Michael J. Schilling

I just wanted to bring attention to you my fellow brothers/sisters in our field about this situation and bring it to light for those of you who might not know. The crew from the production "Megastorm" at Larry Levinson Productions Studio is and has been on strike for a little over two weeks now. They were working without appropriate contract and suffering for it. There were 14-16 hour days with lack of proper turn around, unsafe work conditions, no second meals, and quite a few infractions that are considered standard on any other budget show. Since the crew(which entails the grip, electric, camera, spfx, sound, post departments) have decided to stand for better working conditions, the production company LLP has taken to hiring outside help(scabs) ie; film interns, students, and other assortment of film makers from the low budget world to in house employees. At one point they were using the stage janitor to push the dolly, and a transpo driver to lay banded cable. It is really a sad situation when a company with a $9 million budget has to resort to such things just so they will not have to negotiate a standard low budget IATSE contract or even a crew standard business agreement. Here is a link to an article that was just written on the situation. http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/iats...-with-security/ It is a little weighted to the crew side of the line, but you will get a general idea of what they are fighting for and have been putting up with. I ask that if you do believe in what the crew is fighting for, please join them on the picket line and show your support. We are trying to set a standard for what is acceptable in these hard times, and promote a professional work environment. Thank you. Michael J. Schilling

I'm not asking for a reel from the AC, but if they know there's footage of underwater work they've done somewhere. I'm not so concerned with focus pulling as I am of knowledge of the housing. Anyone can BS over the phone. With an hour or so of reading and a 20 minute call to Hydroflex, almost anyone can talk like they have worked with it. I'm also back checking references. It's not like aerial or steadycam where you can just get away with it it you're not 100% sure(no offense to steady or aerial op's) The slightest unchecked tweak can soak the body or ruin a mag, and I have to be able to trust their knowledge and my life to this person since we are underwater together.

In about a week and a half I'm shooting the underwater unit on a short in Los Angeles and am in need of an ac. We are shooting Anamorphic 35 on a Pana 435. The rate is pretty decent, and there will be two days; a prep day and a shoot day. Here is specifically what I'm looking for: 1) Must have underwater experience with Hydroflex housing. I can't risk you BS'ing your way and not sealing the housing correctly soaking the camera. 2) Must be scuba certified. Our Safety diver will be there and everyone must checkout to be certified. 3) Must be comfortable pulling Ana 35. Experience preferred but not a necessity. Please send a resume along with a list of references. A reel or link to any footage would also be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time, and look forward to hearing from you.

I agree, talk to the boys over at DTC or Fryer's, they are pretty chill about dropping some knowledge when you need it. I better recommend however that you just get on set and work electric as much as possible and learn from either the other electrics or gaffer. You can never learn enough on set. It would also help if you took some time to read the 'Set tech' handbook, theres a lot of stuff in there that can help you out. Good luck.

I would have to agree with Bruce on 100% of this. I have shot a few times with different hd cameras and have 2nd for them as well. You will definitly need to stay on your toes all day. Hopefully and if you're lucky they will have the editor or post person there to offload for you so you dont have to split yourself in half. Try to stay in tune with the 1st as well and to what are his needs. The more you can anticipate what he wants the faster you and the production will move.

I'm going to be unsing the Z1U to shoot a couple of NFL spec commercials but barely have any info on the camera. I know it does 1080I and below. What I need to figure out is: A) Is there a way to capture in slow motion equal to 48fps and keep the high quality, B) Is there a way to live capture straight to hard drive or how shoot it be imported if captured to the minidv tape, C) Are there any hiccups with the Z1U that usually cause some difficulties . Thankx for your time guys.or complications? Any and all help will be greatly apprecciated. Thankx for your time guys.

Well an overage of 1/3 to 2/3 if left uncorrected in tranfer will come back down with a print to film. If you're printing out to film you can lose 1/3 to a 2/3 exposure in the process. Now in telecine you know you're going out to a hd format you can correct this, however most tv's not hd or ntsc can project the image anywhere from a 1/2 to 2 stops under based on its age and calibration so take this into consideration if you're doing an hd out. I too am a student and since most of my work ends up going to hd I usually leave an overage of about a 1/3. Most people who will view my work will probly just watch on a regular tv and not notice a 1/2 or 1stop difference and anyone who views it on a calibrated monitor or tv just might not notice a 1/3 overage or wont say anything. I'd rather show an image a little over than under, and in truth 1/3 isn't noticable to the eye unless they are well trained to it. This is just my experience thus far, and am more than welcome to any further infomation or corrections if I've been misled. I hope this helps you with your future endeavors.

For the Longest time I've been curious about the technical aspects of the film. I was interested in what kind of film stock, camera, lens, and such. I know Ellen Kuras shot the second unit stuff that was bleach bypassed, and that there was some shutter effects for most of the movie. The saturation of the film i'm wondering was from telecine, production design, or stock choice. I've always admired the look of this film and wanted to get any idea of how it was accomplished. I'm actually in preproduction for a short and the director and I thought that this might be a good look for the piece. Any info availible would be appreiciated.thankx.

Hey Andrew, A little constructive critisism for your reel. Your images are quite nice, and they seem well lit with good camera movement. It's a really good starting point to begin with. As a suggestion, try to choose some different music. When cutting a reel together you want it to be interesting and edgey. Image wise, the shots all seemed pretty much the same. There were no particular shots that stood out ans wowed me. Try to put some of that in there if you can, show people you are unique in your lighting style. Also it was apparent that these shots all came from the same project, if they didn't, it does feel like they did. A reel is to showcase all the different levels you are familiar with, so the more variety in your footage the better. I want to give you the website for a goodfriend of mine so you can look at his reel and kind of get an idea of what i'm talking about. www.ianstakahashi.com . Please understand I'm not trying to cut down your reel in a bad way, but just give you positive reinforcement of ways you can try to improve it. Best of luck to you. Cheers, Mike