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J. Lamar King IMPOSTOR

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Everything posted by J. Lamar King IMPOSTOR

  1. Anyone going to SXSW in Austin this year? I'm going but just to the trade show, which you can get into free this year. The panels aren't worth the money. Kodak is doing the stop-by-shoot-film thing too.
  2. Well, one thing to keep in mind is whether you're lighting miniatures with a single tweenie or a mountainside with a gazillion Maxi-brutes. A key-light is a key-light just as fill is fill etc., etc. The fundamentals are the same.
  3. Check with your local SAG office. They should have all the info regarding rules and laws when working with child actors. It should be a rule that any minor should be accompanied by a parent the whole time their on set.
  4. I always shoot it with Detail set to -5 or -6 and Master Ped set to -5 or -6. However that just makes it look a bit more filmic, it won't turn a sows ear into a silk purse.
  5. I shot 7205 at normal and 2/3rds over. I prefer 2/3rds over but that is a purely subjective thing. It looks really silky and smooth, I like it a lot.
  6. I should point out that the hallway shot does have a power window silhouette on it. But it didn't when this frame grab was made. That window plus the fact that the final letterbox is close to 2.35:1 really minimizes the area below that table. That vent and foreground wall was blocked by a nice tall container full of shiny wooden walking sticks which I loved but the director removed it. We spent about 30 minutes in the telecine trying to apply a shadow like you did in photoshop. LOL. You really just don't notice any of that in the moving shot because your eye follows the little girl running away from camera to the far room.
  7. Not a stupid question at all. Basically the principle is to rate the stock at a slower speed so you will have to open the iris more to get a good exposure. Since the stock is faster than what you rated it at you get a denser negative. You then print or transfer the negative "down" to look proper. Generally you obtain denser blacks, better tonal seperation and tighter grain that way, as well as it gives you more room to maneuver printing wise. You should do some exposure tests to find out how this affects the negative and wether or not you like the way it looks. See this thread by David for some more information on this technique. Sometimes you base the overexposure amount on a test you do to try to find out what the "real" speed of a negative is with your particular meter, lens and lab configuration. I won't attempt to explain that process because I will wind up confusing you. That's the why, here's the how. After you've figured how much overexposure to build into your negative you simply change the ASA speed on your light meter. I wanted 2/3rds overexposure on the 250D so it became 160. I wanted 1/3rd overexposure on the 100T so it became 80. Plus I was shooting in daylight so I was using an 85 filter which needs 2/3rds of a stop correction. So 80 became 50.
  8. I like the harder shadows when it's motivated by sunlight. The Tweenie is casting the shadows of the flowers and lamp shade. That was done on purpose to spread the "sun" into the hall. The shot begins with the girl in the pink dress who is covering the lens with her hat. She runs away from the lens to the other characters with ribbons flowing from her hat. The hard "sun" helps to catch those ribbons. The shot is overcranked at 32fps. At some point there will be a downloadable version available. I'll let you know when.
  9. The vignetting is done in telecine with a power window on the DaVinci.
  10. After each vignette we cut to a shot of a person that appeared but now they are in front of the event venue. The day we shot these it was cloudy and raining and they were shot along a public walking path that we could only block half of. I simply used a 1.2K HMI PAR as a bit of an edge and a 4x solid flop on the opposite side for negative fill. These were shot from a dolly with a bit of sideways drift. All shot on 7212 with 85 rated at ISO 50.
  11. This is a commercial I shot last week for a large church in Dallas. They are having a church service on Easter Sunday in the same arena where the Dallas Mavericks basketball team plays. With such a high profile event they felt the need to produce a higher end commercial on film. The commercial will begin playing on March 14th on all three major network affiliates and cable in North Texas. The feeling they wanted to convey was inviting and warmth. The commercial plays out in three vignettes showing families that are getting ready and/or going to the event. I chose to shoot the day interior on 7205 Vision2 250D to keep grain to a minimum yet maintain some speed. I rated the 7205 at ISO 160. I shot the exteriors on 7212 Vision2 100T rated at ISO 50 with an 85 plus 1/3rd overexposure. Sorry these frame grabs are pretty low res and the letterbox is not placed right. These are right off the telecine. These first ones show the interior setups shot with the 7205. The lighting plot;
  12. Well, it turns out we got no flicker at 32fps and intermitent flicker at 48fps. Nothing we couldn't cut around. I guess if it were a more critical shot it would be prudent to use a cine speed meter or something to double check them.
  13. There are some frame grabs from and HD camera here.
  14. It really sucks when the AD is constantly asking you how much longer the setup will take. I really hate to even give an answer but I know from experience about what it'll take and I add 10 minutes.
  15. The L-608 had a viewfinder readout in the eyepiece and a few more functions versus the older 508. It has been discontinued in favor of the more sensitive L-558c which has all the features of the 508/608 but has a fixed 1 degree spot meter, which apparently is why it is more sensitive. BTW, welcome to the forum and congratulations on your student ASC award.
  16. Thanks for posting that chart Laurent. I got a look at one before the shoot. I was just a bit worried about flickering because I realized I've never overcranked with HMI's. I've always used tungsten units or straight sunlight before. I had a discussion with the Gaffer and he assured me that we would not get flicker with our ballasts, shooting at 32 or 48fps. We just wrapped today and the TK is set for Tuesday so I guess I'll know for sure then. There was really only one setup where the HMI was the main source of light anyway. The rest were mixed with sunlight.
  17. Thanks Adam, that's exactly what I've been hearing from other people. Some say no problem others have said they still flicker.
  18. This is one those questions I should know the answer to but I don't. Are square wave flicker-free ballast's flicker free at any speed? Can I shoot at 32 and 48fps at 180 shutter and not worry? I've been getting two different answers on this.
  19. I always make my own version of the lantern lock idea out of a ceramic socket, threaded lamp rod and an aluminum cross piece. It holds the lantern fairly stiff. I have a couple that I spray painted half or 3/4 of the ball black. That kinda controls spill from the back of the ball. More often than not though I find it sufficient to just flag it with acouple of 2x3's. Or a floppy top and side.
  20. Any way you look at it your best bet is to do some ordinary scratch testing with some secondhand stock. Look for problems in the camera, clean it meticulously then shoot and develop another test roll. That's the only way to be sure.
  21. I wouldn't buy them, get some from a lab if there is one near you. If not call and see if they'll send you some for postage or a promise to process there.
  22. I've had still film done from around the late seventies. One roll they processed straight and it was very dark. I found another one later and had it pushed two stops and it was a lot better but definitely deteriorated. The best thing though was it was like a time capsule and brought long forgotten memories back. I would warn the lab what it is and have it end tested if possible and decide whether and how much to push.
  23. That last line "No survivors." is interesting because it's kind of untrue. His work survives him and as long as there is an earth he is artistically immortal.
  24. Most K-3's have a horrible amount of a nasty black grease inside of them. You should be able to simply move some grease to where you need it. When you take the baffle plate off make sure you unscrew the six larger screws on the plate not the tiny ones. Once the plate is off you can cut and remove the string on the back of the baffle plate that controls the loop former machanism. Leave the film footage counter in place but you can remove the string from it. When you replace the baffle plate make sure to place the "anti-reverse" gear or whatever it's called in the claws on the back of the baffle. Push the baffle plate into the camera and wind the mechanism a tiny bit so the gear engages the shaft. It's almost impossible to get the baffle to seat the other way round.
  25. I'm shooting a :30 spot for air on regional TV. It will air on all 3 major network affiliates as well as a major cable outlet in a major market, Dallas. All have asked for BetaSP. :rolleyes: We're shooting in 16mm and have several post options. It was brought up and I think preffered by the producer that we simply TK to DVcam edit then dub to BetaSP. The lab said they do this all the time as a matter of fact because so much is shot for broadcast in DVcam. The alternative would be to TK to BetaSP or perhaps Digibeta, offline on DVcam then conform. Of course this adds an extra step and cost. From my standpoint I was a bit taken back that they all wanted BetaSP. I wonder if we would look that much different next to other commercials done on Digibeta or even HD because I ssume they have dubbed to SP as well. Opinions?
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