Daniel Smith

Hi. HMI's are very touchy as to the current they receive, if the current begins to vary then you are essentially putting a HMI on a dimmer, which obviously isn't a good idea as it will blow the ballast. So what I'm wondering is, what kind of head room in a diesel power generator would I need to make powering a HMI safe? The reason I'm a little worried is that with diesel, I'm sure it's not going to be a consistent flow of X amount of watts, it will vary, like anything else ran on diesel. Cheers for any advice. Dan.

Why the f.. aren't I ALL of those things.... part from lead and supporting actress...

Thanks for all the comments guys. Well, looks as though I got the job. First lighting assistant. Unfortunatelly, can't give out any details about the release of this production, as apparently it's secret. But once again, cheers guys, all your help and comments are greatly appreciated. Dan.

Hi. Is there such thing as a DMX hub going into say a USB or firewire, which can then be controlled by PC DMX software? Anything like this exist? Cheers, Dan.

Make the sky blue if you want, who says it has to be realistic. You are trying to make a movie here, not a soap opera. The most stunning movies are hardly realistic. Go for hyper-reality, make it look cool. Great vid by the way, Greg.

Hi. A sessional member of staff at my uni (Ravensbourne) works on Dr. Who and managed to organise one of the shoots to be held inside our studios at Ravensbourne, so a number of scenes in upcoming Dr. Who episodes will be shot at Ravensbourne which is pretty exciting. I got an e-mail about it asking for lighting crew, I went for it and I've been one of the fortunates to score an interview. And I'm crapping myself. The position says for lighting director but I think they mean lighting crew. This interview isn't going to be any different from any other industry interview, so I really need a few tips. For instance, how important is it knowing the programme, the makers, background etc. What questions should I ask them? If anyone can explain to me how they would approach it, that would be great. Cheers, Dan.

I got offered a job doing a documentary, I made the mistake of not doing enough research first and ended up embarrassingly having to explain that I didn't want anything to do with the rest after the first day (yesterday). No travel expenses, the content was good but the director was primarily controlling the technical side of things and she didn't really know much (solid state audio recorders set to 44.1khz as opposed to 48khz so it will all go out of synch with the cameras audio unless transcoded, cameras on automatic variable shutter speed etc.) I normally google the hell out of people when I get a cast/crew list.

One of the endings that I always remembered, Kill Bill: Pt 1 I thought the ending to Gladiator was also pretty epic.

Share a few more details about the documentary, I go to Ravensbourne college (London) and have access to tons of lighting, wouldn't mind getting involved and could kit the production out a bit. And yes blondes will plug into a 13 amp 3 pin socket here in the UK.

Ah, that clears up a lot :) cheers David. I've exported a 24bit version and it's fine. Only other thing is, how is HD-SDI exported? Including the alpha channel (4x10) that's 40 bits, excluding the alpha channel it's 30 bits, will the editing software just up-rez the bit rate to 32 and automatically exclude the alpha channel? Cheers.

Sorry, just to save any confusion, when I say 256 bit I don't mean 256 bits along the binary scale I mean 256 colours (ie. 256bit combinations total, which goes up to 128 on the binary scale which is 8-bit)

Hi. I recently shot a bit of HD on a HDX900, recording onto DVCProHD tape, when I digitised it I saved a clip as un-compressed but with "Millions of Color +" (ie. 32bit). It's an 8-bit camera (on DVCProHD tape) so it only goes up to 128 on the binary scale so 256 should cover it, however, when I tried saving it as 256 it came out all grainy. I'll post examples if need be. Any ideas why this is? Am I confusing bits somewhere along the line here? cheers. Dan.

The programme overall or just the 70's theme?

I know what you mean but it's no where near as advanced as maya, it's just a very simple pre-vis. An LD showed me it once, just can't remember the name. You can build a very rough set, put in place all the rigging (trussing etc.) and then put in the lights, it only gives a very simple preview (nothing near photorealistic) but it's a good way of planning and showing people your ideas. (I'm the lighting director on a debate programme for next week and I'm just trying to get a bit flashy..)

I know I'm going to get hacked to pieces for this but... I've often found Conrad Halls work to be over rated. Not bad, just over rated. He's often said to be the greatest, but I prefer Deakins and some others. It's down to my taste, but I find Conrads work to be a little too natural and sometimes cliché. But, it's just my taste. I'm not trying to pose any facts here. I think sometimes when one person says he's the greatest, everyone just jumps on the bandwagon and agrees. If anyone asked me who's the greatest DOP, I'd have to say either Hall or Greg Tolland, but only because that's what I've been taught. Not necessarily my personal favourite. It?s probably the same with a lot of other people aswell. I?m sure in a few years time I?ll begin to recognise more why he is so great, but right now I?ll admit I can?t. But hold the guns, I'm just expressing opinion.

Hi. I'm looking for some lighting pre-visualisation software, not DMX control software. Just something where I can get a rough idea of how something is going to look. What can you recommend? Any industry standard software? If not what is the most common? Thanks. Dan.

The question furthered a little: 'Do you feel that middle aged audiences can identify with 'Life on Mars' through nostalgia? And has this had any affect on the ratings?' cheers.

Ok... something a little more straighforward. I'm doing a survey, the question is: 'Do you feel that middle aged audiences can identify with 'Life on Mars' through nostalgia?' A simple yes or no is great. anymore is a bonus. thanks.

Yep, in my first year, still 2 to go.

This is where people look at my signature and think, 'oh shi...'.... So how did you find Ravensbourne, BOPer I presume?

Hi, I'm doing a degree in broadcasting and I'm writing an essay based on Life on Mars. Below is a list of the things I need to comment on. I'm not asking anyone to write the essay for me, I'm just asking for some pointers. A few bits of information that I can elaborate on in the essay. Thanks for any help. Daniel. ----------------------- Audience context: Is a particular audience identifiable through the product? How does the identified audience affect the construction of the product? Commercial / industrial context: Is there a ?brand? that the product is part of and has been constructed within it or has it done something alternative to it? Is there an industrial context to the product (a way of making that it sits within) that has had an effect on the way it is perceived? Has it been made to ?jump on a bandwagon?, following on the tails of other successful similar products and catching their audience and their success? Genre context: Does the product sit within a particular genre? How does it use/extend the codes and conventions of that genre? Is it a ?current? genre, or does the product re-invent or restore the genre to a new audience? Narrative context: Does the product use narrative (and if so conventionally or unconventionally), and narrative codes and conventions? Is it non-narrative? How is it structured and to what affect? -------------------------

A very rough pre-viz (without Dalek, polished rotoscoping, studio EQ'd sound or grading) http://homepage.ntlworld.com/bas/previz.wmv

Does anyone here know the focal length conversion factor for 2/3" HD ccd's? I've tried searching but I can only find 2/3" stills camera sensors, which are a diffrent ratio, so the 17mm focal length that I was using comes up at like 68mm or something. Any help? Cheers. ps. I've started rotoscoping, coming out ok.. needs more work. I'll post a previz when it's "previsable".

I don't get the bit nearer the end (3:03) where the camera pulls a large hand held pan/tilt. I can't put it down to them cropping into the HD resolution and using the spare resolution to move the frame around to imitate the hand held affect, as it is such as huge movement. The only ways I can imagine they done it is if they cleverly stitched the video together somehow to create a super HD res (somehow) and then digitally pan/tilted within that, or if they had a motion control rig (which I couldn't see listed). Any ideas?

Agreed.. I'm half way through this book at the moment, it's pretty in depth.. it just contains tons of information written by various well known DP's.