David Regan

Thanks for all the help guys. I'll keep all that stuff in mind when I get to set. Much appreciated.

I just got my first work on a 35mm feature in a couple weeks, and I talked to the first AC who said I would be doing a lot of video assist stuff, in addition to whatever other help they needed. They are using an Arricam Lite and Studio. I was just wondering if there was any 'Set-Etiquette' in regards to video assist that I should be aware of, like things to never do, or things I should always watch for. Thanks

Well I'm not expert so I could have this wrong, but given sometimes people do use autofocus with video/HD, if they wanted a polarizer they would need to use the circular one. Again someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Yeah, you pretty much nead to use a circular polarizer if you are using an autofocus. It has to do with how the autofocus works, and that the linear polarizer renders it ineffective. I'm not exact on the specifics, but I'm assuming you'll be fine with a linear polarizer, plus they are less expensive :)

The "ease" of exposing film stock will depend alot on your experience. But I wouldn't worry too much. The very first film I ever shot was B&W Tri-X reversal. I honestly had no trouble with it. It was my first film project like I said, all I had was a simple Sekonic incident meter, and I had pretty good, consistent exposure throughout the film. The film never gave me any issues to speak of. So I wouldn't be too worried, trust your ability. Good Luck

Exposing for backlight can be tricky, you run into similar issues in situations with a person standing in front of a window etc. You are right if you expose for the persons face you will likely blow out your background, and if you expose for the background the subject will be too dark. My best advice is find an exposure somewhere inbetween. You could also play with adding light to the persons face so there is not such an exposure difference. Good Luck

I'm not sure if one hose will look like rain, having never tried it. But I would advise, even if it does work to look like rain, be sure you are wetting down the area you shoot, because even if you have a convincing amount of rain falling, a dry road/object in the background will throw the illusion off right away. Good Luck

I expect there are other topics that can answer your question but anyway... The big difference between Tungsten and HMI lights is their color temperature in degrees Kelvin. Tungsten lights have a warmer color temperature which is typically 3200K. HMI lights however have a much cooler CT which is typically around 5600K or 6000K depending on who made the globes. This relates do your question on daylight/tungsten film, this just means they are balanced to corretly represent colors under the given lighting. So Tungsten film accurately represents color under Tungsten lighting (3200K), and conversely Daylight film accurately represents color under daylight (5500K). Shooting Tungsten film in daylight and vice versa requires the use of filters typically an 85 filter to shoot Tungsten film in daylight, and and 80A to shoot daylight film under Tungsten lighting. Foot-candles are a unit of illumination. Knowledge of footcandles is defintely important so I do suggest you find out more on the subject. PAR is a type of fixture that is very useful, as they put out a lot of light per watt, so they are very efficient. PAR stands for Parabolic Aluminized Reflector. Good Luck

You can still use the HMI set up inside the room, just be careful with it, and have a variety of diffusion/silks. If this turns out to be too much, you could always gel tungstun lights, but I think the HMI might be actually easier. Obviously, having the HMI in the room will make shooting more of a pain as you will have switch setups for an reversals, but it's still feasable. Honestly though, Jonathon had the best suggestion, that you demand a night shoot. Good Luck

A link would help lol

Hey all I purchased a glidecam 4000 a while back, and have been fairly pleased with the results. A few issues/points with it however. It is heavy. The handle you hold it with is offset so the weight is in front of your wrist. Bear that in mind when thinking about what else you want to put on the camera and how long you want your shots to be. I don't have a vest/support system of anysort just the base glidecam, and I can usually get away with a 1-2 minute take if needs be, depending on the day lol. It isn't perfect for everything. It has been tricky I've found to have somone pull focus on this by hand, as their added grip throws things off, If people have found a solution to this that would be great. The footage can be very smooth, and almost imitate the look of a small jib/dolly, or it can look downright aweful, it depends on your skill with the glidecam, how well it is balanced, and your environment. So all in all I'm glad I bought it, it has worked will with the HVX200 as long as you don't mind the weight. I've used it for certain things on several other people's films and it looks pretty good. If I get a chance I'll put some footage online. BTW nice work Sibte, especially for your first day. I enjoy the 'documentary' style long take, although that must've been rough on your arm with the glidecam lol. Good luck all

That is annoying, and more work. You can probably get away with the same HMI Idea just be sure to have plenty of diffusion and silks on hand. As for showing the windows, whenever I've blacked out windows they had blinds/curtains so it wasn't an issue, so if you were looking to invest in some art direction than maybe, but then you'd lose the nice wood feel the doors have. So its a toss up, curtians and blinds will give you more to play with in terms of shot selection, but may take away from the overall feel. Good Luck

I am working on putting some stuff together to put in my showcase reel. However some of the stuff is in different aspect ratios. Does anyone have any thoughts on if it is a bad idea to mix aspect ratios? I've read elsewhere that people are bothered by it, but I'm not sure if its really possible to work around. Should I just put things of same aspect ratio together in the reel so it doesn't jump around a lot, or is it really not a problem at all? Thanks

Well as Chris says, I have no idea what you are referring to, but with regards to a cigarette burning at normal pace with a time lapse background that could definitely be done with the cigarett shot against greenscreen, which would be keyed out for the time lapse background. If it can be done in camera I'm not sure how.

Depends on the school I suppose every school is going to have different programs. I am in a business class now, and it has taught me alot about how the industry actually works. In my opinion though, nothing can really substitute for the actual experience, which is what I believe David was saying when he talked about shooting all those kids films. I read books, I take my film classes, but at the end of the day, I always get far more out of being on an actual set and using the equipment I've read about, then just being told how to do it. Good Luck all

Looks like you have a pretty decent kit to work with. I agree with Chris about the HMI's as moonlight, one suggestion I might add is try and break up the light. I notice there are quite a few trees outside the room, this can motivate you to use either the actual trees or a cucoloris to break up the light from the HMIs. The patterns formed on her face can add more of a threatening feel from the shadows and abstract shapes created. Good Luck

Firstly I really enjoy the work of Conrad Hall, as I see many other people here do. That said I would say the most inspirational to me has been Emanuel Lubezki. I find his often naturalistic/documentary approach to cinematography to be quite beautiful. I'm sure most people now know him for his work on Children of Men, but I think equally well shot, though somewhat different was Y Tu Mama Tambien.

Lol yeah for some reason the forum is giving me issues and deleted what I wrote and only posted my pics and now the option to edit it is gone soooo, while I'm working that out here is how I lit it. The room had one window set in a small recess in front of the singer at the desk, and another to the singers left side. To add light to her front I used a 250w photoflood bulb in a china-latern hung high in the recess. This combined with the natural light through the window is most evident on the CU of the paper. To the singer's left was a 300w fresnel with 1/2 CTB bouncing off the ceiling to add some light to the room in back (not visible in these shots). another 300w fresnel through 1/2 CTB and 216 added some light to the corner of the room visible in the first photo. A 1K fresnel outside the room was bounced through the door to add a touch of fill on the curtains just inside the door. It all added up to a look I was fairly happy with, and a practical combination of Tungsten, Daylight, and Photoflood (4800K)

Here is a setup I had for a music video I shot recentlyC:\Documents and Settings\David Regan\Desktop\MusicVidPics

Changing the Master Pedestal subtly can also effect how crisp your blacks are. Be careful not to get crazy with it though as it does effect the whole image, just a step or two to tweak I would say.

Being honest, I wasn't a fan of those quick cuts between flowers that flickered back and forth for a few seconds, it didn't do anything for me. As for a reel, I'm no expert but I'd look for some way to push the footage beyond being average shots of flowers. You have a very nice camera which makes nice looking images, but the flower footage started to wear on me after a time because there wasn't too much variety. The CU of rain/dewdrops was interesting I just wish one of them had fallen. By the way I liked your opening shot, beautiful sky/environment. Good Luck!