Brandon Ruiz

You're referencing a location for inspiration that doesn't have the disadvantages your actual location has like lack of space, skin tone colored walls, and not much set dressing. The practical you mentioned will help but I'm pretty sure the back wall needs some sort of set dressing. You could try lighting through the window but without much background separation I think you'll have trouble getting a nice shaped light. Same goes for the toplight. Is there a chance the script could be modified to take advantage of a different space?

I'm shooting a warehouse interior day for night on a music video and want to try gelling or papering windows warmer for a stylized look to suggest sodium vapor coming from outside. Tenting and lighting isn't really in the budget. Anyone have any luck with a material that looks good on windows DFN? I'm pretty sure a straight CTS or CTO gel on the windows won't give me the the contrast to suggest a night exterior. Maybe something like unbleached waxed paper would work?

I'd rule out Cooke because there's no pincushion distortion in the wides. Kowa I doubt because the distortion isn't that extreme. My guess is either Panavision or Hawk V.

It always amazes me how the best solutions are often the simplest, in this case allowing the truck to silhouette against the dust 'layers' the frame beautifully. Also like the soft light in foreground versus the harder light in BG. Great stuff. What white balance settings do you use for moonlight? Any gels on lights?

Stuart can you share any details on how you lit this beautiful Gregory Crewdson-esque shot?

First problem is your location really isn't the best. You're crammed into a corner with no windows to open up the room. Second problem is that ugly, almost-chroma-key green wall that will spill over everything in that tiny room. Can art department paint the walls? Otherwise you're fighting a battle you just can't win. I'd recommend going with a chimera softbox and fabric grid on a menace arm for your top key to better control the light spilling around the room, then a simple fill to wrap around their faces a bit. Chimeras will be your friend in situations like this. Will make your life a lot easier. Your key's surface area doesnt need to be huge because you're replicating a lamp, so dont go crazy with the diffusion.

"They'll be exactly the same as the original Panchros, just with new optics, coatings, and mechanics." So... Mini S4's then right? Those old coatings are radioactive and somewhat illegal today. Thats what made them awesome.

The Mole Richardson 'museum' next to the Studio Depot on La Brea is worth checking out. If you can get out to Woodland Hills, Panavision's facility has some interesting items on display. Also the local camera accessory houses are fun, Hot Rod Camera in Hollywood and AbelCine in Burbank.

The beautiful fall ended a little too fast, so we made the decision to push principal photography back until next spring and raise a little more money in the meantime. In fact, the kickstarter campaign is in its final 24 hours. Additional funds and support have allowed us access to a few more cameras. Current debate is between Epic and Alexa. Epic could be beneficial for VFX shots (though we don't have many), but I much prefer the Alexa to the Epic in terms of dynamic range and highlight roll off.

Thanks Bill. I'm certainly leaning towards that camera as well. Our condition is we're required to use the owner of the cam as the sole operator, which is reasonable enough considering our rate (peanuts) but cramps our creative style a bit as we shoot primarily handheld. I edited this project in Premiere CS6. Workflow was pretty basic. It involved exporting an XML from the NLE, importing the XML and conforming the timeline in Resolve, and then another XML export from Resolve which was loaded back into Premiere with the graded shots in the new timeline. Resolve 9 seems to hate importing clips on multiple layers, so I try to keep everything to one layer when I export from my NLE. Previous versions of Premiere were exporting in the wrong format of XML, which could be an issue if you have an older NLE.

https://vimeo.com/50031998 Got approached to edit and second unit direct an interesting little feature called Jack Fall, a story about a man trying to figure out what he'd want most in life if he could have it all back. The film was zero budget, but the script was irresistible, so I joined in. First up was to go out to the Southeastern Oregon wilderness and film some look and style tests as well as teaser shots to get investors interested. We had no money, so the 5D MKII became our A cam for entire shoot, and we set out determined to make the compressed h.264 look as good as we could. After we returned to Portland, I brought the footage into DaVinci Resolve and went to work calming down highlights and shifting the pink skin tones into something that better accentuated golden hour. Our skeleton crew did an excellent job with what they had, and shortly after posting this video online two days ago, professional crew from nearby productions (Grimm, Leverage) have pledged time and resources to this project to make it succeed. It was a lesson in perseverance. Our tools weren't ideal, but we made them work as best we could. It's made all of us better filmmakers. Our principal photography begins Oct 28 featuring a donated Canon C300 or possibly Alexa as our new A cam.

Here is the new Zeiss Anamorphic concept lens at NAB. According to the Zeiss rep, ballpark of $30k per lens, 2x squeeze, further details at IBC. I looked in the viewfinder and waved the alexa around at their floodlights above. No flare. Disappointing but not surprising.

Callan Green uses round front lomos with the 5d. Check out his blog. http://anamorphic5d.blogspot.com/2010/11/anamorphic-5d.html Like Mr. Mullen mentioned, these cameras don't have much resolution to begin with. Consider a 1.5x anamorphic adapter like the Iscorama if you want to avoid cropping/resolution loss.

Round fronts, yes... Lomo square fronts, no. Not without removing the mirror.

It is impossible to design an anamorphic element that fits every focal length perfectly without your squeeze issue. Isco hinted this by incorporating the 50mm taking lens into the Isco 36. The Isco adapters are really only meant for a focal range between 50 and 90mm. If you get a chance, take a look at a set of anamorphic primes. If you look closely, you'll notice each oval anamorphic element is shaped a little differently to accommodate that specific focal length.

Wide angle anamorphic photography has never been too popular due to inevitable barrel distortion, though the field of view with your anamorphic adapter is actually wider than it would be with just the taking lens alone, turning your 50mm taking lens into something closer to a 35mm with the adapter attached. According to my tests, 28mm is the widest you can go on a 7D/Isco 54 without vignetting. Taking your wider anamorphic field of view into account, that leaves you with something close to 25mm. I'm thinking 25mm should be enough, no?

It is possible to use cine anamorphic lenses with the 5d, though the 2x squeeze factor on the 16x9 sensor produces roughly a 3.60:1 aspect ratio, requiring cropping to conform to 2.35:1. With less than HD resolution to begin with, this proves to be a deal breaker for most filmmakers, though a couple of users on this board have had good results with Lomo round front anamorphic lenses. A more popular option is a 1.3 or 1.5x anamorphic adapter like Phil mentioned. Iscoramas are known to be the best quality anamorphic adapters, though with prices that have shot through the roof in the past year due to renewed demand. Isco facts: Extremely sharp, high quality glass. Rear threads allow you to screw the adapter right on to the filter threads of your taking lens without any sort of clamp or mount. They come in 3 sizes, the smallest being the Isco 36, Isco 42, and the largest, the Isco 54. 1.5x squeeze produces a 2.55:1 aspect ratio. Very close to cinemascope 2.35:1. The Isco 36, the only adapter of the family without multicoating on the lens, produces the strongest flares. Vignetting is a big issue with anamorphic adapters. Don't plan on shooting wider than 50mm with your 5d on the largest aperture Isco available, the Isco 54. Rack focusing is almost impossible with any anamorphic adapter, though the Iscoramas manage better than others due to its focusing front element, which unlike other adapters, does not require focusing of both the taking lens and the adapter at the same time. Close focus filters, or diopters, are required to focus closer than the minimum focusing distance of 8 feet. Chromatic aberration is an issue with the larger adapters at larger apertures. f2.8 and above seems fine. Isco's aren't cheap, often going on ebay for $1500 and up. Popular lower cost alternatives include Kowa and Sankor adapters which are reasonably sharp with strong flares and 2x squeeze ratios. I would stay away from the Panasonic adapter as users have reported it to be excessively soft below f8.

Any kind of rack focusing is very difficult with an anamorphic adapter - even an Iscorama. My Iscorama 54 doesn't focus closer than 8 feet without diopters. The Iscos allows you to make small focus adjustments but nothing dramatic. LOMO square fronts by the way, have the same minimum focus distance. I haven't used the Sankor adapter yet, but I would imagine anything 50mm and wider will vignette.

Kristian or Hunter, is there any vignetting with the 50 or 35 on the 5d? How bad is barrel distortion? And what is the closest focusing distance? I've been dreaming about a set of roundfronts for a while now....

I wish you could rate threads on this board. You guys have given some incredible advice.

Google results say the same thing. I'll stay away. Thanks for all the help!

Thanks for the help guys. With newer cameras like the HPX170 and RED's Scarlet on the horizon, I figured the value of HVX's would be dropping shortly, so why not take a risk and get one at a discounted price. The price is so tempting. http://shopdigitaldirect.com/catalog/produ...ts_id=7321&

I have been shopping around for an HVX200A and have found a few websites selling new HVX200A's for ridiculously low prices. I figured there had to be a catch so I gave them a call, and after playing the 20 questions game, the guy admitted the menus were in Chinese. I've never used the HVX, so I'm guessing the menu's aren't multilingual? If not, is there any way to mod it into an english version?