Bob Hayes

Exposure is actually pretty easy. Because you are seeing the image super imposed over your "real" set you can see the relative balance pretty well. Is it brighter then you main subject? The tricky part is getting the size right and the eye lines correct. The light levels need to be pretty high on the ghost because the refelcetion is on clear glass. If you notice my actress is wearing sunglasses in the still photos. Also they made a device called a Ghost Matte Box in the 40's that has all the lements you need built together. Some of the older retal house may have one.

This is a very cool effect that was originally called ?Pepper?s Ghost?. In 1862, inventor Henry Dircks developed the Dircksian Phantasmagoria, a technique used to make a ghost appear onstage. John Pepper was the first guy to employ the technique on stage and from then on it has been known as ?Pepper?s Ghost?. Remember the early bird gets the work but it is often the second mouse that gets the cheese. The technique was quickly used in early film making and occasionally goofy guys like me employ it out of nostalgia. It simply involves placing a sheet of glass in front of the camera at a 45 degree angle. Your primary set is in front of the camera and the ghost addition is place to the side of the camera surrounded by black. The intensity of the light on the subject determines it?s visibility on the real set. It will always be somewhat transparent and reversed. If you want the subject to move behind objects on the real set you need to create black cut out on the ghost set much as you would do a green screen. If you live in Los Angeles Knott?s Berry Farm has an amazing show call the ?Mystery Lodge? that is driven by terrific Pepper?s Ghost techniques. http://www.brcweb.com/heritage/mystery-lodge.htm

Mitch: I?d buy it but I already own one. I?ve gotten lots of use out of it. VR Glasses are a must.

Take a c-stand arm and knuckle and use aluminum light stands. There are many different sizes and weights of the stands the smaller the more portable and less stable. If you want super portability there are small knuckles made by companies like Bogan which allow you to easily attach a small flag to a light stand. You don?t have the strength or reach of a c-stand style arm and knuckle but it is supper light. http://www.bogenimaging.us/Jahia/site/bius...;curBrandId=MAN Add to it a Matthew?s road rags kit and you are styling. http://www.msegrip.com/mse.php?show=produc...oducts_ID=25371

Here is a soft light I built. It houses 4 1K nook lights or 4 650 watt Lowell Tota lights. I built a 2? x 2? aluminum frame I used 3? x 3/8? stock I should have used 2? x ¼? so it is a bit heavier then I wanted. The Box is 5? at the wide side. I made it out of 1 10? x 4? sheet of Gator board. A very heavy duty wood fiber backed foam core. The 10? is a special order but let me build to the 5? size I wanted from one sheet with out waste. I attach the box to the frame using ?Spring Loaded? quick release hinges. The pins retract thereby releasing the box. The pins fit into a Manfroto menace arm holder. This lets me tilt the unite with out it getting too front heavy. I put it on a junior rolling stand and make sure it is baged. I worked out great. It is pretty large and not as light as I would have wanted. It works great in a stage environment where I build it and just roll it around. Because of it's size I would have to take it appart to get it in a practical location.

Here is a diagram of a day three camera multi-person interview I shot a while ago. 1. Set up your three camera angles. There will be some jockeying because it is tough to get three good-looking angels. For the close up angles go on the longer end of the lens. It is more complementary and helps you stay out of the wide cameras shot. 2. When it comes to lighting remember you are lighting three separate shots so you will need three times the equipment you would use for a one camera set up.. 3. The easy way to light it is two soft chimeras over the close up cameras. This will create soft flat and flattering light. They should be netted off of the shoulder of the off camera talent. The spill from the chimeras may also work as a back edge for the other talent. If not you will need a back light. Each close up will need a light for the back ground. For your ?Diva? you may want a low soft light under her camera to fill the shadow area. If it is not very soft you will see hands shadows on her face when she talks. 4. The two shot camera will need some lights for its background. 5. The lighting becomes much more complicated if the talent looks at the two shot camera in close up. The lighting for the over the shoulder angle rarely works for this angle and lighting for the two rarely helps the single. I?d think about a soft fill over the two shot camera to solve this problem. 6. Since I rarely take the easy road I tend to place my key lights and back lights on boom arms. This lets me get the key lights closer and exactly where I want them. The boom arms keep them out of the other camera angles. 7. In this set-up a chose to split Connie's looks to the women left of the a-camera. I did this to kep tighter eyelines for Connie. If I didn't do that her look to the woman to her left would have been a profile.

I do quite a few films with gun play and we use all sorts of effects to achieve the effect of gun fire hitting people and objects. You can really learn a lot doing frame by frame on action sequences. With regards to your first question about the blood my guess is you are seeing the blood from a blood pack shooting out of the shirt as a glob instead of a spray. The combination of the charge and the small pan that it sits in has turned the blood into a projectile like a bullet and it has shot through the hole in the shirt as a unit. It is so fast that it appears in only one frame maybe a foot from the actor and it is tough to determine which direction it is travelling. My guess is the frame before you will see a small explosion ripping the shirt. Because the blood pack was placed on top of the charge you will not see any smoke or flash from the squib. This is just a guess on my part based on the fact that the blood was a glob which is pretty hard to control at a distance of over two feet. I say most of my action sequences break down thusly. I think it is probably indicative of most action films, even larger budgeted films; they just do more of it with more resets. BODY HITS 50% planted body squibs with blood. 20% planted body squibs with dust 2% Body hit with Air Gun with Dust usually by accident 0% Body hit with Air Gun with Blood 28% Actor takes hit with no effect SET DAMAGE 25% Squibs planted on the set with dust or small flying debris usually cork 10% Squibs planted in pre-drilled holes that are plastered and painted over or Squibs planted in objects like lamps 15% Air Gun with Zirc 50% Air Gun with Dust WINDOW DAMAGE 80% Squibs planted on window to cause breakage. This shatters the window completely. This effect is also used to pre-break glass before a stuntman hits it. 18% Ball Bearing shot from a cannon or air gun through the glass. This creates bullet holes. 2% Air Gun with Vaseline when trying to place a spider web pattern on window you can?t really break because of budget or safety. DIGITAL EFFECT Over all I?d say about 5% of the effects are enhanced usually with tracer rounds and wire removal.

The trick is to spin the wheel and stop it with you hand. It is easier with a fluid head but if you use a gear head enough it is fun to use the spin and stop meathod. It's a skill you sort of pick up. It takes too much time to do the switch is usually the reason. Also the operator usually will want to switch back on the next shot.

Both Panavision and Arriflex make special eye cups that hold diopters. All you need to do is get the dimensions and have your optometrist make one up. Then you just order the diopter eye piece in addition to the regular one. When someone else wants to look through the camera just switch the eye cup. I have a pretty strong stigmatism. So I went to one of those one hour glasses places and had a generic round diopter made. It is about 1.25" in diameter. I then cut a foam donut out of high density foam that is slightly larger on the exterior and slightly smaller on the interior. It has a shallow slit cut on the inside to hold the dipoter. To use it I jam it into the eye cup. Because I have a stigmatism I have to rotate it to get it sharp. This is a very low tech solution to the problem. The benefit is I can use it on any camera film or tape and I don't need to have a special eye piece to make it work. I am a big advocate of not allowing people to look through the camera. Your eyes are one of the main entry points of all infections into your body. I let the first assistant look and sometimes the director. I explain how easy it is to get an eye infection through the eye piece and imply that I might have one right now. We usually have a separate chamois for the director. No one else looks period. An eye infection can really screw up an operator's career. This is not a small issue. On the first feature I ever shot the director had a dripping case of conjunctivitis. Of course we didn't have the money for a chamois and the director was constantly sticking his infected eye to the eyepiece. I went to the store and bought a small bucket and a gallon of 99% rubbing alcohol. Every time the director stuck his eye to the camera I would give the eye cup a dunking.

How do I insert pictures into my posts with out having them be gigantic?

http://www.locationsound.com/proaudio/ls/index.html I think this is the place. I don'ty know if the do repairs

I many ways you are a reporter telling the Dir and DP what they got. If you have a problem you MUST tell them immediately. Three seconds is too long. As soon as the Director or DP yell excellent lets move on you are dead.

When shooting action footage for television series I got into the habit of just shooting everything at 48 fps. If I needed a speed ramp or slow mo I have the frames. If I wanted regular speed with a slightly narrow shutter I had that also.

I?ve shot small spec projects with myself on an HVX 200 and someone to help me with lighting and running the boom. I mixed sound on the camera. It is sort of freeing to see what you really need to make a dramatic film work. I must say I found myself stretched really thin. I really wouldn?t think of attempting a 16mm shoot with out and AC to load mags and pull focus. At this level adding a couple of crew people dramatically increases the quality and speed.

Depending on where you are you might be able to dock the boat and shoot your night footage at a dock. I?ve gone so far as to rig 20? x 80? curtains on the dock and shot my night stuff tied up. Sometimes it?s just easier then going out.

I am a Porta Jib owner and I?m very happy with it. It is easy to set up and very flexible. I own several pairs of VR glasses and they really expand the moves I can do with the system. I try to use it on a Chapman or Fisher dolly. It is more stable, faster to move, goes on track easily, and I can boom adding another 5? to the move. One thing about using the dolly for the jib is that I can?t use it for my ?a? camera while the jib is on it. So I built a three wheeled rolling platform for the jib out of ¾? plywood. The sides are 3?long and it has 8? wheels with one steer able. I have pneumatic tires for location work and hard wheels for stage work. I think the Elmac lacks the wheel base to be stable especially when rolling from location to location.

It sounds like you want to take a digital still with your still camera. And then go to another location with your DV camera and shoot a shot that will be composite with it. You face several problems. My Cannon Power Shot A630, which I think is similar to yours, gives no indication of lens change when you zoom. Not even little symbolic dots. So I have no idea what the lens is. I don?t know how the Cannon DV designates lens size. Is it on the barrel of a video type lens or just symbolic dots or percentages? Some DV cameras will give you a number like 22 but it means 22% of its capability so that can be a relative guide. So here is my advice. Take the two cameras to the first location set them up side by side and match the dv camera to the still shot. Record the zoom size on the DV even if it ends up as a % number and use it as guide at the next location. If you do not have access to the DV camera or this method doesn?t work for you, take a tape measure and a broom stick to the first location. After setting the still camera up record the lens height, angle of declination, and distance to your subject. Then hold the broom stick horizontally and walk away from the still camera until the pole just fits the frame and measure the distance from the camera. Now when you get a hold of the DV measure out the same distance and hold the broom stick horizontally change your zoom until it fits. Place the camera where you want it with out changing the lens size. Match the parameters of the still shot. Also realize the frame dimensions won?t match up because of the different ratios of their respective frames. My still camera shoots 8 mega pixels which is higher resolution then the DV camera so you may want to shoot the still photo slightly wider then you want and on a slightly wider lens to give you some wiggle room when it comes to matching with the DV.

Definitely light cotton or nylon clothes. I like shorts and short sleeve but I always bring light weight long pants and long sleeves for bug protection. Good solid boots are a must but I would also bring some river shoes because you may find yourself standing in water. A light weight sun hat is a good idea. Research the diseases and take precautions I caught Malaria from Zimbabwe and take it from me mate you don?t want it. Definitely tell the producer about the importance of water. I always bring my own supply and I also bring power bars. Every show I have done we have run out of water. Don?t let it happen to you. I also carry water purification tablets. If you work out at a gym you might want to spend some time in the steam room just to get you mind wrapped around the heat and humidity. I also bring a couple of water proof bags for my important gear. Also I always carry a supper lightweight Gore-Tex Rain jacket, Pants, and hat. I like the kind with zipper that open under the arms and again you want the lightest weight you can find. I don?t know what your jungle will be like but from my experience rain is often an option and you don?t want one of those vinyl rain ponchos when it is 100 degrees. I tend to be very careful with what I eat and generally live on rice, cooked vegetable, and cooked meet.

No money? Use a wheel chair. You may need a couple of lights to hit the back ground. A China Hat works well for a sourcy top light. China ball for more spill. You might try a hard spotty light hitting just the table.

When ever I've lit from construction cranes I've needed tag lines to keep the lights pointing in the right direction.

Fangoria is a great fan driven magazine.

Shooting actors with real bullets, shooting up and burning vehicles that aren?t yours and the returning them, driving a Humvie all day and not paying for it. I have the perfect site for you. http://www.marines.com/page/usmc.jsp?flashRedirect=true

Placement of the vanishing point was really important to Kubrik in ?The Shinning?. Here it is right between the characters.

Is it day, night, or evening. If it is night most people go tungsten. It is cheaper and matches most of the sun guns. It seems like the folks choose cheap soft lights. I have seen 2k zips used a great deal. The usually choose one style of unit and then just repeat it all the way down the walk. On both sides if reporters are on both sides. The lights need to be high enough so they don?t flair the opposite camera crew. If you red carpet walk starts ion the day and moves into evening the bigger shows seem to use HMIs. They use a unit I am not familiar with that looks like a soft light. Cheap and semi soft seems to be the norm. Cabling has to be very safely laid out, lots of tape and crossovers. Caution tape is a must as there are lots of woman in high heels walking around.