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Zac Halberd

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Everything posted by Zac Halberd

  1. Hey ya'll I just launched my new site and would love to share with the world. I specialize in wildlife and documentary work. I have a lightweight and portable Scarlet package. Please visit www.zachalberd.com Thanks for your time. -- Zachary Halberd Director of Photography 908 759 3823 www.zachalberd.com -- Represented by The Right Eye Agency
  2. Shooting some tests on the RED using superspeeds. Getting some soft shots, and am wondering if I need to back focus these lenses. I didn't know you had to back focus a prime lens. Sorry for the stupid question, but this is my first time using these lenses. Thanks Z
  3. Thanks for that dude. I do remember from the short we shot last on the Red that the DoP was complaining about the shadows being noisy. Fortunately we won't have to worry about that as it's all going to be very white, with no shadows. perhaps rating at a higher ASA will work in my favour in more ways than I thought. It looks like I'm going to have to go with flicker free HMI then. I wanted to stick with tungsten, as then I could use the house lights, as well as avoid the paranoia of flicker from HMI. I've not dealt much with high speed shooting. What if I replace the 2k's with 4k HMIs? I want the light quite soft as well, so we're talking full diff here. That's basically three 4ks hitting the model from less than 15 feet away but through full diff. This is going to cost a bit.
  4. Shooting some models jumping on a trampoline in a small studio in slow motion with the Red Cam (windowed mode) using superspeeds. The backdrop is solid white, and the room is 30ft by 30ft and about 20ft high. Basically I want the models to be evenly lit and quite fresh and bright with a slight rim light. However we're shooting at 120fps HD. Am going to be booking the lights tomorrow, and I'm at a loss for how much firepower I'm going to need. I always like to start with more watts than I think I'm going to need and then work from there, but we're on a very tight budget. I thought about a 2k on each side of the model through a silkscreen, a 2k above and slightly behind the model clamped to the ceiling for rim, and then another diffused 2k to fill. I also have a redhead kit standing by. For some reason, I'm thinking this will not be enough light. That old gut feeling is nagging at me. I know HD is quite sensitive, but I've never shot at 120fps before. Anyone here have any experience shooting high-speed HD? Z
  5. Is it just me, or is it kinda cool seeing a 13 year old on this website asking legit questions about lighting? A decade ago, and this would have been a bit rare. Shooting is becoming accessible to everyone. Just my two cents.
  6. I'm just a bit worried because we only have the budget for something like a 1.2k HMI, and I'm only worried that it won't be strong enough to do what I see in my head. I'll make it work though. If you don't mind, I'll post some stills of the film once it's finished. Thanks for all the advice.
  7. Just wondering if anyone can recommend a solid one-stop shop resource online for camera assistants in the UK. Just need some more tools, tape, and various other poop. I find literally hundreds of sites, but they're all American. I can make the trip to Arri or Panavision, but I'd have to remortgage my house to afford the stuff. I'm based in Cardiff by the way.
  8. Really? I would have thought that the depth of field issues would be different for 16mm vs. super 16mm??? Isn't the CoC different between the two formats, not to mention the lack of the same lenses available for 16mm. I don't work alot with 16mm, so I'm no expert. Could someone please explain. Z
  9. Brilliant help guys thanks! I've never heard of the CTB swatches in front of the lense for warmer white balance before. That's a crafty idea. I think I'll try using the 1/4 CTO on the HMI first. It kinda makes sense now that I think about it. lol Thanks again. Z
  10. Just wanted to post an example for you guys, as to what inspired the imagery I'm going for. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cneQ7H1UZM...feature=related I love this advert. It makes me really want to drink some OJ. Which I guess is the point. Anyway, if you look at around the 11 second mark, as well as the 14 second mark, this is the light I'm talking about, although it's not as prominant in the 14 second shot.
  11. Hey guys, Lighting a short in Bristol Next weekend, and wanted to ask for some advice. I've read through the forums and although I found similar posts, none of them answered my questions. Basically the location is a hair salon with a massive window at the front of the shop with those long vertically rotating blinds (handy!) The salon has no practicals, except a number of manky flourescent lights in the ceiling. They have a nasty tungsten colour. I really want to just forget about the house lights, and make use of the fact that the script calls for a morning scene. I thought about blasting a HMI through the window and rotating blinds to hide it. I want the light to look a bit yellow, just like early morning light. (not twilight early, but sunny early) Do I need to gel the light to get that 'yellow' look, or can I just roll the White balance on the DSR-570 up enough to make the light warmer??? If it's a gel issue, what would you recommend? Thanks again. Z
  12. What would be cool, is if they invented some sort of goggles that the focus puller can wear. In the center of the view through the goggles, there would be a crosshair. SO basically, whatever the focus puller was focused on, the goggles would emit an infra red signal to the subject and back giving a highly accurate distance reading to the camera's auto focus unit attached to the 19mm bars. Kinda like auto-focus but a bit more sophisticated. It would kinda take the fun out of the job, but at least you could use it for really tough shots that would basically be impossible otherwise. Bit geeky I know...
  13. I would think that using the remote focus whilst standing on the actors profile would be a much more efficient and accurate way of measuring the actors forward and backward movement. I would think that any DoP would be nuts to try and hinder a focus puller's work as long as it produced sharps. It's always good to stay close to the operator or DoP, but you gotta do what you gotta do. If I'm on a dolly, I use a little laser pointer and measure the distance between the camera and the 'dot', so that I have a rough idea when the actor is closer or further. I just grip it with a magic arm onto the front of the dolly and voila! If I was really anal, I could use two laser pointers to mark in and out or two 'grace' measurements. This doesn't work on a bright day though as it's hard to see. So I use a stick off the side of the dolly, tied to a piece of string or tape that drags an exact distance from the camera. I can then mark on the tape the incremental distances from the camera.
  14. Thanks for the clarity Satsuki. I guess I never really thought about it. With regards to the Zen, I sometimes find myself in a really intense concentration whilst pulling for a shot. I had an operator ask me the other day if I was pissed off at something because I was concetrating so hard on a shot, I was frowning and didn't realise it. Although it was 1600, and we hadn't even had lunch yet. Maybe that had something to do with it. I have ruined a take before with a stomach growl... RooooaAAR!!!
  15. FIrst off, I thought that the 35mm adapters projected an image onto another piece of glass which the camera then records. SO I would think that the CoC would be calculated for the size of the screen and lense setup, not the size of the XL2's 1/3" CCD. Granted you will pick up less detail with SD CCD's, if blown up, you would definately see if the image was soft. Secondly, I'm really confused now. Stephen says that depth of focus and depth of field are inversely proportional? So are you implying that these are two seperate things? I have always thought that the two terms were one in the same??? I think I see what you mean. The Depth of Field is the amount of distance that the subject will be in focus, but the Depth of Focus is the actual mechanics implied to rotating the barrel of the lense to find your sharps? In other words, the closer an object, the less depth, therefore the more you have to rotate the lense to find focus? That would be inversely proportional.
  16. So basically, noone knows what the hell is going on??? Everyone is saying something different. It might be different in the states, but in the UK, each unit is a completely seperate entitiy alltogether. All cameras in the 1st Unit are labelled from A onwards down the alphabet. All cameras in the 2nd unit are labelled with an 'X' first followed by the letter A, B, C, etc... If a second unit camera joins the 1st unit, then they still keep their label, as it will help post know which camera fu**ed up the negative if things go wrong mechanically. From what I've always been told, once you label a camera at the beginning of the shoot, you keep that label on until wrap, unless the 1st unit assimilates a camera from the 2nd unit, then of course you name it whichever letter in the alphabet is next for that unit. It helps give each camera an identity, thus making it easier to keep track of and indentify if there are problems on set or in post. I've always understood that each unit is responsible for it's own stock and equipment. I would be reluctant to give another unit my tape or stock, because it would just confuse my loader, and if we fell short on set, then it would be MY responsibility to make it up. If your unit falls short, it ain't my fault. That's why they hired another camera crew. So you don't have to worry about them. A 1st AC's job is stressful enough with his own camera department, let alone a whole other unit. I think the KEY 1st AC is more a designation of seniority and experience, more than it is a technical title given to someone who has to keep up with the details of stock and equipment of multiple units. There might be some decisions that the KEY 1st AC has to make on set in order to organise a few things during testing, and organising the kit on the first day and the wrap day, but during filming, you should only have to look after your own unit. Just my two cents... Congrats by the way! Hope it goes really well. I'm sure you'll do fine.
  17. Dude, love the video you posted. Probably the cheesiest adverts I've ever seen. But your sharps were spot on. Good question as well. I've worked with other focus pullers that use distos, and they've come in really handy (although sometimes they could get lazy with one). I just can't afford one. I remember this one guy shot a disto through a double pane window in a recording studio and bounced it off a mirror to get his reading. He was sharp! Well impressed. The tennis ball idea is great. I'm using that one. I'll give you the credit Chris. Thnx
  18. At least there is no threading involved for us focus pullers ;)
  19. Filmed in a church once on the really rough side of Glasgow. We had druggies stealing our poop out of the kit vans in broad daylight. They also stole a bit of the barbeque that we were using to prep the grub. You can steal my follow focus and I can pull off the barrel, but if you steal my fu**ing lunch, I'll kill you. Our producer gave the church's groundskeeper a bottle of scotch in return for his letting us in the place for a few hours. By 11am, he had downed the whole bottle and passed out, cracking his head on the church pew, and shitting his trousers. The whole place reeked of faeces. One of the flats on an indoor set collapsed on me once whilst filming with a glidecam. Injury wasn't too bad. We just had to keep the camera pointed in one direction the rest of the shoot. lol Shot a western once, and one of the actors in a scene got excited and shoved the six shooter into the mouth of another actor. Director yelled 'CUT! Brilliant take guys. Lets move on...' I asked to see the pistol after the take, and it still had blanks in it. Very awkward moment. That was the same shoot where the actor was thrown off the horse, and the horse then proceeded to kareen off the side of a hill nose first plowing a ditch into the ground with it's head, bleeding profusely. The worst ever though, was a short I worked for in London with an Nigerian director. It was her first time directing, AND she was the lead role. S16mm. She didn't speak English very well.The 1st AD was from Hong Kong, and didn't speak English either. Noone knew what the hell was going on. The last night of production, we were supposed to film in a public park in Hackney (kinda rough area of London), but the producer hadn't squared away the location yet. We arrived, and were told we had to climb a fence in pitch black darkness. Half the crew called it a day, but being a dumb-ass, I carried on just wanting to finish with these people. The Director and the Cinematographer (who was a great guy) ended up having a MASSIVE fight in front of the crew, and he said he was ashamed of himself letting his crew hop the fence in the first place. Big bust up, people didn't show up for pickups, and I don't know if it was ever finished as I got the hell out of there.
  20. fu**ing awesome story. I laughed about the AD asking why it was taking so long. lol. It's even got a moral at the end.
  21. Just wanted to know if anyone had any good stories about shoots from hell. I got some stories, but I'd like to hear others first.
  22. Amen to that. That damn AATON mag was giving Chloe hell, not to mention it was making some strange noises. Even though we were shooting 35mm, it was a mega low budget shoot. We were rolling so fast, that my loader was constantly in the bag. I think she actually clapped like 3 or 4 times the entire shoot. I actually had to clap with my left hand, and roll the camera with my right, as even the runners were in short supply. We've all had our fair share of these kind of shoots. I'm just glad I had a good couple of crew around me to keep my sanity. What really sucked, is that I had to catch a 4 hour train like 45 min after we wrapped, so I didn't even have time to go for a beer. It was one of those akward 'Yeah, good luck to you too. Hopefully we'll work together again...' kinda wraps. All part of the biz. Speaking of which, I'm going to start a new topic...
  23. The loader didn't really have a choice. It was like a madhouse on set, and she didn't have any binbags (fair play, she did ask).
  24. Thanks for that mate. I actually read this after I returned, but will help in the future thanks. The shoot went really well on the camera department's end, but the production was a bit of a disaster. It was a freakin' 35mm shoot, and there was no first AD! It was a clusterfu**. We were shooting ONE scene for a 3 minute short film, and we went through 4000 feet of 500t Fuji stock in only ten hours. That's a one camera setup as well. My clapper loader was shitting herself. It was an unpaid gig, so obviously the loader was a bit pissed that she was having to fill out all those report sheets for all the stock, due to the production being a mess. The camera was a bit of junk as well. AATON. I don't know what model, but this was my first time working with an AATON, and I must say that I wasn't impressed. That's a personal opinion though. The DoP wanted to keep the entire kit as light as possible, so he stripped the hell out of all the kit. I had only the 15mm bars to use, but an MB-19 matte box with filters, follow focus that was missing the bottom part to keep it tight on the rails, and this little wooden handle with a 'run' and 'test' switch on it. It was pretty crap kit, but I still enjoyed it. The barney was missing half of the little leather velcro bits that keep it secure. lol I think at one point, the DoP told us to scrap 120ft of fresh stock right out of the mag as we were out of cans or something. Just seeing that made me sick. Probably because I grew up an indie filmmaker, and have always been poor. When I see stock like that being tossed, I just feel ill. Nature of the game I guess. All in all, I had fun and learned alot. Thanks for the input. By the way Chloe, you're nucking futs. :P
  25. Well, the time has come. I've been asked if I would be interested in focus pulling for 35mm for a very small scene in a room locked off on sticks. So it's an easy one as far as pulling is concerned. However I'm a 35mm virgin. (blush) I'm in Britain, so we don't get alot of opportunities to pull for 35mm like Americans do. I do television, music videos, and indie films. I'm S16mm, HD all the way. I wanted to ask you guys for some advice on pulling for 35. They haven't told me the camera system or lense package yet, but I would imagine it was the 435 or something standard, with ultra primes. I pulled for the RED cam the other day which was my first proper go at 35mm depth of field. The entire shoot was handheld and all over the fu**ing place, so I would imagine this is going to be easier than that. I'm more worried about building the kit, and the etiquette invloved (if any different). I prefer working with digital, but I enjoy and respect the traditions and discipline on a celluloid set. Besides DoF, what can I expect to be quite different? I know I sound like a prick here, but any advice would be much appreciated. Z
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