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Gregory Irwin

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Everything posted by Gregory Irwin

  1. I had completely forgotten that Derek was there as well! That movie employed a lot of guys! ??‍♂️
  2. I did To Live and Die in LA Rules of Engagement Bluechips and one that never got released and I can’t remember the name of it. He truly relied on the camera department but also had very high expectations and never gave us a break. He had zero tolerance for someone not paying attention or doing their job at the highest level. He had this thing about calling “Action”. He would never say it so it was always a guessing game as to when to roll the camera. We worked under extreme pressure. That’s for sure!! G
  3. I did four pictures with Billy. He was a one of a kind to be sure. Great director and very disciplined. He was tough on everyone! G
  4. Thanks Travis! I grew up right next to you in PV. Good to hear that my old stomping grounds are still good. G
  5. I saw the 70mm format of the picture last night at a flagship cinema in Atlanta, GA. Overall, I enjoyed the movie. I enjoyed the history of Oppenheimer and the impactful figures who affected his life. I enjoyed the performances - especially Downey. However, I think (and I’m going to get skewered for saying this) Nolan is getting more self indulgent with his filmmaking style. He has to prove over and over how smart he is as opposed to letting the story say it. HE IS SMART! He’s the smartest guy in the room but he doesn’t need to show us all of the time by trying to be clever. I feel that he tries too hard at times to be clever. Unlike Todd Phillips, who can weave a multi layered story to fit together when you can’t imagine how it will all fit till it’s done, Chris seems to only create confusion. Having said this he did do a very good job with the very complicated INTERSTELLAR. I am very qualified to say this since I’ve worked with both. Five movies with Todd and one with Chris. OPPENHEIMER was confusing and I already knew the story since I’m a huge history buff. But I did enjoy it overall. As for the cinematography, I’m sick and tired of watching uber shallow images that are crushed into the foot of the exposure curve. I want to see more of the grand format the Chris chooses for his movies! Shallow and dark doesn’t always do it for me. Scott made an observation in the above post about soft focus. Let me tell you from experience that there isn’t more difficult focus pulling than a Nolan picture. My experience with him was the most challenging focus pulling in my career. It’s not about keeping every shot sharp but rather maintaining the damage control with the inevitable focus buzz that’s bound to happen! It’s because of the cinematic style that Chris chooses to employ and he, above everyone else understands how difficult he makes it and he accepts the occasional soft focus. I applaud Keith Davis’s work. He was simply miraculous! Hoyte doesn’t give him (or me) any feedback regarding focus even though he’s looking through the eyepiece. It’s like flying a jumbo jet in the clouds without any radar! Keith was on his own, flying blind. Great work! I don’t know if it was the theater I was in or if anyone else experienced this but the music track was drowning out the dialogue at times. Did anyone else notice this? Anyway, there’s my review. Let the skewering begin! G
  6. There are a couple of ways to check the gate. I always preferred to look through the lens with a flashlight with the lens set to infinity. You should be able to see the entire gate by moving your eye and light around. If you see anything suspicious, unload the camera and wipe the inside gate with a clean finger and gently blow some air to clean. I always inspected the inside gate on every reload. Keep it simple. G
  7. Many years ago I lived in Belmont Shore, Long Beach and it was great! A very quaint beach community. What’s happened down there that y’all say don’t live there now? G
  8. Gotcha. By comparison, we have a 6,800 square foot home, including a 2,500 sf furnished basement with full media room and wine cellar on just under a half acre. Three car garage. We sit right on the 7th fairway of a country club that backs up to a national park. Our mortgage is $4K/month. And I’m only 35 minutes away from midtown Atlanta! Our Newport Beach home was only 2,800 sf with no real property (but we had excellent views) and that sold for deep in 7 figures - 8 years ago! The difference in cost between the two places for what you get is crazy!!! Here in ATL, people can actually afford real estate. G
  9. I’m a So. Cal. native and lived in Newport Beach for over 25 years. We decided that we had had enough of Southern California and the Los Angeles area and moved to Atlanta. WE LOVE IT HERE! The quality of life is immensely better, the cost of living is way less than LA, crime rates are far lower and I find the people much friendlier and engaging. The air is clean! As far as the motion picture and television industries are concerned, we are bustling with work when there is no strike going on. It’s a win for my family. PS: I was just working in LA for the past 10 months on a movie at Warner Bros. Since I don’t live there anymore, the studio put my wife and myself in a one bedroom apartment in Burbank. The lease was $7000/month!!! That’s utterly criminal! Thankfully we were not paying for it! G
  10. Hey there! We all use pCam. My friend, David Eubank, developed the app and it’s become an industry standard. G
  11. I used the 15p MSM IMAX cameras to photograph INTERSTELLAR. Elswit is right. The Hasselblads for IMAX are rehoused for their bodies and are old optical technology but they got the job done. Interestingly enough , Otto Nemenz has teamed up once again with P&S Teknic and have redeveloped Hasselblad glass into what are called the Ottoblad lens series. What makes them different is that they have a rear optical module that allows the user to dial in focus fall off to the edges of frame in different degrees. I’m using them now on my current movie. Beautiful glass. G
  12. I agree with you about the armorer but Baldwin had a responsibility as an actor and as a producer. He failed at both. There is so much more to this story to understand. Attached is a very in depth investigative report on the events and overall professional misconduct on that production by 60 Minutes Australia. Even though viewer discretion is advised, it offers a greater understanding of what happened that day and the days leading up to the tragedy. G
  13. Camera prep is the most important part of the camera team’s job in order to ensure a successful shoot. But quite often, prep can be the most overlooked and mismanaged part of our jobs. Over the years, I’ve witnessed many ACs coming into a camera rental house without a plan. As we all know, preps can range from a day to several weeks, depending on the job’s requirements. Nevertheless, having a good prep plan is essential. Unfortunately, I quite often see other ACs beginning their preps without a comprehensive camera package in place on the first day. Producers like to know how much they will be spending on camera gear and they certainly don’t like surprises when it’s time to ship out of the rental house and they see a very different number than they were expecting due to the ACs constantly adding on gear they hadn’t previously disclosed. Camera packages, no matter how big or small, should be well thought out before reporting to prep. I like to spend ample time dedicated to building my camera packages on paper. I timestamp and assign a version number to each time I make changes to the package as information becomes available. I keep all relevant notes associated with the packages pinned to the various versions. My packages and preps are sizable due to the big budget movies I do. My preps can range from 4 to 12 weeks long depending upon the movie’s requirements and the show’s budget. I may have 10 different versions of the camera package by the time prep commences. But by the time I start my prep on day one, that 10th version will not significantly change. The rental house is informed and the Cinematographer and producers are happy. All the heavy lifting is done and all we need to do is put it all together. My prep calendar has due dates so we all know where we should be as the prep goes along and we stay on schedule. When I tell the Cinematographer and producers when my “cameras ready” date is, I don’t change that. I also have all of the additional camera equipment separately scheduled along with all day play gear to be employed in advance. Of course, these will change or even be eliminated as the show goes on but my point remains the same. Budgets matter. Accuracy matters. Your camera department’s reputation depends entirely upon that. What are your thoughts? G
  14. I was the First AC on the very first US production with the Penelope back in 2009 with Hoyte on THE FIGHTER. The A camera operator, Geoff Haley and I were extremely unimpressed with the camera. For its size, it was very heavy. The viewing system was dark as was the video tap. There was very little real estate on the camera body for us to attach the needed accessories to turn it into a “Hollywood feature film” camera. The other drawback was the co-axial magazines. We were a steadicam movie. Unless the steadicam operator had the control box that allows for re-balancing while rolling, like Geoff had, you would quickly be out of balance side to side during a take. Speaking about the camera’s balance, we had to hang an on board monitor off of the back of the camera in order to achieve better balance when hand held. Finally, we were surprised that the camera was not that quiet when compared to other silent film camera choices. I’m sure that there is a market for this camera (somewhere) but it’s not a good choice for narrative filmmaking. G
  15. Mark is spot on. 100% the shutter is out of sync with the movement. That is what created the image streaking vertically. If it was a pressure plate issue, your footage would be drifting in and out of focus. G
  16. You’re welcome and you are correct! G
  17. All good Tyler! Thank you! I’ll be in LA soon to start my next movie. It’ll be hard to be away from my family yet again! Hope you’re doing well too! G
  18. I would say the old school non monitor method Tyler. The quality of the film HD taps are not good enough to pull critically off of a monitor. They really never materialized as we had hoped. G
  19. Monitor focus pulling is a different skill set from traditional focus pulling that requires patience and practice to master. For me, after over 3 decades of film focus pulling, I successfully have made that transition. It offers me many more opportunities to help tell the story via focus. Focus pulling is no longer a technical process but now a creative one. I love that. I sit quietly in my chair, away from set, with my Small HD 1303 monitor in front of me, my Preston handset mounted to the monitor stand and a Comtek in my ear so I can hear the dialogue. This allows me to “watch” the movie and make story telling decisions in real time on how and where to play the focus so it maximizes the effectiveness of the shot. It’s almost like a video game! The point is, I can see focus opportunities that I wouldn’t see if I was standing next to the camera pulling in the traditional way. Finally, since I can see my work as it happens, I don’t worry about if I got the shot in focus or not. I can guarantee my work with confidence right then and there. G
  20. How much? Is the pin a Preston connector? Thanks! G
  21. In my opinion, there are no rules. Look at my lens package from JOKER. we had a total Frankenstein set and we earned an Oscar nomination for Cinematography! G
  22. Hi! I would simply measure from your subject (the singer?) and place strips of tape on the floor. Make them small if the camera is going to see them on the wide. As the camera’s sensor plane passes over your marks you set the focus accordingly. I recommend taping a thin line of brightly colored tape on the camera so you can see the sensor plane on the camera. Also, don’t place too many marks. You’ll get confused. Maybe go from 10 feet, 5 feet and 2 feet if you’re that close in the end. You can choose what distances make sense to you. Anything beyond 10 feet, you’ll have the DOF to help you out on a 25mm lens. Feel the rhythm of the camera move and turn that knob!! ? KEEP IT SIMPLE!!! G
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