Benjamin Smith

Hi Guys, I'm Shooting a large part of my Doc. in London area and am looking for some London area based DOP's Gaffer's and Audio Engineer's. 7 camera shoot tough filming concept lighting and audio should be a standard gig. Let me know if you are interested and I will try to get in touch. Thanks

Good stuff guys thanks a lot.

Wow didn't figure this would be so heated. I have worked with the HVX before and am very pleased with it. The reason we are shooting with 7 cams is a style issue. We could do fewer cams but more expensive but the infamous "talking heads" of a documentary are over done and boring. We are using more cams and experamenting. The final res will most likely be 1080p so we can either shoot the red in 1080 or go with a good 2k there ofcourse will be a difference but an acceptable one. Especially when you take into account there will be stock footage of all types mixed in. I believe the audience will give a little leway. Don't you think. As long as you keep the HVX good and tight nothing wide and have good lighting i think we could pull it off.

Thanks a lot. Sorry about the confusion. I have been working in film and video for coming up on 3 years but only doing cheap promo and commercial stuff. So I am a director and can manage a crew. I am a "self-proclaimed" cinematographer. Basically know how to frame shots but in no means a full fledged DP. You were very helpful I your thoughts go along the same lnes as mine. I figured that the DP would step away from the cameras and be able to manage all of them from his own screens so in his experience he can help the camera men frame their shots. We will also be hiring lighting specialists to work with him so he is not managing everything. Thanks again

Hey Everyone, As you can see I am new here and am sort of new to Film/ Video. I am Writing and Directing my first documenary next year and am in the planning stages. I am also a DP for myself. However, I have a shoot in england that will be rather large. It is a 7 camera setup that will be filming 5 men. My co-director and I can not do the filming and we will be hiring just standard camera men to run the cams. My question is Would I hire a Director of Photography to manage all of my cameras and their operators or does that fall under a diferent catagory. Also if this is the case how much would a DP charge for a week of filming? I don't know the going rate for my budget. One morething does anyone know a good Director of Photography in the London area? Thanks for any help. Everytime I think I know a lot about video production. I find a ton more I don't know. P.S. Iwill also need a Lighting gaffer and sound engineer in england.

I am not using the red on interviews because the interview itslef actually will consist of 7 cams and I don't have 7 red's. Do you have any other opinion o cams other than the HVX200 that would match better with red

I am doing a documentary in wich the interviews will be filmed with the HVX200 and the footage will be filmed on RED. Do you see any inherent problems with this other than the obvious 1080 to 4k difference. Will they match up at least decently?