Walter Graff

A number of folks from here asked me a while back to tell them when my next seminar was. My laptop crashed this summer so lost all the names. Figured a post was easiest.

Just thought I'd mention a seminar I'm giving in November in NYC. I am using a unique method to help people understand how to visualize a scene and draw on life experience in order to better understand what to bring to the table when they are asked to light a particular setting. I am really excited about this method and the way I teach it as others I have taught it too have found it to be life changing in giving them a fantastic resource for lighting various scenes. It's often what I look at as the 'missing link" in lighting that so many folks spend years trying to understand. It will be a fantastic day for anyone interested. More on my website about the seminar under the "instruction" banner on my website http://www.bluesky-web.com/index-5.html Hope you are all well on this site!!!! Walter Graff

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/apps/pbcs.dll.../904289975/1044

David, save yourself the trouble. Nothing you say is going to convince this guy of anything. He knows little about how the system works, how consumer sales works, and how manufacturing works. It's all fantasy conjecture based on eyes being glazed over by anything that says RED. Just plain silly. This crap is clogging my mailbox at this point. The pertinent points were made a long time ago. Let's see what happens. End of topic for me.

Once again trying to save face. Sony would not have to move out of MPEG2 as she states, and she stats it as if it's the anti-christ. It's not. Sony is using it at high data rates with great success. Never trust what a manufatuer says. As much as they want to sound fair, they are out to sell products. Truth is Sonys new line of camera is selling like hot cakes at places like BH, etc. It's a super camera series and in my opinion puts the 'equivilent' versions of Panasonic to shame.

Do a base of 80 FCs up to 100Fcs and that range will cover the three well.

Sometimes I think there is a bit too much fuss about this. Any <$10k camera does the same thing basically. It's just personal taste in terms of controls etc and look that appeals to you. And most all Panasonic cameras from Varicam to HVX are noisy, and that noise shows its face very easily. I'm forced to use my varicam for night events for a client and it's always a struggle to deal with low exposure and instant noise unless the blacks are crushed and then you are stuck with less exposure. Sony's new EX entries are probably as good as it gets in the jungle and anywhere else for the price. I suggested the H1 Canon for a friend who shot this doc and he says it was better than he ever expected; http://www.metamorphosisfilm.com/METAMORPH...ETA%20HOME.html You don't need a big camera as in size in the jungle nor want them. Any small prosumer camera will do more than you need. Canons are nice for 1/3", Sonys great for 1/2" and Panasonics noisy and most are simply uprezed SD chips so you give up something.

100fcs is a good level for those cams in what I think sounds like a music event?

Sorry to sound flippant but shouldn't this thread be moved to the science fiction section? Is there a fantasy section maybe? :) NHKs system is two 4k projectors and wouldn't fit in most homes. The reason you don't find any Tvs <720p is that the baseline of broadcast is 720p. Not any less than 1080i (1080p broadcast does not exist), just a different way to make a picture.

Thanks David for some sanity in this post. Like the guy who just wrote a book on the Columbine murders, it turns out that most everything you and I were told and believe about the killings is myth from these guys being members of some trench coat organization to that it was outcasts who killed jocks. But the myths perpetuate on the internet very easily and it is hard ot change peoples perception.People talk about "gamers" and blue-ray, and all the other ad hoc suppositions here with such 'knowledge' as to be scary. Please supply a reference for some of the statements here. It would be hard to do. There is only one fact, it took 60 years for TV to change. No one complained in those sixty years. The only reason it changed was because teh group that sells Tv sets wanted to sell more sets. (look up the history of the ATSC and read David Brinkley’s books on why HDTV came to be). And for the change to happen as it finally did, it took so much work just to change the infrastructure to twice the resolution as to be a feat as big as building the pyramids. Of course a lot of money had to be given to members of congress and TV broadcasters who were reluctant had to be forced to change. But the real point is that without infrastructure, there is no higher resolution than what we have. You could have a 4k monitor but it will not bring 4k infrastructure. All monitors and projectors of this type are not for consumers but for pro applications. As far as I can see no one has plans for any better infrastructure. Hell, we can't even get stations to properly switch to digital now. As for the internet, the US is ranked 54 in terms of infrastructure and speed so don't think that they are going to build this super highway of fiber anytime soon. No one has any plans. It cost money and you can't charge people more for internet service. Right now the companies that supply internet service barely make a buck. Verizon has reported that it was spending $18 billion through 2010 to deploy the FiOS services and even that isn't fast as you would need for any great resolution. Then again, flat screen TV sales have not plateaued as expected so getting folks to buy even more is a pipe dream. Verizon has 1.9 million out of 9.2 million homes that have access to the service as of now so it's tiny. In contrast, AT&T is hoping to have 1 million subscribers to its rival IPTV offering, U-verse, by the end of the year. So much for having the pipeline. So much for having the source for the pipeline. So much for people craving more resolution. My reference to the term “people” is the masses. And all the research and polling shows they don’t care as much as some on this board do. Blue rays are a measly 8 million now. Not selling fast as of last quarter. This is a cinematography site so it makes sense that folks here would use the term "everyone" when in reality every is a niche of people that do little to change the way we watch TV. No you, nor anyone else can as you know. Due to the physical limitations of the human eye, no one can see the difference unless they are at extremely close ranges, which are not conventional for viewing a TV. Right now you can not see the difference between a 46 inch HD set at 10 feet next to a SD TV playing the same footage in SD at 7.5 feet. Mathematics of how the eye sees says that. Of course at 4 feet you would appreciate the difference, and the reason for HD from the consumer perspective was to offer higher resolution at closer ranges for more immersion and so you didn’t see the refresh lines of 525. If anyone would like to understand the limitations of the eye and how it translates to why TV is what it is in HD land and why it will not be more, read this: http://www.tvtechnology.com/article/12836

There is never a guarantee with lights. Even used in the perfect situations, they sometimes have problems. Any fixture aimed more down than out for any long period of time is going to be stressed. Add being near a ceiling, or where there is no air circulation and you can have problems.

Send me a plot of the set layout and your light package and I'll send you a light plot.

All of the pro kids I have worked with in that age group are surprisingly mature and never required much more than anyone else. Sometimes about all you need to know with direction is talking in a more simplistic way. Kids that age have no life experience so examples of how you like something to be often don't work unless it's a reference to something in pop culture that they can grasp. I wouldn't overthink it, its not as hard as it sounds.

No you are not crazy, you just don't read the instructions. :) The user manual clearly states not to do what you did. The light is made of Ryton, which is a high temperature polymer and can stand a lot of abuse, (above 500d) but using it for a long time pointed down can have consequences. In fact most all light fixtures made of metal or polymers blends suggest never pointing them strait down. Kind of sucks, but this is the danger of pointing any fixture strait down for long periods of time. Lowel lights were designed for mostly ENG use and in that realm they work fantastic.

One never knows the fate of these services. Problem with youtube is it started as a free service sans advertisements. Many times as David alluded to in his Southpark reference, internet folks often don't think things through. And youtube customers have made it clear that they don't want ads so the company is left with a problem, how do you sell advertizing when no one wants to see it. Right now youtibe is selling ads against only 3% of it's video. It has more room obviously but it is a slow process to slip in ads and have folks accept them.

A little spoken fact when it comes to the jello is that Panasonic cameras do it the worst of all cameras made. Some use the phrase "intolerably bad". Seems everyone knows but no one says this out loud.

I see a lot of confusion here in this topic. Perhaps this is because the notion of color temperature has it's roots in a science distant from lighting for film and TV and the translation isn't 100%. It's a pretty simple notion but I think sometimes we over analyze stuff. And many times web searches don't help us as much as confuse us. This is an article from some time ago that I normally reference for astronomy talks I give, but it will explain a lot to the masses here too. Do read the comments too. It will show you just how confusing the topic is when one over thinks it. http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastro...no-green-stars/

I'd relight creating the same effect on the reverse.

Easy, the EX1. The 170 is noisy. Even in good light it's noisy. Compared to the noise in the EX1, you wouldn't want a 170. The EX1 uses the same chipsets and software as full fledged HDCAM... it's about the best camera going for the price.

HVX200 wold be a better choice

I deliver commercials I shot in HD on SD every week. There is no advantage. Shoot on SD and you'll get the same result. If you have HD cameras like I do, then use htem, it's free. If not shoot on what you want, it all gets lost to SD. The only advantage is picture manipulation as you can zoom and/or recenter pictures in the SD frame easier and with better end results.

Of course all the sample shots are in bright daylight. If they weren't you'd probably see what I disturbingly find true of all Panasonic cameras, noisiest bunch ever.

Well it’s not like the good times in the nineties when I made upwards of $12k a week producing for syndicated TV. I lost about $15k worth of work this month from one client reducing advertising. I also lost a client completely but that was due to us simply not seeing the same anymore. Other work has slowed. And some work just keeps on going with no problems so I still work. We’ll see what the future brings. Whatever recovery happens to the economy, if it happens anytime soon, will take a year before it translates into people doing more. But as I look at many of the industry web sites for jobs, I see there are plenty of them out there in all areas. Across the board I am talking to people who are suffering. And many are suffering big time. One friend may lose a house this month. He just closed his office space. Another just lost his contract as camera op on the soaps at ABC. One friend just lost her gig at ABC. One marketing friend with a killer resume is out of work. She was on The View the other day talking about it. And all my Wall Street friends are now in the bar more than ever. I can see the currents under the surface there. NYC has about half the traffic in general, and now the subways are not as packed as they were. In fact now I see more people coming home from work at 10pm than ever. And the 6pm rush hour is like a Saturday afternoon. Restaurants are dead as I walk by windows. My buddy says his restaurant is off 30%. Just walked by one of the highest rated restaurants in the city by my house. It used to have drivers in front all night… three people at three tables. It's a tough time and out generation never new tough so it makes it worse. I don't think there is much we can do but see what happens. Things are changing and I don't think the end result will be the same as it was. These are fundamental changes in the way people work and companies operate and I think that will resonate for some time. I don't blame anyone, any company, or any administration for where we are. It would be tough to try to lay such blame. More impossible to do. We do live in a capitalist society so these things happen every 20 years. This was such a perfect storm of things that got us here. But in the end, I hope we can work our way though it. Once I realized it's out of my hands, it gave me time to relax a bit more. I made a new updated website that I'm still finessing. And looking out in the yard I realized I have some more time to clean it up, etc. Might as well use the time wisely. And as a person who is now older and has nearly 30 years in the business of production, I'm looking at moving into new areas of endeavor as many of my friends are now doing. I remember it happening to older people when I was younger. Now I know what they went through. It's easy to sit back and worry so I stay positive and look for the future. I've had many ups and downs in life so I look at it as just another down right now. Up is somewhere.

It's way too big as a file size. I know most of you want to maintain some sort of visual integrity, but honestly most of you could cut your files down to a quarter of the size and they'd still look and work fine. I don't expect 1920 HD online and in fact, it annoys me when I have to wait for some huge file to load only to realize it could have been far smaller and told the sa me story and visually worked just as well.