Igor Trajkovski

Some more "facing opposite" examples: Regards Igor

I saw today "2046". Some interesting framing that i saw. Placing the character(s) extremly far to the side of the frame: Some weird over the shoulder: And... The same extreme placement of the characters to the side of the frame, but facing the nearer edge...: Interesting.... Regards Igor

:D Anybody knows more about this picture (why and who)? Regards Igor PS: If you got a sliced ARRI or Pana, don't hesitate, post some pictures! :D

I think the same. Regards Igor

Here a sample. Normal render: And here the same with GI (Light Tracer in Max) The grain in the last picture is because i am using small number of samples for the calculation - to reduce render time :). The first image shows deep blacks. The second has fill from light bounced of walls and the ceiling. Regards Igor

BTW, i wonder, do previz soft like the above mentioned WYSIWYG, take into account GI while rendering? Regards Igor

I use a 3D package for previz or trying variuos lighting setups. I must point out an important thing. Doing previz with the lighting tools only, does not complete the picture enough. You can't see the various interactions of all the surfaces (walls, ceilings, objects). In other words, to see how would it look like, in the phisical world you need to use some sort of Global Illumination. A room (box) with couple of objects inside and lit with only one bulb (omni light) overhead, in normal (non GI) render does not represent how it (would) looks in physical reality. The side of the objects facing the light will be, well, lit, and the opposites in a complete darkness. In a real room, you see it ALL. Light bounces from the say white walls, providing adequate fill/ambient. My point is that in reality translated, the 3D previz setup may suprise you with some light in areas you didnt planed to... GI is time consuming, so everyone should make their own judgement, how accurate he wants to pre-viz/light the set. I'll illustrate it with some samples tommorow. Regards Igor

"Return to Castle Wolfenstein" - the FPS game. :) You know, B.J. Blazkowicz, Heinrich Himmler's SS Paranormal Division, Helga Von Bulow, her Elite Guards (hot babes :)), resurrecting corpses, bio-technology, secret weapons, Übersoldaten... you name it! I even came up with the weird idea, if i would be the producer to make 3 versions. Filmed at the same locations/studio sets, same actors, but 3 different directors with their on treatment, modification of a base script, HoD's by choice... And the directors are: 1) Steven Spielberg 2) Peter Jackson 3) David Lynch Under #3 i would give DL the freedom to do whatever he likes and go nuts in mood/psychodelia. :) <--- risky step, don't you think? =========================== "STAR CONQUISTADORS" A SciFi novel. The next GREAT space EPIC after Star Wars! :) Regards Igor

The end of the WORLD has come! sooo... REPENT SINNERS!!! :) Sorry could not help myself. :) It is getting more exiting after all these months of online RED Wars episodes. And now,... IT is out there!... So RED did it. Congrats on that. Now i am eager along the many others to see what can this new tool deliver. I hope they will post soon some screen grabs from PJ's movie. Regards. Igor

I wonder... Are there any RED shooting diary's on a site? Like PJ did for "Kong is King"? Sounds like serious Bih-ness! :) Regards Igor

Read the entire production diary (very short) at: DV.COM - Production Diary - "Lighting by the Seat of Your Wits" by Stefan Sargent :) Regards Igor

Why didn't anybody here mentioned the Weisscam? P+S TECHNICK - Weisscam HS1 According to P+S Technik's website, it is avaliable for rental in Athens (Greece) from: ABL Films www.ablfilms.com +30 210-61 05 206 Regards Igor PS: Usual disclaimer.

As previuosly said, GL2 does not have 24p. It has 30fps in FRAME movie mode. It does not simply double the one field. In Adam Wilt's words: From his site: Adam Wilt - DV-FAQ-etc. filmlook I own a XM2 - the European Version. Normal Mode 50i Frame Mode 25p (25f if you like :)) That brings me adjacent to 24fps. One frame does not make that a difference. A possible sollution would be XM2 shot 25F, slowed down to 24fps (including audio) and then 3:2 pulldown into 60i. BTW a damn good camera :). Regards Igor PS: Long lives PAL !!! WHY? I keep wondering about the hussle with NTSC's 60i format and 24p and 3:2 and... Maybe multi format/FPS television (set) will change that. 24 played 24, 25 -> 25, 30 ->30, 60->60. etc... In other words some global standard.

Go for the BetaSP. 2/3", shoot wide open, you'll get a decent blurred BG. IMPORTANT!!! If you are for a nice movielook, don't forget to TURN OFF (or lower) edge inhancement. it screams video! BAD for musicVids, in my oppinion. Regards Igor

Well, camera moves should be planed to match with the mood of a particular song part. It may happen later while editing: "If this tracking shot could have been a bit slower..." About some MV's being art.... Yes there are videos that leave lasting impressions, that are differend from the bunch. When i feel hunger for something different, i watch Alternative Nation, Flipside, Headbangers Ball... Those are the places where Art can be more easily found. Damn, i miss MTV's Party Zone from the 90's, hosted by Simone Angel.... Techno ruled, weird videos, the begining of computer videoscapes/longforms (3Lux, Xmix)... Feast for the eyes...Escapism... Today, (in the world of freedom...:)), most of the dance videos are too pollished, same motives repeating - girls dancing, showing of skin, slo-mo,... Not that i am against that, just i wonder does anybody makes something different and more artful or raw. In the caffe played Fat Boy Slim's "I praise you". I could not but smile as i remembered the video. :) Low tech home video taped public dance performance. Interlaced!!! Regards Igor

Sure. :) Best, Igor

About the tools used for negative fill. It could be frames. The same one used for diffusion. Instead with diffuse or bounce material you put on a black material. It could be black cardboards, foamcore painted black, black drape/cloth hanging on wire, on wall, on backdrop holder.... Dedicated flags or cutters like: http://www.matthewsgrip.com/mse.php?show=p...cat=54&pg=1 The idea is to prevent light hitting the subject and not reflecting any back. So the side preventing light hitting the subject directly could be any color and reflectivity but opaque. The other side should be non-reflective - black. Here a link with use of negative fill: Color of Reflector equals Color of Reflection Using_Digital_White_Balance_Outdoors - Outdoor Portrait California Sunbounce - 1 California Sunbounce - 2 Usual disclaimer. Regards Igor Trajkovski PS: Taken from my reply in a thread where later on the question what is Negative Fill poped up.

Well... I was looking after one particular video from CoF i once saw and liked. No name of song, no lyrics, don't know nothing but the video. As i was searching at youtube and watching various CoF musVid's i came upon one - Now that is the video i saw before and mistakenly thought was "Temptation". The night scenes i saw from your screengrabs were thematicaly similar - forest, snow, fog... :) I was a bit confused then: I saw the video on TV way earlier and here Stuart is telling he did this a month ago! Hmmm... :) Regards Igor PS: The video i was look for, the one i had no clue about, is "Babylon AD"

Wait till you SEE my new camera from the future! To make a long story short: Borat paid a visit of my store. He made a really BIG mess. While low on money to compensate for the damage, he offered me his watch from the FUTURE. I said, no, thanks, not interested. A FUTURE camera maybe? The rest is history... :) Regards Igor PS: My head got dizzy from the long listing of all the presets avaliable in the on-camera stock plugin. :)

I can't resist it. I found the saved article about the PS2 TVC on my computa. I would like to share excerpts from it. As i said, i could not find the article online, in the archives of DV.COM, so guess i wont get into trouble of posting parts of it. Full credits: Article form www.dv.com Title: "David Lynch Directs PlayStation 2 Spot" by Scott Billups (the DP) ... ... End Excerpt. K... :) Regards Igor

We all remember he shot the PS2 promo TV ad with a PD150. Well, he directed, Scoot Billups shot it. I do remember David saying he did some series with the above mentioned DVCAM. And now you are sayin he used that "aging miniDV camcorder" for his last movie. Well, that is a long lasting love, isn't it? :) Weird. The PD150 has no decent progressive scan. 15/12.5fps on NTSC/PAL accordingly. 1/3" chips. Deeper focuses are in order here. Who knows why he likes it that much? ... BTW i looked after the "The making of the PS2 TV ad" article at DV.COM but could not find it. It was a good reading. Regards Igor

Is Janusz DP-ing? Somehow this reminds me more of a Bond scenario. :) I know what are they going to shoot with... RED ONE @ 4K! Just kidding. :) Regards Igor PS: I don't intend to start a new "cold" RED and "open" film vs digital war. Respect to Jim and his project.

This just reminded me of a close up of Patrick Steward, in X-Men 1, when he was lying on a bed. Yes, i was awestruck by the detail of the skin and beaty of the shot, watched in a cinema, of course. Arghhh .... edge enhancement. They shall make a dedicated BIG on/off button for that function. Back in the days when i was at the quest for the FILMLOOK Grail, i was "stuck" with the idea deinterlacing/progressive was the panacea. All nice, but when i used to watch some TV production originating on betaSP, slowed down (deinterlaced) and still screaming VIDEO, i could not understand why. :) Now i do clearly. The Edge Enhancment was at MAX. The picture was crawling with artifacted edges. Starting from the busy (leafs/branches) background, add the deep stop, blown mini sparks of higlights... No remedy for over E-enhaced image. And my suprise when seeing a static shot from a commercial, beautifull dramaticaly lit person in a chair, and me thinking "nice film shot". The first move the talent did i could not believe what i saw. It was video! 50i. Damn! :) Anyway... Maybe the concerned actors should be reminded that "our" HD cameras have a function called Skin Detail. They can DIAL/Sign in the contract the amount of skin softening. In camera. Problem solved! :) Regards Igor PS: The last paragraph - me being bad. I do NOT like the uber softening of skin detail. I see it regularly on a naighbour country music video TV. Sometimes i see great looking images, fine balance of all picture settings. But sometims it hurts to watch how the same (HD/Digibeta/DVCpro) tool can be abused. Skin detail smoothed at max, than what Daved said - tendency for HD cameras to get clippy on skintone highlights, edge enhanced everything else, some blown outs,.. and top that with interlaced recording! You get the picture! :)

You may read about the making of in American Cinematographer: Creating Cinematographer Style - AC, oct2006 Happy New Year! :) Regads Igor

Thanks Karl. :) QUOTE(Karl Borowski @ Dec 24 2006, 10:02 PM) * just don't do it to the point of memorizing stardates for episodes of star trek Dave?..... .... are you tryin to say to US... ....you are a TREKKIE? :) . . . Me too. But without the stardates memorizing thing. And other extremes. Just enjoing watching and talking bout ST. I am very currious how the new movie will come out. I know JJ Abrams gona produce it, but wonder is he going to direct it as well. I like "Lost". I liked Mi3. So am anxious to see what kind of treatment JJ & Co are going to bring to the franchise. _\\// In case you still wander what _\\// means: The hand salute "Live Long And Prosper". :) _\\//. is © by me, 200X (x = 4 or 5) :D Regards. Igor