David Negrin

Just to be clear I wasn't trying to attack you personally. Hope it didn't come across that way.

 

I think you're right. Just to clear up the director has never asked me to check focus, it's always me, I agree that would be a little weird. I think there is a lot the idea of an AC sixth sense being learned over time. Kind of like on the few features I've done the dof calc comes out less and less as the days go by.

 

TV sounds scary man. Hopefully if the strike put you out of a job things get rolling soon.

 

Good point about the down res before distribution. I hadn't thought of that.

Alex-

I didn't take is as an attack, Sometimes I forget how long I've been doing this for , After a while it does become 2nd nature,

when the D.P. asks you how much stop you'll need for the split and by looking at the MM and distances you need to cover ... you'll

just know, and then use your CoC to dbl. check yourself, When your right the 1st time there is a stupid sense of accomplishment,

Kinda Camera geeky, much in the same way some of us were excited ( here in L.A. ) about the twin tip sharpie 1 less pen to leak ( nerd ).

thats when you realize that actual pulling is the easy part of the job, When you get into show politics and other unavoidable

pitfalls of the different personalities and technical challenges on a set. The best way I've found to survive is Humility and laughter .

we work in pop-culture , not the cancer ward . I'm not belittling what we do, but, there is a reason why we have Law and Order now, and adam-12 then. I had a B-cam guy once, and in the van he wanted to debate me that the 1st A.C. was the most important guy on set, He didn't know I was the A-cam 1st, and was very arrogant about it, When he found out who I was, he crapped his pants, especially when they pulled me to his camera @ 70 mph on an insert car for various reasons. I've never heard of this guy again. Point is, That it takes 45 - 65 people to make a movie, each one is as important as the next, in time , in turn, we all row the boat together. Don't worry about what that crotchety old weenie Dave Negrin says, I know him pretty well, and he's not all bad ... just sort of Jaded . The other advice I can give to all focus pullers is to relax, Don't let the # in front of MM intimidate you, that was the point of what Hugh said to me " your either in or your out kid" . As the number goes up, so should the relaxation factor. I think in hind sight, I was making him nervous because I was checking every shot and it was braking his confidence that I could do the job. Let them think you have ice water in your veins , tell someone a joke just before you go ( it helps with relaxing ) ... If you go down ( soft ) at least you'll have a smile on your face as the grips drag your body away. :)

Dave

It sounds good but, no disrespect intended, that i disagree. It does sound funny but really those calculators (pCam, samcine or whatever) are invaluable. What happens if it's dark so you're shooting wide open and the actor walks into close up and misses their mark. The director calls cut and you ask the actor and camera to hold for focus. The op looks at you and says it looked okay but you break out the tape and the calculator and it turns out you missed it by a couple inches. It may look okay in the finder but on the big screen you've got a shot that's just enough out of focus to be annoying or even worse, unusable. Why wast everyone's time and the production's money if you think you missed it and request another take but a simple dof calculation says you're fine or move on when you have missed it but the op doesn't report a problem. It seems like your job is to make sure what should be in focus is in focus and any tools that help why not use? Especially if they do save time and therefore money. On the flip side I have seen 1sts get lost in their dof calculators and cost time therefore money. It's a fine line I guess.

 

I guess what really prompted this question was that with the Red's (really this goes for any 4k camera) 35 sensor, the sharpness 4k can capture, and the "cleanness" of 4k HD/ lack of film grain to give the image some texture, I would be afraid that any slightly buzzed shots would be more apparent. Maybe I'm obsessing about it too much or maybe it's because I'm still fairly new to the game but I just want to be able to do my job with confidence and not ever get a call a week down the road about a shot I blew.

 

I'll feel much better when the HD/SDI outs on the Red start working and 4k capable monitors come around. Until then I don't truly trust monitors with the Red, same for any 4k camera I guess. I still think of Red monitors like onboards I guess.

 

The more I think about it and type out what I think it seems like these neurosis might fade the more confident I get but until then I like the numbers to make me feel better.

 

On another subject I didn't know camera original was 32mm. I thought it was 35mm and shooting regular 35 you just weren't shooting in the soundtrack area but it was still there. And then with super 35 you were shooting that extra soundtrack area. If that's true I've learn a little something new here today.

 

Thanks as always for everyones input.

Alex -

If you've got the director calling for focus before the D.P. ; Camera Operator ; or yourself ... then there's a larger camera dept. problem

that needs to be rectified. Being sort of new ? maybe you haven't done a long lens type of show. I work in episodic Predominantly where there is no other stop than WFO and the MM would be from 180 mm - 275 mm all day. No forgiveness, no missing, or you'll end up missing. After a while of pulling, the DoF charts will be memorized just by checking them out so often , As for Obsessing , that's good in moderation. Remember your target format ( t.v. : theater ) . the parameters for television is much more forgiving than theater, Much in the way that as overwhelming as a 4k signal is, the only 4k theater I know of is at Dalsa , the makers of the origin camera in woodland hills , So even a 4k signal is going to have to down res. before anyone can use it for public presentation, And as much as it lacks professionalism that means that small buzzes will be lost in down res. .

The difference between someone who's good and someone who's great is know what rules can bend.

Dave

I worked with a 1st AC earlier this year on a feature who would often ask her 2nd to write either a star, or the letters "U.P." (for Under Protest) on the slate to indicate that she had not been allowed to receive a proper rehearsal for focus marks.  Could make some sense if this was a standard practice, but I'd never heard of it, nor met anyone else who has.  Just curious...have you guys?

LLp Huh? star on the slate ehh? sounds like your working with Bernie Smith.

The Star indicates yes that there was no rehersal and if there's a buzz you can't get called out on it, Of course,

When you buzz a shot as a focus puller you need to tell them :

1. there was a buzz.

2. where focus was.

3. how many beats you were soft for.

4. what lines of dialogue was missed.

with the last one, it is helpful to have an understanding of editorial, if there's dialogue on screen ... you need it again

and you need to stand up and say so, if it is a reaction to dialogue, then let the director or D.P. know and defer to them. better one extra take then to find out in dallies and having to face everyone at the reshoot ( if you are not fired).

Hey Alex and Others

I recently been dealing with red directly, and their ( Randy or Travis ) support team said they were going to be sending me conversions

via Email. I was told ... the 24.4mm sensor is the same as 35mm film, thats why the red can use regular spherical cine. lenses .

When We shoot 35mm film if you've ever actually measured the film, you'd see that the film we shoot is only 32mm, 35mm is print film

with room for optical sound. Out of that 32mm we use and image area of 25mm (1"). thats why the 1" sensor is such a big deal ... the capture

area of the chip matches the size of film, So, there is no conversion on depth. However, we all know that HD see more detail than the human eye

( just look at any "beautiful" woman in a ecu ) so Always give a glance to the onboard you can pull off the HD monitor. It defintely is an acquired

taste especially if your use to doing traditional focus. I remember a D.P. named Hugh Garnier, he was 800 years old and I was 23 when we

worked together, I pulled out the samcine to see what I had as far as depth, he Looked at me and said " Kid your either in or out, put that thing

away until I ask for a focus split ... I've never used it since, I've loaned it to the other guys, but not myself.

So, breathe, relax,and have a good shoot

Shane-

Lead assisting is not so overwhelming.

It sounds like 2nd unit will be completely autonomous, so,

They should have all their own equipment. ( support, heads, lenses, etc. ) other

than anything specialty needed for those big days when ]they join you ( Crane Plates And so on )

As far as camera designation, HHmmm , A & B on 1st unit, A & B on 2nd unit,

Then when they join 1st unit they are C & D camera's ( at that point they are

not 2nd unit they are 1st unit ) Post should be able to handle it, But , Talk to

the D.P. and see what he wants to do. ( always defer to the higher power in the

chain of command. ) He will either make the call or talk to the editor or script super.

and now the film stock, give them film out of you inventory, all paperwork goes to the

A Camera 2nd or loader, it is 1st unit, at the end of the night collect the balance of stock

from their 2nd. It should all balance out, give them 5000' and they turn in 3 rolls and 2 cans.

does that make sense?

Any other questions post them to me here

Have a good shoot Shane

Dave

Shane-

Lead assisting is not so overwhelming.

It sounds like 2nd unit will be completely autonomous, so,

They should have all their own equipment. ( support, heads, lenses, etc. ) other

than anything specialty needed for those big days when ]they join you ( Crane Plates And so on )

As far as camera designation, HHmmm , A & B on 1st unit, A & B on 2nd unit,

Then when they join 1st unit they are C & D camera's ( at that point they are

not 2nd unit they are 1st unit ) Post should be able to handle it, But , Talk to

the D.P. and see what he wants to do. ( always defer to the higher power in the

chain of command. ) He will either make the call or talk to the editor or script super.

and now the film stock, give them film out of you inventory, all paperwork goes to the

A Camera 2nd or loader, it is 1st unit, at the end of the night collect the balance of stock

from their 2nd. It should all balance out, give them 5000' and they turn in 3 rolls and 2 cans.

does that make sense?

Any other questions post them to me here

Have a good shoot Shane

Dave

Louis-

I was a 2nd for 6 years and the rule of thumb was:

White- your slowest stock (100 asa)

Blue- mid speed stock (250 asa)

Red- your fastest stock ( 500 asa )

Yellow- specialty stock ( D.P.'s request you still need a color)

Daylight or tungsten and all the tech info about each stock

you should know and can put the stock # on the mag tag.

More recently I have also seen pink and green ( flourescent ) as

the new generation takes over. As a 1st, I just shut up and put what

the D.P. and the 2nd have discussed, ( a 2nd's arena to build a

relationship with the D.P.. ) Of course, I still pay attention , but,

there seems to be a color shift in my vision as I get more experience.

Good Luck Louis

Dave

Hey Jonathan

While this might be distressing, eventually (sooner than later) the a.c. trainee rental program will go away.

If you got an a.c. from the camera house in he wasn't up to snuff, you wouldn't use that camera house anymore.

only bad news travels at light speed, no matter how cheap the rental is, if there are A.C. related problems, you don't

have it in the can, and that will kill the program and possibly the bussiness if they try to hold onto it too long.

you also have to rely on natural selection and wash out.

Dave

Chris-

I too had the same problem in singapore several years ago.

You need to climatize all your equipment when you have a temperature change more than 20 degree,

but also those time when dealing with humidity.

1993 shoot in the area, I had to wait 3.5 hours for the camera's dew indicator to shut off and let the camera

function. The only other way is to take dust-off and blow it into the vents to speed the humidifying process

( not reccomended, but effective when the production clock is ticking).

enjoy some coffee on orchard street while your waiting.

Karl-

There are no focus pulling classes, and, one of the pieces of advice from one of the other reply's was good. " go get a few 2nd A.C. jobs and learn what you can from someone who's already doing the job." There is a reason why you might think about staying at each position along the way as you travel through your career ,When you get to Director of Photography ( big assumption on my part ) you will know when the "guys" are yanking your chain and you wont ask them to do unreasonable things in a small time frame.

As for now, here are some tricks, ins-n-outs of focus pulling:

1) Always measure to an inanimate object or the mark, not the actor, the human body is always in motion ... by the time you get back to camera there gone

and your measurement is no good.

2) never use your arm span, inside 6' focus becomes more critical and that way is really not good for anything except to stretch. ( very ineffective )

3) Check-out the geography of the room you are shooting in, look for repeating patterns on the floor , become familiar with construction Pillars, wall seams, etc.

and see what scales they've built in the set or room for you. they exist in all rooms. on one t.v. show, the art director painted a repeating 1' pattern on the

floor of our main sets, It was the easiest year on a series I've ever had.

4) Relax and breathe, you can't pull a 200 mm 12' close-up @ wide open with your butt puckered up. you gotta relax.

5) Trial by fire, jump out and do it, no career has ever ended when someone is new and with the right people to encourage instead of dropping

the hammer. Self imposed stress caused by a missed take is hard enough without thinking that the grips are gonna be looking for you in the

parking lot at wrap .. worst case is, a case of beer is on you ... we all pay

Good luck I hope some of these tricks work for you, after a while you just see the distances without running the tape out when your guess matches the

tape measure, you in the ballpark, don't be cocky always run the tape ( to double check and the producers like to see it, makes them think your working or something.)

Dave Negrin

1st A.C.

Hi All,

 

I was wondering if anyone could tell me what the proper procedure is in which to perform a "harp test" for lenses? I've looked up the archives and couldn't really find much. Thanks in advance.

 

Cheers,

Graham

I've never heard it called a harp test before, but, a card test yes.

Take a 1x3 board 24'' long, cut slices every inch not going all the

way through the board. Grab the board with a c-stand and set it

horizontally, Place your rig with the center slot @ 5' to the film/ chip

plane. Put the ace in the center slot ( hold cards in place with tape shims)

Place red or black cards going away from camera and the opposite

color coming towards camera. fan them out so all you see is the # and

suit in the corner. find out at what stop your lenses were calibrated, most

camera houses go at t-2.8 . When you see the set up you will see how the

focus falls off on the lens, The numbers going back from the ace might be

soft @ the 3, while the cards coming towards the lens might fall off @ the 2.

giving you the results on the focus carrying 2/3rds back, and then you can

play your depth ( if you need to) more effectively. I have to admit I haven't

heard of anyone doing one in over 10 years.

I have an Arri 4X4 swingaway Mattebox and have been trying to find The right eyebrow (french flag) for it. The plastic shade on the front doesn't appear to be strong enough to drill an attatchment to it to accept a century french flag. Does anyone the know the part number and how it attatches to the mattebox? I've been improvising with tape and cardboard and black foil but I'd like to have the real deal. Thanks for your input.

This is an older style mattebox that uses a one piece eyebrow with the flip over side-flaps ( dog ears ).

You are correct in thinking the fiber cone of the box wouldn't bear the weight. you can use 2 french flags

and use the rods to mount to or have the grips set or " hollywood" a Flag.

hi , who can tell me the effect of diffrent fps ? where can see this video about it in internet?

Hey yong

Fps is a simple concept, When you speed up the camera (I.E. 48 fps) your taking more picures per second than at normal speed ( 24fps US) when this is played back at normal speed the effect is

slow motion, the scale is geometric, thus, 24 - 48 fps is 2x time ( 1sec of shooting is 2 secs. of playback footage), but 48-96 fps is 3x time. Most of what I've done of people runing is at 60 or 72 fps

anymore than that and you going for a specific effect . Do some tests if you can and good luck

Hello,

 

Can someone suggest the best camera to use 35mm color film. Arri has a wide range but is way too expensive. Are there any other good cameras which can be used and can be rented.

 

Also, which film is the best for 35mm film shoots.

 

I am a director and have worked on 16mm till now. But now since am producing this movie, need to plan a lot on the costs.

 

TIA.

If cost is an issue, perhaps you might consider shooting super 16mm and doing a 4k scan on the DI and

35mm print out after post, You save on: Cameras, Filmstock, and lab costs. The Arri Sr3 is a very good camera

and they make some good lenes for it aswell.

Then again, wouldn't you want your D.P. to make this choice for you, part of trusting your Him/her is knowing that

that person knows what he's doing.

Hi I wrote in this forum that i have a problem with a dead 35-3 cam. A forum user tell me that the problem can be the two fuses located near 24-24 switch (in the right top of camera)

 

I went to electronic store with the originals but they don´t recognize them. They are labeled with 3/4 but they don´t know what kind of fuses are.

Someone can tell me the specs of these fuses?

 

thanks a lot.

Try contacting to your favorite tech. at the nearest camera house or camera support. the fuses are propietary

to arri, you can also try their website

goodluck