Kyle Geerkens

Hey, I would suggest interning with Rogers Cable. theyre always looking for free help in Toronto. I work for a commercial production company freelance, but you really need to meet some PM's to get any work in that. I doubt CBC is a viable option.... being locked out right now, and also, their union tries to prevent free labour from joining. It's not a completely dead end, but you really ahev to put yourself out there to get in with CBC right now. and wait till the Lockout ends of course.

As far as i've ever known, any and all of those (properly callibrated of course) will be exactly what you need.

I will post what i have done, thanks to all suggestions. My hands aren't tied by any agency luckily. But they are tied by the beekeeper. He wants it to be long, but finished quickly. Therefore I'm going to talk to him about what hes looking for in terms of imagery. He may just wast the basics, and thats what I'll give him (with my own touch in there to stave off boredom haha) Because he's an old employer of mine, I have given him a Huge deal on my rate, so im also tied up by trying to equip myself for the least money possible. Any suggestions of drawsing up a contract for something llike this? he wants like 10-15 mins for this instructional video. But it will be a lot of easy shots all in one place with coverage so It wont take way too long. right now ive quoted my services at 1000 for one day of shooting and the final edit. Kyle

hi, sorry, Ya that was a typo, i was thinking about 750 tungstens that i have available to use too. Youre right it is the 575 hmi. I also agree, the 400 is crap. haha. I'm just trying to avoid rental as much as possible if I can find stuff that's availbale freely to me. Any suggestions on the lighting? Thanks again

I'm shooting a relatively simple instuctional video for a beekeeping product this month. I'm doing it for peanuts because it's a small company that needs some promotional material. I'll be shooting on either the dvx100A or a Panasonic dvcpro 400 camera. Not sure which yet. Any suggestions? I'm leaning towards the dvx. Most (or all)of this video will be outside in a bee field. I have access to some power from the warehouse with a lot of extension cables, but will be trying to keep it minimalistic for time and money issues. Now I'm thinking this will be a sunny day look, so whether the sun is out or not, I'll key with a 750hmi through half white diffusion to soften the shadows slightly, and keep a nice shallow DOF to make sure the subject stands out. I've seen so many things like this that look very flat, so I'm trying to avoid this obviously, I was going to warm up the actor's face with the same hmi light with 1/4 CTO. I'd love some suggestions to make this stand out more, is there any use in having any kicker in broad daylight, will it even be noticeable? Also when I go in for coverage within the hives, any suggestions on lighting that to eliminate shadows as much as possible. As most of you can imagine, an open beehive, has 8 verticle trays that will wreck havoc with shadwos peering down into the box itself. I hope this makes sense, Thanks for any input.

At me school we have a reasonalble supply of HD and SD equipment. If you're on the ball and keep on top of your schedule. you have NO problem's getting the equipment you need. Also we have quite good quality cameras to use in most cases. (lighting is another story, but you have to spend to get what you want really) If you're slow deciding what you want, you're screwed, and them's tyhe breaks. Know your equipment, know your image, and know exactly what you require to achieve that image.

Thanks! Thats very good information to know. I love this forum.

That did pretty much answer my question thanks. i thought that by maintaining a constant Fstop on the lens, it would have too much impact on depth of field creativity. I guess i was wrong. so if you mainatin say 2.8 for the whole thing, how would you control your exposure for the most part. repositioning lights? shutter speed? kyle

thanks Chris, I was also wondering about not just single scene continuity, but also throughout the entire film. thanks again

Hi, I was talking with someone the other day and he suggested that he head that there was a general rule of thumb when shooting to maintain a cnstant 'look' throughout a film. I know this question sounds vague, but I was hoping someone could clear it up for me. There are so many variables when lighting to achieve a desired look such as aperature, light intensity, shutter speed etc... My friend suggested that when using your light meter if you alaway set your F-stop to a constant throughout every scene it will maintain a steady visual feel throughout? is this correct or is there something else? If this makes no sense , sorry. Thanks

I have Brown's "cinematography" and it has helped me so much. it's an easy read, and very precise too. I like having the colour images to reference. It helps a lot.

I really don't think this is a mature opinion. no offence intended. Of course there are many advantages to shooting on Film... especially for the DP's options, and colour and exposure ranges. However, to say that because you 'thought' it looked like video you wouldn't value it, sounds like you've been brainwashed into believing that life is "go film or go home". Personally i dont think this is the case, I shoot a lot of HD, and to hear someone say they wont respect my work is saddening.

this may soujd dumb, but I've never heard of the circle of confusion before. could someone please briefly explain? Have i missed a huge idea all my life?

THe Bar scene was all artificial lighting. Quite complex as a matter of fact (for me) I had to block out a HUGE 20x20 skylight next to the bar, then went to work on evening out the bar. The colour was dialed out in the camera to make a dull image to sybloize how boring the patron's life is without his new beer. The interviews were positioned in a doorway with a bedroom behind. this gave me enough room to allow for a good 10 feet behind the subject the kicker was a repositioned practical lightoff camera with one key and a wash over the bg to make it uniform. you can see on one of the interviews that the background is washed out except for a couple normal coloured foreground elements. does this work for you?

Thanks for the input everyone, can you elaborate on this a little more? What do you mean that it would give it more shape by being farther away from the camera. Thanks

SO i wanted to folow up on this thread. Someone said I should use dust instead of smoke for low budget stuff. Is it possible to achieve what i tried to do with dust? www.rkto.com might be a dumb question, but i didnt think it would work. Keep in mind, that beacuse of the fire alarm, we only got one try at this shot.

So here's my dilemma... I'm looking to buy a camera. I've shot with a vast variety of equipment, but have not yet used the SOny Fx1 or z1. I always rent or borrow. So In this purchase, I'm trying to figure out if it's worth my money to get this cam now. or are there enough bugs that I would be kikcing myself in a year when something stellar comes out. I also would like to buy the pan. dvx100 as I have used it before and loved it. However, I'm starting to feel like SD is over. I can't justify buying one no matter how much i love it. should I wait or should i go for it? Is SD as dead as I feel?

www.rkto.com sorry.... clearly I'm not here for my typing skills.

I want to purchase an incident meter and a color temp meter. I would also like to get them used. Does anyone have any they perhaps have recently replaced and are still in fine working condition? Thanks

I have been shooting a lot of DV interviews recently, and I think I have some good separation between bg and subject. I'd reaally like to know what everyone thinks of this small reel. I know it's not much, but feedback would be appreciated. Thanks

When I watched the movie a while ago I noticed that in conversation, in one dialogue in particular. the two frames have negative nose room.... I con't remember if the whole thing was done this was, but I was discussing with a friend how i didn't think Clint had anything to do with that decision. Does anyone know what role Eastwood takes as Director? Does he concentrate on talent, or does he touch the shot as well?

Requiem For a Dream -Dir. DArren arronovski- has a decent behind the scenes

I was shooting a spec beer commercial a couple weeks ago and used smoke pouring from a doorway to catch spilled HMI light from behind two beautiful ladies. This being to silhouette the girls and have a smoky streaky light behind them and emerging around them. It ended up looking spectacular!!!!!!!.......... until the fire alarm went off after 3 takes and the fire trucks showed up at the bar I was shooting at (while it was occupied on other floors)and I had to use some SERIOUS damage control techniques to finish the shoot! The smoke machine was pretty big (Red Devil it's called), but I suggest you be wary of that when using smoke indoors. I thought the artificial smoke didnt affect alarms.... Boy was I wrong...

Hi, I've just finished shooting a doc. Many hours of tape stock involved. Unfortunately, in our haste we allowed for some broken time-code on the tapes. (NOT GOOD!) Also, I'm forced to capture on a PC and then transfer to a MAC (with file conversion)if i capture straight from my DVC PRo Masters. I'm thinking of dubbing everything to mini dv so i can capture straight to FCP. 2 questions: How bad is the loss in compression when I transfer? and If I transfer to mini dv, does Time-code reset or can i carry over my old broken timecode. (this is important as this is a newly realized compatibility issue, and many transcriptions are already done) I figure the time lost in manual capture is much less than the time lost in re-transribing. Sorry, I know this is not a post forum, but I need advice ASAP and dont know where else to turn. I swear by you guys! Thanks

I just shot with the Varicam. I was very impressed with the image. My beef with it, lies in the post limitations for me. I shot most at 24 fps and then some at 60 fps. Apparently I can only edit online because of the fram rate conversion, and only using firewire capturing. All the lliterature I've seen says I pretty much have to use the Panasonic 1200A deck to capture. And this is not possible in the online suites available to me. Overall though I had ZERO issues with the camera itself. Painted an amazing scene with it.