Tom Hepburn

Dots? I thought that was grain :D That is a cool painting. I've spend more than a couple of hours in front of that puppy, as well as in the whole Impressionist section. Even the frame is painted in dots. One thing to consider is because he was using large quantities of paint and did not buy them from a tube, apparently the colors have faded quite a bit. I wonder what it looked like 130 years ago. I'll bet it was almost like neon back in the day. Tom

That is sweet. I remember not that long ago, the cost of RAM and Hard Drive space was big money. I got a 1 gig drive that I split with someone back when I was in school and I thought I was the stuff. "yep, that's 500 megs, read it and weep." Tom

I'm sure Saul or someone else can give you a more detailed answer to your question, but in general the pressure plate holds the film in position when the film is exposed. I wouldn't shoot again until you know that your camera has all of the necessary parts, if not working, at least present. Maybe post a picture of the open camera so more experienced eyes (not mine) can asses if it looks in order. Or even better if you have a manual, check in there. Tom

I have chosen to keep out of this post until now. I'm not addressing the subject at hand one way or the other. I do have to say that David has been EXTREMELY helpful to me regarding Cinematography. He has gone beyond the call of what I expected to make sure that I understood the things I was missing, and asked for nothing in return. We all have strong opinions on controversial subjects. Again, I'm not defending, endorsing, or promoting anything or anyone, I just wish we could have found another way....ALL of us. Tom

Hey Saul, Thanks for the response. Here is the workflow Super 16 processing Telecine to HD (Spirit, 1920x1080) convert to stills (a long difficult and necessary step) Now I expose "my little engine that could" computer I'm basically editing by proxy. -I take my HD footage (still sequence) into the my Premier Pro Timeline At full 1920x1080 there is just no way. -So I export the whole sequence at 480x270 with significant compression -The next day ;) I edit with my reduced and compressed footage (saving early and ofter) -When that's finished I duplicate my timeline and replace my reduced and compressed footage with my HD footage -at this point, I compress to taste. Blueray as soon as I find a player to test it on. I'm not sure if that's the info you were looking for, but there it is. I would say that in the future (b4 I upgrade my computer) I'm going to get all of my Telecine converted to still sequences. To me it seems like that is one way to avoid platform and codec restrictions. Let me know if there is any other info that might be helpful. Thanks as always. Tom

Hey Ron, Here is my experience. I have trouble reading the little numbers on my old Sekonic analog meter, especially the cini numbers. I got a Spectra on Ebay for around $200. Those old meters are certainly capable of giving you a good reading, once their accuracy is verified, but my thought is that given the amount of $$$ I'm spending on film, processing, and especially telecine, I didn't want to cut that corner and I also wanted a meter that was more cinema friendly. Tom

If it's the telecine operator then the negative should be good right? I would take a look at that to determine where the problem is. I'm sure that was disappointing though. Tom

Hello, I wanted to post what amounts to a camera test. You may recall that there was a blocthy grain thing going on a month or two ago. I've since had the camera serviced and had the film scanned in HD. I threw some sound on it to keep it from getting to boring. Let me know if you see any mechanical shortcomings. It's also compressed quite a bit. Eclair Test Footage Thanks in advance, Tom

Isn't he looking through the wrong end? :blink:

I would agree and probably shot at 64 fps or higher to look smooth. Judging by the rotating leaf, I'm not sure animation is there forte. T

Hey Rich, I don't have the answers to some of your technical questions, but I will say that "dooms dayers" are very difficult to be around on any level and in any situation when trying to realize a goal, in my experience. Sometimes when things get tough, and they always do at some point, an attitude be it good or bad can be contagious. Hopefully that drive and the positive attitude, that your friend appears to lack based on what you're saying, will see you through the rough spots. More money isn't always the answer. As they say, my 2 cents. Also, I just picked up a 4 light Lowell Omni kit for $470 on Ebay. Someone please delete my Ebay account :D Not sure if that would work for you what to do, but maybe it would. Tom

Living in Chicago I'm going to happen upon the same situation. In fact it's 20 degrees at the moment. Can I just ask what the protocol is to avoid condensation on your lenses? AND would the same protocol apply to your camera/magazines? For example would you slowly reduce the temperature over a 1/2 hour or so going from outside, to in the car, to inside? Or would it be best to keep the lenses outside, but sheltered in a case? Thanks, Tom

Hi Denisse, A very good first effort. A couple things I would consider for your next project. Obviously everyone isn't the same, but I find it more interesting when things are shown instead of presented in the form of dialog. For example, when she mistakes the gentleman on the street for Mike. Another take could be for him to just shake his head and have the couple walk away after his wife asks, "who was she?" As a viewer I already knew that this woman was a tad strange and that she thought this guy was Mike. I would also clean up the audio and I have a suggestion that may help to do that. What I do if I feel like the audio isn't flowing on an edit, is to close my eyes, or turn off the monitor, and make notes to myself along the way-just listening to the audio. For example, "at point X, abrupt cut." One solution might be to do a short cross dissolve or set the level slightly lower for a specified time, 2 seconds for example, until the listener has time to adjust. Sometimes, you want that abrupt sound change depending on what you're trying to accomplish. You might be surprised what you notice when your eyes are not occupied. As I say these are only suggestions and you have a lot of great things there. Good Luck, Tom

Sing it with me guys, "We are the world" :lol: Seriously, anything to keep film going is a good thing. Tom

You only need to use the high slide when your non high slide reading is burying the needle. Tom

If it were me, and it's not, I would consider doing this in post. However, that may not be what your instructor is trying to teach you with this assignment. I would check first if this is an option. In AfterEffects there is a plug in called leave color. It takes a little tweaking, like everything seems to need in post, but with some masking it should work nicely. Of course I would do a test first. If for example you want to keep the red paint red, you would want to make sure that there is no other Red in the footage. Mostly cyan would probably be best. That would save a lot of masking later. Thought I'd mention it. Tom

Hey Adrian, Is that an SR3 :D Sorry, I couldn't resist. Tom

Thanks Paul. That means a lot. Tom

A quick update: I used some freeware, I don't have the name with me, to convert the AVI file to a targa file sequence. I was then able to bring them into Premiere Pro and interpret then at 23.976. I'm definitely on the slower end end of the processing power scale, but for now, this will have to do. I have a friend who told me his work offers him a "Friends and Family" mac program. I can't say "tax return" quick enough. I've copied the file to a different drive, as well as cut the movie file in half and still only a portion of the footage came in. NTFS is the file system Thanks for all of the help folks! I appreciate it. I'll post some short clips soon. Tom

Here would be another option. It's worked for me in the past. Shoot 10 seconds of a white board, nothing else just a white board filling the full frame to pick up the grain of the film. After you scan a picture and bring it in to a NLE (although not realtime, I love AfterEffects),overlay that white board footage and use a blending mode like ?overlay? or ?screen.? The white in the board footage will become transparent and you'll be left with grain from the stock you?re using over your picture. I agree with Brian that an animated still looks too perfect. It takes some random key frames. Sometimes the hardest thing to animate. I think another reason Ken Burns filmed his stills was because the historical photos were so susceptible to damage through mounting on a drum or the light on a flatbed. Gotta love Shelby Foote though. As has been mentioned, it?s a matter of the look that you going for. Some like to do everything in camera and there?s something to be said for that. Tom

Hi Ashley, I see what you're saying about some of the exposure, but that aside, which it totally correctable, I thought it was very nice. I was able to be carried by the story and images without the interruption from technical glitches, at least at this resolution. Good work. What were you using in terms of camera, etc.? Tom

Hi Brad, The work itself looks awesome! One this I would point out is there is a shift in the title position when you go to the default page and click High Rez version. A small thing, but easy fixable. If Matthew can't see it, he may not have the quicktime plug in for his browser. Adrian suggested a flash file. Another advantage to that is that that format is a little more independent of the Windows vs. Mac conflicts and as long as someone is using a browser that less than 3 years old, it should have the plug in and play fine. Tom

"It'll only be onscreen about fifteen seconds so a time consuming post process for this scene's VFX would be okay" In that case, I would shoot the color, isolate or mask out the car and desaturate the rest. Keep in mind that you'll have reflections of things out of the frame on glass and chrome that may or may not pose a challenge. I would even take a still of the scene or one like it if that's possible and do a dry run. Sometimes that can expose little problems that could creep up later. Sounds fun though. I didn't know that about Dorothy either. And she looked so honest. I feel like such a fool :o Tom

Although I didn't attend Columbia here in Chicago I have heard only good things. I went to the Art Institute which is blocks away from Columbia, and I would say that they are less practical in terms of post graduate potential, outside of the art world. I think Columbia College would be a good choice. I would have gone there myself, but at the time they didn't have much computer equipment and I also couldn't get as much financial aid there. Tom

Well, I'm about ready to wave the white flag here. The extra RAM made no difference. It's been suggested that it could be that the hard drive is too slow? I've used both a firewire and usb hard drive with the same file and still only a minute imports into premier pro and aftereffects. What are other people using for High Definition storage? Do I need a SATA set up? As always, thanks, Tom