Aapo Lettinen

the change you don't like maybe being the subjects being darker than before compared to background, sometimes flatter contrast, keys more top/frontal instead of side lighting and sometimes more neutral key? also digital color timing leading to artificial adjustments and sometimes more color contrast within frame. some people are distracted by the over use of power windows and gradients made possible by digital grading. I personally dislike the around 2000 over-boosted DI color timing (hey we can correct every colour separately, let's boost them all to the clipping point to make a cartoon-vomit-like color explosion) with totally artificial colours like green grass being neon green etc. The other one being around 2011 "let's leave the contrast all the way down to the log level so that the image is so dull you can hardly see the actors" style used in every movie and tv commercial then (some companies still use it for commercials, mostly the same ones still thinking that having dubstep as background music is a cool thing :P )

ok the original problem was the switch then? the local rental house taught me that switch to be the first to check with 35bl cameras if the don't seem to work. there is also the alarm sound which indicated it might be the switch. I don't know about the belt problems, seems like the camera may be in need of fine tuning. there may be more than just the belt. was the seller actually using the camera for shooting movies or did he just test running it without film like some sellers do?

the buckle switch is working correctly? do you see anything unusual when trying to run the camera door open?

our dp uses the ronin with f5 and raw recorder. should work ok if you balance it correctly (may need additional weights to shift the balance) and you will need to have the extension kit for ronin

I thought the pentaflex 16 is supposed to use daylight spools so it can be loaded in light anyway without special arrangements you specify? if you want to use cores, then the loading cart could be useful. spare a roll or two exclusively for loading practicing so that you can practice dozens of times in both daylight and in changing bag. you can use the same rolls for camera run tests if you need to test motors or mags

I also follow the "one year rule" with most client projects. For documentary and personal stuff I normally do hard drive copies and if the material is important and needs to be stored longer, an additional LTO copy for about 10 years of storage or more. for documentary stuff that may include everything even if the project is done: raw materials, offlines, edit and fx projects, finished masters, etc. Future proofing edit projects is very challenging even in two year time scale so it is best to simplify the project and export xml out of it so that it can be read at least to some extent with future programs. and all finished vfx rendered to tiff or dpx and audio to wav or aiff, you may not have the plugins anymore next year if you need to open the project for some reason. if you need to store client projects for longer than needed for editing purposes they should pay something extra for it for sure. for very small single day shoots I may additionally dump all the material to separate LTO tape or even BluRay disc if very small amount of material and let them store it as a extra backup. it is very typical that clients store the material on hdd's carelessly and will call you after a year or two to beg a copy of the raw materials they have lost. it may be easiest to give them an additional backup copy in a format they can't easily destroy or erase and then just erase all your own copies and never worry about the materials anymore :)

people are unsure how much they would use the program, they believe they would pay for nothing if they don't edit anything for couple of months. (one can plan these beforehand and cease the subscription for periods you wont need it so a bit odd attitude but nevertheless there is lots of people who simply don't like the idea of renting at all, they want to own it all no matter the cost. a piece of software is considered expendable nowadays and very soon renders obsolete so not a good investment I think... ) the main problem with current software and adobe products especially is that they are not very compatible between versions. so if you need to collaborate with another person who has, say, two years (or one or two versions even) older version of Premiere, you may not be able to share project files at all except using primitive methods like transferring the data in xml format between premiere versions. even converting the files from old to new version may not be possible. So it is good to always have the latest or almost the latest version of the software and then it is much much cheaper and easier to rent than to purchase anything (and also mandatory with adobe products). if one is just working with old video formats and operating systems and never have to share anything with anybody, then any 10 year old software would do. It's just like, software developers don't care about backwards compatibility anymore :( and if updating the editing software you most often need to also update the operating system nowadays which leads to all kind of problems and other software may stop working. challenging times :blink:

the 2perforated film may be a problem nowadays, needs modifications to the camera

the benefit of using the K3 is to be able to use very affordable Russian lenses and to adapt stills lenses to it. good lenses for an Arri may cost few dozen times the price of a K3 and zoom lens set so they have their uses and are good for shooting random tests and art stuff. for narratives, they might work OK for small silent shorts, but a bit better camera may be worth it even for MOS broll stuff depending on the project

the K3 image will be less stable and might have more focus issues than the SR. theoretically it should not matter much but in practice the quality and technology of the film transport matters quite much. whether the difference is significant or not is up to you of course. practical things like better lens mounts and viewfinder optics, larger mag capacity, stable speed and electric motor may matter much more than the image quality itself. the stability of the film is more of a multi-dimensional issue and you may have all kinds of problems with incorrectly adjusted cameras. horizontal+vertical+diagonal stability in addition with depth azis. one corner of the film may be for example more unstable and than the other... it's like trying to make moving rubber band completely flat :ph34r: or, like in this case, almost completely flat and stable but maybe just a little bit concave, just a tiny controlled amount

Arri cameras tend to be a bit more reliable I think and are a bit more sturdy. Sure they can fail you sometimes like any other camera but not as often as most of the other gear I think. Most of the problems I have seen with Arris (Alexa Plus/XT/Mini/Amira) have been them missing timecode sync when changing batteries and other timecode related. can usually be avoided by using backup battery when changing the main battery (using block + v-lock combination for example) some bad formatting happened once or twice with cards and with Amira the recording did not always continue when camera switched between cards on the fly. the main benefit of arris is easier and often faster data managing and post workflow I think, may save quite a lot of money depending on the production.

One of the benefits of shooting interiors with very sensitive cameras and using bare minimum lights is that the actors have enlarged pupils all the time like them being high on something :) One gets great day int drama scenes that way :P Good work Panasonic :D

There is a substantial difference between "yes" and "maybe" gigs. A great amount of the maybe gigs are not serious job offers, the more like want to compare prices and then choose from these options later if the order establishes. I would say it could be something like 10% of the maybe gigs and about 30 to 60% of the yes gigs will realize in the end

I am personally not a fan of Samyang lenses so the Xeens would be out of question unless I would have change to intensively test just the particular lens I'd been buying to ensure that it would not have manufacturing defects and it would be optically as intended. I have just had too many problems with every samyang lenses I've been using, especially mechanical problems, so it would need quite much work that I would trust the Xeens for any bigger project. the t-stops are promising but the mechanics and coatings matter more in cine work. For me the CP2's would be the obvious choice I think if I would not need wide angles much. their wides are not that fast and you still need to stop these down about one stop so it would be a bit limiting to use the below 25mm focal lenghts. the mechanics are good and one could trust them more than the samyang ones I think. CP3's may be over the price range. I would love to test the Schneider Xeon FF primes some time, they could still fit the price range you are after and could maybe be better for your use than the CP2's look-wise. I kinda like the look of most of Sigma stills lenses, they could work nicely in PL mount if the mechanics are fine. however, if you are mainly using digital cameras and the budget is an issue, you could be much happier with EF or Nikon mount lenses and just changing the camera mount when needed. it would also be much cheaper than trying to get everything in PL, especially if you are shooting lots of special shots and macro where you can benefit from much cheaper special lenses and adapters. calibration is a problem with "cine" stills lenses with for example EF and Nikon mounts and PL is much sturdier mount though

oh it was: 40mm T2 $6499 List Price. [$5849 Preorder Special.] 65mm T2 $6499 List Price. [$5849 Preorder Special.] 100mm T2 $6999 List Price. [$6299 Preorder Special.] I read it incorrectly the first time :) So it would be 19 997 usd normal price for the 3lens set. sounds very reasonable for a anamorphic set IF the mechanics are good and they are optically OK

I'm just wondering why a 3-lens set deposit costs more than 3 deposits for single lenses bought separately 17995 vs 14985 :lol: maybe they should correct that the 65 costs 4995 and the other lenses are more expensive for a single lens purchase

I personally only have a self-blimped highly modified Soviet copy of the Mitchell bncr, very different camera than the original but some things like the movement and aperture plate are approximately similar

try the "Motion Picture Technology" Facebook group, there is lots of people there who have Mitchell knowledge :)

I would change some of shots which have cinematography issues (or if not possible, reframe them) , add more closeups and maybe drop some airplane shots. I would've loved to see more alien shots. I know it's a concept trailer but it might sell better this way :)

I don't think you can manage with any digital camera body for 6 or 8 years nowadays, at least if you want it to be even the #10 package the friends and customers would like to have on a shoot. Most current cameras wont even last that long in working condition and the repairs may cost more than updating the body to new one every couple of years. maybe I'm just starting to get over of the whole "starving artist" ideology, I personally don't want to make crappy shoestring personal projects anymore or contribute to projects where there is not even budget to rent sandbags or starve myself to death to get the latest next camera or lens model :blink: suffering indefinitely for art is not worth it in the long run, it makes the life worse but does not get the art to any higher lever, just makes it more hasty and desperate. maybe I'm finally shifting to the more ideal zone of having the project to choose the gear, not the other way around. i'm not even going to update my GH4 when the GH5 comes around. I'm perfectly happy shooting personal projects with a 70 years old Cameflex. maybe would buy a Ursa Mini Pro or similar for a project if someone else would pay for it, I don't know ^_^ going to spool down some Vivid now for Konvas, just floating around ^_^

if you are a filmmaker doing both the writing+directing and also the DoP's work, then it might work if you directly write down the camera directions without writing the script first. otherwise, I'd recommend just doing a standard script first and then translating it to images and camera movement. the main benefit is that it is much easier for others to understand the story you are trying to tell and also it is much easier for both you and them to see if there is any story/motivation related problems in the script which need to be corrected. if starting directly from the camera movements you will forget the story for most part and the film may turn out havin OK looking single shots but it will most likely have incoherent story and lots of problems with character development and motivating their actions. it is also very difficult for others to follow what you are planning and if there is any better approach for things if you confuse the script with camera and lighting instructions etc (which will change anyway when the film is actually being made so are also kind of irrelevant to plant at the early stage)

maybe the lens would be a better investment then, it will pay itself back much slower but there is also less risk because it lasts much longer than a camera body would do. I tend to charge a low fixed rate for my gear when working on projects (most often a set of Nikon AI-S lenses, the steadicam, onboard monitor, tripod and some misc stuff like filters) , you can try similar approach with your customers if you have problems getting enough compensation and you already have most of the gear paid off. you could charge for example X amount of dollars per day for your gear and if the project needs something extra it can be rented at customer's expense. when getting more gear you will raise the daily rate depending on which type of gear is in question and how expensive it was to purchase. the projects I do have normally budget for renting lighting gear, camera bodies, etc. but cine lenses may be too expensive for the customers so I can use my own lenses and the needed additional gear I have for X euros fixed rate to help them out with the budget. that usually works very well but does not create enough revenue that I could buy any expensive lenses at those rates. it allows, however, me to keep a collection of special nice looking stills lenses and other gear which is virtually impossible to get from rental houses so that I can create special looks for projects easily. if I would own for example a set of Master Primes the customers would not pay much extra for using them in the production I shoot (and they might think it being a bit dishonest if I would try to force them to take the expensive lenses if I would be both the rental house and the DP on the same project) but for lower priced gear it has worked very well

they still pay you a reasonable compensation for the equipment I hope? then it would make sense to own a zoom or two, some stabilizers+gimbal and stuff like that. a low day rate may not matter because lenses don't go obsolete quickly like cameras do

for me the difference is that I can charge next to nothing for a camera body if I own it by myself but if I need to rent a camera for a project, the customer will pay 100% of the rental fees. so for me it is much cheaper to rent because of that, I only own cameras and lenses which cannot be rented at all in my area or are so cheap to purchase that a 2 or 3 day rental would be same than the purchase price. like with camera stabilizers, I purchased a used steadicam for 600 euros and daily rental cost for similar type of equipment would be about 300-400 euros a day, plus it would have been impossible to learn to operate it if not owning the rig. owning a expensive camera has the pitfall that you have to shoot all your projects with the same camera to make it affordable, that may be OK for most projects but it really sucks when you know you would do much better with a different type of equipment but cannot afford to rent it because all the money was invested to the one system you own :o "married with the camera" for the 2 or 3 years or so. if you are doing lots of different style of projects it may not be practical at all to own a expensive camera system... maybe something handy for b unit or c camera stuff but nothing overly expensive. same thing with lenses of course

a perfectly usable mid level semi pro camera like FS7 or Ursa Mini 4.6k or Red One MX can cost here something like 200 - 300 euros a day + vat including media and batteries, you can surely find something similar in States