Chris Keth

I heard from a friend that the mechanics are very nice. He reserved his opinion about the optics until he has a chance to use them in real world situations but said they seem nice enough.

The only place I've seen those is in the lobby of arri CSC. Perhaps give them a call?

I think you should do both. Make that trailer but shoot and cut one of those scenes in its entirety. The two, plus pitch and script will make a nice "package" for you to sell.

Pretty much any decent production will give the 1st a prep day. It's nice when they'll pay the 2nd to help but a lot of shows won't do that. About the stiff lens, I would just get it replaced.

The videos you linked to look like three different things to me. The first video looks like long lenses with bits of clear material in front of the lens: prisms, maybe bits of broken glass, etc. I think the second is just shooting right into the sun with a lot of particulate floating in the air with those dandelion seeds. The third one I'm not sure. The first instance you point out looks like just natural flare. The second looks like it might be a bit of water on the lens. You can get a lot of great looking things like this if you collect some bits of broken glass, some bottles (both glass and plastic), and even some mirrors and experiment with placing those very close to a fairly long lens so that they're very out of focus.

Well, fast film will help but it won't get you the whole way there. Say you're lit to shoot at a T2 on 200 speed film. If you bump up to 500 speed film, you're only up to T2.8 and a third. Every stop deeper you want to shoot needs double the amount of light so it climbs fast and the set will be hot. Also, consider blocking for deep focus. There's no point in doing all that work for a deep focus look if you're not going to take advantage. Watch some movies from when deep focus was fashionable and see how they block their masters. There is depth, they use it as another dynamic where you can stack characters or separate them. Study it and think hard about it. Blocking with really nice depth to a frame is harder than it appears on the surface.

I learned the hard way to keep an eye on the lens. I screwed up a shot because I thought I got it and we moved on. I went to help tear down the steadicam and found the gear no longer meshed with the lens.

I set the camera close in to my neck, on the big muscle that bridges from my neck out onto my shoulder. Remember that the shoulder "pad" on ENG cameras is adjustable front to back. Use that to balance it on your shoulder. Beyond that, the best thing I've done is purchased a carwash sponge and velcroed it to the shoulder pad. The sponge starts out about an inch and a half thick and squishes almost flat under weight but it's enough to spread the weight, keep the camera from cutting into your shoulder (which tires out the muscle it sits on), and it feels much better.

I'm very much the same. I tried to cheap out and bought the fat max laser tape. It's great for interiors but useless for exteriors, so my soft tape comes out when I step outside. People tend to be very (overly, even) touchy if you get the laser anywhere near their face so if I'm measuring to a person, I'll put the dot on the middle of their collarbone. It measures very, very close to the same as measuring to someone's temple like usual. As for how using a laser makes you look, I've never had anyone think I was lazy for using it, at least not out loud. Everyone I work with appreciate the speed with which I can grab a mark and get on with blocking. In fact, I was outdoors once and the AD asked once, "why can't you use the pointer thingy? It's faster."

You certainly can. There is a set of accessories that arri refers to as the "single frame system" that are helpful. It includes a control box, a capping shutter, and even a cable to tether a pentax spotmeter for auto-iris if you're into that. Check out this configuration guide, it lists the single frame system parts in the lower right corner.

That's the one. Thanks for the filled-in details. I've used that quite a bit on super 16 and really liked it. It doesn't seem to be as popular as the zeiss 10:1 lenses or the canon 8-64.

They have no web presence at all. It's a bit of a strange place. Even when you live in LA, they still have you drop your meter at a box in a shipping store. Their phone number is (323) 467-2265.

Second on visual products. They're wonderful. Any of zeiss' 10-100 or 11-110 T2.0 or T2.2 are quite nice. Perhaps my favorite 16mm zoom is the canon 8-64 and the cooke 9-56 (not pocitive on the cooke's exact limits, something like that though).

The color temperature doesn't change when the lens is opened up. They do get quite soft wide open, though.

Neal's a great guy. I was disappointed that I didn't get to come shoot the feature he shot a couple months ago. Does that mean you're at RIT, too?

My favorite rental house is the camera house. Their equipment is always tip top, I reject fewer pieces there than anywhere else, and all the people there are great. Also Steve, give me a call if you need a hand with anything here in LA. I'll happily help you any way I can.

A blond on each pole would be about right, I think. The rigging can be done with chainlocks and then safety everything well.

My approach would be 3 parts: I would rig your own lamps in place of the streetlights. If you can't have them turned off, then just black them out. Go without barndoors and with wide or superwide lenses and you'll get a really nice transition from toplight to backlight that fades as more toplight comes in from the next light. I would rig a couple of small kinos to the back of the camera car for very low level fill. I'm talking 3 or 4 stops under key, maybe a bit cool. Finally, I'd rig a bounce to return some of that toplight when she goes under the streetlights. Because it's bounce, it will turn on and off at the right times when she goes in and out of the lights. I've done this part before and it's a great look as long as you keep it on the low side.

I'm right there with John about gearheads. I do realize, though, that your thesis may not be the time to spin the wheels for the first time. Of the two you listed, I would absolutely take the 2060. It's built to take the weight of that camera. The 1030 would do it but it wouldn't be as steady. I would also take the 2060 because I tend to like a fair bit of resistance when I operate a fluid head and smaller heads simply don't have enough a lot of the time.

You're right; I'm just being proper. I usually reply to at least one thread per month that stems from someone simply having no clue of the physics of optics and of the factors that affect focus.

To be perfectly honest, I don't know of any lenses less than a grand that I would use on a paying job.

It's perfectly safe. I've travelled all over with my meter with no problems at all. Physically, the jist of a lightmeter is a sensor very much like a little solar panel. It generates current proportional to the amount of light hitting it.

It depends on too many factors whether you really have more or less on one of those adapters. They're generally too shoddy to be consistent in any way. A 5D2 will have less than 35mm because you're using longer lenses in any particular situation. The RED, in theory, has the same depth of field as 35mm film. In my experience, however, it has less. The falloff from sharp to soft seems faster. I don't bother with a kelly wheel. I set up and use pcam on my iphone.

If you wanted similar output to the bare 300W, I would have used a baby and then had room to scrim it down if need be.

Full takes 1-2\3 stops. It felt like the light was low because it was! Your 300W was working as only about a 120 watt fresnel.