Matt Sandstrom

btw as for what you can edit hd on, that's what i meant with "because i can". if your system works well with hd there's no reason to edit at lower res, except for the monitoring issue perhaps.

/matt

i would never pay $500 an hour for deck time, even including a tape switching assistant, but i see your point. my point was based on the cost of batching being very small compared to the rest of the online work.

/matt

I have a 2500W small Honda generator, and when it gets close to capacity, it fluctuates. Your lights start to pulse.

i don't doubt that, but doesn't running it on full speed rather than automatic help? i've always done that when i've had such problems and i've used the hondas a lot.

/matt

the main difference is of course that music noobs are much more humble and friendly than the ultra cocky and often hostile filmmaking noobs you have to face every god damn day. ;-)

"my dv camera is better than your dv camera"

/matt

hey, does it really make a large difference whether you hand the post house an edl and a tape or an edited timeline at full res without effects? it probably doesn't take longer to batch in the material than it takes to import the edit and prepare it. "offlining" at full res only really makes sense, expect for "because i can" resons, if you're onlining/adding effects on the same system. and in that case i agree it's best to online to an uncompressed timeline if the result is going elsewhere for final processing.

/matt

if you can afford a real light kit i'd recommend litepanels. easier to place, easier to control, nicer light quality than kinos imo. more expensive too, but not so bad.

/matt

if you don't mind some strange color try one of those fluorescents that plug into the lighter. plenty of pretty nice light for nothing. i'm toying with the idea of bulding a small white led ringlight for the same kind of situation. 12 leds gives you pleny of light. my only worry riht now is to get it even. they throw a very narrow pattern so you can almost see 12 little spotlights hitting the subject. there are tiny little reflectors as well as fresnels that mounts right on the led that i'll try next.

/matt

a car battery will run a redhead for half an hour (30ah@12v~400wh). a 200w joker will give you the same amount of light for 2 hours. i've shot like that and it works fine. i agree with david though it's only for special situations. in my case we were changing locations a lot in a short time. a small honda and a long cable will probably work better for you.

/matt

a similar setup is available from chrosziel for 2000 euros.

http://www.chrosziel.com/pricelist/ACPL_09_05.pdf

/matt

i love it too. i've been looking for one to buy or parts to build one from for my canon. i have an old hasselblad matte box as well as a 3x3 filter holder, some metal rods, and some odd gears for a follow focus but nothing fits together and i just don't have the time. :-)

/matt

it is a regular quicktime file but it takes a million clicks and the reading of dozens of lines of text to get to it. i found that when i finally got it downloaded i only had time to write this before i had to leave. ;-) i'll try to watch it some other time.

/matt

one quick question from watching the first seconds: what diffusion did you use? post effect? it looked a little over the top, but i don't know the story yet either...

/matt

depending on the size of the bathroom, i'd just hang a chinese lantern above the mirror, above and in front of him. but i really like simplistic setups. maybe you need a kicker for separation. a small fresnel hitting his face on the opposite side of the camera from a low angle perhaps?

/matt

just in case anybody's interested my suggestion is to take santo's sample images with a large grain of salt. same for his conclusions. i obviously agree that 10 bit uncompressed is better, anything else would be stupid to claim, but anyone who's not getting pristine results with black and white transferred to dv is doing something wrong. remember that the resolution is exactly the same as digibeta and aside from some dct artifacts that should be minor the main difference is in the color sampling. as for the 10 bits that's of course completely irrelevant unless you want to do color corrections. the *only* difference is the dct compression, and if you ever get the kind of artifacts shown in santo's post you need to change labs, deck, computer, brain, and everythign else involved asap. ;-)

/matt

here's one i made a couple of years ago.

http://www.mattias.nu/venedig/

/matt

oh, and don't forget all the dm videos from music for the masses. maybe some other one from violator too. i don't quite remember and i don't have the dvd here so i can't check.

/matt

enough to get a decent picture for sure, but not enough to get f/16 which would mean just a stop under full daylight if i remember the sunny 16 rule correctly. it depends on how you plan on using it though. it's probably possible.

/matt

they are driven by a high frequency ballast, but i think the line frequency leaks through. i'm basing this on the fact that they sometimes flicker while the 12 volt ones don't. are you using them to illuminate the scene or are they just in the frame?

/matt

well, whether it's true or not is another question. i though you "didn't get it". :-)

in my fuse box here at the office there are mostly 10 and a few 16 amp breakers. the "washing machine" connector has three 16 amp ones. when i lived in the u.s. we had 20 amp fuses in our apartment, iirc. and i never experienced not being able to plug a 2k into any outlet, which suggests that if 10 amps are used there it's rare. old buildings? hotel rooms?

/matt

i'm not sure what it is you're not getting. by rated lower i mean we have lower amp fuses here in europe, thus the available wattage turns out about the same despite the higher voltage.

/matt

Again, a tungsten balance film close to the speed of K40 is the EKTACHROME film most people surveyed wanted for Super-8.

kodak should know better than to try and give people what they want, or think they want. that's the most sure way of failing, which has been proven over and over again in the past.

/matt

In Europe the voltage is higher so you can run more off a circuit with the same Amperage.

yes, but the circuits are rated lower accordingly. the typical wattage is the same.

/matt

cineframe 25p works great. in my opinion and experience better sharpness and artifact wise than a regular deinterlace in post and about the same as a "smart" or adaptive deinterlace. the 24p emulation i've heard is awful.

/matt

the mpeg compression creates lots of blocky and smeary artifacts in the shadows, so i'd suggest lighting to a lower ratio and pushing the blacks down in post.

/matt

For the record, black fabric from your dad's or granddad's sewing room works too.

/matt

Matt Wells - the cameras you mentioned as being quiet - how quiet are they?

fairly quiet, but you'll still most likely hear them on the soundtrack.

Would a 16mm camera like this: http://cgi.ebay.com/KRASNOGORSK-3-RUSSIAN-...1QQcmdZViewItem (for example) be loud too?

for sure. that one comes really close to the coffee grinder side of the spectrum. plus it's even less steady in speed than most super 8 cameras. it's capable of fantastic images though.

/matt

many modern high end 16 and 35mm cameras are almost silent, but indie filmmakers struggle with camera noise every day no matter what gauge. even an arri sr3 needs blimping in a small room.

these days i have free and unlimited access to a dubbing studio but otherwise what i like to do is shoot the dialog and all foley on location but with the camera off. not only do you get rid of camera noise but you can also bring the mic closer which solves a number of problems, and you get the proper ambience too. you'll be amazed how often it syncs up right away.

and a word of advice: make a non sync sound short first. you have to test the camera somehow anyway and this will teach you more than a focus chart. ;-) once that works out the way you expected you can add sound to the equation.

/matt