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Gregory Irwin

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Everything posted by Gregory Irwin

  1. Gregory Irwin
    I believe it comes down to if you are spending more a year on renting them compared to the cost of those items. How fast would you turn the cost into a paid off profit? If your rental cost is less over a specified term of time, then you have your answer. G
  2. Gregory Irwin
    It may not guarantee a huge success but it certainly increases the possibility of it knowing your investment has a verified, veteran crew behind it. Case and point: My movie, FURIOUS 7 has just earned $384 MILLION in it's opening weekend worldwide. And it's a fun movie that's very good looking and technically perfect!!! G
  3. Gregory Irwin
    Senior Angel, Do you know a DOP named Luis de Santiago in Spain? He shoots commercials and some features. He is a very close and dear friend of mine for over 30 years! And I'll take you up on the Guinness Factory! Cheers! :blink:
  4. Gregory Irwin
    I know that I'm not on the typical side of these conversations but for 2015 (for example), I started work on January 5th. I'll have one week at home after April 15 and then will start my next picture that will wrap around late November/ early December. Christmas off at home and then begin again around mid January, 2016. That's fairly the norm for me. Having said this, I do have some control when I will make time for family and for fun traveling as opposed to work travel, etc. But, when I'm traveling for work, my wife and I always take advantage of where we are and travel for fun while we are there or after we are done with work there. This year, we wrap our movie in Dubai, UAE (she will be there) and we may stop in Europe for a week or two prior to coming home for Christmas. We shall see how screwed up our plans become with constant changes in our schedule! :rolleyes: G
  5. Gregory Irwin
    Hi Mark, I don't know a 1st AC who would ever want autofocus. Not only would that negate our main talent (focus pulling) and contribution towards the filmmaking process but it would also take away the subjectivity of using focus as a story telling device. G
  6. Gregory Irwin
    If you are talented and motivated, either school will benefit you. David's correct! School is not going to hand you your career, you'll have to earn it. I'm sure that you already know that. Best of luck to you. G
  7. Gregory Irwin
    First of all Shai, congratulations on getting accepted to two fine universities. I say this from personal experience and from being a part of that "Trojan mafia", USC has the more prestigious program with more connections after graduation. I work with more grads from SC than UCLA. I'm not sure why but that's the reality. But you have to go where you will be the most comfortable. Good luck and FIGHT ON!!! G
  8. Gregory Irwin
    You bet! Nothing is that easy. I'm dealing with this right now with a large package that was just returned from a movie in New Orleans with considerable L&D. At the same time we have gear on a few TV shows in LA and we're about to ship out gear to Canada, Singapore and Dubai. Who knows what's in store with all of that. I should clarify that my company is doing all of that work. Fortunately, I'm out of town on a movie and am just getting all of those reports! :) But in reality, it's still my problem and responsibility. Your insurance needs are probably much simpler, no? God, I hope so! ;)
  9. Gregory Irwin
    It doesn't work that way. Your prices will have to be competitive in a competitive market. Your clients will have to provide their own proof of insurance and you may want to also have a redundant insurance of your own. Especially liability coverage to protect yourself from lawsuits stemming from someone getting injured from use of your gear. Cost of doing business!
  10. Gregory Irwin
    And just to add to all of the above, I also cover my gear with liability and worldwide replacement cost insurance. Extremely expensive but worth every penny.
  11. Gregory Irwin
    I've owned a camera rental house for the past 26 years. It can be a very tricky, cutthroat business. My company rents to mainly studio feature films, television as well as other rental houses who sub rent from us. We always insist on signed rental agreements and certificates of insurance for protecting the gear and liability. One of the key components of the agreement specifies the terms for lost and damaged equipment with the clause for replacing any items: "without deduction for wear and tear". That means brand new equipment. Otherwise, you will receive the dollar amount for the depreciation value for your missing or destroyed gear. I'm not sure what market you are going after but I would at least have some form of an agreement for the terms of rental. G
  12. Gregory Irwin
    Hi Josh, the approval list is simply a list of qualified personnel that the studios trust in handling their major investment. In other words, they will not approve of a novice crew on a big budget job. The studios need and require assurances that the artistic side, the technical side and the business side of each department will be handled properly and efficiently. Thus, the list. I'm not sure how they compile the list or just how it works anymore. I don't pay much attention to it since I've been approved by all of the major studios (and minors as well) for years now. It's not for all crew but mainly for the key positions. I do know that every time I get a call for a new movie, my name is immediately screened at the studio level for approval. G
  13. Gregory Irwin
    In addition to David's post, I would add the there is the "Studio Approval List" that key department members, like the DP, the A camera operator and the A camera 1st AC must be on to work there. Otherwise, it's very hard. G
  14. Gregory Irwin
    Not much $ for all of those requirements. Just being honest.
  15. Gregory Irwin
    All good Satsuki! It's a dream job. And yes, Jon was with me for one of our multi camera days. He did a great job. G
  16. Gregory Irwin
    Hi Tyler, I hope you reconsider your comment above due to its insensitivity towards all of the motion picture workers out there who rely on those exact studio jobs to feed their families. I'm one of those who hope that every film makes money so the studios keep producing them. I'm talking about the business and not the art of cinema. If you don't like the big budget, studio pictures, don't watch them! As for myself, the movies I like to watch are certainly different than the ones I like to work on. I couldn't make the living I earn working on the small, indie films but I sure appreciate the efforts and passion that goes into them. I'm simply trying to offer you a different point of view to think about while wishing gloom and doom on an industry that many of us depend on for our family's security. Cheers Tyler... G
  17. Gregory Irwin
    A quick, easy test to see if your eye focus is the same on the film or sensor is to take a sheet of newspaper that has a lot of fine print (no pictures) and draw a red, sharpie line along a row of print in the center of the page by using a straight edge. Rotate the paper so the print and the red line is verticle and mount it flat on a wall or something else stable. Then, with your camera, zoom in to a long lens, wide open and frame up on the paper at an extreme raking angle so you can see very shallow depth of field with the verticle rows of print coming near to far in your frame. Focus on the red line in the center of the frame and you will see the rows of print falling out of focus in front and behind the red line. Roll on this for a few seconds. When you view the results, the red line should be in focus. If not, you will now know that what you see in focus in the finder is not ending up the same on the film or sensor. Big collimation issue and will need to be fixed. Good luck! G
  18. Gregory Irwin
    Oops! I hit the button too fast! David, Alwin Küchler is the cameraman. G
  19. Gregory Irwin
  20. Gregory Irwin
    I agree. I still use my TV Logic for film work but I really like my SmallHD DP7 Highbright for digital work.
  21. Gregory Irwin
    Universal's "Steve Jobs" is shooting both 16mm and 35mm film.
  22. Gregory Irwin
    Actually Richard, Spielberg did go to Cal State Long Beach and has already graduated from there a few years ago. He had to finish his studies in the film program in order to graduate. His graduate film that he turned in was Schindler's List! Isn't that hilarious? Only reason I know this is that I graduated from there as well back in the early 1980s. G
  23. Gregory Irwin
    I just watched INTERSTELLAR again in a different theater. I must say, there are no significant focus issues and the contrast, blacks, etc were amazing. Beautiful work. As for the Michael Caine death scene, there is a moment where he tips his head within minimum focus but for almost the entire shot, his far eye in the light is sharp. I believe that the depth is so extremely shallow that we see more softness than sharpness in the overall frame. There were also a couple of quick buzzes on the imax close ups of Matthew where we were photographing him with a +3 diopter in order to achieve the desired image size. All and all, it's amazing work and quite the artistic and technical achievement. G
  24. Gregory Irwin
    No worries John. All good!
  25. Gregory Irwin
    All I can say is that the camera operator was the DP and all of us were doing our jobs. Everyone knew at the time the situation and only one person - Chris - made the decision to move on.
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