J. Lamar King IMPOSTOR

I wonder why they chose to put Goobers in a plastic bag inside of a cardboard box? The box has a cutout in it so you can see that it indeed has Goobers in it. But that neccesitates the plastic bag so the Goobers won't fall out of said hole. That plastic has to be the loudest plastic in history. Why can't they use a solid box like you get with Junior Mints?

The Copperphone is a cool special effect Mic that makes things sound as if they are coming from a Grammaphone, old radio or telephone. It is pretty extreme though. I don't know if you would want to do a whole movie with one...

The Copperphone

Phil, I just can't believe your situation is that dire. I would think someone would hire you for your intelligence alone. Don't you guys have any kind of indie scene over there? What about documentaries? Anything that could lead to some good work. When I say good work, I don't neccesarily mean good paying but rather it has the potential to show your work at its best. If you shoot enough documentaries/indie shorts/music vids you will eventually come accross something that has a sort of locomotion. You know, everything comes together and lifts the work a step above ordinary. IMO that is the point of this business, to do great work. Even if it doesn't make you a superstar, if the work is great it becomes timeless, becomes worth the struggle.

I talked to Ken Burns last year and he related stories to me about when he started and the gist of what he said was, you have to accept the fact that you are going to be poor. He did everything he could to not have expenses like buying a run-down farm house and driving clunkers. I took that advice, moved to the low rent side of town bought a $700 Honda and couldn't be happier. It has allowed me to invest more in myself and I'm shooting more than ever. I'm not affraid of looking at no paying jobs because I can usually talk people into coming up with a little to pay me and it's all I need. Point is, I'm shooting, getting paid, building a reel and it has led to a music video job with a major label recording artist this past July. But I'm still a long way from saying I've "made it." I'm just moving up any way I can.

I don't know if I'm the only one that does this, but...

I do it too Alvin, I don't nescesarily recreate particular lighting setups but I will do things like trying out different ways to get "room tone" etc. I find doing table top setups to be extremely good practice. I've been amazed at just how many lights you can actually work into a shot. You know like, what if I don't use one big back light, but rather use four smaller ones at different angles? Where exactly is the point that a backlight becomes more of a rim or kicker? etc. You can really discover on a small scale some things that might work on a larger area.

1.  What happens to the film when you push the film by one stop?  Lets say for example I shoot something which is exactly one stop under.  If I push one stop will the image be correctly exposed as if normally or will it be correct but with some loss of quality?  Sorry but I'm not really familiar with pushing.

 

2.  How about metering at night?  How does one acheive that?  Where and what do you meter? 

 

Any help appreciated.  Thanks.

1. Esentially correct, you would meter the film as if it were ASA 1000. An example would be if your metered stop was 1.something with the film rated normally @ 500 and you needed a stop of 2 or more. You would change your meter setting to 1000, which would (hopefully) give you 2.something. Then order the lab to push or force the film one stop to compensate. 7218 will handle a push very well and the usual artifacts are increased grain and changes in contrast. Whether these artifacts are considered a "loss" of quality is a subjective thing. I think 1 stop on a film such as 7218 would not generally be considered a loss in quality :unsure: , though you run the risk of mismatching if the scene is intercut, which it usually is.

2. Metering @ night is like metering at day. Just concentrate on your subject and make sure they are seen or not seen as the case may warrant. Points of light in the BG are going to register on the film with no problem. What you have to look at is where things that are lit in the BG fall in relation to the subject, there may be some overly bright buildings etc. If it is a driving scene I highly recommend holding your meter open on the subject as you do a run through. You could discover streetlights or signs etc. reflecting off the glass in a rythmic pattern which could be irritating/or not.

I'll second David on "Road to Perdition," fabulous interiors. Those bounces coming off the walls and floors are marvelous and they feel like wood. I always loved the interiors in "Bridges of Madison County" maybe they aren't magical but they feel very realistic to me an I find that in a way magical. They have definite character of Morning, Afternoon, Evening and Night.

The most "magical" I could think of would be "Pennies From Heaven" for many reasons. There is really great stuff in that movie, some of it audacious, but for some reason I'm always amazed at that bathroom where Steve Martin sings toward the beginning of the movie. It's not anything special technicaly, it just seems to fit the moment so perfectly.

Hey Phil, people like that exist in the USA too. Witness one Dov S-S Simens. I'm not making any particular accusations but a read through of his book can leave you scratching your head at how precarious some of the situations really are if you don't know anything about bussiness.

I don't care how clever you are in writing a contract, if someone invests in your film and you don't return their money, you are going to get sued! Espescially if you omit telling them the whole extent of the risk.

Well, you know how to pronounce Tele, as in Television. Just add Cine on to the end as in, \'si-ne\, but with a long EEEEE. That sound spelling is from the Websters Collegiate Dictionary and it has a long bar over the E, which I don't know how to do on here, but it means a long E sound. Telecine appears in the unabridged Dictionary and it is definitely Tela-sin-ee or Telee-sin-ee.

Make sure you check your camera against that chart. I know of at least two DVX's that do not focus anyhere near what that chart says.

What a sad day for the cinematography fraternity. R.I.P. Neal.

I would like to chime in and say 48khz is the standard sample rate for audio for film/video. I would stick with that as it could prevent possible sample rate compatability issues down the line.

You can get a better deal than $450. Never pay book rate for anything in the film biz. You can deposit money at a lab and/or post house and they'll give you a better deal. Of course that is for larger amounts of money but you can get together with other film makers and deposit $2,000 or so and they'll deduct it as you use their services. This gives them a guarantee you're not going to go elsewhere, just make sure they're giving you the best prices.

One that makes me laugh is after the take you hear in a very loud urgent voice...

"LETS GO ROUNDY-ROUND!"

Weeeee......sounds fun but it ain't.

Suddenly the issue of going to Cintel house that isn't up to snuff must be considered?  Why would a newbie shooting low budget music videos on mini-dv try film more than once if the quality control issue is a whole new issue?

Why do you have to go to the "Cintel Houses?" What about Spirit houses or ITK houses? Or a place that has them all? Rank doesn't have a monopoly on the telecine business. Besides, many different telecine brands are often tricked out and hot-rodded in various ways by their owners. Even a box stock machine should not be causing any excessive grain issues anyway. If it is, it probably (more likely the operator) is out of spec and you should get an explanation a re-run and/or refund and then run away very fast.

As far as quality control, that in a since, is what film making, whether on film or digital, is all about. It is the DP's responsibility to maintain a high image quality throughout. That also means getting up in the labs or post houses business and keeping an eye on them.

You cannot cut every push-button corner and expect to get professional results.

To me, when I see those, it always looks like someone up in the projection booth got shot and splattered blood on the movie.

LOL David, I had the same reaction when I saw them in this film. I almost turned around to look up at the projection window!

I also noticed a few unmotivated spots of light in the background but It didn't bother me. I feel sometimes you have to add light because the audience has to see something. It's really the classic conundrum of cinematography. If there is no source of practical light, what do you put on screen? Only cinematographers really notice that stuff anyway.

Was there a bit of the dolly-zoom thing going on in that fog scene? It didn't seem like it got tighter on them yet the fog was getting bigger.

I must admit to being partly fooled until late in the movie. My sister noticed the date on the gravestone and said to me "Did that say what I think it said?" to which I replied "Nah, you must've read it wrong!"

Shyamalan's movies are always based on very simple ideas. This one is based on a group of people trying to isolate and protect themselves from fear, yet they rule their society with fear. I think it's a mistake to exhault his movies into something more. He doesn't, which is where I think his genius shines.

If I'm not mistaken HD just means video that is 600 or more lines verticle. If Digibeta PAL is 576, it's damn close to being an HD camera itself.

Here in Texas I hear Air-ee quite often and I've even been corrected when saying Ah-ree. For some reason now I tend to split the difference and say Ah-ree for the company name and Airee-flex for the camera. Who knows...

Telecine is definitely pronounced tel-a-sin-ee. It happens to be in the dictionary with a bar over the E meaning it is a long E.

Heck, this is tough for us Americans. We're still tripping up over the Route/Rout thing. ;)

I'll second that Leon. When asked how he makes a photograph he would usually reply by saying, "I'm just receptive." Which is really what great photography is about, being sensitive to the moment.

Hi,

 

The whole mac/PC thing irritates me. If you want to be a nontechnical artist, buy a Mac. If you want to be a bit of a technician as well, buy a PC.

 

Phil

Irritates me too. Especially when Mac people say you will have all sorts of compatability issues with a PC. I found the exact opposite. I have a box stock eMachine with a 2.1Ghz XP-3000+ processor, I added ram to make a Gig, a second 250GB drive and a DVD burner. I run Premiere Pro 1.5 for video and I have the EMU 1820m audio/sync cards/breakout box that I use with Premiere and Nuendo.

Premiere Pro has frozen exactly one time and that was really my fault. Other than that I've had absolutely zero problems. But then, I did know that I would have to check my IRQ sharing etc. I don't think that's really a very technical thing to do. The only thing that sucks is the bug in Premiere Pro 1.5 regarding the way it handles 24p from the DVX-100. A complete screwup for Adobe. I have to complete a project for the British National Motorcycle Museum before the end of the year that mixes DVX 24pa footage with regular 29.97 DV and some 16mm TK's. Hmmm....

Great, I was wondering why I couldn't seem to find anything on their site. I'll never figure out why these companies just kill something completely rather than letting someone else operate it. Even if there is just one place in the world, it's better than none at all.

Does anybody have a general idea of how much it costs to get a Technicolor print done? I'm talking about the latest itteration of the sublimation process, isn't it called process 6 or something? Just wondering if it is horribly expensive and does it require any more answer printing etc. than normal to get it timed right? Just kicking some ideas around with a producer.

If you're looking at the image played back on the camera's LCD it is going to look studdery. That's normal. Play it back through a regular TV and it will be smooth.

anybody run across one of these in the field? Any comments on quality etc?

Phil, you can always move to the USA. People will be falling all over you because of your artiste British accent. I mean, if you have an accent you must be a real artist, right? I suggest having unkempt hair and a 5 o'clock shadow at all times. Maybe even a beret, but only the best can carry that one off!

There is the McWilliams Eyeliner which has been around for many years. It is a sillver mirror device which lets the questioner sit on the right side of the camera and his face is seen directly in front of the lens.

DP Patrick Blackard rents one out of Fort Worth, Texas. See this link for an explanation and pictures;

Eyeliner

And the McWilliams Eyliner site, all one page of it;

http://www.mceyeliner.com/