Drew Hoffman

Don't sell yourself short... it doesn't matter if it's a 2 minute short or a multimillion dollar feature, if you performed the duties of a Director of Photography... you've earned the title for that production. It's so common for people who are early in the game to hesitate referring to themselves as "filmmakers" but if you're placing the lights and looking through the eyepiece, why shouldn't you be called a DP? Also, don't sell short the role of Camera Operator, a good operator knows exactly the mood and feel you're going for and will capture it with you.

The B&W viewing filter is specifically designed for B&W film... there are color filters available in different film speed ranges that will render a more accurate example of what you should expect to see on film. Just look through the glass and it will give you a feel for how the contrast will appear on film. With the B&W filter, it will also help you determine color seperation so your grays don't blend together in a way you don't want them to. Only look through it for short bursts of time however, or your eye will start to adjust to it and skew your perception. As for using a viewing filter to look into a light source... I'd recomend getting a gaffer's glass for that, which is a really heavy ND filter (7.5 stops) for fine tuning lights and observing cloud movement across the sun.

Lately I've been on a kick to learn why people choose the formats they do to shoot on for a particular project. Especially with HD popping up more and more in the big budget market... what aspects of a project budgetary... but especially creative... lead you to choose the medium that you did?

Probably the main reason you have trouble getting the right exposure on your still camera is that you have to understand the nature of what it's telling you. Reflective light meters, like the one in your camera, have no idea what you're pointing them at, so they assume. A reading from a reflective meter gives you a reading assuming that you're pointing it something that is a middle grey (or reflects 18% of the light that hits it) so if what you're pointing it at is white, it will tell you to expose it like it's grey and your image will be underexposed. If what you're point it at is black, your image will be overexposed. The trick is to think about what your pointing it at and adjust to compensate for it and that will come with practice. The white semisphere of an incident measures the light falling on the subject (as opposed to the light being reflected like your still camera). There are times where it's better to use an incident meter and there are times where a reflective meter is more useful. The only real trick with an incident meter is knowing how to position it so the light is accurately hitting it. The way that I was first taught how to take an incident reading is to position the bulb in front of your subject and point it toward the camera so the light hitting the bulb is similar to the light hitting the subject's face... this will give you a pretty good general idea of an exposure.

There are three ways that I have seen/used in slating multiple cameras: 1) Each camera rolls on an MOS head slate for ID and shares a common clap for sync. 2) Each camera rolls on it's slate for ID and sync and is slated one at a time. (And is called properly... "A camera mark" "B camera mark" etc.) If there is only one slate then the same thing is done with just the one slate. 3) If both cameras can see the slate, then a common marker is ID'd and clapped for both.

Working out here in Arizona, killer exteriors are pretty much expected... I've even been in studios where equipment malfunctions from the heat. From an AC point of view... you can't have enough canned air. Always have a courtesy on standby for the camera... assign a grip to making sure the camera is covered in between takes. On one show, the G&E guys made a great little rig that had a basket of dry ice in front of a handheld fan directed through a snoot of black wrap. I'm not sure how practical that is in the middle of the Sahara, but it really helped the camera in the heat. Keep the film in the coldest place you can... put it in a cooler if necessary. Drink a TON of water and keep as much of yourself covered as possible... make sure it's something breathable like cotton. Apply and reapply sunscreen all day and have the occasional salty snack, it'll help retain the water. Space blankets are great to cover the camera if the camera is on standby for a while. As far as any kind of permanent covering for the camera dust, heat, or otherwise... I've never been fully satisfied with anything I've seen. I think that unless it's water... your best bet is to just keep it uncovered while shooting and get it into safety when you're not.

With CTO; CTB; CTS; + Green; - Green all in a variety of increments... are there any tricks for making sure that you're using the right gels in the right combination on a particular lamp? I don't have access to a color meter and I can kind of get away using my digital camera as a guide. I'm just wondering if there are any other tricks, especially with flourescents.