Jon Rosenbloom

I'll say if you don't feel safe doing something, then don't do it. But, I feel like I've seen this countless times with Alexa's, 35's, s16mm cameras on the shoulder in the front seat. I've done it myself more than once with no second thoughts. On my current job, we are carrying a "lightning detector" and an anemometer to insure the safety of the aerial lifts. No one had anything to say about the camera going hand-held in the car.

"To tell the truth, I got so involved in the story, I didn't actually take much notice of the cinematography!" That's the best compliment I can get! Thanks, for looking and responding.

They don't look very durable. I suppose they're for travel?

Not so safe with a long one fully extended. If you can rig a short one inside a window casement, you can get away with it. For anything over 8', the safer option is a 2"x4" wall spreader, or a pipe spreader.

Seamless paper?? Highly impractical; it will rip in no time. Just get your hands on some bleached muslin. A 12'x12' piece folds up to almost nothing. I remember once putting grommets in a 20'x20' shower curtain. My "professional opinion" is that by the time you've bought the grommet kit, set up the work station, hammered the thing out for an hour, and bashed a couple of fingers, you could have just rented one that was made in a factory.

I'm going to agree that you need to get good sound! But that's a technical thing; you have to budget for a decent sound-recordist. Also, you've got to be on top of the eyelines, but that's still kind of a technical thing, and you've got to go out of your way to mess them up. Artistically, I think the biggest thing to work on is casting and performance.

Here goes nothing: A short I photographed a few years ago is now online on vimeo, http://vimeo.com/58136871, and - while I'll be the first to admit that it's not in the same league as "Coward," I'd love for folks to take a look. "Job Interviewing ..." was a VERY challenging low budget shoot, during which we covered 24 script pages in 3 days. We shot on a Panasonic Varicam, which I quite liked at the time due to it's soft color palette, and it's availability from a friendly vendor. Our dolly consisted of my skateboard wheels and plywood platform, with the sticks on top. The lighting package including 2 small kino's, 2 medium kino's, 2 large kino's, and maybe tweenie or inkie or two. I did a pre-light by myself, hanging most of the kino's from the drop ceiling in standard key-light, back-light positions for the coverage at the desk. My recommendation for anyone considering doing this is to get a helper! The two biggest stumbling blocks were the window behind the desk, which faces west. I didn't have the crew or the gear to do any kind of control on it, and the schedule forced me to shoot it when it looked its worst. Also, with the budget to pick only one flavor of minus green, I chose full, and the result is a little painful. It's sounds terrible, so why I am I bothering? I'd say, with a lot of constraints, and I did the best I could to get the script in the can, in a reasonable amount of time so the crew wouldn't walk away, with correct continuity, decent lighting, and maybe a tiny bit of a "look." Thanks if you can take a look!

Beautiful, classic FILM photography. It's pretty amazing for a 10 day shoot. Couple questions: How did you get to vimeo from the DI? Also, what's the market for this kind of film? Going online takes you out of the premiere festival circuit, so what's the plan? Is it just the ultimate calling card?

Hey Sanjay, I've been meaning to ask how you did those camera moves in the opening of "Moonrise Kingdom." Was that just regular pushing? The moves have a motor controlled quality.

Yes, and yes.

Aren't there chimera-balls out there? I think they would look a bit too "filmy." Can you hang a set-dressing practical that suits the director's taste with low-watt bulbs, and put your soft, dimmable source above the frame?

Jody Lipes started this topic?!

"Moonrise Kingdom," "Beasts of the Southern Wild," Super-16mm. 'Nuff said.

Doesn't it look like Kaminski is just "doing Kaminski?"

Alwin compliments your research.

Battery belts, inverters, mini-flo's.

Somehow I think having a geared head would make this easier: You could use a precise amount of rotation of the wheels for each interval.

Plenty of 3 perf camera's around, just specify it with the rental house. Be aware that not only will making a release print be impractical, you won't even get a real lab report on your negative; you won't be able to check the image until it's transferred to video. (All the projectors are 4 perf.) Also, you have to be a little more vigilant about hairs in the gate because there's less room for error.

What I mean by my sarcasm is that there's a base level of production infrastructure that you have to accept. The way to move a camera smoothly over 16' of sidewalk is to put some kind of dolly on 20' of level dolly track. If you jump out of your cab and connect 10 4' pipes, and then lay them into your six custom jigged railroad ties, then you've just spent 4 times the amount of time it would take you to lay out two 8's and a 4' of actual track that you can transport on a roof rack or in a station wagon. The extra set-up and break down effort makes you less mobile. Is that how you want to spend your shooting day?

I'm not a set electrician, but I think the rental house is rather full of it. You can't point them down 90 degrees; 45 should be fine. Lights are hung higher than set walls, and they shine down. To me, it sound like someone left his fingerprints on the bulb. The oil boils and causes the glass to fail. So, the rental house could blame the crew for that, but the pointing down argument is f-ridiculous.

But, how do you cross the line when the film student Script girl and film student data manager go crazy and spend twenty minutes telling the director it can't be done? (Oh, you add shots just to get them to shut up.)

It seems less an equipment issue than a transpo issue.

Tape measure, chalk and a level; not very high tech. If you get a prep day I would inspect the dance floor package, and I would cut enough 3/4"x4"x9" plywood pads to half fill a milk crate.

Yes, it's a bit of an oversimplification. Which is why those other sentences are there ...

Thanks for the explanation.