Kevin Armstrong

Typically, overexposing your film slightly allows for a "denser" neg. this means theres "more" information there to work with. this is done quite alot in the optical-post process when the OCN has been underexposed to prep for the opctial blowup.

The wide shhots fall apart because of the intense artifacts that DV creates. in the digital realm the images are captured in thousands of "blocks" and in these blocks are millions of "pixels" that ultimatley put together the final image. so even though that rooftop in the distance is a nice straight line in the real world, you just captured it into what the camera's image sensors see as tiny squares. take a still frame of some DV footage in different situations and a 35mm still camera composing the same shot. bring em into your photo software and zoom in as far as you want, and this is easily seen. a comparison to standard DV and 10-bit UNcompressed HD artifacting can be seen at reel-stream.com . They offer an upgrade option to the dvx-100 that allows for 8 or 10 bit 4:4:4 or 4:2:2 uncompressed HD to be "streamed" out of the camera into their capture software. as far as im concerned, they should not call anything that is 720p "HD". i have yet to meet anyone who even desires to shoot 720p at all. especially if its intended for viewing on a 1080 line television. by the way, how many TV's did you see at the electronics stores this year that were 720 line "hd" sets. none.

one of the things, among thousands, that i take from his lighting technique is to light the set first, and then your subject matter. Actors, directors, heck...craft service crew all would be amazed at how spectacular the set looked, even empty. also a genius of his was to let in some "invisible" light that was not apparent until the subject moved into it, or blocked another main source. 2 of my favorite scenes re: this are from his most recent. AB, and RtP. in AB, when ricky and jane are sitting in the room watching the "bag" footage- as ricky and jane's hands grasp each others and fall into their laps, they "fall" into a splash of light. the one from RtP is when Sullivan enters the small room, the statue of mary is on a table, as he blocks the main source, the single "angelic" light illuminates the statue.

As we approach The anniversary of the master's Death (jan 4) i cant help but feel a bit sad. As i sit here watching some of his work, it reminds me of just how influential and ingenious he was. Other ASC members constantly list him as one of their favorites, and no other DP's death would be broadcast on every major network like his was. People who have no clue what "cinematography" is look at his movies in awe, and those of us who know better are even more awed. as S. Mendez said "he'll drive you crazy, taking so much extra time to setup a shot to get it how he wants. and when you are sitting there watching the dailies, you thank god for conrad hall" well hopefully Connie is in heaven schooling God on lighting and havin a drink with his dad. we all thank God for Conrad Hall.

99.99% of the time i rate ANY video camera's asa @ 320, unless the manufacturer states that it is otherwise, which is usually 400. but using a lightmeter can still be subjective, i.e. if you want your project to have the key -1 stop throughout the scene. rather than rating the meter/camera @ 320 and doing math all day, you can rate it @ 640 and as long as you set the cam aperture to match the meter reading you will be underexposing -1 all day. Keep in mind that the decreased latitude requires more control of your sources and their intensity. 1/3 of a stop in filmland is can be so subtle that the average DP, except the one who did the job, wont even notice. 1/3 of a stop in Video can mean all the difference. Scrims/nets/ND gel are all your best friends on any shoot, especially video. Test your cam by getting a greycard. 1- setup the meter @ 320asa, 30fps - spotread from camera position and adjust the iris to match your reading. 2-if camera has Zebra pattern set to somewhere between 70-80 ire (some cams have silly limitations on the adjustment of zebra) 3-record the card as follows: normal, +1, +2, +3, +4, -1, -2, -3, -4, normal 4-if you do have zebra pat it should disappear @ normal aperture (@ 80ire) and barely come into view as you get to the +1, with the zebra pattern fully engulfing the greycard @ +2 exposure. 5-bring the tape to a place where you can watch the footage on a large, CALIBRATED CRT monitor (no lcd, plasma, etc) 6-voila, you can now make both an objective and subjective decision on your f-stop. p.s. as with film AC's be sure to open the aperture to higher stop, then close down to the proper setting. this is almost more important in video than film, because with most DV cameras the lenses are normally built-in and use "electronic" aperture and therefore will give several different views on the same f-stop reading.

As a DP who started in film and still prefer to work with film whenever possible, i was very suprised to see how nice the footage from my DVX100 turns out. 24p +the gamma curves and some nifty cinematography and this thing can handle itself against alot of the "big-boys". prob is, with most DV, wide shots fall apart, paticularly day-exteriors, on the big screen they look awful, and i've had to shoot some 16mm or s16 for those scenes (usually a stock with a 200asa or higher). so as far as "seamless" cutting to 35mm....forget it. however, no DV camera has shot more features/TV and mid-budget productions than the DVX-100. the fact that the ASC testing of the cam gave it thumbs up, along with several positive AC articles re:the DVX in action, makes it a solid choice for a small amount of dough.

Always good advice to contact the lab and speak to the tech who would be handling the x-fer for you. Personally if i had anything that had to be re-rolled b4 a x-fer or develop, i would let the lab handle it to be safe. most of this should be included under the "prep-for transfer" parameters and takes only a few minutes.

in reference to the Bron-Kobold all weather HMi's Anyone have experience with putting these lights through a rainstorm? it seems like the logical choice for backlighting your rain, since apparently no safety rigs are needed to shelter the light. yet, although theres alot of marketing fluff about them, i have yet to see/read or hear about them being used? is it the cost? unreliability? or ineffectiveness? or are they just simply the obvoius choice, so no paticular mention is needed. also, finding a dealer is like looking for a pinto that's mint. there are only a handful at best. i really want to add one of these to my package in 2007 but would like to hear from actual users b4 i plunk down the serious $$. side note: i have a project in 2007 that is in a constant rainfall and cannot afford the time x 5 it takes to safely rig a standard hmi or tungsten for all weather.

Actually, the Dvx "effective" ASA is 320 http://www.theasc.com/magazine/product.htm is a link to the tests shot by Jon fauer, ASC and matt libateque, ASC your actual reading may depend on wether you wish to under/overexpose your key. it is far easier to "Rate" the effective sensitivity of your acquisition format on the lightmeter and keep your desired aperture for the camera as close to the meter reading as possible.