Alfeo Dixon

Also if color is critical, you may want to remove the safety glass infront of the fixture. I remember a few of them having a slight green cast to them. Of course this was back in school shooting table top with a 4x5 on transparency film, so that was major for us.

Here's that photo I spoke of... Not a flare from the windows. Look closer at the windows, looks more like the cloud reflection just to the right.

So, not pointing to the sun but an over all softness could be a quality of the glass, if its a very old lens not well maintained. I use to have a still lens that had such a quality, the images I captured where great, but what they weren't was hard and crisp which is what a lot of people where trying to achieve with filtration. I wouldn't call it bad unless it's NOT the look you want.

Forest is most likely Steadicam... good steadicam is seamless to good dolly or jib moves. Lighthouse I would say is more likely a Nose mount such as a Wescam. A bit high for cables and to smooth for remote chopper

I find that short quick terms work the best and leave anything lengthy to telling the AD, that will translate to the director and the actor... one of them may not want what you are asking for, keeps you from getting fussed. I would NEVER jump from behind the camera to show them unless they ask or it's extremely critical. Try to use the simplest blocking terms and give them point A to B. Upstage, Downstage, Camera left/right. Ask if you may adjust them or their mark and also you might ask on critical framings if they mind if you gently adjust them to camera while during the take. The best time to introduce yourself is one that always troubles me too. I never want to be the one to distract them from work. I once had an actor bitch at me because I didn't introduce myself... I just didn't want to disrupt the process. But I guess they want to be comfortable knowing who's around them... I still don't know. So what I do is at the first chance I see them not talking to the director or running lines with another actor, I will politely excuse myself and make a quick intro with my work title, now sometimes this is maybe after a few scenes and I will apologize for not doing so earlier. Some of the better AD's will introduce the key workers when the rehearsal takes place... love that, but reintroduce later and welcome them. You can never go wrong with calling them their scripted names when working, because that IS who they are at that time. Even if Tom Cruse told me to call him Tom, I wouldn't until after maybe the second or third time he told me to do so. I hate to be called Mr. Dixon, but it is a sign of respect.

you attachment didn't make it... so speaking blindly off your words. At first it sounds like the sun is behind the subject which could be peeking around and through your subjects hair or arms and such. Not much you can do if this happens other than pulling your filters and using your best lens with the clearest glass.

Personally I like the G-Tech drives. We used them on Somebodies (HPX2000) and Van Wilder III (RED) with no issues.

I posted a kit forsale in the Classified forum. You may also need a laptop and I would suggest getting a self powered Mini G-Drive for storage. Make sure that your not ever dependent on house or set power supplied by the electrics. Either one can go down at any moment and could possibly cause data corruption from a complete loss of power, surge or flicker. So if your on a laptop and a self powered storage drive you can plug up to those sources and still be good if they fail. I also had a medium size rubber made with the large wheels like an AC cart to work off. A small point-n-shoot will do for continuity stills <_< if you have to do them, but more than likely the other departments will do their own. It's also good for crew shots... I always wanted to pass one around and let the crew take shots of themselves... that could be dangerous in the hands of the grips. That package put me behind $8K plus the second body I added later, but more than paid for itself.

Your welcome, I meant I could not get the Nikon F4 body to fit nor work in the blimp I have.

A few blimps may work for a few different model of cameras, for instance, mine was made for the D1x, but I've also squeezed a D2, D200 w/ battery grip and D300 into it. The foam is custom cut and the lens mount may vary not to mention the trigger electronics. Those are the different variables which may remain similar as did the pro Nikon models. The F4 would not work... so I was told from Jacobson.

Read back on my post Karl, never denied the use of polaroids being on set. I also tend not to include cinematographers as photographers... it's a given they have that background. So when I stated the use of the Land Cameras being a tool of primarily photographers, DP's where assumably lumped into that group. My bad for not being clearer. The peel-apart is the Land Camera Polaroid. SX-70 is the camera that made it easy for any Joe Smo to get a good and practical (key word is practical) image without the skill sets of basic photography. These request come from all different departments, but it was done by the still photographer. Even I had been asked to do something of the sorts to judge what color a dress was going to render. I agree that it's not the hardest 'skill set' to learn, but even photographers (I included) have difficulty with the pull apart type polaroids. In regards to pulling that information from the camera departments ALSO involves being able to do the conversions needed also. 1/50th is the easy part... 24fps ~ 1/50th shutter speed... "hold very still for clear image please." These film speeds where from 75, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1000 and 3000 ASA's. Cameras commonly had fixed iris' f/8.8 or f/42. I know I some times have difficulty doing the math correctly on the fly and this is my field of work. I wish it was as easy as "hey mister focus puller, what number you got on the lens..." but unfortunately it is not. It was under the union contract that the any camera allowed on set was operated ONLY by camera personnel. It was the still photographers job to do so. There are also two photographer classes, one is still photographer (the set guy) and the portrait photographer (gallery, photography studio away from set). Pompous is exactly why they are not doing continuity to this day. To them it was mindless work, not worthy of their time. You don't have to tell me how difficult it is to capture great stills, I did it day in and day out and found plenty of time to nap also, which would have been my continuity time.

Just Nikon & Canon... blimps are $800 and the zoom tubes $275 each. Mine is used but I just had it completely refurbished. Some times he has used ones also.

Nikon D1x (serviced and upgraded buffer) $400 Nikon D200 $700 MB-D200 Multi Power Battery Pack (two batterys or AA Rack) $160 AF-S Zoom-NIKKOR 28-70mm f/2.8D IF-ED $1,500 AF-S VR Zoom-NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED $1,600 Jacobson Sound Blimp w/ Lens tubes for both lenses above $1,000 Pelican Case 1550 (plucked for one body & both lenses) $100 Domke Original F-1 Bag $100 Package Price only $5,000.00 USD plus Shipping/Ins Original MacBook Pro 2.16GHz / 2GB Ram $2000 (will not delete any apps... LOADED!!!)

But here's the thing. That's a big ticket item and not a lot of them are out there so they do demand the big ticket price. Like you said supply and demand. But dropping the rates as such is really not going to be favorable to you from the rental houses. For instance, look at the RED frenzy, too new and unproven, so a lot of houses didn't buy into them. Kinda of the same as the lens adapters. These devices where now enabling low budgets to achieve better images. But no one had the glass for the adapters, so all of a sudden houses started renting lenses only and camera support. Now most houses have these adapters along with a few of the hot ticket miniDV or HDV cameras. Now RED demands the support of 35mm gear when in full production mode. Every Tom, Dick and Harry that owns a RED needs glass, filters, etc. The rental houses are now not giving deals on glass and support. Not to mention your gonna pay top dollar for the support gear, but if you got the camera also from them, you'll come put better in the package price. I'm sure your aware of this, but just needed to touch on it. So if the houses aren't selling their big ticket Ultra Primes and S4's, their going to start to wonder why the camera is going out the door without glass. Not to mention when the word gets around also that you got them and are basically giving them away. You are competition at that point In fact, Atlanta doesn't have a set of Master Primes, it's an Ultra and S4 town as of now and they fly them in if that's the order.

Don't forget that if it didn't make it on camera, then you really don't have to worry about it. So really you stay near the camera all the time would be my best guest. Come to think of it, I had to help do continuity stills for a low budget, my first show and I was shooting film then, it wasn't bad. They just had to wait until I got film back from the lab. I do recall we had to rush a few rolls to a one hour because I think wardrobe put the wrong shirt on...

Not the same, although it is necessary, it falls under the technical movements to maintain proper operation of machinery. We should move away from the term 'pushed the button' and refer to composition as an operator and expose as a DP. There for we are not talking about mechanical terms of operating machinery but rather truly artistic choices by trained technicians that are also creatively aesthetic.

Just got off the phone with my friend Wynn and my speculations where true. Still did ALL of the continuity shot, but some prima donnas wouldn't or just plain wouldn't do them. So with the SX-70, the other departments started to do them themselves. He said also on Bound for Glory, that Haskell called him into his trailer to tell him that Hal Ashby wanted to fire him. He went to talk to Hal and because Wynn had not taken enough continuity shots for scripty, they missed doing a reverse scene. He got to stay on the job but got a second Land Camera and always had one around his neck. As to when the contract changed, still not sure.

That kinda happened to me... F900 got fried and the producer tried to take it out of my pay. I sent a nice brief notice of copyrighted material not authorized to the client and their client's client. Yes three tiers of clients, explaining that they should be aware that copyrights are only transfered upon payment in full. That producer paid me the full invoice plus my late fees the next day.

Unless you are "Work for Hire" status, the photographer (in film can be considered a collaborative effort of the camera operator and the director of photography.) owns the copyright as soon as it is taken. The contracts that operators and DP's sign state that you are working for the producers as an employee... you are officially "work for hire."

WOW... get ready to be put on a very short list by all the rental houses if you do that.

Cool stuff Jamie. I started using Quicken Home & Biz around '03 and then switched over to Quicken for Mac for personal accounts and payroll W-2's. Then I also use QuickBooks Pro for Mac to do my business which would be anything I produced or got 1099'd on. This way my Schedule-C is all my QBP data and my 1040 is all from my Quicken. Not to mention the integration of Turbo Taxes helps keep me straight with the IRS. I would highly recommend these because of all the deductions we can take for our work is crazy... but also means a greater risk of an automated audit popping up.

If you really want to get back at this guy, just email the other DP's in your area with a simply explaining what he did on your set.

True and most DP's carried a Land Camera in their kits, not other departments. I disagree with this part. The skill level needed to shot and handle the processing of Polaroids moves into pure photography. Not saying it's not hard, but until the SX-70 and then the Polaroid 600, Land Cameras where toys of the photo enthusiast, tools of the photographers and mantle pieces of the upper-middle class.

One other thing... back in the days of film (stills) all you had to do is bag and tag it and your done... digital workflow has increased the amount of work the stills people have to do now. Before it was a few camera bags and that's his kit. Now you need a cart or flight case for laptops, hard drives, printers and etc. I guess they could get back to that by just shooting the cards and sending them to production with the film and let them deal with the digital mass of files.

Bound for Glory was just a something cool that I latched onto from talking to Wynn about his golden days on set. I told him I was leaving stills to per sue camera and that I'm a steadi op. From the what I was told, the photographers didn't want to do it because other departments could now take them easily themselves. I would have to ask around, but I'm sure I can find out when they actually let go of that from the contract, which is now a direct effect of the issue of "Proliferation of unauthorized use of Still Cameras on the set," which is a current issue being dealt with now. Yes they have been. Most notably used by photographers was the Land Camera and until the mid 60's, there wasn't anything affordable, quick, easy and may I note... not messy until then.