Andrew Sobey

Looking for the older Kern Switar wide angle adapter, not the newer Century Optics version. If anyone has one of these lying around, please let me know.

Does anyone have any experience with the Steadicam Merlin? I'm thinking about getting one for a shoot I have coming up, using the new Canon Rebel T1i (500D). I'm wondering if I'll have problems with extra wide lenses. I haven't actually got my hands on a Merlin yet, so I'm not sure if the camera can be shoved all the way to the front of the support plate and still be balanced, so I don't get the support in the bottom of the shot. If anyone who has experience using the Merlin with a D90 or 5D Mark 2, I'd love to hear about it. Also, it looks like the rig might be small enough to use inside a car, but I'd hate to plan on that and then have it be too big and unwieldy. I'm thinking of the full setup, Merlin + vest and arm. Any insight? I don't live in a place where I can easily see a demo, so anyone who has used the Merlin or similar small Steadicam rigs, I'd appreciate any helpful info/tips/tricks. And is there any way to undersling the camera with one of these? It doesn't really look like it's doable from the photos I've seen online, but that would be a very cool feature if it's possible. Thanks.

The withoutabox discussion board would be a good place to ask, there's a bunch of festival programmers/coordinators who post there.

Sony V1U, handheld with just on-board sound. Bare bones, lots of gain, graded in Apple Color at 1920 ProRes HQ. http://www.lifeonterra.com/episode.php?id=190

Originally I was just going to post this link and ask what people thought, what shots/mini-sequences work and which ones don't work, etc. But after 3 attempts at exporting and uploading this, now I'm also wondering how one gets rid of this damn interlaced artifact look. It's not just a case of watching interlaced footage on a progressive (computer) monitor, because it looks much better here than it does after the flash conversion that blip.tv does. So, if you can get over the interlaced thing, please critique our work, lay into it, tear us to shreds, whatever (I'm not just being pessimistic here, I really do want to hear the worst of it, because we pat ourselves on the back enough to not really need more self-esteem boosts). Let us know what works and what doesn't. Or, if you can't get over that (and I certainly can't) do you have any advice for how to get rid of it? I've tried the simple "De-interlace source video" option in the QT export, and that doesn't seem to do anything at all. Oh yeah, here's the link: http://www.brewedawakening.blip.tv enjoy

I've personally noticed a pretty big difference between the slip-on softies and blimp/muff combinations. I'm doing mostly docs, esp. verite/direct cinema stuff, where I have very little (if any) control over the sound enviro. Walter's B&H link lead me to the Rycote modular windscreen, though, which might be a slightly cheaper way to go. I haven't been able to find any comparisons between the modular windscreen and the regular old Sennheiser blimp, so I'm not sure if it's worth the extra $100.

Right now I have an ME67 (long gun) and an ME64 (short cardioid). I'm hoping that with my next wave of spending beyond my means I can buy the Sennheiser blimp/pistol grip system for the ME67, but I'm not sure if that will work for both mics. Does putting a small mic in a big blimp cause any audio problems, wind noise, reverb, other weirdness? If I can get by with just the one blimp/muff it will save me a few hundred bucks, but if having the smaller blimp will give noticeably better results, I guess I'll get one of those somewhere down the line.

Anyone know a good source for reading up on how to tweak paint settings? The only things I can find from Sony say something like, "if you're not a video engineer don't bother". Well, I'm not an engineer, but I'd still like to take a crack at it. Suggestions?

If you're shooting nature stuff, do you really need sync sound? Couldn't you shoot first and get sound later? Or you could just foley, which would be a lot more fun, if nothing else. But if it's too windy to have the mic on a c-stand, having a sound person there holding it instead won't do much good. Park you van upwind and wait for a calm spot, I suppose.

Phil - Not sure if you've figured this out since you posted 3 months ago, but here it is: When you've got your footage in the timeline, go to "Video filters>Video>Timecode Generator". Drag and drop that onto the footage in your timeline. I think you'll have to do this with every individual clip in a normal sequence, or the easier option is to create a nested sequence. That means create a new sequence (call it "Sequence with TC" or something like that), drag your old sequence from the browser window (top left) down into the timeline of the new sequence, then apply the Timecode Generator to the whole sequence in one fell swoop. That's all with FCP 5.1.4, and I'm pretty sure that it works the same way in FCP 6.

So the last two movies I saw my local theater were Swing Vote and Step Brothers and I'm starting to wonder if maybe the projectionists at the mall are stoned. Both movies had some shots that were soft, some that were extremely grainy (in the middle of an otherwise normal scene), and all sorts of other problems. Has anyone else seen these? Were they just not spectacularly shot movies, or do I need to find a new theater? And the other theater in town is evil and projects DLP on top of that, so I'm not too eager to go there...

First off, to correct my original post, focal distance went way down when I zoomed in. I guess it goes without saying that focal depth would go down. As for the diopter, I set that before shooting anything, and I can't imagine that it went out of focus over the course of one 50' roll. I'll shoot another test and see how it goes. Thanks.

Looking at my test footage from a Canon 814 XL, and it's only in focus at the wide end of the zoom. When I zoomed in the focal depth went way down, so only the stuff in the foreground was in focus. I didn't see this in the viewfinder, and my upcoming project involves a lot of med-long lens stuff, so does anyone have any idea how to adjust the backfocus on this camera? Or other solutions? Or am I just SOL?

Anyone know any details about leasing a Varicam and/or an HPX-500? I'm with a university film program and our video camera turnover is really starting to outpace our budget, so it seems that a lease would be the way to go. Are there third-party vendors who do leases on these cameras, or do we need to deal with Panasonic directly? Any other advice, warnings, anecdotes, proverbs, etc.? Thanks.

I stand corrected. Thanks for the help.

Ok, I need someone to check my math here... I'm using a Canon 814 XL, which has a 150 degree shutter in daylight mode. Also, I'm shooting tungsten balanced film in daylight. I'm not using an 85 filter, I'm planning on overexposing and having the telecine folks do that for me. So here's what I figure: - Measure exposure using a light meter set to 18fps - Overexpose by 1/3 of a stop for the shutter angle difference - Overexpose by 2/3 of a stop for the prism (if that takes from 1/3 - 1 stop off, I'll split the difference) - Overexpose by 2/3 of a stop for the 85 filter that is going to be added on for the transfer That makes a grand total of 1 and 2/3 stops over what my light meter tells me to shoot. Does that sound reasonable, or am I just totally missing something?

Now, with the V1U it doesn't actually do 24P native. It's using some kind of weird fakery (beyond pulldown) to make interlaced footage look progressive, then putting that down on tape. Is that still better than just leaving the interlaced footage interlaced (as it is captured by the camera)? As for the keying software, I'm planning on going with AE, as I'm fairly confident that that's better than the built in keying effect with FCP. I'm also thinking about buying shake before too long, but I know absolutely nothing about it. Thanks for the help. Sobey

I'm looking into doing a green screen interview (I hate usually hate those, but this one is kind of a joke) with either a V1U, a PD-170, or a DSR-250. I was thinking the extra resolution of the V1U would help with pulling the key afterwards, and I also thought that for once the long GOP might actually work in my favor. Also, I know that certain camera settings can help with keying, is anyone aware of V1U specific menu settings that help? Other suggestions? Thanks.