Jim Feldspar

" I and the other cameraman were on a buyout" What is a buyout? Thanks.

I think it's cool that Soderbergh does that. However, when he's both director/D.P., does anybody know if he meters less than say the typical D.P. might in the sense that he tells the gaffer what he wants and leaves a lot more of the metering/balancing up to the gaffer, then comes back, says okay (or not) and does he operate the camera? Is he a union D.P.? "especially considering the technical rules of "old studio days" that he adhered to during production." This sounds ectremely interesting. Could you elaborate/explain? Thanks.

What is "ultra-bounce"? Thanks.

Is there already a scripted scene? If not, why not first figure out what would constitute a romantic scene for your story. Is it a first date, a marriage proposal, two seniors finding that spark again? Start with the story and find an exciting way to tell it and show it. For example, if you decide you'd like to shoot a candlelit dinner and want to know some approaches, that's when you'll see this forum work as all sorts of different ideas would likely come in.

" tried flipping the doubler on and off to see if the trigger was stuck" I've used a fair amount of video cameras but what is the "doubler" ?

This is from their web site: "ALZO HMI lights have a very long bulb life (about 7000 hours) so concerns about light failure during a shoot are eliminated. In addition, as HMI lights age, they do not have the color shifting issue as with Tungsten." HMI lights do not color shift with age? What? Sure, true tungsten (not what most people mean as generalized incandescent but tungsten filament lamps) get deposits on the inside of the glass that darken the light, but HMIs still shift about a degree per hour (more blue) right?

Why did you cover the hard side? Would you never use it? I haven't used Lee Soft Silver reflector but how does it compare to the aluminum leaf? Is there a difference in strength/ quality? I'd like to make some reflectors. I worked at a rental house and was asigned the job of redoing some reflectors with aluminum leaf and everybody laughed because those fumes are so toxic that they said I'd lose a billion brain cells. (I'm just thinking now, shouldn't I have been given a respirator or at least a mask? Wasn't smart enough to ask then!)

It's an interesting question. There are certainly jailhouse lawyers, for example, who never went to law school but devoured law books and can write motions and appeals than many lawyers who made the Law Review. Should you stay in school? With the advanced technology of Final Cut Pro, you're already doing more than an old school film school graduate who had a flatbed and your use of split screens shows that you know how to use the technology. With Mini-DV, Final Cut Pro, lower production costs (tape vs. film) and correction in post, there are many more ways now to make "films' with video. I think that a good education is important but maybe a broader liberal arts one will help, as I think that it will help any filmmaker, with a concentration in art courses, color theory. photography, etc.. In my experience, film school people tend to get to use more higher end tools sooner than other students and they make connections in film school. If you don't need to schmooze to get future jobs ad you have enough of a rep. that people will hire you to shoot their music videos, maybe you can study film but also art, literature, history, philosophy, all of which I think help filmmakers. I like your short video. It's well done and certainly seems to do the job that they (the rappers) would want but it's full of the cliched shots of that genre (which may have been part of the job, so please don't take offense.) Let's see an original short from you with the style didctated by your choices and see if that helps determine your need for film school question. Good luck.

I don't have access to Final Cut Pro this week but I'm curious if you know if it also has a built in waveform monitor? Thanks.

"a transparent white haze over the image." that almost sounds like severe "veiling" that look you sometimes get when you don't have a lens hood or French flag (and don't have any obvious sources for potential flares to make you think that you might need one but the light from the horizon sky-above your flag- still milks up your image.) It doesn't sound like that should have happened in your case but is there anything else that you could have been doing/affecting along those lines?

Thanks. What do you think of using the HVX-200 at its 1080 setting? (I know that it does a bit of a math trick to get it but do you think that's okay?)

I'm going right into Final Cut Express and check that out! Thanks.

I've been using A Sticky-Pod Pro (4 suction cups under base plate) with the supplied tethers for a 2.5 lb. Mini-DV camera. I'm thinking about mounting an HVX-200 (about 5.5 lbs.) on it. Should I buy/use rachet straps and webbing? (What is webbing? I hear about it.) Would you use this set-up? Thanks.

Thanks. I saw those two movies on DVD. I'll have to find something showing in a theater that was shot on Mini-DV and see. "that person's going to look like a line or two of pixels, not a human, if the shot's wide enough." Hmmm, more close-ups here we come!

Somebody wrote this about a week ago in another thread but I asked and haven't heard back about why he wrote: "and this thing (DVX-100) can handle itself against alot of the "big-boys". prob is, with most DV, wide shots fall apart, paticularly day-exteriors, on the big screen they look awful, and i've had to shoot some 16mm or s16 for those scenes (usually a stock with a 200asa or higher)" I asked : Why don't the wide shots hold up? How about with the HVX-200, particularly shooting 720 24P HD, would you happen to know? Thanks.

First of all, I think that most digital cameras (that I know) only shoot in color. I shot a project and the director wanted it to be b/w so I desaturated it in Final Cut Pro and it was b/w but it looked like b/w video. B/W film, especially years ago, has certain characteristics mentioned by others here, due to its chemical nature, that aren't going to happen with video. Still, if you want a b/w look, decide what you can do. For example, lighting film noir style and exploring what you can do with camera settings, adjustments in post, and filters (to perhaps give a bit more halation on lights) might help you get the look you want and people will like it and tend to forget about the video part of the look. Good luck.

Thanks! Have to check it out.

We have the use of an HVX-200 with an FS-100 Firestore but no P2 cards. I've read that even if you're not using the P2 card, it should be in the camera for the Firestore to work properly. We won't have an opportunity to test before we get the camera (on the shoot day.) Does anybody have any advice? Thanks.

Where are you? Your English is better than a lot of the tortured writing on here. I love the 1983 movie "Local Hero" shot by Chris Menges, seemingly with available light at magic times. Beautiful! Real and romantic, believeable and magical simultaneously. David, does Mr. Hall say anything about the glinting eyelight in the otherwise dark face of the hangman? Amazing. "Sahara" is great although I enjoyed it so much I didn't even notice the cinematography when I saw it. Have to go back and check it out. "Citizen Kane" absolutely! Gregg Toland was great and also helps us Mini-DV people justify the validity of great depth of field to directors who want "that shallow DOF film look" (I've also heard it called a "deep focus" film. Is great "depth of focus? more accurate?) I've seen only one David Mullen, ASC, shot movie so far ("Akeelah and the Bee") and it's great. Looking forward to seeing more but he's definitely on the list. How'd you end up in Scotland? Do you know what has become of Bill Forsyth? He wrote and directed some good and one or two great (or at least greatly enjoyable) films but seems to have disappeared.

In the flashback episodes in "American History X" the story changes to black and white and it looks perfectly okay but there's something about it, and this isn't real scientific, that reminds me of color footage that was desaturated in post. Does anybody know if they shot in black and white or color for these scenes?

I just saw some of "The Great Escape" again. When the guard in the tower switches on the searchlight, is that what they really used or is it a Mole-Richardson (10K?) with a paint job?

I would say generaly stay at the wider end of the lens and use it where appropriate. For example, if you want a close-up of the American flag at the top of the flagpole, use a tripod and lock it off! Sounds obvious but people are lazy. On the other hand, handheld is a great story tool for moving people in and out of a shot and getting a page of script in one shot and moving the story along without cuts (and moving the production too.) Just look at the beginning of any episode of "Law and Order" when the detectives are investigating. A lot of one shot handheld scenes and they work great. Also, get some episodes of "Homicide" on DVD. Great show with lots of handheld work. There's a lot of shaky hand held work done deliberately but it's become somewhat cliched, such as in fight scenes, and often is done to hide the fakeness of two actors who don't know how to make a fight look believable (despite the fight/stunt coordinator's efforts.) Also, there are a lot of inexpensive camera stabilizers that take the bounce out of walking handheld shots. How heavy is your camera? Glidecams are great and less than $400.00 for one with a brace (get it!) and can hold up to ten pounds. A $100.00 less if your camera is < 6 lbs. Anton-Bauer makes an E-Z Grip for $100.00 or less that looks like a flexible stick but it's amazing. I walked fifteen feet with it holding an HVX-200 and it was far superior to what I would have got hand-held.

Why is that? I'e learned that if you leave a camera overnight in a cold car it's going to have condensation when you bring it inside someplace warm to shoot and with a lot of video cameras, you get a "DEW" warning and it shuts down! However, I've taken a camera from inside a heated room and shot in 10 degree weather for hours without fogging and also even briefly into a 5 degrees below Farenheit cooler and been okay. I understand condensation (water vapor in the air attaches to colder surfaces) but what causes fogging?

Thanks as always for taking the time, David. I've learned a lot this year from this forum and probably the most from you, in both your thoughtful, clear answers to my questions and in your other postings. I made a list of the filters that I'd like to get and it ran into hundreds of dollars! Series Nine or 4"x4" would probably give me the most versatility for the cameras I'm likely to use but I'm not going to be able to do that right away. I spent a couple of hours today and tonight reading about filters and the Tiffen website was helpful because it has the same image with a portion showing how it's affected by a given filter so you can compare filtered/unfiltered and filter to filter. I have been able to use some filters: polarizers, NDs, Skylight 1A (guess I spaced on the UV question, should have known that!) and some Harrison and Harrison Series Nine diffusion filters, as well as some homemade nets and stuff but I sure would like to check out some of the low-contrast and Pro-Mist filters. I'm looking forward to watching "Big Love" this year. I came onto the forum kind of well after everybody had talked to you about "Akeelah and the Bee" but I thought that it was great. It looked terrific and it was fun to read your postings about it and then see them on the screen. Happy New Year to you and thanks for all your help! While I'm at it, Happy New Year to everybody out here!

From the Tiffen site: "Haze 2A - Absorbs all UV light; reduces haze; maintains color and image clarity. Best for high altitude and marine scenes." If all UV light is absorbed, wouldn't that take the daylight or "blue" light out of the outdoor light? I'm pretty sure that's not what's maent but they do say all UV light and isn't UV light what makes daylight (relatively) blue? "Ultra Contrast - Recognized by an Academy Award® for Technical Achievement, this filter series redistributes ambient light to capture details that would be lost in shadows. Lowers contrast evenly throughout image with no flare or halation. Available in several grades." I'm confused. The "Ultra" contrast filter means lower contrast? Doesn't ultra mean more? "Low Contrast - Spreads light from highlights to darker areas; leaves bright areas bright; lowers contrast, mutes colors. Makes videos look more like film! Available in several grades." I need to understand contrast more. I know that video has much less contrast latitude than film. I know that when watching old westerns (especially b/w) on t.v., scenes that I would consider high contrast such as the sheriff in the middle of the street under the noon sun with a bad guy inside the shade of the livery stable often look ugly in a way that I doubt would be the case in a theater. Would the above low contrast filter be desirable for shooting short narrative Mini-DV projects because it lowers the contrast and that's good because a. low contrast has some inherently pleasing effect or b. because spreading light to darker areas allows images to be captured as they would with the wider range of film but would be lost in a shadow in video? Therefore, is the low contrast filter primarily working to help the person shooting video to simply go further than otherwise possible with the limitations of video? I've read definitions and I've played with the contrast and brightness controls on monitors and I still don't think that I get what people mean when discussing contrast. Is it the way it's said? For example, I've heard people say that they want a "low-key" approach to lighting but they're using low-key in its common useage of meaning laid back, nothing too crazy and thus often they really want soft undistracting or good old high-key lighting. As I shoot more I'd like to avail myself of filters that would help me but I don't have much access to them to do testing. Right now I'm shooting as many shorts as i can, mostly in Mini-DV and as filmically as possible. I hear people talk about desiring to heighten or lower contrast when shooting. I guess that some of those approaches must be dictated by circumstance, e.g. if you have Danny Glover next to Mel Gibson do you bring up the light on one's face or down on the other? Otherwise though, what makes you want to alter contrast and what filters do you use? "Magenta CC05M, 20M, 30M, 40M, 50M & Red CC30R - Balance excessive green cast and produce creative effects. Great for early morning tint. These filters can be combined to achieve more density. Use the CC30R to produce warmer or more accurate colors when shooting underwater photography or heavily green tinted glass. " Sounds great. I love the early morning look but why would you use this as opposed to an early sunrise grad ? Thanks!