Gregory Irwin

Naaaaa. :rolleyes: He wears the normal stuff but we, over the course of almost 20 years of working with each other, have scaled down the amount of gear that we use. We know what we need and what we don't need. He does have the radio though. G

I couldn't agree more with Chris. Don't oversell your abilities. The employers will see right through that. Working on some freebies would be a great way to gain experience and contacts. Greg

I wear nothing. I don't even have a radio on. If the basics don't fit in my front box, I don't need them. When the front box can't be there for me, I stick a flashlight in my back pocket and my Fat Max hard tape in a small pouch that sits on my pant's belt. That's it. Wearing the AC belt with all of that stuff on me would drive me crazy. Having a radio in my ear full time would probably put me over the edge!! That's why my 2nd AC is always close by with all of that stuff when needed. We try to keep it simple. Greg

That figures. Half rate meaning $250/day? Better to stay away. One thing that I've learned over the years is that good producers know the value of a good crew and what it takes to embrace them rather than alienating and lose them. G

I should have included the ad with my previous post so everyone would know what we are talking about. So, here it is from Craigslist: los angeles craigslist > central LA > gigs > crew gigs please flag with care: miscategorized prohibited spam/overpost best of craigslist 1ST AC NEEDED FOR VIDEO (SACRAMENTO) Date: 2010-02-09, 12:40AM PST Reply to: gigs-7bahf-1592658869@craigslist.org [Errors when replying to ads?] INDEPENDENT FILM COMPANY IS SEEKS AN EXPERIENCED 1ST AC WERE ARE SHOOTING A MUSIC VIDEO OF AN ALL GIRL ROCK BAND IN SACRAMENTO. WERE USING A RED PACKAGE AND SHOOTING WITH A SET OF CLAIRMONT ANAMORPHIC PRIME LENSES. THE SHOOT IS FEB 20, 21 (FRI/SAT) YOU WOULD BE FLOWN TO SACRAMENTO THURSDAY FEB 19TH AND PUT UP IN A HOTEL AND DO CAMERA PREP WITH THE DP THURSDAY NIGHT. SHOOT SAT/SUN AND FLOWN BACK MONDAY MORNING. OUR FLAT RATE IS $1000 (500/DAY) THIS IS NON NEGOTIABLE SO PLEASE DO NOT EMAIL US DIFFERENT RATES WE WILL NOT RESPOND AND TAKE YOU OFF OUR POTENTIAL LIST. YOU ALSO NEED TO HAVE A REEL OF YOUR WORKS THAT WILL BE VERIFIED. MUST HAVE KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE WITH THE RED AND WITH ANAMORPHIC LENSES WHICH IS ANOTHER BREED OF LENS, LIGHT AND DISTANCE !!! WE MAKE IT CLEAR TO ALL INVOLVED, IF YOUR CHOSEN AND YOU SHOW UP THURSDAY AND DO NOT KNOW YOUR JOB, WE WILL SEND YOU HOME THAT EVENING. THIS IS A PROFESSIONAL OPERATION NOT A PLACE TO LEARN ON THE JOB. Location: SACRAMENTO it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests Compensation: $1000 (500/day) PostingID: 1592658869

Wow! I didn't even know Craigslist had these ads. After reading Jonathan's and Paulo's posts, I checked out the ad. I truly don't know where to begin. I'm shocked that people like the ones posting this ad exist!!! First of all, the ad is insulting. Their tone is threatening. This just shows the producers' inexperience and total fear. To go and intimidate the prospective 1st ACs with their statement of no negotiations about pay or they will remove you from their list is silly. That's what doing business is all about. What about negotiating box rental or per diem? Everything is negotiable. Then to go on and say that if you don't know your job, they will "send you home that evening" is laughable. How would they assess your skills the first night? You haven't done anything yet!!! And believe me, they will be so buried solving their own problems, they won't even know that you exist yet. They want to pay peanuts but demand experience and a reel. Huh?? I don't know any 1st ACs who have a reel but then maybe I'm out of the loop on that. They can't have both. Experience will cost them. If they insist on going the cheap route, they deserve what they get. Here's how to negotiate this one: "If you guys (employers) want guarantees that I can handle the job (it's obvious from your ad that you understand that anamorphic requires special skills and experience) and not cost you neither additional expenses nor delays, I need to be compensated properly for that. $500/day flat doesn't cover my my time or experience. How many hours does the $500 cover? Is there OT? If there's no OT, I probably am not making any more than a grocery checker by the end of the day at my local market! Let's talk about this. If you can't change the rate, maybe we can add on a box rental to make up the difference. Otherwise, $500/12 hours worked equals $35.72/hour. So, after 12 hours, I would get 2X pay at $71.44/hour. That will keep it fair for both of us and will get what YOU need. How about it?" Good luck on this one. I don't think that they are smart enough to realize that if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. My final observation is the camera prep. How are you to prep on location without the support of the rental house? Grand assumptions are being made that all of the gear is going to be present and working, no adjustments to the package will need to be made and above all, the lenses are going to be decent! How do you manage all of the challenges that a prep can hand you the night before? This is a set up for failure. Well, my friends, all I can say is that's why we have a union. We have a mutual agreement between employers and employees that provides the expectations for both sides. The Hollywood Basic Contract gives the ground rules for all of us to adhere to. It weeds out schmucks like these people so we don't have to deal with them and have it become adversarial. These producers have taken the adversarial approach right out of the gate by posting this threatening ad so I can't imagine it will be much better once you're in Sacramento. Once the pressure of production commences, I believe that they will be the first to crumble and point blame elsewhere - like you. You know the saying: Blame the innocent Promote the guilty Reward the non-involved Best, Greg PS: The hourly stated above is based on an 8 hour day with 1.5X for the following 4 hours and 2X after that. To convert these different pay scales to the common denominator of straight time in order to make it easier to calculate, simply divide the rate ($500) by 14 (hours). This will give you what the hourly rate is for 12 hours. I rounded up the hourly in this case.

Here is some good reading for you Paulo... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anamorphic_lens Best, Greg

The curved field is a real thing. However, trying to factor that variable in while focus pulling isn't reasonable. That's why when prepping anamorphic lenses, you test and find the "flattest" lens available. Most of my work for many years was anamorphic and I had 2 sets of Panavision C and E series lenses that I kept for every job. This is because I had exhaustively tested these lenses and chose my 2 sets out of numerous lenses. One of the main factors was how "flat" the field was on each of them. I also determined for the cinematographer what the "true" lens speed was. In other words, what should the widest aperture be in order to hold enough "DEPTH of FOCUS" to cover the curved field. We couldn't always live up to that favored stop but we usually did. But there is no doubt to the fact that the focus puller needs to be keen to the blocking of a shot since focus is a major issue with the anamorphic format. Best, Greg

Additionally, I would add the following: By way of focus pulling, since you have twice the angle of view when compared to the relative depth of field, more choices must be made with consideration to where to play the focus. Remember, the anamorphic format offers you twice the angle of view while giving up half the normal DOF. Another consideration would be the lighting package. Some would argue that the lighting package must be larger in order to be able to achieve deeper stops from further away so you can hold sharpness across the curved field of focus. G

I'm not sure what two focal lengths really means but anamorphic is a different animal. Not focus pulling necessarily but with regards to optics. There are many more factors to consider when choosing an anamorphic lens like: color, chromatic aberration, stigmatism, internal flare and finally, the flatness of a curved field. I suggest going back into the archives of this site for there are numerous articles posted on this subject. G

I would find out what your state's labor law is. They may have to pay you at least 8 hours of straight time or a flat rate for the job which you would have to negociate. G

I appreciate all of these responses but having been a focus puller for 30 years, I must say that these solutions really complicate matters. Of course this is just my opinion. Keep it simple. The job is already complicated enough. The more one can wean one's self away from using marks and simply "see" the distance and "feel" the timing of the focus pull, the easier you will find it gets. Of course a good cine tape helps too! :rolleyes: But with all seriousness, the actors will not always be in the same place relative to the camera and the camera will certainly not be that consistent - especially on a jib. Using a laser is a good idea but again, worrying about the diagonal angles and all that will become burdensome. If you choose to use the laser pen, aim it at the ground from the jib arm, put some simple reference marks on the ground and rely on your judgement after that. You will be amazed how fast your confidence will grow. Once you become too reliant on "marks", especially when the camera and/or actors are not on the marks, you can tend to freeze up and won't know where to go with focus. Best, Greg

It could be bouncing off of the pressure pad but that's not the thinking at this time. It's more likely that it's reflecting off of the emulsion itself. Unfortunately, all of the images are property of Paramount Pictures and they will not allow me to post any clip. Too bad for that would be helpful. G

I don't have the powder coated gates yet. Why would super 16 be different from super 35? The percentage of the negative area is similar, isn't it? But I think that you are correct regarding the large, rear element bounce back. G

Yes on the open gate. The other factor in this is we get more than a typical gate flare from having practical, usually specular light sources inside of full aperture but outside of the frame lines. In other words, when a specular light source comes into view but not into frame, we have experienced this "wash" like flare. Once the light source is in frame, the flare ceases and the Cookes perform as expected. This is where it gets dicey since we always have light sources close to the frame lines. This is why I'm at a loss on this because we are performing everyday practices that we would normally do with any Panavision or Zeiss lens. I have repeatedly been told that nobody has experienced this before yet I know that I cannot be the first and only one. Finally, after much prodding, it starts to be revealed that this is a problem with the Cookes. So now I'm trying to move on to finding a solution to combat this. GI

We just have the plain, old S4s with the very large rear elements. Otto Nemenz (our rental house) says it's a common problem with the lens/film gate combo. Terrific. We are currently powder coating new gates to see if that eliminates our problem. Stay tuned...

Hi Stephen, I have only one complete set of the Cookes and we've had the issue mainly with the 75mm and the 32mm. Our Optimo zooms have had no flare issues. GI

Hi all. I have only used the Cooke S4s twice in my career and have now experienced milky flares both times. I know that these lenses are highly touted for not flaring. I'm a bit at a loss due to doing everything possible to protect the lens from any extraneious light and am still having massive flares that milk out a large portion of the frame. This has now happened three times on different Arricams on my current movie and the frustrating aspect is that the camera operators cannot see the flares through the viewing system and they don't show on video as well. The flares seem to be generated by the camera's gate with the light bouncing back through the lens' rear element off the emulsion and scattering throughout the lens barrel giving this milky, foggy effect. We know that we are not experiencing any light leaks in the camera bodies or mags. This definetly is a lens flare. Any thoughts, personal experience or advice would be greatly appreciated. We are shooting 4 perf, 1:1.85 format with Arricam ST and LT cameras and Cooke S4 lenses and Kodak film. Best, Gregory Irwin

Not to sound pessimistic but the reality is that 9 out of 10 productions will "cook" the books and will never show a profit even if there is one. Go into the job with the outlook that you will never get paid and you won't be disappointed. If you do get paid, great! Most likely though, in the end it's not likely. I hope I'm wrong on this one. :) Best, Greg

My good friend, David Eubank devolped this software and has put endless hours of time into making sure that it is accurate and perfect. The end result is simply amazing. I highly recommend that all camera people get P Cam and use it on the job. I used P Cam on my old Palm Pilot for years but I must say that the new, iPhone version is much more dynamic and has many more applications related to cine calculations that we all use at work. Congratulations David - you did it!!! Best, Greg

I don't remember the exact breakdown of crew. For the operated cameras, we had an operator, 1st and 2nd. We definitely had more assistants than operators since we had several "locked off" cameras that were remotely started. The most valuable member of our crew was our Panavision tech who was on location with us and would repair and service all of the equipment at the end of each shooting day. He would come in about 2 hours prior to our wrap and stay as long as needed to fulfill the service/repair list that Jerry would give him at the end of each day. If we were working days, he was working nights. If we were nights, he was on a day schedule, etc. There were times that he didn't have much to do but most of the time, he was plenty busy. Big action movies can take a big toll on the gear thus making him our MVP!

The only thing that I would add is that all of the listed "expendables" (ie. tape, markers, Q-tips, etc.) should be purchased by the production. This expense should not come out of your pocket at all. Best, Greg

This is an interesting thread. Reading all of these posts confirms my belief that the wide shots are at times way trickier and requires much more consideration than the tight ones. Since wider shots have a broader angle of view, the depth of field may not cover the entire frame thus requiring some decision making on where and how to play focus. This especially applies to the anamorphic format. The tighter shots are obvious. Keep the actor's eyes sharp or whatever the subject matter is. There's not much decision making there, you just need to get it right. If you are not so sure on how to play focus, absolutely confer with the DP. Best, Greg

Amen!!

Thank's Mike & Satsuki for the positive feedback. It's hard to advise others on how to pull focus because everyone has a different approach towards it. The best advice is to keep it simple. Don't overburden yourselves with so many marks that it gets confusing. If possible, I like to find one spot and not move during the shot (especially with remote work) so I don't have to worry about navigating myself through the set while concentrating on focus. But here's the real deal. It's not about the act of pulling focus but rather your approach to it. It begins with surrounding yourself with the best people that you can associate yourself with. It is so important to have team work. Having a DP and a camera operator that understands the difficulty level of a particular shot and will work WITH you instead of independently of you can be the difference between success and failure. Equally as important is having a 2nd AC who also understands the process. I've been fortunate to have had the same 2nd AC for the past 18 years and he knows how to lift the burden of the everyday business of the camera department off of my shoulders so I can concentrate only on focus. When facing challenges such as that 180mm example, he already understands what it's going to take to pull that off. He's involved not only when preparing to do the shot, but also during the shot. He will watch the monitor to give me feedback and watch the actors for little things that I may have missed. His input is paramount to me. This spirit of cooperation goes both ways as well. I look out for the DP, the operator and for my 2nd in ways that will be beneficial to us all. We are always reminding and double checking each other for any details that may have been missed. Having this kind of respect through out the camera department cannot be stressed enough. In an earlier post, there was a question about managing large camera crews. That's an excellent question and I have experience in this. There was one particular movie that I was the key 1st AC on that had 45 members in the first unit camera crew. Yes, 45. That means we were working with up to 30 cameras at once. These pictures don't come along often but when they do, you better have a system. Once again, my trusty 2nd AC, Jerry Patton was crucial to the success of our operation. Setting up multiple cameras is no big deal the first time around. I walk the set with the director and the cameraman, marking out camera positions (lens & height info), assign which crew and camera per spot, etc. That's easy. What gets tricky is when the changes begin such as switching cameras around to accommodate frame rates or whatever. Multiply this by 30 different camera, lens and support combinations and it can get real confusing real fast. That's when a direct line of communication between Jerry and myself becomes very important. I stay with my superiors keeping up with the changes (figuring out what gear and people we have available) and talk directly to Jerry over the radio keeping him up to date. I want only one person to communicate with in order to prevent an already mounting state of confusion. In turn, he is the only voice on set, delegating the tasks to the rest of the department. Having only one voice on set cuts down on having too many voices passing different and quite possibly wrong information. Jerry is also getting the "A" camera ready for shooting in order to allow me to stay with the information flow from above till it's time to roll. For us, this maintains a very calm and efficiently run set. I want to thank you for allowing me to share these experiences in this forum. It's a lot of fun. I hope that the above is helpful. Keep shooting, panning and pulling. That's how we learn and get good at this racket. :lol: Best, Greg