Jon Capogrossi

Major thanks Brian on that link.... I will for sure try to utilize that formula.... I was looking for something like that on wikipedia, etc (they had a page on Special Effects Cinematography, filming miniatures, etc, but did not have any formulas like that.....much thanks on that link

Much thanks to all for the advice- I am looking to get a digital camera very soon, still dont own one...and gotta say WHOA re: the Frazier Lens, hadn't seen that yet until now...amazing stuff !

What's going on? I would say, for Slug lines, aka EXT. STREET - NIGHT, etc... you will want to differentiate which street this is... The reason for this has to do with the Production schedule (VERY important in making a film)...you're going to want to plan out locations, days, who can be there/who cant, etc, as best as possible Your crew, actors, etc, will need to know WHICH street you are talking about, if you have two totally different scenes that happen outdoors, at night, but on two different streets... because that makes it two different locations...just for planning purposes, you'd need to be a little more specific I would think it would be OK in the script to put the actual NAME of each street down, like "EXT-OAK STREET-NIGHT" and then "EXT-GREEN STREET-NIGHT" etc, just to differentiate... the main thing is that you'll need to plan out locations, so that you can get as much shooting done at that one location as you can...so any scene that happens on a certain street at night should be filmed that night, up to about 5-6 pages of script...I think 6 pages per shooting day is the SAG Union limit that actors can do- If I'm wrong on any of this folks correct me, but to me, that would be a solution

Hi, I am a film student. I am currently in a Cinematography I class. Our instructor is having us start out learing still photography, so we can learn to properly shoot and expose on 35 mm film. THis is before we shoot our final project on 16mm. One of our assignments is to re-create, as closely as possible, a scene from a favorite film, trying to match the lighting as much as possible. Being that I am a huge fan of James Cameron's films "Aliens" and the first 2 "Terminator" movies, I decided to attempt to re-create a scene from the beginning of Terminator 2. This is where the cyborg endoskeletons are marching through the future war shooting "Plasma rifles"- the scene lasts about 5 seconds, but it is one of the coolest things in the film My idea is to re-create this scene using a 18 inch tall "terminator endoskeleton" high end action figure- It is a sort of artificial reflective chrome... I'm planning to have set up on a table a miniature "wasteland" of broken concrete and rubble, with likely some sparks added from some leftover 4th of July fireworks- My question...How can I make this model look 6 feet tall? I want to make sure this photo has depth of field, proper lighting, smoke, sparks, etc...the light has to be very bright and bluish/white, and have some type of "raking" effect to bring out the detail, then likely some red to suggest fire/explosions also... I want to use dry ice for the smoke, but I am not sure how that will come out I am thinking of trying to borrow/ rent a macro lens, just to shoot this photo... But, my question.....any advice on shooting something like this.... I know that it may just end up looking like a cool toy commercial ("new from Hasbro!!" etc) but I want to try and see how realistic this can come accross... Thanks for advice to a newcomer