Daniel Tan

Hi, I'm selling my DVX100B. Excellent condition. 53 hours on the recording head. I shot three short films with it and is going HD at the end of the year. Package includes: DVX100B Power Adapter CGA D54 Battery Manuals Barry's DVX handbook Hoya UV filter Tokina ND8 filter Camera Bag $2100 OBO. I'm in Los Angeles area. Thanks for viewing. Email me or call for question or arrange a time to check out the package. I can ship to other states too. dushifilm@gmail.com or 818-576-9183

Hi all, I'm shooting a scene where a 16mm projector is running in the back ground and the projection is serving as a kicker light for a character. I'm shooting with DVX100B and I want to have the projection light flicker. I would think this is a shutter adjustment so I tested out with different shutter speeds from 1/12 to 1/1000. But there was no flickering in the light. How can I make the flickering happen? Please help. Thank you. Daniel

Hi all, I read a lot of posts regarding the IRE setup on DVX100 as well as on the monitor. I just want to confirm my knowledge about the topic by writing what I understood. 1) Regardless of whether you set your DVX100 to '0' or '7.5', the recorded black will still be the same signal that carry black at 16 Lum. 2) If you set your DVX100 to '0', then your external calibrated monitor say a Sony PVM-1344Q should be set to '0' too in order to show the correct black level you're exposing. Same if you set your DVX to '7.5', your monitor should be set to '7.5' too. 3) Now if you play back your footage straight from the DVX100 to your analog NTSC North America TV, it will look darker than if you play it on a PAL TV. 4) Now, if you bring your footage to a post house for conversion to NTSC VHS, the process will 'compensate' for the 7.5 IRE. And when you bring that VHS back to the same NTSC North American TV, the black will be at the right level and not as dark as before. Is all these making sense? Or am I wrong? What I'm trying to make sure is that I've the right IRE settings for my camera and my external monitor. Thank you.

Hi all, I'm shooting a short film on DVX100B. There's this glidecam shot during the day that travels from the living room to the bedroom. In the bedroom, there's a kid running around but he's sort like a ghost, a fading image. If this would have been a still shot, I could just shoot two seperate scenes - one without the kid and the other with the kid - and blend them together and adjust the opacity in post. But since this is moving shot, I could never achieve the same move if I do two takes. Is green screen the only way to do it? Unfortunately, I don't have a budget to go that green screen route. :( If anyone has any other suggestion, please help. Thanks. Daniel

Thanks for the help. I will go ahead and do some tests and see what happens. From the article that I read, they did tried to use a snoot on a Par, I think. I will post some images after the shoot is done. Thanks again. Daniel

Hi all, I'm shooting a short digital film using DVX100B and I'm trying to simulate the 'Memory Light' that Ellen Kuras did in Eternal Sunshine. Mine is for a very short scene, probably about 10-15 seconds. I read an article in cinematography magazine and they mentioned something about using sodium vapor light because of the direction and focus. Does anyone know what kind of sodium vapor lights did they use? Can we get these off the shelf or rent them? Of course I'm using DVX100B instead of film camera so there might be difference. Besides sodium vapor lights, does anyone know or tried anything else that produce the same kind of effects, especially for DVX100? Please help or advise. Thank you. :) Daniel Tan

Hi there, I'm trying to decide whether to shoot some day scenes in Super 8 or just shoot it digitally (DVX100 interlaced) and simulate the Super8 look in post. These scenes(flashbacks) are meant to match with the rest of the film that was shot in Super16. The final format is going to be on DVD and BetaSP. There's a chance that this might be projected in a theatre using DVD or Betasp. I guess resolution wise, film is still better than digital, is it? Also there are two concerns here. Cost and more so on the types of shots that I have. Most of them are going to be panning shots. One of them will be shooting from inside the moving car looking and passing a boy standing on the sidewalk. Particularly, I'm wondering about the post-film look with this types of shots. Anybody has experience or footages that was shot digitally but look super8 after post? I've access to cinelook in Aftereffects. Thanks for any advise. Daniel

Hi all, I'm planning to shoot a short film in May and is trying to find out all the places that rent this camera and do a price comparison. I live in Los Angeles. Any clues anybody? I already check out places like Moviola, Abelcine, 24Dv.net. Looking forward to shoot my film in 720p with only one indoor location in Los Angeles. Is anyone out there who own this camera and is interested to rent it? Please let me know all the details. Appreicate all help. Thanks. :D

Hi, I'm preparing to go mastering onto Digibeta for my Super16 short that was telecined squeezed 16:9. The question is - shall I letterboxed it before outputting to Digibeta or still have it squeezed or do both and get two different copies? My final distribution format would be DVD and digibeta. Does the DVD authoring handle the squeezed or unsqueezed image according to the type of TV used? Thanks. Regards, Daniel

Hi all, I'm currently learning doing some color corrections using FCP, taking this chance to understand the scopes and histograms that are essential to this process and of course training my eye at the same time :). One of the scopes that I'm learning to see is the parade scope. The question that I have is whether is it a really bad thing to have any of the RGB colors crushing into the blacks or is it just a matter of artisitc choice judging from the calibrated monitor. Here's an example: There's a scene where I want to have a warmer look. So after adjusting the constrast and then moving forward to create that warmer look by working primarily with the mids, I saw that the Blue in parade scope is slightly crushing into the blacks. And when I look at the image on a calibrated monitor, it does not look bad at all. So shall I attempt to ensure that the blue are not crushing? Last question....obviously I cannot compare Final Cut Pro Color correction tools to another multi-thousands dollars machine. But how good is the color correcting tools in FCP? I heard about people talking about bits in Color correction software. How many bits is the one in FCP? Does this issue have anything to do with the 4:2:2 color space in Digibeta? I just finished a Super16 short film and is preparing to master onto Digibeta after a flat grade telecine. Since most of the scenes are good to go except for minor adjustments such as contrast, warm or cool etc, so I've decided to do the color correction on MAC in 10bit uncompressed data using final cut Pro. The tools are there...G5, digibeta deck, raids, monitor etc. The film is destined to go to festivals. Shall I be thinking about another route? Thanks. Regards, Daniel

Hi all, I've just finished a Super16 short and already telecined everything flat grade onto digibeta and copies on DVcam for offline. I have finished the offline cut using DVcam and since there is no extensive and only simple color correction left to be done, I deicded to invest in a Decklink card($295), a array of hardisk, rent a digibeta, a monitor and master a copy in Final Cut. Do I need anything else? Another question is about roughly how much disk space I need for a short film that between 25-30 mins with 4 hours of raw footages? I'm running on dual 1.2 Ghz G4 with 512Mb ram and already have a 160 Gig external harddrive. Thanks. Additional info appreciated. Daniel

Hi, I have yet to check with the rental house about the extra asses. needed for undercranking but I will do so ASAP. As far as I know, XTRprod has a bulit in crystal speed between 3-75fps. Thanks for the reminder. Regarding about using my instinct, I guess I can't without the monitor and I have no budget for that area. Is there anybody out there who has actually done an undercranking and meta-speed telecine to achieve such a look? I'm planning to talk to the telecine house to see if they has come across anything like this before. Thanks.

Hi, Thank you for the advise. I will undercrank it and then deal with in post. This is obviously my first time doing it so I am just going to go with my instinct and try it out. Will be a great experience. Thanks again. Daniel

Hi everyone, How can one achieve a bluring effects? I am planning to shoot a couple of night street scene handheld and walking around. I'm using Aaton XTRprod, super16mm, 500D Fuji. I think it has something to do with wider shutter angle. XTRprod offer a range from 180 to 15. Am I correct? Or maybe I can shoot normally and figure that out in post? Any advices? Thanks. Daniel

Hi, Thanks everyone for the tips. I think I will go for the hand gag in front of the light. Personally, I do not see fire as a soft light especially if it is coming from a fireplace with the actor standing in front of it. Also for this scene, a harder light for the actor is probably more suited in terms of drama. Regards, Daniel

Hi everyone, I will be doing a scene with the actor standing in front of the fireplace at night. Shooting with 500T in 16mm. Assuming that the fire is the key light for the actor and I have to fake the fire light hitting on his face. It is a dramatic scene. What is the best way to fake that fire light? I am thinking about using ChinaBall with full CTO. However, I am also thinking of using a harder source. It creates more of a dramatic effects with those hard shadows. Also what is the usual combination of gels for the color of fire? How about flickering effects? I do not have access to a flicker box as of now. Any advise or tips appreciated. Thanks. Regards, Daniel

Hi everyone, I am about to go to telecine on my Super16 short and have a question regarding the aspect ratio in the telecine. Shall I go for Super 16 Unsqueezed or squeezed? My final output is onto Digibeta plus a dubb on DVcam, do editing on my G4 and I am planning to output to DVD in the future. By the way, is DVcam quality good enough to output to DVD in the first place? Am I still able to output from DVcam to DVD if telecine at squeezed format? I am concerning about the timecode present in the DVcam footages. I know some people can mask out the timecode during the editing process by letterbox(They save money by not getting clean copies). Do they work in squeezed or unsqeezed format or it does not really matter? I would certainly like to conform everything on my Digibeta and get that as my master and output to DVD. However I want to keep my options open for now. So let say if I go for the squeezed format? What will I have to look for for during my editing process? I meant besides having to look at unproportional images on my computer screen. Thanks Regards, Daniel

Hi all, I am working on a 16mm short film. The choice of stock will probably be Kodak 200T. The director and I decided to go for a high constrast and a very saturated look. I am thinking about pushing the film in order to achieve the look. The increased grainiess will be OK. I have done that with 200T on the previous project and feel that it will work well on this occassion too. But I also understand that we could manipulate the constrast and saturation in post. What are my concerns between these two choices? Unfortunately I have no opportunity to do tests. Thanks. Daniel

Hi, I have a bunch of processed negatives and will not be going into a telecine suit for at least a few weeks. How shall I store these negatives while waiting? Thanks. Daniel

Hi everyone, I am about to shoot an interior location where there are only flouroscent lights, metered with 30M(Minus Green)needed and at 4000K. I have no means to gels all the lights(too many) with Minus Green. I plan to use some daylight balanced kinoflos on the location too. I am using Fuji 500T. This is what I am planning to do: Gel the Kinoflos with 1/4 CTO and Plus Green. Then remove the green and probably the slight bluish blue(if it is undesirable) during the color correction phase. Does that sound correct? Is there a better way to do it? and how hard is it to color correct it later? Any help is appreciated.

Hey Tom, In another thread, you mentioned about squeezing the image in 16mm anamorphic and unsqueeze it in post production just to get a better image area in the final output. This is done instead of a plain black bars crop on a 4:3 image area in telecine. As I have been getting ready to do a short film in standard 16 and like you have no funds to proceed with anything like super16, I would like to find out exactly what do you mean by squeezing 16 anamorphic. Are you talking about shooting in anamorphic and then unsqueeze it later? If so, what kind of lenses do you need? 2X?1.5? Where can you find those lenses? And also, the term anamorphic in 16mm, are you defining it as 16:9 or something else? Pardon me if I get the concept mixed up. Hope somebody if not Tom can clarify on that. Thank you Regards, Daniel

Hey, Thanks everybody for their inputs. It is time for me to gather the materials that you guys mentioned and starts to do some homework. Regards, Daniel

Hey everyone, I am looking for good materials to look at when it comes to handheld camera works. I might be taken on the task of shooting handheld for my next project. Anybody has good reference movies to that? Any help is appreicated. Regards, Daniel

Hey, This is what I did for building my own KinoFlos lights. I went to a hardware store, bought a couple of ready made fluroscent lights(without the tubes) T1240W. Then I made my way to Color Vision or Bulbtronics and get the color corrected tubes. Remember that it is best for you to get the pro tubes they use for film. The TUBES matters the most. I had tried buying the Philips tube rated at 5000K 40W, Daylight ( that is what they claimed on the box) However, when I put them side by side with the pro tubes, the amount of luminance difference is simply too great and the price differences are not enough to justify buying the consumer tubes. I do not know where are you situated, but in Los Angeles, you can get the tubes easily at Color Vision in Burbank or Bulbtronics. If not, try ordering online. As far as I know GE makes bunch of tubes for Film and stage. And also, remember to buy COATED tubes. Good luck!!! REgards, Daniel

Hey Phil, I heard it from a friend of mine regarding about the DV viewfinder being close to broadcast quality in terms of color, brightness, contrast. but now that you clarified everything up, I got a reason to dismiss him. Anyway, looks like I have to find ways to get my hands on a broadcast monitor in order to do my work... Thanks.