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Mei Lewis

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Everything posted by Mei Lewis

  1. What counts as a 'filmmaker'? Most people on most films of any size don't make the whole film themselves, so there *is no filmmaker* for most films. Are directors frustrated filmmakers?
  2. That looks like the perspective of a child because the camera is low and looking up at people, not because it's a wide angle.
  3. I fully understand the need for a whole system change to support AF. Technology and people would need to change. It's not just a matter of a different lens or camera body. And I understand why focus on cinema cameras is so different/lacking currently. I'm not saying that AF is better than MF or that AF removes the need for a skilled person making dedicated focus decisions. I think manual focus is great and I use it 80% of the time, and it will always be humans who decide *what* to focus on at any given time. I'm saying that: Skilled operator using AF + MF > Skilled operator using MF alone. And I'm positing that the advantages of advanced auto focus systems (used in combination with manual focus) are so large that their eventual adoption by cinema cameras is inevitable. Those are advantages in terms of quality (accuracy), cost (potentially fewer delays/retakes caused by focus issues, and potentially lower skill requirements meaning lower staff costs) and creativity (new possibilities). There's also an easy technological path to get there. Sony could make an e-mount version of Venice, use their excellent focus software from their mirrorless and FS/FX series cameras, and rehouse their range of prime stills lenses. Canon are in a similar position. Panasonic also probably have all the resources they need to beuild a system, but perhaps not the market position. Those three companies also have lots of lower end equipment that the next generation of film makers are coming up on, learning to love, and learning to exploit the strengths of.
  4. As I understand stereo photography, the inter-lens distance acts like the viewer's inter-occular distance. Close lenses make it seem like the viewer has eyes that are close together and the viewer is small, and widely separated lenses make it feel like the viewer is large. I'm not so clear on why different angles of view would imply different sizes though. Perhaps a wider lens tends to get used closer, which makes the subject seem larger and therefore the viewer smaller?
  5. A well-rounded focus puller nowadays should be good at both the old measuring/guessing distances method and pulling from a monitor. There are situations that favour both. Additionally, they should be learning how best to use the various types of autofocus that are appearing in non-cinema cameras like the A7S3, FS6 and various Canon cameras - this will filter up to the cinema cameras eventually. Using autofocus properly and in combination with manual methods is a real skill, and it can do things that are pretty much impossible with solely manual methods. As resolutions increase, focus is is going to get more and more critical.
  6. What drone is it shot with? Perhaps it's in an auto exposure mode and that is fluctuating?
  7. Over the various lockdowns I spent several nights out under the stars doing astrophotography. I went out in full daylight, and waited many hours until the darkest part of the night, with no artificial light. It really is amazing how much your eyes adapt over that time, and what night actually looks like to the human eye when fully adapted, especially under a full moon.
  8. You were right! We watched it together but I stopped it half way through because it was getting very late, and the next day she asked if she could finish watching it. That's very strange for my mum! Sorry I've been away for a while. I actually had a lot of notes I made on this film, but I've been too busy with work the last 7 days or so to do anything. Will post again later. You liked the film then?
  9. Not yet - my mum is staying and I don’t thi k she’d enjoy it! Planning to watch tomorrow when she’s gone to bed.
  10. Does anyone know the name of the photographer that Matthew Libatique referenced in his episode? I'll trawl through the episode again if I need to, but if someone knows then thanks.
  11. Here goes then: Film of the Month Club 2021 – Schedule January Sound of Metal imdb / trailer / Amazon Prime US UK "A heavy-metal drummer's life is thrown into freefall when he begins to lose his hearing." February Dogtooth imdb / trailer / Amazon UK US "Three teenagers live isolated, without leaving their house, because their over-protective parents say they can only leave when their dogtooth falls out." March Woody Allen Film (Phil to decide which) imdb / Woody Allen montage “My one regret in life is that I am not someone else.” April – December TBC
  12. Sound of Metal is also on my list of things to see. ?
  13. That's me out then! --- I'd already come to pretty much the same conclusions.
  14. Satsuki's photos all have the subject looking straight at camera. The direction the subject is looking can make a big difference as to what is the best lighting. In narrative it's more common for characters to look off camera, and in that situation a light further around to the side can work better.
  15. A couple of other things you can try: Use a smaller light source in closer. If you bring a smaller light source close enough that it subtends the same angle as the larger one did, it won't be any harder on the subject, but light will fall off more quickly because if the inverse square law, so you can direct it more at where you want it to fall and away from where you don't want it (the far side of the face). Use a different sort of light modifier It may be that your diffusion frame setup is bouncing light about the room and filling in where you don't want on the subject. A gridded soft box can be equally soft, but only go where you want it to. You might try a beauty dish too, I've heard them described as a "soft hard light source" - that won't help much in visualising but if you search for examples you'll see what it means.
  16. To judge results fairly you have to compare them to the alternative. In this situation, what would the results have been for the extremely dedicated individuals if if they had spent £30,000 and two years of their lives in some other way trying to become cinematographers? (I'm saying this as someone who still might consider going to the NFTS. That's why I was looking at their site It's the only place in the UK anyone has ever said is any good. Did you go there Stuart?)
  17. I think the above can be taken as a sort of academic view of what 'cinematography' is. As I look at what the course covers I compare it to what's been said above on this discussion; what I think are the skills needed now, or the skills I'd need to progress; and I think about the aspects they don't cover. I think the course aligns with some of the more old school views on this forum, but it's missing a lot of obvious modern stuff.
  18. A lot of the discussion above has been about what a cinematographer needs to know, or should know. As a point of reference, here is the course outline for the Cinematography 'Master of Arts' qualification at the National Film and Television School in the UK: Course Outline MA Cinematography They cover: Set protocol Exposure, how to light sets and on location. Lighting for green screen. Rear projection. 'Active looking' - light, movement, story, imagination. Animation (it's not clear to me what this is about. DoPing animation?) Some students get to do some documentary work. Working on (spec?) commercials. Shooting a few experimental 60 second films. Working with a director on scenes. Using a small amount of 16mm and 35mm film and the first year film is shot on 16mm film. Entering a short film competition. Pitching projects, meeting agents, tax etc. The course page is here: https://nfts.co.uk/cinematography It costs about £30,000 (equivalent to about $41,000) in fees alone to do the two year course.
  19. It's getting towards then end of January now, so how about we get started? Let's pick a movie to watch over the next week or so. I think that's a really great idea, but I don't know how to do a poll on here, so perhaps we do a few one-offs and then work out the poll thing. Suggestions: I'll add these to the list: 7 - Dogtooth https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1379182/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 8 - Capernaum https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8267604/ 9 - Shawshank Redemption (been meaning to rewatch) If someone has a strong preference let's go with that. If not, then someone please click this link RANDOM NUMBER BETWEEN 1 AND 9 and we'll get a number telling us what to watch. I can create a zoom meeting and post the link here in a week's time? Still not sorted a date time for the actual meeting. I'm fairly free most evenings/weekends at the moment.
  20. You also have to be _more_ knowledgeable in many other ways. Cinematographers now potentially have most of the control (and responsibility) that used to be taken by the film manufacturers over how light is converted into recorded colour values. But they need to know about LUTs, noise, dynamic range and maximising analogue to digital conversions (and therefore discrete binary representations of continuously variable analogue values) in a way than previous generations didn’t. To be fully competent nowadays they also need to be able to setup and balance a gimbal, fly a drone, use apps to wirelessly control lighting, understand autofocus modes, work with log footage, understand in-camera stabilisation, know about file backups and transfers, card read speeds, bit depth, many more types of light source... the list endless because it grows every year And they are competing with everyone who can afford a camera, not just those who happened to have a family member in the business, were rich enough to afford film stock, or were lucky enough to get into film school.
  21. After about 10 days learning and 2 days working on it, this is the first thing I've made inside Unreal Engine. Next step is to learn how to do mirrors. Then human figures, movement, acting...
  22. Screens themselves have their own refresh rates, and I believe that they are not always the same as what is being shot. E.g. if you're shooting at 100fps the monitor might only be displaying at 25Hz, and not showing you 3 out of every 4 frames. It might be that the frames you are seeing are all the same brightness, so no flickering, but those frames in between are a different brightness, so when you playback slowed down to 25fps back at base it flickers. Don't think that's what's happening here though.
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