Michael Nash

And the difference doesn't end with the capture either. We're comparing different presentation mediums as well (photos and movies). How the photography is used is an extension of how it's captured. For example, still photos used in advertising and publication are often mixed with graphics and text; cropped, layered, half-toned, etc. etc... Motion picture photography in movies is usually presented full frame. Or, the opposite can be true -- TV commmercials with lots of editing, layers and graphics compared to a still photo presented in a gallery or coffee table book...

There's no harm in overexposing slightly (1/3 stop or so) for a slightly denser neg. if you like. It may even help the grain structure of the 500 ASA film a little for a cleaner matte. But it's not that big a a difference, really. If it's closeups and mediums only, you should be able to get your lighting bright enough to use 200 ASA for the least grain in 16mm.

Assuming you can fit a higher-wattage bulb into the unit (using the same base/pin configuration), you run the risk of overheating the unit resulting in melted components and potentially a short and/or fire.

The idea when using more gear is to get more people and more time to set it up. Ask any 1st AD. An insert shot takes less equipment, time and crew than a big stunt sequence with extras and special effects. You use what you need for the shot(s).

Using a brighter digital green material might help, especially if you can keep everything except the green where the subject touches the screen lit a little darker to control green spill and reflections. Also with shadows, sometimes compositors do two mattes; one for the lit screen and one for shadowed screen. You'd have to check with your post guys though.

Maybe a yellow filter to cancel out some of the blue sky?

You would shoot at the desired frame rate and then slow-mo the footage in post. That's essentially what's happening with the step-printing used in WKW movies. The HVX does offer composite SD output for viewing

Since HM's need full CTO to bring them to 3200 degrees K, you'd add full CTO plus whatever gel pack you like for sodium.

Just FYI, this is the first hit on Google for "per diem" http://www.gsa.gov/Portal/gsa/ep/contentVi...pe=GSA_OVERVIEW

Again, what do you want it to look like? High key? Low Key? Day/night? Happy? Spooky? Somber? Cheerful? Tense? Does the action have to take place in the hallway? 90% of the time the solution to a cinematography problem is to avoid the problem in the first place. Is there some other blocking or coverage that will allow you to tell the story in a less problematic way? On a practical level (no pun intended), there's really only so much you can do with hallways -- light through doorways and windows, hide lights in the ceiling, and fill in a little bit from the camera side. Sometimes a china ball or kino above the camera can help with dolly shots, as long as you keep it at fill level, not key level.

There aren't two different settings. 1080 in DVCPRO HD is always recorded 60i (24p gets either 3-2 or "advanced" pulldown). AVC-i supports 1080 24p.

The whole point is to make redundant copies at the time of recording (tape and external drive). If one fails you still have a backup.

Technically it's not any different, but the eggcrate and barndoors allow you to focus the "beam" a little more which creates a different falloff at the beam edges (which is often exactly what you want). Otherwise it is the same.

I haven't used the 2000 yet, but according to the product data the 2000 records 1080 24p with pulldown just like the 900. Which only makes sense, since it's the same chipset and processor and DVCPRO HD doesn't support 1080 24p Native. The 2000 does give you the option of the AVC-I codec though. I'm gaffing a feature with the 900 right now and we're shooting in the 1080 24pA mode, recording both to tape and Firestore.

We could help you better if we knew what you were trying to do. Whenever some asks "how do I light this?" I can't help but think, "well, what do you want it to look like?" What are your shots? What's the halway like? What is the action? And, what do you want it to look like?

What makes you say that? I'm one week into gaffing a feature with the HDX900 and the Panasonic 17", and I've been using the monitor for lighting throughout. Everything looks great, there have been no surprises. The monitor has no problem accurately displaying luminances, and the waveform confirms everything I'm seeing. Is there a specific reason you don't trust it for lighting?

It's hard to get too specific without a proper tech scout. You'll need to measure the size of the room and scope out the power situation to see how you're going to cram all your stuff into that space, and what lights you can expect to power. For layout, I think the simplest approach is to use the long axis of the room as your shooting direction. Build some kind of screen/wall/drape (whatever your production design dictates) across the back to hide the mirror and provide a place to hide light stands. You might be able to keep the side mirrors to make the room appear bigger on camera. I'd rig a soft backlight for the whole set by putting a couple 4x8 sheets of foam core behind the wall, up high and angled down toward set. I'd bounce a couple decent sized lights into this like 2K Mighties to make a big, continuous soft source that will wrap around the back of your subjects. Then do something similar above camera as a soft keylight, but kept slightly dimmer than the backlight to keep it from looking too flat and preserving the nice wrap from the backlight. Then you may need to fill in a little from below the lens, with something soft like a couple 4' 4-bank Kino's. Just a little bit; it's only fill to keep the light from looking too toppy. I understand the aesthetic appeal of shallow depth of field, but you might be painting yourself into a corner with the 35mm adapter. It sucks up light which will require bigger lights and more power, and can cause focusing issues. How are you going to pull focus on the jib shots? If you have enough depth of field on the wider shots to hold focus for the whole group throughout the jib move, then you really aren't getting the benefit of the adapter anyway.

Movies are usually framed for a consistent aspect ratio, which is marked in the camera's viewfinder. Usually you shoot a framing chart at the beginning of production that serves as a common guide for all the release formats (film prints & video transfers). These days with HD and 16:9 enhanced DVD's it a little easier to keep the same aspect ratio in all release formats. 1.85:1 is very close to 16:9, so those movies are either transferred with slightly more vertical space to fill up 16:9 or letterboxed slightly to keep the 1.85:1 frame. 2.35:1 movies are usually letterboxed on DVD's. When standard 4:3 television was the only video format, 1.85:1 movies were often transferred with a little extra vertical space and the sides slightly cropped, sort of a compromise to keeping most of the film composition on screen. 2.35:1 movies were usually transferred "pan & scan." It's not uncommon to have two aspect ratios marked in the viewfinder; one as the main release format and the other as "protection" for other release formats. http://www.csc.ca/news/default.asp?aID=1087

You need to find the nodal point of the lens, not the film plane. http://www.edb.utexas.edu/teachnet/qtvr/nodalpoint.htm http://www.path.unimelb.edu.au/~bernardk/t...hoto/nodal.html

Then you're missing out on the 99 other uses for kinos... ;) I just came home from gaffing an overnight shoot of a rooftop party scene using multiple units, including a 4K Airstar balloon, a Mighty through an 8x8 light grid, and a bunch of kinos. In this one scene alone I used the kinos in multiple ways: 4' 4-banks horizontal on stands up high to carry the soft light of the balloon and the 8x8 a little deeper into the set (to compensate for falloff) 2' 4-banks vertical as edge lights motivated by practicals on the set 2' 2-bank horizontal with the doors pinched in as an eyelight for closeups (that gave a nice glint in the eye without flattening out the core shadow) 2' 2-bank vertical to fill one actor without filling others nearby 2' 2-bank vertical as an eyelight for one actor but not the person sitting right next to her 15" single tube set into a freestanding bar as set dressing 4' 4-bank through a 4' frame of Opal as a soft key light to duplicate the balloon's light for a high jib shot where the balloon was in the wrong position Also on this show I've used them: 4' 4-bank vertical in a doorway to provide daylight glow from another room 2' 4-bank vertical as a soft, natural edgelight in day interiors 4' 4-bank hung from a wall spreader as a ceiling light in a practical location 4' 4-bank horizontal above a window to augment the natural light coming in, especially when the window is gelled with ND I should add the multiple configurations such as high/low output; quickly switched number of tubes; gel color clipped to the eggcrate, diffusion inside and outside the doors, with the eggcreate for focusability or without for maximum spread... The list goes on and on... Regarding the dinner table scenario I've used four 2' 4-bank units surrounding the chandelier pointed inward (across the table), with the benefit of quick aim-ability when the action strays from a seated position.

The whole point of using a 35mm relay adapter is to get the depth of field characteristics of the 35mm lenses you mount on it. The 35mm lenses project an image onto the groundglass, and the video camera's lens re-photographs that. The 35mm lenses are what give you the depth of field, not the camera's lens.

I just read them, so they seem to be intact.

Forget about the problems of the space for the moment, and concentrate on the design and look of the video. What do you need to show, and what do you want it to look like? What kind of coverage will you need, and what kind of mood or "feel" do you want the video to convey? Those things will dictate the layout, art direction, and lighting of the space. Then see what you need to do to the room to make that happen. On a practical level, I think it goes without saying that you need to cover up at least some of the mirrors if you want to avoid seeing reflections of cameras and lights in your shots.

They're all just tools. You pick the right tool for the job. If a Kino doesn't give you what you need, then it's not the right tool for that job. If you need soft, directional light from a compact, lightweight, low-power unit, then Kino is the best tool.

You use Neutral Density filters on the camera to control the amount of light coming into the lens, so that you can shoot at a desired aperture. You have all the answers here already. Long lens, wide aperture, close distance to subject; OR use a relay-lens adapter system with 35mm lenses.