Rick_Pearson

Hi everyone, I have an upcoming RED shoot in a hospital in which the hallway ceiling fixtures have a green spike and are T9 tubes. The local rental house can supply some T9 fixtures that may only help with the green issue in the slightest degree. Our shooting situation includes looking down the hallway with some of the doors along the hallway being dark while others will have tungsten or CTO'd daylight sources spilling out of them. I'll also be in a Patient's-room that I want to take towards a rather blue look, but the green spiked hallway will be in the background of the shot Can I gel all of the other fixtures with a 1/2 or 1/4 green for the purpose of white balancing in that condition to cancel the green out. Is this an acceptable method, or is this going about solving the problem the wrong way. When it all boils down I just want to eliminate the green from the hallway's flouro tubes when used along side my daylight and tungsten sources. It's looking more and more like replacing the entire hallway's fixtures isn't going to happen for us. I could really benefit from your thoughts and expertise, and it would be most appreciated. Thanks.

I am gearing up for a production run with RED. Our 1st A.C. is heavily experienced on the camera, so is our 2nd A.C. I know that prepping the camera package is all about checking for broken bits, misalignment of pieces, and things that might not be up to par functionality wise, but my question to all of you is this. How crucial is an official prep day to a low budget project when working on the RED? We'll be inspecting the gear before it leaves the rental house, and their techs will be doing the same. Our A.C.'s have worked with this particular gear from this rental house before as well. Should we still be doing a prep day using our 1st A.C? Production is emphasizing that every dollar matters, but they're also not looking to save a dollar at the cost of ten on a shooting day. Your thoughts will be much appreciated.

It is not uncommon for one client's needs to be polar opposite from the needs of another client. This usually means renting a set of gear for one gig, and then a different set of gear for the next. My question is how much can a midwest corporate DP pull in for himself above equipment rentals and still remain competitive? Hypothetically what would you ask for on a single full day HD corporate shoot if your equipment rentals totalled $1450? Would you mark up a certain percentage above the rental fees? Would you set a finite dollar amount above the rental fees? I am beginning to work with rental gear more often than my in-house SD equipment, and I really could use some wisdom in developing a pricing strategy that will keep me afloat and profitable.

Great advice Richard, and everyone else too. I guess I'll just have to save up for a long while and make the move to elsewhere. There are agencies in town, occasionally they handle larger accounts, but a lot of their work is still the same low quality stuff I do through television stations. (Why is this? It's a bit confusing.) I have a freelance agency edit this afternoon actually and it's nothing big at all, in fact it's a completely graphical spot. The problem I see with starting my own projects is that I don't want to be a writer, or a director, or a producer. I have no desire to make my own films because that's not even a goal for me later in life, I only want to operate camera and eventually move up to director of photography. I know there are hundreds of thousands of aspiring film makers that want to direct, act, produce, and shoot; but I don't share these aspirations in the slightest because the camera department is where I want to be for better or worse. One day I hope to be considered a master of my trade rather than a jack in all of them. One thing is for sure, I have valued my experiences up to this point in my life and career. I've learned, I've succeeded, I've failed, and I've come along way. But I need to move on now, and it just seems like a hard thing to do, but then again I am in Ohio... the production hub for nothing :-) Well I take that back there are a few DP's that are doing quite well with national ad shoots, there are larger production companies around the state too but they are primarily corporate video only facilities.

I am in market 59. The ad agencies around here do not have in house production teams, they outsource everything to freelancers. There is a lot of crap being produced locally, most of the local production falls around mediocre, while 4-6% is actually worthy of broadcast I think! I don't mind wearing a producer's hat if it means I just have to drum up my business, and wake people up to television and the benefits of using my specialized services over those of the local tv stations and struggling filmmakers. I just don't want to write, produce, direct, shoot, and edit anymore. I've been doing all aspects of production for years (working for tv stations... ahem.), and it's the wrong way to create television. I was just wondering if anyone out there was doing it differently and taking a more specialized approach. P.S. All of the production done here is video with the exception of a 16mm shoot I had two weeks ago. It felt so good to be working with film again.

My display name has been corrected. Anyone here dealing with the topic I brought up?

My market is flooded with college students, want to be filmmakers, and tv station "production" departments that are giving away start to finish commercial services for really cheap or for free. There are a good number of independent producer/directors in my area as well and the trend that I see among all of them is that they all conceptualize, write, shoot, and edit each project they undertake. What I'm wondering is this; are there any people out here on this board that are still in the local to regional stage of producing commercials, but are specializing in their given trade (i.e. shooting, editing, or producing.) or is everyone here wearing all of the hats for each production?