Jose Figueroa Baez

I was just watching Rachel Getting Married and I thought it was a really great piece. Te audacity of the filmmakers involved really surprised me. The film is shot on a Sony HDW-F900R in a sort of documentary style. You dont feel like you're watching a movie. They use things like a wedding rehearsal dinner, where there are usually people with camcorders, to blatantly show the cameras that are shooting the scene. I thought it was a really interesting way to approach a scene. Also the way the shots flow, its a combination of reality tv with documentary filmmaking that works amazingly with the story. You are there, these are your neighbors or your distant family perhaps. Instead of being as lazy as something like Cloverfield, this one you can actually watch without barfing, yet attains the same feel of rough, amateurish filmmaking. I just thougt that this is an example of a very well planned small movie that doesnt necesarily have the big budget production value that many cinematographers enjoy. It proves it is alright to bend the rules every once in a while, of course when the script calls for it.

A camera that can handle a 35mm lens such as the red, will give you the pure image quality that the lens provides. The 35mm adaptors are simply trying to mimick it. They also eat up a lot of light through prisms that degrade the image to give it a more filmic lok, not to mention flip it around for the monitor. They are cumbresome and tricky to work with but the image quality is much better than witht he camera's on board lens. Remember that depth of field is tied also to the size of your frame. Just like 16mm has less DOP than a 35mm, a 2/3" chip can never compare to the super 35mm chip size of a red camera. This is what makes it superior to the rest of the digital cameras out there.

I finally finished getting all the material I needed so here I send out the sheep among thr wolves. Comments are greatly appreciated. http://vimeo.com/3390287

I have been a big fan of both films for a long time. The look on both films is very similar, of course this might be because they had the same director and DP, Alex Proyas and Dariusz Wolski. The think is I have always wondered how they achieved the washed out, high contrast look the films have, almost all the color is washed out of the scenes. How much of it is post, how much of it is on set lighting, how much is film processing? Notice how the films are very contrasty yet they dont blow out the highlights like in most recent action films. It almost reminds me of something Conrad Hall would do, like in Road to Perdition, but not as soft, sharper edges on the light.

I have worked with both KinoFlos and Mole's Biax "Molescent" banks. I liked the Biax a lot, I thought it was an awesome piece of equipment. The thing is everywhere I go, I see Kinos. I just wanted to know how well tested are the Biax banks on set out there where it counts. Mole makes most of the stuff we use so, I don't think they would fail miserably with a fluorescent.

I graduate Full Sail next month. I know that the school is pretty well ranked among certain circles, and from my experience I can confidently say this is a great school. I am just wondering, how well recieved or how does Full Sail rank out in the west and in bigger markets than Florida and surrounding states.

If moving out is not a problem, I can suggest Full Sail University in Winter Prak, FL. They own LAFS and their program is amazing. Its not all peaches and cream though. It is very expensive and the hours are killers, their labs run anytime on the 24 hr day. The good things, all that money pays for absolutely everything, from books to film stock, tapes, a macbook pro laptop with all kinds of good software and all the training. You learn from people that know their stuff and if you dedicate yourself you can get a lot out of the school. Check it out and see if it might be an option.

I had a similar situation a few months ago doing a short school project. What I ended up doing was using bounced light to fill my main character after the room was already lit. I had a backlight giving an edge and used bounce to fill in his face using the same light. I also used fluorscent lighting in other shots where I didnt have a good source to bounce from. I would bring in the light for him specifically while flagging it off the rest of the set in order to preserve my original set up. I am no big shot professional but that worked for me hopefuly it helps you too.

This is totally true. I was pulling focus on my first S16 project at school and had this super dificult shot pulling in from about 9ft to about 10 inches off the actress's face. I must have done that shot 45 times, we took it 3 times out of those, but these "trials by fire" do come in handy in honing ur skills. If you think you are ready, go for it, but if yout think you need some more practice, you should really think about what you throw yourself into. Best of luck.

So, how do we learn about this sorts of events. I've been to the ASC website regularly and I hadn't seen it. Where do I read about these open house, I would love to attend one. Like David said, it's a great place for us starting out to learn and network.

In terms of the light design, I would suggest doing pockets of light and shadow throughout your shots, adding to the mystery of your location, let it work for you by using the trees to cut ur light. Plan all your shots all to a T, know exactly whats on each of your compositions, that way you can reuse the same lights you used on a previous shot to light another. Economy is everything on strapped budget. In terms of equipment, work lights work pretty good on a low budget. You can get a couple of 1k work lights at your local hardware store. Another really good little pieace of equipment are these small clip on cone lights. I understand they can handle bulbs up to 220 watts. You can buy prefrosted bulbs and there you have your fill light for your characters. Another good thing you can use for fill is buyng small fluorescent desk lights or shop lights from the hardware store and hold them up to your tallent. Most of these come with the cable endings to be installed in a house but you can buy a piece of extension cord and an Edison plug and make your own. Make sure you get tungsten balanced fluorescents, the major hardare stores like Home Depot and Lowes have them. If you want some moonlight in your shots or merely mix up some color, you can buy CTB or Party Gels from places like filmtools.com or maybe even get them from a local rental house that sells expendables. Good luck with your shoot.

Thats what I meant, being a trainee on either camera or electric department. I guess I'll just have to work my way up the ladder. I really enjoy gripping aside from doing camera work so, I guess I have more than one option. Thanks for advice.

Thank you for the suggestion. I will look into it. Most of the work I've been applying to is to be a PA, just get on set, and from there try and slowly shift to the camera dept. doing anything from coffee to wrangling cable and cases; I've done it before so I don't mind.

I have been hearing for a while about the old trainee or apprenticeship system where you would be under the tutelage of a DP. I have been reading around and I haven't been able to find something like that that is still available for people like me who are trying to to begin their journey to becoming a cinematographer. I am wondering if someone still offers this kind of service and if so, what would be the process of applying. Any help would be appreciated.

On the Red website, Wanted and Jumper were posted as being shot on red. From what I understand, there were certain scenes, such as the viper chase sequence in Wanted, that were shot on Red. Go to their website and check out the "Shot on Red" section.

How about Che, the most overlooked film of this year. It was completely shot on Red One. I think Steven Soderbergh should be apreciated for the work he did in this film, plus having the stones to break ground on a new technology that Hollywood seems to be afraid to get into, although other mediums seem to be embracing (musci videos, commercials).