Bob Hayes

I?m a big fan of the mirror bounce routine. The further the mirror from the source the harder the edge the smaller the size. It is very controllable. Place a black flag behind the mirror to control bounce.

"See the losers in the best bars Meet the winners in the dives Where the people are the real stars All the rest of their lives." Neil Young, SAIL AWAY lyrics

Thanks for the info. I'm into day 10 with the F 23 . It sems to be a pretty good camera, but man is it heavy!

I have done this before in close ups.. Close ups can be achieved by building a large tent. But a solid ND9 gel behind the talent. Then light the hell out of the interior get an air-conditionioner. For the large shots perhaps you could shoot one exposure down three stops and shoot the other normal and combine the two. There are programs that allow you to do this. If you are moving or things are moving I the shot it won't work. If the camera is locked off there maybe a program that will use the elements that don't change from the back ground from one shot and the elements that are different, moving people for example, from the other.

In addition to your push bar attach a c-stand arm to the dolly and the bar to triangulate the support.

Attending film school is going to make you a much better film maker but it isn?t going to guarantee anything as far a work goes. However if you want to teach a degree is important. Also if you attend a good film school the connections you make can become invaluable as they begin to establish themselves in the industry. If you are ready working albeit at a PA level you may want continue that and take extension classes in film making given by film schools. You may learn much of what you desire and be in an immediate situation to apply the knowledge. The benefit of being a PA is you can get exposure to all the aspects of film making. You may want to steer yourself to working as an assistant for the producer. If you hook up with the right one it could be magic.

If this is a gag just pull the post. Don't waste our time.

Forget the jib shot. The two shots will be completely unmatchable. I really like the idea of creating a practical set for the foreground. Everything from 2 meters behind your talent to the bottom of frame should be set. Then just composite the BG. Take good lighting notes and a mirror ball on location to help match sun angle. One thing you can do is shoot super high resolution still pictures on location and stitch them into a large plate. Then you can operate you camera on your action just pan and tilt moves to side to side dollying. With good tracking points on the green screen you could get some movement.

I think waiting for a rainstorm is pretty risky this time of year. Hear is a solution. First do you have access to the unit above the one you are shooting and do the windows open. My first recommendation is to shoot away from the windows until the sun sets and then shoot your rain angles until you loose the light or it no longer matches. It may look too dark or too blue for example. Connect a hose to a faucet upstairs and rain the windows. Have someone with an umbrella downstairs to do pr with the people who get wet. You will only have an hour max so be ready and organized to do that coverage. Another choice is to shoot in a ground floor unit, put a gray rainy looking backdrop outside the windows, and then dump a lot of rain between the drop and the windows.

First Niko, Cinematography.com is not the forum to discuss these issues. It is a site regarding film making. Call the NRA and ask them what you should do. Leaving a hand gun in a gym locker loaded or unloaded was not a very intelligent thing to do. In California you would be in huge trouble. I think Washington State has pretty relaxed hand gun laws and as odd as it may seem you may not have violated any laws. Again, I?d call the NRA and find out what you should do. I would think you should report it to the gym, tell them you plan to report it to the police, and then report it to the police. The weapon may mysteriously reappear. Regardless what the handgun laws are in your state I personally think it is foolish to leave a weapon in an area out of your control especially if it loaded.

I did a lot of filming internationally arouind 9/11. I go out of my way to use the word film rather then shoot.

Try placing a 4'x4' black flag in here eye line and have her focus on it. You can also ahve her stare at a light with her eyes lightly closed then have her open them after you roll. Try knocking you intensity down a bit.

This becomes a real problem when doing a video interview with a medium sized source pushed super close to the talent to make it softer. When the talent moves or leans the difference in exposure can be pretty problematic. Once I realized that I started using larger sources farther away. Also American Market makes a great material 1090. Which is like double 216. I find it creates a sourceless soft light.

Focus is always weird when using red light. I don?t remember what the problems are.

I have a strange question. Some one told me that if I put a video lens on a film camera the colors will not all focus on the film plane because they are staggered to fall onto different chips. I thought the prism did all the separating and I also thought a lens was a lens. Granted some lenses have better quality and some are designed to hit a smaller target. I had never heard that video lenses behaved this way until recently.

I am thinking of buying a LETUS is Zacuto the only company that sells them? Any one in Los Angeles selling them?

It is all about captivating your audience with the characters and their story. Who is your audience and what inspires them. Who are your characters and what drives them? What about your story makes this happen? Everything else is just window dressing

Funny you should mention it I am actually shooting the effects/second unit on "Robosapien" with Elhanan

There are many different kinds of eye lights and they all have the effects. They real goal of the eye light in my opinion is to add sparkle and energy to the performance. With out an eye light eyes can look like dead sharks eyes. For a natural look the key, often big and soft, is the only eye light. Often this style fits into the no back light concept of lighting like ?Girl with the Pearl Earring?. The eye light can also be a white card bounce which just adds a glow to the eyes. It can be a small hard light which adds a bright pin spot in the eyes. As mentioned before because the eyes are so reflective they can be a clue to how the shot was lit.

George Hupka was very helpful and manually subscribed me into the list I wanted. I suspect some spam filter maybe preventing my subscribing. I haven't had that problem with other sites.

This probably will get kicked out because I don?t think we are supposed to talk about other lists here. It has been impossible for me to use the cinematography mailing list site. I have to put my password in every time I try to access anything. I have to subscribe to every separate list for example lighting is one list and grip is another. When I try to subscribe it says I am subscribed and won?t let me subscribe. But I can?t enter it because it says I must subscribe. I have been trying for the last 20 hours just to enter a forum and can not. Am I missing something?

I'm shooting a feature with the F 23 and I noticed there isn't much information on the camera out. Sony has articles that are pretty much useless. DPs explaining how much they love the camera and how great Sony is but nothing about how they set up the camera or techniques they have used. The Bulletin Boards I have found have minimal posts about post work flow. I realize it is a pretty new camera but does any one have any input regarding using the camera or perhaps good Web Sites regarding its use.

Just make sure everyone knows how dangerous water and electricity together are. Large GFI?s are a good idea to protect the crew. And if you think it is going dump be prepared. If your gaffer says it is not safe you should relay this information to the production company and back you gaffer. The only times I have shut down a set have been over electricity issues. I shot a series in New Zeeland and there if you trip a GFI in the rain the set must be shut down until a fire marshal shows up and authorizes it is safe to go back on line.

The concept of ?The Line? is an artificial convention that helps the audience understand where things are and how they relate to each other. If the good guys are going from the left of the frame it helps for the bad guys chasing them to come from the same area. If one actor is on the right looking to the left it helps if the other actor is looking to the right. It just makes it less confusing and as a film maker you usually don?t want the audience confused. There are many rules regarding ?The Line?. Geography, movement of actors or objects, and how they relate to each other as create rules of relationship. It is really important to understand how this tool works. However, in today?s film making concepts of the line are becoming less important. These rules were made for people who were watching films 85 years ago. In the early days of film making when the audience saw a gun pointing at them they thought they were going to get shot. The audiences today are much hipper to the technology so they don?t need as much help. Or maybe films are made today by people who don?t understand screen direction for and audience that doesn?t care.

For the most part a try to leave it at the door that is the fun of film making. One of the addictive parts of movie making especially as a DP is that it requires 100% of your attention. There is no room to worry about external stuff. So for 12 hours a day you are free from the stings and arrows of life. Then when the job is over your realize there is a lot of poop you aren?t dealing with. I tend drop into a Zen state and it is all about the work at hand. It is rare that my personal emotions affect my work. I read the inner game of tennis and it really influenced my attitude to doing my job. I have good days and I have bad days and it often falls to the luck of the draw. I can have days where I make all the wrong decisions and know it and for some reason I luck out and do brilliant work. On the other hand there are days where I do everything right and have problems at every turn.