Aapo Lettinen

sometimes you may also need wide/tall and narrow reflections which can be made with for example single Kino tubes. this may be handy when lighting for example motorcycle helmets, you can get a vertical narrow reflection to the visor that way

I use to tape pieces of 1 mm steel wire to the surface I want to attach Kino tubes and then bind the tubes in the place with the wire. That way they are much easier to attach and remove than if taped directly to the tubes , much more unlikely to damage the tubes and much easier to rig them safely (no melting glue etc). The wire also does not show as much as tape so blurred tubes may pass as real fluorescents in the final image. This is of course not possible if the wall material can't stand your tapes :rolleyes: some tapes are more forgiving than others, I use a type of 50mm wide PVC tape quite often which does not damage painted surfaces as easily as gaffer tape although the glue does not stand heat as well.. cable ties are also OK and maybe velcro could also be used. if you are building a makeshift light you could use white cable ties to hold the tubes in place so that they can't be spotted in the final image

one thing about the Lomo tanks, the plastics are VERY brittle and will break to million little pieces if you for example accidentally drop them in the darkroom :ph34r: so you should first practice the loading in light to minimise risk of damages when you handle the parts in complete darkness. it is very difficult to repair the tank parts if they break so it's usually more practical to just buy a new one :unsure:

I second that it may not be accurate enough to develop your own tests. you should control the developing time, temperature and developer composition/water used/developer age/condition/oxygen levels/ etc. very accurately and repeatably to be able to compare the results. for camera tests, however, it is quite good to be able to develop your own film if needed so that you will see the results more quickly and it costs less than professionally developing lots of small separate batches. I use one of those smaller Lomo tanks for 16mm tests, it is quite ok for developing and quite easy to use after you learn how to load it in the dark. it takes a little time to apply/drain the developer however which may result in small inconsistency in results, maybe +/- 20 s of developing time. Developing b/w NEGATIVE is very easy and quick in general but if you have to be able to repeat the process accurately it is not that easy anymore. one thing to do could be to always use fresh unused developer with every test but it's quite a wasting if you only develop couple of meters per batch, that smaller tank takes about one litre of fluid.... you could of course use some of the developers which have very high diluting ratio and long shelf life, for example Adonal, so that a single batch worth of chemicals does not cost much

my point was that it's usually a bad idea to shoot music videos with rolling shutter camera, especially if the camera makes lots of jello compared to alternatives. You can't undo jello effect completely in post if you are shooting anything other than flat immobile surfaces (if the picture has depth or moving elements the jello effect is different in different parts of the image. the classic example is are the drumsticks which look like made of rubber if shot with rolling shutter camera. of course it is also impossible to use strobes or anything other flashing fixtures because of the artefacts.) you will probably need onboard monitor anyway when shooting projects, especially music videos where low/high angles/dolly shots are common, so there is no anything extra needed with the Micro Camera compared to Pocket. the difference is the possibility to shoot slo-mo shots, strobes, high/low angles, etc and no rolling shutter at normal speeds. Of course we don't know when the Micro comes out, I believe it's still couple of months away :rolleyes:

one thing with Blackmagic seems to be btw that they don't release anything camera related on scheduled/promised time, they always have "problems" with slamming the finished products to a package they could actually sell.... so they are creating hype even *years* before anything is actually released and can be bought for actual use. That said, I would not wait for their NAB2016 releases, it may take 1,5 - 2 years before you see any of those products even if they promise those would be available in couple of months :wacko: (not like RED though which marketed lots of products they were never intending to manufacture <_< remember their super badass large format, ultra high resolution video/stills camera which was supposed to have a sensor 10 - 20cm wide if I remember correctly? one of the products they never made, they just tested the hype with throwing out some drafts and quickly speculated specs and tested if they could find enough potential customers to actually design and manufacture anything remotely resembling that draft :blink: )

you will have compression artefacts with the GH4 for sure. it's shot dependent if it's critical or not but for web use it's not usually bad if you don't gain over 400 ISO. with blackmagics you can manage with less light/can use higher framerate because the camera is a tad more sensitive. GH4 is not that good if recording HD directly in camera, for more pleasing grain+compression+almost inexistent moire it is mandatory to shoot UHD or 4K with it and transcode afterwards to HD if that's your editing and output format. IF you can get the accessory breakout 'handle' for it very cheaply you could shoot uncompressed 4k with it which would be nice although it's not very sensitive camera as said. I myself try to avoid anything other than 200 ISO with the GH4 and change to other cameras if I have to shoot even 400 or 800 ISO

GH4 makes lot less jello effect than bmpcc or gh2 which is very important in music videos. I would buy a Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera (global shutter at lower frame rates, possibility to shoot 50 and 60fps compared to only 30fps and rolling shutter of the bmpcc) and cheap onboard monitor to operate it, and then whatever still camera would be needed, for example gh2. LP-E6 batteries can be used by most onboard monitors also so you'll need only one type of batteries for the whole system. You also have more usable hdmi connector which does not break after 2min shooting :P from my experience the Blackmagics are not the most reliable cameras on market so it's good to have a backup camera just in case something goes wrong with the blackmagic. For example our company's Production Camera 4K 's touchscreen stopped working just like that without any reason 4 hours before shoot and the camera can't be adjusted at all without the darn screen. stupid design choice to not leave a backup button interface option, I had to shoot at wrong framerate, shutter angle, recording format and gamma mode. firmware update/downgrade did not help at all :angry:

and forced perspective in some shots so that the smaller appearing actor was much farther away from the camera than the other and they for example modified the carriage so that it looks like they are sitting next to each other. or the table scene where the table parts actually move during the shot to compensate the camera move :)

? I meant that shooting the green screen plates with 2man scew in 15min with the railway company's safety persons when they can stop the traffic for a little moment/when they know there will be no traffic for a little moment and then shooting the actual scene using green screen at safe place would have been the only correct manner to do the scene

almost every shot can be made safely if adding 5% more time and budget. most of the time it does not even need any extra time or money, it just needs that someone on the set thinks thoroughly about these things before doing anything dangerous. Those who don't care about safety should be banned from the industry for life... the DP is the link between creative and technical people so he/she is the one who has best possibilities to negotiate the best compromise between crazy creative ideas and most working (and safe) practical solutions. the only way the Midnight Rider scene could have been shot safely would have been green screen btw, the track has so heavy traffic that the operator couldn't have it closed for movie shoot but it would have probably been possible to shoot quick plates on location and do the rest of the scene with green screen in safe place.

I think the DP should be aware of the set safety and make sure the crew and actors are not taking risks when doing their job. I think the DP is also responsible to say NO to the director or/and producer if something can't be done safely (usually only the DP, lead actors and the producer, if present, are able to do that on set if the director is a jerk and does not care about safety)

I use this kind of NiMh airsoft batteries with most of my 12v film equipment, I have attached velcro on them so I can simply attach them to velcro surfaces (for example to the side of my Konvas sync motor) and I have made adapters from tamiya to 4pin xlr for the camera gear or changed the battery connector to 4-xlr. the cells discharge in couple of weeks but otherwise good batteries in general and if you velcro them you can attach them easily anywhere although they are relatively long and quite large compared to similar capacity Li-po or Li-ion batteries.... http://www.ebay.com/itm/1x-Tamiya-Battery-Pack-12V-3800mAh-NiMH-808-Charger-EU-/371330736757?hash=item5675096275:g:mAQAAOxykYtSHss5

if you are using 19mm rods with your camera you can use a separate v-mount plate which attaches to the rods and then, if the plate does not already have down converter from 14 to 12v, you can add a separate down converter (regulator) between the plate and 4pin xlr. I just ordered some Chinese down converters/regulators from ebay to hack my Cameflex to use 12v input, they are quite affordable and compact. you should test them first though, some of them are very good and some are not, better to know if the output voltage is true 12v or something else and if it can vary depending on conditions :rolleyes: One trick is to use serialised diodes between the battery and the output xlr to lower the voltage if you are always using the battery system with the same piece of equipment so that the current is the same. I think couple of 10A diodes would do for the SR2 although the exact voltage drop is highly dependent on working current and may vary quite much depending on conditions

It's still photographing whether you do it frame by frame or line by line. The difference is the simplicity of the system and the amount of signal and post processing needed. I'm not familiar with the plustek imager design but I suspect you need quite a lot of cnc machining to get suitable film transport parts made out of scratch which are durable enough for continuous motion and 1/1000th inch accurate. With frame scan you would not need so many custom made parts and so much programming and effort for the system if you would have the video camera available for the project. A precise used camera movement would blow your budget however so maybe the line scan is the only option for you

probably the easiest way for 35mm neg scanning is to modify a 35mm movie camera to a small projector by adding a led light behind a modified pressure plate. if you use suitable camera body and good enough leds you can get very decent results :) it took couple of hours for me to modify a Konvas 1M to a film scanner this way, I use it for b/w film tests so low cri led light is not an issue... I would look for a camera body which has 180° shutter and chrystal sync, also reg pin/pins if possible. my Konvas scanner project: http://aapolettinen.blogspot.fi/2015/05/making-film-scanner-out-of-konvas-camera.html if you have suitable 4k camera with minimal amount of compression and suitable frame rates and shutter angles compared to your 35mm camera body you can usually do something like this quite easily if the 35mm camera is possible to modify for the led light. If you have ANY kind of decent camera already available for your scanner I think it would be easies to just obtain a mitchell or similar steady enough pin reg camera movement and build the scanner around that. this way you don't have the challenging sync/registration/speed/etc. issues of the line scan design and can advance very quickly towards a working version :)

film emulsions age relatively quickly so Kodak has no reason to store them for long, if you would need some older generation stock you would need to start from scratch by cooking new batch of emulsion, then coating it to the base material, etc. Storing emulsions would be like storing butter packages in your fridge, you don't want them to be there for years unused.... better to use them quickly before they go bad and got new ones :/

you can find some of the old stocks from ebay but all of them are probably junk because they are so old and most likely incorrectly stored most of the time. older emulsions may also need different developers which are no longer manufactured. If you have lots of money and time you could maybe buy some of the larger ebay rolls and test them thoroughly if they are usable for non-serious work or art projects. I mean factory sealed old 1000feet rolls, opened small cans or short ends are probably waste of time because you would need to test every single one of them and the total film amount would still be relatively small, they are also much more likely to have problems because they are opened and may have incorrect chemical conditions (for example humidity, rust, mold, etc) inside the cans :/ it would be much better to learn to emulate the older stocks with current film material by altering the look with processing and, if needed, additional stock emulation efx in post. David Mullen for example is very knowledgeable about this and can maybe suggest you some workflows if you already have some specific stocks in mind you would like to emulate :)

if some of the printed posters looks bad in the final movie for some reason you can have your vfx guys rotoscope and replace that single one. it is very SLOOOW work but for single images it's not a problem and 99% of cases the prints will do fine without any refinement :)

I'm most worried about defocused green screen poster areas on the walls, they are much more difficult to key realistically than if the green screen edges are on focus. then you have both the blurry green screen/wall edges and the green screen/actor edges to worry about, and it is more difficult to handle them both perfectly because they need different settings for the keyer. you may need to rotoscope either one of them to get the edges right and thus it may be simpler to just green screen the whole actor/actress so you can add the whole background and blur it in post

I second that it would be much easier to just print out the posters and use them on the walls instead of relying on vfx on this. if the room has lots of those posters and not just couple of them you may need to green screen the whole wall and depending on camera moves and angles you may need match moving instead of simple keying/tracking. with green screen you always risk the edge quality and lighting matching and may have to compromise shots because of the separate greenscr lights and post prod needs. if you have really good vfx artists it may be possible to rotoscope the actor without using green screen but that is very shot dependent and takes LOTS of work. it does not need separate screen or lighting however as long as the edges are contrasty and noise free enough

I think the cabrio 19-90 does not breath much at least at the mid range. internal focus lenses breathe less by my experience so may be something to do with that

larger pixels = lower noise floor is the basic answer. dslr:s have other disadvantages in most uses, nowadays it is good to have both so you can shoot low light stuff with more sensitive camera (dslr for example) and most of the other material with a dedicated video camera which is faster and easier to use for that purpose

one could make a replacement mirror with cnc machinery (lathe&milling machine) but it would probably cost more than buying a used SR body for spare parts :/ you'd have to be at least 1/100 mm accurate with the machining, probably much more. then you'd have to get someone to vacuum coat it with aluminium/silver/other good quality material and also add the protective layer on the finished surface. please remember that the mirror rotates from 24 to 75 revolutions PER SECOND depending on frame rate so even a small glitch can cause a horrible cracking>exploding disaster or at least destroy the bearings :ph34r: I would probably use aluminium if I would have to make a mirror by myself but as said it is not nearly as easy as it looks like <_<

color temperature difference within the image matters much more than the actual color temperature of the light. Because you are looking for a colder look for the light you'll definitely want to create it with daylight source (to get correct blue channel exposure) and then you just have to figure out how much colder (how many mireds) it is compared to white light. you can try something between 40 and 80 mireds and then add your inside lights which are supposedly warmer than your middle gray? You have to color correct anyway with the redcode footage so you can dial the color temperature in afterwards when transcoding the footage