thomas-english

I watched BBC HD the other day at my friends house. It looked rubbish with compression artifacts all over the place.

I have an SR2 with a damaged battery spigot> i.e. there is only one connector left. I am shooting something this sunday, a freebie, all on steadicam. If I run out of sr2 batteries or the last connector dies/snaps I might risk it and try and run the camera from the rig. My Marrel bubble displays a battery monitor. Fully loaded with 2 fully charged Lithium pags it normally reads a maximum of what? 15.6 Volts If I only have the one battery onboard and its a little used I reckon it will float blow 15v. Can I risk running my sr2 at that volatge? Will it blow up? What is safe? Lets face it, I am also running a modulus Transmitter, a transvideo monitor and a Bartech follow focus. So there is plenty of load there to take the edge off a lively battery. Also the batterys will not come off the charger (there is not going to be a mains source for 20 miles). Can anyone sell me an old battery spigot? Thanks a lot for your time.

Hey please let m know what sr2 bits you can sell me for my beloved little toy. What I really want/need is a battery spitgot thing. It plugs into the back and you pop the battery on top. Can anyone help? Thanks Thomas

Yes, I used them last week. Although I did not use the 25mm I did use all the other lenses up to the 75mm and I thought the results were fantastic. I will put the link up for the job as soon as it is published. Thomas

I am a cameraman rather than a VFX er. So please excuse the novice approach to this question. We are shooting fulldome footage for display in planetariums. We are using 180° to 220° lenses that are equiangular mapped (i.e. mathematically approximate fisheyes). One of the great problems with fuldome is the quest for maximum image stability as any camera shake really does move your world. Under normal circumstances gyro's and heavy grip is suitable. I am currently planning a skydive shoot were these will be impossible. Please can you point me in the correct direction for research to image stabilize across equiangular mapping rather than the normal gnomic mapping normal lenses are. (i.e. a flat plane). In other words I want to image to distort as it moves across the image. The issue is that these lenses are 180° or more. So I can't see the standard workflow of making an undistorted image, motion track/stabilize, re-distort working. I suppose I am having issues getting my head around this a little so I am hoping someone on this forum might say something that will just click the knot in my brain. Thank you.

Don't feel bad about taking 2 1/2 weeks to cut it. In some of my early promo s that I was cutting myself I sometimes took months. Especially when bouncing backwards and forwards to after effects and my own unpredictable experimentation.

I feel you guys have been very hard on young Mitchell Yount earlier in this thread. Congratulations Mitchell on pulling off a music video at 18 on a RED. For my two pence, I agree with the likes of Stephen, film is surprisingly better in circumstances where you unfortunately did not have full control. You find yourself smiling in telecine. I often find myself shooting my really low budget promo s on s16 because plain unlit shots can look lovely on film where they could fall apart shot in linear digital. However I am buying a RED because with correctly controlled lighting and filtration it produces lovely images and clients love the idea of digital. No one needs to tie themselves down to one format or another, we all have changing artistic needs that are satisfied in different ways. I look forward to your work in 10 years Mitchell, you'll do well. I have done loads of rap and R and B videos and I am white. They are great because there are simply SO many low budget ones out there to shoot so you can get your practice in.

Well the reason I care where the green is is because I assume the client will be pulling a colour difference Matte which calculates the Matte on green minus red max or blue max. So the less red or blue stimulation possible the better. I can t see a client worth his salt pulling a chroma key matte. But who knows.

So It's not as marked a FOV loss as using my s16 on the silicon imagingi camera with its 2/3rd inch chip. Can anyone tell me the actual FOV loss relative to s16 of shooting 2k on windowed RED? I understand that a B4 video lense covers the RED windowed chip with slight magnification. A B4 lens just about covers a s16 gate. If your saying a B4 lens has slight magnification relative to video on a windowed RED, your saying that a windowed RED chip is SMALLER than 2/3rd inch. So will have CONSIDERABLE magnification relative to s16

really, so essentially my s16 lenses will have a slight magnification factor in Field of View to what I am used to on my sr2. I could shoot full frame 4k and crop down but I would rather shoot full frame s16 at 2k.

I am thinking of buying a RED to use on my s16 lenses. All the literature I have read says that you can shoot a full s16 frame at 2k. It says you can choose between 35mm, s16 2/3rd inch. When shooting high speed I was hoping/planning on using the full s16 frame at 2k. Am I wrong? Please explain to me the ins and outs of shooting s16 on the RED. I would really appreciate it as I am confused.

Yes this is a consideration. The client wants us to specifically buy cheap paint, he wants us to take a tub of chromakey paint and colour match it in a store. This is madness however the customer is always right. I can advise but what he wants is what I'll do to the best of my abilities, if thats how he's worked before and he's happy thats whats important. Thats what working in Film and TV is all about. However I am not going to let some spotty youth colour match a load of paint. My concern with the thickness though is it will bring the sanding down of the whole infinity space a few steps closer.

So how much have prices dropped for DPX scanned in the last 12months (I've been away). About a year ago a load of cheaper scanners were being released. Has this effect TK prices yet? Whats the best price anyone can get nowadays for international mail order scans? to DPX or other.

well it works out at exactly half the price. I suspect that some of the chroma key paint manufacturers may be simply relabelling dulux ! certainly relabelling something.

OK. I have after spending a long time on the phone to ICI technical department and technical paints. I have come up with these equivalents. Technical paints were also a GREAT help. http://technicalpaintservices.co.uk/contact.php GREENSCREEN - Pantone 354 - Colour dimension number 1070G - Dulux name "puppet" BLUESCREEN - Pantone 2735 - Colour Dimension number 3060R60B - Dulux name "Hocus Pocus" These Dulux paint names have not been used for 10 to 15 years. These can be mixed by any Dulux supplier from the above number. They should be able to dial in that colour dimension code, if they can't, tell them to call their technical centre and get the manual recipe. Dulux also do a "dulux trade flat matt" rather than a "vinyl matt". I think this would be best. I would love some comments on this before I set it all in stone. Thankyou

is RAL 6018 too yellow ?

We have just had a job come into our infinity room that wants greenscreen but is unwilling to pay for the commercial greenscreen paint. They are happy with a colour match from the paint shop. I would like to find a more scientific way of going about this. I want to get a good match and not rely on a local paint mixing machine and its operator colour matching. Importantly, so I can email a colour code to the client and have it approved for the day so I will have no issues with the client being unhappy with an incorrect shade. The Pantone codes 354 (for green) and 2735 (for blue) come recommended however Pantone do not sell paint in europe because of their lead content. Does anyone know what RAL codes are the equivalent to these Pantone codes. Or does anyone have another way?

Hello Mike! how are ya! Rory, when the pint? yup I see RED as being more of the same. Just a lot more of it! Lot s cheaper and so so many people are buying them the rental price is surely going to crash completely (in london particularly). Remember the varicams a few years ago, you could rent one for the day for £150 for a low budget. everyone I know has got a few of these RED camera s on order, I figure I ll just spend 10 grand on a really nice set of primes. RED s going to be great for low budget jobs where previously we have been using the PSTechniks and HDCAM but not sure if digital is going to kill film at the same speed as in the photography editorial/fashion/photojournalism world because of a few key differences I have noticed between the industries. In photography the wastage to select your image is so high, a photojournalist will take 1000's of images before using one, a fashion photographer will take hundreds. We often only do 2 takes. In photography there is no such thing as a video tap for the client, many photographers have told me they have had to go digital because the client wants direct involvement. It s got to the point now that the images are getting wired to teams of creatives for their approval on the actual shoot! I also don t think it will dent in so much on the day to day wealth of TV work, where the kit is so busy it does not make a difference f it costs 20 grand or 60 grand it just matters how easy/fast/convenient to use it is, and what is easier and faster to use than a sony 750 or 900 . On my own in the jungle filming monkeys shagging I would rather a 750 with a tape and a 2/3rd inch lens than some flash drive 35mm plane etc etc

No extra image improvements but extra ability?.... adjustable shutter. variable framerate without having to attach a massive heavy unit that wobbles to it better video tap lighterweight for use in things like the mk-v AR a body that does not look like it was sitting on the front of a german tank 50 years ago. We all know how important image is in this industry. I agree with not owning kit in the video industry but I think film camera s and grip it s more than fine. i don t want to "buy" work but I do want to do little freebies and my own little bits without having to be constantly on the blag. The aaton xtr prod is beautiful .....

if I stick a 6k maxi brute on an additional dimmer it will always draw the same amount of power? even though it s outputting a lot less light?

great looking promo adam. I have had a couple of miscommunication s recently. I overexposed a load of vision1 500t by 3 stops. I regretted requesting a pull of 1 stop but still the client was happy (focus puller thought there was an ND6 in but had forgotten to put it in). Bought back in Tk it looked ... ok We underexposed a load of fuji 500t by 2 1/2 stops on a run through (s16 handheld 50mm) for a track to cut with the wide. I re did the run through anyway at the correct stop. When we bought back the underexposed run through in TK it looked ... OK ... but they still used it. I notice the cuts but they seem happy. Basically if you ve made the mistake, relax ... just make sure you shoot everything that s gonna cut at the same mistake.

I have posted this in the 16mm forum for good reason. I really only want people that shoot regularly on s16 to respond including many of my dop friends from london and stateside that understand the s16 / HDcam bussiness market. I am seriously considering upgrading my sr2 kit to an aaton xtr prod (possibly and xtera) . I am having serious dificulties charging more than £150 /day for an sr2 kit (inc. grip / lenses) mostly because it s a well known student camera and there are people out there with them "knocking about" willing to let them out for that. With a modern looking xtr prod I reckon I can hop that up to a reasonable £450 /day. All of my dop work is on lower budget music videos. I am not that interested in competing on big jobs because many of the dop s I would be competing with are very good clients of mine as a steadicam op. I am however enjoying a kick back to s16 on low low budget jobs. If you shoot a crap promo with rubbish art department on s16 it looks great, do that on HD and it looks crap. So with the advent of the RED coming out, are any of you guys still investing in s16? would you spend £10 grand on new kit right now? MovieTech in london are buying more s16 kit. Arri have bought out a 416 (but they don t really have a choice but to bring out a new camera considering their massive RnD infrastructure, it would be foolish to base industry projections on their optimism) . Axis films have buying more HD cameras and have no plans on investing in s16. ICE films have just bought a load of sony HD s. BBC are reneging on their not shooting on s16 rule. Does anyone have any more insider news about what companies such as panavision UK are doing or take2 ? Please only people that shoot regularly on s16 respond to this post. I really don t want this to turn into a film versus video debate. i just want to do a survey on how people in the s16 market will be spending their money in the next 2 years.

Has anybody ever used these lenses? They seem fairly good value for money and are good equivalents to the much sought after mk2/mk3 superspeeds, but are they any good? build quality? http://www.optica-elite.com/default.aspx

What should I look out for when buying an aaton xtr prod ? What is there to keep an eye on? what problems should I look out for? do u want to sell me one? thomas

It s as standard pin1 - pin4 + . However be very careful not to use modern batteries because they can give up to 16volts or more and that will completely fry your board.