Gregor Grieshaber

Hello there, does anyone have an idea how they achieved the lens flares in this video? I doubt that they carried anamorphic lenses and I doubt that they had Vantage Blue Vision Filters up there. Any thoughts?

I think most cars have an option to switch the passenger airbag off. This is for baby seats that you can place reverse in the passenger seat. Just remember to switch it back on after the shot. Maybe with a handwritten tape sticker?

Hi Solomon, I can recommend you the Teradek Bolt as a wireless video. You can use it with more than one reciever. That means you can put one on your belt or wherever and the other one goes to video village. Another advantage is that it has no delay. Maybe it is a good thing for this shot. A cheaper alternative would be the Paralinx Arrow. It has the same zero delay and multicast features but it has only HDMI connectors. That means you need a SDI to HDMI converter for the transmitter. As a monitor a TV Logic VFM 056 W would be nice. You can use it with a Battery Bracket and small camcorder batteries. Make sure contrast is at 100% and backlight at 50 then you have a very good focus reference. It also has a HDMI in if you go with the Arrow. Just make sure you have a good sunshade. It has not enough punch for bright daylight. As far as I know there should be a way to mount a Noga Arm to a Preston. But be aware that your hand may not be used to hold something that heavy for such a long time. Your hands could get tired or sore pretty quick. Maybe there is still time to train a bit? But to be honest with that lens and t-stop I wouldn´t look to much on the monitor unless the action is coming really close. You may get better results by looking live at the action and judging distance maybe in conjunction with the Cinetape. Did you guys consider to bring in a second steadicam operator as a backup? I don´t know how many 30min takes a well trained steadicam operator can do in a row. I wish you lots of fun and a successful shoot Gregor

This might be quite a good advice. When I was a 2nd AC I started out working in TV Movies but always wanted to work in feature films. So I was always very concentrated and serious, thinking about how to improve on my job and stuff like that. It worked and I got the chance to work on feature films. I even got called in as B Camera 2nd AC on a big show. I was very excited because that was where I wanted to go. Then I thought I have to work as good as never before and maybe I even did. But I was so focused and determined on the work that I somehow lost the connection to the 1st AC. I felt that he somehow had a problem with me and I thought it was the quality of my work. So I tried to get even better. I got angry about myself when I did a small mistake wich made it even worse. But he didn´t have a problem with the quality of my work I was simply to focused and worked to hard :) that made me somehow inhibited. There was no easyness in my work. It was almost as if my personality was switched of. My valuable lesson was that what you radiate during work is a big part in doing a good job. Don´t be over ambitious. You will just look like an idiot. If someone tells you this take it as an advice. Maybe you sometimes go over the top. Maybe you are to strained during work. Who knows. I think to make a great job it is very important to have a certain easyness.

does anyone have experience with one of these systems? it is invisible laser distance meters that you can aim with a telescopic sight. i thought it might be usefull for some upcoming boat to boat stuff. i wonder if it works well or if it is just a big hassle. thanks for your answers, greg

i can highly recomand this product. it is much more comfortable than a ronford baker plate. you can mount it on this one (without the mitchell base of course).

hi anthony, you can use it for a canatrans. you just need this one cabel to power it up and feed it with a video signal. greg

hello john, i can highly recommand the schultz smartplate. ronford baker builds a similar system but the release knob of the schultz is more accessible and the handling is much better. i would not go for a dovetail, it can be quite annoying if you have a heavy 35mm camera with a large zoom and you have to fumble it 20 times a day on and off the dovetail. i hope that helps greg

the ivs will not brake. i was told once that if you have to many accessories switched on at the same time, when you power the camera, the initial high power consumption will lead on the long run to a broken on/off switch. this is build of something with carbon and you have with every power up an electric spark that damages the carbon. i was told that it will lead to a switch that´s always on no matter what position. and i had an sr3 once that you couldn´t switch off it just stayed on. so just make sure that not everything is switched on at the same time. if you have ivs, onboard monitor, modulus, heated eyecup and a wireless ff on when you switch the camera on it´s maybe to much for the sr3.

a lot of nice tips around here. not much more to say. but always check your escape route and the place to go after slating. make sure you are not blocking a light and that you are not in a reflection of glass or something else. also make sure you don´t place in the eyeline of an actor and don´t watch the action, you could catch glimpses. and watch the boom operator during rehersals. maybe he has to go just where you wanted to hide... for very difficult long lens stuff i used to have a casio mini monitor i held with my lower hand behind the slate. you will always be perfectly in frame with that. i would also recommand for long lens stuff to slate over a mark from the 1st ac so its easier for him to put the slate in focus. just take the one that is closest or a little further from your estimated slat position. enjoy :D

hey marque, thanks for your informative statement. do you think a SB-2(A) timecode generator is the right choice for me? and what are the advantages in comparison of the GR-1 master clock? interesting... i still think about if it´s worth the extra money for the production manager. -------------------- gregor grieshaber 2nd assistant camera berlin, germany

you are right. an assistant editor missinformed me, he said the generated timecode is recorded on one of the available audio tracks. but i talked to a sound guy before who said its recorded somwhere else. i know, i just thought it could be a good investment to make some extra money. i guess it´s paid after two years. and i just don´t like the fact that it is not common in germany to use one. and i will change that, at least for the productions i´m working on... -------------------- gregor grieshaber 2nd assistant camera berlin, germany

let´s say a sound mixer has four tracks for record. and he has two booms and two ambient microphones. that means he uses all of his four tracks and there is none left to record the timecode from the timecode generator. do i get this right? this is my only concern because i would bring all this in the production. so i´m the promoter of this system and i don´t want to cause any trouble or disadvantages with that. the generator and jam thing sounds definately more practical. i think i should go for that, but i don´t want to limit the sound guy in any way. when i was for hollydays in bulgaria i walked by a local feature set with an old old crane with an old 535 on it. and they had a tc-3. so i thought why do they have this and we don´t? and than i thought this could be a nice way to make some extra money and also bring this over to germany, where budgets are much higher as in bulgaria. so i think i just go to production and say: look at this cool thing i have. it´s so much better the assistant editor will love it and everybody will be happy. and it costs you just that little for rent. and he will say: oh i never had this before. but it sounds great. of course i pay your charge for this damn timcode thing. and i say: thank you or do you guys think this is a bad idea? -------------------- gregor grieshaber 2nd assistant camera berlin, germany

doesn´t that mean the sound mixer has one track less to record on? what if he needs this track? and i need a timecode generator for that right? i wanted to avoid causing any trouble or change something in the common production workflow... thats why my idea was to go wireless with the original record timecode. in germany nobody is used to work with timecode, it will be hard enough anyway to explain the production manager, why he should rent this thing from me. but i´m still confident. i guess i will ask some german sound guys about their opinion. i´m sure i´ll meet some at the berlinale. thanks for your help -------------------- gregor grieshaber 2nd assistant camera berlin, germany

hi marque, so how do you work if you don´t transmit it? i can´t imagine pulling a cable through the set. do you have kind of a timecode generator and sync it sveral times during the day? and do you know another solution beside the comtek? i think its to pricey for this application, it will be hard enough anyway to get money for it as timecode slates are very uncommon in germany. and i don´t think there are delays with the comteck it should be as fast as with a cable, electronic radiation is as fast as electrons in a cable... and matt what receivers do you use? you say they are very power consuming, do you switch them off between shots, and do you have an indication led or something that warns you if they get weak? thanks for the answers guys... -------------------- gregor grieshaber 2nd assistant camera berlin, germany

heres a trick for you to rewind manually, if you don´t know it already... take a ballpen in your tent and stick it in the feed side bobby. you can use the pen as a crank handle. if you use an arricam mag i would recommand to just let the loop run carefully through your thumb and index finger, as if you would hold a slide... you will rewind the mag in a couple of seconds no matter how many meters you have shot. it works also with an sr mag. just place it upright and open both sides, but it is important to open the clip from the takeup core get the end of the film out of the bobby. so it can turn freely. than you can crank with the pen in the takeup bobby with your left hand and place one finger from your right hand on the free running film from the takeup core... i hope this helps and can be understood... gregor -------------------- gregor grieshaber 2nd assistant camera berlin, germany

hi there, i consider buying a denecke tc-3. unfortunately the tc-3 is not able by itself to receive "wireless" timecode. so my question is, what wireless system do you normally use to transmit and receive timecode from the sound guys? and are the systems you are working with reliable? i know ambient slates have a built in receiver but i don´t like the handling and the design. thanks in advance greg -------------------- gregor grieshaber 2nd assistant camera berlin, germany

hi gareth, we mostly use uhf transmitters in germany (pal not ntsc). that means you can buy for example a casio mini monitor and get a picture with it. i also found this http://www.blueeye.eu/blueeye_5.6.html never saw it in the field but it looks pretty nice. they say you can only preset two channels. i don´t know what that means, but it might be a problem if you shoot with three or more cameras. if you have a kind of normal budget im sure the rental house will organize one of those for you to check out if you like it or not. do you already have a first ac? maybe i can send him my cv and apply as a 2nd... i hope you shoot on film have a nice time. hamburg is great, its my second favourite city in germany greg -------------------- gregor grieshaber 2nd assistant camera berlin, germany

that would be around 34 minutes, if you didn´t know already. but as far as i know the houses in germany charge in meters. these are the four labs in berlin: geyer-werke +49 3068010 schwarz film +49 3088708500 media city lab +49 306289280 kopierwerk babelsberg +49 3317212402 and three postproduction houses: das werk +49 3028527950 vcc +49 302020960 condor +49 3020451980 they are all able to scan your negative or whatever, just give them a call. you can always try to negotiate. i never dealt with them in that way but i´m pretty sure not everyone is paying the list price. but there is also a lot of filming going on here right now so i´m not sure if they will go down with the price... good luck -------------------- gregor grieshaber 2nd assistant camera berlin, germany

that would be very poor in my opinion, as we mentioned above if you shoot i.e. with an ansi arricam and a din 435 the framings would have different sizes... and i doubt that at different camera models the framing is always at exactly the same point of the negative. if i shoot with several cameras i name the rolls with the camera letter. and the frameleader will always be the first roll for each camera. i.e. #a1 is the frameleader of camera a, #b1 the frameleader of camera b and the first rolls we shoot on the shoot are #a2 and #b2. with this system nobody can loose the frameleader even not in 10 years. and it should be pretty clear wich one belongs to wich camera. but maybe you are right. on the next job i will call the guy in the telecine and aks how he handles it. greg -------------------- gregor grieshaber 2nd assistant camera berlin, germany

thanks for your reply jon, this seems to be it. never heard about that before but i would try now to get an ansi groundglass for additional 435s or 235s when we shoot with an arricam. of course you have to shoot a proper frameleader for each camera. i made one in illustrator with two siemensstars to adjust focus if you see the daylies projected. if someone is interested let me know... greg -------------------- gregor grieshaber 2nd assistant camera berlin, germany

hi guys, could someone please be so kind and explain to me the difference between ansi and din groundglasses in s35. the ansi seems to have a larger width but can you always go for ansi? thanks for the replies -------------------- gregor grieshaber 2nd assistant camera berlin, germany

don´t worry about the hard feeling, i once heard it´s because they are built without cellulose. it is the cellulose in paper tissues etc. that is too hard for the lens and can cause scratches or take something of from the coating. makes sense too me. here in germany i saw three types of kim wipes in different rental houses. green, red and grey boxes. i would never take the green ones they are very linty. its been a long time i used the red ones but i remember them as good. it´s the grey ones i would go for. they have the "hardest" feeling, what i explain with the missing cellulose. they don´t loose fibres and perform great. of course i always use them wet. greg

in this case i always try to get a small safe corner on the location and take a changing tent and all the stuff i need with me. in your case it would have safed you a lot of time. in germany we don´t have darkrooms in our trucks anyway. so i´m used to work with a tent. i recently had a commercial shoot on location with two lts with 400 mags. they said the second lt is just for one shot. so there was only the 1st ac and me. we ended up shooting 18 houres with two cameras. if i had to run down all the time for reloading it would have been impossible...

for difficult shots, i use a casio mini monitor. you can even slate with two hands when you hold the monitor behind the slate with the lower hand. always works great. you nail every difficult shot with that. greg