Matt Kelly

Hey guys! Just found my way here because I'm on the hunt for a new monitor, and thought I would share a few personal opinions as we all seem to be in a similar boat. Sorry in advance for a lengthy detailed post! Ive been pulling focus for about 7 years now I've been using the odyssey 7Q for focus for a little over a year now and it's been pretty great. I love the easy access to zoom, as well as the added bonus of being able to capture takes for my own personal review (or the operator). More and more this is actually a terrific feature, because we always have to deal with unpatching the feed to video village if we want to review our own takes for operating or focus quality checks. I was approached by 600 reps multiple times last year about this issue. While I do agree that the odyssey feels a bit soft sometimes, especially when at the 4x zoom, it's still better looking than any of the SmallHD panels that I've used (actually, I believe the SmallHD 7" OLED has the same panel as odyssey, but lacks the flexible zoom functionality). Recently however, I've become more interested in something a tad lighter (for attachment to a FIZ) and a tad sharper....because why the hell not? We've been shooting HD for years now and only a few monitors have an actual native HD resolution. Even the newest Transvideo is $4000 and only 1024x576 in its picture area!! So, I just played with the Shogun a bit and the panel is fantastic. It's sharp, bright, and easy to see in daylight without a hood. Unfortunately, like every other monitor, it's nowhere near the perfect solution. The menu options are absolutely lame. I rarely use focus assist on any monitor because it can easily fool me, but I know a lot of you guys like it. The shogun's options for it are downright useless. It's either ON or OFF....No threshold options of any kind. It does have a 2:1 zoom, and a fairly easily accessible image flip option, but lacks a 1/4-20 mounting point on either side, which is my preferred mounting point for monitors with flip functionality. The odyssey wins in that regard with side mounting points and...drumroll please.... AUTO IMAGE FLIP! Why this feature ever went away for us is beyond me. Thankfully, the newest TVlogic VFM-058W finally has more than 2 damn buttons on it, and they FINALLY implemented an image flip feature. The downside to this monitor in my personal opinion is the size, the lack of auto flip, and the still somewhat annoying menus (I've never been a huge fan of TVlogic menus or button layout). I'm a bit bummed about the Atomos not being a better optIon because I prefer the screen to the TVlogic AND the odyssey. It's really THE panel that we need! Does anyone know of any other monitors that use this panel? The Shogun may just win for me because of its superior OLED panel, the record review bonus, the lighter weight (pretty cheap plastic has an upside!) That said, the cheap build quality does make me nervous, and the audio meters/record buttons being on the screen all the time is just annoying. I'm interested in hearing more opinions.

Nowadays it's really a question for the editor of the particular project. Generally, you want to have something with the song's timecode to be filmed at the beginning or end of each take. It can be a smart slate with wireless TC coming from the playback operator, or it can simply be the screen of an iPod or iPad showing the song time. In most cases a special version of the song is made that extends the ends to allow more room for slating purposes. Timecode in the camera isn't usually used. But some editors seem to be content with running reference audio into the camera (via comtek) and using a plugin like Pluraleyes to automatically sync

I unfortunately had to do another one of these jobs recently with a 5D nearly wide open at all times. I'm still not used to Canon primes so I tried some marks at first. The 100mm macro we had was impossible. A mark on the lens gets you maybe +/- 3 inch accuracy, which is useless for wide open stuff. I found that there was actually play in the lens itself between then outer barrel and the inner magnet driven focus barrel. That lens became a game of making marks for muscle memory of whatever the particulr shot was, and then keeping a good squinty look at the monitor to make sure it was good and adjust. Basically a game of pulling off monitor, since I couldnt trust marks. The 85mm was "OK" for marks, but for critical again I found myself monitor pulling. And the 200mm was maybe the best of them just because it has a larger spread. Every lens was untrustable for marks that day though, but I got a lot of fun/entertaining monitor pulling practice, which I have to say turned out pretty good despite the backwards nature of it. I'm glad to hear you didn't get completely stressed out over it though. That's good :)

Ditto to what Chris said. My best advice would be to not stress too much over it. It is what it is, but be sure that whoever you're working with is aware that proper marks are impossible with an SLR lens like that. If they expect you to truly do the job of pulling focus, than motion picture lenses with proper marks are necessary. I wouldn't even consider the canon zeiss primes "motion picture" as they also lack the markings for critical focus. A remote focus would be a good request for the future if you're ever forced to pull on still lenses. (it can help lengthen the short throw, and helps repeating marks) But normally that kind of job won't be willing to dish out money for a bartech :P. Good luck though and welcome to 5D hell! :D

Silica gel is a great idea! That really works good?

Haha. No I didn't mean you, I meant the topic itself :P. For the most part though I've only seen 2nd's calling out slates on super duper low budget stuff where maybe the mixer is also the boom op. Most sound guys will say it into a mic themselves.

Canned air can work to..... Just blow the fog away :)

Wow... It went there.

It really doesn't matter much. I've run into a bunch of scripties who do military ones like bravo and tango, but I think almost everyone says "Mary" and "Nancy". There is sort of an unwritten movieland alphabet here in LA, but it's mostly name based and much of it is interchangeable with the military version without getting a funny look The alphabet I normally end up using is this; Apple Baker Charlie Delta Echo Foxtrot George Hotel Jackson Kilo Lima Mary Nancy Peter Quincy Romeo Sam (sometimes when S is used) Tango Uniform Victor Whiskey X-ray It's pretty much just military and movie-land's mixed, but whatever you get used to totally depends on the script supervisor that you're with. I wouldn't worry about it too much. It's not a super important thing, but if the funny looks bother you, then try using "edward" or "frank" instead :P. Also if you haven't already, watch this: Im amazed how many setups there were for some of those scenes. One got up to "Fritz Lang"... Really??? Lol. That's amazing

Also, this is the only way I can imagine to easily net lenses that have recessed back elements such as a 75mm or 100mm Cooke S4.

Clear nail varnish??? Super glue? Holy crap man, that sounds terrible. Lol. Easiest way in my opinion is to stretch the net over the rear element, hold it in place with a rubber band, and then CAREFULLY paint the joining surface through the top of the net with rubber cement. It's easiest to do a number of lenses at once, cycling though all of them and then coming back to the first one for a second coat. You can do a set in about a half hour. It keeps a little tack so if the net gets loose, you can pull it taught again and it should remain held. I'm currently on a show doing this and we've tone about 35 days with no trouble an no need to re-net. Best part is at the end of the show, you roll the net off and wipe up any rubber cement left behind with your finger. It's incredibly easy. Easier than snot tape IMO

I think the engraved one is just as easy to clean. The laminate ones i've seen always start to peel off the back and get real grungy lookin after a while.

Heh, I've been battling with the same budget issues. Unfortunately the Magliners ARE the middle ground. I just bought a Junior (because i really only had 500 bucks sitting around to spend), but I'm planning on widenening the shelves myself and doing some other little customizations until i can afford a senior Yeager (which is around 2 grand, but honestly worth every penny once you start making rental on it). Logistically, the bottom line is that anything less than 24" wide is practically useless, and anything "junior" size simply isn't long enough to fit everything you want onto it. Juniors are great for lenses or monitors (which is all I'll be using mine for at the moment), but pretty frustrating to work with as a serious camera cart. You'll also discover that having two nice tires and two rickety casters really won't cut for anything outside of a stage. I'm trying to figure that one out now....guess filmtools will be converting mine soon :( If you can scrounge up the money, I would definitely recommend a senior size yeager or backstage cart. NEVER get a flight case cart! (you'll hate it). And I would honestly steer away from the temptation to buy anything magliner for serious camera cart use. They're good for other things, but overall a big compromise in rigidity. It'll make you really nervous once you're rolling around with a really expensive camera package and watching the whole thing shake around, and then think about the fact that the rear end of the top shelf is being held up by a few tiny rivets. They also dont fold up and store nearly as neatly and low profile. Just my 2 cents.

Nobody mentioned Robert Elswit? :_: