A. Whitehouse

- Haven't been paid by the client yet This is the most common and frustrating response. I'm still waiting on three jobs from before Christmas which are in various states of completion even though I shot and cut them months ago now. Quoted on a job today which I would shoot in two weeks but which wouldn't get delivered until June. You can bet I'm going to try and get my end up front ( I'm largely producing the acquisition side of it before it gets passed to the editor for a long edit ). Ive had people try 3 month billing periods out on me. Most people take as long as they can to pay an invoice. The larger the institution the worse it gets. The most frustrating aspect of the work.

Some of those timelapse vegetation shots look like comps to me with foreground elements being shot separately. There wouldn't be any need for a robotic head (on these timelapse shots) because hi res stills would offer enough of a canvas to track around. I doubt they used Hot air balloons over a polar bear infested Arctic ocean! For some reason I thought they used the Cineflex system www.cineflex.com but I could be wrong. I haven't watched the making of. In a similar vein how did they shoot or create the space shots of earth for the series? Are they stitched or entirely fake. Great series.

Who has that much cereal? 23 flavors of Cruesli more likely...

The good thing about horror films is that the fans tend to see all the good ones and 14 year old boys ( a target market ) generally haven't seen the older ones yet so its all new. Which is why there are so many remakes of remakes and 20th anniversaries specials. Its a genre chock full of schlock but a lot of good people get their start there. The pity is a lot of the cream has trouble rising to the top and a lot of the mainstream productions are awful. All said as a loving fan...

Looks great Tom, very Fallout. Always interested to read posts in the in production forum. Thanks for making the time.

And possibly on board batteries if you're really moving and light weight rails...

In that price range he's almost in reach of LCOS projectors branded under different names by different manufacturers (DLA,SXRD,etc...) and they produce a great picture. I like the look of my lcd Panasonic pj and its very bright but Ive really liked the skin tones on some DLPs Ive seen recently. There's a lot of great options from JVC and Infocus, is this a home theater or something more? In that price range LCDs are a bit more flexible because they have Lens shift and they tend to be brighter but there's nothing wrong with a well calibrated DLP and the deeper blacks really improve the look. I would try and make the money stretch to an LCOS, hard to beat for home theater but in that price range there are a some great choices. Look at the JVC RS1 and 2 one of which is in that price range i think and some new models on the way, Ive seen it myself and it looked great. For cheap LCDs you cant beat the Epsons and Panasonics. For a DLP have a look at the Infocus 83 (I think) which floored me at a store some time ago. Its incredible how quickly in price these things drop.

Those are good. Trying somewhat to relate this back to cinematography; I was shooting a couple of years ago and there was an old fridge onset which one of the crew climbed inside. I warned them not to close the door because you can get stuck ( which proved to be false ) and then it struck me that the only reason I thought this was because when I was 6 years old or so I saw this on tv http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KXCD5BQiM4 Stuck with me for life and I regurgitated it years later. I remember the Ice one with the branch aswell. Groan; scary to think this stuff has any effect you.

Or Sergio Leone and other Italian films...

I'm sure this isn't a universal truth, I've seen a few tantys from DPs and other heads of department including screaming matches between HODs and Directors, Actors at crew, Actors at Directors, etc... The easiest people to get along with are almost always the Makeup people. A lot of camera people have huge egos. Who knows what the situation is here, probably not the way adults should talk to one another but the film got shot and maybe they're all good friends. There's a statement out from the 1st AD trying to play down the tapes, I'm inclined to believe his version of events. Nowhere near as good as the "I Heart Huckabees" tapes. I'm surprised more stuff like this doesn't leak.

Well now I know its going to be as bad as I thought it would be... and knowing is half the battle! (If you picked that up you probably grew up with a bowl of cereal in front of GI Joe just like me, doesn't mean Ill see the film)

Wow, simple and effective idea. Great tip, useful for shooting into mirrors as well.

I had thought it was an effort to expand broadcasting so that they could lobby government to decrease the local content quota to be in line with pay tv now that they have "three individual networks to feed". Maybe my Set top is particularly crap but I see major motion artifacting on some shows but not necessarily on every show on the network, always imported programming (there isn't much else) and its always bothered me more than the compression and noise. Ive noticed a difference in black levels between the HD and SD counter parts and you can here the audio decoding change as well. Its quite possible I have a very cheap and sensitive Tuner. It was certainly cheap... But, for what its worth, if the show is being broadcast on its HD sibbling I'm tuned into that over the SD counterpart...

Hi Keith, Ive seen the same shows on the same networks and what bothered me more than the noise was the awful motion artifacting on some broadcasts of some shows. Its pretty awful, something goes wrong in the NTSC conversion. I always thought the noise was more related to poor broadcasting as it never looks much like grain to me. I think 7HD looks better than 9 or 10s with some of their locally produced stuff at primetime looking great (quality of the production and show put to one side). I watch most of my HDTV on a 720p projector or computer monitor and sometimes on a 1080p samsung. I wonder what "Freeview" will be like? All SD no?

Some what related; There was a scandal (probably too strong a word) last year at the Australian Music awards where, during the televised event, some of the sponsors logos were flashed onto the screen in an integrated graphic for two or three frames. Some viewers noticed (including my friend an editor) and complained as this is against broadcast regulations. After 6 months the broadcast regulator in Australia deemed the 3 frame ones legal but less than that illegal as it was below perception and considered subliminal, now some were 1 frame long and I believe that it should be argued that if any standard exists it should be above the absolute minimum for broadcast, I mean any less than a frame or two frames is obviously impossible unless it is flickered into a field or something. Ive seen these promos and I didn't catch it the first time even though it was pointed out to me, even the legal ones, the only reason they exist is to act subliminally and I thought the broadcast regulators were pretty weak in response. Examples are available on the ABC website for the show "Mediawatch" who did a couple of stories on the situation with the ARIAS, little was done about it because action is largely dictated by the number of complaints. Difficult for something which is below awareness for most people. I wonder if it sold more Chuppa-Chupps and KFC?

Good luck Michael, its a big challenge. One of the toughest things to light convincingly Ive found. The trouble is its generally a very dark space in reality. Is the car meant to be parked or are you faking movement. Ive used the LED bricks in car interiors but always wished they were more of a square shape because they get a little spotty and it can be hard to keep them out of frame, plus the light is so close to the performers that its easy for them to mask the light or it gets very bright if they move a fraction to close. Ive also used battery powered flouros and Daedos, same problems. I kind of prefer the light to come from the exterior of the car now so generally try and shoot against brighter backgrounds ( We plan the route out before shooting, this is in a moving vehicle). For me it was always about where you can motivate the light from inside the car, the dash panel can only be so bright unfortunately, back seats even harder. Have a spare car battery you can start the car off would be a lesson I learnt. Nothing worse than wrapping and having a car that wont start because its been running lights all night. Good luck I hope some of this helps.

Ive used marked ground glasses before with out a problem. Sometimes down with a light etching of those soft pencils ( are they called china pens? ). It can make for a very crowded eyepiece experience if you're operating otherwise not a hassle. I wonder what they did on "The Wrestler"? Oh and this was on an SR2, and Ive seen it done more than once. Good luck.

Just saw it on Friday and thought it was a great film. Enjoyed the story and it was brave of Aronofsky to avoid doing some of the visual language he's done in his previous films. Thought it had a great documentary feel and it looked great on the big screen. I knew going in it was S16 but was really surprised by the result, cropped to 2.35 no less. Pretty sharp and grain free for the most part. Mickey Rourke was great. Have to dig up the Kodak article about it...

The other adaptations are pretty terrible its true. I guess its a bit of a damned if you do / if you don't situation because a shot for shot adaptation is never going to live up to the book and interpreting the material is always going to fall short in a 2 hour film. There's a lot of material in those books, including subsidiary text which is going to get rinsed out in the wash. I don't see them doing any of the golden age material. I like a lot of other adaptations, I just feel closer to this one but the best of luck to them its an ambitious project which has been abandoned by a long list of big directors. I have a great interview with Alan Moore talking about his experiences with Hollywood and DC, not a lot of kind things to say. He had a very dark experience with "V for vendetta". They refused to take his name off the film...

Double post mistake...

Wow that clip from "The Protector" is pretty memorable. Its amazing how fit some steadicam ops and performers are. Id make it up the first flight and need to cut, they go up four stories. I find most modern fight scenes disorienting and boring, give me a "Drunken Master" or "Once upon a time in China" anyday, in the last few years shakey cam has taken over. I don't even know how editors make the decision to cut when they do in those films. They're often cutting from one shot with zero information to another with less. I guess they work with what they're given...

From what I understand the original release was boxing day so its already slipped. I'm not really looking forward to this, classic case of style over substance in my opinion but then people loved the Dead remake and 300 so what do I know. They certainly can achieve a distinct look which has spawned a lot of imitators and at least each film is distinct but not my cup of tea I guess. I read a Alan Moore interview from August or so and he intimated that he'd put a curse on the film (Snake worshiper) so perhaps that's what happened, Id be interested to know if his or Dave Gibbons names will appear in the credits. I say all this but will see it of course when it screens at Imax (or maybe if?). Its incredible that a film with this much weight behind it could get caught up in a legal dispute this late in the process, it must be heartbreaking for the people involved.

I agree with this and its often overlooked. There are few compelling reasons except price to choose a DSLR over other available solutions for motion pictures. Only in a low budget realm and perhaps in small production companies/individuals that require some sort of stills and motion versatility and can justify the expense of a decent stills with video capabilities. I find it compelling as a camera I might purchase but that's only because I'm in the market for a DSLR. The ergonomics of the Red are bad enough already, the cannon looks like a nightmare. Yes the mirror is the shutter in your wife's DSLR, no it doesn't go 24fps, but at the moment nor does the 5D (30 fps only?). I think the shutter locks open in these applications. I would expect a lot of this to get delayed and change as others have said. Specs are easily achieved on paper. Anyone have a compelling reason to buy a 2/3 inch dslr?

That's a lot of film but to look at it another way its 20 rolls a day on a 65 day shoot. With multiple cameras it doesn't seem that extravagant. It is a heap of footage overall though, somebody scored a lot of short ends...

I dont think either of those stocks were on the market at the time. Vision or EXR stocks are probably more likely. Also I seem to remember a comment that they liked the look of uncorrected fuji tungsten stocks in daylight on "Punch drunk love" so maybe they did something similar in this earlier film?