Matteo Cocco

Hello everybody! I just received feedback from the Festival´s office, with the good news that a short film I shot this year is invited to compete at Camerimage 2009. This is a very good news, it makes me happy.... The bad news is: the festival accepts only 35mm prints. The short was shot on low/no-budget on s16mm and transferred and color corrected to Digibeta. Does anyone of you know of someone or of some kind of deal where to get a 35mm print of the film. The length is 23 minutes.... Hope you have some suggestions. Thanks! P.s.: I´m based in Germany....

Hello, I´ll be shooting in a few weeks a TV-Movie set in 1945, just at the end of WWII. It´s not a movie about war, it´s mainly about the charachters. The general atmosphere is very intimate. For the general look, I´ll mainly rely on soft but contrasty lighting sources simulating daylight coming through windows. However, there´s a scene which I still don´t know how to light properly. The scene takes place at night in a street built in the studio backlot in Berlin, Babelsberg. This street has been used on the last Tarantino movie "Inglorious Basterds". There are going to be street lights, the director doesn´t want to wet the street and the budget doesn´t allow us to light from the top (eg with scissor lifts or similar). That means all the light has to be on stands on the floor. We mainly have HMIs, but we´ll get Tungsten units for this shooting day (5ks, I guess...). I´m not really worried about the close-ups. Do you have any suggestions for the wide shots? The idea is to maintain a very natural and soft look, without the scene to be overlit... I would really appreciate any suggestion. If you need further details, I´ll be more than happy to tell you. Thanks for your time.

Hello Everybody, I started shooting a documentary about a two weeks ago on the Hpx2100 with P2 cards. The recording format we chose was 1080/50i - 25p. We are now in the final days of production and we needed to rent a second camera to shoot some dialogue scenes. Due to budget restrictions, the production is unable to rent a second Hpx2100. Se they rent an Hvx200, also with P2 cards. Yesterday I was testing the two setups, trying to match the settings as much as possible. The HVX200 has either the recording setup 1080/50i (which does only 50frames) or the setup 1080/25p (which does 25 frames).... I´m a bit confused. What is the right setup to match the Hpx2100? I felt the 1080/50i-50frames setup looked better in terms of movement, but can that be possible? Why does Panasonic use different names for the same setups? Please help me as soon as possible, as I´m shooting tomorrow.... Thanks, Gigi

Hey guys Has anyone of you tried to shoot sync sound with the Arri 235 or 435. Is there a way to "blimp" the camera in order to shoot with sync sound. I need a light camera for handheld work and can´t afford the LT.... Thanks for replying!

Hi guys! Does anybody know of a website where different HD camera menus are covered in detail...with a complete explanation of every setting. Thanks for your help. Gigi

Hi everybody! I have an upcominc shoot, half documentary half fiction. Most of it will take place in mountains with lot of snow. I´m just wondering if there is some kind of tip you could give me about some special camera settings to get the snow have a nice white without clipping or something similar... thanks for your help Gigi

is this also possible with the hdx900?? Thanks

Is it possible to get 1: 2,35 frame guides on the viewfinder of the Varicam HDC27? Thanks, gigi

just forgot something......... Mght be a good a idea to mix 4k and 2k? (using 2K for slomotion shot)

Hello everybody, I´m going to test for the first time in a few hours the RED One, am really curious... Could someone help me answering a few questions...? I´m shooting in a few weeks a commercial which is not for TV, but for cinemas with digital projection, so quality is essential..... The client requests a 1:2.35 aspect ratio. Most of it will be shot at standard speed, but there are at least 5 shots which require slow-motion... What are the best settings, in terms of quality, to achieve this? Thanks a lot.....

Can some one tell me the difference between a mos and a sync sound camera? what can´t I do with a MOS one, eg the arri435? Thankyou

Hi! I´ve a job as a 1st AC next week on a commercial. It´s supposed to be one day testing and two days shooting. Could you give me some tips about testing for commercial, it´s going to be on 35mm with the ARRI ST. what happens with the film I shoot for the testing? How am I going to take a look at it if the next day we´re already shooting? another question: how do you normally test lenses during prep. (please give details!) Thanks for help, cheers. Gigi

I´ll be shooting a feature on 35mm. the final product should be black&white. i would like to go through a DI, but still am unsure of using Black&white negative stock from Kodak, instead of shooting on color film and pull the color away later. would be nice if you could give me some suggestions, personal experiences and film references! Thank you very much, Gigi

...and what about the 500T EXPRESSION from Kodak? Do you think it´s a good stock? maybe a good choice to avoid high contrast in day scenes?

Hello! I´m starting the next week a 2weeks low budget feature in Prague and Berlin. We will be shooting on s16mm, with Zeiss 1.3, mostly handheld. The project will be very "guerrilla-filmaking", that means there will be a lot of improvisation. There will be exteriors and interiors, both day and night, and the amount of each might change day after day. We will buying 20 rolls of film and i´m at the point of deciding which stock will perform better for all circumstances..... On a normal shooting I would take some daylight or low speed for day shooting and some high speed (eg. 500t) for night or low light situations. The problem is that for such an indipendent way of shooting, I don´t feel safe ordering for example 10 rolls of 50d and 10 of 500t, beacause the shoot might end up just in night exteriors....(and i will have a few problems getting a t stop with 50d...!!!) So what would be the best choice? ordering just 500t and probably working with heavy (really heavy!!) ND filtration on the lens...? or maybe order just 200t and maybe push one or two stops on night exteriors? It would be nice to read your opinions! (i will have a small lighting package, anyway nothing to use on night or day exteriors) (the look of the movie should be quite clean, but a controlled amount of grain is acceptable) (the final product will be on digi-beta, for further color correction after editing). thanks for your help!

Hello everybody! has anyone a good link to a website that explains how to build a cheap Chimera Softlight? thankyou!

on a close-up, which eye should be in focus??

i´ve seen on camera catalogues, there are many different kind of matt boxes for arri cameras.........mb14, mb15, mb16...... what´s actually the difference between them? and when to use one or another? is there one suiting all lenses? (the same question for donuts) THANKS FOR YOUR ANSWERS: GIGI

could you post the link again?? didn´t appear on the page! thanks!

hi guys! i´m shooting quite soon a short movie on 16mm and i´m quite worried on how to deal with one of the major location . it´s a living room with almost no furniture (there will be just a bed and a small table), all the walls are white and there is a big window with balcony. there will be shots where we see both in and inside, both day and night. i don´t really know how to deal with white walls without letting them be "too white", and how to achive a good lighting continuity. i´m looking forward for any suggestion! thanks a lot

i was just wondering if there is some kind of trick to consider when focusing on the lens. i mean, if my lens has focus marks for 5 feet and 7 feet, will the 6 feet mark be in the middle or slightly more towards the 7 (considering the logarithmic progression of focus)? is ther any trick to find these kind of intermediate marks? thanks for your answers

would like to know exactly what tests do you normally do for a 35mm camera (i mean such as focus, etc..) thanks,