Brent J. Craig

As a camera assistant with 14 years experience, the Red Rails look awesome to me. We have never before had a simple way to balance a handheld camera for different lenses. The ability to stick accessories anywhere will be great too. Michael and Phil, if your crews are taking 1 hour to reconfigure your 35mm camera for different shooting modes they must be extremely, uh, "meticulous". I have never seen it take more than 15 minutes to switch from full-on studio/dolly/zoom mode to Steadicam or handheld. The AD's you work with must be much more patient than they are here. I don't see how a well-thought-out system of sliding rails could do anything but speed up the process.

I just don't understand the pricing for all these "HD" hard drives coming out. I can buy a 500 GB 3Gb/second SATA II drive for $278 here in Toronto. If a single drive wasn't fast enough to keep up with that data stream, you could string 3 together in a RAID configuration and have one and a half terabytes of storage for $834 in drive costs. I'm sure all the firestores and red drives of the world have some fancy electronics, but $$1000 for 80 gigs? You can't even buy 80 Gig drives where I shop for PC parts, they are so obsolete. Can someone shed some light on why they are giving us thimble-fuls of storage when we need buckets (or barrels)?!?

Breaking news... Film at eleven! My beloved Bolex started life as a news gathering camera. The photo studio that owned it would shoot a newsworthy event, process the film with hand cranks, and put it on the bus to make it to the TV station in the next town by eleven!

There are so many spelling mistakes in that article that I concur with the "they were drunk" analysis. Anyone who says "pan down" loses my respect, as in "You can see it with the Genesis camera, you can see Jupiter, and than pan down from Jupiter...". I hope he was misquoted. One pans left and right, and tilts up and down. A small issue, perhaps, but I have seen several experienced commercial crews snicker when a wanna-be director tells the DP to 'pan down'. (they never ask to tilt left or right, for some reason.)

Buy a Palm and install pCAM and pCINE They have interactive DOF charts, field of view, safe speeds, exposure compensation, macro, diopters, underwater focus, etc etc etc!

I agree with David completely. Watching someone try to pull focus whose real job is babysitting vectorscopes is a painful experience. What a real 1st AC brings to an HD job is the fact that we are used to working with film, and we treat HD like film. To most of us, HD is just another filmstock (albeit a rediculously complicated and finicky one that gives new meaning to the word 'compromise'). Since our DP's are being hired to make stuff look like film, the last thing they need is a video professional who knows how to make something look like 'The Price is Right' or CNN. Sure there are times when we need the video techs, just the same as we need the rental house techs for a film camera. Show me a scope-watcher who knows the exact millisecond to pull focus from the actor's left eye to their right and I will eat my words.

How many cameramen do you know whose lightmeter is held together by tape, or who drive a beat up car? If they won't drop the cash for those basic tools, why will they drop $1000 for a new, proprietary, unproven tool that does the same thing as Photoshop, which everyone already owns? As I understand it, even the $1000 version of Look Manager has some features disabled. If I listened to my Kodak rep right (it was one of those on-and-off converstaions between shots on a busy set) the $1k version doesn't let you email or print or something.

http://www.filmcrew.info/docs/16SR3_MAN_E.PDF

"How should prospective filmmakers go about becoming a filmmaker? First of all, realise that it's very hard, and that filmmaking is a gruelling and lonely business and, unless you are extremely lucky, badly paid as well. You had better really, really, really want to do it. Next you have to shoot something. Unless you are committed to long format exclusively, I suggest that you start out filmmaking for radio. It's still a relatively easy medium to get into because it pays so badly. But it is a great medium for filmmakers because it relies so much on the imagination. You will learn a tremendous amount from it, and maybe get some useful exposure. What qualities are needed by a filmmaker? A determination to keep at it. " They didn't even mention filmmaking for radio at film school. I want my money back! <_<

How experienced are you folks with using this gear? The only time I have ever seen an SR mag jam was when it was improperly loaded. There are only a few things you can do wrong: 1. winding the film on the takeup the wrong way; 2. not firmly attaching the film end to the takeup core; or 3. not seating the mag properly on the camera so the mag gear isn't meshing. Since the takeup is driven directly by a gear, it pretty much can't just stop taking up. I would be very careful about blaming the rental house for what could very well be lack of skill on your crew's part. A good relationship with your rental house is worth it's weight in gold and if you treat them right you will never regret it! (Right Mike, Jerry, Jan?)

The difference being that Microsoft, Adobe and Avid are software companies. It is my understanding that Kodak is a Film company and needs to do all it can to keep film alive. The business model for Look Manager should be more like the razors/razorblades scheme. Give away the razors for free and people will keep coming back for the blades. I though my Kodak rep was joking when he told me the pricing for Look Manager. I had always just assumed it would be free.

I agree with the others - the feed side of the mag was fogging during exposure. The frequency increases during the roll because the feed roll is getting smaller and rotating faster. It probably wouldn't have been an improperly mounted mag because that problem usually shows as fogging PLUS image unsteadiness or blurring (from the pressure plate not seating). You said it happened on 4 rolls. Are they from the same mag? Do you see larger fogged areas of film between shots? In other words, when the camera was sitting without rolling it would allow more fogging to happen on a small section of film.

Yes, since it takes the camera longer to get up to speed, you will see more flash frames at higher speeds. Some cameras, such as the Arri 435 Advanced and the 235 let you set the "ramp up" speed to HI or LO. LO gives you more flash frames. If you have a camera with an RCU (Arri 435, 535, 235, Arricam) set up a ramp between 1fps and 24 fps, but make sure it is a speed ramp only with no shutter compensation. You can use the dial on the RCU to ramp from 1fps (which would be over 4 stops overexposed) to 24fps to get lots of flash frames.

The Preston FIZ is the Mercedes of wireless lens control systems. In my experience, you can use it to control Focus, Iris and Zoom (hence FIZ) from up to 500 feet away, which is plenty of distance if the focus puller to be in a chase vehicle. There are other wireless focus systems, but none compare to the Preston in reliability, accuracy and freedom from interference. On car mount stuff where the car is driving around sometimes it can get so far away that your wireless is out of range. I have rolled entire mags before when I couldn't turn the camera off with the Preston. If it looks like that might happen, I usually find a way to ride inside the car. There's no better way to bond with your collegues than being crammed into the backseat of a car with yourself, the director and a maybe boom man while trying to stay below the seat back and out of the shot. I've had some interesting rides with stunt drivers on car commercials, and with the occasional rock star on music videos.

Clairmont has the 28-70 Century T3. We have used in on several commercials and like the look. It is a rebuilt stills lens and only weighs 3 pounds. It has Canon glass, I believe. Have also used the 17-35 Century T3. If I recall there are some zooms made by Hawke that are lightweight for handheld.

The Arri 3 is fine. How do you think they made all those action movies in the 70's and 80's? It's not gonna have the pin registration of a 435, but a well-maintained Arri 3 is surprisingly close. If you are overlaying CGI, I might push for a 435, but otherwise it's cool. In my experience, the Arri 3 often looks like crap on a registration test at 48 fps, but is great at all other speeds. (Something about harmonic vibrations.)

That's the Golden Rule! You'll be fine now that you know that!

If I recall, you need to have a licensed firearms person on set even if the weapons are non-functioning replicas.

Before 9/11 - shooting in a major international airport all we had to do was verify our names on a callsheet for full access (tarmac, roofs, elevator shafts, everything). We were allowed to carry tools, Leatherman knives, and carts full of gear with no inspections. After 9/11 - we could shoot outside the security zone with an escort. Period. We used a convention centre to pass as an airport. It was the most expensive location I have ever heard of! It was only a month or two after 911 and they made us rent every single square foot of the convention centre's exhibition space, even though we were only using the hallways. $$$32,000 to shoot in a location for 8 hours. W - O - W - ! Perhaps you can see why the multi-zillion dollar finale of "Friends" staged their airport scenes against a single-walled set!

Sounds like urban legend to me. When I heard it, the guy: -stopped at a pay phone to call the lab, cab took off -took the film in the camera truck, stopped at a bar/restaurant/his girlfriend's house, truck was stolen -took the film home because he didn't trust the lab's drop box. Overslept. Woke to phone calls from paniced producers. Give us names, shoots and dates and I will believe you.

I will help you translate this into Producer speak: "renting TFT monitors = less $$$ than the cost of a reshoot" :-) They do.

As Robert mentioned, LCD screens show no perceptible flicker on film. I believe one of the reasons LCD's were adopted so quickly in the real world is because people saw them on so many TV shows and movies. Of course the film crews used them because they were easy to shoot, but the public just thought they looked cool in the movies. I have noticed that the cold-cathode backlights in some (very few) LCD's flicker at the same frequency as fluorescents. If you stick to HMI safe speeds you should be fine in all cases. CRT monitors are another story. Your camera speed needs to be exactly half of their horizontal scan frequency. If the montior is at 75.000Hz, you need to shoot it at 37.500 Fps, and hold down the phase button until the roll bar moves off screen. If you have control over the computers with CRTs, you may be able to make them scan at 60Hz or (rarely) at 48Hz. At 60Hz you would shoot at 30fps, 48Hz at 24fps. How do you determine the scan frequency of the CRT? 1- Many monitors will display the frequency at which they are operating when you go into their setup menus. 2 - Windows machines let you set the scan frequency by following these steps: -right click on the desktop -select properties -select the settings tab -click advanced -select the monitor tab -there should be an option there called "screen refresh rate", choose a new rate and click OK. (Note that they say choosing a rate your monitor can't handle can fry the monitor - who knows if it's true?) Something else to watch out for: With more than one CRT, they will all be in different phases. Removing the roll bar from one will probably show the rollbar on another. The only way to do a room full of CRTs is to have a 24fps video tech come in and sync all the machines to the same source. That's expensive. Also note that with careful planning you can add orange to the color of the images you show on the screens to make them look right on Tungsten film, since monitors are daylight. Since fixing things in post has become so easy, more than half the time we shoot computers now the screens are either off or have greenscreen fabric taped over them. That may be an option in your case. Good luck with your project.

I don't believe in those microfibre "permanent" cleaning cloths. Where do you think the dirt goes when you wipe it off a lens? Does it magically disappear? Nope. It stays on the cloth waiting to scratch the next lens you clean. It's good ol' single-use Kimwipes and Zeiss lens cleaner for me. I've been assisting for 14 years and have tried everything - Panchro, Rosco, Kodak, etc. Nothing compares to Zeiss (if you can find it).

If they are Zeiss pads manufactured by Nanofilm, you have nothing to worry about. You have just found the best lens cleaner in the known universe!

It's a great little camera, but it's not for sync. I would say it is about the same noise level as a 435, but it sounds more like a motor than a camera. For some shots, I would think the noise of the 235 could blend into the background noise perhaps better than other MOS cameras but you're not going to get away with close up sync shots. Look for my full review of the 235, coming soon.