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Tim O'Connor

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Everything posted by Tim O'Connor

  1. I just watched a DVD called "Film Noir Bringing Darkness to Light" that I rented from Mike's Movies in Boston. It's not technical but it's pretty good and shows lots of examples of noir lighting, art direction or the lack of sets and need for lighting to compensate. I'm pretty close to Providence. Send me a message if you want and we can talk on phone.
  2. That is what can keep you going I think. I was driving down a big city street last week and went by a place at which I have seen a fair amount of misdemeanor activity. I thought that it was time for a film on the subject (I've never heard of one) and I thought of the title. That night on a talk radio station I heard a guy interviewed who had made such a film, with the same title (well one letter off, his is plural and has an extra "s".) They had a premiere Wednesday night. I would say be glad that you don't know anything about this other film except that it's in the works. Do your take on it I think that this can be a frustrating situation and that the lesson is do something or somebody else will.
  3. Brian, you may be overreacting. You have experience at a staff position, a reel from that job that is likely nicer than you would have had otherwise, and you do have a camera and some gear with which you can still do a lot. You sound dangerously depressed. I urge you to find somebody in person to talk to about this and to say exactly what you've said here about how you this has made you feel. Many of us have been fired unfairly or been dumped by somebody we love and it does make you wonder what it all means. Figure out your monthly expenses and see what kind of gig you can get to cover them so that you don't have to dip into your savings. See if you can cut back anywhere to save some money. If you like documentary work, post an ad for short notice weddings. I'm sure that you would do a good job shooting weddings. You can offer wedding videos to people who decide that they do want wedding video after all. You can make some good money that way and use your skills and not be locked into booking dates a year from now when you may have a new gig. It's painful to get dumped. Look at this as an opportunity to make changes that you might never have otherwise. You may be destined for great things that you would never have done with the security of a dream job. If you truly want to make works of beauty,then you can still do that whether or not somebody is paying you. You may have smaller budgets but you'll have more freedom. First thing is talk to somebody. Your words are despondent and I worry for your well being. Don't let getting fired destroy your life and the lives of others. Good luck.
  4. I think that I first heard about using different stocks back when people would use a bit of 5293 or later '94 for say certain night exteriors but would consider it a compromise because of the more pronounced grain and would use slower film for most everything that they could. The only time I saw Agfa was in a magazine adevrtisement, never saw a can in person. Actually never saw anything but Kodak for many years!
  5. Hi John, I always enjoy your posts although I think that I've missed your ones on film stocks because I have been staying in the same categories, mostly lighting and general discussion. I've been reading the others more this week and finding good stuff. I started shooting film in the 80s, mostly reversal and then negative in the later 80s. It's funny how even in the local production community in which I learned a lot, film stocks seemed to get the least discussion, particularly in any historical contexts. The only source I had was American Cinematographer. I never knew anybody who knew about film in this way until I came on here. It's great. I really like old cars too and I get a kick out of the similar way in which talking about stocks that were so good but are no longer made now reminds me of talking about high performance engines that are discontinued. Cubic inches and millimeters and ASA !
  6. I forgot about Agfa! Never used it but I remember it. Looks rich in that spot. Thanks for the links.
  7. When CCD cameras came out and shots could include a bright light in the frame, that was a big advantage. Tube cameras, especially smaller, less expensive tube cameras, say less than $10,000.00, would have huge streaks in the picture from bright lights in the frame, or simply bright areas, such as shiny chrome. The tubes could be damaged or ruined too.
  8. A great source for fabric is Rosebrand.com I can't say right off about blue grid cloth but they have a lot of materials.
  9. I haven't heard that before about only one stock generally being available at a time. What did people do if they wanted to shoot with different stocks on the same picture? I know that the faster tungsten stocks weren't out yet but there were some choices yes? Also, did Fuji have a 35mm. stock in the 70s? Was there anyone besides Kodak?
  10. Hey Michael, haven't seen you for a while. Good to see you!
  11. Hi Rob. It's been almost a year since I was down there. Do you have this camera locked down on one shot for three months?
  12. Looks like you have plenty of light for an exposure. Are you shooting in the day? How to light a set has a lot to do with what kind of scene you're shooting. People might have more to offer if you ask a more specific question.
  13. When I work in locations such as you've described, sometimes I like to get a couple of generators rather than one larger one. This is especially helpful when you're lighting the woods or other night exteriors where it is sometimes easier to transport smaller generators in opposite directions than make long power cable runs over tough terrain from one central location, or say to get lights on the other side of a creek, river or anything else that could make it a challenge to supply power to equipment. With your budget I would suggest seeing how many 1200W HMI pars you could negotiate. They put out a lot of light and, the more that you have, the more units that you can spread around and of course if you need a lot of light in one place then you can work them that way too. If you wanted one generator, something like a 6500w Honda inverter generator works well for portability and a small amount of lights.
  14. Good link. Yeah, that's not a lot of light, about as much as a streetlight, although it is a good amount of light if it's taking a scene from total darkness over a wide area. Do you have to be 50' away and 50' high? At 50' high and 20' away you get 13 footcandles and that's enough to get a T2 at 500 ASA. Could you come lower and closer?
  15. I would double check your photometric table. 2.8 footcandles is really low and doesn't sound right to me. What lights?
  16. I haven't heard that term around here. The Steenbecks that I have used are flatbeds on which picture and sound can be synced and locked. I edited my first 16mm film cutting the workprint on an eight plate, two screen Steenbeck flatbed. Is that what a pic-sync means or something else?
  17. Yeah, I'm glad that you did too. I missed this the first time around and there is some great information in here. James, what do you use for editing currently? I'm never going back to a flatbed. I'd rather make window dubs for a 3/4" cuts only system. With the right set up, I'm sure that you could make exactly the EDL in Final Cut Pro that you would need to cut the negative and make prints. I own a Steenbeck flatbed and it is really cool. I love the design and the engineering and the nostalgia of it but I am not eager to edit on it for any long period of time.
  18. The DVX100 is about a stop faster in low light and that's with both cameras having stock lenses. The HVX200 is great but it has to cram a lot of light onto relatively small area to inform all those pixels. It tends to be noisy in the blacks in night exteriors/low light. A good reference is Barry Green's The HVX Book. He talks a lot about getting the most out of the camera and discusses going through the gamma menu to find a setting that will give you the best results. For example, even when you have selected a particular scene file on the wheel on the back of the camera, you can still go into the menu and adjust quite a bit. You can open the shutter angle to get a bit more light but usually that's not a solution. Keep in mind too how increasing the angle a lot also increases motion blur. The camera has two zebra displays that you can set. For a night exterior you might want to set one to your desired exposure for faces and maybe another for highlights. For a 2.8 and a slice of 70 IRE zebra on an average caucasian face, with the stock lens and shooting 720P 24PN, I find that about 64 footcandles are needed. Usually I can shoot on the street and read everything great, as long as I have something to provide that level for a key light. You'll need more with a lens adaptor. If you can borrow a light meter, even if you can't get one for the shoot, I recommend walking around and metering everything, street lights, parking lots, storefront light on sidewalks, to get an idea of what kind of light levels are actually on practical locations. I also highly recommend reading and evaluating light levels in footcandles rather than setting your meter to a specific speed. I would not use the gain if I could avoid it. There is just too much of a problem with noise in low light areas of the frame even when you have a good exposure for your subject.
  19. There should be no production that is asking somebody to sign a contract waiving basic constitutional rights. A person has the right to seek due process of law and shouldn't be asked to sign something that will prevent that person from doing so later. Agreements such as this, although they exist in various incarnations, tend to not hold up anyway. This is why it is often difficult for low budget productions to get permission to shoot at a desired location. The location owner often is inclined to be nice and even provide the location for free to an independent filmmaker or student but if the production doesn't have insurance; the location owner knows that he or she can be sued if one of the filmmakers has an accident.
  20. In addition, you could overcrank a bit, more film I know but might smooth the move out some.
  21. I haven't heard of this (UC making an image greenish) but I have not much experience with them either. Do you or does anybody know why this would occur?
  22. Also, if you scout around there are many places these days with good amounts of nice light, thanks to advances in lighting technology. There is a self service gas station/service station near me that has a big light above the parking area near the street. I metered it and got 50 footcandles in a 150 foot square area and 6000 Kelvin! It's a bit top light but comes off the light pole at an angle and actually does a nice job on some faces. If your production has a small footprint, you might be able to get a couple of scenes at places like this. There are a bunch of places that I've seen with a good base light level with nice qualities to which a camera could be white balanced more pleasingly than say to some of the reddish vapor lights that are out there. See if you can find places that fit your story and see if you can get permission or work it out somehow. Inverters are great too as Adrian says. I use a 750W often. As another poster notes, you may want to preserve the nighttime lights and detail in the background. With an inverter, you could power some small lights, say 3 Inkies, and keep your light level low enough to see the background while still getting good exposure on your cast. Just don't max your inverter; it's tough on the inverter and your car. You can find inverters at lots of places. Most big chain auto parts stores carry them on the floor. You'll need to be running your car but if you park it right it shouldn't be a problem to sound anymore than another car idling in the area.
  23. Has anybody seen the Saturn commercial that's been running a lot on tv? It shows a Saturn employee in a green shirt who is saying that Saturn does build cars that Americans want. I'm struck by the commercial because it has a kind of satiny look to it, if that makes sense. The images seem glossy and shiny, not just the items in the shots (even though it looks almost as if the guy's green shirt is silk) but the shots themselves, kind of like glossy prints. Would anybody know on what camera this was shot? It looks digital to me. I'm wondering if this look is a sign of a particular camera.
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