Tom Jensen

I appreciate art as much as the next guy but I think realistically, cinematographers are more influenced by the work of their peers.

It sounds like Bergman and Welles met at a party and didn't get along. Citizen Kane was entertaining. Much of what Welles and Toland did were innovative for that time but have become common or even outdated by today's standards. We've seen everything in used in other films and it just looks ordinary to most viewers. I loved the story, the acting, the script, the music. It was all around a really good movie, if not great. Acting is a different beast now. Most actors go to acting school and many don't come from the theater.

I see that you are from Australia. I was working on a show in Fiji with a mostly Aussie/Kiwi crew. Around 4pm production stopped dead and the tea and snacks/sandwiches came out. Me and the DP looked at each other and were like WTF is this. Well needless to say for the rest of the shoot we looked forward to tea time because it did give everyone a moment to relax and recharge.

Actors get paid to talk, not extras. They should be quiet at all times. Is that practical? no. But they are there to work like everyone else and need to be reminded of that. I know it's difficult because they get bored and there is always a pretty girl to talk to.

rent a light meter or buy an older Spectra

Over exposing 2/3rd's of a stop really isn't a safety net to me. It's more like the true ISO of the film.

My cousin Peter told me a slightly humorous story when he worked for Mario. Mario came to the set one morning that had been lit the day before. He was about an hour late. He sat down in the auditorium where they were shooting and started to read the paper. Production gathered in what I like to call, "the circle of confusion" and wondered what to do. Everyone was whispering and nobody wanted to approach Mario and to tell him to get to work. Finally he dropped the newspaper and said, "Why are we waiting? Where are the actors? I was an hour late, I have been here for twenty minutes and you still aren't ready."

Camtec? Maybe?

Most people who want their reels critiqued come on here and ask for constructive criticism and often ask the to be brutally honest in their assessment. I don't recall Shelly coming here asking for anyone to critique Captain America. I wouldn't expect him to either.

I want to teach a class at the learning annex called "Breaking Out of Film." It's a lot harder than getting in.

I wouldn't use acetone on a slate either. On the rental discs? Sure.

Or sleep with a B movie actress and get in free.B)

Just look at the cost to make a movie. If a film is to be made, you have to raise money. How much money can you raise. You aren't going to make a good movie without a good story. So, let's say you have a good script and you need $15-20,000,000. Let's say you raise $7,000,000 and you have no more. Not everybody making a film gets the ideal budget they need to shoot a movie. What do you do? You may have to re-cast. You may have to change shooting formats. You may have to make location changes. Your major scenes may have to be cut. After all t his, one of your backers falls out and now you have $4,000,000. You have to cut all major actors but you can get Bruce Dern for a day. Now, you have to make major script changes. The cute trained dog is now out of the script entirely. Do you give up and say, "I can't make a movie for $4,000,000? You are confined by your budget. Not everyone gets funding for the$50,000,000 t0 $100,000,000. movie. To get there as a director, you have to have something in your resume that shows you can direct a film. And even if you do, there is no guarantee, you will ever get that job. If you limit yourself, to A movies, you will never get a film made. If we only made A movies, the amount of films made each year wold dwindle. Plus, t here is a market for b-movies. I forget the name of the event but I went a few years ago to a hotel in Santa Monica where film companies had rented rooms to sell their films for distribution all over the world and the b movies outnumbered the a movies like 20 to 1. B movies cannot be dismissed. They generate a lot of income.

That's basically what happened me. It just got to be such a mental struggle I gave up and committed myself to an insane asylum where I sit in a straight jacket all day. I type with my nose. Yes Bruce, David does have a very succinct way with words. It's a good quality and probably comes in handy when explaining to directors and producers "why" or "why not."

I saw Bigfoot once. He made a sound I would not want to hear twice.

Look up and to the right. See the Google or search bar? Type in Moviola Repair.

Allan Smithee was never embarrassed to put his name on bad movies and look how many he made.

Well since you agree with me, I will agree with you as well. I did forget to mention the actual marks on the barrel. They are extremely useful. Sometimes you have to mark the lens when you eye focus or the distances are between numbers. I marked it just in case I forgot the distance. You made a great point about having to move your eyes and head.

Acetone. On that note, I never used them. Too much room for error. Mark the lens. If your follow focus comes loose during a shot, you are screwed. I shouldn't say never because I have used them from time to time when necessary but as a general rule, I avoided them. A stabillo pencil was always my best friend. That or exostet (sp) tape.

Frame it well and listen to the director. No freelancing. Sometimes you may think you have a better shot but there is a chance that another camera has that shot already. I remember sitting in on the editing of a Gwen Stefani video and all the cameras had Gwen in a Closup form different angles. You should be on head phones and as long as you do what is asked, you should be OK.

You might want to become a producer, an actor or a director so someone can drive you around.

I like the rope better.

Never use a mounting bolt that is too long, you can severely damage the camera.

The best I can figure is 5254 color negative with and iso of 100. 47 replaced it in the mid to late 70's.

The first thing I do is look at the lens for dents, cuts, scratches missing paint on the marks. I physically move the iris ring and the focus ring to see if there are any tight spots, grinding of sand or debris, or anything out of the ordinary like a loose focus ring. I look through both sides for dust, water and grease, then I open and close the aperture to make sure the iris opens and closes or if there is a rogue leaf. I will then shake the lens and listen for loose elements. Sometimes the front element is loose and the retaining ring needs to be tightened. You will often hear the leafs when you shake it but loose glass sounds different. Check to make sure that a filter ring or an adapter ring screws onto the lens. Examine the mount to see if it is clean or gouged. Take a small screwdriver and check to see if the mounting screws are tight and or missing. Place the lens in the camera mount and make sure that the camera mount tightens and loosens freely. Set up a focus chart and tape off your distances like has already been mentioned. Fill the frame with the focus chart and make sure the chart is square to the camera and flat. focus on the center and make sure it is sharp. Now look in all four corners or the four quadrants and make sure they are the same or similar. They should be in focus but not always depending on the focal length. On a wide lens if the corners are out of focus they should be out evenly. If one corner is softer than the others, that is not a good sign. Have a tech look at it. Check for lens shift. If you change focus and the image moves, that is also a bad sign. Check for color aberrations. Look where black meets white and rack through the focus. If you see a green tinge on one side of sharp and a blue tinge on the other side of sharp, you have a color aberration. This is inherent in the lens and cannot normally be fixed but if it is bad, swap out the lens. The best way to test the lens is on a projector. If the lens tech will allow it, go for it. This is how you learn. Ask him if he will show you how to collimate the lens as well. Wide angle lenses are the most problematic. They have the greatest depth of filed but the least depth of focus. If the lenses are not spot on or within tolerances the whole image is soft. If the flange focal depth is off, it's the wide lenses that go bad first. Telephoto lenses are the opposite. Telephoto lenses have a smaller depth of field but have a larger depth of focus. If the flange focal distance on the camera is slightly out, you might still get acceptable images with a telephoto lens. Make sure the follow focus unit works with all the lenses. If the lens binds at all, move the follow focus arm slightly away from the lens and try it again. Sometimes the ring gets out of round. I'm sure there is more and If I think of anything, I will repost.