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James West

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  • Occupation
    Cinematographer
  • Location
    L.A.

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  • Website URL
    http://web.me.com/eiga/
  1. Not sure if I'm stating the obvious, but 2 things I would consider for broken glass flying towards the camera: backlight and slow motion
  2. I shot a low-budge film, and found the garden hoses to be the best, at least where it was possible to reach location. Two hoses, one on each side of camera, and aimed high and falling close to lens. Low angle seems difficult, but one other thing we did was shoot some backlit rain in a makeshift studio, with a black duvy backdrop. This was what they needed in Post to composite some consistent rain effects for certain scenes.
  3. Jayson, saw your thread, what did you wind up doing, and how did it turn out in your opinion?
  4. My belief as some have stated, like Dan, if you're the DP you can say anything you want to the director. If it's in front of everybody on the set, then be discreet and always make the director and actors look good, keep the confidence up. If it's about performance, and the director didn't notice, pull him/her aside and tell them in confidence, usually phrased as a suggestion. Actually most of your pitches to the director should be phrased as suggestions ;) You're the one on set holding that big gun (the camera) and when you pull that trigger (start or record button) it's forever (it could wind up in the final cut) Out of habit, my directions to the actors always go through the director first. Respect the chain of command.
  5. Hey all of you fellow lensers, I shot a commercial spec, CHECK OUT GIRL, for the Dorito's "Crash the Superbowl Contest", and we are one of 5 finalists from over 1000 submissions! The winning ad gets aired during the Superbowl, so this is huge! Please check out CHECK OUT GIRL, and vote for us at www.crashthesuperbowl.com Thank you so much! James Axel West, cinematographer www.jawfilm.com
  6. Heads up on picking up June 19, 2006 issue of The New Yorker. Article called "The Camerman" by Hilton Als, looks like a great tribute to Gregg Toland. I haven't read it yet it's 1 am, just got off set, so hit your newsstand tomorrow (or today, as I look at the clock...)
  7. I was a still photographer for 8 years then turned to cinematography. The first thing I did was talk to some people at a camera rental house, picking their brains, and about a month later I was on a plane to the Maine Workshops. The Workshops were a great experience, they have you engaged for 16 hours a day, kind of like the hours on a typical film set. Definitely a good place to decide if you're into it or not, and you can do it in a week. Having a photographic foundation is great, with the understanding of film exposure, composition, lighting, etc. But now you're now going from telling a story in one frozen image to telling it in sequences of moving images with sound. The transition from stills to motion will be easier for commercials and music videos. I bet the other members here will agree that narrative filmmaking is a little more complex... Also, you have to learn new vocabulary, especially when communicating with your director and your crew. The solitary craft becomes a collaborative craft...have fun with it!
  8. Hey Miguel, For daytime, ideally you would want a 4k par, thru diff, or 1200 par, it's really hard to compete with that LA sun. But on the cheap, one time I rigged 2x2 reflectors and got a great bounce through the windshield....just be careful if the actors have to drive the car themselves, you'll blind them. If they have to drive, you could get profiles by just putting ND in the side window behind the actors head, and let the natural light through the windshield.
  9. I have worked as an electrician and best boy electric on a few features, music vids, shorts. As far as I know there is no need to be a licensed journeyman, except for the need to tie in to existing power sources. In LA there are so many generators, everything is lit off of genny's. Other parts of the country tying in is pretty common. Anyways, the bible is Harry Box's book (Set Lighting Technician's Handbook) That's the standard that everyone expects you to know. And I also had a 3-day workshop with Larry Parker over at Mole Richardson in Hollywood. The rest is just getting out there and working and learning, and always safety first!
  10. For one shoot I used a normal to long lens (50mm-85mm in the 35 format), cut a center-hole in a N6 gel and taped it to a filter, I think it was a coral or a chocolate. It worked really well, very cheap effect, but you have to cut the hole the right size for each lens and wider lenses do NOT work with this method, because you start seeing the definition of the gel cut. You have to think about adding exposure, as well, even to the non-vignetted image, because this effect will knock your total exposure down a little. Also, 16mm will be a bit trickier. But you can see the effect very well through the viewfinder.
  11. Just attended the "Digital Cinema Summit" at NAB2006 and there were quite a few informative seminars (I have about 30 pages of notes here) BUT, what's the biggest topic of them all? Whether you like it or not, it's 3D Digital Cinema. This 3D Digital Cinema is being pushed by none other than James Cameron, George Lucas, Peter Jackson, Robert Zemeckis and any other epic-action production, I'm sure. Cameron and Zemeckis are claiming that they are ONLY going to shoot their future projects in 3D. This is the big selling point to keep viewers going to the big screen and the theater owners will love it (the "Chicken Little" experience proved that 3D exhibition sold 3x the tickets compared to the 2D version). The theater owners also want to sell the "Tuesday Night" tickets to a potential 3D Live event exhibition. They will satellite Live 3D Digital feeds into theaters all around the world, they're thinking concerts, olympics, world cup, super bowl. (My imagination led me towards the propaganda material like religion and politics, that would be scary...imagine having God or George W. floating above your head) Besides CGI 3D there are two other forms we will see a lot of in the future. One is capturing live-action in 3D, the other is this "Dimensionalizing" procedure that will convert old 2D films into 3D. Capturing live-action is what concerns us most, of course, and we'll have to educate ourselves in case we find ourselves on a 3D set. The good news is, they'll have to hire a bigger camera department for sure, not only for the 2 cameras, but also for the extra 3D video village, because this digital age will allow on-set 3D visualization. The person who presented the Live Action capturing demo was Matt Cowan from "Real D". And besides Mr. Cowan, Ray Zone also gave an informative lecture on 3D and Stereoscopic physics. Since you will need to learn terms such as "interocular" here's some websites from Mr. Zone: www.ray3dzone.com www.stereoview.org Now the "Dimensionalizing" thing is the craziest, presented by Michael Kaye from a company called "in-three". Mr. Kaye has developed software to dimensionalize existing films, and he showed about 15 min. of clips from the original Star Wars. I hate to admit it, but, this clip was amazing, and sure enough Lucas is going to do all 6 Star Wars in 3D. Peter Jackson will re-release the Lord of the Rings trilogy, King Kong. Jim Cameron will do Titanic. (They had a few clips of Rings and Titanic, looked amazing) And there's talk of Matrix, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Godfather, Grease, etc. Use your imagination, any movie that's been done can be "Dimensionalized". Yes, whether you like it or not, this is in our near future.
  12. James West

    416

    Saw the demo today at NAB2006. It's a little smaller than the SR3, but be prepared to drool over the Viewing system, as Bob mentioned earlier. That's the big sell, and the Arriglow even changes color, just in case you couldn't see your frame before when shooting that "red" scene...
  13. The major distributors/studios should just put out their movies right away for download, higher quality, but with advertising all over it, like while the movie's playing. I'm thinking about when you watch a soccer game, they can't break for commercials so they roll a big snickers bar over the top of your screen next to the scoreboard. So then they can make money off the ads, the consumer who doesn't care about quality wouldn't care. Then those of us who do like the quality (picture/sound) would go to the theater or rent Criterion quality movies. O.K. so it sounds a little scary, but it's just an idea I'm throwing out there...
  14. I remember a motorcycle rig from a vendor called Doggiecam, this was a few years ago, but I think they're still in Burbank and in the LA411
  15. A director and I wish to use rear projection for Day Driving scenes. This is primarily a stylistic choice, kind of like the old-school films. I was just wondering if anyone has used this recently and what the current options are. I know there is a vendor who does video rear projection, but I just want to make sure this translates to shooting on film. Also, I'm just curious if anyone's done green screen for Poor Man's? My thinking is it must be a nightmare having green glares and reflection kicks off the vehicle...
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