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im shooting a five minute short next week in an open farm field which, for the film's look, i plan to shoot at the end of the day (magic hourish time) to get the warm tones from late day sunlight. however, is it over ambitious to think i can shoot the entire thing in one day? i'm worried that the sun setting will ruin continuity of shots if i try to squeeze it in, but i'm also not working with a flexible budget. the coverage will probably be pretty basic (wide master, mediums, and closeups) and there is a chance ill have some 650 or 1000 fresnels to work with but im really relying on available light which is why im worried so much about continuity. the film is mostly dialogue (no major blocking or stunts) and will be shot on an hvx. i don't really have experience shooting during magic hour for an extended period of time so any help or suggestions would be much appreciated.

I think whining may not have been the right word to use, but Phil has the right idea. Asking if the xl1 "would" be a good deal after winning the auction is like buying a car, driving it home, and then asking someone if it was a good deal. What Phil was trying to say was that whether it is a good deal or a bad deal it is a deal that already happened. You won, you already purchased the camera essentially.

If you want to give calling the record companies a try, search the artists on www.ascap.com and/or www.bmi.com and find the publisher for the particular song/cue. I have a lot of experience doing this and although I wouldn't call my music taste highly mainstream, I've never had a problem getting gratis rights from publishers (very large ones for some songs) for festivals. Given your situation I think even a verbal agreement will do the trick (unless someone in your family/friends/family's friends is a ballbusting music copywrite lawyer). If all else fails, give this site a try: Creative Commons Good Luck

one of my teachers is a long time professional sound recordist and i think he said the average amount is something like 40% of ADR. but obviously films with a lot of action sequences or odd shooting locations have a lot more.

Affordability is definately an large issue with this film. Being that the equipment is most likely going to be rented, would it just make sense to rent enough cards to last through one day (one rental house has extra cards at $25 each), and then do all the downloading directly to a firewire drive at the end of a day's shooting? As for the editing, shooting 720/24p-->P2-->harddrive was based on the assumption that it would be problematic to edit. If the G5 can handle this easily, is it possible to edit 1080/24p-->P2-->harddrive on a G5? Is there a certain drive speed I need?

You might as well have just posted your answer instead of the question, it would have been just as easy. First of all, generalizing about professors at colleges makes no sense whatsoever. So maybe you didn't like their methods or what they thought of your work; part of learning is being challenged which is one of the most important things about college in general not just film school. Should film schools fill their faculty with established, award-winning filmmakers only? A teacher of mine said to one of my classes "No one knows how to succeed better than the people who have failed". I don't agree fully with what he said, but I definately don't think that there is some dire need for genius filmmaker teachers in film school because "unsuccessful" ones aren't capable of teaching good filmmaking. They are teaching THEORY, which can LEAD to good filmmaking. About "no one caring where you went to school", thats not entirely true either. Sure, when you send something to a festival or screen it, no one watching cares where whoever went to school, but when you're fresh out of school and you're basically starting over at entry level set jobs to try and work your way up (as many people are), where and if you went to school most certainly do matter. You seem to have a very all or none mentality about this whole issue, where you're either going to make it big right away or not at all, which really isn't how it works for most. Yes, we all know that Kevin Smith made Clerks with almost nothing and PT Anderson dropped out right away and Quentin Tarantino did nothing but work in a video store, but its not going to happen like that for most of us.

I'm new to the latest HD equipment, but I'm producing a short most likely to be shot on an HVX so I'm looking for some info. I'm trying to figure out--how does P2 recording work with regard to on set downloading. What can I hook up to the camera to download HD footage from the P2 cards (a drive? a laptop to a drive?) Does this take a while (is it going to be time consuming on set)? Finally, how problematic is it going to be to edit 720/24p on a Mac G5 system? It is too high a rate to edit online with? The plan is to output to DVD/HD formats for festivals, so any post suggestions would be nice.

The thing about film school that a lot of people overlook when considering making a feature instead is the lifelong benefits that a film school community provides, most particularly NETWORKING. Now I'm not saying go out there and apply just to schmooze as many people as possible, but meeting different artists and people in your industry that will eventually end up in the same line of work as you will be endlessly helpful when it comes to getting jobs, circulating scripts, screening your work, etc. . It's a people business and connection and collaboration with others is huge. You may make a feature, get it out there, win tons of awards at festivals, and get a distribution deal; you're psyched. However if you don't win, which I've experienced numerous times in the increasingly competitive indie market, you're back to square one with a lot less cash. Film school can give you a lot to rely on, and give you a little more time to ease your way into the industry.

I don't know of any examples online but if you need a reference, you can just do it logically with most computer editing software. Assuming you have any footage laying around on your computer or could just go point and shoot some, just import it and work with the fractions of film speeds (24 frames/desired framerate = percent of speed) i.e. 24/48 is .5 so for 48fps do 50% on your speed change.

here's what you do (at least for going to DVD). shoot 24p advanced, and set your capture settings to "Advanced 3:2 Pulldown Removal" (or something generally like that i don't know it word for word) . import all your 24pa footage with this setting. then set your sequence settings to 23.98 so you are editing true 24p. then you will have to use compressor to compress the file for DVD which you can make a 23.98 DVD (16:9 or 4:3 depending on what you shot). this way you completely preserve the 24p characteristics instead of just adding exporting to whatever you can put on a DVD or tape.

I guess after reading posts and looking into it more, I retract the degree to which I was opposed to the idea, but I still think that the average DP/director would be more effective choosing one of the two roles. However, it sounds like you've got the experience and for all I know you're a film genius, so best of luck on the shoot Richard.

bucks county, pennsylvania or any other amish community for that matter.

i was just checking out rental prices on the ARRI CSC website and noticed that all of the HMI lights have two prices, one for "magnet" and one for "elec. SQ-WV". could someone fill me in on what these mean? are they meant for different shooting situations?

I'm not one to trash on a rental house that I've never used (they may be two extreme cases), but you might want to see these posts about Handheld from an NYU messageboard: "The first time I rented from them, I asked for a follow focus, which they told me was available, but when I checked out, there wasn't one present with our gear. So I asked them, and they ended up giving me a pretty cheap one that ended up not working if we had the matte box on at the same time. The second time, two of the items I had reserved - a swingaway matte box and a 9.5mm lens - were not available when we arrived to checkout, so we got a clip-on matte box. The director actually decided before we arrived that she'd rather have a 12mm lens than a 9.5, so I guess it didn't matter too much, but watch out...they also initially sent us the wrong rental quote, with items we didn't rent, so we had to call back and ask for the right quote." "- out of a light, and were about to charge me even though it wasn't present - no replacement bulbs until asked - no proper housing for bulbs and lights, just loose- and now they're charging me for a broken bulbs which weren't broken when we packed everything up - wrong adapter and no screw, so we couldn't use the dolly - took an hour to draft the contract at checkout which had incorrect information on it - said they would refund the dolly then changed their mind"

I am doing a citywide search for a DP for a 22-page short to be shot on S16 next fall (early Sept). The project is an NYU short, and will be a very professional production. Those interested must have S16 experience on an Aaton XTR and/or Arri SRII/III, and must live in New York City. Due to the low budget there is no compensation other than meals, transportation, and a finished copy, but I can assure you it will be a very involved and fun shoot (most likely 4-5 days). I'm looking for someone with strong creative vision who really loves to shoot film. Anyone interested please send me a personal message for more info or just post a link to your reel. I'd like to have someone locked in the next week or so as I'm applying for numerous grants and would like include some DP supplements with my apps; plus I'd just like to get an early start on planning the visuals. Thanks, Andrew

you've got a hell of a job in front of you to be DPing and directing at the same time on a feature, especially one shot on 35mm. if i were you i'd really put some thought into doing that. not that it's not possible, but turning out quality cinematography and quality directing at the same time (especially on a feature) seems almost unfeasible to me. as for rehersal, generally as much as possible is best best. i sort of understand spielberg's method but don't sacrifice an actor's understanding/your satisfaction with part of the script because you feel it will be less natural on set. rehersal allows you to see what you like/don't like and to make last minute edits, familiarize your actors with the characters/scenes, and organize blocking among other on set tasks. it will save you a ton of time on set, and saving time = saving money. obviously you don't want to overwork the script, but generally what i've learned in my experience is the more preproduction, the smoother the production.

just from my own experience and from what i have heard from professors at my university, the demo/portfolio reel, while it is important, is not as huge a factor in your acceptance as most people seem to think. its pretty early in the game for most people applying, so generally they aren't looking for a very focused reel, because for the most part no one really has any idea what they want to do when they're still in high school. i would just put what you think is your "best" made work together. most of the schools i applied to had a time limit, but if they don't try and keep it brief. this worked for me.

What are the most universally accepted formats for: 1. Festival submission 2. Festival screening I realize there may be multiple answers for both, but I just wanted to know what people generally send in/screen. Thanks.

About the marketing aspect, yes they have done surveys about shot length and quick cutting and today's audiences respond much better to it. The average shot length in films today is a tiny fraction of what it used to be. As for the film school commandment remark, I've been in film school for a few years now and can tell you, from my personal experience here, that if anything, people need to experiment more with camera movement; it's hardly a fad here at all.

I'm assuming you read that in one of the posts above, and I've got to say that I wanted to bleach bypass for almost the very opposite effect. From what I have seen, it gives a very industrial, desaturated look, the opposite of "organic", based on the coloring that pops into my head when I think "organic".

I'm thinking about having my DP use nets for diffusion and I've never seen them used on a set, so I guess I'm just wondering, are they something that require a lot of attention and care? Would it be too much of a hassle for a student production with a DP of somwhat limited experience? We are shooting on S16--are there a lot of adjustments that need to be made i.e. exposure, during the use of a net. Are they something you can find at rental houses, and if not, what do most DPs use?

yeah, i know of three just in new york off the top of my head that still process it.

richard, the millions filip was referring to were the millions who died from the spanish flu in the early 1900s, not from bird flu. he was merely giving an example of what these pandemics are possible of, which i think is somewhat credible as i can't imagine there's some huge difference between spanish flu and bird flu.

thanks for the warning travis. you dont have any still from skip-bleach projects do you?

I've got two items for sale, which I would sell through private eBay auction with Paypal. I'm going to put them on eBay regardless, but wanted to let you guys get a chance at them before the masses. 1. Sony DCR-VX2100 Camera--$1850 It includes original box (if you want it), lens hood, shoulder strap, charger, original battery, 15.5 hour Lenmar battery, and a carrying foam-cube suitcase. It is less than a year old and has probably logged something like 5 hours of video total. I didn't get much use out of it as I upgraded cameras. 2. Century Optics .3X BAYONET ULTRA FISHEYE LENS FOR VX2100/PD150--$500 Comes in Century box with both lens caps and the small screwdriver tool. Bought with the VX (less than a year old) and minus a scratch or two on the lens caps, is in perfect condition. Post any questions you have about it or send me a message. Cheers.