Lars.Erik

Hi Luke,

never come across any Manfrotto tripod I've been happy with.

I've worked quite a bit on the EX-1 and 3 series. I've used the Sachtler 0372 FSB-4 tripod which I've been happy with.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/601879-REG/Sachtler_0372_0372_FSB_4_Aluminum_Tripod.html

Best regards

LE

Hello,

I've been asked to help out on a corporate commercial. The main camera is the RED. They want to use RED for it's shallow DOF and for some high-speed stuff. 60-120 fps.

We'll be using a 2nd camera, a Panasonic HPX-3000 with a normal J17 broadcast lens. It will be used mostly for interviews and some wide-shots. We're using 2 cameras to get more done in one day.

The Panasonic will be in progressive and 25P mode.

My question is this;

will there be any post-production issues? As I understand the 3000 footage can also be uploaded to FCP with the ProRes 422 codec. Will the editor have any issues with this?

Thank you for any replies.

New price;

$350/€235.

This is the Cine version.

Selling an almost never used Sekonic Dualmaster L-558 meter.

Asking $400/270 Euro

Buyer pays for shipping & Paypal fees.

LE

Matthew,

this isn't the right forum. You need to visit steadiforum.com

It's a forum for homemade stabilizers and small size steadicams.

LE

What kind of shots are you doing? Slow and nice or fast and gritty? What kind of helicopter are you using? If it's a small one, it might not be able to carry the weight of the gyro. Check this out first!

Personally I'm not convinced about using gyro in the side doors. I've used this a few times and been very unhappy with the results. I still think a nose mounted gyro is much better. But these are also usually much more expensive. (there's a reason for it) I never operated the gyro. Always had a gyro operator with me.

And it's also a lot more difficult to fly a helicopter sideways than it is to fly it straight forward. In the last year I've ditched the side door gyro, and flown with a 2/3" camera with me hanging out. (handheld) In this way the pilot can fly more straight forward, since you are leaning out the side door. I always use a lens like a HJ22, a HJ11 will be too wide, you have to zoom in to get rid of the legs and side of the helicopter. Making it a lot more difficult to be steady. With a HJ22 you can operate more easily.

Sorry if I'm not giving you advice on how to shoot with a gyro out the door. Just wanted to let you know that I've saved money on the side door gyro and spent it on a better and bigger camera. And I still hadn't used all the money I would have compared to a side door gyro. And the results of the handheld are amazing. I've had people ask me if the shots were gyro. The trick is to have a really good sitting position and squeeze the camera between your legs. And always feel how the helicopter is behaving. In this way I've found that the images get greatly improved.

Maybe someone else has a better experience with a side door gyro? I'd like to know what they did to make it work.

LE

thanks will check that out.

I am looking for like desert wood type f scenes and car scenes.

No my problem is that we are doing a chase which starts with cars and then the go on foot. The foot part is in control with backlight moonlight but the car part is complicated because of resources.SO I wan to play it really dark becasue hard to light big streches of land for a car chase. I thought of going no moon light for the cars and only moonlight for the foot chase...but well any opinions?

 

How does anyone feel about always backlight moonlight no matter the angle? I done it and seen it and works for me but wanted to hear other people toughts.

Thanks

Miguel

It's a really long time since I've seen it, but I seem to remember that "Near Dark" (Dir: K. Bigelow, DP: Adam Greenberg) was a really darkish shot film. And even better, it has lots of cars and open highways in it.

Compared to X1 and X2, which I thought were quite intelligent for what they were, I thought X3 was such a blatent cash-in and ruination a of great cinema universe that when I came I felt that the screenwriters and director should be marooned on a desert island and never allowed to make a film again. Talk about absolutely no respect for the audience and true die-hard Xmen fans.

Ha-ha! With Brett Ratner being in charge? You were surprised about the lack of intelligence of this film?! You're a funny guy, you.

When the gel is damped with a sponge and applied to the window it doesn't move anymore... No need for glue. Water is enough.

This is what I was talking about...

I'm sorry, but I have found this not to be correct. At least it hasn't worked for me. And I have put ND on quite a few windows. If just for a day or two, yes, then water is a good thing. But when it's for several weeks, it doesn't work. The reason for this is that the water evaporates. Specially in summer time when it's warm.

LE

Hey Tim, thanks for your reply.

I'm sorry if I wasn't clear on my last post. I'm basically looking into getting ND with glue on them to attach to windows.

What kind of gel is hard ND? Is it just ND that's hard?

LE

Hey everyone,

I'm doing a 5-week shoot in July/August. And need to gel several windows. I don't want to use ordinary ND and water, since this won't last. I want it to stick.

I've used CTO with glue previously, but I want 5600K interior. So I need to use ND on the windows, ranging from 0.6 to 1.2. Do Lee or Roscoe make ND with glue? If they do, do they have a special name to it. Need to order. I suspect these filters will cost a lot more, but willing to pay that price.

Worst case scenario, I'll staple ND to the window frames.

LE

Meanwhile great directors such as Bela Tarr, Von Trier and Haneke have to scramble about to get funding for their next films which no-one is even interested in because the idea of quality cinema has been drowned out by the a banal popular culture shoving King Kong and Da Vinci Code's in our face.

Do you know Lars? Well, I'm Norwegian, and Lars von Trier is Danish. Kinda like English and Scottish type of thing. Anyway, a friend of mine edited his feature at Zentropa. Lars's company. He spoke a lot to him. And a focus puller friend of mine has also worked for his company. And Lars can basically make any film he wants to. In Europe. He doesn't travel to the US because he has a huge fear of travelling, and he has about 60 other fears. Zentropa is a big company who is constantly producing. They earn a lot of money, and the funding system for Danish films also give them quite a bit of money. So I don't know where you get your info, but it's wrong.

LE

Oh come on man! You're "quite certain" that it's crap and that Dan Brown is a bad writer and you haven't read any of his books or seen the film (not that the film really relects on his writing)? As a comparison....what if I said that you're a crap DP and that I'm quite certain you'll never shoot anything worth watching? Would that be fair if I've never seen a thing you've shot? I'm not saying Brown is the next Hemingway or anything (although he's certainly not a hack), but I think if you want to form opinions about someone's work you should at least make an attempt to experience that work first before you judge it.

I certainly wouldn't want people to judge MY work based on what they heard from someone else.

It seems like the more attention and success Dan Brown gets, the more people want to bash him.

I agree with you Brad. I thinks it's a sad thing when people (specially if they work in the industry), start to speak negative about a writer, director, operator, film or whatever, without having seen or read anything this person has done. In many ways, it undermines the credability of this forum and forums like it. And it's been mentioned before. If you don't know what you're talking about, (either in this type of thing or in a technical aspect), then please don't post it. It's just stupid. Plain and simple.

LE

Went to the premiere last night at the cinema. Disregarding all the critics who have slaughtered the film, I was looking forward to getting drawn into a world of mystique and great drama.

Sadly I was only drawn into looking at my watch, and thinking about how lovely it would feel when the end credits would come.

Why on God's green earth they chose Ron Howard to direct this is beyond me. Where is David Fincher? He, or at least someone with a hint of darkness in him should have directed this.

Badly directed, sadly no emotion from neither Mr. Hanks nor Miss Tatou. And the cinematography isn't that great either. It looks good, but I thinks it's solved in a dull way. Take the car chase in the beginning, almost just close-ups, show us the big frames and let's see how intense the action is. Thinking about Ronin and how great those car chases in Paris was. And the lighting is good quality, you just get a little tired of that dark moody look. It doesn't work very well for me. I know that they wanted a dark look, but to me it just seems under-exposed. This because I think I'm missing that "look at this" lighting. Maybe the lighting should have been more like the Alien films. I think that would have been better.

The only good thing in this movie is Alfred Molina and Sir Ian McKellen, at least they are trying to make this a good picture.

I don't mean to come off as a mr know-it-all. Because I'm far from that. The people who made this film are far, far better proffesionals than I am. I'm just so disapointed in this movie. It could, and should have been so much more.

LE

www.steadicamforum.com (forum for steadicam op's)

www.steadicam-ops.com (the place to find op's all over the world)

www.steadicamstop.com (scandianvian op's)

I always see television camerapeople walking around with some kind of harnass which has a pole sticking out from the back, bending over the cameraman, with an elastic cord on which the camera hangs. I wouldn't know how much stability that would give on a motorcycle, but it could explain why you didn't see it from the aerial shot. Just an idea...

Easyrigs were not made as a gyro nor a steadicam. They will NOT give you those kind of pics. They're intention, and a good one at that, is to take some pressure of the camera operator's shoulder when filming handheld.

I like the look of UltraContrast, but they will give you hell if you get any sort of flaring.

David, what's GlimmerGlass?

LarsE

HI:

In the manual of the Z1 advices that the readings in the telemeter of the camera will not display correctly when using a wide angle adaptor attached.

The yellow dots, where in the glass of the lens or displayed in the VF?

 

Good luck

The dots are not on the glass, but on the protecting plastic on it's side (where it says 0.7 w.a.c.)

Top of the line is Canatrans. These are amazing, with many different channels to choose from. But there is a downside to it. The transmitter alone is about 4,000 US...I can't afford one of these. This unit is also not technically legal. It has the ability to use the same frequencey as FBI etc. But no one really cares. As long as you'rne not flashing the unit in front of them they won't bother you.

Second is theboxx. microwave wireless. These are also very, very good. You'll get a complete set of transmitter and receiver for about 5,200 US. Saving up for this one myself.

Other are Modulus 3000, TransVideo (sucks for film, but decent with video). Stay away from videowave and camwave. Tested them and were not impressed. In addition to that a set costs about 2,200 US.

There's also lots of cheap 2.4Ghz wireless video out there. Some of them are good, but the problem is the 2.4Ghz signal. There's a lot on there.

All these transmitters come with battery eliminators, just attach the plug yourself wish to use.

Most likely some kind of gyro. They use this technique alot on cars and boats.

Anyone know of any good rental houses who has WIRELESS FF and wireless video in their stock?

Lars E

I emailed garrett about 2weeks ago asking that very question but still heard nothing. Ive emailed him a few times since but still nothing.

 

I can only presume that he is very busy or hates students??? anyway thanks for the help so far guys, if any1 has any other help it would be much appreciated.

 

Gr3ggy :D

Try contacing Jerry Holway. He and Garret have been working together for years on different workshops and inventing new gear for the steadicam. Maybe he can get you in contact with Garret. Other than that, Jerry himself is also a great resource. I know he's the inventor of at least one steadicam arm.

http://www.jerryholway.com/

As Mitch said, go to that site. As far as books goes, there's only written one real book on Steadicam so far.

http://www.theasc.com/cgibin/store/acsstor...catalogno=11114

I know this book is written by a former workshop participant. It's a book that interviews operators, it's not a "how to" book.

On steadicamforum.com you have operators like L. McConkey (Snake Eyes, Carlito's Way, Goodfellas), G. Brown (inventor of the steadicam), Jerry Holway (Donnie Brasco, As Good as it Gets) and the list goes on.

Good luck in your search.

Also check out this site:

http://www.steadishots.org/

Hello again,

using this cam on a strictly Steadicam based tv-programme. I can't get the info of f-stop, focus etc on my steadicam monitor. I went into the menu and found the LCD option. (Last menu, way down), and got all the text from the cam menu onto the steadicam monitor, but when I switched the menu off, the text went away. I need the f-stop info and all that on the steadicam monitor.

Is this because I need to use the s-video. Used the mini-jack today, as when I used the s-video, I just got a black and white picture.

Help and advise greatly appriciated.

Hey there, I haven't used this camera a lot. I used it today w/ a 0.7 wide angle converter. When i pressed the auto focus button I got a reading of infinity, even though the subject was 70 cm from me. He was standing w/ his back to a wall. So there's no way the camera could have picked up anything in the background that far away. When I turned the focus ring to the appropriate lenght, the subject was soft. I also noticed 2 yellow dots on the converter. Is this part of my problem? Need help. Please.