monday sunnlinn

if i'm using a letus extreme with nikon lenses, which choice do i use? the one for nikon dslr or a certain CoC? i have the letus set up to have a 35mm frame size by doing the piece of paper on the wall at 24" with a 50mm lense to frame up with... if it's CoC, what's the formula for figuring that out? thanks a lot!

i can't help with jobs, but i lived in a van in L.A. , Orlando and upstate New York. there's a park behind the federal building on wilshire blvd and veteran ave. i used to park there. you would be a 5 minute walk from the westwood mann theatre(where they premiered episode 1, the thin red line, and fight club-i think, this was a long time ago.) and the general time killing area of UCLA students. good place to meet people is the 'coffee bean' coffee shop, or whatever it is currently called. there is also an l.a. fitness there also on wilshire, where i used to shower each day and work out. if anything, it was a safe place to park (this was in '98 and '99) there are a lot of homeless people in that park, but i never had any real problems, and with a van you will be the sort of uber diety of the homeless)...i used to park right at the corner of veteran and rochester. may fortune smile upon you!

wow, how long until that is available and what's the price? let me know when it's available please...

i bought a D200 expressly for this purpose. if the clouds are moving fast no more than 3 to 4 seconds between shots, or you will get a choppy movement of the clouds, obviously try it and see before the shoot. get an idea of what kind of fluidity you want out of it. i have an 8gb flash card that will take about 480 shots in raw format. i use raw because i like to be able to fix any errors in the shots, especially when you spend hours sitting and babysitting a camera all day for a 20 second sequence. things you will need/ or should keep in mind turn off all auto features. cover the viewfinder of the camera to keep light from getting in. a single battery in temperate climate will last about 5 or 6 hours of time lapse, at the most. rocksolid, immovable tripod is a must. if you're shooting raw, you can underexpose and play with it later, test it if possible to see the limits of the lighting from the sun rising and setting. this is the hardest time of day to get time lapse done well... bring an ipod, food, water and a bottle to pee in if you don't have an assistant you can program a start time in on the D200, not sure about any other model.(in case you don't want to get up at 5am)

does anyone know if the dalsa or phantom is upgradeable like the red is claiming it will be? i'd like to see a world where genius in efficient design/manufacture/lifecycle/re-cycle and disposal is held in the highest esteem. it seems that we may actually be to the point where resource scarcity has started to make that come true in the design of the latest and greatest gadgets and gizmos...

yes, just make sure you transfer the entire folder. if you want to name each batch of clips, make a new folder, name it what you want and drag the entire contents of sxs card into that. if there is a folder on the card that says SONY, then you have also stored your camera data/profiles too, you can then drag that back to a card. put the card in the camera and then restore those particular settings to the camera. (it's a great way to keep track of looks...) you'll also need to download the final cut clip transfer program for final cut, if that's what you are using. if you are using Vegas or anything else that needs MXF files, you can't do this procedure. you have to capture with the clip browser while the card is still in the computer...

anyone know of any that are atleast 40 stories high(or has a view that shows the city spread out before it) and willing to let people use it for shooting a music video? doesn't need to be free, but this isn't a big budget either... thanks a lot!

i see, good to know, thanks!

thanks for the input everyone! anyone else?

it may not fit the suit you're wearing, but a $60 pair of running sneakers from your local sporting goods store will save you the foot/knee/ back ache you'll have after standing on concrete all day... i've done my fair share of shoots and set-ups at convention centers and hotels and believe me, those are worth every penny... something with air/gas chambers in the heels and a pair of gel inserts bought after the plane ride will make it far more enjoyable....

so this will undoubtedly start a controversy. i apologize for that, and also promise not to hold anyone responsible for their advice and/or anecdotes. i have to shoot a music video. part of it involves NYC exteriors. here's the sequence: the artist walking away from times square with it framed in the background. glidecam shot orbiting the artist as he walks. bird's eye shot that starts just above him and goes all the way up the side of a building, over the edge of the roof and dollies back over the shoulder(who is now on the roof) of the artist surveying the city stretched out below.(this will be several takes stitched and smoothed together and sped up in post to be a one beat sort of shot. the camera dollies back even further to reveal an "evil female love interest" trying to control his mind, standing behind him either at the other side of the building or on another building. (this is another super fast pull back) this is pretty low budget stuff. i will be using ambient lighting, maybe a reflector if necessary. a glidecam and either a red or a combination of HVX200 and the Sony EX-1. no sound necessary. if the red rental is beyond the budget, the camera will have a letus extreme on the front of it, if i can get by without the matte box (which seems probable considering the man made canyon of buildings i will be in) it still isn't that obtrusive of a rig. i plan on finding a window washing company that will let me(and i mean me, i wouldn't make anyone else do this.)stick a camera on their washing scaffold and be hoisted up the side of the building. (yes, i am well aware of the wind and vibration i will have to deal with and the danger of being on a scaffolding, that's what safety harnesses are for.) so not a very big production, not very disturbing to the mayhem of times square. should i worry about permits? would the NYPD in times square even bother to say something to me about such a small amount of gear? i know the permits and police assistance are free. but the insurance policy and hassle of actually going to the office seems like it would be more work than actually shooting there... thanks in advance for any input. also, with all due respect, i don't need any comments about the camera choices. i've spent enough hours of my life reading the informative yet slightly disturbing bickering about the technical aspects of these cameras(one of which is particularly controversial). i've seen enough footage from all of them to be perfectly happy with whatever the person bankrolling this endeavor will pay for. it's a medium low budget music video, not the next(insert benchmark for qualitative/technical achievement here) :P

Hey Andy, what's the work around to the backfocus issue? i haven't had that happen yet, but i wouldn't mind being prepared in case it does...thanks! and it does look like you triumphed over adversity. it's satisfying after the fact, but not so much when in the middle of it...

i here ya Saul, i hated that codec too, but this incarnation has run smooth in FCP(to my amazement and joy). my only dissapointment is the colorspace. which makes keying with this camera far less viable, even with the extra luminance detail that the larger chip gives you. i've never tried DIY telecine, but i would imagine it's the rolling shutter that's giving you the problem, it's also bad for strobes and fast horizontal movement, which is why i plan on still getting an HVX, do you have any actual facts on when there latest version is coming out? that i'd like to see...

Andy, in no way do i mean to be patronizing. i was posting not just for you but for anyone who comes here to read and learn from other's experience(i thank everyone i have gained a little bit of wisdom from) . i guess i did misread your post. i usually go through all the forums on my iphone before even getting out of bed in the morning(that thing has made me so lazy). i guess the impression i got was that you were rushed and had a bunch of things blow up in your face that day, which is the worst timing for having to use new gear. i actually own this camera, and i find the degree of flexibility and programmability to actually be a real joy. sony is usually a little different in how the design their prosumer type stuff, and this is a fairly complex camera even compared to the Z1U or the V1U. so for those considering it, i'd say it's best not to have all of 24 hours to get to know it before a big shoot. especially if you are coming from panasonic or JVC experience. even more so if you've never dealt with solid state. as for the auto mode comment. when a producer slapped a V1U into my hands at a shoot and said "we roll in 10 minutes" i never actually figured out how to get the gain off auto mode until the plane ride back home when i actually had a chance to read the manual(and even the manual could be a little more clear on the various amounts of auto and what is affected by each setting. sony's are a lot more complex than panasonic or JVC in that respect. ...and you can turn the shutter off on the lcd screen menu, without ever touching the button on the front of the camera.

indifocus says their new one has a new gear box, maybe they are aware of the play in their old ones. anyone actually used the 'new' one yet? i'm curious as to how well they work now...

you can control the shutter, gain, temperature, picture profile, shutter type, and even the slow/quick motion framerate(when in that mode) right on the lcd screen with the jog wheel on the back of the camera. press it once and then turn it to choose which function you want to control. press it again once the function you want to control is highlighted and use the wheel to change your settings. it helps to read the manual before the shoot when you aren't stressed for time instead of the middle of a bad day...turning off the auto features helps also. the only time i use those is if i'm in some sort of ENG environment, which admittedly this camera's rolling shutter issue makes extremely unlikely.

i'm about to direct/DP a music video i wrote a treatment for. i think pre-pro is going to be the only thing making this possible. it's not a band on stage video either, there's locations in times square, salt lake city and a number of technically challenging VFX shots. i plan on doing a full CGI pre-vis, and i'm fairly certain i can wear both hats. while it's not as long as a feature it has all the elements. I am also the Editor, VFX Super, Lead CG artist, Lead Compositor, Lead Colorist and i can sleep after it's done.... maybe i can get Robert Rodriguez to cater... i think as long as you aren't super-rushed, anything is possible.

speaking of keys, i'd like to see a still as well please.

okay, but what parts of jumper?...or maybe i'll go see it and come back and say which parts i think were shot with the red and you can say uh-huh- or nuh-uh? :-)

myself and another production company just chipped in for one of these. i had an hour to play with it yesterday when i was setting it up (or down...)to match their fx-1, i didn't notice any creep, but i wasn't looking...it's going to amsterdam for a week for a music video shoot. when it get's back, i get to put it through it's paces...i'll keep an eye out for this. might just be a manufacturing glitch in that particular unit... and it does have a sharper picture than the HVX, barely, we did a side by side comparison at the camera store on a native 1080p monitor-(couldn't tell you which one it was...). interestingly when i turned the sharpening off them both the difference wasn't that much. but given the feature set of the sony and the fact that you can get 4.2.2 when you need it, and the better low light shooting, we chose the sony. i hear there are a few harddisk options becoming available soon...(whatever that means)...

Cloverfield was shot with a Cine-Alta F23 according to this... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloverfield

uhh, where'd you get the 32 gig card?

www.istockphoto.com might have something on it...

yeah, i saw this a few weeks ago, and was actually going to make a post like this, then the freelance gods dumped a bunch of work on my desk. just got back from the (inter)netless expanses of wisconsin. so... Nice job! i saw North Fork a year or so ago and loved the look and feel. i actually liked that one for it's pronounced style, versus a more subtle flavoring in the 'astronaut farmer'. i imagine you were helped by the actual material you were visualizing. it's great when a bunch of talented people get there heads together... what's your next project? :)

what kind of camera was it? was it an HDMI out? what software did you use? you seem to be very absolute about all this, yet technology is changing the game every 6 months, so forgive me for still persuing detailed specific knowledge about this from people who have tried similar things. have you considered that some people like myself have a special purpose in mind? that some people actually -like- the challenge of doing something new? maybe making something that is/has a unique look or feel or style. if nobody tried pushing the bounds of what exists into what is new, we wouldn't have video or film cameras at all... :)