Luc Allein

Hell yes. Thank you so much, it def helps. Ive been trying to get these questions answered on set for days, but everyone is either too busy or gives me a very vague explanation & goes through it way too quick. To make it worse, of the 2 guys I asked, I got two different responses which confused me even more. So that's one question down. How do I get the proper balance for the day then? I know there's a formula to it, just like there's a formula to get my "Total" on the camera reports. What do I add & subtract to get the proper balance for the day?

It's "Print All", and "Prep for Telecine".

"(Say you rolled 380 ft on a 400 ft short end. The "Good" is 380; the "Waste" is...." *I made a typo on that post above, I meant to say "400ft roll", not "short end". There's no goddamn "edit" feature in these posts. I didnt wanna make that post any more confusing than it probably already is.

Here's more of a question. At the end of the day, youre adding up all your camera reports on your film inventory sheet, how do you add them the right way? My Inventory sheet is pretty simple. It has the column headings going across: "Roll" , "Amount", "Good", "NG", "Waste" , "Total", and "Short End". I know you start with the "Amount", what you looded. For the "Good" column, I know how to do that too. (Say you rolled 380 ft on a 400 ft short end. The "Good" is 380; the "Waste" is 20ft) "NG" is for when we do circled takes, which we aren't doing on this. This brings me to the dreaded "Total" column at the end. What is the "Total". Is it just the number from the "Good" column brought over? I'm guessing "Total" is the amount of film you're actually sending to the lab. So if 380 was "Good" out of a 400ft roll, is that also then the "Total"? Or is there some sort of formula to get the "Totatl"? None of my damn numbers are adding up right, so Im doing something wrong. Even though I know how much film I actually have, my paperwork never seems to reflect it properly. If I knew what the hell went in that "Total" column, I'd have a better handle. Question #2 is, assuming I figure out how to do the "Total" column properly, how do I then come to the proper "Balance" of today? I remember a loader telling me there was a formula to get it, and there were ways to check your math too. Like "Your 'Good' + your 'Waste' should equal your 'Amount" or something like that. How does this work?? What do I add up to get the proper balance? Im really close to having it but Im just a little off and it's messing up the works and quite pissing me off. If this has made any sense to anyone, and I can get you to make some kind of heads or tails of it, I'd buy you a Starbucks coffee in return. Or meet with you at a Starbucks so you can you look at my stupid paperwork quick and then tell me what the hell I'm doing wrong. (Then I'd buy you coffee AND a muffin.) Thanks guys. Love ya's.

Awesome, thank you.

Yesterday I started on a small easy job loading for 35mm. Problem is, I havent loaded in a year, and before THAT it was a year too. I loaded for a while fairly regularly for a few months in 07, and that was it. I forgot most of the damn paperwork protocol. I spent most of the last year working in digital and dealing with BNC cable as opposed to film mags. I have the biggest problem tabulating the friggin numbers on the reports In the "Good" column, what do you add up there? It's the circled takes, right? If there's no scripty or it's "print all", how does it work then? I totally forget. The No Good column is only for features, right? Thats when you add up the numbers that aren't circled? If I remember, this column doesnt usually get used, right? Waste, I pretty much know how that one works. And Total is fairly obvious. But I keep fudging it because I dont know how to get the proper "Good" amount. How do all these work again?

Um...not well. It was why I moved to LA. However, I was tinkering with the idea of going there for a year or two and then coming back, hopefully with a union card. Its not just to chase work, although that's the goal. I think it would be a cool life experience and...I dont know, adventurous. Im kind of psyched about the idea of going there for a bit. I just didnt know if someone on here knew the deal or had contacts or could say for sure "Hell yes, you'll come out ahead..." Ive been trying to get into the union for years now and only had a handful of days to show for it. Guess Im just gettin frustrated.

Um....ok? Anyone else have any insight on this?

It's been recommended to me in the past, and it was very strongly driven home to me by an AC yesterday. He told me that they're so in need of camera people for it being so busy there that they're putting ads in the paper trying recruit union members. Im not sure if this is true of course, but the more he talked about it, the more it got me thinking about it. Ive been in LA about 4 years, working camera stuff when I can, which is to say fairly sporadic. Most of the guys I know are union, so I have to try to finnagle my way onto union shows as a camera pa most times. Here and there I get commercials and low budget stuff. I worked at Panavision for a year too. Im making progress but at the same time Im really spinning my wheels. The union gets more exclusive every year, and the new trend of lower end digital cameras saturating the work place and offering low rates and often no pay is not helping. First off, is anyone on here from New Orleans that can confirm or give me some intel as to whether or not it's really this apparent mecca of film making, and would I have a good shake at some work? Second, if I invested some time down there and joined the union then moved back would I still be eligible to work here? And more importantly, has anyone on here ever done this or know of anyone that transplanted to New Orleans and wound up successful? Honestly, it's kind of exciting for me the thought of gettin out of LA for a while and experiencing a whole different area of the US that is new to me too. I know there's a Panavision there too, so that's an option. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks peeps!

I got fired off my first full official gig as a 2nd AC on a decent sized movie in Sept. I've never been fired from anything in my LIFE. I was absolutely infuriated, I did the best I could and did a damn good job. (It was out of my hands; I was their THIRD 2nd AC in 2 weeks, so that should tell you something...) I drove home feeling like absolute poop. I was SO happy to be on this thing and to be working, not to mention the fact I needed the money terribly. The more I thought about it, the more I just chalked it up to experience. Everybody gets fired at some point or another, from a guy like me up to Robert Elswit. It's just a part of life in this business. It really sucked and it set me back, but what can you do. Gotta roll with the punches, baby. You'll be ok.

Thanks man, I'll check out that link. I def would like to get more into the digital side of things, Im surely gonna have to learn that stuff...

Hang out at Panavision, they'll let you practice loading in the dark room. Good luck trying to get into loader, it's harder and harder these days. Ive been trying for 3 **(obscenity removed)**in years and still havent gotten any real/steady work. Learn digital before it's too late, in addition to film.

The bunch of times I did to load, probably like 7-8 times on various projects (no features or anything) I wound up getting the gigs through Panavision when I worked there. The writers strike hit, I moved back east for a year. When I got back this Sept, it was super slow and most of my contacts had kind of dried up. Ive been getting on what I can and doing tons of freebees but I just cant seem to be able to break into a loader spot after 4 years of on and off camera pa/camera assisting. Its made worse by the fact that film seems to be an ever dwindling medium (used to at least get jobs off craigslist, now its all red camera) and a lot of commercials nowadays make the 2nd ac load as well. They wont spring for an actual loader. Its really, really frustrating. I just cant get a shot or a steady gig. I just need to get more familiar with the paperwork aspect, the acutal loading part is easy. Ive never exposed any film or held up production or that kind of thing, Im a decent loader for being somewhat of a rookie. Here the last thing I got to load on, my only loader gig this year and it was a one day freebee gig. (Yes, on a Micheal Bay commercial on one hour's notice and the first time loading in over a year. Plus I get there and Paul Cameron is the dp. No pressure, right?) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPmACq0Cvvk Anyway, does anyone have some kind of 'in' to a steady loading gig I could sneak onto. Or, may I be so bold as to offer my services to anyone on here that might need one? Id even work for free for the experience. If I mess anything up, which I PROMISE I will not, I will at least buy you a case of beer as some sort of repentance. Im completely unemployed right now anyway so Im dying to get on any kind of set. Ive heard Hallmark Channel is a good way to get in, Ive tried like hell to get involved with them but I cant get in touch with anyone. (If anyone on here has any contacts, hit me up) I have a good resume and can provide references. I just cant get any work and the guys that used to call me once in a blue moon have completely stopped. Its heart breaking, to be honest. I dont know what to do anymore.

He just did the upcoming Sam Jackson movie "Unthinkable", he's a SUPER nice guy. He even came to the wrap party after at the AC's house, which I couldnt believe and regaled us with all kinds of Robert Altman stories. (I camera pa'd for him)

I dont see how the Wexler/Carradine fight has anything to with anything Im saying. What happened on Terminator Salvation was the OJ Simpson case of a monumental DP/actor fight. It was household news, it had people saying they didnt even know what a 'director of photography' was. As a kid, my father once told me "Dont piss into the wind." I guess Im alone on this one, so I'll move on.

I had a feeling the post was gonna go this way, you guys are completely missing the point and keep passing it off as "tabloid" and "gossip". If someone on the camera crew was killed in an accident and it was a majorly publicized event, would it still be avoided in the interview? You guys dont think that a magazine dedicated to cinematographers should give the cinematographer who got the poop end of the stick basically (seeing how he was never given a chance to give his side) a means to explain his point of view?? I would agree with you if they were asking about an incident on the set, like if Christian Bale and Bryce Dallas fell in love a'la Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw and were married or something and it caused a huge stir. But this particular incident involved the way a cinematographer interacted and/or had a bad experience with an actor, I think it's absolutely pertinent to the conversation/article and is not out of line to at least ASK if he wanted to comment about it. Im sure plenty of dp's have had that happen or would like to see how he dealt with it or how he felt, people could learn from it. I think it would be very interesting to hear his point of view on it, that's all Im saying.

Im not saying he had to bash him at all, and Id bet this months rent that he wouldnt say anything bad about Bale at all. I just think it was a perfect outlet for him to speak his mind about it, I NEVER heard Shane's side of it, all we heard was Mr Bale's take. But the sheer magnitude and publicity of the incident basically leaves a huge elephant in the room anyway. Why not at least mention it or pay it some kind of attention for crying out loud.

*The "edit" features on this page are a pain in the ass; I accidentally hit "post" as I was in the middle of this thought, the sub topic of the post is even spelled wrong. I tried to delete & re post but I cant get it to. Here's the second half of my rant, sorry guys: I have to give it to that magazine, because every time I would think "I should give up trying to be an AC, Im still non union, have LOST money (not made money), work for free most of the time, blah blah", I would read some article and see people I had worked with and could STILL potentially work with and say "**(obscenity removed)** that, Im gonna do it or die trying..." But I think the format over the years has gotten a bit bland. My buddy handed me an old issue from when the Thin Red Line was out with John Toll, and the articles were so much better. It was an actual q&a interview instead of what they do now, which is just mostly a technical overview with some input from the dp and a bunch of other people involved. I dont find it as engaging or engrossing than when they had it purely from the dp's point of view. And furthermore they have less and less behind the scene photos of production, it's overwhelmingly stills from the movie. Like the Star Trek article this month has probably 9 pictures of the actual movie, and maybe 2 or 3 of actual production, and only ONE of the dp Dan Mindel. No pics of the operators or ac's or anything. Why not throw these guys a bone? Anyone else feel the same? Dont get me wrong, I still love the magazine, I just have some issues with it. (No pun intended)

I just read the current issue (Star Trek on the cover), and it had a piece on Terminator Salvaltion. Does anyone else find it odd that they didnt even bother to ask Shane Hulrbut about the whole Christian Bale episode? I mean, isnt it kind of the responsibility of the magazine to at least get his perspective on it? I know a lot of people might say "Oh, it's just sensationalism, its tabloid fodder, move on already..." But honestly, after it hit the fan, everyone got Bale's 2 cents about the incident. But did anyone really get Hurlbut's? Im not saying they should have based the entire article on it, but c'mon...it might be one of the most famous and most talked about blow ups between a lead actor and a dp in Hollywood history. I think it deserves to at least be touched upon. Whats the worst that could happen, Hurlbut would say "I dont wanna talk about it". God forbid they be honest and ask a ballsy question. I dont know, it kind of bugs me.

I thought this was Dan's best work since Domino, and he's not known for being a super "flashy" dp but this was good flashy. I thought the same thing, "What's with all the lens flare??" (And no cameo this time around? Bogus!) I did like it but I too felt it became a bit excessive. What do you think was the motivation for it, and do you guys think it was a JJ call or a Dan call? (I was supposed to work on Star Trek but I moved back east for a year; Im STILL kicking myself...)

Thats so crazy. Thanks for that link. You think Carradine was drunk, or is he just a huge butt?

Is this true?? Someone told me at a Bound For Glory screening at the Aero theater last week that Wexler and Carradine got in an actual fistfight or brawl at a q&a for the movie. Apparently some bystanders got hurt too, someone in the audience got hit with a mic stand. Im hearing this second hand and am expecting it to be greatly exxaggerated, but I must admit Im amused at the possibility of an 80 year old cinematographer punching it up at a screening. Haskell's a badass.

Move to LA. Work for Panavision. Give it about five years there. Hurry.

Im here in LA, I live in the valley. I have feature experience. If I had a steady non union thing, I would do it of course. But I need something solid and that pays like a feature, all my contacts and experience is in feature films and it's my favorite thing to work on. If anyone has ANYTHING going steady for more than a month, Im def interested.

Film will never go away. It may not be as popular or used as much, but it will always be there. Im sorry, Im just so sick of that argument. Painters still paint on canvas, people will always shoot on film.