Kevin Zanit

There is almost no reason I can think of that the DIT could not handle this job under most circumstances. If there are a lot of cameras, I could then see it getting a little difficult for the DIT to handle in addition to all his other responsibilities. Kevin Zanit

Looks great David! I was working with Jamie Babbit the other day (she says hello btw), we were talking about not having a clue how you manage to work this much and then find the energy/ time to come on here and put posts together, your a mad man! ;) I am sure you will need a nice vacation when this is all over! Kevin

Those are definitely 8K Paparazzis.

I am a big fan of Crewdson's work. I think the stuff looks great, and of course thats just one person's opinion. How do we judge anything artistic? All cinematographers use big crews, does that make Conrad Hall's work any less impressive? Why should the HOW a photo was made be a deciding factor on if a photo is impressive or not, for instance, with Crewdson's work?

Great stuff as usual David. Congrats on finishing another one! This has all been really interesting; today I got a nice Red demo from Cliff over at Sim which with your updates and his information has been very helpful in my own prep for a project coming up. Thanks, Kevin Zanit

The problem with Simunition is its actually more like a paintball than a blank. The gun does cycle and eject a shell casing, but the gun shoots a paint ball at around 400 feet per a second. To fire Simunition at someone requires a full face mask and some protective clothing because it hurts too much and can take someone's eye out. You also have to modify the gun to work with Simunution because the Sim. rounds have so much less powder they could not cycle a normal gun without jamming. Blanks are still a better bet in proper hands, and from there you can decide if you want to use "Full Flash" or less (like 1/2 flash) blanks based on the size of the muzzle flash you need and other safety factors.

Paint.

I tend to agree, especially in this case where the person who is posing the question doesn't seem to have too much electrical knowledge, odds are none of it will end well. I am not real clear what he is even asking, either way its the wrong place. Please get someone on your crew who can do this safely or not at all.

The HMIs tend to be more hit or miss with the flicker (they tend to work fine). With tungsten, at the higher frame rates on AC power, you will always get flicker from units smaller than a 5k.

Hey Tony, I have used these 7ks before: http://www.arclightefx.com/bl7k.htm It worked fine, did what a Xenon does. That company sells and rents, though they are based out of the US (though I am sure they ship, but it is a little tricky if you wanted to see it first). I am sure there are a few other companies that sell them, though I'm not too sure who they are, I'll ask my gaffer. Kevin Zanit

I think the point of it being a stylized cyc is the fact that its supposed to be stylized and all the odd visual quirks that come with that are part of the reason why they are using a cyc in the first place (at least thats impression I'm getting).

Unless you can get a lot of distance from the window with the 12k you won't get much of a shaft from a source the size of a Silver Bullet (the big lens makes it a softer source). I'd go with the Xenon, I really like them for shafts of light, but they definitely don't have the spread of a bigger source, very spotty. Kevin Zanit

I second what Richard says, thats the beauty of stock footage. Getty has been really good for us so far; you do need to have some pretty solid stuff to get going with them, but they are also real good about telling us the types of things they need which helps us meet their needs better. So far so good.

I am assuming its royalty free, thus a one time payment per each sale of the clip? 50% is a very good cut, at least in my experience. I have some stuff with Elhanan with Getty Images that pays out a lot less than that (I don't think I can say what our percentage is contractually). Our agreement is also exclusive with them for five years. To answer the other question, I don't really know if its better to get a big cut from a small place or a smaller cut from a big place. I tend to lean towards working with the larger companies simply because of the reach they have. Getty is an international massive company, and thus they reach a huge client base. Our sales reflect that. All this said, I am new to the stock footage game. So far I am very happy with it, but I am sure others can really tell you more (like Richard here). Kevin Zanit

I like to do some basic correction to the dailies on my laptop and then bring it to the session to show the colorist on the same monitor I did the rough correction on. What I say usually varies on the colorist, I had a great colorist at Encore the other day and I really didn't need to say much at all. I showed him a few reference stills at first and six hours later he knew what I was really looking for. I actually had to leave early that day and had no problem letting him finish the work on his own, he did great. Just know what you want it to look like and how to describe it (the reference stills help that a lot). If you don't know what your looking for, tell the colorist to play and get some ideas from him once you communicated the overall look you were going for. I never ask a colorist to show me what "no correction" looks like, you learn that lesson pretty quick. He just turns off the color correcter and your left with some crappy green biased image because that is what you get strait off the machine. Kevin Zanit

"How about a big unbleached muslin?" Could work, but would probably suck up too much light.

Welcome back David! With all this stage work you are going to need to work on your tan when its all said and done. It sounds like a really cool show. When you were telling me about it I was wondering how you were going to light all these sets, then the food came and I forgot to ask you about it ;) the Kinos were a great idea. Good luck with it all, I have no idea how you have the energy to do all these back to back, one hell of a mental exercise. Kevin Zanit

Interesting, I have known America for years, and I know she sort of fell in love with NY, so I know she won't mind, but I also know a few guys in the camera department, so I am sure it sucks for them, I'll have to ask around for more details.

He did, not sure why though, though I am sure he did.

David, thanks for having me out, this movie is being made by a great group of people! And I certainly can attest to that hell of a black eye, definitely looks like you have been bar fighting with your grip crew. Should get you some big dark aviator sunglasses to cover it up so you can surprise people every time you take them off ;)

This should be interesting . . . or closed (I'd do it myself if I could). Phil has been on here for a lonnggg time, and without question knows his stuff. Feel free to not start pointless threads on here, looking at your few posts, it seems most of them are unfriendly/ unproductive discussions regarding RED, and the other few are asking similar questions as this topic. What are you trying to accomplish here?

Very cool, I have heard a lot of very good things about Marc Webb from some of the camera crews that have been on his videos. I wonder if Zooey's dad will make a set visit at some point, maybe a little intimidating ;). Kevin Zanit

Elliot, please change your 'display' name to your full name from the 'My Controls' section of the site per the forum rules. Otherwise your posts will be deleted. Thank you.

Ha, is the Altima the rental? You may may be far from the car, but I'm not. Your brother let me have the keys, I'm taking good care of her now that your gone ;) (don't worry, I'll give it back with at least a 1/4 tank)

Yeah it was my second who took the video and tail slated. Initially as few people as possible is a wise idea, however if I made it that far and he retraces my steps, it couldn't be that bad ;) Originally we had a Preston follow focus on the camera so my 1st was pulling from a very safe distance, but it went down after the first take (over heated we think), so he ended up pulling with a whip and just met me on the ground to move forward. We were also on a fairly wide lens and I think I was at like a 5.6/8 split or even an 8/11 (I honestly don't remember), so there was a good bit of wiggle room in the focus. Kevin Zanit