Steve McBride

You're not going to be needing to use any filters really. Since you're shooting digital just make sure your white balance is set for when your light is on and when it's off so you can switch between the two as needed. The GL2 is a good camera to shoot wedding vids on, but if you want to really make a better final product, you should look into the DVX100's because of the XLR ports on it, then you can have a lav set up on the groom to get that audio best and then use a hotshoe mounted shotgun mic for when you're doing your interviews. (If you're going to be asking about cameras and such, this isn't the forum to do it in. If you have more questions, I suggest searching the forum for wedding vids, you'll probably get some good results there, or just post in the Student and First Time Filmmakers forum.)

You don't get much distance from those, so stick to using it in your interviews during the reception and such (I wish I had one of those when I shot a wedding over the summer). I wouldn't go any higher than the 50w for your closeups, anything brighter than that and you're going to be making the person you're interviewing squint which will just look bad when you have to include it. You're not going to be able to use it during the ceremony because you would have to be uncomfortably close to the "action" for the bride and groom as well as whomever is presiding. For dancing, I would play with using the 50 or 100w on as wide as you can to illuminate just what you're looking at. I remember when I was doing some video of the dancing I had to push the Gain up pretty high in order to get a decent exposure because of how dark and sparce the lighting was on the dance floor.

Time ramping may be easier to do in Motion. But if you want to keep in FCP, just set a keyframe for your Time in the Motion tab move forward 5 or so frames and make another value to have it be a bit smoother. You could also do this in AfterEffects and use Easy Ease keyframes which would be even easier. Check out videocopilot.net for tutorials on AfterEffects.

This belongs in the Editors Corner in the Not Cinematography forums.

For awhile, don't worry about being too professional about your work, start out just with some friends sitting around the house and film whatever you're doing. Don't use a script. Then after you've done a couple of those, make up a simple 5-6 page script and film it. Try to learn from the differences in the two approaches. It is nice to have the story down in a script first, but it can make the filming somewhat more difficult. Just experiment. Especially for your age, don't worry about your equipment. You already have a lot more than most people have, I mean I don't have any equipment. As you do larger projects when you get older, you'll most likely be renting equipment instead of using your own. Having your own is good, but if you're going to spend a good amount of money, you need to have a way to pay for it. Going with that, GET A JOB! Any job is fine, and keep it! You will need money as you go. Buying tapes, lights, expendables, costumes, props, etc. For costumes and props, Good Will and the Salvation Army along with whatever other thrift stores are near you are you best friends. You will find everything you need there for a fraction of the cost.

I guess I expanded on the question and got into the brain when the question was only the eye, then again I'm just theorizing/ making stuff up as I go, haha. I'd never heard of the persistance of vision before now, but it's really interesting.

It seems like you have the budget to do what people have suggested. If you can't get the 100' crane, stabalizing a construction crane would probably be best. Or just do something in post with an animation. http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/earth_zoom/

There's no such thing. A frame is a part of a piece of film that is captured to be playedback in a string of similar images to form a visual. The human eye sees constantly, there is no other "frame" that we see, we see continually through the same "frame" all the time. When you're younger, you're not trained to pick out certain things when you are conscious, so you miss them. As you grow older and become educated and learn more (especially now when you are into the technical developings of film) and notice the small details that you missed out when you were a child. Now, I could be wrong, but this is the way I see it. I guess you could argue with what I have said when you do something like wave your hand infront of an object, you see the movement of where your hand was previously. But is there any way to prove that you're actually seeing where your hand was, or is it just your brain processing the fact that before your hand was where it stopped, it had to cross the space between where it started, so it fills in the missing "information" with what "should" be there (motion blur).

Most prosumer SD cameras that have been released somewhat recently will have an option to record at 60i for your framerate. Not sure about the VX2100 as I use an XL2 and DVX100.

As for the cinematography award, I have a feeling that The Dark Knight will easily win it with its use of IMAX and just the whole size of the production (camera dept. related). I think it will also take sound editing and visual effects. As for best film, sadly I haven't seen any of them so I cannot comment. I really need to get out...

You could just blur it in post (as mentioned). I'd use After Effects if you have access to it, just use the Fast Blur filter. AE is also a very powerful compositing program as well as keying.

Thanks again for letting me help out on the shoot. I love the shots of the nighttime with the ultra bounced 1,200 HMI, I love the feel it gave to the set. I also have to say that Dan and everyone else who helped out with the art direction and building the set did an absolutely amazing job, and I think it really reflects well in the shots you posted. Can't wait to see the final product!

The chips in the EX1 are native 16:9, so it crops off the sides to do 4:3 which is why it has guides for it. It doesn't have guides for 16:9 because it would be useless since the image is 16:9. I wish it included guides for 2.35:1 or 2.4:1, I think that would be a bit more helpful than 15:9...

For the overall thing I'd see more of a cool color temp since the couple isn't having any luck rekindling the relationship and with a lot of romances, they seem to be a bit warmer, so to kinda set off from that a cooler temperature would be good. I'm no pro at lighting so I don't really know what fixtures or wattages would work best, but the large overhead skirted would work well for your day scenes, you'd just have to make sure you have a heavier light coming in from the windows. You can still use practicals like lamps for your day shoots. Most places you go to will still be using lamps even at mid-day on a sunny day so you'd be able to use those for sources. For the night scenes, a few practical's would work good and then use china balls to fill in the rest. As for your bedroom scene, one thing that I really like to do is set up a c-stand infront of a light with just a 4x4 frame on it and stripe gaffers tape horizontally across the frame leaving little gaps between the strips to make a Phoenician blind effect and cast it over the bed. This works perfectly if you're like Eisenstein and want to show the couple or even just one of the characters as if they were "caged" in like in Potemkin with the sailors and the bars that cast shadows over them. I'm excited to see what other people have to say since the sets are often used and it'll be interesting to hear what people say about the low-budget aspect of your project. Good luck!

I've you're going to be doing smaller projects (low budget shorts, commercials), I'd assume a basic lighting kit, grip equipment and a good fluid head tripod. I wouldn't bother buying a camera because for the quality you'd need the equipment is just too expensive so it's better to just rent. If you're going to be doing more budgeted projects and features you don't really need anything but just about all DP's like to have a good light meter and maybe even a "directors viewfinder" if they aren't operating as well. Start small and as you go through productions and meet people they will recommend things to get that are helpful.

Go get the DVD for "Cloverfield" make sure it has the BTS and watch all of them. There is so much cool stuff that they show you in the vids it's amazing. That movie is a better example of CG in a handheld environment seeing as the whole movie was handheld and was basically all CG, I mean you can't really have a ten story baby monster going on a rampage through New York... or can you?

Since where I live a torch is an open flame on the end of a stick as Ralph suggested, and everyone else is talking about a flashlight, I'll just comment on the color temp. You can always cut out gels and test them with a meter to make sure you have the right color temp, just keep adding/ removing gels until you get the right temp.

You'd probably also have to suspend the actor so that they can move their legs and such more and then you could put a large fan underneath them blowing their clothes all around. If you go with the smoke, don't go too crazy, you'd just need a little.

I have to agree with Jaron, I really did not like this movie at all. At the end I turned to my friend and said "I think the dog was the best actor." All of the acting, sadly Eastwood included, was way below par. Anticipating lines as well as bad emotion made it really hard to enjoy the movie at all. I was really excited to go and watch the cinematography, but it was impossible for me due to paying attention to how bad the acting was. One thing that I did really like about the movie though was the story. I absolutely loved it, it had characters who you cared for (even though the portrayl of said characters wasn't good) and a nice tone throughout that almost made you forget about the bad acting... Almost. The major thing that I think brought the tone down was the writing of dialogue. There was way too much comedy in it. A lot of it though probably wasn't supposed to be funny, but ended up being it. It was like the writers were trying to lighten the tension of scenes by throwing one-liners or derogatory names into it which led to laughter throughout the theater I was in. I think a lot of my experience was the theater I was in though. It was absolutely packed, the couple in front of me knocked over a wine bottle in the middle of the movie which rolled a couple rows down which caused the whole mood in the theater to dissolve, and then on the side of the theater a person dropped a glass beer bottle and it broke which was really loud. It was also a very diverse audience which just average people who aren't into film there which led to most of the laughter. I may go see it again in a couple weeks if it's still showing and the theater isn't so packed. This was definitely a film I was looking forward to and I was very upset by it.

I'm just about 100%, if not 100% positive you'll have to ADR the dialogue. Get the sound on location anyways, make sure you get the background and ambient noise as well, then in post have your principals come back in and ADR so you can actually hear it. Then just add in your background, ambient and foley in to make it all work.

I always forget when I see grabs that look so good that there is a lot of people behind the camera, haha. Thanks for the info!

The grabs look great, just a couple questions. You said that you had to push the ISO from 320 to 500 for one of the shots, how did you (if you even needed to) change the lighting to compensate for this? I also noticed that you used the Canon lenses to do their own diffusion to get rid of some of the sharpness of HD, was this enough diffusion or did you do anything in post to get rid of even more sharpness?

I would imagine using David's suggestion of a China lantern on a boom pole along with using a lot of practicals would work well for this kind of shot. The hardest thing is making sure your practicals all have the same color temp. Seeing as it wouldn't be weird to see lamps and fixtures as well as TV's or anything that illuminates around a house, there would be a lot of sources for you to use as practicals.

Not exactly sure, but most likely maximum weight differences.

I have worked with this kit in the past with a DVX-100, XL1, as well as GY-HD200 and it worked out very nice. Check out BH's other kits they have a lot in your price range. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/4877...1HDV_3284_.html