Aapo Lettinen

the Finnish film industry and indie field is quite different from the US one but here the indie projects generally don't lead to any kind of paid work ever... at most they may lead to more unpaid cheapass indie stuff. the indie & pro fields are pretty much completely separated unlike in the US where even the "indie" films may have decent budgets and actors etc and the same persons behind the camera than in bigger productions. ------ If wanting to do DP work or directing or editing here in mainstream feature films one basically needs to have a degree from the one specific Finnish film school... there is many other good schools here as well but that one specific school mentioned has much better industry connections, much better financing for their education programs and readily available support from the main financiers of the local pro movies so that it is much easier to advance to feature films from there than from any other Finnish film school. The connections are what really get you forward. they don't have to be family members or anything, just the right pro persons who trust you and love your work and thus want to help you forward :)

do you personally know the 1st ACs you have worked for? has there been any regular work with the same persons so that you can build those connections? they might be able to get you to bigger projects if they like you and your work. Basically it is best to try to get around people who work A LOT, like every day of the year in different projects, both higher end and mid range. this may not get you much DP work though but it will help with connections and experience etc. and advancing towards 1st ac jobs or rental house work if that is what you'd like to do. and it helps with resume which may help quite a lot when finding more DP work

it should be no problem if the different colour screens are completely separate areas from the fabric screen. it may complicate keying a little bit if you for example stitch a larger fabric screen from multiple different tone parts so that the colour varies considerably within the screen. if the screens are completely separate (for example one behind the model spaceship and another screen on the window of the ship pointing towards camera) then it will be no problem because you can just mask the smaller screen and key it separately. you may want to do this anyway because of the lighting conditions so should be no problem at all... technically they would not even need to be the same colour if they are completely separately keyed. you could for example use blue for windows and green for background if needed

I personally conform the fps in interpret footage ALWAYS when the camera/location audio is not absolutely needed. especially in nature docs where all the sounds will be done afterwards anyway and camera/loc audio is unusable 99.9% of the time. The other thing is that nature stuff tends to be high speed most of the time and conformed anyway either in-camera (sensor fps higher than base fps on file metadata) or when making previews and offlines for editing (for example conforming in Resolve on import) or before editing on fcpx or premiere etc. when importing raw material... technically it would be possible to do the framerate conversion the other way around than typically made (picture changes, audio stays intact) : one could conform the picture stream to different fps without framerate conversion AND then add speed+pitch change to the audio track just like done here in Europe when making 25fps tv versions from 24fps movies. This would be actually quite handy if you need to use the camera audio track because most usable camera (sync) audio would probably be dialog and the sound designer would add sfx and foley and music etc. on the top afterwards so the speed change would go totally unnoticed and one would still maintain 100% picture quality compared to the original :)

if your different frame rate shots are mostly MOS (no camera or external recorder sync audio needed to use in perfect sync with the image) then you can do the close-to-your-base-fps format conversions by simply conforming the material to the different framerate from interpret footage settings WITHOUT ANY framerate pulldown conversion. this way you will maintain 100% picture quality on those shots and will only need to compromise on the shots which absolutely must use original location audio in perfect sync. For example, if outputting 24.00fps you would ideally shoot 24.00fps on your main camera. If having MOS shots on other cameras on 23.98 fps, 25fps you can just conform them all to 24 before editing and you will maintain all picture quality. If having 29.976fps or 30.00fps MOS footage you can do the pulldown conversion IF the somewhat correct playback speed for the MOS action is important. IF NOT, you can just conform these 29.976 and 30.00fps shots also directly to your base fps 24.00 before editing. they will be slightly slowed down but that may be OK for mos stuff anyway. If needing original sync sound from location (for example someone talking to a gopro shooting 29.976 and you will need to use the camera audio track for the shot) then the framerate conversion would be needed because you can't change the playback speed ( =clip lenght)

will you need the fabric texture to be seen? Maybe you could use standard lighting gels/diffusion fabrics for this if 4' seamless width is enough for you. heavy white diffusion or frost or sail grid etc. could work :) the gels are normally about 4' wide rolls so should be pretty easy to get the background done from a gel without any wrinkles. should not cost lot more than 10 or 15 bucks depending on where you purchase it and what material it is. if needing more diffusion you can just tape another layer on it. if needing something even more affordable the shower curtain trick should work (I believe they are normally made of PVC so they are not super duper flammable though will release toxic fumes if burning) ... there is spray on fire protection substances available as well which could be used for treating the standard fabric store materials to reduce the risk of ignition

I use airsoft nimh batteries with most of my cameras, they are cheap and relatively lightweight and if you add velcro to the sides you can easily mount them to any velcro surface (like the side of the camera or magazine where you have added velcro... or a tool belt... or a tactical vest... etc etc. :lol: )

if not readily found it can be built very easily... the Chinese have all kinds of adjustable voltage regulators flooding the eBay, very affordable... you would just need to add a suitable housing and xlr connectors (and add Chinese voltmeters etc to it if you want ;) )

one of the reasons might be actually that S.S liked to experiment with a 'free' shooting style without the need for focus pullers and retakes for technical mistakes and such :lol: just some experimenting gopro style "what you see is NOT what you get: what you get IS what you get no matter what you try" B) maybe he should do some real Danish style dogma next. These half-ass pseudo dogmas never tend to fully work for the audience, they are like indie movies with more than zero but not enough budget (zero budget would be good, high budget would be good, cheap ass budget makes just, well, a cheap movie no one cares to watch :ph34r: )

watched that Unsane trailer too... If wanting to create that kind of gritty indie semi-dogma look then the iPhone seems to work very well. Not a pretty look at all but may suit the story in some cases. I personally would not want to shoot an entire movie with a vlog gopro look but if Soderberg specifically wants that look for his movie it should not harm others that much ^_^ You don't have to watch the whole movie after all if your eyes hurting too much because of the look :lol:

blurry footage CAN be keyed with good results, to a point.... if your compositor is experienced... but combining blurry footage keying AND matchmoving may not be the best idea generally because it complicates the shot as a whole and makes marker using more difficult. for example matchmoving a wildly moving handheld camera on greenscreen :blink: what types of camera moves and scenes you are specifically wanting to shoot and which type of elements need be added to them? you were talking about lock-off camera matchmove shot, did you mean you have a character which need to be replaced with cgi character in post and you will only track this character without moving the camera at all?

Matchmoving needs lots of tracking points (at least couple of dozens minimum, ideally can be couple of hundreds depending on the shot) so you should be extra careful when shooting these and always consult your vfx supervisor first. Especially when shooting matchmoving shot on green or blue screen where there is no natural tracking points on background and mid range (depth). No specific need for higher framerates normally but blurry tracking can be very challenging... Also try to not shoot a way that the object masks all the tracking points one at a time and thus not having any continuous trackers..much more difficult to solve the track

yep, no need to be rude here! Please concentrate on the CAMERA WAR like real gentlemen <_< it is all about tactics and experience, like chess... the ones losing their temper will be disqualified and thrown to the sandbox to play with 5D markII and Windows Movie Maker for the rest of the day :lol: p.s. one of the reasons why URSAs are not used in many "real" movies is that the sensors and user interface are just not good enough for the bigger budget A-cam use. we don't use the freaking FS7's or stuff for mainstream drama either, except when someone needs a camera which does not break a bank if something falls on it...

If you are shooting documentary stuff with long zoom lenses you will DEFINITELY need more than 1600 iso all the time because of the T-stops of longer zooms (like the 50-1000 Canon for example) on the varicam35 doc they shooting lots of stuff on ISO4000 and 5000 for example

it is normal thought for all production companies having good connections with rental houses and having discount %'s and deals negotiated based on the volume they use the services... this is same in all parts of the world.... I think it would maybe be cheaper to rent a RED camera here actually for fiction because they are mostly used for commercials and aerials stuff here, very few cinematographers want to shoot drama with reds here at the moment it seems. just not practical enough to justify it, the Arris generally serve the productions better as a main camera than RED stuff. I think the rental companies would be as happy to rent a RED package for a drama production than any other camera package with a good discounts and all but it is another matter who wants to use a RED for a drama shoot even if it's cheap and has lots of pixels ;)

maybe it is a bit easier here in Europe, I don't know :lol: the movies also generally being better (personal opinion) whenever them not trying to imitate American ones but that is another matter :lol:

I have never heard about this either and I have worked couple of years full-time in a production company :blink: Normally producers, prod managers and line producers trust the cinematographer and post people when it comes to the camera equipment and workflows... the Arri cameras for example have generally been the most practical choice for fiction here: drama, comedy, etc. as a main camera (economic and easy to shoot, reliable, great look, easy post workflow). And Red cameras (resolution and framerates and dynamic range with hdrx, even when having some problems like more expensive post and grading) or Alexa Mini for aerials. On documentaries it is common to mix cameras+formats a lot depending on the shooting conditions and Sony cameras have generally been handy for our documentary stuff for being more versatile than Arri or Red stuff in wildly varying shooting situations. documentaries use anything which does the job best and switch the brands and models whenever needed... one of the nature documentaries shooting on two Varicam35's and Varicam LT and EVA1+Shogun Inferno at the moment for dual iso advantage (lots of 50-1000 material etc) still not understanding Tyler's affection towards Blackmagic stuff... they are quite OK cameras with interesting features and so but their build quality is not very good on most of their equipment and most of their stuff is targeted on indie and low budget commercial/corporate market and live use. not really pro movies :ph34r: mostly they make sense on low budget productions where one can't even afford enough cfast cards or rental lights to make a day ^_^

Not credibility related, but... always charge as large % of the invoice as possible before handing off the material. nowadays I tend to charge all the shooting costs before the shoot on small jobs (car and equipment rentals if I hire them for the shoot, any hired employee costs, etc. ) so that I only lose my own salary at most if the client does not pay for the shoot at all and does not even want the material for some reason. they tend to also pay late unless you're lucky so it's best to have them pay any rentals etc beforehand if they are on your responsibility so that you don't have to loan money to pay the rental costs etc. The good monitor with correct LUT is a very good advice. Clients don't necessarily understand the concept of grading and think that what they see is what they get... or even if knowing that they forget it after a while and start complaining :ph34r:

Oh I understand, it is just a matter of different attitude then and not about how the computers are used or what quality parts they are made of... if every problem is user's fault then of course the computers themselves don't ever crash or have any errors, the user does :lol: Even the piece of crap software I use, like Premiere or Resolve or FCPX is not prone to crashing, all the rest of the universe is just going to hyper speed every time the user THINKS that the software has frozen and responds very slowly B)

I personally somewhat hate all the editing programs out there, for differing reasons... I have to use regularly FCPX, Premiere CC, Resolve14, FCP7 and every now and then Media Composer and I have also used Vegas Pro and Pinnacle Pro in the past long ago. There is no good or perfect editing program, they all are more or less annoying, have stupid logic and lack necessary features. The best thing one can do is have lots of different program tools and just switch to other WHEN a project cant be completed on one of them. Just like there is no good or perfect computers, there is just mediocre stuff which is only waiting the chance to fail you and destroy your work and the best thing you can do is to have multiple spare units readily available so that you can continue working with the backup unit WHEN the computer or camera or hdd or other gear burns down B) I have had Apple computers and Windows computers crashing and having problems literally thousands of times, I don't quite understand the argument that one could work years with a piece of equipment without any problems :wacko: Either they are not noticing any mid level problems, only the largest ones (the ones where the computer catches fire and burns the building down) and thus think the gear does never fail at all.... or just being super extremely unbelievably lucky and would be millionaires if just buying a lottery ticket once in a lifetime :lol:

mostly the hard drives are breaking (3 hard drive failures total on my 2011 imac. every about 2.5 years the hard drive dies and needs to be changed. Additionally couple of broken laptop hdd's and one broken hdd on 2014 imac. ) . Other problems too: continuous reliability problems with Thunderbolt ports, probably firmware/chipset related stuff, which the service center have not been able to repair. Also the 2014 imac had the hinge spring broken after just two days of normal use so that the display did not stay on level and it had to be sent to service... And there is that thing which may be a intentionally designed feature but is super annoying and is present in most of the imacs and newer cinema displays we have: the freaking stand (the L shaped metal "leg" under the imac or display which supports it) is slightly bent sideways so that the display is not perfectly horizontal but slightly off level, always :blink: I don't know if it's a feature or a manufacturing fault but as said super annoying and completely unnecessary :angry: -- Yes they DID make good machines back then. Even the laptops were good and handy even if a little bulky because of the dvd drive. This later hipster stuff is more of a made for decoration and photographer use and may not be the best option for serious work though the osx is the main reason these things are used anyway, not the hardware :rolleyes:

the main issue with Apple computers apart from the graphics cards is the non-maintenance design, you are totally screwed if something breaks up in the middle of a project. Most authorized service centers here are used just to take the machine in and repair it when it's best time for them which may take couple of days or a week or so... and they really really like to reinstall a clean version of the operating system like PC repair shops so that you will lose everything on the hard drive. I personally clone my system drives very often so that I have a full bootable clone of the system drive on external hdd and I can boot the osx installation on different computer if the edit mac fries and needs to be sent to service. At the moment I use the 6-core trashbin macpro as main edit and one can't even get the freaking Firepro drivers for it separately, I mean not at all! they are custom drivers and Apple does not allow them to be downloaded separately and can't be downloaded from app store, so a clean osx installation in repair shop is basically the only way to get you the trashbin firepro drivers if you need them for some reason. Anyway, the non-serviceable architecture means you can't do anything about it if having an issue. other than send it in for days or a week or so. With a pc you could just open the thing and change a component by yourself, or update the gpu and other parts if needed, with mac it is like having a solid block of metal which needs a gpu update... not gonna happen :blink: The trashbin is quite handy in some situations though, I have transported it back and forth in a backpack, also in airplane as hand luggage...very easy... you can't do that with an iMac. the integrated display is handy in desktop situations if not having enough space but for an editor it may not be handy at all if you are working on different locations regularly.

the problem with very fine airborne mineral particles is that some of them don't come out of the lungs after once inhaled. that's like, they never come out of there, ever. so one builds up small stone particles inside one's lungs and they cause fibrosis etc until one can't breath anymore. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneumoconiosis I don't know how much of a hazard this would be with the on-set use of Fullers Earth but I would not use any mineral dust for effects without protection just to be sure. It is a serious medical condition after all, thousands of people have died from it and even if not being super dangerous for very short term use the mineral dust will still have some negative health effects. Kind of like exposing the crew and cast to large amounts of tobacco smoke for days and days and expect it not having any negative health effects...

no but continuous file system conversions and paragon-everything does not work if you have couple of 8tb and 15tb drives at a time full of material which needs to be verified, reorganized, made previews from and then backed up to lto. One does not really want to add additional delays and conversions etc to the mix with intentional equipment mismatches, there is thousands of better uses for that time

Oh and you probably want to purchase two small hazers instead of one larger one... These things clog up and malfunction easily (broken pumps and heating elements etc.) so you will need a backup for it