Jim Hyslop

Well, it would help if you only asked once, and read the answers posted to the other time you asked the question. -- Jim

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I'm not so sure about that. From what I understand, it gets really complex at tax time if you work in several states. I have no direct experience on this, but I have heard stories from techs on touring stage productions. In addition to federal tax returns, you have to file tax returns in each state (and sometimes county) you've worked in. It may not be worth the hassle to become nomadic. -- Jim

What's the HBS board (aside from another forum to scan through and learn from/waste time on :-) -- Jim

This oughta stop the PAs from moving the marks.

No, just someone who's very frustrated with computer technical problems. Happens to me all the time :-) Glad you got it sorted out! -- Jim

No, I'm right there with you. -- Jim

It could, if James Cameron has anything to say about it Check out the Creative Screenwriting podcast featuring most of the screenwriters for the 10 Academy Award nominees. Cameron talks about "performance capture." They don't capture just the actor's motions, but they capture his entire performance. Cameron sees performance capture as being analogous to prosthetic makeup - the performance is still the actor's, but enhanced using the makeup. In CGI terms, the performance is still the actor's, but enhanced by CGI. So, yeah, in a few years Andy Serkis could get a Best Actor award for his performance of Gollum. I'm unconvinced of Cameron's argument, by the way, I just present it to add more fuel to this fire :-) -- Jim

I'm on the fence on this issue, but I think I see a big misconception you have about how CGI is created. Cartoons and CGI are different beasts. In cartoons, each frame (or every other frame if you're cheap) is drawn individually. CGI does involve deciding on the type of lens to use, the location and quality of the lighting, and yes, adding bounce lights where needed. Download a copy of Blender (www.blender.org) and experiment with it. Create (or get someone else to create) a basic 3D scene, and try lighting it. I think you'll get a much better appreciation of the craft of cinematography that does go into making a film like Avatar. -- Jim

Maybe the whole issue is moot, then :lol:

Well, you're right that there is a lens flare, but that's not what the OP was asking about. Here's a frame grab: The lens flare is on top of the actor's face. The reflections the OP is asking about are the specular highlights on the brick wall camera right. They don't start until about 5 seconds into the clip. -- Jim

OK, I finally had some time to sit down and work through the code. Your code actually does have linear complexity - the more frames there are, the more iterations your loops need to make. Here's the equivalent functionality from a C++ class I wrote. This function has constant complexity. I've added a couple of extra notes since this function is not in full context with the class declaration. void SMPTETimeCode::GetTimeValues( unsigned & hours, unsigned & minutes, unsigned & seconds, unsigned & frames ) const { unsigned int fps, framesAdjust=1; switch (mode_) { case FM_HD60: // 60i or 60p fps=60; framesAdjust=4; break; case FM_30nom: // nominal 30fps; NTSC (29.97) will set fractional_ to true. fps=30; framesAdjust=2; break; case FM_PAL: fps=25; break; case FM_Film: // Film, or HD 24i/p. fps=24; break; } // NOTE: frames_ is a member variable containing the number of frames elapsed since midnight. unsigned frameCount=frames_; // NOTE: fractional_ is a boolean member variable indicating if the frame rate is whole (false -> 24, 30, 60fps) // or fractional (true -> 23.976, 29.97, 59.94 fps) if ( fractional_ ) { unsigned wholeTens, partTens, wholeMins; //TODO: Determine the constants and drop pattern needed for 23.976 fps // Convert the frame count to the equivalent frame count for non-drop frame. // That way, we can just use the code at the end to calculate the time values. // To convert to the equivalent frame count in non-drop code, we have to add // 18 frames for every 10 minutes, plus 2 frames for every minute beyond a full // 10-minute mark (e.g. hh:32:ss;ff has 2 minutes beyond the ten-minute mark). // Find out how many full multiples of 10 minutes there are in this timecode. wholeTens= frameCount/17982; // partTens holds the number of frames left in the ten-minute block. The // maximum it can hold will be 9:59;29, since 17982 frames is 10:00;00. partTens = frameCount % 17982; // Each minute in a 10-minute block has 1798 frames, except the first // minute, which has 1800 frames. So, if we have more than two frames, // reduce the frame count by two so that we can simply divide by 1798 // to get the number of minutes in the block. if ( partTens > 2 ) partTens -= 2; wholeMins= partTens/1798; frameCount += ( wholeMins*2 + wholeTens * 18 ) * framesAdjust; } frames = frameCount % fps; frameCount /= fps; seconds = frameCount % 60; frameCount /= 60; minutes = frameCount %60; hours = frameCount / 60; } HTH (and apologies for taking this discussion into software development, not cinematography). Feel free to adapt and use this function if you want (that goes for anybody reading this message). -- Jim

Oops - sorry 'bout the double post.

Did you get a chance to measure the voltage? My first guess would be some really bad wiring job that's putting 240V through the outlet. If the battery charger and walkie talkie charger were both 120/240V units, they'd handle the excess no problem. -- Jim

Many years ago, I saw a production of a play called "B Movie: The Play". The opening sequence started in black & white. For what it's worth, I seem to recall the lighting had a distinct cyan tint to it, until the leading lady walked in and suddenly everything burst into colour. As Hal pointed out, the effect did require very careful coordination among all the departments. You may want to try the Stagecraft mailing list - there are a LOT of very experienced and knowledgeable stagecraft folk there. Sign-up instructions are at http://stagecraft.theprices.net/. -- Jim

Don't have to wait for the grandkids for this one: keeping the 29.97 frame rate in HD. They had a perfect opportunity to lose that PITA, but noooooo - they have to pervert the 30fps to 29.97. I really wish some smart engineers had stood their ground and said "No! Lose the fractional frame rate!" -- Jim

OK, this is kind of a silly question, but: why 83,999.99? Why not $84,000? At that price, what difference does a penny really make? :-) -- Jim

Brand is independent of formatting. You can always re-format a card to a different system. Format the card in the camera (after you've retrieved your footage, of course :lol: The camera will then format the card with whichever FAT system it likes best, and you should have no problems after that. Best to test it first, of course!! My EX1 automatically splits long takes into files that are roughly 3.5GB each, and stitches them back together into a single file when I capture them into Final Cut. -- Jim

Well, that and trying to fit the camera (and you!) through the opening....

Just to play Devil's Advocate - or maybe the producer said "Nope, no budget for a reshoot" so they left it in and hoped nobody would notice :-D -- Jim

+1 on that ROFL. Nice metaphor. Yes, I noticed that little hiccup in the camera speed too. Good suggestion on how to overcome it. -- Jim

My concern about that would be if you've lit the scene with heavy colour saturation. If the colourist used the slate, they'd remove all the saturation you put in. -- Jim

Oh, "I" see :-D In that case, I'd go with the one on the right. -- Jim

I think it depends on how open-minded the actor is. Just because a character says something does not mean the actor, or the screenwriter who has created that character, agrees with what the character says. The difficulty, of course, is convincing The Masses that "the actor is not the same as the character" (which is why I hate ads that state "[big Name Actor] IS [character name]" - no, [big Name Actor] PORTRAYS [character name] - there is a huge difference). But that's another rant for another day :-) I think other challenging situations would be a female Muslim actress who had to play a scene in which she showed her hair, or a Sikh actor who had to remove his turban. In those (admittedly hypothetical) situations, you might want to treat the scene as if it were a nude scene - closed set, minimal crew, etc. -- Jim

Nice work. Was the vignetting an artifact of the Letus, or did you apply it in post?