Steve McBride

Saw the movie at midnight. Being someone who read all of the books when they came out I was a little disappointed by the story and what they were able to put into the film. I was shocked to see that it was only about two hours and twenty minutes, I thought they would of tried to squeeze a bit more into it and extend it to closer to three hours. Though I do think it worked out for the amount of stuff they put into the time. Cinematography was great. Loved the dark feel to the entire film with the contrast given to the image. One scene that really stood out to me for excellent cinematography was the scene at the Weasley's house and they're running through the wheat field. The color was beautifully done, had a warmer and desaturated look than the rest of the film which definitely made it stand out along with the movement of the characters running through the field. Anyone know if it's going to be in next month's AC?

When looking for used gear my first stop is usually Craigslist. While I live in Rochester, the base around here for professional film equipment is pretty small, but I would imagine that there would be a lot more and better used equipment in the city.

As David and Adrian have said, Cinematography and Film Lighting are definitely the two to get. Film Lighting is definitely a must have and Cinematography is great for all aspects of being a DP.

Looks great as usual David. I really enjoyed the tracking shots of Megan Fox down the school hallway. I'd like to see the PG version also as this didn't really seem like a redband trailer.

Just to add to Richard's post, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0887912/technical

I'm glad you posted this first, I was going to start commenting on the film, didn't know it was shot on an F23. I agree with the writing, I definitely wanted to see some more Depp vs. Bale in the movie. I was really excited for their first scene when Dillinger was in jail and while it was well acted and shot well, I wanted more. I loved the handheld view to the movie, I think it definitely added to the rough feel of crime in the past. None of the nice, smooth flowing camera like in modern crime movies like the Oceans movies. There were a couple parts that the shooting got to me a bit. There might be spoilers here, so don't read this if you haven't seen the movie yet. The scene where Billie swaps places with another woman felt to me like it was a home movie and I wasn't really liking how it was shot. It was very flat and warm. There was also a lot of noise in this scene which I didn't really understand. Also, the final scene in the women's jail seemed like it was shot completely different from the rest of the movie. Mostly because it was a completely white room that was well lit. It just seemed like it was a clean room in a hospital instead of a prison. The scene was also very sharp in the overall look. I guess that is due to being shot digitally. I have question as to one of the shots in the scene after Baby Face's car flips over. In the background right where the bureau guys are coming out of their car, there was a flashing light, it was in the upper right part of the frame. I'm wondering if anyone else saw this and knows what it was? It wasn't gunfire as there were no guns firing and it was definitely a white light. One thing that pissed me off was after the movie I heard some kids talking about it outside the theater and two of them said that they hated it and thought it was the worst movie ever. This didn't bother me (though worst movie ever is ridiculous), but they supported this by saying that people were never in the middle of the frame, they were always off to the side... Sure, they know nothing about cinematography or filmmaking, but come on. Then I just figured they were idiots because one said he didn't like the director, another of his friends asked who directed it and the kid said "Michael Moore." I left the theater then.

Wow, amazing journal. I'm really glad you posted this because I'm doing a shoot in August in an abandoned building and was looking for inspiration for the lighting (even though I'm directing and not DPing the project, I'll send this post along to the DP). I haven't had the chance to read through both of the posts in their entirety, but I was wondering what's a Woody Light? The way you talk about them makes them seem amazing and great for low budget, short scheduled shoots which would help immensely for my shoot. Can't wait to finish reading the posts! Thanks!

Pick up the American Cinematographer issue with Start Trek on the cover, he talks all about it. It was a combination of having lights built into the set like Lamar said as well as having people run around the set pointing high powered flashlights down the barrel of the lens. Not all of the flares in the movie were done during production though, some were added in post.

I do the entire width and height of the frame (1280x720, 1920x1080, etc.) for single credits. When you're doing the roll, keep the width the same but just have it as tall as you need it to be. A good tip I learned from a producer is that when you do the credit roll, each credit should take nine seconds to go from the bottom of the frame to the top. I've started to count the amount of time that it takes for movies that I watch and it seems to be right around 9-10 seconds. Also, for single credits (director, writer, producer, etc.) they should be four seconds unless there are more then one person in which you add one second for each person. Only seen it for two people, so not sure how well it works for more than that.

As Adrian said, don't worry about lighting up the entire park. You'd need some strong lights (18ks on Condors and such) to be able to do that. Focus on just lighting some key elements within the frame. I would also recommend some china bulb lights on booms to use for your fill/ key on the actors. You will probably have to gel the lights to get it the right color temperature to match the HMIs.

Just go out and shoot. Contact local ad agencies and see if they have gear that you can rent. The last project I shot was just an improv comedy with a couple friends and I talked to an ad agency (granted I had done work with them in the past) and was able to get a DVX100 and fluid head tripod for $65 a day. If you want to be a DP, don't worry about lighting at first. Work on your framing and movement in the frame. Then as you learn more start using some basic three point lighting and eventually you'll be able to light full sets and make everything look beautiful :) .

Anyone here ever use the Barger Litestrip of Baglite lights? I was browsing through Film Tools for an upcoming shoot and saw them and they look like they're really nice. Since the shoot is on location I need to save space and they're very narrow but with equivalents to 3k and 6k's they seem like they'd be really nice. I was thinking about using one of the Litestrips to fill in the background and using one of the Baglites with a Chimera on it as a key. Looking for some info on how people liked using them as well as any examples if possible.

Do up your credits in Photoshop or Illustrator and export hi-res TIF's and import them and just keyframe the animations. That's how I do mine. I use AfterEffects, but I also have Motion and it would work just fine as well.

Looks good so far. Let me know if you need wheels for the dolly, I have 16 skateboard wheels and pairs of bearings sitting in my closet that I'm not going to use. I'll sell them for like $25.

I was on a shoot where the DP just shot a HMI (not sure the wattage) at an ultrabounce on a butterfly over the set while shooting tungsten film. Here's the link to his post here, http://www.cinematography.com/index.php?showtopic=34139. Scroll down to see pictures of the lighting. That is really the easiest way to achieve the look. If you were to gel tungsten lights with CTB you would loose way too much light and really wouldn't be worth it. It's much easier to just use ungelled HMIs on tungsten film.

Usually it's just putting in tabs for your different left side margins. Though I don't really see why you would want to use a typewriter. As Brian said, it helps moving the story forward, but what if you get something done and then when you reread it you misspelled one word? Sure you can white-out it, but that looks messy, you have to retype the entire page. Or what if in a rewrite your last paragraph on a page goes onto the next page, then that page goes to the next. You might have to retype a whole lot just because of one mistake. There's a reason why scriptwriters use computers nowadays.

I love how everything is either white or orange. Looks great! Can't wait to see some vids.

Just saw the film at the Rochester High Falls International Film Festival and absolutely loved it. I also got a chance to have a conversation with Laura Fox because I had mentioned your name, Eric, and this post at a Q&A with her and she recognized me at an after party. I absolutely loved all of the movement in the film with the camera work, especially all of the tilting up and down with the transitions between scenes. The way that it seemed Summer was lit throughout the movie was also interesting. She looked to be lit a bit more low key than other characters, and her apartment definitely had a different feel to it. Again, amazing work on the film. Can't wait to see some more of your work.

That's what I guessed. All of my own shoots before where I've slated for DV have gone from slating to "this is a waste of time" to "I wish I had slated the whole shoot" in post. I think I'll just slate each shot and not takes. And unfortunately I have four more months until I can buy a real six pack, so I can't take that advice quite yet Adrian :\ .

Just wondering if people ever slate for DV? I know that almost 100% of the time when you're shooting DV you aren't doing sync sound so slating isn't necessary, but when using a tape versus a harddrive where you don't have individual shots do you slate? I like to slate for each shot or at least each scene so I know where I'm at in the tape, but I rarely do takes, it just seems to take too much time.

Get different strengths of CTB to gel the lights with. Mixing tungsten and daylight can look good as long as it isn't too much. Set your white balance to the daylight and then start gelling your lights. You probably want full CTB on your key light and then maybe like half and quarter on your practicals. Get on the set before the shoot and test out how it will look, that will save you a lot of time on the day of the shoot in trying to get the look right.

Do you know what way the windows face and what time of day you're going to be shooting? I assume you know this, but if both windows are facing east you're going to have a lot more light in the morning than in the afternoon. Bouncing the 2.5k HMI off of the ceiling could also be another choice and then flagging and bouncing the light for how you need it for each setups should work alright. Instead of using the 150w HMIs for eye-light, I would use them for more of a kicker to add depth since you're shooting video or maybe adding a little glint of light in the subject's eye (not eye-light, just the little white spot in the pupil of the subject's eye). I've always loved using Kino's for fill when I'm in a room lit by windows. They are very soft and have a good throw for when you're doing your CU's and such. In the camera, set the zebra to 70. I read that in the "Crank 2" article of ASC Mag last month or so and tried it on a video shoot and was very pleased with the results. Highlights were good and not blown out.

I have a MacPro with 2x 2.66GHz Intel Xeon Dual-Core processors, 5gb ram, 250gb harddrive, and 500gb harddrive that I'm looking to sell. I've done pleanty of HDV editing in FCP and it has performed beautifully. Let me know if you're interested and you'll definitely be able to save some money.

Pun intended?

Thanks again for even more great tips! Prelighting is probably going to be a problem as both locations are at a school and we will be shooting at least the "library" area during active school hours and then waiting to shoot the cafe until they are closed (which is at 4pm I believe). I'm getting pretty much all tungsten lights (might get a KinoFlo Diva) for the shoot, so I think I will just white balance for tungsten and then CTO the windows if they let me do that. But if I do that, the fluorescent overheads will still be there and uncorrected. I guess I could just go and see how much they light they give during the day and just have turn them off. Sorry, I'm kinda thinking out loud (while typing rather)... For setting the depth with lights in the cafe, what I'm thinking is using my extra lights from the Arri kit (kit has 2x 650w and 2x 300w) and semi-silhouetting extras to add that depth like you said. Thanks again!