Tom Jensen

Don't let me influence you. Where do you live? That may be a good indicator of the path he should take. While my career didn't turn out exactly as I had hoped, it did have it's rewards. My point is that it is hard work and if you must be willing to put in the time and effort that I did. Maybe more. Definitely more. But if he wants to be a cinematographer, he needs to be here in LA. Film school is only four years and he will learn a great deal. My career path is just one of many. Wait until you hear from some others before you make up your mind.

I'm only joking but I may be onto something. I would also suggest to anybody wanting to get into film, get a skill so you can work during the lean times. I remember being on a set once and talking with a DP friend of mine. We were saying that this is what we had to do because it's all we know how to do. A lot of DPs have stores, shops, side jobs. The business is very cyclical.

I've known Bob's 1st Gregor Tavernor forever. He was prepping a movie once and he stepped out of the room for something so I decided to peak in his filter case. You what was in there? Every filter. If I'm not mistaken, the Pro-Mist is a relatively new filter and came out in the late 80's if not early 90's. http://www.tiffen.com/promist.htm Before that there were Fogs, Double Fogs, Super Frosts etc.

I also had a two year stretch where I was the lens tech at The Camera House. I rebuild Arri Primes, Speeds, Super Speeds, Ultra Primes, Cook primes and Zooms, Angenieux, Nikons, Cannons, Hawk etc. It was good experience but no upward mobility. TV was what killed me. I did a series in San Diego called NightMan. 65-70 hour work weeks for 7 months straight aged me about 10 years. I was all set for season two when they pulled the plug and went to Vancouver. Commercials were the best if you can stand the people. Hey, I'm a people person but where these advertising execs come from is beyond me. The last two jobs were in Fiji and the Caribbean. What an exit. I"m going to teach a class at The Learning Annex called "Breaking Out of the Film Business" for all those that just can't quit no matter how they try.

Production jobs you mean. There are rental houses, labs, and sales jobs that are 9-5. They just don't pay $200-$10,000 a day. ;)

I moved to Hollywood when I was 25. I started working at a rental house called Armistead Camera. Then a job opened up at Otto Nemenz so I worked there for two years. During that time I went to LA City College at night. I began work as a loader/second on music videos, mostly with Propoganda, Limelight, The Company, Cream Cheese, Mark Freedman, One Heart, etc. I worked my way up to first and probably worked on over a couple hundred music videos, commercials, documentaries, movies and PSA's. I shot some second unit a couple of movies and I operated for several years. The rental house gave me knowledge of the equipment, film school taught me about old movies and introduced me to people who were either in the business or wanted to be in the business. Working on videos gave me money and taught me about art and aesthetic, TV taught me to work fast, movies taught me how to make movies. If I had to do it all over, I probably would have bought an SR2 and just prostituted my self on every low budget shoot I could. Assisting kept me assisting. It's hard to break out of because it becomes you bread and butter. Plus, when you are on a set as an AC, you don't have a lot of time to do much except your job. You can see what the lights are doing but even working as an election will help in actually setting the lights and seeing how positioning a lamp works. What light works on a face. I will say you are right there in the action being next to the camera, with the director over one shoulder and the DP over the other and an actor right in front of you. Operating is great work if you can get it. DP'ing is tough because you have to have a great reel. I was going up for jobs against well know DPs who had great reels when I was working at Otto's. I remember meeting John Schwartzman when he was about 20 at the ASC awards. He was a guy that said, "I'm a DP. That's what I am, that's what I do." He never looked back and look where he is today. It won't work for everyone but it worked for him. There is no one road but you sure can get off the beaten track. Decide what you want to do and do it. I would say that for the money you spend on film school, you could shoot a film yourself. It might be different now. I got burnt out and as soon as I learned about exposure, video came in. Pay was going down more new comers were arriving. The hours were getting longer and the expectations of production were getting higher. So I got into real estate. Don't even asked how that worked out. :blink:

My specialty is drinking it, staying as far away from light as possible. Sorry I couldn't be more help.

Not by me. :blink: David is one of the smarter, more talented DP's I know. He has the unique ability to speak clearly and in easy to understand terms.

Right, I misread the question. He did say "foreground subject and a far background subject have the same number of footcandles hitting them." They would appear smaller, I know that much.

Well then that's a no brainer, MFA in Theatre. What do you want to teach? A bunch of hot chicks that want to be actresses or a bunch of geeky guys who want to talk about Star Wars?

much

Quit school and get a job on a film as a loader.

You will more than likely use Tungsten film to keep it on the cool side. Nightclub lights are usually background, accent lights. If you are lighting a face you will more than likely have tungsten lights to do that. Keep it simple, use Daylight film in the daylight.

I can't remember, was that the trick that caught fire or the one that worked?

a piece of black paper tape on the hot spot of the bulb.

depends on the fixture. Dimmers, ND on the shades, white streaks and tips on headlights. Experiment.

Dana Gonzales is one of the operators, he might know. I'll ask him and get back to you. Bob, we have both worked on Grand Turk, island of the zombies. When you look at the ocean, it's beautiful, just don't turn around. And, if you hold your breath long enough, the smell just goes away. :blink:

Thanks a lot Leo, now I can't get that song out of my head.

There is also a lab called RGB in Hollywood. It's either on Highland or LaBrea. You can buy movie film loaded in cartridges and they will print slides. This is the cheapest way to see what film will do.

To all the students, see what you can do with a little camera, a little film, a little foreground, a little background and a cute little kid. Oh yeah, and a little creativity. Good work.

You are exactly right. I had another brain fart. However with the longer lenses like Nikon and Canon you can just switch the mounts on the lens. My bad. Again. This is what happens when you've been put out to pasture.

Yes, you can manufacture a riser plate to adapt the sliding base plate. You can now use iris rods and a long lens with a bridge support. You can't however use primes with no support because of the rubber shock mount on the 16BL. Dick Cavdek who once worked at Otto Nemenz made mine. This might be his number 8185625700 Maybe Bob Ochwatt can as well. He is on Vose in North Hollywood. Ochwatt Tooling is the company name. While a 16bl is heavy, it is very easy to use on a Steadicam if you have an eyepiece videotap for the Steadicam monitor.

Also, I find that eye focusing is more accurate on lenses 50mm and tighter. I would also run a tape. A good test is to guess the distance before you run your tape.

I had a momentary lapse of brain function. 5:1 would be 2 and a half stops which is NOT contrasty. I started thinking in stops. 5 stops under key was what I meant to say would be very contrasty. What I also meant to say was shoot some tests and start with a 1:1 ratio and decrease the fill by one stop until you get to 5 stops under. Listen to David, don't listen to me unless you understand my jibberish.

Not any of the good songs. Let's see, there was "How do we kill the Von Trapp Family" and "What will we do with all these paintings." "Making Hitler Proud" was my favorite. ;) :o