Kirsty Stark

Different camera but same question: http://www.cinematography.com/index.php?showtopic=38022

Hi Chris, Just wanted to check... you've used double and half distances, and double and half-sized openings in your example. I know you said that the measurements are only theoretical, but the double and half theory would still be correct, yes?

I once worked with an actress who would *only* let me use pink for her marks, because that's what she had 'been trained to recognise.'

Eric, will you and/or any other cast and crew be attending the screenings at the Sydney Film Festival on the 6th and 7th of June?

Try http://www.imsdb.com/ or http://www.script-o-rama.com/

Hooray - problem solved! (No audio, but we didn't need it for the B camera, so I'm happy!) I gave the tapes to the editor for the project, who (as expected) couldn't play them back on his deck either. However, in the meantime, I found the following link: http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/162/869473#869473 It includes a workaround through which you can play back (and capture) your footage in slow motion, then speed it up once it's in your timeline. Sent it to my editor, who tried it, and it worked! His comments: "The down side to this is that every tape is going to take 6hrs to capture, be one big 6hr long file and therefore take up 6 times the hard drive space (60GB - 70GB per tape). It also had to be downconverted from HDV to DV because you can't capture HDV with a non-controllable device. And you can't just leave them running because it will just keep capturing blank material if the tape comes to an end... So what i'm going to do is capture one tape at a time then put it in a blank sequence, speed it up by 500% and then output it as a Quicktime again to make it an hour long file at the correct speed... That means we'll then have it all at the right speed and be able to fit it all back onto the drive. It's just going to take a while to get ready to start editing... BUT at least its all going to be there!" Thanks Hal and John for your suggestions - I'm really glad to have found a solution, and hopefully all of this mess will help someone else in future! Kirsty

Sounds like you're doing all the right things (as far as I know what to do, anyway!) Good luck!

It's a bit of a nightmare, isn't it? I've found that the best way is to set the display on the LCD monitor so that it shows the feet (doesn't get down to inches, unfortunately). It will appear on the left of screen whilst you're adjusting focus, but disappear if you don't touch the lens for a while, so all you can really do is estimate your distances based on that. It's by no means perfect, and you have to be very careful with the speed of your hand movements, as the camera is inclined to jump quickly from 5' to infinity if you don't take it slowly, but it's about the best option available that I know of. If anyone has any tips or better suggestions, I'd love to hear them myself!

Thanks John, but I've already tried B camera with no luck.

Thanks Hal, Still no luck at this stage. I ran a head cleaner through camera B yesterday under the suspicion that it might do some good, but it just appeared to make things worse (more blue screen, less picture). Head hours are as follows: Operation 72x10H Drum Run 47x10H Tape Run 32x10H Threading 104x10 I've given the tapes to the editor now, so hopefully he can come up with a solution, but I'll pass on all of your suggestions and be sure to let you know how it pans out. Thanks very much for your advice - it's been a frustrating couple of days so it's great to have someone out there trying to help! Fingers crossed that it all works out.

Hi Marcus, Where in Australia are you based? I'm from Adelaide, and was in a very similar position to you about a year ago, but have been lucky enough to get some work on features, so here's how I did it. Obviously every situation is different, and a lot of it comes down to being in the right place at the right time. I've been lucky in many cases. I did a 3 year Bachelor of Creative Arts, then specialised in cinematography for my Honours year in 2007, which meant that I got to shoot three short dramas, a few TVCs and some promotional videos as part of my studies. Two of the dramas were shot on film, and I had also assisted on a couple of student films shot on 16mm the year before. At the same time, I did as you did and volunteered on student productions, low budget shorts and other films outside of uni, which led to me getting to know some DPs and camera assistants in SA. When it came time to do my industry placement for uni, there happened to be a very low budget feature in town, and I was lucky enough to get a position on it as clapper loader (on digital - Panasonic Varicam), and learnt a huge amount from the DP, and focus puller. I did it for free as part of my uni studies, which required 120 hours of work experience, and I think we did that in the first week and a half. I then stayed on for the rest of the shoot, which was 4 weeks total. After that, I heard about another low budget feature, this time shooting on Panasonic P2, and after speaking to the DP about my prior experience, was able to work on it on a deferred payment basis (which the whole crew was on). There were four of us in the camera department - the DP (also the Director), camera operator (a very experienced former focus puller who was a great teacher/mentor), and two 1st AC/gaffer/grips (myself and another recent graduate shared these roles). So after that finished I'd done a lot of free assisting work - short films, corporate work, etc, and knew I had to make the next step up to start getting paid work. I'd done a couple of TVCs through contacts I'd made on short films, and had shot some short videos for the company I worked at part-time (in their multimedia department) but apart from that didn't really have any "real world" experience. I read a newspaper article about some feature films that were coming to Adelaide, and googled the names of the productions and all of the details I had for them. Some came up blank, but I was able to find an email address for the producer of one of the films (a 35mm feature) that would be here in a couple of months. I sent her an email explaining the experience I had, and attached my CV, and never heard back from her. I then contacted the SAFC (SA Film Corporation) about the possibility of getting an attachment on one of the upcoming features, and asking for contact details for anyone I could speak to about work. I was given the name of the producer's assistant on the same film, so emailed her, and again got no response. A couple of weeks after that, I found out the name of the DP, so sent him an email, only to find out that the producer had passed my CV on to him with regards to an attachment position. When he was next in Adelaide, we met up for coffee and talked about the film. At that stage, he wasn't sure if there would be an attachment funded through the SAFC or not, but said he would let me know. Soon after that, I got a call saying that unfortunately there would be no attachment funding for camera department, but he'd be happy to recommend me for video split if I was interested and the focus puller was happy to take me on, which ended up being the case. That film was an amazing learning experience, and through learning from the focus puller and practising loading, I was then given the chance to load on a 16mm feature late last year. I've also gotten further jobs on TVCs, short films and a TV pilot out of the contacts and experience I have gained from that work. So, my advice for you (despite it sounding like you're already doing the right thing): - work as much as you can, even if it's unpaid, because it will lead to paid work eventually. - join the ACS. I'm not sure what state you're in, but it doesn't cost much, and you get a lot of networking opportunities out of it. Go to all of their trade nights and functions, because that's where you'll meet the DPs, camera assistants and other related people who will give you work - go to courses. AFTRS runs courses in every state, and if you happen to be in NSW, they offer a 6 (?) week assisting course and the opportunity to work on their student productions... whose DPs may continue to use you as an assistant after they graduate. Any camera course is generally run by local DPs though, so if you impress them with your attitude, you may get some work (paid or unpaid) out of it - sign up to all of the industry emails you can find. AFI, Inside Film, ACS, SAFC (or your local state body) all send out newsletters that will keep you in touch with courses and what shoots are coming up in your state. - it may be worth signing up with an agent, depending on how much experience you have and where you're based. Mine simply gives out my contact details and CV to people ringing up looking for available people for productions, and I then work out everything with the production company direct. Just another way of getting extra work that you may not have heard about. - look up agencies and crew databases online to find a list of focus pullers in your state, then email them your CV and ask for an opportunity to work with them. Try http://www.toptechsmanagement.com.au, or the Film Victoria or SAFC crew databases. - Same thing with production managers, especially if you find out they're on a job (ask your state film body for upcoming features). Be polite but persistent. Not sure what else to say, but feel free to ask if you have any questions. It's not easy to get that first job but everything tends to snowball the more you work. Good luck, and hopefully I'll see you on a job sometime in the future!

On closer inspection, it appears that the communication problem between Camera B and the computer is occurring because the tape isn't playing back smoothly within the camera. There are glitches every few seconds when it will either freeze on a still frame momentarily and then catch up, or go back to the blue screen. So it looks like I'm back to square one. Assuming that it is indeed a problem with the head alignment, and knowing that the camera it was recorded on won't play it back smoothly, is there any way at all that anyone knows of to get the information off of these tapes?

Thanks Hal, I now have B camera with me, and the tape will play in that camera. It appears that it is a problem with B camera, as the owner mentioned that he had had problems capturing tapes from a previous job shot on it on his external deck, but had been able to capture from the camera, so hadn't thought anything of it at the time. Now comes part B of my problem... despite the tape playing on camera B, my computer won't recognise camera in Final Cut Pro, despite using the exact same settings, cables, etc. as on camera A. Do you know if a problem with head alignment could cause the camera not to be recognised as a deck, or am I doing something else wrong?

Apologies for the smiley faces... obviously they are meant to be a 'B' and then an end bracket.

Hi, I'm not sure if the editor's corner is the correct place to put this, but I came across the problem while capturing, so it seems the most appropriate. I did a 2 camera shoot today with two Sony HVR-V1Ps (which I understand are the PAL version of the HVR-V1U, for those of you on NTSC). I matched all of the settings on the two cameras, my own (camera A) and a hire camera (camera B) and shot 3 tapes on each. All of the tapes shot on camera A captured fine. However, when trying to capture the tapes from camera B (using my A camera, as I had already returned camera B), they played back on the camera as a blue screen (as would normally appear with unshot tape), despite the timecode counting up and the 'play' symbol showing. However, I noticed that when fast forwarding or rewinding, the image would appear. So far the only links I've come across that describe similar symptoms seem to indicate a problem with the head alignment, but don't actually outline what the issue was, or whether it can be solved (see below). Has anyone come across anything like this before? Is there any possibility of getting my footage off of these tapes somehow? Basically, if I don't have the B camera footage then the A camera footage is useless and it will mean a complete reshoot. Eek! It's midnight here at the moment and I'm planning to call the place I hired the camera from first thing in the morning to see whether it will play back on the camera it was shot on, but any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. http://www.eventdv.net/Articles/News/Featu...d-Way-50952.htm http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/sony-hvr-z1-hdr...rd-problem.html http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/sony-hvr-a1-hdr...e-skipping.html