Frank Barrera

whoops. double post.

but seriously, do you think that people will skip the steadicam shot because of something like this? i mean on the face of it it does seem like if the cost of the software is reasonable enough any producer would just say "forget the stedi cam." like Patrick said if you had a decent hand held op doing the shot in the first place this could look sort of awesome. am i missing something here?

you have a lot of strong images. BUT its too long. i come from the school of thought that montages shouldnt be longer than 60 seconds. its ok to have a longer version but having a tight 60 seconds that blows people away is the most effective. just as an experiment you should try to get an editor friend to find use some fast music and cut your reel down to 60 sec. turn it into a commercial. you might be surprised... on the other hand, i dont even have a montage anymore...

If its 500 rated stock and you wish to over expose at say 320 you set your meter to 320 and tell the lab to process normal. pushing and pulling is a whole other world that most certainly requires testing. f

well one thing that you can do is tell us who these clowns are. that has the potential to cause some damage to them down the road.

No way. I would highly recommend walking away from this. If they are so scattered brained that they think shooting in TS w/o permit is "ok" they are either woefully inexperienced or magnificently incompetent. Its mind boggling actually...

dude, this is a crazy business and you simply have to be a little crazy to be in it. do not under any circumstances compare the metrics of "success" that are utilized in any other industry in regard to the film business. they don't apply. this is show business and at the end of the day you have to decide to stay in it regardless of your bills or your living/working conditions. you stay in it because its the only thing that drives you. its why you wake up in the morning. crazy? perhaps. but if you're not that committed then you will probably get eaten alive by all the people (like me) who are that committed. gd luck. f

Faber Birren wrote an interesting book on this subject called COLOR & HUMAN RESPONSE. Its a little dated as it was published in 1978 but there are a great many idea to ponder for someone interested in color, light and their effects on human experience. f

Indeed, I just shot with the EX1 set to PAL at 25p and experienced random flickers through out the day. I tried every combination of FLICKER REDUCER on or off, various shutter speeds etc. and could not control the flicker when it occurred or recreate it. Here's a good thread about it from Creative Cow http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/142/859759 It seems to only ever happen while shooting PAL in the U.S. even under natural sunlight ????? odd and annoying the big question is does the firm ware update correct this? f

Wow. Sounds like you had a bad day. If you didn't I'm not so sure why you felt it necessary to attack me. But thats cool. Hope tomorrow is a little brighter for you. good luck f

well, a "transition" is a change from one thing to another. and it is my belief that someday most if not all motion picture acquisition will be digital. Star Trek or Law & Order being cancelled or not has no bearing on the slow transition towards digital. but the mere "fact" that L&O used a current cost saving strategy to stay in business is another testament to that fact that this transition is occurring.

Just heard from a friend who's working on the new season of Law & Order. They are now using the Genesis.

"'Robert Houllahan' date='Jul 9 2009, 03:34 PM' post='292917'] I think this is a great misconception. It is almost like the computers and electronics (what these new hd cameras and toolsets are made from) are birthed out of magical factories in some kind of immaculate environmentally perfect conception. Nothing could be further from the truth electronic products are birthed with arsenic, beryllium pvc's and exotic solvents. Often the parts are made in places like malaysia or china with little or no regulation." Indeed, digital has a tremendous impact on the environment. That is undeniable. However my point about film being marginalized for environmental reasons is based on the idea that with the emergence of digital technology as a market new policies whether misguided or not will compliment the eventual transfer from one medium to the next.

Wow. There is a lot of fundamentalism going on around here. Many of these posts sound like horse shoe salesmen when the car was developing. And thats exactly what's happening here. Technical Evolution. A long period of time while film and video will co-exist. However, just based on environmental reasons alone film will be pushed to the margins if not out right banned (someday). Anyway, I think Public Enemy is a very good genre piece. The melodramatic bio pic can be somewhat limited material at times of course but I was entertained. I also think that the BEST thing about this film was the use of video. And the only reason i went to see it in the theater was because of what I had read from Mann and Spinotti talking about their attempts to achieve "hyper realism". They shot tests with period wardrobe and found the 35MM to look like a period piece and they were not interested in that look. They felt that the HD appeared not realistic but more hyper-realistic. In this instance I agree with them. I see this as a reference to live television broadcast and the "news" connection we have with interlaced video. Think "Jerry Springer". I thought the gun fights did look like somebody was running around with a video camera and the action was good and johnny dep was cool and it was a good ride. i think that when filmmakers with deep experience experiment we should always stop talking and study what they are doing and perhaps learn. we are living in a changing world.

you have some very nice shots in there. considering that this is all film school projects the production values are fairly high. i feel that production value can be just as important as composition, lighting or camera movement. based on that i would lose the tail of the first B&W shot. i understand why you have it there. i get the gag. but for a short reel i think its too distracting. i also think you can shorten the whole thing and use more energetic music. i am a big fan of a reel being no longer than 60 sec. it should feel like a commercial for your work. lingering on shots too long sometimes just feels like you're trying to stretch out the reel. dont get me wrong. lingering on a couple of shots can be engaging but it should be the exception instead of the rule. but thats just me

mmm... then i must hang around with quite a few unusual cases. i know of many instances where short films have led to feature work for directors. obviously it is somewhat rare and the odds are against your success and i do live in NYC with a high concentration of talented people. but it does happen.

i've never seen a soft eggcrate for an Image 80. (that doesn't mean it doesn't exist.) the unit comes with the hard eggcrate (Louver) for control of spill. i've only seen soft eggcrates with Chimera style soft boxes. and with large Chimeras the soft crates are practically useless as they tend to sag. if you really want that softcrate design with the Image 80 you could easily enough build your own out of black on black foam core. and that wouldn't sag. gd luck

David, how many stops would you want to be able to over expose it? At what stop would be the pre explosion exposure? keeping in mind that he only has 40 amps to work with it doesnt seem possible to use too many footcandles. perhaps he could use the 2.5 to simulate some type of after glow as has been discussed and then the explosion would just have to be some type of post effect.

David Obviously I dont know the specifics of your "trouble" but it sounds like you could use Sorenson Squeeze. Its a piece of software that allows a tremendous amount of control in encoding your video so you can strike that balance between high quality video and small file size leading to quick down loads. I had a friend drive the software for me and we got very good results for my site. check it out.

Congratulation Richard. I feel like I've read these words from you so many times: "Bring the movies up to Canada" (that's loosely paraphrased of course). And here you go. You got a big 'ol movie in your back yard. Great news. Good luck and have fun. f

#1- as a DP you are a 'below-the-line' position. you are not (usually) in the position to demand anything concerning the footage as you have zero claim to its ownership. you have no right to any guarantee for future usage of the footage. #2- however as a DP you should cultivate a positive relationship with all the 'above-the-line' people (director, producers, writers and actors) so that when you do ask for permission for future usage of the footage they will act kindly and (reasonably) grant you limited usage. as to the ethics of using pre-broadcasted material in a broadcasted reel thats quite simple: in general, its illegal to do so. every deal memo i've ever signed has made it abundantly clear that the network owns all rights to all footage. if for example after shooting some reality tv show i decided to air some shots before it went to air i would be in breech of the confidentiality portion of my contract. that having been said if you want to demand anything in your deal memo then feel free to do so. i'd be curious to know an executive producers response to such a request. naturally if we are talking about low budget filmmaking the rules are greatly relaxed.

i dont understand how an inexperienced novice taking a free job would undercut professionals. i dont see how any production that is willing to hire someone from the above ad could also be a production that was just about to hire a seasoned professional but then saw the ad in Craigs list and then suddenly decided to save some money instead by hiring some college students for free. if these students get hired to do anything its probably going to be a job run by some recent college graduates who cant afford to pay normal rates. it seems sort of apples and oranges. i dont even see a small local car dealership hiring them for a commercial. it just doesnt make sense.

But aren't you already renting gear from Xeno when they give you those used gels? I think Justin is looking to walk in to a store and walk away with some cheap used gels and not rent a truck load of gear.

As far as I know the prices of expendables doesn't vary much from shop to shop. But Kits and Expendables seems to have some items a dollar or two cheaper than say Barbizon or even B and H Photo. I suppose this is because Kits only does expendables so they can carry high volume and bring the price down a little. Also they might (if I remember correctly) do it tax free if you pay cash. When dealing with any production vendors in NYC it never hurts to ask for cash discounts. As for "used gels" I've never done it from a store. I dont know of any business that advertises the sale of used gels. Definitely off of a friends G&E truck that happens to be on the job with all of the G&E all ready there. They would usually throw in some used color or diffusion for practically free. You could ask Kits if they do it or if they know someone who does. It might be worth calling bigger houses like CSC or Feature Systems to see if they might sell used gels. I've never done it but it seems like a reasonable enough request. good luck f

You may find a very good used body (ie:digi beta or SDX900) for that type of money. but that price would not include a lens. and with out a good lens whats the point? not to mention all the other accessories. (but you might have those already. ie sticks batteries monitor etc.) but why SD? if i had your money i would get a full Sony EX3 package with all them bells and whistles.