Stuart Brereton

Yeah, these are all digital stills. I'll try to get screengrabs of the same setups from telecine, so I can compare them. The windows shouldn't be too blown out on the neg. Obviously my dSLR doesn't handle highlights as well as film.

General Discussion of Cinematography, not anything that pops into your head. That's what off-topic is for. As I said before, I am not taking sides as to the validity of your views regarding Americas' role in these conflicts. I was merely pointing out that the point of discussion - a Documentary, was being completely ignored in favour of angry polemic about Vietnam, Hiroshima, Cuba, the US Election, and a whole lot else. You seem to forget that this a community of filmmakers, and a long and angry thread like this is like two people fighting in a bar - it's got nothing to do with most of us, but we have to listen to it all the same. Was the documentary biased? Or was it fairly researched? If it did indeed paint an unfair picture of the US, why? What were the filmmakers intentions? These are valid questions, not this ridiculous dragging up of every conflict in the last 60 years. And to answer your question, Nothing gives me the right to decide what you should discuss - You're supposed to have the sense to figure it out for yourself. "Cinematography.com", got it?

I don't think the documentary itself was discussed at all, by anyone. I'm not denying the importance of the revelations regarding the treatment of the POW's, I'm just saying that this is not the place to discuss it, unless in the 'OFF TOPIC' forum. If you had talked about the 'sensitive approach to the subject' or the 'gripping, gritty camerawork' then, yes, it should have been discussed here, but neither you or anyone else in the thread made the slightest reference to the documentary after your initial post. This isn't my site, and I have no more rights here than anyone else, but I don't want to be in the middle of yet another political argument which has nothing to do with the fundamental reason why this site is here - to talk about Cinematography.

Maybe, but it's slower than continental drift!

Nonsense. The Rank Turbo line was introduced in the 1980's, and was later replaced by the Ursa line. They are competent machines, particularly with some after market mods, but to suggest they are the equal of a Spirit is pure fantasy.

Just finished a week of shooting in Monmouth, South Wales, on a short film called 'Mummys' Boy'. It's quite an intense, but ultimately uplifting story about a dead boy, and his surviving brother. Our main location is an enormous old manor house out in the countryside, with huge rooms and lots of oak everywhere - floors, walls, ceiling beams.... The only drawback is that most of the rooms we've been shooting in are on the first floor or higher, so I've been unable to light through the windows and keep the floor clear of lamps. We're shooting s16 on three different stocks 7205,7218 & 7201. The bulk of the interiors are being shot on the 250D, with a few night interiors done on 500T and day exteriors on 50D. I'm underrating all the stocks by 2/3 stop, and trying to maintain a shooting stop of t2.8 This is a digital still from the opening scene. The room is sidelit from a 2.5kw HMI outside the window. A .575 HMI with a chimera is keying the boy. I deliberately let the woman in the background stay silhouetted against the window. Another day interior. The room is mostly available light. The table lamp was on a dimmer, and the boy was keyed with a .575 bounced off the wall in front of him, just out of frame. This night/int was shot on 7218 with an 81EF. She is keyed from a 300w fresnel with some CTS and 1/2 tough spun. The moonlight was a .575 through some net curtain suspended out of shot. .575 with a softbox, and some practicals in the background. We shot a load of exteriors yesterday, right out in mid Wales, in the valleys. The scenery there is awe-inspiring, and should look great on 7201, particularly once it's been cropped to 2.35:1. Monday is our last day, mostly pickups and inserts, then it's off to telecine. I'm hoping to be able to grab some stills from the neg to post.

Last time I checked this was a Cinematography Forum, not a place for people to offer potted (and incorrrect) histories of international conflict...

I thought I would post this, from Mandy.com: "You know your way round the middle of the HD camera market , and have made more than one feature film using either a Varicam, CineAlta, Viper, Arri D20, Genesis or a Dalsa camera. Ultimately the informed decision on which camera is used will be yours, versus our budget! Not knowing these cameras as well as you, all we can specify is that we are keen to record straight to hard drive, and are shooting far more exteriors than interiors. You are keen to push 'the HD envelope'. You adore wide angle, DOF, and are experimental with angles, aesthetics, and method. You want an opportunity to exhaust your talent in a challenging environment. You will be shooting a small feature film in North India for approx. 3 months, travel and expenses paid, with the possibility of a small salary, but the adventure is why you want to do this. You will be working with a first time director. Please do not reply to this advert if you do not fit the above criteria." I'm not quite sure why someone with experience of shooting more than one feature with a Genesis/D20/Dalsa (is there anyone with this experience?) would want to work for nothing on this film, but just in case....

If it's for DVD release only, you can use whatever AR you like. You can letterbox your footage in post however you want it. The only problems will be with how you frame while shooting. If you're shooting film, then you can get the ground glass marked up to your chosen AR, otherwise, with video you can mark up the monitor.

Richard, Did you consider having an OCT-19 mount put on the new turret as well as the PL, or was that not an option?

I'm sorry that you have such a low opinion of yourself, and I think it's a shame that it colours everything you say on this forum. However, none of that changes the fact that your opinions are a highly subjective view of a 'worst case scenario'. Luckily, there are plenty of people on this board who can testify that it is not the only scenario, so that others won't be put off without trying. Your experiences are yours and yours alone, but your advice is just sour grapes.

This position is far from incorrect. The proof can be seen in any of the people currently successfully working in the industry. People who got there through skill , hard work and perseverance. All the things that apparently are impossible. I spent years working as an assistant, and I had my share of hard times. As I've moved up to DP I still struggle sometimes. I'm still not shooting the kind of projects that I want to be shooting, but I'll get there eventually. I won't give up like you so obviously have. The truth is, Phil, that your views on this industry are based on a sample of one person - yourself. Everything you say reeks of bitterness and anger, and you are not above directing that anger at others when they disagree with you. You make sweeping comments about other people that you haven't even met. Your negativity is corrosive, and quite unnecessary on a forum like this. If your comments here are indicative of your general outlook on life then I pity you, and anyone unfortunate enough to have to work with you.

Have you even tried?

I have never advised anyone that this career path is easy. I know from hard experience that it is not. You have no idea as to my success or lack thereof. As usual, the chip on your shoulder leads you to make assumptions about other people which have no basis in fact. I am personally costing people this money? Wake up and smell what you're shovelling! I don't believe that I have ever said success would come flooding. My position has always been that it IS possible to succeed in this industry, and that it takes skill & hard work to stand a chance. You may be sitting around watching daytime TV when you're not working. I certainly don't. I go out taking photographs. I catch up on new technology. I send out showreels, and follow up on them. In short, I do all the things that you have to do if you want to have a chance of success as a DP. You should make a decision. If you hate this business as much as you claim to, then find something else to do. If not, stop moaning and make the best of what you've got.

Sigh... Phil, could we just once have a conversation about career paths where you don't join in with your patented "don't even bother, you'll fail" line? You may be bitter and twisted, but most of the people asking for advice here are not. They want objective, informed advice, and frankly, when you start on about 'the industry', your advice is neither. We all know it's hard to find work in this industry (as in many others). No-one here is pretending otherwise, but it is NOT impossible to work up through the ranks, I know of people doing it as we speak. Likewise, the failure rate is high, but not 90%, not unless you're ill-prepared and unwilling to keep trying.

A DP I used to work with said to me once, 'remember, an AC is not a trainee DP. The only thing a clapper loader should be doing is getting his/her job right, and slowly learning to be a focus puller." I agree with Adam. I was a pretty good assistant, but I was nowhere near as good as the 'Career ACs', because my mind was always partially elsewhere. I know two commercials DPs, both roughly the same age (mid thirties). One has never assisted in his life, the other came up through the ranks, and did a lot of big features as an AC. Different routes, different people, but now in the same place and at the same time. One route is not necessarily quicker or better than the other.

i think that you are going to be unable to keep the neon signs in Soho sufficiently bright to register while also underexposing to do Day for Night. Soho at night is lit by the neon, not by the moon, so DFN is really not a valid option here.

I would use the red lines in your diagram for a center extraction of 1.85:1. Although using the top line has its' benefits, it does mean that you are using more of the edges of the lens (where a lot of the aberrations are) and not the center (the good part). It also means that any zooms you do will be off-centered as well, although this may be a non-issue for you. If you're going to a tape finish, you should transfer the whole R16 neg without letterboxing to give yourself the maximum flexibility for reframing in post. Once you've got your picture locked, and any re-racking done, you can letterbox it to whatever aspect ratio you like.

This is something that i am going to be doing on a short film early next month. We are shooting s16 framed for 2.35:1. The camera is an SR3. Arri are kindly marking up the GG for this Aspect Ratio. Although we're shooting primarily for a tape finish, there is always the possibility of a 35mm blow up. I, too wasn't sure about the process of optically blowing up s16 to an 35mm anamorphic print. Dominic Case was kind enough to share this information with me: "If you go for an optical blow-up, then it's most likely that they would need to take it in two stages. Almost certainly this would be a straight blow-up to 35mm IP (still flat), which would be effectively the same as a conventional blow-up: then you would have the squeeze process in the DN stage, using a conventional 35 to 35 squeeze set up & lens on their optical printer. It's also worth considering a digital blow-up, as the squeeze can be done quite painlessly in the digital realm." Hope this helps (and thankyou Dominic!)

I use a Canon EOS 10D. They're discontinued now, replaced by the 20D. It's 6.3 megapixel camera with a CMOS sensor that's very close to a 35mm (movie) frame in size. I often use it on shoots as an exposure guide if metering the scene is tricky, or if I'm in a rush. I usually set the camera to shoot bracketed exposures, so you get three different frames to examine. I don't particularly trust the LCD screen, so I usually take my laptop along. With an adaptor, it's really easy to slip the CF card out of the dSLR and into the laptop, then open the stills. I find this approach works well - generally speaking, if it looks OK on the dSLR, then you know you're OK on the Neg. Sometimes though, the SLR can be misleading. I shot a s16 music video last year which had some 6 lights in frame, pointing directly at camera. The dSLR images showed huge amounts of flare, almost unusable shots. I was worried, because I was shooting most of the video on Canon zooms, and if the flare looked bad on a dSLR with a prime lens, then surely it was going to be worse with my zoom? No, it was absolutely fine. Even though dSLR's have better latitude than video cameras, they're still not as good as film, and I'd obviously pushed it too far. The only other problem that I've really encountered is the fact that there is a restricted range of ASA settings on the camera, 50, 100, 200, 400 etc. If you want 1/3 stop ASA settings then you have to shell out for the 1Ds One plus point is that there is an abundant supply of quality second hand lenses for Canon cameras (as there are for Nikon), which means that you don't have to spend a lot to get a few fast primes.

Start a thread up, J. I use my dSLR quite a lot, and it would be interesting to hear how others are using theirs.

It's not on Les's site, but I read about him doing a conversion like this. I think it was on the Commiecam site.

Apparently Les Bosher can do a new turret for the 1M with both PL and OCT 19 mounts on it. That way you'd still be able to use all your Russian lenses, but have the PL there for 'serious' stuff.

I've seen this happen many times, in fact I was probably guilty of it myself a few years ago. You get given a lighting budget and so you take a look at the Lee Lighting catalogue and go hogwild! You hire all the toys you've never had before, regardless of whether you need them, or whether they are appropriate, and then you waste valuable time trying them out just because they're there. I've seen "DP's" hire Dedolight kits and Redheads for a DAY EXT car shoot with no genny. Why? Because they've 'heard a lot about Dedolights' and really want to try them....

This may help: www.commiecam.com/konvasmag.html If not try contacting : www.geocities.com/russiancamera Olex may be able to help you.