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Kevin Zanit

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Everything posted by Kevin Zanit

  1. "I don't think we could have lifted it on a supercrank" Ahh, well thats what the lift gate on the truck is for ;) You and the guys did a great job, there were some massive cable runs, sorry about that!
  2. I have worked with Airstar balloons some before. My old gaffer used to tech for them, so he knew a lot about them. All of what everyone said is true. They have always been the type of light that are very specialized, and for me, I just knew when it was the right tool. They are pretty expensive as well, but pretty fast to drag around all night, so my question to you is what are some of your concerns about them? They do seem like a good choice for a snow covered landscape though.
  3. I try to at least get one at each setup. In actuality, I run out of time a lot, and thus it never gets done, and I just make sure to leave good notes and or call the place doing the dailies.
  4. My above was intended as a bit of sarcasm, pointing out that my original understanding of fair use was that it only was intended to give libraries certain rights, from a legal standpoint I don't disagree with you at all.
  5. If I am understanding the entire situation right, the only way any of this would ever fall under fair use in copyright law was if we were duplicating pages of books for non-commercial use. Far as I know, there is no fair use with other forms of media. Could be wrong due to recent court precedent, etc, its been a while since I learned about copyright law.
  6. Kevin Zanit

    Mirror

    It won't effect the image on film, the mirror is only used for the viewing system of the camera. Its called a reflex viewfinder, do a forum search for it, I am sure there is a ton of information about it.
  7. I have heard of it before, but never on the slate. On the camera report it is noted if the DP is not happy with the situation prior to rolling. That said, this would be an extremely rare thing, and an indicator that there are some serious problems on the set.
  8. Saw it in the new Arclight in Sherman Oaks, was pretty good projection and sound.
  9. Beat me to it Brad. Elhanan and I saw the film the other night. It was excellent, looked great Eric, congratulations. Plus the film was great, a lot of fun, congrats on being a part of the project!
  10. I thought I heard it was a carbon arc unit, which is a safe choice considering the options back then. An arc can more that suit the purposes of making a very sharp shaft of light.
  11. Interesting, I have never over cranked with a Xenon, so I have no idea what the flicker situation is. I have noticed they tend to be finicky, every time I use one there seems to be a scramble at some point to figure out why the unit went down/ won't strike/ re-strike. They are the type of lights that when being used, are usually for very major strokes in the frame, and thus it would really bother me to light up a scene with one and then have it go down/ loose it for the scene. They are also just expensive enough/ too specialized to carry a backup of. My gaffer started bringing in the Lekos with a 400W HMI Joker in them for creating a similar Xenon effect. I like them, but I don't like the color fringing at the edge of the beam. Also, the Mole Beams seem like a good solution, but they are pretty expensive as well. Kevin Zanit
  12. It probably wasn't easy, but it was the best option at the time. This was a newer one, it had a slider to go through the range, sort of like the T-stop control on a Preston. The most important thing was that everything was in focus, so I guess it worked!
  13. I don't know the measurements either, but this does remind me of a funny operation we had to do a few days ago on a show I was shooting. We had a bunch of hand held stuff in a really small bathroom, and sure enough, oops, no whip. What we did have was a Microforce zoom controller. We just put the motor on the focus gear, the 1st made his distance markings on the controller (the Microforce has a strip of LEDs that indicate the zoom position), and there you have a poor mans wired Preston. It was not the perfect solution, but it worked for the shot quite nicely.
  14. A quick look at all his previous posts should be plenty enough evidence that this person will never contribute anything to this forum . . . get rid of the account, at least in my book.
  15. Haha, feel free to spread the word about the size of my package . . . urrr lighting package ;) Thanks Jonathan and everyone else. You can't find most of the stuff, hell I can't find most of it, I realized that while trying to assemble footage for a new reel. In honesty, not very much of my narrative work is in distribution, and quite a lot of the stuff I have posted here is still in some various stage of post production. A lot of the stuff are shorts that have played in a few festivals but are not really available on DVD (at least not at the moment). Most of the music video stuff I do makes its way onto the various music video outlets at some point or another, I usually will just randomly catch stuff I have shot. I do carry a big lighting package whenever I can mainly because I just like a lot of options. Obviously budgets dictate how far we can push this. I do try to work within a budget and have good relationships with the people at the rental houses so that Frank (my gaffer) and I can work the pricing out as best as we can before production's eyes explode when they see the quotes (though they usually do no matter how high or low the price is). Frank posts here, maybe he will have some input on this thread, you can see him in the picture with the dolly track, he is crossing it towards me, in all likelihood to punch me for pulling at this much light (4x18k + 12kPAR + 36k Dino, last setup of the day, at least we died small . . . ;) ) Kevin Zanit
  16. Bit harsh indeed, I think if you can get these Super Road Runners they may be your best bet. They will go higher than a mombo-combo, and be a lot more stable. There are a million ways to rig something like this, but an easy one that comes to mind: (2) Super Road Runners with Lollipops in each one; goal post speed rail (with ears obviously) between the two stands, use as wide a piece as you need for your shot, however not too wide due to the stability issues (I am sure you guys will be able to tell what is getting too wide). In the middle hang your 2.5k from the rail strait down (or whatever angle you want), and then using more speed rail, rig your 6x6 frame of light grid or whatever you want to use below the unit (as far as you want to fill the frame without it dipping too low into frame). Tie down/ bag the poop out of the rig and hope for no wind, all bets are sort of off if the wind starts. If you need to go higher, put each stand on it's own parellel, though with each bit of height the sketch factor certainly increases. Like I said, I am sure there are a million ways to do this rig, and I am no key grip, so I am sure someone will have a better way. Kevin Zanit
  17. Thanks! I really didn't do anything to regulate the levels. It was very subtle even close to the frame. The fabric grid helps regulate it some as they get closer, but really I just set the warmth for their end mark and let them walk into it. It worked fine because, though the shot was a tracking shot, they ended up in a medium two shot by the end of the move, so you really don't notice the change in intensity. All that said, last I heard, this scene got cut from the film any ways, but at least it was good practice . . . ;)
  18. I've never had a flicker problem with them. I don't find them any more unwieldy than a large HMI unit. I agree, I would not use them normally for a person's face. It is certainly not the most flattering light, not to mention how hot the light from Xenons are. That said, in that scene, sometimes the actors would catch a little Xenon on their face, and for the scene, it worked fine. Some DPs like tungsten light because they like the quality of light a glowing filament produces more than they like the quality of light from HMIs. Personally, I do like Tungsten light a little more than HMI light, I just find it has a nice quality that is hard to describe. I also like mixing large tungsten sources outside to add some warmth into the shadows: (another digital still) You can see a lot of HMI light, and then a 36-light Dino providing some warm fill. Kevin Zanit
  19. I second all the above. I really like Xenons because I have found they are the best units to create what I call "chunks of sunlight", where you create a small, controlled bit of hard sunlight somewhere on the set. The downsides are all the above, plus they are noisy and fairly massive. You can get newer Xenons with on board ballasts, but they all seem fairly prone to trouble. That said, I try to carry at least a 2k Xenon full time. Here is an example of using one: You can see the Xenon is the lower light. What I had was a 12k PAR being diffused to bring in the main light, and then the Xenon was to create a hard slash of light. This is sort of the effect, the image is just a digital still taken before we were even done lighting, but you can see the Xenons effect on the guys hand and table. And you can see the effect of the Xenon carry onto the frame left actor Kevin Zanit
  20. I only paid $30 as well, must be the looks indeed . . . I've always known I was pretty (in spite of what everyone said) ;)
  21. Its a perfectly safe way of diffusing a 2.5k . . . its just the question of how to safely rig it that high, and the bigger question of why rig it that high? A 2.5k with nothing in front of it barley competes with daylight, with 216 even less, and that far away/ high, more or less useless. Obviously this is assuming you are shooting a day EXT., if it's a night scene, ignore the above to an extent. There are not really any stands that go that high, there is one crank stand I know of (I think its a Super Road Runner) with 4 cranks and a tie-down kit that goes around 27', but I would not attach a 6x6 sail to it. You probably need to go up on parallels with the stands, but honestly, if I was in your shoes, the question I'd be asking is where this magical 30' figure is coming from? Why that high? If its a streetlight gag, can you just rig directly to the street light? Can you just work from a building's roof top?
  22. Perhaps the artifacts show up more in the midtones of the image, and by adding the fill light of the 40w light, you have more midtones in the image, and thus perceive the noise more. With just a flashlight, you have far more contrast, and thus it hides a lot of the artifacts.
  23. The types of work you may find yourself getting that hires a DP on the basis of him owning equipment are not likely to advance your career much. That said, I know of job opportunities I have missed out on due to not owning gear that were actually good things. But these instances are few and far between. To be completely frank, if you actually need a bank loan to buy a $15k camera, your money situation is probably not in the right place as far as where you should be focusing on your assets. At the beginning of your career, that 15k can work a lot harder for you in more standard investments. A simple CD with 15k in it will be worth a lot more by the time you are ready to retire or even in five or ten years, long after the camera is obsolete. (well, lets hope inflation slows and that in five or ten years it did not outrun your interest rates) If you still think you want to invest, do a lot of research, its a numbers game. Is the street price for the camera going to offer you significant return on your investment? Can you keep it working even when you are not? Will you outgrow the camera, moving into higher-end needs? The list is endless. I avoided owning gear for a long time. I have started building a decent inventory of lighting gear with my gaffer that has been working well for me. That said, I only buy items I know I can keep working, and I only PAY CASH for the stuff, meaning there are no loan payments, no interest, I only spend the money on gear that I already have in the bank. As items pay themselves off, I re-invest in myself, buying more gear, but staying away from my 'principal' money that comes from paychecks. Kevin Zanit Kevin Zanit
  24. Sounds like a fluid head is a good choice, at least for some Kung Fu styles. The learning curve tends to be fairly steep with a gear head. That said, I played the drums for many many years, and thus am used to my hands doing different speeds at different times, so the learning curve on a gear head was very short and came fairly natural to me. If anything I need more work with fluid heads, I usually just use an operator if its a very fluid head heavy type of project.
  25. I think a lot of it depends on what the subject your filming is. Personally, I hate fluid heads for most things, I always try to use a gear head when I can because I personally do a much better job on the wheels. I'm just not that smooth with fluid heads to be honest. That said, on most of my music video work, the subject would be way too hard to deal with with a gear head, things moving too fast and focal lengths changing. Kevin Zanit
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