Jonathan Bowerbank

Them's the teamsters, 600 tend to turn a blind eye to most productions.

I've made some connections with DP's, and there's a handful that I work with from time to time. But I've found that I really get a good amount of my paying jobs from fellow AC's in the area who I've networked with or become good friends with. Not sure what it's like in your neck of the woods, but there are a lot of owner/operators out there who just simply rarely need an AC, so you're not going to get a ton of work from them. It also takes quite a bit of luck and timing to meet and work with the right people who will get you started and call you out to more gigs. I really can't offer much more advice than that, the usual "It's not who you know, it's who knows you" will always apply. If it's mostly financial woes you're suffering, there's no shame in getting a day/temp job, something you can just drop once the next gig comes along. That's what I did early on in my still very young career.

Looks like Russia's answer to a handcranked Bieulieu 8mm type model. Found a photo of someone else selling the same camera, only it has "Quarz" written on it for the brand name: http://www.flickr.com/photos/17107401@N00/136968500 This looks like a good guy to ask about it: http://zenitquarzcameras.blogspot.com/

I believe in the case of this post, the digitization of the typed page has definitely suffered from a loss of quality ;) (Just pokin' fun at ya Karl, but I have to agree with Satsuki)

Saw it tonight, I thought it was shot beautifully. Loved the softness of the lighting itself, but there also appeared to be some filterage too, not sure how much of it was in front of the lens, or possibly added in post. I have a feeling it was added in post, since most of the scenes I noticed it in were also FX shots. Doesn't look like anything's gonna show up in next month's AC mag, so I'm searching for sources to find out what Delbonnel did with the images. Now, if only good lighting made for a great film, which it isn't. It's really a bunch of book fragments thrown together to make for a beginning, middle and end of a 2.5 hr movie. Hardly anything that happens in the film is consequential to what happened in previous scenes, and many scenes which seemed key or foreshadowing to the story, ended up going nowhere. For those who have seen it (NO SPOILER HERE), was I the only one waiting for John Hurt's character the wandmaker to show up at some point? But all in all, the film just didn't gel together storywise like most the previous HP's. Characters seemed perpetually unaffected or unconcerned, as if they were just going through the motions and emotionless...as evidenced by something Harry says to Dumbledore early in the film "At this point sir, I just tend to go along with it." No kidding.

The following "Sessions" are equally as funny.

The best part of that video is early on when they say "This is the iPhone ZGrip", and the Zacuto rep made sure to state that this was the "PRO" version, ha ha Good stuff

Yes yes, we all know about it ;) It's an excellent source, isn't it!

42 is the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything Sorry, Hitchhiker's Guide reference :)

I was on a shoot last month where we were shooting only to CF cards...had the rolls not advanced automatically, that would have been VERY annoying. Is it only a problem with drives?

wtf is Polish Hill?

The film's been poked and prodded enough that I don't need to go into profound detail about what I liked or hated. Basically, it was a great story with some excellent performances...only Bale wasn't taken full advantage of, nor was his character every really explored, so I felt bad for him. Depp was charming as ever, and Cotillard was really fantastic, I thought. She always manages to light up the screen...even if she is shot in available light with the shutter at 360 and gain turned up past +6. On a film with this budget and so many high calibre stars, you'd think they'd at least have SOMETHING just to punch in a bit more light for a decent exposure. It's almost as if parts of the film were shot by an amateur wedding videographer. I don't doubt Spinotti's talent, I just felt too many of the choices made really distracting from the story rather than supporting it. A friend of mine who I saw it with made an excellent point, that like "Dark Knight", this film would also have benefited greatly from a larger format (be it IMAX, 35 or even RED). There were certain shots, wide shots (example the front of the prison at the beginning) that just didn't have the dynamic they needed, and as a result they were just FLAT when they really need to be "grandiose" perhaps to give us a sense of scale or better involve us in the setting. I felt very uninvolved as an audience member.

I've had PS3 for about half a year, and some of the selections I've made are 2001, The Shining, The Proposition, Dog Day Afternoon, Dark Knight, Dark City and then Bullitt & Death Proof (purely for the awesome car chases) I just watched Baraka via Netflix, and it is definitely a MUST SEE. I can't wait until Koyaanisqatsi get a remastering and Bluray release :)

I've gotten lots of jobs that have requested a CV. They're more rare than the ones you get by word of mouth, but new clients or gigs that come in from out of town looking to connect with and hire experienced AC's do ask for them. So it's definitely worth it to have a quality one on hand.

I've found as far as AC work goes, you're very limited when it comes to the ability to sell oneself. Your "Objective" and "Relevant Skills" section is probably too elaborate. Some of the things you say, really, are things that only YOU are saying, which employers don't care too much about, unless you have references listed who can say the same. I try to keep my resume as simple as possible. Firstly stating what equipment I'm familiar with, followed by a list of my credits and who I've worked with. I'm trying to trim it down to make it easier to read and also need to rearrange the order of productions to make the more eyecatching productions appear early on in the list, but here's my general resume (my "AC" resume omits the DP & Reel portions only): http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/resumes/remmyreel...owerbankcineres

And there was much rejoicing. YAYYYY!!!

A shower cap is a great way to cover the lens while it's not being operated.

Yeah, you reset/format one card/drive/roll, then when that roll is full all you gotta do is plug in the next card/drive and format (without reset), and it should automatically advance to the next roll number.

It's common knowledge that breaking into "camera operating" (outside of reality TV) is extremely difficult to do. WAY harder than getting AC work, and possibly even more difficult than getting DP jobs. Mostly because it's not in as high demand as it used to me, since more and more DP's opt to operate themselves nowadays. I know a well experienced 1st AC who's making that leap, so he's currently suffering from the lack of work coming in as word spreads that he's no longer AC'ing as much, and going for more operating jobs. So, it's a big leap.

I grew up Mormon and was a missionary in an earlier life, so I guess I know something of Christ's life. The Passion is just Mel Gibson at his gruesome worst. It's a shame, because Deschanel's work is immaculate. I avoided seeing the film for years because I knew it was mostly a man getting tortured, so who wants to see that? When I finally saw it, it was pretty much what I expected. All violence, very little story, but with actors who really brought some great performances to the piece, despite its problems. I think had they taken the same cast, and actually created a film that included more of Christ's life and teachings, it would have been a much better film with more reason for non-religious folk to actually care more deeply about the man receiving the punishment. "The Greatest Story Ever Told" I recall was pretty good, saw it when I was a teenager though.

There really isn't a huge rush in terms of getting in and out while slating. First of all, NEVER RUN. Work out a quick and easy escape route, but don't kill yourself to get out of the scene. If it turns out there's just no way for you to efficiently get in there and get out without crossing the frame or actor's eyeline, work it out with the 1st AC and Operator. The normal solution is to usually just do a quick pan to the slate, then back to the actors before calling camera set.

Ha ha, mine was very similar as I left the theatre "Well, that was a mess."

Can't think of any reason to use the rosey colored gels, unless I'm really going for a dynamic image. Maybe if you're interviewing a greenskinned martian, they would help ;) But generally with your key lights, you want to stick to either straight tungsten or daylight or a cocktail of both (like a 4 bank Kino with both daylight & tungsten tubes) for some nice natural skintone. Occasionally I'll warm it up with a 1/4 CT Straw or CTO rather than the Amber gels you posted because I know precisely what they do, but I wouldn't go more extreme than that if you're just doing basic interview stuff. Apart from that, learn to use diffusion gels to get what you want, cosmetically. 250 is a nice grade that I use often, and 216 works well when you're really trying to fill in some wrinkles. And if you have the budget, it's best to work with 4x4' frames of diffusion so you can cover a larger area and soften the light up even more by walking the frame close to the actor. A lot of DP's who do interview work make use of softboxes A LOT because they're simple and produce a really nice soft source. I own some Photoflex softboxes which I use quite often.

It's in last month's AC Mag