Bob Hayes

Paul: What is your average grip/electric/sound crew?

For weird movies I'd have to say Ed Woods "Orgy of the Dead".

Yes but that means there are less jobs available. Most of the meaty underwater jobs are taken by a handful of really experienced divers. These are guys that spend 1000?s of hours underwater working and shooting. Pete Romano is an example http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0738943/ If you are interested in perusing underwater camerawork get certified and see if you like the sport. If you get excited and feel like working underwater is a career you might enjoy go out and buy a digital underwater camera and start shooting stills. Still hooked? Take an underwater video class and see if you enjoy working with the gear. Still hooked buy yourself an underwater video camera and start shooting. As you can see this root involves a lot of diving and purchase of some gear. If you are a fairly competent diver, and 20% of the people in the water aren?t, it isn?t that hard to shoot video underwater and get some nice pictures. Just like it isn?t that tough to buy a home video camera and go to Yellowstone and shoot pretty images. That is drastically different from working underwater in limited visibility and current. Composing shots and trying to communicate with hand signals to actors who got certified last week while the director sits in a boat 40? above your head screaming at a video monitor. And the producer doesn?t understand why a scene which ?should only have taken two hours to shoot? is already on day three. And guess what. You are the guy they are looking at too blame. In short this is sort of a career that picks you not a cleaver loop hole into the industry.

I happen to be a big fan of the Michael bay look. And Transformers looked great. The energy and dynamics of the action sequences was amazing. The mix of CGI and live action was seamless. Kudos to Mitchell Amundsen the DP, who has been a second unit shooter for years with few first unit jobs on his resume. However, 2 hours plus was way to long for the movie and the last 20 minutes was monotonous. It seems like film makers today spend millions of dollars and hours of work trying to create the perfect shot of a robot head getting ripped off and ten seconds to writing and exciting script. In many ways Iron Giant was ten times the film transformers was.

Paul: Congrats on another series! I am particularly interested in what decision is made with regards to the backings. I am currently shooting a series and all off our backings are digitally printed on Vinyl and they are a nightmare. They are highly reflective and constantly wrinkled. Even the kick back from the set wall is enough to ruin the shot. No mater how we try to stretch them they sag and wrinkle. Also, some of them are designed to back light for night but the fronts are so reflective it doesn't look like night at all. We now flip the Vinyls around and just light the windows with Source 4's. So at night streets become the reverse of day with street numbers backwards. How have you solved these problems in the past?

Greenspoon, Morton K, OD 14607 Ventura Blvd Sherman Oaks, CA 91403-3699 Phone: (818) 789-3311 I've been going to him for years. He is top notch and very motion Picture savy. He is a specialist in Contact lenses for films.

Anyone seen any good DP web sites lately?

Blair witch may have cost 40 K but the distributors put another 300 K into post production to finish the film and then spent 15 Million on prints and advertising.

Go to a profession kitchen supply place and buy large cooking trays 3? x 2? with1? sides. Higher sides block too much light. Glue then to board of equal size. Put several broken shard of mirror in them to pump up the reflections. You will find this technique works well but I often find I can?t get the light in the right place because of the upward angle. Use 4? x 4? Mirror boards to redirect the ripples. Also Rosco makes a great projection that projects the ripple effect you are looking for. http://www.rosco.com/us/lightingequipment/...ects.asp#videos

Great lighting Kevin! With regards to shoot lights at pools. Bouncing off the water will give a pretty good effect. Be sure you bag all the lights securely and watch out for puddles of water. If you have actors or crew in the water use a GFI to reduce the chance of electrocution.

The drivers are that good. They will nail it more often then not. But usually they have taken a couple of days practicing the maneuver before they do it on camera.

Jimmy It?s not that hard to test it yourself. Select your bounce materials, Bead board, foam core, grifflon, Rosco scrim and select some different sizes. Then bounce a light into and take some readings. If you really want to get technical. Point the baby at the subject and spot it, flood it, place diffusion on the doors and on a frame. It would be a fun days worth of testing and you could probably get some friends to participate. Get a good looking model and shoot stills of your tests. Ultimately you will find that it is a real sense of feel that is developed through experimentation. Testing is a great way to start.

Think about back lighting as a solution to raccoon eyes. Or shoot your masters with out coving the actors and then bring in a 12?x12? or even an 8?x8? subtle diffusion for your medium shots and close-ups. I like high light plus ¼ grid cloth. The change is lighting is pretty subtle. Another challenge you will find is when actors walk from bright sun into your 12?x12? silk. Figure out what edge of the silk is casting the shadows and slide the silk so it is flush with the pipe. No gaps or loose strings. Then throw up a couple of thin shadows the actor will walk through before they enter the silk. The shadows should feel like telephone poles or wires. This will distract your audience and the entrance into full silk will be subtler.

Just send in one roll and have it developed and see what it looks like. If you have been consistant in over exposing everything you can also pull the developing one stop. This won't work if you have been over lighting the faces but exposing the backgrounds. Daniel Pearl, a really cutting edge DP, tells a story of using the wrong stock and exposure for a scene. He liked what happened so much he made it one of his signature looks.

You might want to look into white weather balloons. The eight foot size cost about $25 each and if you fill them with air that?s your total expense. Then just tie them up high to your trees and hit them with a spotted in HMI. Also where is the garden you are filming. It looks great!

Most wheel chairs work well for dollies. But there is actually a big difference between them. There are large hospital style which are very stable but are very heavy and don?t fold up well. I like the smaller lower seat models with pneumatic bicycle style wheels. I choose the light weight foldable styles. I can easily lift it and put it in my truck with one hand. Also you can often buy wheel chairs used.

The trailer looks more like a DP trailer then something to get me into the theaters. Pretty images but not much plot, terror, or action. Also reusing the same image makes for a dull trailer. Repetitive use of the woman testifying, cell walls, and medical instruments makes it look like there isn't too much more to your film. The visuals of the werewolf and demon characters are too clearly defined making them look fake. I'd distress these images and make them less identifiable. Just imply their presence in the film even if that isn't the case in the real film. Also the performances you chose were primarily exposition of the plot. I'd try to find moments of more intense emotion. It needs a faster pace.

Shot lists and story boards are generally created by the director. On larger shows a story board artist may take the director?s vision and create slicker more accurate drawings. Because the really talented storyboard guys are accurately portraying lenses and angles they are doing much of the work of a DP. I don?t think DP?s are consulted as much as they should be in this step of film production.

I am looking for a cheap fixture that will take 1000 Watt Tungsten Globes the double ended style. I'm thinking a work light or security light fixture. I see lots of 1000 Watt work lights but they say Halogen. I am trying to make a cheap soft light and because they will be mounted in a frame durability isn?t really an issue cost is.

It is very expensive to create these digital sequences like King Kong or the elements in Pirates. Most of these high end shows create their own programs to achieve what they want. This is a really expensive process. Once they have developed the software it is relatively inexpensive to do ten minutes of T-Rex rather then four minutes. In Pirates these create a million digital crabs then they just recycle them later.

A Par 64 with a narrow beam globe will get pretty close to the effect and it is a very inexpensive unit. It's called a fire starter so keep an eye on what you point it at. Especially flags.

I think I'd be looking at shows like "The Shield" or "X-Men" before "deal or No Deal". I tend to side light rather than top light in this situation. In a back lit situation I try to light the shoulders and cut light of the dome.

Dimmers are great and I use them all. When I have time I try to scrim down the lights and use the dimmer for fine tuning adjustments.

Yes, buy some knee and elbow pads and some 2? gym mats to fall on. Even if you cast is pretty athletic they will be able to concentrate on making the falls look real if they know they are falling on padding. Thin elbow and knee pads can prevent injuries.

Keep the camera tight and keep it moving. Use cool wide shots to set geography but don?t waste a lot of footage on wide shots. Make every shot different. Keep the camera moving. Use pads when ever possible.