Boyd McCollum

Hi Jose, nice site. A couple quick observations. I like some of the work on your reel, but I have no idea what you did or didn't do. You combine camera op with assistant, gaffer, and dp (i.e., I don't know if you were the assistant on the shot with the good lighting, etc.). I think you could focus the reel more on the type of job you want. I have a similar comment with your resume. By breaking down your work by film type (short, feature), you diffuse the work you've done. For instance, with Shorts, the first thing that comes up is Video Assist. Also, it may be a feature, but no way being a PA on a feature should ever come before camera op on a commercial or anything else, yet it's the second thing I see. Eventually, you'd just drop all the assistant stuff, as you really don't need a website for that type of work. You may want to organize what you've done by job function: Lighting/Camera (gaffer/dp/operator), Crew (any assistant job), Director, etc. You could even put a project in two locations if you were both the dp/cam and director. Oh, and the link to your documentary is broken - I was kind of looking forward to seeing it. Anyway, just some thoughts.

In fairness to McG, once someone goes off like Bale did, there's really nothing you can do. I've learned this over many years with my 9 year old son and his occasional melt-downs. Once the explosion happens, the only thing you can do is let it run out of steam on its own. The real question, and what we don't know, is how McG handled the situation afterwards, and whether this blow up destroyed set harmony. One part of the whole incident that is not getting a lot attention, if any, is the effect this kind of blow up has on the entire crew or even Bale's own fellow actor in the scene. He claims Shane was being rude to Bryce Dallas Howard, but I'm sure it wasn't helpful for her frame of mind as an actor to be exposed to his rant. One of the things that bothers me the most are those people trashing Hurlbut's professionalism in an effort to excuse Bales's behavior. That's just wrong.

it currently plays on a Mac running Safari.

One thing to note is that a "workflow" never becomes plural. A workflow is a singular entity, or a specific way to get from a to b. You can have multiple workflows, or multiple ways to get from a-b, but each workflow is discrete and never random. Workflows are also planned out in advanced and become more critical as projects and budgets get bigger. It's about breaking down each step of a process and being consistent in how things are done. Good workflows allow for greater creativity along with increased savings in time, money, and (most important) stress.

Hi Derek, I think Chad was suggesting posting in other threads on this forum - there's an Off-topic thread and an Editor's Corner Thread. Since they may not get used as often, especially when time is critical, for FCP questions you may want to check out the LA Final Cut Pro User group (lafcpug.org) or the Creative Cow. Both are very active and should get you quick answers for your FCP questions. Btw, I'm glad you got a few extra days to work on your project. Post back to let us know how it goes.

I'm curious which films in b&w you were watching. I would say that I wouldn't look towards your classmates (I say this with affection - I was a film student myself back in the day), as arbiters of art, arty, or whether b&w is a legitimate filmic look in modern cinema. It can be an eloquent way to strip away the fluff and focus on the essentials of the story. There are also many films that are so desaturated and stark, or otherwise monochromatic, that they may as well be b&w.

You probably already have this figured out, but some quick input: 1. Check in the FCP user guide, chapter 2 under audio mixing. It should tell you how to set up your tracks to output for 5.1 (or use the search feature). The trouble you will probably run into is that, if I'm not mistaken, iDVD doesn't do surround sound. I'm not sure, but a surround system maybe able to play out a stereo track to all the speakers by default, but I've never tried it. 2. Read the HD and Broadcast Formats guide under the Tools menu. AVCHD is not supported for editing in FCP 6. It's recommended to transcode AVCHD either to Prores or AIC. Your render issue are because you're taking a nasty processor intensive not supported codec and trying to edit it with another processor intensive codec. So FCP is basically transcoding each clip you use. When you move or edit it, it has to transcode it again, etc. You should export QT movies of your footage out of FCP into a codec that edits easily, then reimport it back in. In the timeframe you have and the media you're going to (SD DVD), I'd just bring it in as DV25 and it'd be quicker at the end to make a DVD (with the MPEG2 conversion). It'll still look pretty sharp. 3. There's no "film look" filter in FCP. The film look can also be many things, but usually you get it in production and how you shoot and light your stuff and real grading on the back end. Don't forget, dp's and directors spend lots of time together to develop the look of a film before they even shoot. Doing some simple color correction and adding contrast back into your footage will help. Use the 3 Way Color Corrector for contrast and color adjustments. For time saving purposes, you can save specific filters you're going to reuse by dragging them into your favorites folder under the Effects tab in the Browser. The most efficient workflow is edit for story, get to picture lock, then do any color correction and audio mixing. It goes without saying that in the future you really should work out these issues well in advance and not the night before the project's due. Each of these elements can be rather time consuming on their own. Good luck, I hope your showing goes well!

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doing 600 of anything is a great way to work out best practices! I'll need to add that (8 bit uncompressed, not burning 600 DVDs) to my workflow. Thanks Walter! Boyd

My thinking is that with HDV, any clip that needed rendering would lose something by having FCP rerender it (and the filter) back into the HDV codec - so using Prores would maintain higher quality on applied filters, such as the 3-way Color Corrector. Also graphics, stills, or other cgi elements not already HDV would be of better quality and wouldn't be rendered down to HDV for export, then be rerendered again in Compressor. Any native HDV material not needing to be rendered would still go out as HDV during the QT export. Another benefit would be faster render times (though larger render files). Just my $.02 and I'm always open to learning better ways of doing things.

It's been a while, so you've probably already got this onto a DVD, but if you're using a Mac, I'd export it out at it's native codec with Export>Quicktime Movie>Current Settings, then use Compressor to do the MPEG2 compression - select the appropriate best quality preset for the size file you'll need (90 min, 120 min, or 150 min). You can do a fastest encode if this is more of a screener. Also, prior to exporting your project out of FCP, I would do a couple of things. If there are any filters (hopefully you're doing some basic color correcting) I'd set the renders (Sequence Settings/Render Control Tab) to use Prores 422. Under the Video Processing Tab, select Render all YUV material to High Precision YUV and Motion Filtering Quality to Best. Use the render manager to delete any previous renders for your final sequence, then render with the new settings.

A rolling shutter from a light flash lasting 2.5 seconds? I've seen it for 1 to 2 frames, but never more than that and don't see how it's even technically possible for it to last longer than that (from a flash) - are you sure you weren't seeing some other issue?

No experience with delivering from an EX1, but check what HD format the broadcaster will accept, you should be able to export out of your NLE to the appropriate format. Delivery on HDCAM/HDCAM SR tape is fairly common.

The pricing per gig is similar for both the SxS and P2 cards (around ~$900 for 16GB cards), however the record times are vastly different. The 16GB SxS card will give you 50 minutes at 1080/60i while the 16GB P2 card will give you 16 min at 1080/60i (or 40 min at 720/24p). I found a couple of good charts comparing recording times for each card using various formats and sized cards at TapeStockOnline: http://www.tapestockonline.com/sxspromecavs.html Boyd

I don't have any experience with Discovery HD, but you could ask them directly on upressing the footage, though I doubt that's going to improve the footage any, or that they will change their policy. From the programming I've seen, it's as much about the HD-ness of the look as anything else. The resolution on the HVX just isn't the same as a 2/3" HD camera with real glass. I imagine when they throw it on a high-end HD production monitor, and after watching 1000's of hours worth of programming, it'll be pretty obvious. You could try sneaking it by them, though I'm not a fan of that approach, or rework your workflow to use a camera that's in spec. At least you know up front - the worse would be to shoot with the HVX and have the program rejected. I'd be interested to find out what their decision is on the EX-1.

I don't know why you'd completely agree with her initial premise. Shitty days can lead to some of your best work. Beautiful, stress free days can lead to bad work. Everyone - actors, DPs, directors, school bus drivers, mechanics, etc. - can be affected positively or negatively by the day they are having in just about any combination imaginable. I know some outstanding and professional actors who leave all that baggage at the door and focus entirely on their character and the scene. You wouldn't know what kind of day they were having. I mean their dog could have died that morning and you wouldn't know it. Or the scene they play is about their dog dying and you want to comfort them after the scene and they are happy as a lark. I think consciously or subconsciously, your friend is really arguing a different point entirely, that is that actors are more "special" and need special care and handling. You could argue until you're blue in the face and never get anywhere because for her, her premise is not challengeable. And it's a built in excuse for giving a poor performance or for just being a mediocre/average actor (I'm not specifically referring to your friend here, as I don't know her or her abilities).

Brian, Unless it was another demo at Duart, I had heard that the HVX200 was not there. Can you confirm that it was and how did it do? The discussion I had about this demo centered on the RED and that it didn't perform well, resolution-wise, in windowed 2k mode vs. the EX-1. Thanks, Boyd

Keep in mind that while the Z1 uses tape, the HVX-200 requires P2 cards (or Firestore Hard Drive). So if you go with the HVX, you'll need to think about both your production and post-production workflows, as well as long term archiving of your footage. For production, you'll need to know how many cards/drives you'll have, who is responsible for off-loading data, at least 2 sets of storage drives (one for the data, one to back up the data), and a process to ensure that data from the cards (or FS drive) are captured before reusing them. This should be handled by someone who knows what they are doing and has no other responsibilities. Do a search on this, the process has been pretty well worked out and isn't difficult, but does require thought and some additional resources.

It all depends on what you mean by extreme and what type of shooting you will be doing. But these cameras share the same deep DOF as all 1/3" chip cameras. The V1 uses 1/4" chips so probably has an even deeper DOF. Without an adapter, the best way to minimize the DOF would be to shoot pretty much wide open (f/stop) all the time and zoomed in - which means you'd have to move the camera much farther back to control framing. Keeping the subject as far away from the b.g. as possible helps as well. But if extremely shallow DOF is something you want beyond a shot here or there, I'd go with an adapter for ease and consistency.

As far as I can tell from reviews I've read, it is true native progressive (not the faux 24F stuff with the Z1), and at 1920x1080 you're going to be hard pressed to get better resolution, especially with DVCams. Here's part of the press release from Sony itself about the chips (in bold type): PARK RIDGE, N.J., Sept. 19, 2006 -- Sony is expanding its line-up of HDV? products for professionals with the HVR-V1U HDV compact camcorder. The new model delivers true 24P progressive scan capture, and uses three of Sony?s ClearVid CMOS Sensor? chips combined with Sony's Enhanced Imaging Processor? technology to provide greater sensitivity, higher resolution, lower noise and a wider dynamic range." AE should work well for keying. Also, in the camera, turn off any sharpening (you should play with the settings to see which works best, but less is more).

Hi Walter, I just learned about Roger Macie from a local ENG shooter the day before you posted this. I'm looking at getting an EX-1 and thought it might be a good idea to have them set it up. Do you have a ball park figure for what the service costs?

I'd go with the V1U with the extra resolution and shoot 1080/24p. The progressive scan should help with your keying. I'm not too familiar with the camera, but you should see if you can take the image directly into a laptop on set - that should help a lot with the key. Also look at what options you have in post as well - not all keyers are the same.

None of the small format HD(V) cameras have great low light capabilities. Either the Z1 or HVX should work for your needs. One question is whether this is a standalone scene or part of a larger project. If it's the latter, go with the camera that you'll be shooting with the entire time.

What you may want to do is create a 30-60 second montage of images, then put your best stuff in as whole pieces or as parts of a whole. When looking at a director's reel, it is of no value to just see a "montage". That doesn't tell me anything about your directing skills. For some types of dp reels (narratives and docs come to mind), that isn't good enough either. I would suggest putting in your spots in their entirety - they're short at only 30 or 60 seconds each. Depending how many you have, limit these to 3-4 of your best. For your mtv stuff, it's up to you. Maybe have your best one, that showcases your strengths as a director, in it's entirety. Then you could take 30-60 second sections of other ones that add something new to what we've seen. Try not to duplicate what talents you are showcasing. It's similar to writing, where each scene carries the story forward. Each piece in your reel should reveal something new about you. You might want to put together a list of what makes a good director and then a list of what your strengths are and then match those up with your footage. I would also add in whether you were the writer and/or editor on any of these pieces - even as a lower third as the piece is playing. The standard demo reel suggestion of front loading the reel with your best stuff stands. You could have a statement at the end that the viewer can request complete pieces and that you have additional samples available. And don't forget to put your name, position, and contact information at the beginning and the end of the reel. Good luck!

I just went through finding this information myself. The current day rate for a director is ~$1,072 and $4,287 weekly. You can check out the commercial rate card at the DGA site: http://www.dga.org/contracts/agreements_ctr_ratecards3.php3 and here's the agreement: http://www.dga.org/contracts/agreements_ctr_comm.php3 I know these are guild rates, but they establish a pretty decent norm, especially for the budget you're talking about. They do have a low budget commercial rate that wasn't posted: Special provisions apply to low budget commercials whose total costs do not exceed $75,000 for a one-day shoot, or $150,000 for a two-day shoot or $225,000 for a three-day shoot. No single day?s costs may exceed $75,000. Not sure the current IATSE rates for DPs on a commercial, but from 10/1/2005 it was $84.59/hr or $676.75 for 8 hours (within LA County). I'd expect that it may have gone a up a little since then, but it's a good ballpark. On the plus side, I think you may be allowed to abuse your director a little longer than 8 hours before you need to pay OT. :)