Chayse Irvin ASC, CSC

The workflow isn't something I came up with. I took it from a short that was shot in NY. This was his test results: "And yes capture was done with the Sony F950, dual link (4:4:4). The test was performed with the good people at Plus 8 Digital in NYC, where we just plugged in the dual channels of the camera to my Black magic Pro (dual link) capture card, set the frame rate to 1080p 23.98 fps. , and viola! No second tries, no tri-level sync, just straight, flawless direct capture and playback." Is the test practical in the sense that onset problems like crashes can occur? What would make this more volatile then say a S2 recorder?

Please elaborate. What would be unreliable? Why would people be pissed off? Is it a sound issue with the cpu? What kind of problems did you experience?

Another question is how do i ensure my onset monitor is calibrated properly to what the camera is recording? The last shoot I shot Varicam and some stuff came out darker then it looked on set... granted in post I wasn't viewing with the same monitor that was on set. How do I prevent this? Is the HD CRT onset always telling you what is being recorded if no LUT is applied? What if there isnt a CRT but a LCD... if that matters, could a standardized LUT pulled from prep ensure that prep, production, and post monitors are identical? Lastly. How is a custom LUT physically applied to a monitor?

I think I'm getting it. What is the difference between a Linear 10-bit 4:4:4 signal and a LOG 10-bit 4:4:4 signal aside from the look. I've seen both examples played back over a screen and they can be very different. But a Linear image changed to look like a Log... what is the inherent difference in the signal? Is a LOG signal by definition a uncompressed, 4:4:4, 10-bit or greater image? For this coming feature if I were to shoot F900, would it be wiser to attempt to make my image as close as possible to the final look? (like using cinegamma, adjusting the pedestal and certain in-camera options) or would it be wiser to record a flatter image just like a low con neg and allow all color correction to be done later where it can be handled much more gracefully than on set. The problem i see with that is as the F900 records to HDCAM 3:1:1 any alterations I do in post will just add artifacts and degrade the over all image would it not? PS. Thanks for your help David and Matthew.

So in "on set" terms, is it a calibration of the monitor or the signal going to the monitor? And if its a calibration of what is going to the monitor is that LUT being recorded? If the LUT is being applied to a HDSDI signal going to a monitor would not the compression process going to the tape change your LUT? (i.e. the changing of the HDSDI 4:2:2 to 3:1:1 as it goes to HDCAM) or is that the point of a LUT... to match your HDSDI signal to your HDCAM, DVCPRO HD, ect., or any painting color corrections applied, recording? Or is it just a LOG-LIN issue and the term only applies to cameras that shoot log? Which cameras shoot LOG aside from Viper and Genesis?

I was thinking the same thing the other day. Perhaps sprinkle a little Janusz Kaminski in there?

The LUT Process... Can someone explain it to me as if I were a two year old? Please thank you.

Got any footy we could see or a pulled still? Did you do a tape to tape or did you go for a bestlight correction?

Perhaps this idea is for a future project. Production isn't sure what kind of life this film has after festivals circuit. But I think its safe to say it will end up as TV/DVD canadian content. However it probably doesn't hurt to give them all the possible options, eh? I'll post more after my meeting on tuesday.

May have to end up going that way. I mean 3k of DVCPRO HD tape stock is a lot cheaper then a 8k raid or even the HDCAM-SR decks which are would probably come out to more then the RAID. But then again... is the production going to capture the DVCPRO HD or HDCAM Tapes firewire or uncompressed HD during their post? If uncompressed HD why not go straight to disk anyway? To be honest the cost of setting this hardware (with the exception of the RAID) is fairly low and I could afford to purchase it myself. But perhaps a two camera shoot is the only way to accomplish this whole thing in such a short time. Which would completely eat my uncompressed 4:4:4 budget. I've got a meeting with the producer and director soon and I'll run the idea past them. There is also the option of shooting the two Cannon H1's and record to disk threw their HDSDI output... but would the final product look better with two Varicam's and a far superior 2/3rds chip at 4:2:2 DVCPRO HD? Definatly not interested in shooting HDCAM 3:1:1.

Do you think it's noise or grain? Cus in my case the grain looks normal for the S16mm neg on the original transfer, granted the image was pretty low contrast... but I'm guessing the tape to tape color correction brought out lot of noise without the reduction process. But on the same note on the monitor during tape to tape it looked great. Didn't notice any noise at all.

I've been hired to DP a low budget indie feature called "Love Money". First time director Matthew Bennett, who is a veteran actor here in Vancouver, is directing it. I'm really excited to shoot another feature so early in my career with a decent budget and I like the script, but I have some major concerns. They want to shoot the (currently) 92 pages script in 14 days. Matthew Bennett comes from a TV environment and finds himself used to fast pace shooting and I came up working as a Lamp op on shows like Supernatural, Smallville, and Intelligence which are all really fast pace TV shows. I've been DPing music videos and shorts where things have to be lit the night before to get them done and my first feature last year which had a 25 day shoot but 1 week of prep (which wasn?t enough) and was very run and gun with no tech scouts and a inexperienced electrics crew (to start with anyway). So I'm used to having a lot of pressure on me to light fast and I know how compromise... but I think this shoot is really going to test me any my ability to get things done with minimal lighting and still make it look great. As far as lighting goes my approach right now is to, along with the production designer, design the sets where there are well placed practicals or windows in the background to indicate my key light and give me that very back lit, silhouette, contrasty feel, but a sense of realism at the same time. One challenge will be that the director wants to stay wide on a lot of scenes as well as shoot a lot of steadicam. I haven't really done this style on a lot of shoots because rarely can production afford the lighting package I would need to light a scene from outside a room and I am not completely sure this production can afford those lights either. My approach as far as camera right now is to build a camera package and workflow that would allow me to enhance my look in post. I've created a workflow chart to show you my plans. I want to shoot with Zeiss Digi Primes shooting wide open at T1.6 for the majority of the film. Now this all looks great to me right now but I?m sure as the budget puts itself together with other departments needing more I may have to change a lot. The RAID is not cheap. It is around 8k for 3.5 terabytes. I want to buy the Mac Pro, Black magic card, and what not for myself. Then rent it back to the production. However one problem is I need a 5 terabyte RAID to store the footage for a 6:1 shooting ratio, granted the director wants to keep non-circle takes. Which I know with working with so many first time directors they usually don?t want to keep anything but they takes they like... but often burn them selves because they don?t know what is usable and what isn?t. With such a short shooting schedule... will there be time to make that right judgment call? I feel if I record to disk uncompressed 4:4:4 I can take the time in post to polish my image and crated a cool looking film. I feel if I take the time in prep to really figure out what the coverage is, I'll be able to pull it off in 14 days. Anyone have comments or advice?

Interesting. What was your workflow as far a capturing HDSDI and storage and such information?

Has anyone here tried the H1 direct to disk? What were the results like? I got a project and I wanna test out this method.

I like throwing 1/4 CTS [(Color temp straw) which is warm like CTO but has more of a yellowish tone insted of orange] behind a 4x4 frame of heavy deffusion like 216. Looks great on faces. If you wanna warm the whole image up threw a filter in the camera... coral is pretty popular. Shoot a color chart tho... and send your notes to the colorist.

I credit Conrad Hall and Roger Deakins for driving me to become a cinematographer. Other cinematographers like Ross Kelsay, Joel Ransom, Glen Winter, Paul Cameron, Remi Adefarasin, Cesar Charlone, Barry Peterson, Mauro Fiore, Janusz Kaminski, Mr Mullen, Rodrigo Prieto and Christopher Soos csc have been my biggest influences in resent years.

Check it. Reel: HD size: http://www.chayseirvin.com/video/reel07HD.mov Normal size: http://www.chayseirvin.com/video/reel07.mov Small size: http://www.chayseirvin.com/video/reel07med.mov Still needs work. Hopefully I'll get to shoot some hot stuff in the new year. Added some Varicam + Pro35 footy, and a S16 short.

I liked it. :D

http://pdl.stream.aol.com/aol/us/aolmusic/...astar_v2_dl.mov Really feeling this music video. Anyone know who shot it? I love the lighting and the center framing with the 2.35 aspect. I really like the high key style in the room mixing with the low key club stuff. What is your opinion?

Ya I noticed that too. The key light in the close up looked really to bright for the indicated light source being a candle or something (Memory's a little shaky). Looked almost like warm daylight light coming threw a window. Kinda threw me off. Looked good as a whole tho... and thats what counts.

I saw that little trick too. It didn't bother me so much besides the fact i knew it was faked. However I was really blown away on how Eduardo Serra lit Djimon Hounsou. I started out shooting rap videos with ugandans and it is so easy to lose any detail what so ever around there face because they are so dark. The way Eduardo would reflect light off his skin was amazingly skillful. The one scene where he is in the prison screaming at his former captor is amazingly well lit. Gave me chills down my spine.

The Prestige was pretty awesome too.

Northfork Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Apocalypse Now Blade Runner Batman Begins Superman

Hehe. Sorry rich i mean that for eric.

Hehe. I guess thats why tons of Toronto's sister memebers come out here to work. Whos your gaffer? Who knows, i may do a few days on your show.