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Are you hoping to shoot head-to-toe? Are you planning on using the entire 63' width? Is that a drop ceiling? Are you using 1-, 2-, 3, or all 4 walls? Is power consumption an issue? Is budget a huge consideration? Without know more about the space and your intentions for the space, here are some preliminary suggestions. Try using baby plates on the ceiling (if it's a hard ceiling) and using Kino Flo's, cyc lights, etc. (if available to you). If it's a drop ceiling, use some 2x4s with baby plates screwed into them and cut them slightly longer then the drop opening. Place them inside the opening and mount your lights to it. You might also want to visit the KinoFlo website which offers some technical information greenscreen lighting in its FAQ section. Ultimatte also has a well written article in its Support section.

Oddly enough, you're probably best served by visiting the lab before you shoot your project. They can tell you, and best of all, show you exactly what you can expect from a photochemical finish and how much leeway you'll have. Also, you can develop a relationship with the lab technicians and when you have specific questions concerning your project, you'll have someone there to talk to that can answer your questions. As to the rest of your question, much of it will be determined by the stock you're using, how you plan on exposing that stock and how you plan on developing your film. Here again, the lab can walk you through many of those questions and help you plan your photography accordingly.

I can't image any place selling this over the counter without a qualified license. Most of the SFX guys I've work with make there own. Also, this is a very dangerous procedure if not done by a qualified person. If you do find something please be careful or at least call a special effects house and talk to them first.

If you're trying to replicate this shot, here's a suggestion you could try. On set, you could place a plastic tube behind the gun out of sight from the camera and fill it with fake blood. At the other end of the tube, use an air compressor to shoot the blood out of the tube when the gun fires. (You could try canned air, but it'll need to be a tight seal between the canned air and the rubber tube.) Obviously, you'll need to time all these actions out. You might also want to use a thicker mix of blood but not so thick that it won't eject out of the tube. Don't fill the tube from end-to-end with the fake blood. It should only be a little - maybe a foot or two depending on the inner diameter of the tube you're using. In After Effects, add about three frames with the muzzle blast from the gun. As well as being realistic, you can use it to hide the blood being ejected from the tip of the gun. You'll also want to brighten the victim's face on the gun side and maybe some other parts of the frame that might be lit up by the muzzle flash. As always, test this before hand. Especially the strength of the blood coming out of the tube. You don't want to hurt your actor's head if the force of the blood coming out is too strong. You'll also need to make sure that the recipe you're making for the blood won't be damaging to the actor's eyes. In other words, try to find organic compounds to make your fake blood. You should have an eye washing area somewhere close on set.

If you're using a video camera you could use "white balance" to achieve the same color effect as Jonathan describes (which is a correct method). One way is to white balance to an orange colored piece of paper. I've done this by printing colored swatches in various shades (usually five) of orange on to matte photo paper. White balance with an orange card till you find the amount of blue you're interested in. The other method is to place a sheet (or sheets) of CTO over a white card and white balance to that. In both cases, the camera will try to correct for the warm orange color and moves the settings toward the cool blue. If you're shooting on film, you can shoot a few seconds using either the color paper or white paper with CTO and time out the orange will give you the blue cast in your image. You can also, if you're video camera offers it, change the internal menu settings and color your image that way.

As I understand it, the profiles only work with the 758 and only after a series of tests are perfomed in conjunction with Sekonic's Data Transfer Software. (I mention this only because I don't know which meter Micheal is referring to.) As others have already mentioned and like everything in cinematography, for the profiles to work, you have to do the testing as it relates to how you plan on exposing, processing and finishing your images - be it photochemical, digital or a combination thereof. The function is not merely a "marketing ploy" as someone suggested, but rather came at the request of digital photographs finding variances in senors even with cameras that are the same brand and model. A camera's profile is generated after evaluation of a test image. That evaluation generates a series of test values that are input into the software and then a series of dynamic range parameters is generated for the entire ISO range of that particular sensor. Let's not forget that these profiles, like the meter itself, are merely tools. What the meter says is the "correct" exposure may not be the "best" exposure. But if you're in need of a consistent, accurate and repeatable exposure, the time spent generating these profiles is very much worth it.

Good still photographers can make for a good cinematographer but that comes with a few qualifiers. From a technical standpoint, all the skills of a still photographer translate over to film and video cameras. Obviously, new technical knowledge will have to be learned but for the most part the aspects of exposure and image quality will translate. What changes is that this person is not capturing "a moment" but rather "moments of time". And those moments will need to be stitched together by an editor into a cohesive story. That coupled with time management on set, larger crews, and the differences of lighting a static frame version a moving one are but a few new challenges your still photographer friend will need to overcome. While the work appears to be similar in many respects, they are very much different. One is not the subset of the other and are, to use your word, each "have their own different worlds". Ultimately, it's up to that person and their ability to adapt which will determine how well they'll make the transition but having a strong foundation in the fundamentals of photograpahy is a great start.

The White Shading feature provides control over the individual red, green and blue channel gains so that non-standard color balance can be achieved. (as defined by Pixelink) It is more commonly known as "white balance". In photography and image processing, color balance (sometimes gray balance, neutral balance, or white balance) refers to the adjustment of the relative amounts of red, green, and blue primary colors in an image such that neutral colors are reproduced correctly. Color balance changes the overall mixture of colors in an image and is used for generalized color correction. (from Wikipedia) As to how to do it. Set a white card under the lighting conditions you're shooting in. Zoom into that white card so that fills, or almost fills, your frame. There's a button in the front-bottom of the camera that you press labeled AWB, or Automatic White Balance. The camera will need to be set to either White Balance selector A or B. The other way is by manually adjusting the red, green and blue channels within the camera's menus to achieve the desired color balance. At the risk of casting aspersions, you've got some reading to do before your shoot if you're asking such fundamental questions. Most of this information is available in the manual. http://catalog2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/s...Model=AJ-HDC27H

Your local film commission should have a set of photo books that will showcase houses and other properties that have made themselves available for filming. These homes might be available for online viewing but you'll have to contact the film commission. In Los Angeles, there are some online services for available that do the same, but these sites are for profit and as such you'll have to pay a fee. You might want to contact a realtor and tell them what you're looking for. Some work with the film community and, in conjunction with the home owner, will make the property available while waiting to be sold. If you have a very specific architectural aesthetic you're looking for, you might need to contact a realtor that specializes in homes that are Craftsman, antebellum, colonial, etc. or whatever period of home you might be looking for.

For what it's worth, my AC usually gets that information from the production co. or coordinator and prints them using Avery. He leave an underline for information he fills out on set. It's fast, efficient and looks very professional. The usual stuff is as follows but not all this information gets on the label: Production Co. Production Title Job Number Tape Number Timecode number Type of HD Aspect ration Frame rate Number of audio channels Audio settings Tone setting (dB) Special Tape (ex. if your putting all your off-speed footage from a Varicam on a separate tape)

Exactly. Processed film can warp from excessive heat but the films going to theaters are well guarded against such mishaps - I hope. As for unexposed film, fogging from excessive heat can happen but sticking to the original posting, a film like Plus X with an ISO of 64T, 80D, it would take a very long exposure to high heat to damage it in a significant way. (By the way, I was mistaken in my previous post when I typed 125 - that's for the still film 125PX. Did no one catch that?)

I just heard about this too from a post-production super I know - he mentioned they've been offering this for about a month. We're going to pay them a visit next week to discuss a feature for later this year. I'll report back what we find after we talk to them. It does sound promising, though... PS. Hey Ryan!

An AC once sewed a barney made from white jersey material to place over the camera. The holes allowed for ventilation and the white material helped keep the camera cool. Others have used the often seen "space blanket" with the silver side out. But be cautious with the space blanket because it can trap the heat if it's not properly ventilated. We also kept the camera in "Save" mode instead of "Standby". One last note, be careful with the canned air. You don't want to shoot it too close to fans and circuitry or else you might might end up with a cracked circuit board from the sudden temperature change. In other words, don't invert the can and spray willy nilly.

Folks were worried about sound... folks were worried about color... folks were worried about TV... Each made our craft better because of its introduction. I have no doubt that future of what we do is secure. As to the question of CGI actors, I think that people want to see people and I don't know how connected the audience will be with totally CGI avatar actors that doesn't feed into the fan's love of off set drama. (Unless the studios create a unruly Lohan like character that hops and swerves IP addresses on the the net from virtual club to virtual club. Huh, that could be interesting.) From what I saw at the DGA's Digital Day, it's true they are very close to creating a totally believable copy of a person and who knows what being done by folks that didn't show their wares. And then, of course, there's the other side of Beowulf that few have mentioned and is tied to the future of cinema and that's 3D or stereoscopy. I look forward to seeing great talent use this new tool in service of storytelling. I genuinely believe that much of movie making in the future will be tied to this 50 year old technology whose time has come with the advent of digital projection systems. My two cents...

Have you tried contacting community theatre groups or the university, college and community colleges there. They can be a surprisingly good source of talent.

Try checking out www.LA411.com There's a listing of agents, agencies and production companies he could contact.

You might want to call some rental houses in your area and see if you can purchase some used c-stands. Rental houses occasionally sell off older gear when new gear comes in or when they purchase a huge lot in auctions. That might be better and safer then kludging something together.

I don't think that's a wire, I think it's shooting its laser. After the UK falls, we're all next.

First off, what kinds of job postings are requesting the Z1 over the HVX? Are they narrative work, wedding videos, commercial, music video, skating videos, etc? Also, where in the US are these requests coming in from? That might help us answer your question. My guess is that they're asking for the equipment that they know, i.e. out of ignorance to what else is available. On a side note, let me vent for a moment. I have to say that I object to advertisements asking for a DP with a camera or worse yet, for a specific camera. Are producers and directors hiring the technology or the talent behind the technology? I'm grateful that I don't rely on these kinds of jobs anymore, but I still look around from time to time at the classified and it's surprising, if not down right upsetting, how often these requests come up. Perhaps it's just ignorance or inexperience on the part of the person making the request, but I find it demeaning that someone would be hired on the basis of equipment and not the talent a person holds. No one would ever not hire Matthew Libatique for not having a Z1 or HVX200 (or maybe they would). I realize that there are times when a production needs a certain camera for whatever reason, but really, enough already. Sorry, I feel better now.

I'm not speaking for Ralph, but to answer your question, there can be several places where transporting the film (or any package for that matter) might be subjected to heat. The delivery truck from the vendor to the shipper's distribution center. The flight over seas will likely be temperature control but, depending on the shipper, the package could be subjected to sever cold. And then again heat could an issue from the distribution center in the UK to his home. When shipping overseas, it's alway a good idea to make arrangements with the shipping carrier by informing them that film is being transported. Here again, my point still applies, the speed of his film isn't likely to experience any adverse affects from heat radiation. He's more likely to have problems from an X-ray machine but here again, I think that's unlikely.

Here's a non-matte related example. Back when I was a gaffer in the late 90 (wow, that sounds like I'm 100!), I worked on a show that did just that. It was an early HD feature length movie. We where taping (wow that leaves a bad taste in mouth) a guy through the window of a radio booth. Over his image, we processed pre-edited Super 8 footage of a girl that his dialogue was reminiscing about. I worked very nicely and didn't require any post work. Later this year, I'm shooting a feature and the director wanting to do everything very old school so we're working with our special effects vendor to do a miniature what we'll be placing our actor in - all in camera. Ah, Eugene Schufftan. Yet another giant whose shoulders we get to stand on.

As per Peter Kuran (Special Optical Effects), they used a 4' high by 2' wide fish tank filled with smoke. Behind that an animation cell with the title "The Thing". Behind that, on a frame was a stretched piece of garbage bag. And finally, behind that was a light source. Kuran would then burn the garbage bag with a match and as it burned away the title would appear. I got this information from the DVD's extra features.

I believe we have a difference of terms with our cousin from across the lake. By "postage" I believe he means "mailing". Or maybe not. To the question of "deteriorating" strictly speaking it's aways deteriorating. But the heat from its travel across the Atlantic would most likely do little to no damage to the film. Plus X is a slow, some might say middle speed film at 125. I think you'll be fine so long as you keep it in a cool place until you need it. Then, enjoy.

Which kind of SD - DV25, DV50, 8- or 10-bit Uncompressed, BetaCam, DigiBeta, etc. Again, which flavor of HD - 1080, 720, and dare I say, HDV? On my website, I have a listing of some common formats and their associated storage requirements (the list was provided by Creative Media Partners): http://www.eric-petersen.com/more/morestuff/datarate.htm

I agree with Brian especially if your chances of getting any distribution for the movie are suspect. Do it any way you can or any way you want to. I also have to agree that HDV wouldn't be a great choice for narrative acquisition. Matt brings up a good point in that distributors (at least here in the US) are still a little weary of B&W as an origination format (unless you're an A-list producer, director or DP). "Sex, Lies and Videotape" is long time ago to where Soderbergh is today - he could likely get away with it these days.