Mike Brennan

Ban unsigned Anonymous posts. Mike Brennan

Link to a test report. Anyone know exactly how impartial this organisation is, I see SanDisk is part of the group.... http://www.i3a.org/itip.html Mike Brennan

Digital media gets a green light through Xray and metal detectors. Anyone know exactly how impartial this organisation is.... http://www.i3a.org/itip.html Mike Brennan

Yes the Viper has more Pixels than the camera mentioned above... I understand Genesis to be striped, this is different to actually knowing I hasten to add! rgbrgbrgbrgbrgrbrgbrgrb There have been no hints as to the relationship of one line to the next though.... Mike Brennan

In the UK a f900/3 standard eyepiece, two zoom lenses, mattbox 9 and 14 inch monitor follow focus tripod batts, charts for $4k a week. How does this compare? Just had a call from a US production company that can get a varicam with one lens for $2.5k a week. Mike Brennan London

Made a doc years ago about how different types of rounds actually impact a person. We used a number of life size clay torsos to replicate the effect, using real rounds at a rifle range. Real rounds , a magnum, buckshot, french police 6 shot (six ball bearings in a shotgun) Ak47, 9mm. Pretty revolting stuff seeing the clay being torn away.... The weapons expert became so excited at the effect of the french police round (it splattered clay all over the place), that he swung around and faced us gun in hand, with a live round in the chamber. And he was an "expert". Mike Brennan

Lossless clones are possible using SDTI boards on HDCAM decks. Not many HDCAM decks have these boards. In London its about 1 deck in 20 at a guess! So be very carefull! Check that you are actually getting SDTI to SDTI I usually check the back of the machine. Mike Brennan

SR is 10 bit in all modes. Mike Brennan

Motion rending isn't an issue per se, one has to be careful that the added depth of field doesn't make verticals in the backgound too sharp. BBC will not accept Super 16mm for co production work. You more than likely had a serious problem with your camera assistant, not the backfocus. Once it gets to the TV or cinema dynamic range of picture is same as for film. Just that you have less room to manouver in post, but it is easier to do it and high key lighing for faces is a challenge. Good monitoring helps. Majority of sitcomes in states shot on HD, so Sony say anyway. Germany will have HD channel end of 2005, will they accept 16mm? Mike Brennan

Yes the info relates to adopting a traditional 35mm camera technique of working in features. The production cost benifits of less insurance, striking sets same day ect ect are not detailed. In respect of number of lights you need half the amount of light for same depth of field when using 2/3 inch digital cameras. In my view as more producers and crew become used to shooting digital an improved pre and post workflow will develop. Also benifits/disadvantages are size of budget dependant.. where compromises such as recording sound on camera have a bigger % impact on post budget for a $300k movie than for a $5m movie. Mike Brennan

4:4:4 wasn't available on the SR at that time either. Must be a way of recording 4:4:4 but calibrating and using "video" processing to monitor/judge what could be achieved in post? Mike Brennan

Agreed. The (lack) of vibrant look is down to the reduced colour pallett most ccd cameras have in my view, only 12bit A/D and 8 bit recording. But is this a big problem? Apparently not or Kodak would have produced a test to prove that the increased colour pallette of film affects the viewer:) Fortunatley for Sony our colour memory is very poor. The Genesis side by side test is interesting, have you seen it? Steven Poster says he couldn't tell the difference. However the subject matter in the test didn't reach into the depths of skin tone gradations where film excells.... The new Genesis will have 14bit AD which would help but judging from digital stills cameras 16 bit is the benchmark to get close to films tonal/colour range/gradation. Until then, as always has been the case, side by side comparisons from Sony have been few and far between. Mike Brennan

Perhaps ill fitting board. Heating the camera "made" the connection. Similar thing can happen on f900. Did it go to tape? Was it always in the same place on replay? Mike Brennan

No a focus puller wanting more depth of field and VFX prefering one format over the other are unrelated. VFX have a budget and script to work to to create a movie within a movie, and from the producers perspective can ruin a film if they can't deliver. So a producer will definitly listen to a VFX team! Sure some movies have enough money to please director, DP and VFX... most do not. Depth of field is a creative decision determined by DP, tempered by budget. Mike Brennan

Please be a little more explicit, how much longer than off the shelf f950s? Based on your previous inaccurate info I'd take this with a pinch of salt:) Where are you getting this info from? Mike Brennan

Saw this 42 inch display in a Sony road show in London. It is the best looking picture I have seen on a flatscreen. Current model is 60hz only, new production model will do both 50 and 60hz. It has ypbpr input, would love it if someone stateside could shoot a live picture into it and test different frame rates. LED illumination together with 1920x1080 pixels rocks. Samsung are also exploring LED illumination. Mike Brennan

All the effects guys I know in Soho say that they prefer working on HD. Lord of the Rings Compositors in a HD vs Film test, prefered HD, no intraframe movement makes cgi easier, random grain is replaced by fixed noise which is easier to deal with they said, pity for them the DP wanted to stay with film. By the way swaotc had keying problems caused by soft focus and the industry figuring out how to key HDCAM. "Sky Captain" is a more relevant and recent example of industry standard HDCAM bluescreen, shot with cameras that were not still under development, with a crew who learnt how to backfocus a lens before the shoot started and compositors who could draw on experience of others. Had it been recorded on 422 or 444 it would look a little better. Your good friends at ILM, after the statements about resolution ect, did they say which format they actually prefer to *work* on..... Mike Brennan

As far as i ma aware all f950s are/will be capable of long exposures. You mean sony have released boards for the HDW750p and HDW730S, not the HDW700... Mike Brennan

Hi Lone Dog, (you recently posted asking about your HD shoot) so if you want to reference a HD movie shot on the long end search out Rabbit on The Moon. T2.1 130mm (equals 340mm on 35mm) Mike Brennan

The very first HD stock shot I sold was to a prime time US eposodic that had never even used video before. Their response on seeing the shot was that it was "the prettiest stock shot they had ever bought". No one even commented that it was HD or HDCAM ect ect they just liked the shot in the edit because it looked good! They have since come back for more, one last week in fact..... Mike Brennan

Building of DI centers will also have something to do with turning film into digital media. A mate of mine is fixing (grain and scratch reduction) 20 martial arts movies for "the chinese" Also in this months Arri newsletter "As far as the unconditional replacement of 35mm film is concerned, Arri sees neither the technological basis, nor the economic viability today or in the foreseeable future" This was the tag line to their article on the development of their D20. Mike Brennan

Phil, I was reffering to musicals. As I said audio guys cringe at the thought of 25 to 24 speed change when it comes to music. Most things I shoot are at 25p and no one notices the 24p slow down, however not having seen or heard a musical shot at 25 and screened at 24 (far as I can recall) I'll take the advice of the audio guys who have to work in close proximity to musicians. Anyone think of a movie with significant music shot at 25p? Is it just that the audio pros wanting to keep the pitch correct or is there something about the sound characteristics of a cinema that make off speed sound more noticable than watching a movie on pal TV that is speeded up? Or are we more sensative to music that is played slowly than music that is speeded up? Mike Brennan

Yes I thought speed up was most common, but I read recently that someone was adding a frame, but hadn't noticed it in any US programmes. Interesting that musicals can get away with a speed up for a PAL TV release. Although shooting 25p and slowing down is very common for low budget movies shot on HD audio post houses cring at the suggestion of doing slow down and pitch correction if there is significant amount of music in a movie. So it begs the question, why don't we notice a 4% speed up on (PAL) TV when a 4% slow down (25p to 24fps) for cinema is deemed unacceptable. Mike Brennan

Well Panavision were starting from ground zero in respect to making lenses for 2/3 inch video cameras and they didn't have much time to experiment before SWAOC. I guess it would come down to testing, good quality prime then cropping vs optically challenged scope zoom with full height recording... The adapter is worth a try.. anyone tested it yet? Mike Brennan