting them here. The links should all work, but if they don't....let me know. Look forward to hearing back from everyone/anyone. Pic 1 Pic 2 Pic 3 Pic 4 Pic 5 Pic 6 Pic 7 Pic 9 Pic 10

Google? He seems to know everything.

Par cans are okay, but don't go overboard on them. I have 2 1k par cans and 2 Arri fresnels (300W and 650W). Altman fresnels on BHPhoto are a good bit cheaper than Arri. I'd get a few par cans, but also a few nice fresnels. A couple of 300W and a couple of 650W, or some open faced tungsten lighting. eBay is your friend, you might actually be able to get a 575W HMI with ballast for a grand or so.

Yes, improvisation is all about rehearsal. Honestly. It's the difference between good improv and bad improv. If you've seen the making of Taxi Driver they talk about this. How DeNiro would never come on the set and just DO something, but he and Scorsese would talk about and rehearse it and go over it and over it. Don't let the director talk you into shooting unrehearsed, spontaneous improv because 90% of actors, even th good ones, aren't going to do it that well. And if it's unrehearsed it's unlikely it's going to be the same everytime and almost impossible to cut together in most cases. I don't think you'll have a problem handholding, though. The heavier the camera the easier it is to handhold because it gives you more resistance. You should probably try to be as much in your knees as possible, don't be stiff and rigid with it.

Film Look? Shoot film. Don't waste your time layering your video with filters and other stuff to make it look like film. If you're going to shoot video, embrace the video. It is an aesthetic all of it's own. Develop your own visual style, and don't worry if it looks like celluloid or not. Besides, film look does not equate good. If you're creative, and you do interesting things with the camera and the editing it's not going to matter if it looks like it was shot on video or film or whatever else. People can make bad films and good videos. It isn't inherently the medium.

If you're going to spend 15 grand on a Super 16mm camera, why not throw it into something that is a little more viable for a wider range of products? Sure the A-Minima is a great little camera, but why limit yourself to 200ft loads (and specialty loads at that, which you will only be able to get factor sealed as far as I know). You can get a nice used SR2 for 18,500 according to the Visual Products website, and if you don't mind fiddling with eBay auctions you could get a camera for half that (like an XTR or SR2 that is already super16) and just have it overhauled for a couple of grand. That's just my opinion. Unless there is just some totally specific reason you need the A-Minima I would get a different camera if you have that kind of dough to spend.

Agreed. Paul Hillman is THE reason that Whitehouse has their reputation with CPs. He told me he worked there for YEARS before moving to Visual Products. He is a genius with the CP. Go Visual Products. They are cheaper overall, and very nice. Paul went over estimate on my camera/lens but charged me what he said he would.

Rawstock is one of THE most trustworthy places to buy recan film. I would trust Film Emporium as well (and you can actually order online).

I put in a tape that I knew had material on it to play, but it will not play (fast forwards/rewinds, but never finds the timecode on the tape). When it records, the time code advances, but one again I cannot play anything back so I do not know if it is actually recording or not. All of this is happening at above 50 degrees (more like 70 - 85 or so right now) so I don't think that has anything to do with it. Worried now. Later, Josh

I was doing a shoot for a friend a week or two ago and my XL1s told me to clean the tape heads before I could record. I ran the cleaner through, as specified on the head cleaner instructions, and it fired right up and ran. I left my camera with my friend for him to shoot the rest of his project while I went back to school. He returned it yesterday and said the camera would not record at all. He would hit the record button and it would say recording, but nothing got put on the tape. I'm about to go check this out for myself, and it may just be a false alarm. But if it isn't, any suggestions about what it could be/is? Thanks. Later, Josh

kb ... I'm living in Austin, Texas. You should shoot me an e-mail. I don't know if you ever bought your 16mm camera, but I own a camera and DAT for sync sound. I also own a few lights. Give me an e-mail and maybe we could work together, or if you needed some equipment I could loan it out if I get to come along for the ride. joshhill@hot.rr.com Later, Josh

Unfortunately, do to actor/crew schedule restraints (since we are all students) the production had to be postponed. Besides spring break, midterms, and theatre productions I could not get any two people together at one time to shoot. It's hard to get people to commit when they aren't getting paid. But I'll be sure to post what I think of Movielab when I do get this film shot (I'm not going to let a thousand feet of perfectly good film go to waste). I'll keep you posted.

Leon, My lens cleaners say they can be used on any lens, but are specially designed for Zeiss anti-reflective multi-layer coating. They are ammonia free. And I rarely clean my lenses because I use a UV filter covering all of them (so usually I'm cleaning the UV filter). But sometimes, cleaning just can't be helped. Later. PS: Leon, did you ever get your 35mm Sync camera?

I bought a box of Zeiss Lens Wipes at Wal-Mart. They were right there by the checkout and it was two dollars for a box of twenty. They are pre-moistened lens cloths that work absolutely brilliantly.

I have to say Daniel, being professional does mean that you get paid for what you do. Amateur simply means that you do it for the love of doing something, and not necessarily for the monetary gain (sadly, amateur has picked up some extremely negative connotations over the years). Being professional has nothing to do with how elite you are or how much experience you have. It simply means you are doing the work for gain. If you are getting paid, regulary, to shoot you are a professional. If you are doing it because it is something you love to do AND you're not getting paid, you are an amateur. But being an amateur is not something to be embarrassed about or rebel against. In fact, rebellion in a profession where people are made and broken by who they know and who likes them is not for those who are just starting out. You're doing interesting things with photoshop, but these are not thing that are at all hard to do. Grading and setting tone for an entire motion picture is not the easy task you relegate it to being, and if it were there would be no professional colorists in the business, a director would just sit down at their keyboard with PhotoshopMOTION (or some other program for motion picture use) and play around with it for a while. Your aspirations are admirable, but you have to be careful not to be arrogant. Quite frankly, all of the 16 year old "I'm going to be famous, look how easy this is" posts that pop up every few weeks really get on my nerves, as I am trying hard to learn things on this board, and I feel insulted that people younger than myself come off as rude and arrogant. Learn all you can, but do so humbly. Nothing is as easy as it first seems, and the deeper you go the more complicated it becomes (most of the time).

I assume 575CDN is referring to a rental price? Because last time I checked an Aaton A-Minima costs about 15000 new. I've never used one, but they are apparently odd to load (though easy when you get the hang of it) and loud.

I bought a nice DAT off of eBay cheaply. TASCAMs you can get off eBay for under 7 hundred most of the time, and I got an HHB PortaDAT 1000 for under 700 (4 head as opposed to the Tascam 2-head, case, tapes, battery, charger, AC adapter, case). But if you're buying everything (microphone included) don't forget a nice windscreen. Having a good recorder makes no difference if you can't hear any of the dialogue because of screaming gale winds.

Hey. I'm in Austin too. Also a student. I don't know much about time-lapse, but I have a couple of handy books and I'm sure we could figure it out. I'm also shooting some 16mm coming up over spring break. We should talk. I believe my contact information is in my profile, and my e-mail addy is in my signature.

F-Stops refer to the amount of light entering the lens. Every time you go up a full stop, you double the amount of light entering, and every time you go down a stop you half the amount of light entering. So an f/4 is twice as much light as an f/5.6 You should google for it though. There are plenty of good photography tutorials online. And this has probably been addressed in the forums before.

www.movielab.com has Rank Cintel III transfers for 75 an hour. I haven't used them yet, but they are apparently reputable (they're next door to Colorlab) and all the research I've done has said good things.

The best shots and angles for comedies are: the funny ones. Comedies, I think, are so hard to judge. To lump them all into one catagory like that just makes it hard. I know I shot a funny short film that was funny for a number of reasons 1) Because of the reaction shots, 2) Because some parts of it were shot extremely seriously, almost noirish, and 3) Just the jokes. Take a look at Clerks. It's not funny because of the way it's shot, it's funny because it's just funny. But I think the funniest thing I've ever seen in a movie is the long pull back in House of 1000 Corpses just before the cop gets shot. That shot held for so long it was hilarious, I laughed and laughed and laughed. I guess my advice would be figure out what is funny in the shot and accentuate it. And remember, not everything has to be funny. Not every frame has to be hilarious. In fact, there should be time inbetween the jokes (otherwise the audience may miss something that is funnier because they laugh through it).