Mark Kenfield

Especially since you're shooting a child (and they're not the most efficient type of performers) I think the BMPC is a great choice, stock costs can run pretty high trying to get a child to emote appropriately. Personally I'd suggest shooting in ProRes rather than raw - it'll make your post workflow much less daunting.

'Lighting Designer' and 'Chief Lighting Technician' are the two terms I've seen used here in Australia to cover similar situations.

It's a choice really, if you have the sun behind them so that they have a nice backlight on them, then you either expose for their faces with a direct incident reading (at the expense of having the sky possibly blow out), or you meter for the direct light and have their faces a little underexposed (which is how they are in reality), or thirdly - you meter both and split the difference. It's just a choice of how bright you want the different parts of the image to be.

I read a while ago about Deakin's work on The Man Who Wasn't There, they shot colour negative instead of B&W stock because the development of B&W stocks hadn't kept pace with colour stocks in terms of grain, speed and tonality; so shooting colour negative gave them more to work with in the DI.

The things we do for art...

Hi guys, I originally put together a reel showing fewer, more complete sequences from my narrative work over the past year (thinking it a more appropriate way to showcase cohesive narrative work). However I think most people are probably too used to conventional montage-style reels, so I cut a more conventional montage too: https://vimeo.com/83572515 I'd appreciate any feedback. Cheers, Mark

Ah! Thank you, appreciate it.

Great stuff! What did you use to ramp the speed up and down so smoothly? Works a treat.

Hmm... all good points. Thanks guys. I'll try some experiments with slightly warmer WB for starters. Cheers

Haha! Glad to hear I'm not the only one!

Hi Alexander, I've shot quite a bit with the F3 to date, and ended up buying one of my own when it became apparent an Alexa was out of my price range for the time being. Image quality is gorgeous (when recorded in SLOG to a 10-bit external recorder) however ergonomically the camera is a pain, and requires extensive customising to turn it into a more functional camera for running around. If you do opt for the Sony, the first thing I'd recommend you get (after an external recorder) is the Element Technica body armour kit and shoulderpad unit (if they have any left - they've been running a 70% off firesale on their remaining stock) - it transforms the camera into a vastly simpler and more functional unit. And whilst you do have proper XLR ports on the F3, they don't hold their own against a dedicated audio recording unit - so unless you REALLY need the 1080p60 capability of the Odyssey 7Q, for a one-man-band operation I'd strongly recommend the Sound Devices PIX240i recorder instead - it'll allow you to capture beautiful audio that will already be synced to your 10-bit master files without any extra hassles; a life-saver in tough solo-shooter/editor type situations. Plus the PIX240i has great monitoring tools like false colour, peaking, zebras and 1:1 pixel zoom. The camera's built-in NDs are also great, and can save a lot of time mucking around with filters in your mattebox. For documentary work, a C300 really is a more suitable camera I think - it's more ready to go out of the box, and doesn't require the extensive rigging the F3 does and it has a nice, simple and fairly robust codec in it's internal 50mbps 4:2:2 recording. However 10-bit SLOG from the F3 really is in another category image-quality wise (it's been described as a baby-Alexa, and I think that's a fair call) so it's a question of what matters more to you. Hope that helps.

Hi Guys, I'm looking to expand my filtration options so I have a little more to play with image-wise. As much as I like the cool, contrasty look I get from my Zeiss CP.2s I'd like to try and wrangle some different looks out of them so I was thinking of shooting with some Warm Black Promist filters (1/8 and 1/4). Is anyone familiar with the Warm BPMs? I know and love my regular BPMs, so I'm familiar with the diffusion characteristics of them, but I'd love to get people's opinions on what the warming element does to them. I'm also considering mixing them with low-cons to pull some of the punchiness out of the Zeisses. Other options are tobacco and antique suede, and I'd love to hear people's thoughts on them as well. Cheers, Mark

I can think of two options I'd try. Firstly, I suggest bringing the dedo into the room, above the camera's position tucked into that corner, and flag it on as the door opens - by keeping it up high, you should be able to keep the hot spot off your actor and the door. I'd then add a softer source out in the hallway to light the actor to a reasonable exposure as he comes in, as well as to motivate the 'spill' that the dedo provides. If that doesn't work, I'd say scrap the doorway, and move the camera forward a little, flag your dedo on for the door's opening, and cheat the door's action with sound design. It isn't quite the shot you envisioned, but you'd still get most of what you wanted lighting and blocking-wise. Hope that helps

Honestly, I don't think it matters how tight your budget is - you can rent a little highly-portable gennie (around 3.5kw) for $60-odd a day. That's enough to run two 1.2k HMIs or one HMI and some Kinos/LED/small tungsten - enough to scrape by on a night exterior if you plan your lighting well. It's $60. The time, effort and energy that goes into planning and organising every other element of your shoot deserves that tiny investment to allow those other elements to actually be seen. It's $60. If production isn't willing to spend that tiny amount, then the production isn't ready to be IN production. Tell them that. I've had this argument with producers many times before, and you can always swing it - you just have to be persistent. Whatever argument they put up, just keep hammering on - "It's $60."

Hi guys, I've been going through a grade for a project in Resolve 10 (working from an XML exported from FCPX), and for some reason where I have multiple instances of the same clip (i.e. close-up up of one actor that intercuts with a second actor's close-ups) corrections I make to one instance of the clip aren't carrying over to later instances of that same clip (which is what's always happened for me in the past). Is there some kind of tick-box that I haven't selected that's causing the clips to not talk with one another? It would save me a great deal of time not having to apply the same look to each and every instance of the same clip. Any help would be much appreciated. Cheers, Mark

Thanks fellas, You're right, it does make a lot more sense to just opt for regular hardware store components and conventional rags - all of the manufacturer's options end up costing around $700-$800 (and that's often just for the frame components) which is ridiculous for four pieces of aluminium tubing. I'll just build a couple of them myself. Are there any good, quick rag-mounting solutions you'd recommend? Tying them down with strings always seems to take an inordinate amount of time. Cheers, Mark

Hey guys, Today I stumbled across the Lastolite "Skylite Rapid" system in a stills photography store. And it looks like a brilliant system, far and away the quickest overhead butterfly system I've ever seen - it packs up and down super fast, and the frame is very rigid and secure, and it uses customised Avenger D200 grip heads to hold the frame (which makes it rather less fuss to manoeuvre than some systems I've seen. The 'big' lastolite is only a 2m x 2m frame (6.6' x 6.6'), but I think that's the size I want for my kit anyway as it's easier to get indoors (i've been tossing up between 6'x6' and 8'x8' until now). So on the whole, it looks like a great system. The only downside is that you're kinda locked in to the Lastolite fabrics (unless you customised some regular silks/grids to mount to it). So it seems like a good choice, I'm just wondering if anyone has encountered the Lastolite 'rapid' systems before? What people have thought of them? And whether anyone has any suggestions on which route to take? Cheers, Mark

Yeah, be mentally prepared for a full strip down of most of your equipment after the fact. I had to completely dismantle my tripod and pull the outer body off my camera last time I shot on the beach, that was a day's unpaid labour I'd rather not have to do again!

Hi Guys, Looking to add a proper overhead butterfly frame to my kit (I'm sick of jury-rigging bedsheets in awkward places), and I'm tossing up between the Matthews Quick Corner frames and the Avenger Foldaway frames. I haven't seen either in the flesh, and no one in my state stocks them, so it's going to be one of those delightful sight-unseen purchases - so I'd really appreciate any feedback anyone has. I'm looking at getting either a 6' or 8' for starters. I'd prefer 8', but I suspect 6' would be more versatile so far as being able to bring it indoors, mount it with single stand etc. Any advice would be much appreciated. Cheers, Mark

I've done this pretty successfully with the camera tripod-mounted, and the tripod secured down with straps, and 5 or 6 22lbs shotbags. You just want to make sure you pick as smooth a section of road as possible.

Oh, and another option that had completely slipped my mind - the new Mole LED fresnels. They have a 400w unit that's almost half the price of the Litepanels! And I think Mitch Gross reported that their colour accuracy is meant to be pretty damn good. That's a very appealing option.

Actually, the more I think about the price, the more I think a Plasma light would make more sense. Same sort of price, same sort of output, but you get full spectrum light a true single source light and a much lighter fixture (though without a 12" fresnel lens - which can do pretty things to), oh, and only 270w draw!

Hi guys, Has anyone had a chance to look at or use Litepanels' new, 12" LED fresnel units? They're called the Sola 12 (5600k) and Inca 12 (3200k). http://litepanels.com/sola12.php Power draw is 346w, which is claimed to be equivalent to a 2K tungsten fresnel. They're big bastards (15kg) with commensurate prices, but if the light quality is good - that's a hell of a lot of light (with beam control) for just a 346w draw.

Here in Australia it's virtually complete, I think the only film proection I've across in the past 18 months has been in rep theatres.

Been enjoying it for a while now! Great site.