Mark Bliss

Hi Felipe Vantage Films make a purpose built filter that even makes the colour blue, it's called Blue-Vision, go to http://www.vantagefilm.com/en/equipment/index.shtml and follow the link to filters and click on Blue Vision to see photo samples of its effect Mark Bliss

hi Vantage Film have produced a filter called Blue Vision which produces the blue horizontal flare, I used it on a recent shoot, works a treat. go to http://www.vantagefilm.com/ and follow the equipment link through to filters, click on Blue-Vision and see the samples regards mark

"children of men" - simply briliant, I have used this gismo on a recent shoot in Korea, worked a treat, either hard wire it to you clam-shell or micro wave it. Mark www.markbliss.com

Hi I have used several 2perf silent cameras, they were converted Arri BL 4, and also a Movicam America, I used them to shoot a feature film and also a several shorts and music videos, the company in australia is no longer in business and I don't know what happened with their gear, regards Mark

The use of any sun path tools or charts, software for pinpointing the position of the sun is a great help not only to a DOP but the whole production. I can tell exactly, on a location recce, two months ahead of the actual shoot, where the sun will rise. Imagine you're shooting in a down town area and it's essential that you get sunlit scene. Your compass will only tell you an approximate direction, the more sophisticated tools will tell you at what time the sun will rise over this building or that mountain. So even though, sunrise proper is a 5am the sun doesn't come over that mountain range until 9:25, so you can either shoot something else, don't have to be there at 4:30am to set it up, The advantages are numerous and I don't need to spell them out. As for shooting in Southern hemisphere, the midday sun is not a very flattering look, I would always try to shoot day exteriors from early sunrise till say about 10:30am and then after 3pm. Or at least do all the wide shots in those hours and shoot all close up's where you can model the light better with overhead scrims and such. The contrast in the sunlit areas and shadow is massive and sometimes can be six to seven stops.

I have come across the 0.95 lens made by canon in the 60's and was wandering if anyone knows whether this lens could be converted or have an PL adaptor made to suit a cine 35mm camera??? any suggestions??? anyone done it??? cheers Mark

Hi Hau-Jou can you empty your inbox as I cannot sent you any messages. It's full cheers

The ACL was a very quiet camera, and with proper adapters one could use Nikon mount, Arri Bayonet, Cameflex, Arri Standard, PL mount or C mounted lenses, Even without the registration pin the image is extremely steady at any speeds. The fully orientable viewfinder on the ACL II was a great advantage, also can come with 200' magazines, great for in vehicle shoots. Fantastic camera for hand-held work, and a very low maintenance camera too. Could be converted to S16mm and also can have a video tap fitted. In terms of sound the ACL is a very quiet camera, and much depends how it was loaded, but with a decent barney is soundless. good luck Mark

A producer friend of mine worked with him on a TVC here in Prague not that long ago,

This tango hall was the real McCoy, a beauty from the 30's full of character and screen value that you could not get otherwise, and the place was full of wanderful characters that you could not get through any casting sessions, thanks for the tip, I was totally oblivious to any rules when I was creating this account, it was very hard to see the cut version for all the beauty that was left on the cutting room floor, but that's life of a DOP cheers

Hi everyone, While browsing the net I came across this forum and this particular section, I shot the WE commercial and would like to add to the discussion a couple of facts. First I have to admit not ever seeing "Tango" (pardon my ignorance) sorry David, but I'll promise to go and see it now :-) , so if the scene is reminiscent of Tango it's purely coincidental. Along the TVC we also shot a music video, which is an extended version and has more narrative to it. There's a quick time of it on my website at www.markbliss.com in the music video section As was previously stated I did not use bleach by pass as we did not have the facility to do in Argentina, and also the time pressure was such, that we had no time to do tests. We used Series 4 Cooke lenses, 98% was hand held and I used 50 and 250 D Vision stock and for interiors we used 500T, I did not push the stock and yes we did tweak the contrast a little in post. I personally preferred the look of the "one light" print of the original telecine. I had a less polished look. Most of the interiors were shot close to wide open. The look was achieved mostly with lighting or the lack off. :-) The light in Argentina had a very special quality and even though the shoot was extremely exhausting and we shot it pretty much on the run I am very happy I had the chance to be part of this production. The tango scene was shot during normal running of the tango hall and was shot in stifling heat, most of the dancing scene was shot with a 85mm or 135 mm lenses. The scene was lit with existing fixtures where we swapped bulbs for 40W from the original 25W, and we added a row of Par Cans with 650W bulbs and dimmed them down to about 30% The processing and telecine was done in Buenos Aires and I was very happy with the crew and the post process as well. I hope it clears some of the questions raised earlier, if not get in touch with me to answer specific questions. With respect mark