Zamir Merali

Hi I sent 100 minutes of dvcpro50 footage to get transfered onto a harddrive. After I sent it I realised that maybe I didn't send enough harddrive space. Since it is 50 mbits/second my 100 minutes will be about 300 gigabytes but I only sent a 250 gigabyte harddrive. Will the lab probably convert to a slightly more compressed format before burning to my harddrive? What would normally happen in this situation? Thanks. Zamir Merali The post house is the International Media Corporation in Toronto. I can't call them because its too late now and i need this done as soon as it gets there and shipped out before the courier cut off on the same day.

Hi, I'm selling 5 400ft rools of colour negative 16mm on ebay and I wanted to see if anyboy here is interested. The rolls are for $45 US each and have never been opened. The stock is about 3 years old but has been stored in my freezer for the entire time. I tested one roll from the same batch last year and the results were very good. I have a: Fuji 250D- 8660 Fuji 250T- 8650 Kodak 50D- 7245 Kodak 100T- 7248 Kodak 200T- 7299 If you live in Canada this would be especially good for you. Here is a link to one of the auctions, just click on the link to my other items to see the other auctions. http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewIt...E:IT&ih=019

I definitely agree with Adam about how you should try 16mm first. It is alot easier to get a nice 16mm camera where you can get support. It is also alot easier to get 16mm developed. Most importantly, the results from 16mm will make you much happier. 8mm might look worse than an xl2 to you but 16mm will looks amazing compared to what you've been shooting so far. Just try one 400 foot roll as a test and see what happens. www.thedrgroup.com has amazing prices for film.

How could I shoot an ordinary sunset to make it look gigantic. I'm looking to have the sun turn into a ball that is pretty big, but still looks natural. I tried some tests with my digital slr and overexposing doesn't get the desired effect. For the actual shot I am using 50d 16mm film. Thankyou.

Did you ever consider putting some hidden cuts (disguised by wipes) in the movie? For example as your characters are walking and you are tracking with them you could pass behind an object that would make the entire screen black. Then you could cut to another take at the same spot and it would be seamless because the screens would both be black. I just thought a few of these might be good if you put them at strategic points through the movie. That way, you could cut between the different takes you do and if an actor messes up 3 minutes from the ending it wouldn't be such a huge deal. You could also switch tapes during one of the cuts and change exposure if you wanted to. I love the idea of a one take feature, good luck.

The main differences between a short narrative structure versus a long one is the difference in character development and plot complexity. A short film gives you much less time to develop characters which is why most short films normaly have either very one dimensional characters or very cliched characters. Fitting into this stereotype would made life easier to you but that's not to say that every short film have these types of characters, you just need to be extra creative. The second difference is that people have much less patience when watching a short film so every scene needs to be entertaining, contribute to the plot and has to have constant devices to keep the atention. A twist at the end is not necessary but alot of short films have them because they tend to keep the audiences attention. Basically, it boils down to having the audience involved in the story enough so that they have to know what happens at the end and don't mind sitting through the middle.

But where could I get the sunset/sunball footage to composite behind the actor. Are there any good stock footage suppliers that could supply a piece of footage like that. Thanks

Hi I need to insert a realistic, magnificent sunset behind an actor on a locked off shot in my upcoming movie. Has anybody had any experience with computer generated sunsets? Would it be better to completely computer generate the sunset or should I find a sunset and composite that behind the actor? The effect should look alot like the shot in ET where the kids fly past the sunset in silouhette. Thanks

I thought that the movie did not stand up to the quality of the previous ones. Allmost every shot with people in it was a CU or a two shot making it very claustrophobic. Even the scene with the giant, which is supposed to be 30 feet tall was covered in mostly closeups for the first 30 seconds. Since the giant was in close up and the actors were in closeup you couldn't even tell that it was a giant. Comparing this to how the scene with the troll was covered in the first movie, every shot of the troll was a wide shot that had tiny actors and a giant troll in the same shot to establish some danger and give us a sense of size. It doesn't really matter though, this movie will make incredible amounts of money anyway, O well.

I'm a huge Spielberg fan and this TV special looks really interesting. It's a one hour documentary about Spielberg airing on Turner Classic Movies. Just thought that anybody who was interested and has the channel should check it out. It's airing on July 9 at 8 pm eastern. There's some clips on the website www.turnerclassicmovies.com about Spielberg talking about why 1941 was such a failure and some interesting things were mentioned in that 40 second clip. Like how he became so controlling and obsessed that he shot everything in the movie including all miniatures and second unit shots. He would do 20 takes on simple inserts because he thought he had to do everything perfectly. If the entire show is like that clip it should be good.

500T could actually be helpful to you for shooting surfing. The combination of the 85 filter and the shutter will cut atleast two stops. This will still allow you to shoot at a deep f-stop which means that you won't have to worry about focusing as much. I think that if you are losing two stops because of your filter and shutter then an exposure of slightly above f-16 will be fine in a sunny beach setting. You could also over expose by a stop and pull in post.

Hi. I'm shooting a 16mm project right now but have not decided what post production workflow I will be taking. I am planning on processing and telecining at Studio Post in Saskatchewan on their c-reality scanner. I have a dvcpro50 deck available to me so at this point I am leaning towards a telecine to that format and then an import into premier pro. However, does anybody see a better option that what I am planning. What kind of computer power will I need to edit dvcpro50 footage? Thankyou. Zamir Merali This project will be straight to DVD.

28 days later was shot on an xl1. This is a low cost prosumer mini dv camera that has now been replaced by the xl2. If you wanted an xl1 it would cost about 2000 maximum because these cameras are outdated. However, 28 days later replaced the standard xl1 lens with a much more expensive 35mm lens so your images wouldnt be quite as good as the movies were. If you want a good low cost digital camera i would recomend the dvx-100. A second hand one on ebay would be quite cheap and it is better than the xl-1 because it can do 24p.

Thanks for the comments guys. Im going to to be shooting some more 16mm. Most of the film i'm using in my next project will be 200t and 50d so im not too worried about grain but I'm using one roll of 500 t 7218 for the darker scenes. Other than rating it at 250 what can I do to avoid obtrustive grain? This time I'm getting it transfered on a good quality c-reality instead of an old rank.

I do know about certified film and stock options. Infact I bought part of the film from certified already. They had 1200 feet of well stored 2 year old 7217 that i got for 10 cents per foot and some shortends. I was hoping that someone who wants to get rid of extra film would sell me a few 400 foot rolls for about 50 dollars each. This is a really low budget shoot. Thanks

Hello I live in Ontario and am trying to gather enough 16mm film for a project I'm shooting this summer. This project is really constrained in terms of budget so I am trying to get the best deal possible. I don't want to buy from ebay because of the large risk involved. If anybody has any extra colour negative from projects they have shot could you let me know? Any ASA is good although a midrange speed would be better (200-400 ASA). Thankyou Also it would be better if you lived in Canada. Thanks

The last shot in "Minority Report" where it starts on a CU of Agatha and then pulls back to an extremely wide shot of an entire island.

You might want to check out the special features for the first Lord Of The Rings Movie. They describe their process in alot of detail and provide a few examples of the technique being used accompanied by video.

You might want to check out the special features for the first Lord Of The Rings Movie. They describe their process in alot of detail and provide a few examples of the technique being used accompanied by video.

Hi I am trying to get about 4000 feet of 16mm colour negative for my upcoming project and have not been able to find a price nearly as good as the .10 cents per foot that dr. group is offering. This is for an assortment of 100t and 200t colour negative. The only problem is that to ship from california to ontario using fedex airmail is over 130 US dollars. That is almost half of what I am going to be paying for the film. If I use USPS will the film be ruined? WHat if I use the FedEx groud. Will the film be ruined as it sits in a truck for a week? I may try to get some free film from kodak or Fuji because of my student filmmaker status. Thanks for you replies.

Maybe you could do it with no visual effects. Have a shot of the steaming mug to establish that the tea is hot. Then when the tea is splashed onto the actors face, use cold tea and rely on sound effects to maintain the illusion. If the actor does a good job with mimicking pain then the effect should be able to sell with no steam. I don't think steam would come off his face anyway in real life, because the tea would cool as it flies through the air. When you spill coffee on your clothes it doesn't normally steam.

If the stock is black and white you can shoot in any colour temperature and the image will look fine. Different colour filters can get you some effects however, for example a red filter will increase the contrast.

Maybe you should get the establishing shot of the houses during the day with a polarizing lens and then make it dark in post. You could key out the sky and put in stars. It wouldnt look as good or convincing as using big 18k lights to actually light the scene at night but it would be alot cheaper.

How did you get the fuji stock for 5 cents a foot? Is that because of the panavision grant? Thanks.

The directors main job is to analyze the script and decide how it would best be told. Should there be frantic camera moves, dramatic lighting, quick cutting, etc. The director also needs to know how to pace a move so that it feels right. The reason why a movie like Eragon, despite being technically perfect, is terrible compared to E.T, which has a similar storyline . The director of Eragon did not know how the movie should be paced and could not recognize the bad performances his cast were giving. As a result the movie came out paced way to quickly and it didnt let you get close to the characters. The other artists on the crew are supposed to help the director shape the movie although the director has the overall vision. Also, I think you should make your name two words. Like a first name and a last name seperated by a space. :rolleyes: