Jonathan Bowerbank

Excellent news David! Hope you enjoy your stay up here in SF, and that the weather treats you well, especially once you hit Big Sur. :)

Feel free to give me a call if you're in need of camera crew ;)

;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWU3-gA3ueo&feature=player_embedded#at=388

Thought of mirrors/reflectors? Doesn't sound like you're planning on softening it much if you need the exposure, but it's worth experimenting with.

If budget doesn't permit, indisystem may do fine. They're not particularly built well, and not very durable, so in students hands they may not last long. Perhaps teaching them to respect the equipment is a good base to start with, then let them use the tools. But yeah, should be fine :)

I noticed it quite a bit for most of the early scenes between Peter and his "mother". Obviously more noticeable on the wider focal lengths, but I really liked the look on the longer lenses. An almost dreamy, hazy memory type of feel to it.

Oswald "Ozzie" Morris is a DP who I always think as a quintessentially British cinematographer. Some truly beautiful work, and an evolution which is apparent from film to film. It's interesting to juxtapose his approaches to different films. Moby Dick vs. "Lolita" vs. "Equus". The latter which I consider a masterpiece of its time :)

Haven't seen it in a while, but what images stuck in my mind the most were the close-ups of Max von Sydow. They just had that framing and style to them, worthy of a living "deity".

I'll have to watch it again :)

The San Francisco Film Society offers an array of course in production. This one on the 7D/5DMkII post workflow, which I imagine also includes the ins & outs of the cameras: http://www.sffs.org/content.aspx?catid=11&pageid=2019

They also offer lighting classes as well, instructed by some good friends of mine (someone different everytime, but always someone who understands the craft).

City College of San Francisco also offers a cinematography course which is well worthwhile. When I took it, we only shot 16mm, but since there are no more labs in SF they may be using alternatives, such as Canon DSLR's. Contact John Carlson of Monaco labs who teaches the course, and he could tell you the details: john(at)monacosf.com

American Cinematographer had a great in depth article about the shooting of "The Prestige". Worth checking out.

In regards to the framing, I'm sure it was just a choice between the director & DP to try and make conversations a bit more interesting to look at during the long sit down scenes. The performances were so great that conventional framing would have been fine, but I actually enjoyed the negative space in the frame and how it made me focus on the characters' faces.

ditto

In my opinion, you don't have time to bag everything up like we would like. At least that's been my experience over the past 3 decades of doing this. Just try and anticipate the gear move into the warmer climate and have everything opened up along with a blow dryer to warm the lenses as you go. No big deal.

 

G

Oh, those things ;)

A couple alternatives to the aforementioned that I use, below:

Alpha

Franklin

Gamma

Henry

Kelvin

It is a weird choice, and the wrong one, I think. He certainly didn't consult me on this, because I would've advised a DSLR or and EX1/3. He said he got a good deal, but I can't imagine he somehow got a Red for the weekend for less than the price of renting one of those other cameras. The RED is a bewitching camera...

Sounds like he was so adamant about renting a Red, he probably spent a lot of his budget on the rental and simply couldn't afford a DP. The footage will probably come out looking like crap, and he'll call you for the next one :)

Now on Netflix instant watch :)

Saw it last night, very nice work, and I actually really enjoyed the film. It probably could have done with less narration though.

Mischa Barton has never looked better though, well done David

To be fair...Remi Adefarasin did shoot it ;)

Kodak's Ektachrome 100D Super8 stock still has that old school 70's look to it. You can find Super8 cameras pretty cheap to play with and see if it's what you're going for :)

When kind of rod setup? Is it lightweight 15mm rods, and are they attached to a plate hard-mounted to the camera, or even plugging directly into the camera itself? Or is it a small Compact HD camera with a rod support baseplate underneath it that accepts lightweight 15mm rods? Or is it a large studio bridgeplate system, available in 15mm studio or 19mm studio configurations?

Yeah, the term "Rod Support System" is just a generalized way to say that you do have one if anyone asks. I only ever use a phrase similar to "rod support system" when I'm describing our setup to a 2nd AC or placing an order with a rental house tech. Otherwise, while I'm building the camera I'll call out for specific pieces (touch and go, dovetail, bridgeplate, rods, FF, Mattebox, etc.).

http://www.deakinsonline.com/forum2/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1649&p=8219&hilit=grit#p8219

Yeah, they were very strange shots. I'll have to watch it again for sure, but it seemed like the background of trees & sky didn't match properly with the camera movement, or perhaps just didn't seem natural to the actors' and horse's movement.

If a Narnia movie is #2, it's not shocking that Fockers is #1. It seems like when Oscar candidate season is happening over here, it's "filler" time over there. Much like our February thru April ;)

Stellar work as usual from Deakins. I don't think it really compares to Jesse James or No Country, it's not as naturalistic or source inspired lighting so much as the aforementioned films are. He does a lot more beauty lighting, taking a lot of care in creating soft and attractive eye lights and I think perhaps playing more towards the comedic tones of the material.

There are parts where I think the lighting was perhaps TOO soft and pretty, namely in some action sequences with the female lead. And some frames during firelit scenes where multiple sources were evidenced by multiple shadows appearing on faces during hand gestures, etc. I'm not being critical, I'm just surprised as his usual way of going about scenes like these would involve a single source, with augmentations that wouldn't reveal themselves in the shadows.

I suppose I expected a film titled "True Grit" to be a bit more "gritty" and less precious with the lighting. I did take away a lot of tips & techniques, as I always do with the films Deakins shoots. Always a learning experience, whether there are elements I like or dislike about the choices cinematographers make.

I second Rob's solution. Seating the roll then keeping two fingers on the spindle and rotating the core until you feel/hear it click into the notch. You'll know it has happened obviously if you can't turn the core independently of the spindle.

Good luck!

35mm sounds like more of a challenge to new AC's on paper, but I find handling 35 vs. 16 is far easier, simply because it's easier to handle for its thicker gauge with less threat of it coning and unspooling from the middle.

An insightful article from CineSource on LU's closing:

http://cinesourcemagazine.com/index.php?%2Fsite%2Fcomments%2Fvenerable_camera_rental_closes_the_exit_interview_with_lee_utterbach1%2F

If there's a sideboard and room for an applebox for the AC to sit on, that works better than making him/her walk beside it. Otherwise, it's doable.

The "Special Edition" DVD of Dead Poets Society has that Master Class as a DVD extra. Quite interesting to see how he works and revealing of some of his tricks :)