Tim O'Connor

Thanks, guys. That makes a lot of sense about the white overheads bouncing light around and affecting contrast. I wonder if there is a less dense black material that could diffuse without cutting as much. I was looking at a rental house catalogue and apparently they have some black silk in some of their flag kits but other than for an overhead I don't see how it would be used either.

I've been around for a while but have never used black silk and wonder how it is used and what it does in both overheads and mounted from c-stands. Thanks!

Sure but I thought that I'd mention it since I've seen people door their lights or simply position them so that they don't take advantage of this opportunity and not so much by design as simply by missing the posibility of doing so.

I always use Baby powder but if Pledge/Endust is eventually going to gunk up the wheels,and you like to use a spray, why not simply start out with silicone spray rather than switching to it?

Yes, indeed. Your table example is also a good example for anybody with a low budget/small crew or whatever to get the work of possibly four lights out of two. For example the light behind subject 1 that is aimed at subject 2 may also be used to edge/backlight subject 1 and the same dual lighting can be done from the other side with the other light.

I'm still using my Spectra Analog and I love it. These days I use it mostly for footcandles but I have tons of slides if I want to get f-stops directly, although often I just do the math with the footcandles.

I've heard people say that they're going to key a subject with 3/4 backlighting. Not always sure that they've all meant the same thing. Once on a big feature when I was getting started I asked the DP who was very friendly about his lighting for a shot of a driver in a parked jeep with two small units up front and a 12K coming in the back through the plastic rear "window" of the soft top, It was a learning experience when I asked him which was the key and he told me the 12K...but it did manage to light up most of the driver's face, even from directly behind him.

Epson makes a printer for under a hundred bucks that lets you print color artwork onto printable DVDs. I like Verbatims. I believe that with Lightscibe you have to buy Lightscribe's own DVDs plus you're limited in artwork to their templates and two colors only, such as gold and black. Another option is to have somebody desgin a logo to represent you and your company/D.B.A. and have a company like Diskmakers run off a hundred DVDs or so that you can burn as necessary. You could also have such a company provide you with inserts with your name/logo for your DVD cases. You sure don't want to put labels on your DVDs. Some people notice that and they won't even play the DVD.

Offsetting the breaks in the pipes instead of offsetting the wheels is a good idea. If you made track with aluminum scaffolding pole and found the normal industry diameter, do you think that it would be possible to put an industry dolly, even a lighter one like a doorway dolly with track wheels, on it on occasions when you might not want to use the homemade dolly? Also, as long as you're considering metal pipe, what would incline you toward aluminum scaffolding pole as opposed to other metal pipe that you could get?

Thanks, John. That's what I always do is click on "Cinematography Forums". I just did what you suggested and it's a lot faster than doing searches to find the other forums!

Interesting. What do other people think? I found this for anybody's reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durometer Material Durometer Scale Hard Hat 75D Ebonite Rubber 100A Hard skateboard wheel 98A Solid truck tires 50D Soft skateboard wheel 75A Automotive tire tread 70A Rubber band 25A

Wow, thanks for all the info.. I was looking at PVC pipe yesterday and the 1 1/2" seemed quite a bit more solid than the 1 1/4" for only a 1/4" difference. The cost isn't that much more in the big picture and not much difference in carrying/transporting. Was there a factor that made you go with the 1 1/4" instead of 1 1/2" ?

Looks pretty cool. What kind of wheels are they and where did you get them amd how much do they cost? Also what is the thickness of the wood and the diameter of the pipe and how do you connect lengths of pipe? What size sngle iron is that and what did you use for bolts to attach it? Thanks.

I have one shot tomorrow, a close-up of somebody speaking to someone off camera. He's far enough away from the black background that that should turn into black limbo. I'll be positioned so that I can shoot tightly at the longest end of the lens. Going to key with a 1K Fresnel hung from a grid about 10' high, from one side, with a black show card on the other side for negative fill, plus a subtle but distinct back/almost top light with 1/4 blue and a back light on his shoulders for some separation. Any suggestions on what might put a good light in his eyes like a Chinese lantern can but without washing out the darker side of the face. I'm not sure that the Fresnel will do it (of course I'll see when I get there) and of course I may be making a situation in which two lights are seen in his eyes which I don't want. I suppose that I could key with the lantern to the side and flag it heavily but where it does hit, the key side of the face, won't be as hard as I want. Any isuggestions on getting a good light in the eyes with a hard key coming from this height from off to one side? Thanks.

For low key work, you still want to have some part of the frame with a good exposure,e.g. maybe a slice of light across a face or a practical lamp or something else. That can help establish a reference that may make your darker areas seem darker than they really are. You could use B-Press on the HVX-200 which seems to give rich blacks with less noise. Luka, with all the hassles of HDV, if you can get an HVX-200, which is DVCPRO-HD I think that you'll have fewer limitations.

How so? It works for my equipment but not my coworkers' equipment.

For a the past year I've been connecting from the MacBookPro's Firewire 400 port to the Belkin Hub and then connecting one Firewire 400 to the Lacie(s) that I use and another Firewire to the DV camera and I can capture through the computer to the Lacie and edit from the Lacie. My coworkers have the same equipment but are unable to do this.

It's definitely not the tapes, Certainly Capture can be interrupted and stopped by timecode breaks but it has to be capturing first. We use the Belkin because we capture through the MacBookPro to an external Lacie FW 400 and we have only one Firewire 400 port but need to connect from camera to laptop and from laptop to Lacie. Good suggestions though. I'll test capturing to laptop hard drive (eliminate hub) and check easu set-up. Thanks.

Thanks Tim. For a while everything below the visual effects forum has been missing on my screen but I just clicked on the link you provided, posted in Editor's corner and now that stuff is back.

At work three of us have MacBookPro 15" new March '06 with Final Cut Express. We capture from Panasonic DVC-30 (Mini-DV.)Now I'm the only one who can capture. The people at the Apple store say that everything is okay; it must be a setting or switch on the camera. Our Panasonic vendor says that there is no such switch or setting and that the camera is okay. Have swapped out Firewires and attempted to narrow down all variables. In between the camera and laptop we use a Belkin 6-Port Hub which checks out okay. Under "Easy Setup" I have Setup For: Custom Setup Sequence Preset: DV NTSC 48 khz Capture Preset DV NTSC 48 khz Device Control Preset Firewire NTSC Basic Playback output video: None Playback output audio: Firewire DV PTV Output video: same as playback PTV Output audio: same as playback Also can't print to tape and so must go through i-DVD, burn a DVD and then dub that to tape for delivering on Mini-DV. Does anybody have any idea what's up with this? THANKS!

Where did it go? I can find it doing a search but I can't find it to post an editing question. Does "editor's corner" exist anymore?

Thanks so much, Michael. I was thinking along the lines that I should maintain original sharpness but I like the suggestion for halation, hadn't thought of that. What would you think of using a double fog? I also had been thinking of an Ultracon to get some more shadow detail in day exteriors especially since I won't have big units for areas that aren't key but could use some fill. I haven't used Digicons. How do they compare? Could you elaborate a bit on correcting in post to get back to a more normal contrast look if some type of contrast filter is used? Why would corection be necessary? I'm editing on Final Cut Pro by the way. Thanks.

I've heard some people lately say that they want to do their best with the HVX-200 without the hassles of any lens adaptors for cine lenses. Does anyone have any experience shooting with the stock lens and going all the way to a film print? Also, does anybody use any kind of diffusion on the stock lens or do you like it as it is? Thanks.

I've been searching and I just came across this! James, you rock! It's people like you who take the time to post pictures like this who make this forum great! By the way, Jonathan how did your project go and what did you finally come up with for a rig?

Why do you think it's insane? What you say about just framing for 16x9 and shooting makes sense but is there any advantage to be had with this Ultra 16 approach?