Matt Read

Chris, You're images look flat. That's because they aren't using the camera's full latitude. All images, no matter what time of day they are supposed to take place at, should have tones ranging from completely unexposed to completely overexposed. When working with video it is especially important to always have something in frame that is slightly overexposed. This usually ends up being the white of an actor's eye in a close-up or a highlight or reflection somewhere on the set. When you don't use the full latitude of your recording medium, be it film or video, you end up with something that looks underexposed, or like a day-for-night shot. The key to making something look like night is the fill light, or lack thereof. Always have a key light and properly expose for it. When shooting a night scene, it's usually, but not always best to have the key coming from behind your actors, somewhere between right behind them and directly to the side of them. This way the least amount of their body is lit. Then add your fill light. As for the set, it looks like you have some pretty nice stuff going on, but again it's too flat. There isn't enough contrast. Get rid of most of your fill light and leave (or maybe boost) your accent lights. Take a look at some movies with night scenes and see what other DPs do. "The Assassination of Jesse James," "Batman Begins," "Eyes Wide Shut" and "After Hours" come to mind as good examples. Hope this was helpful.

I noticed some serious aberrations around the edges of the frame. Were you shooting with the HV20's stock lens or were you using a 35mm lens adapter?

If you are set on only using oil lamps to light, I would recommend not shooting film and instead using the Sony EX-1. I worked on a short film recently where we lit almost entirely with oil lamps. The EX-1 has excellent low light capabilities. We never had to reinforce the oil lamps. Sometimes we added a bit of fill with a china ball. Our oil lamps used kerosene. If you want to work with film though, you will probably need to reinforce your oil lamps. China balls with photoflood lamps inside are great. If actors will be walking around and carrying the oil lamps, a china ball on a stick provides great reinforcement. You could also try to rig a bulb inside the oil lamp. Obviously this means you could not burn or even have oil in the lamp. They did this in the birth scene in "Children of Men" and the train robbery in "The Assassination of Jesse James." Putting a bulb in the lamp would mean you'd either have a cord coming from the lamp that you would have to hide or attach the bulb to a battery. It might be simpler to find a modern battery operated camping lantern and dress it to look like it's from the 1940s. If the lamp is wall mounted or will be stationary, I'd definitely recommend putting a bulb in it and forgoing the oil all together.

I think it works pretty well as is. It has a nice tight runtime too. It definitely needs audio though. Once you find a song you like, perhaps re-cut the reel so that is flows with the music. I like how you bookended the whole thing with the two jib shots of the bed. Nice touch.

It's not bad. Certainly not worthy of flunking. However, it's all style and no substance. It's not "About" anything and it comes off being fairly pretentious. Perhaps your teachers felt that as well, especially since you chose not to involve them in your creative process. You have to understand that when you go to a film school, or any school for that matter, you're paying to get comments, critiques and advice from your teachers and not just on the final product, but at all steps of your process. And you have to put up with some bullshit, such as time limitations. Not following a teacher's instructions and not being open to their comments and critiques can make them feel put off and then they are less likely to cut you some slack when you do something ambitious or above and beyond.

I'd break up the snowboarding and skateboarding footage. While it's very good looking, having the first half of your reel be solid boarding makes it seem like you're just some dude who bought a camera and went out and filmed his friends. I'd move the color skateboarding footage later in the reel to break it up. Also, I don't much care for the shot of the two guys in the dorm room (?). It looks flat and it's boring when compared to the rest of your work. I thought the inclusion of some dialogue was a nice touch for the most part. I have two suggestions with regards to that. First, I'd start it sooner. It comes out of the blue in the second half. It'd feel more unified if you have at least one snippet of dialogue in the first half, preferably as close to the beginning as possible. Second, I didn't like dialogue with the guy and girl on the bike though. While the words themselves are interesting, their performances are forced. ADR that with better performances or get rid of it. These suggestions are fairly nit-picky. Overall, very nice work.

You will need Mac OS X version 10.4.10 or higher, FCP version 5.1.4 or higher and a free program called XDCAM Transfer (which can be downloaded here) to import and edit XDCAM footage. However, XDCAM EX footage requires that you use FCP version 6.0.2 or higher (included in Studio 2) as well.

It depends on what resolution the footage was shot on and what resolution it will be watched on. To figure it out, divide the resolution of the raw footage by the resolution of the format you will be finishing to. For example, if the raw footage is HD 1080p/i and you are finishing to SD DVD (480 lines of resolution) then you can scale the image 2.25 times or 225% without having a noticeable difference. HD 720p/i to SD DVD would be 1.5 times or 150%.

Your stuff looks great. Nice work. The only thing I would change is to intermix footage from your different projects. I personally like that better than grouping everything from one project together. I would also try to shorten your reel. Just pick your best stuff. It's more concise and it looks like you only make awesome shots that way. I would shy away from including audio. You are trying to showcase your talents as a cinematographer. Adding dialog would only distract from the impact of the visuals. I would suggest not including any parts of scenes. That would again change the focus from your talents to the story. If you really want to have full scenes from your projects on your website, then make them separate videos.

Is this supposed to be a joke? If it is, it's not at all funny. This is a serious forum for displaying one's work and getting critical responses to it. It is not a place to show off some video that a high schooler could have made in an afternoon. Your video is juvenile. You've wasted people's time by posting it here. You've publicly made a fool of yourself. And why is there an HD version, when you shot it on SD miniDV?

It felt a bit long. Try to cut it down to a minute-thirty or even a minute. Only keep what you feel is really exceptional. You had some nice stuff in there, but also some stuff that was fairly run-of-the-mill.

Oh, cool. Thanks a lot, David. Matt

If you can, paint the walls a different color. That's going to be your best bet and make your life a lot easier. If you can't paint them, put some colored poster board on the walls with staples or sticky tack. If you're dead-set on having a white room, try to avoid aiming any lights directly at the walls. Bounce them off the ceiling to create ambiance. Or aim a light almost parallel to the wall, that way the intensity of the light on the wall near the light and far from the light will be significantly different. You might consider using a china ball to light your actors. Hold it just off frame. That should light the actors well, but no spill too much and too intense light on the walls. As for seeing both inside and outside of the room at the same time during the day, put some ND gel on the outside of the window. How much depends on how bright it is inside and outside. Just get some ND3 and you can double or triple it up as needed. Make sure you get enough to cover the window several times. For night, you'll probably have to light the outside a bit, unless there is a porch light or street light nearby. If you don't really need to see what's happening outside, you could close the window's curtains or blinds or just let it blow out, while at night you could let it be dark. Best of luck. Matt Read

Could someone explain what a poor man's process is? I've never heard of that before. Thanks Matt Read

I'm currently working on a bachelor's degree in film at Montana State University. I'm wondering if I need to go to grad school once I've graduated. I've heard a lot of different opinions about grad school from fellow students and professors. I curious to know what people here think of grad school. Did you go? If so, why? If not, why and what did you do instead? Would it be more and/or equally beneficial to take some courses at the Maine Workshop? If I wanted to become something other than a cinematographer (i.e. director, producer), would that affect your opinion of whether I should go to grad school or not? Thanks a lot. Matt Read

How would you set exposure on a film camera for a sunset?

That's actually not true. Because 16 has a smaller negative, it actually has a larger depth of field than 35.

Check out Montana State University's Media and Theatre Arts Department (http://mta.montana.edu/) in Bozeman, Montana. I am currently a sophomore in the Motion Picture/Video/Theatre program. It's a very good program. All the professors have professional experience and are very knowledgeable. I am an out-of-state student and pay about $14,000 a year for school. We have a very good selection of equipment, including 16mm and Super-16mm cameras, dollies, a jib and over a dozen Final Cut Pro editing stations. Our building also has a medium-sized studio and a sound theatre (for sound mixing and recording), and is shared with Montana PBS, which is a great resource to have. You won't find that kind of stuff in equivalently priced film schools. I know it's in Montana, but don't let that stop you from looking into it. It's a very good school.

Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana has both an excellent photography program and an excellent film program. I know many people who are studying both film and photography. Plus, since it's a state school, it's not very expensive. I'm currently a sophomore in the film program. Both programs are really nice and conveniently in the same building. The professors are great. The school also has a great selection of film equipment. http://mta.montana.edu/ is the website for both programs. Hope this was helpful.

I'm looking into studying abroad in New Zealand next spring and am wondering if anyone has any information on film and/or television schools there. I currently study film production in the US. I am mainly interested in schools on the North Island, especially in the Auckland area, although I would be interested to hear about schools in other places on the North Island. Comments from current students, graduates or professors would be especially helpful. I am interested in shooting a documentary required for my current school while in NZ, so a school with at least a documentary course, if not specific focus on docs would be great.

I am wondering if there are ways of making 16mm film look more like 35mm. Obviously 16mm won't be able to match the resolution of 35mm. The depth of field in 16mm is larger than 35mm, so shooting wide open and using longer lenses would help shorten that up. Is there anything else that could be done? Is there a specific film stock that looks more like 35mm than others? Is there something that can be done during processing? Would regular 16mm or Super-16mm be better?

Filmlites (www.filmlitesmt.com) in Bozeman is the only equipment rental place in all of Montana. They've got a good selection of lighting and grip equipment, plus some transportation and camera support. If you're looking for crew, I'd post some fliers in Montana State's Visual Communications Building or send an email to the Media and Theatre Arts Undergraduate Student Coordinator and ask her to email students with details of your production. The people there are really talented and very motivated.