Stuart Brereton

In the UK, dutch angles are referred to (colloquially) as 'on the piss'. 'On the Piss' is a slang term for being drunk and therefore uneven, just like a Dutch Angle. In recent years, with the over usage of dutch angles on MTV etc, the term 'on the piss' has come to be derogatory, implying a lack of imagination.

Your daily call sheet will have a list of scenes that are going to be shot that day. If there hasn't already been discussion of how to shoot it, and hence, how long it's going to take,how can you possibly schedule? These schedules are agreed by the Director, DP, 1st AD and whoever else needs to input. Any production that just 'turns up and shoots' is doomed to fail.

i've got a G4 Powerbook. Barring a few issues with OSX when it first arrived, it's been solid ever since. I run FCP & Photoshop on it, as well as Speedgrade. although Apple is about to switch to Intel chips, I think it will still be a long while before a Intel Powerbook is available, so it's worth getting the highest spec G4 that you can.

It really depends what type of video you are comparing it to. HD/Super 16 costs are very similar up to a point, but S16 is much more expensive than DV It's not dozens of times more. If you look at S16 with a comparable video technology, HD, film can actually work out cheaper, if you are not shooting high volumes. I did comparison costings last year of S16 vs. HD, and film was cheaper unless you planned on shooting more than 10 400' rolls. This doesn't mean much in the world of drama, but for a music video it is significant.

I started stills photography back in about 1986, before Auto Focus & Exposure lenses were widely available. I don't find manually setting a stop or finding focus that much of a hassle. Timelapse on the EOS cameras can be done with the TC-80N3 remote timer. The LCD monitor can be set (on the 10D, at least) to display the shot until the shutter is pressed again.

Actually it is possible to buy an adaptor which allows use of FD lenses on EOS bodies. I use one myself on my EOS10D. You can sometimes find them on Ebay for about £25.00.

How far was the HMI from the 4x4? T2.0 seems very low...

A TK colorist that I know thinks very highly of the 3 way color corrector in FCP. Given he's used to working with a Da Vinci 2K, that's a pretty good recommendation.

Stephen, It was an Ursa Diamond, through a Da Vinci 8:8:8 colour corrector, TK to digibeta. The stills are uncompressed screengrabs.

sorry, to clarify URSA stills are on the left, SPIRIT on the right my apologies for the large files, but I thought it was important to see them full size.

I think we're all guilty (to some extent) of putting some shaky, horribly over-exposed mini DV image in the same class as a properly composed 16 megapixel digital still, just because we hear the dreaded word 'digital' Truth is, even miniDV can look good, if you care enough to take the time.

There have been some discussions recently regarding the relative merits of different Telecine machines. For anyone that's interested, I have uploaded some side by side comparisons from a recent promo shoot. First set are from an Ursa suite, second set from Spirit, identical grades. I have more stills should anyone want to see them. www.stuartbrereton.com/TK test.html

That's right, David. In the UK, grips work in the Camera Dept. The Lighting duties that US grips perform (setting flags etc) are handled by the electricians.

As far as I can see, shot to shot consistency and having a usuable image go hand in hand. There are many things which a Post facility can do, but doing the DPs job for him is not one of them.

The usual post route would be something like: shoot 35mm, then TK via Spirit to HD-CAM. Then do a down convert from HD-CAM to DigiBeta for your off-line. Lastly, conform and final grade at on-line from your HD-CAM masters. You mention having your film 'scanned' rather than just telecined. As you're not going to a Filmout, this is unnecessary.

Jeremy, I don't think it matters which car you use on a brand level. You're not trying to sell the car, you're selling yourself. The deciding factors for me would be: Which car looks the best -both generally and in terms of particular features. What colors are the cars you have access to - some colors look better than others in ads. Have fun,

In the UK we rarely shoot 4:3 anymore. When shooting 16:9 video it is common practice to protect for 14:9. In film terms, you would use the TV safe markings within the 1.66/1.85 frame.

That's a perfectly good way to approximate an ASA for your camera, but you don't even need to be that accurate. You set your initial exposure from the monitor, then use your lightmeter to give you a reading from the keylight . It doesn't matter what ASA your meter is set to, as long as your key remains at whatever stop your meter read in the first place.

Luck may have had something to do with it. I think that 12 years of hard work and study may have somewhat more to do with.

I don't see why I refering to F stops is 'inappropriate terminology'. Video lenses are calibrated in f Stops just like film lenses. A 1 stop scrim is a 1 stop scrim regardless of what format you are shooting. A competent Gaffer may well know from looking at a monitor how much a light needs to come down, but it is not his decision to make. It's the DPs. That's why when I ask for a 1 stop scrim, or a piece of ND.3, that what I expect to get, not the Gaffers' interpretation of what I want. Once again you're using this as an opportunity to vent your dislike of Film and Film people. Your constant whining is tiresome, and if it is really your attitude, rather than just some bizarre pose, then I wonder why you don't find yourself employment in some other field, and spare the rest of us from your bile.

Phil, you have no idea what I have had to do to get to where I am. You have no idea what pressures I have been and am still under. You don't know if I am lucky or not. If you hate the industry so much, why not find something else to do.

I've been thinking about this quite a lot recently. There is a very good case for using a lightmeter on video shoots. Not because you need to meter the light for exposure, after all you can judge that off a monitor, but for 2 other reasons. first, it gives you repeatability. if you know that Actor A's keylight was reading at t4 then you can keep that light level constant. I've done shoots where you judge the key by eye, and think you've got it right, but over the course of a day as you and your eyes get tired, there are variations in the light levels which could have been avoided with a light meter. second, it teaches you to measure light. rather than look at a monitor and say "the backlight is a bit hot" you can look at it and say "the back light is a stop over". then when you ask your sparks to adjust it, you can say 'put a 1 stop scrim in it' instead of 'just take it down a bit'. In short, it engenders a discipline to your work, which in turn helps you to work faster and more accurately.

The only problem being that not all TVs overscan by the same amount, so you run the risk of leaving a visible border around your picture.

You don't get 'dirty shadows' from underexposing. Shadow areas only become grainy when you try to Print them UP. If you shoot a grayscale and your scene correctly exposed at t4, and your shadow areas are falling around t1 or t1.4, those shadow areas will reproduce normally when you print to your grayscale. If you suddenly decide that you don't want the scene as dark as you've exposed it, and you try to Print Up, then your shadows can start to show grain DP's sometime underrate film stock (overexposing it) by a 1/3 of a stop or more, as this helps to reduce grain generally, not just in the shadows.

In my experience, any band/record company that can afford to shoot film, WILL shoot film. They are not interested in resolution, color sampling or latitude. They care about the prestige of shooting film rather than video. Right or wrong that's how they think. The original question was 'what camera should I buy?'. Well, I would follow David Mullens' recommendation. Any one of those cameras is capable of great results, and at a price that won't scare people off. Owning a film camera is not going to convince a band to shoot film - Camera rental is a small part of a budget anyway, so they won't be saving much. A 24p/25p DV camera is going to be much more flexible. Wendell Greene posted a link recently to a promo by a band called Buckfast, which was shot on DV. Forgetting for a moment the obvious budget of the video, it still shows what a DVX100 with some good lighting and a nice grade is capable of. Use a DV camera to polish your skills, then when a film job comes along, hopefully someone else will be picking up the tab....