Allen Achterberg

Daniel is correct, keep your normal base rate, but at least negotiate a Per-Diem and Travel rate. If they have not mention this to you, you can include it into your rate. I would not however do that. I'd ask for the per diem and travel rate, if they cannot pay that it is up to you whether or not to take the job. Try to get what you feel your time is worth, and negotiate to agreeable terms. The production should (if experienced) have all of this budgeted and tell you what they can offer, work with the offer to get your desired deal. best Allen

I also prefer kimwipes.

Adrian offered some sound advice so follow carefully. One thing I will add is to be Patient. It will all take time, and at 16 you have a lot of time, thats on your side. These forums are a great recourse, as is the CML cinematography Mailing List and also nothing beats on older completely manual still camera as Adrian suggested. Also, Also, practice lighting. My girlfriend knows to disappear when she sees me pull out a few lights because this means I've got to try something and make her the guinea pig. Practice, Practice Practice! This will be more useful to you in the long run, Books are great for reference and learning some basics, Also Check out RonDexter.com and read. He has mountains of info. Before buying a Digital Camera, I'd buy a Light Meter and learn to use it to judge exposure. Another good read is Reflections, which is a compilation of Lighting set ups with Diagrams and written word to help you understand. You will be overwhelmed, but that says to me that you have an extremely deep desire for this. Keep that up. Allen

thanks for posting the link. Some will find the site useful and others wont. Tom, Not everyone is in your situation.

you and me both

the magazine should always be kept up-right, never laid in a way that the film could cone out due to gravity. Thats one posibility. where are you doing prep at? The mags may need servicing.

Depends on what you require. Nothing is set in stone. I've charged travel rates, if i spend a whole day traveling I will expect some sort of compensation. You should be given per diem for each day you are out of town. This is petty cash for meals and other misc. stuff you'll need while away. But you do not HAVE to charge anything, you could do it for free if you wanted to. Talk with them, mention the travel day compensation and the per diem and find out if they have it budgeted in for you. best Allen

The ultimate arm and Lev head mounted on the ML-55 I want it ALL!

Take whatever you can as much as you can. Hell, I've even taken some PA jobs recently just to see what union shows are like. I'm open to doing it more, previously I assumed I was better than anything lower than a 1st AC, I've changed my outlook in order to improve. Besides, when you work as a PA and carry a skill that can be called upon when say a Loader doesn't show up and you save them because you know the skill, they won't forget it. It's all about networking and meeting as many people as possible, so take anything and everything, keeping busy is a good thing even if you demote yourself for a job. Nobody wants to demote themselves, but it can be helpful to those who do not work super steadily doing something better. Also a good way to keep an ego in check. I would ignore that DP's feelings, his way wont work for everyone! for your Resume, only include the credits for the position you are applying for unless it is closely related and is beneficial to the position you apply for. Dont list "Pa/Grip/AC" on a resume, pick on that corresponds to your application. Sometimes that means having multiple resume's ready to go. I've been on jobs where I've held multiple roles, but often I only list the Main position I did, rarely are they equal. If they are equal, pick and choose the title you want, or list each job on a seperate resume the corresponds to that position. Possibly think about just listing the the position you were hired as, and if officially promoted (you dont do the lower position anymore and it is filled by someone else) then list the promoted position. Hope this is helpful Allen

really? any way to find out which shots? I am having a tough time believing that.

Best? I dunno... I do know however that Bill Bennett ASC does some amazing car commercial work. http://www.wfb4.com/ maybe some other members can mention some more commercial guys, I am just not too familiar. Best Allen

I'll do it!!!

way to go man, thats how you do it. I'm sure you are kickin ass, and I'm glad its workin out for you. Sometimes PA jobs are good for that, someone will recognize your experience and ask you to step up. keep us posted on how it goes. Best wishes! Allen

You are not very entertaining Niki. This is not necessarily a TECHNICAL Forum, it's "a Community of Film and Video Professionals" who help in other ways that are not just technical. In such respect, many are discouraging your awful attitude for good reason! That will help you down the road. Especially for a post thats posted in "Students and First Time Filmmakers" which is funny enough you know where you should put your Posts, but at the same time you act above it! You are in no place to be sporting a 'tude such as yours. and if you must, keep it to yourself.

Niki, you should think about what you post, because you can burn some serious bridges on this forum. I want to shoot, but I cannot demand it. I enjoy working on the crew, there are a lot of jobs on set you can take pride in. They are not pointless nor meaningless. You are not all knowing, working a crew position will help you learn how things on a set are run. Every set has moments of Chaos, When that happens relax and reflect on the situation before opening your mouth. You open your mouth too soon you'll regret it later. You've already done some good damage to your name. Remember, this poop doesn't happen overnight. (unless you fortunate enough to have mountains of cash) These people on these forums can seriously help you, and you show nothing but disrespect to them. Show some appreciation and show a desire to earn your spot. You won't last long going like you are. They are all saying the same thing. Think about it. Get serious about this, or get out of the forums.

Now that I think about it, my Optimo 15-40 is missing... :D

Nice!!! I'll have fun with this technique for the next few days... Thanks Jon and Brad!

uhh, thats pretty cool. Affordable? I'd be down. I just thought since Jims been so busy with a new Chopper, 5k camera and scarlet that while he's at it he should broaden his horizons a bit. Dip into the film thing. Shi...I bet he makes one.... yep...I'm halfway serious about this post. Not completely though. Thanks Brian.

If jim was smart, I think it'd be wise to make some affordable 35mm/S16mm Film scanners that support the 4k resolution, also support 4prf/3prf/ and 2/prf then He'd be making cash on both ends video AND film. if I were He, I would do it. do it jim, so I can use my 35mm camera with Solid Functioning PL mounts and get my DI done at home!

"1 gyro will gives you a stabilization in the air in 2 axis, so to cover the 3 axis needed for aerials you need 2 gyros" I recently did some Aerial work and used two Kenyon Gyro's as described above to cover 3 axis. I'll post an example of the setup I had, which is Ron Dexter's design. (pardon the soft photo, I forgot to put autofocus back on for my lady...) http://rondexter.com/ at the bottom there is a lot of info about different Gyro rigs and tons of useful info. The man is a genius! Best Allen

exactly...

I would say that you are correct. However, both 30P and 24p look very different that 60i, I would still shoot 24p with a 1/48 sec shutter, even if you are sure that the project will not go to film it doesnt make much sense to me to create more work for yourself in the off chance that it does go to film, not to mention that 24fps is fewer frames so any affects could yield faster render times. I personally can tell the difference between 24p and 30p, theres a big difference in motion blur. And if shooting to a 24PN mode you could save a lot of P2 space. Best Allen

I shop mostly at filmtools. There are a lot of tapes, paper, cloth, in assorted sizes and colors. There are also specialty tapes. Depends on what your doing. It's a good idea to have as many available to you as possible. Just browse Filmtools.com and look at the tapes, or go in person and buy what you think you will need. In the off chance you are talking about taking tape measures, I use my Fat Maxx 25" mostly. Best tape around.

I am also puzzled. It must mean a drifting focus (which I also sort of doubt)

RED ONE DIGITAL CAMERA vs 1st Assistant Camera I recently worked as a 1st Assistant Camera with the Red One camera. I wanted to share my feedback and describe my observations. I signed onto the project, having no real background knowledge of the camera, and I do not follow the camera's development and future plans. I'm sure some if not all what I say about the camera has already been discussed. The camera itself takes a nice picture. I was impressed with the images that came from the camera. The weight of the package was comfortable for me. Our package came from a private owner, not a company. Our Package consisted of the following: Red One Digital Camera body Red One Base Production Pack Red One LCD Monitor Red Power Pack Red Drive Red Baseplate 15mm Rods Red One Handheld plate Zeis T1.3 Superspeeds Mk III lenses 18mm 25mm 35mm 50mm 65mm 85mm and a 14mm T2.3 in it's own case. Arri FF Arri 6x6 swing away matte box 3 stage Sachtler 7+7 Studio head Mitchel Mount Ronford Sticks, tall and baby legs High and Low Hats Day one with the camera went pretty well, the camera held up fairly well, we were handheld, the red one handgrip (we only had one) was pretty useless since it did not fit our 15mm rods. Don't know why the owner has it this way, didn't make much sense to me. I made it workable for our DP, and made it as light as possible taking off the matte box and follow focus, and ofcourse we needed an ND .9 for the shot so I had to tape the 6x6 ND9 onto the lens (used gaffers tape (cloth not paper) around the rim of the lens so the glass never touches metal!) and we did the shot like that on the 18mm lens. Worked fine. Throughout the next couple of days, I collected a number of things that I don't agree with: The Top handle on the Camera- Decent placement of the handle, however the material used as the hand-grip is no good, Slippery. Had to make sure I wore a glove when grabbing the camera there if my hands were a little sweaty. It's pretty fat, and the material does not condence well while I grip it. The material should be changed, or use gaffers tape around the handle, makes it easier and safer to grab. The Arm for the Red one Monitor- The arm is really short, we had a hard time getting the monitor into a good position for handheld, there are some place toward the front and near the bottom of the camera that you could mount the arm, but it wasn't far enough for our DP. Too Close to his face. I ended up using a monfrotto gator grip to mount the arm and monitor on the rods so our DP could see what he was shooting more comfortably than before. This ofcourse took up the space for the follow focus, which was needed to compensate for actors moving inches against the focus plane(tighter shots). I'll show a picture later, but I side mounted the FF, one end on the 15mm rod, the other end Bongo Tied to the 19mm rod. It worked fine. Skip on the Red One Arm, buy a longer one. The PL Mount (Supposedly the revised mount)-Supposedly we had the Revised PL mount on the camera. I Sure hope not! It was at times extremely sticky, requiring unnecessary force to unlock for lens changes. Sometimes it wasn't so bad, but mostly it was extremely tough to change the lenses, I was very uncomfortable about changing lenses with the mount being so sticky, sometimes asking my 2nd AC to hold the lens while I used two hands (while wearing gloves so the mount finger grips didn't dig into my skin!) to unlock the mount. This ofcourse I believe caused the real problem with our shoot. We noticed that our witness marks on the 18mm lens were not not matching up (matched up correctly during prep) and I believe that fighting with the mount is the cause. On the mount, there are two Allen screws that i believe allow for swapping lens mounts in the field, which is neat but if that's the case a new system must be deseigned even if the mount is not faulty. The mount even being locked down with those screws, can easily be offset with the force needed to do lens changes. Day 4 the problem became worse, I wanted to reset the mount myself, but did not because permission was not granted by my superior. I noticed that the camera on the red.com site do not show the screws... HDMI output- The slot needs to be deeper set into the camera, since there is no real support for the cable, it does not lock in. I had the HDMI cable tied to the camera to avoid stress on the connection but somehow the cable still seemed to slouch at the connection. If the HDMI connection was deeper set into the body and the end of the cable could set securely partially inside the body this might save what i believe to be the first thing to crap out on the camera. The deeper set connection was a good suggestion by our 2nd AC BO. the HDMI system on the camera is a guarenteed failure down the road after likely a few uses. The Red Cradle-It looks cool, but is built like someone just needed a quick solution to mount the red drive and battery. The screws that lock the red drive in are Small, black, and fall out pretty easily on their own. The screws should definately be a different color. I used a wax pencil to color them white so they are visible in the dark, and if dropped easier to find. The rails the guide the drive into a secure locking position are cheap. Jim, Don't be afraid to use some color on the camera's, the camera does not HAVE to be black everywhere becide the LOGO and the 2 red record buttons. Don't be afraid to add some glow in the dark labels to the back of the camera below the buttons. The Red one Charger-We had some issues with the Battery charger not charging. I do not know why. We wanted to use AC power on a shot, and we could hear the fans from the charger. Make it a little quieter. CF Module-We did not use CF cards, and we had nothing to put in the slot on the body, so I had to tape it in order to feel okay about it. Did not want dust getting in there. I don't know if RED has something to put in there, such as a Dummi CF card or a blastic cover to seal the slot, but I would recommend it. I was not a fan of the camera boot time, but we did get some amazing footage, our DP was able to do well with the camera, and the camera did well with him. in time I am sure it will be a bit more user friendly and less faulty. We had some monitor flickers and the body didn't want to boot sometimes after a battery change etc but I'd say for the dollar it's worth the kinks for the time being. In time however, things need to be worked out if you expect this camera to take over like you expect it to. May be forgetting things, but these were the main things that come to mind.