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Stephen Press

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Everything posted by Stephen Press

  1. Well I don't get to formulate workflow and this stupid roundabout process is just adding to the pressure in the filed.
  2. From Panasonic. HI Stephen, I have received your enquiry about formatting the P2 cards. Yes, it is a bit of a process, but some steps can be eliminated from your process. First of all you do not need to use the Exit button to back your way out of the menus. Simply press the menu button to turn off all Menus. Secondly once format is complete and you press OK, you can immediately hit record and the camera will exit the Menus and the thumbnails and start recording. Having said this, there is a good reason they do not make formatting too easy, as it would be fatal to do it by mistake. Secondly most workflows involve formatting the cards once they have been ingested, rather than in the field under pressure.
  3. I don’t have a laptop in the kit provided. The cards are mini-P2. There are only 4 cards with each kit. Shooting news means I can constantly be rotating cards. I drop them into the control room to be ingested and pick up ingested ones. Control room opps don’t like formatting, accidents happen that way. Yesterday I had 11 card swaps. Thats not unusual. I feel like I spend more time in the camera menu than I do shooting. All I want is a fast way to format all the cards in the camera. It feels like that is not too much to ask of a “news” camera.
  4. You would think. Believe it or not the steps above are the "quick" way we were shown, using a customized user menu to get to the clip menu. Its a shame because I have to say I'm liking the picture the camera puts out. It does have a tendency to go green when faced with a mixed light color balance, so I dial it in in those conditions. Also it goes yellow highlights in high contrast. But I can work around that. It's just little things like the bonkers menu system that make the camera a bit of a chore for daily turn around.
  5. I'm freelancing in a newsroom so when they dry hire me I'm using their kit and the cards come how they were left. :blink: Just happy to occasionally get charged batteries, formatted cards would be far too much to ask. I plan ahead as much as I can and format all the cards when I take over, but news is a mad environment and having a full card handed to you in the middle of a shoot is not that uncommon. Having to stop everything to format cards is BS. These are the steps I go though now. Thumbnail Menu down to Clip across to Sub menu Down 3 times to Format Select across to sub menu Down to Slot# Select Up 1 to Yes select Select OK (FFS Panasonic ) Up 1 to Exit Menu to exit menus Thumbnail to exit thumbnails Realize I just missed the shot. Seriously if there is a better way out in the field I would love to know.
  6. Using a Panasonic AJ-PX5000G and the process to format media is driving me nuts. 18 button presses. I mean for goodness sake its mental. Not at all acceptable for an ENG camera in the field to take that long. So what I want to know is there a ninja fast way to format the cards?
  7. Ok. I'm assuming you mean a smaller camera with the auto focus option. There are a lot of different ways but one simple one is: First turn off steady shot function. Put on tripod get close to foreground object, frame it to one side and line up end shot of distant object. Turn off auto focus. Now pan camera so the near object is full frame. Hold down spot focus button and focus on near object. Re-frame on end shot. Roll rec. Push spot focus and let it focus on distant object.
  8. ...and just while I'm at it New Zealand is another country and not part of bumf*** USA which is why I originally said
  9. From Wikipedia And the first thing under Videographer I google is: Think how much more work you may have had if you hadn't sold yourself short? ;)
  10. ...And yet you have Director of Photography on your profile here for this forum.
  11. If you have the money then then your best idea is to hire someone with the skills and equipment, shoot a pilot with them and that way you can see what works without paying for a bunch of kit that might not do what you want.
  12. Not sure what happened with the camera test link above. It's wrong so please ignore it.
  13. Welcome... and I don't want to start on the wrong foot but... :rolleyes: So you want 6 cameras and a way to mount them all? I'm sorry but have you actually watched Top Gear? Do you see all the names under the Camera credit? They are not there to eat donuts. Yes they use fixed cameras but not for much and even then there is a specialist taking care of them because there is no one way to mount a camera. Even once its on there are also lighting and reflections off windows considerations just getting started. You can use Limpet mounts, a cini-saddle with straps and bungee cords or even just gaffer tape... all manner of stuff Here is a camera test I did with a EX1 on a shelf mounted to my car with angle brackets and sand bags to deaden the movement. Its speed up because that's how the final shot was supposed to look like and I used a shelf because I got 3 hours notice and the rental company had closed. I don't want to diss your dream and hey try fixing a camera for fun as long as you keep safety for you and the public in mind but if you are really serious about having a product worth selling you need more than a bunch of low quality fixed cameras and a lot of yak lecturing about driving/riding. Have fun be safe but don't kid yourself you will sell anything. :)
  14. Interesting idea. I really don't know. Someone told me apple starch would do it but it was very poor and sticky compared to the potato. I guess its one of those things that when it works you don't mess with it.
  15. Get a clean potato cut it and rub gently on the outside lens. It drys clear and the starch in the potato juice stops the salt water from beading on the lens. This really works well and is cheap as chips :)
  16. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a decent modern mock up of underwater. If cost is that much of an issue what about in a swimming pool? I did a short film shoot at public pool that had a viewing panel under the water level so we could all stay dry as we shot… no underwater equipment needed, just some good RT’s to talk to the First AD and he could yell instructions to the actors. It was night when the pool was closed so we basically paid for a security guy and that was all. A couple of HMI’s to light and it looked fantastic. Our art dep got a local school underwater polo team to help dress the bit of the pool we were using with fake seaweed and they did it as work experience… i.e. for free. The sound op used a lapel mic in a balloon with a weight and it was so good we used a lot of it in the film.
  17. Seriously if you put Videographer on your card you are telling most of your potential clients that you do weddings and kids events to DVD and sod all else. I know some very good Videographer's that I would recommend for any wedding but I wouldn't hire them for anything else. Just like I wouldn't book a camera operator for a field shoot. Names matter. Labels sell. I haven't needed a reel for years because people know who and what I am: Stephen "Cameragod" Press :lol:
  18. What you should be aware of is that different names can have different meanings world wide. When you call yourself something you may be defining or limiting yourself in the eyes of a client. To me a Videographer does weddings or school non broadcast type productions. A camera operator is a studio based position. A Photog does News. A Shooter does news and or more reality based stuff. A DOP can light, does higher end productions and drama. A Cinematographer does features and high end ad's. As for a cameraman, well they do a bit of everything. While you shouldn't get hung up on a label make sure you understand what others think you are calling yourself.
  19. So if you take the workshop and still decide you want to do this have a look at the Actioncam RED edition. Its a sweet rig made to fly the Red. Review ActionCam REDedition
  20. So this year I decided to enter the New Zealand 48 Hour film comp. We drew musical and after much panic from our team of 6 I think we did ok. My operating suffered because I was directing and my camera crew was… well me. But I was happy with the thing as a whole. Team: A Trick With A Knife Elements: Character- Alex Puddle, an exaggerator : Line- "It doesn't fit" : Prop- a rock 2009: "Call Me Al" (musical) City Runner Up #1 WINNER: Best Score NOMINATED: Best Actress-Emma Kinane, Best Cinematography-Stephen Press
  21. You might want to overcrank the POV camera slightly just to at to ?Franks? disorientation.
  22. Don?t forget to ?Share and enjoy.? "Share and Enjoy" is, of course, the company motto of the hugely successful Sirius Cybernetics Corporation Complaints division, which now covers the major land masses of three medium sized planets and is the only part of the Corporation to have shown a consistent profit in recent years. The motto stands - or rather stood - in three mile high illuminated letters near the Complaints Department spaceport on Eadrax - "Share and Enjoy". Unfortunately its weight was such that shortly after it was erected, the ground beneath the letters caved in and they dropped for nearly half their length through the underground offices of many talented young complaints executives - now deceased. The protruding upper halves of the letters now appear, in the local language, to read "Go stick your head in a pig", and are no longer illuminated, except at times of special celebration. At these times of special celebration a choir of over two million robots sing the company song "Share and Enjoy". Unfortunately - again - another of the computing errors for which the company is justly famous means that the robot's voices are exactly a flattened fifth out of tune and the result sounds something like this, only slightly worse.
  23. Tell them to forget about the toys. Formats are not their problem. No one is going to hire them for their knowledge of formats. Can they direct? Can they communicate and motivate a team of people who have forgotten more about cameras than they will ever learn to get the best product possible? I?m the DOP. I don?t need to be second guessed endlessly about formats. I need to know how you want it to look. I need to know what the story we are telling is. I need to be sent to the right location and given enough time to get what pictures we need. I need to know what happens next in time to rig/light it. No Surprises! (?Didn?t I mention the underwater shot? Is that a problem??) I need you to handle the talent so I can concentrate on the pictures and telling subtext stories with them. I?m going to need food at some point. If there is a problem, trust me I will let you know. If I tell you something is not going to work, it?s not going to work! I?ll help you find another solution but don?t waste my time arguing with me I?ve done this before. None of that is hard so why is it that every wantabe Peter Jackson that stumbles off a course can lecture me about my camera but is incapable of actually doing their job. Directing is all about people skills, not camera skills!!! I fell better now. p.s. handycams do suck but until you can afford to hire a real crew with real equipment they will give you a chance practice you?re directing/people skills.
  24. How is this for extreme camera contitions then?
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