Brandon McCormick

Mike, Your first post was certainly more than helpful, my mention to the end of your last. I see that credits are very important to some, and we certainly are working on what a title or roll means as we grow. Brandon

Thanks for the response. I believe that everyone has been intensely helpful, however biting and critical attitudes don't help anyone. Our credits are done the way we like them. We are a low budget film company, and many of us wear many hats. Jake Ures lit every scene and designed how the look and feel of the film would come across on camera. His job was to interpret the vision I had and make it come to life through the light and textures of the physical spaces. He has been asking for help in the area of lighting, and for the most part has gotten great responses from many of you, and for that I thank you. I don't feel the need to go into every detail of our process, however I feel that we do our best to appropriate correct credit according to the talents and investment from each individual. Again, this means many of my crew have to wear multiple hats and are engaged in their department from different areas. I wold hope that those doing completely independent film projects would understand that. Brandon McCormick

Hey Mike, thanks for your overly harsh and critical thoughts. I am Brandon McCormick, filmmaker at Whitestone and Director of That's Magic. Jake Ures is the Director of Photography for this project, and had full creative control on the lights in every aspect. Our grips were volunteers, and each and every one of them worked for free. They switched off some days. We do about 6-8 films a year, we work fast and for little money. We certainly have quality issues, and are learning on every project. This project was made in about 3 months. As we head towards a feature film, we are constantly looking to get better, which is why I have asked Jake to submit to this forum. This place is usually a great place for "constructive" criticism, however your last comment was anything but. I hope my answers here put the heated 'was jake the real DP' on this project to bed and we can get to the more important issue. Which is how can he get better for the next project. Thanks for your time. Brandon McCormick Whitestone Motion Pictures

Hi there, my name is Brandon McCormick, Director and Owner of Whitestone Motion Pictures and the film That's Magic!. I first want to thank you gentlemen for your time spent looking at our project and giving feed back for Jake. Jake Ures is my Director of Photography, mostly in terms of light and texture. There are co-cinematography credits as me and another gentleman work the camera, and Jake primarily deals with the photography and lighting in relation to the camera. I know that it's not a traditional set up, however it works great for us. He is inappropriately credited on the film, due to us sending the credits to a animator, and not having the correct credit to Jakes name. I am in the process of fixing this, and it will be corrected on IMDB. I just wanted to stick up for him and have you all know he was not misleading in anyway. Thanks for your input into him, and your desire to share your information and help a new upcoming DP get some expert advice. This forum is excellent! If you have any questions, you can email me. Again, Thanks! Brandon McCormick Whitestone Motion Pictures

Me and my Assistant Director did the cinematography. As the Director, I picked the shots. Thanks for the feedback. B

Hey guys, I've been posting for a little while around here, and a LOT of the advice I got from you guys I utilized in my latest film. Please let me know what you think. I am the director/producer/editor for this film. http://www.whitestonemotionpictures.com/mo...stertrailer.mov Brandon McCormick Whitestone Motion Pictures

Ah, floaties, excellent. If done well, those are the little kinds of things I think look great. Thanks! http://www.apple.com/trailers/picturehouse...iler_large.html I can't wait to see this movie, but it's a great example of what I'm looking for. The stuff at that diner table is especially nice. I get the shafts of light and stuff, I'm going for that bounce between really warm and really cold.

Excellent thoughts guys, thanks. Would using an HMI during the day not look strange, or be ineffective? For some reason I have the image of turning on a flashlight during the daytime, it doesn't really do anything. Maybe if the beam was focused enough, it could do the trick? Flagging it would probably be a good call. How would I flag a window on the second story? Thanks guys.

What about Lord of the Rings, magical forest type stuff? I'm familiar with all the diffusion and warm colors, any other thoughts? Brandon

"Crank" I've never sat through a worse steaming pile of doo doo. Amazed that anyone thought it could be passed for entertainment. Apparently a story isn't required these days, just some flashy camera work and sex. A pity, it was shot on my camera too. HDW-F900 Lame, lame, lame. B

I will be shooting in an abandoned hospital this month, and I really want to haze the room and get those rays of light. We'll be shooting there for two days. The Problem: I know the best call would be to shoot at night with a HUGE HMI or something, barfing light into the room so i can have a consistent source of light. BUT Our location isn't necessarily safe (drug dealers, vandals, and gangs) at night, and even though we'll be renting police assistance, the housing authority wont let us have the place at night, only during daylight hours. The lighting looks great during the day, but obviously it moves with the sun and I wont get that single ray of light. Is there a way to get this during the day (bounce)? Or am I just going to have to live with it? Thanks for your thoughts. Brandon

I'm working on a short film and I am going for that "Big Fish" magical kind of look. I'm pretty good with color grading in post, so I'm choosing to go that route for most of it, but are there any shooting techniques I should think of while planning this out? Magic hour techniques? Rays of light, magical dolly movements? Certain lights or filters that can help tweak reality? I'm shooting with the CineAlta HDW-F900 Thanks for you thoughts! Brandon

Excellent info and thoughts. Thanks guys! Brandon

I liked your reel. I'm a big fan of natural light and your stuff looked very natural. As for FCP Export<Using Quicktime Conversion. box pops up (here is my fav export settings) "Settings" H.264 Data Rate = Restrict to kbps: 1500 sound: Apple lossless dont forget to pick the size for your vid, i usually use 640x360 for widescreen

Some shots seemed like they were interlaced at some point, giving the movement that video look. The quality of the image (resolution) overall was fantastic I thought. I would love to see it on a true HD projector to see the difference. Anyone know if they shot this on true 24p (or 23.98)? I know that some of the stuff that looked so crappy on "Collateral" was because it was shot 60i. I bet this will look great on HD-DVD and Blue-ray.