Bryan Jacobson

Okay heres the scenario, 3 camera shoot, 3 HPX-500's all shooting 720p 24PN. 1. Is there a quad split monitor that I can plug 3 cameras into, take that monitor output and record the quad output so I can see all 3 camera shots playing in sync upon bringing up the clip recorded from the quad output for video assist? I'm trying to minimize recording devices for playback. I've looked around but I haven't been able to find a quad input monitor for rent or any type of signal processing to create a quad screen based on 3 inputs. 2. Going from the cameras to the DDR or Deck has anyone had any experience with wireless monitor out? I've never worked that way before but the director suggested it. This will not be a live event but a narrative feature, so we are going to want to be able to access instant playback from all 3 cameras in sync from one location. Thanks for any help you can offer me!! Bryan

Thanks for the info guys, I appreciate it. Bryan

Hi, quick question for Over and Undercranking with Varicam with standard fujinon HD wide angle lens. Just wondering what your favorite settings are to get the cleanest effect in 60/48fps. I didn't understand the shutterspeed table very well, just looking for a solid garden variety setup if one exists. I will be editing in FCP importing via FW using FRC. Thanks for your time, Bryan

Thanks Man, were shooting tight shots thankfully- so that should help. Bryan

Hello, Doing a scout this week for an Ad I'm shooting on a city bus with a Varicam. Just going over what my lighting options are, I have never shot on a bus. In a car with mini flos yes, but not a bus. How can I effectively utilize a 2ft Kino- powerwise, what type of portable (budget effective) power do you suggest? Any other thoughts or ideas I would greatly appreciate. I'm hoping to utilize bounce as much as possible, but may need a bigger fill. thanks, Bryan

Hey Bill, it was the biggest setup I've been apart of on a production. We shot it all live, for about 3.5 hours with a break before the encore. Sony D50's and 35's. I miss color correcting on the 2K quite a bit, I saw Sue the other day, things are a little different over there now I'll PM ya about that. I'm still doing a lot of editing/graphics, FCP, AE and Avid DS Nitris, so I get the best of both worlds, production and post, I don't think I could ever go with all of one or the other, I like em both too much. I still get to color correct, just not like I used to. It's like playing hockey at the exel center and then going to an outdoor rec rink.

Hey everyone, Big and Rich on the Great American Country channel (GAC) has been airing. We shot it here in Minneapolis at Myth Nightclub, 7 cameras including Lawrence Boothby on Dolly, and we also had a 24 Remote Jib. Shoot turned out great!! If you get a chance check it out it will be airing for awhile yet I think. I was originally supposed to work as a cam op, then it turned out no one was available to grip the hybrid 3 dolly. I used one a lot in school but it had been about 5 years, so I was a last minute fix. My company, Alpha Video, was in charge of getting all of the equipment together, and hiring local crew for the production Co. from LA. During the setup Larry walked over to me, here comes the out of town cam op I thought, hopefully he's not dissapointed in my rustyness. I told him straight up where I was at and instead of being frustrated he dived into to teaching me all about it, how to level track, build the dolly, communications, movement, helping him frame with anticipation and using the monitor. I didn't know who he was, but I knew I was working with a real professional, getting knocked off camera was the best thing that could have happened to me on that shoot, sure would have been great for the demo, but I'll take the great education any day. I checked out his website afterwards, he's been around. I was really proud of the job I did, and looking in my monitor at Larry's camera work I was humbled. I have bts pics up on myspace if interested. http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea...riendid=5814369

Hey guys, thanks a lot for your input. Sorry I've been offline for a couple days. The technical info is especially helpful. I'm sure I'll have some thoughts after I watch some of these I have not seen yet, beware this thread may return. Thanks again David.

My apologies for being lazy and not digging for this info. I was interested in what digital films you all appreciate. I have some research to do and I was hoping to get a list going on HD films so that I can netflix and coop myself up for a couple days. If you could include what resolution / format it was shot on - or camera, that would be helpful. Or if you have any links to lists that would be great too. Thanks

Thanks guy's this was fun thread to read. Hi David, What lab are you using to burn back to film? Does TDI do that? I heard they do digital distribution there for digital cinema, I would be interested in hearing about the compression quality they are using. I'm sure it's been discussed here before but do you know what theaters are doing that now and what kind of projectors they are using? Thanks for sharing about your experience over there.

A colorist I know here in town went from from a Y-front/da Vinci to a Lustre (Discreet). From what I heard it seems to be a reliable software based CC. It also has track balls and the whole nine. Neat set up capable of 4K. Plus 99 power windows vs. da Vinci 2K which has up to 8 or 10 I think depending on the tier. da Vinci answered with "resolve" but I have not heard much on that. I think Data based final color corrections will take over at some point as soon as the houses that have not gotten there yet streamline their workflow. Danielle I see so many limitations with FCP CC-but when it's all you got I've found I'm happy to have it :-) I am not as familiar with Avid CC. David I agree that no type of system can replace an experienced colorist, I'm sure people will continue to try though because of it's cost.

Cinematography, for several years it was the only thing on my mind day and night. Then all sorts of unforseen craziness. In short some things happened that moved me out to a different lifestyle for awhile. Editing and graphics became my main focus, along with whatever gig I could get ahold of. So far I still do not have a personal work I am proud of, it's like my feet have been stuck in the mud for the past 4 years, overworking myself on no budget corporate videos to build a demo. Ick. So I haven't been around here as much. I just wanted to share with you all that my tour de freelance is over for awhile, I took a full time gig with a rental house. It's a whole new feeling, surrounded by cameras and gear once again. No film cameras unfortunately, only video but thats fine with me. Needless to say I'm in that constant state of mind where cinematography is an everyday thought process. It's good to feel that way once again, excited like a kid. Anyways, just wanted to say hello and I hope everyone is doing well. I look forward to being more active on the site.

The timecode laid down from telecine during your first onelight will never change as long as you stay with the same framerate you transfered at. Many want a 29.97, some want 23.98 if going to HD, as long as you edit what was laid down to tape in the correct TC, it will always match up with your original cam rolls TC. When the colorist gets your edl, he or she will put up the film sequencially by cam roll. The C mode edl will give the colorist scenes by hour TC starting with 1. Once all of the select scenes are transferred, you pull em back in uncompressed and do your thing. It's a very standard process, but there is also a lot more to it depending how deep you wanna go. In my previous post I said (for some stupid reason) to do a onelight if you are doing a T2T, this is not the best way as was pointed out- thank you for the correction David. A best light is definitley the way to go, 2K or better- I like the C-Reality, but have seen some real sharp images come off a spirit for 16. I believe the spirit has better grain reduction but much of that has to do with the tech skills of the colorist as well. All cutting the neg does is increase the speed of your transfer time thus reducing costs. The neg cutter should provide you with a new conformed edl based off of select roll foot frames and keycode. It's not something I would suggest if your editor has never worked with that type of workflow before. Think of having to search through 100 rolls of 35mm to find 110 scenes. Now think of the colorist putting up 12-14 rolls knowing they are transferring the entire roll for each and all of the scenes are there. Computa Match was good company, not sure if they are still around. Bryan

Lots of options here. Some initial thoughts. 1. No reason to do a one light, your film has already gone through that stage since you are picture locked in your nle. 2. You have a roughcut, an offline edit ready to conform in an online suite. 3. Output A and B mode Edls. Research what information your post staff will need for each step of this process, talk to the people who you will be working with. 4. Cut the neg? Up to you. Research your costs, if it's cheaper to just grab from the original rolls than you probably wont get as much dirt, but I've seen some clean film come back from the cutter in my day, but be aware some film even after going through the lipsner can stay dirty depending on who you use. Once all of your scenes have been tranfered in a Best Light, reconform in an Online suite, tweak color digitally if needed or do a tape to tape. If you need to do any repos better to put the neg back up. The only reason to do a second one light would be if you decided to do a final Tape 2 Tape color correction- digi to digi- instead of a final CC from select rolls, or scenes off original rolls. Not really enough information in your post to get technical. Good luck.

I would bring it to a post house that uses hardware encodes, like a sonic. They will probably transfer your footage to DBC (digital beta cam) and then encode the audio and video. Spruce uses a hardware encode as well. Just check around, a cheap way is to use DVD studio pro but the hardware encode is much more reliable. With sonic creator you can adjust the data rate after it is encoded for spikes when heavy transistions that breaks up the compression.

I'd take a year off to write, keep the money to create a solid package for several films, then I would look into funding, and then I'd invest the rest and feel reassured that I will live happily ever after trying to get my films made. Unless I had a sure thing, I can't see blowin that much on one film. It's a great scenario, it costs so much to make a film, but it costs a lot to live when you're not established as well. I'd make a feature in s16 for 50k, how you ask, well, because I have not used up any favors that are tangible. Baraka, one of my favorite films, but if you are intersted on a return, for me there is much more to consider than the width of you're film. I need a story that gets my money back, because blowin that much dough on a shitty story with great cinematography is like buying a 400,000 car cause you have that much in the bank and all you care about is how it looks. Gotta have the story or concept in my opinion. Ah what the hell, dreams are different for everyone, do what makes you happy with that dream dough.

Data is a great thing, I can't say though giving the cost of some transferrs I would rely soley on a hardrive, there is always a margin for drive faliure. My personal opinion; I would always keep a back up on tape.

Are you comparing a Spirit, to a C-Reality or to a Ursa? Ursa and Spirit are two different class machines. You should be fine on either a C-Reality or Spirit. I would suggest S16, it will give you some room for repos. Also, if your feeling gutsy, if you are shooting a verical image, like a person standing, you can drop the camera on it's side and maximize your resolution by shooting vertically.

1 inch C format ?, probably not your first choice. The format you transfer to should be something that you can digitize from with timecode from a deck or camera that is available to you. BSP, DBC, DV, are the most common formats, D5 and HDCAM, are common HD formats.

Big Foot eh, When I was at Crash and Sues a group of scientist and some producers brought in the original 16mm print from the Patterson Film, 1967 in Washington State. The only transfer this film ever saw was really bad, to 3/4. We put it up on the C-Reality and did an optical zoom on the big foots major muscles to spot flexing, it was there, the big foot also had mamories which indicated it was female. Now for a guy to be that big and able to fill a suit like that is a tough one to swallow, just as it is to consider that Big Feet exist, I didn't know what to think, I just saw the best blow up of that film ever done, it had muscles, or it was a really tight suit, I think I still got it and all the blowups on D-5 somewhere. I think the film they were making was called Sasquatch. It Everything was real, I studied many individual frames, authentic, was it a suit, I just couldn't go either way but it was a nice change pace telecine suite.

Is that for real, when I got done typing my post had already been viewed 16 time before I was done. Weird.

Hola Amigos, as I find it hard to shot motion picture film financially I found a real love for the still image. Just wanted to share a little Minneapolis with yall. Not sure if any of you have been up here. Well, just rying to edit my post topic because it sounded weird, I forgot to mention that I was interested in your feed back, so I can educate myself, I have never shown my still work to professionals, any feedback would be appreciated. Bryan

I'm not sure how many people here watched this, but it has been a long time since I didn't notice cinematography the first time watching a film because I was laughing so hard. Ah man, my gut was busted. :lol: :lol:

The problem with selects from S16 is dirt, especially if you are burning back to film from HD blowing up to 35mm. Now staying in video no big deal, a telecine with a good dirt and scratch removal system downstream will catch that. You're looking at about 2.5 hours total running time. Ad switching reels, base corrections, locking up decks and editing (sync? using Aaton code?) Personally I'd just look at my costs, cost per hour telecine one light vs. Best light at 3:1. Whats your footage like, based on what you shot it could take 1 hour to 3 hours per roll, lighting changes, emulsion/stock changes. If your footage is all over the place do one lights. I myself would do one lights, offline, and then decide to cut the neg or go back to the original reels, all this based on dailies and neg cutters rate. I suggest (computa-match) if you want a solid foot frame and edl conversion. There usually pretty clean as well.

Ha! Thats funny, I spent some time figuring on that one, ya beat me PhiL! cheers!