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Matthew Kane

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  1. Matthew Kane
    It's not difficult if you follow directions well and use a reliable source of information. The classic mistake with brake pads is not repressurizing them immediately after installation, which leads to a few moments of abject terror when the first few pumps on the brakes produce no result while you're rolling down the street (or god forbid, the freeway). That's one of those little details that often doesn't make it into repair manuals. I had to do alot of my own repairs when I first started freelancing to save money, and suffered no major disasters. But I'd still suggest you get an experienced friend to do it with you first. Strikes me as one of those "if you have to ask, the answer is no" kind of questions.
  2. Matthew Kane
    Depends on the vehicle and which component you want to replace. If you're not mechanically inclined, the brakes system is not the place to start learning. Be comfortable with basic maintenance tasks before advancing, and get help from an experienced friend if you can.
  3. Matthew Kane
    Check the current edition of the American Cinematographer's Manual for the textbook definition and charts for the Super35 format. When I was shooting 16mm in college (and framing through a dim, fuzzy optical viewfinder) I consulted the charts occasionally to find a hyperfocal distance between two subjects. Can't say I or anyone else I know has actually used these charts professionally since then. This would strike me as a pretty silly assignment, except for the fact that it's forcing you to research the topic and ask some questions.
  4. Matthew Kane
    The Set Lighting Technician's Handbook is a must read. If you buy it, you'll reference it throughout your career. Some of it will probably go over your head at first, but it is a good way to prepare for bigger jobs. I remember that the chapter on DMX controlled lighting seemed very mysterious to me at first, but after I started working with it more, I was able to go back to the book and absorb more. If you can get on bigger commercials or features, you'll learn very quickly, better than any workshop. Observe, be helpful and people will be more likely to show you how to do what they do. Be honest if you don't know how to do something--"fake it til you make it" is not applicable to the set lighting or grip departments. Rentals houses are a great resource. I stopped in to Lights On in KC while on a road gig and everyone was very welcoming. They may be able to refer you to gaffers and key grips in the area. The IATSE local in your area may offer safety training or certification on aerial lifts to members. Learning from the books can give you a useful foundation, and it's wise to reference another source of info (even experienced technicians can form bad habits through lack of practice). As for specific lighting techniques and setups--you gotta learn by doing and observing the real thing. Knowing how the equipment works is pretty straight forward, but learning to anticipate setups, work ahead, and solve problems as they crop up (ie, how do I rig a speed rail under that HVAC conduit without taking all day about it) is the hard part.
  5. Matthew Kane
    Label everything and check through the kit when it's returned. Let your clients know immediately if something is missing, and that the replacement cost of the missing item will be on the invoice (this also gives them a chance to find it in case it was just mislaid). Consider subrenting the kit through a local rental house. In my experience, people don't go hunting online to find a single piece of equipment--they'll want to rent their dolly from the same place they're getting lighting equipment or camera gear. Dana dollies are common enough that most cities with a rental shop can source them. Usually rental houses will take 10-30% of the rental fee, and pay you the rest. This also saves you the hassle of billing, processing credit cards, etc. Keeping the wheels clean is the most important part. Don't set rubber skate wheels on the ground. Everything else is pretty sturdy. Consider setting aside some money for replacement parts--as far as I know, no one has yet figured out a formula to stop people from abusing rental equipment. I've been told silicon lubricant is the thing to use for stands. Some people use a short tripod case to carry the stands and protect them from dirt and moisture.
  6. Matthew Kane
    By professional, I just meant paid work. Or even "freebies" of good quality that achieved some visibility. You just don't want to try to pad your resume with student films or wedding video or something. I don't distinguish between union and non union work on my resume. If you're an IATSE member, go to meetings and network that way, and pay attention to your local's rules with regards to accepting non union work.
  7. Matthew Kane
    Swiveliers could be handy, assuming those cans have a regular medium base. You can drop down from the socket and replace the bulb with an incandescent mushroom bulb that can be focused on the action as you like. Perhaps it'd look nice to swivel some of the bulbs to light the wall, rather than straight down. If you use the practicals this way, a selection of par38 or par20 bulbs (flood, spot, etc) would be useful. LED tubes (ie Quasar Science tubes) are a cheap rental, and can be stuck to the ceiling with zip ties or tucked above the drop ceiling tiles (or just taped to the ceiling--I can't tell if that's a drop ceiling or not). You can power them from a pignose adapter. If you're shooting a lot of improvised handheld shots, with unrehearsed blocking, where any part of the room could be in the scene at any time... just replace the bulbs with something you like, and take out bulbs as needed to to increase contrast on the camera side. That kind of camera work calls for a looser approach.
  8. Matthew Kane
    Shame there's no way to know for sure. It'd be interesting to troubleshoot, but usually when I have these issues, there's no time for anything but swapping in a new unit or fixing it in camera like you did. It could even have been a damaged head cable I suppose. @phil, modern HMI gear can do amazing things, but not even a Ferrari works right if an important part is damaged or you're working outside the operating specs.
  9. Matthew Kane
    Watching films is a great way to absorb the style of a given period. Is there a particular style you want to replicate? Don't overthink it too much--you can see from any screengrab where they placed the fixtures, and a lot of the techniques they pioneered have become cliches of studio lighting today. If we're talking about golden age hollywood, they often used the direct light of a fresnel lamp, rather than bouncing or pushing it through dense diffusions. It can be quite difficult to replicate that look on location today, without the luxury of wild walls or an overhead studio grid. You'll notice even in glamour photos of actresses that the shadows under their nose and cheekbones are often quite sharp. Art direction, makeup, and camera work also have a lot to do with the look, maybe even more than particular lighting techniques. You can get a "soft" lighting effect by carefully balancing two hard sources, with one wrapping around to the camera side of the scene. A large fresnel lamp has a certain quality of light that can often be approximated with a light diffusion like opal frost in front of a smaller head (like a baby or junior).
  10. Matthew Kane
    I'm skeptical. Seems like a lot of marketing copy, and while I appreciate how No Film School usually presents a great sample of information, they tend to turn their hype machine into overdrive around NAB. Having enough light is rarely an issue. You don't use an 18k HMI because you need all that light to expose an image--you use it to keep the lighting consistent in a scene that might be shot in pieces hours or weeks apart. And shooting under ambient streetlight at night is already doable--and only gets harder if your focus puller has to follow focus wide open on a full frame sensor.
  11. Matthew Kane
    If your intent is to create a contrast between two looks, perhaps the "unheightened" footage should be knocked down a little (desaturated or otherwise made a little more "boring") to accentuate the change. The intense greens in your screencaps seem to overwhelm the other parts of the picture, and the highlights seem overexposed, to the point that it's starting to look washed out rather than bright and colorful. Perhaps try a look with similar saturation, and bring down the overall gain so you can see more tonal depth?
  12. Matthew Kane
    Option 1 is what I do. I generally only include credits in the department of the job I'm applying for (ie, that low budget commercial where I jumped on as a non union 2AC because I had a slow week, or my first on set job as a locations PA) doesn't belong on my resume for set lighting jobs. I would suggest that short films (at least those that haven't won major awards) or videography gigs should fall off the resume as soon as you have 8-12 professional/industry credits. If you have some niche skill (like scuba training, rock climbing, extensive experience with high speed cameras, infrared photography), I'd list it in it's own category ("Other Skills"). If you have a few professional credits under your belt, it must be taken for granted that you're experienced with the most common equipment encountered in that role. Hopefully, once you get the ball rolling, you'll get most of your work through recommendations, and the resume will become less important, but always good to keep it up to date.
  13. Matthew Kane
    The best two camera shoot I've ever done was a low budget indie feature, where the director meticulously storyboarded almost every setup, and the gaffer, DP, and sound recordist made special arrangements to shoot opposing angles for some scenes (ie, having a second or third boom op, scheduling time to rig overhead lighting, etc). And even then, there were lots of times when B camera would stand down. Some scenes just don't require a bunch of extra coverage, or it's more important to get the timing of each shot right. The sound recordist often asked us not to shoot a wide at the same time as a closeup, to make sure the closeup got decent coverage from the boom. Alot of episodics shoot two cameras in tandem, and inevitably there are compromises in lighting or sound capture, but it seems it can still save a bit of time if you're strategic about it (ie, if a scene is mostly going to be covered with VO, foley, or music, then you can take a bit of a hit on the production sound). At least, that's what I gather.
  14. Matthew Kane
    What was your power supply? By any chance, was it a high speed ballast? I'd be curious if the problem persisted at 1000hz. Was the flicker visible in the footage, or just on the waveform? Also, did any other fixtures exhibit the same behavior? I've never had any differing performance between 24fps and 23.98, even with magnetic ballasts, old globes, etc. If there was a long run of stingers to the ballast, line loss might have been the culprit. Or perhaps an appliance or piece of equipment with a ground fault was on the same circuit. Faulty mains wiring or malfunction at the generator can cause headaches too. Also--maybe the bulb was not fully seated? I'd love to know if you figure it out--always good to learn from other's experience rather than first hand. If the fixture was marked NFG and sent back, maybe the rental house has an idea.
  15. Matthew Kane
    Hopefully I won't get filled with buckshot for saying so, but if crowdfunding makes it through its adolescence, it could become a downright mainstream way for producers of "independent" content (particularly those that aren't motivated primarily by capturing a lowest common denominator market) to get the funds to make a film. It brings philanthropy into the realm of an impulse buy, and instead of promising investors a massive return, it works more like preselling a concert venue. The finished product is the return, and producers who can reach out effectively and return a watchable film consistently will garner a stronger reputation than the ones who jump right in without a plan. For my own part, I'd always make the first perk of a crowdfunding campaign a free pass to the content itself. I hate the ones where they ask you to pay twice. ...Not to say you'll have a new generation of media moguls incubated on Kickstarter, but it may lead to a respectable living for a small niche of filmmakers.
  16. Matthew Kane
    Maybe our standard for Kickstarter related posts is that said posts should be mostly on-topic with the board they're posted in--ie, tell us more about the cinematography, the script, or history of the project than you would when posting to FB, or a more general interest forum. It sounds like cool project, and considering that I've drawn more than one paycheck from projects that were crowdfunded, I am setting aside a little bit of spare cash for small contributions. I feel as though I've been apprenticing for the past few months with friends who've both succeeded and failed in crowdfunding, the best thing I've learned is that fundraising on the web is not that much different from fundraising in real life--except you can reach a larger audience without the expense of traditional media. Invest a hundred bucks to throw a fundraising party! Also, in my experience, there are often blogs and local media that are looking for quick subjects for arts and entertainment stories. Though your target budget is low enough that you have a good shot at raising it from one and two degree connections. Hopefully your actors and other collaborators are doing the same thing! Good luck!
  17. Matthew Kane
    That's really encouraging Adrian--any feel for how things might be in a year? Five years? Obviously you'd be a millionaire if you could guess with much accuracy, but there's a disturbing preponderance of journalism saying CA and the film industry in particular is being run into the ground. I'm already used to the feast or famine cycle (especially in the upper midwest, it seems most people are underemployed during the winter). And I wouldn't make the move if I was relying on my nest egg alone. Hearing about low rates is discouraging... doubling my cost of living to make half as much... I've been a bit spoiled, being able to pay rent on a good place with just a day or two of work. I guess the thing that has me considering the move is that it seems that so many indie feature producers still hire DP's from LA or NYC, even when they can find the same talent locally--usually for a lower rate, and without the expense of flying them out. Warranted or no, it seems there's still a prejudice that 'real DP's' only come from the coasts. It seems like a bit of a step backward, but would it be worthwhile to seek part time work with a rental house to get my name out there?
  18. Matthew Kane
    The problem with the old strategy of using the theatrical release as a loss-leader is that home video is doing less and less to recoup those costs. Sounds like most of the big name studios will cope by trying to make more in foreign markets--meaning more transformers-esque spectacles, and less thoughtful cinema (as if there was that much in the mainstream to begin with). Unless perhaps Spielberg's prophesied blockbuster implosion comes along.
  19. Matthew Kane
    Keep in mind that a tungsten lamp is naturally warmer--there's more light on the warmer end of the spectrum to make it through that warm colored gel. That is, if you put a green or blue gel on your tungsten lamp, more of your light will be absorbed by the gel than if it were, say, a magenta gel (or ruby, CTO, CTS, etc). This is also why full blue gel will burn up so fast on some lights--a blue gel only allows blue light to pass through, and the rest is either reflected off the back of the gel or dissipated as heat. If you must have a saturated cool colored wash, you're better off gelling an HMI, or other daylight balanced fixture. If that's not an option, you can use filter factors to predict how much light your fixture will give you when gelled. Also, *what* you are lighting matters a lot. Pointing a green colored light at a red couch makes a black couch (not to be condescending, I just thought it might have been easy to overlook).
  20. Matthew Kane
    TL;DR: how do I Los Angeles? I know there's a few threads on this topic already, but it looks as though they're a year old or so, and I'd like to take the temperature of LA locals re: the current and future prospects for younger people in the film industry. There's an awful lot of cynicism out there. I have about five years of experience freelancing in the industry, but it's hard to imagine getting much further in my career without moving. It just so happens that my current SO is interviewing for a job in LA (which may be her own "big break"), and I'm contemplating moving with her... I'm not going to sacrifice my career to stay with her, but moving to LA hardly seems like the worst idea for someone who wants to be a director of photography and filmmaker--especially considering that I'd have a SO with a job in an unrelated industry to mooch on while I get established. I have a few friends out there as well who seem to be doing alright, and could at least make first introductions. I also know people who have moved back or to satellite cities after a few years in LA because they couldn't get out of low rent indies with abusive labor practices. I've read that while the jobs are still there, the day rates are plummeting (I was shocked at how little my friends said they made on some shows--less than I get for a day on a light corporate gig). I hope we can refrain from a flame war about tax incentives and runaway productions--just the facts!
  21. Matthew Kane
    Stance and friction really changes shot to shot. When tracking a running subject on a long lens, I tend to be crouched about the camera like a runner, with a firm (but not clenched) grip, so I can move in any direction smoothly. When gently reframing a closeup, I try to keep my arms semi-rigid and push the stick around by leaning my body. Your fingers tend to to twitch and jump, but your back, shoulders and legs can make precise motions very smoothly. One really good skill to develop is to use landmarks in the frame to re-set the start frame between takes (this is for when a subject walks into frame). I can't fathom how many experienced ops I've seen bone a shot because the actor did not walk in where the op thought they would.
  22. Matthew Kane
    I'm a huge fan of the cam-tram system. You can also build custom track out of unistrut. While I haven't used the higher end accessories, there are motors and such that you can use to expand it into a really useful kit. With the gear and the time, it can really do a lot of cool stuff. I find Dana Dollies are a bit faster to set up, and you can tuck them away in the truck. A key grip I know built one for very cheap, and rolls it around on the speed rail or on dolly track that's opened halfway. Used it to roll down the narrow aisle of an older jetliner the other day. It may not be able to do as much stuff as the cam tram, but it's a little more straightforward and flexible in a limited range of deployments. If you want a tripod mounted slider for small cameras, I'd build one off of McMaster Carr hardware--most of the retail options seem to be a big ripoff to me.
  23. Matthew Kane
    Don't sweat the gear too much, but you won't regret getting quality gear--tripods and fluid heads have a much longer useful life than any camera you'll own. If you're interested in getting into artificial lighting, check out Shane Hurlbut's blog http://www.hurlbutvisuals.com/blog/category/lighting-2/lighting-equipment/ Lots of inexpensive DIY lights that can produce high quality results. He's also a great resource for getting the most out of DSLRs.
  24. Matthew Kane
    Owen, I love those old school learning techniques--I feel like I'm still missing some of those fundamentals even though I've gotten to try lots of things that would not have been practical even 15 years ago. I may just get out my tripod and a toilet paper tube tomorrow afternoon... Antoine, if you have a camera (even an old still camera), a tripod, and a cat (or another object that moves around in unpredictable ways), tracking with it on a long lens will help you develop an instinct for how fast to track a subject at various speeds. Likewise for pulling focus on your own... I did this in my apartment in college, so the risk of arrest is slightly reduced. I try to concentrate on the subject, without overthinking what *I'm* doing. With practice, and familiarity with the gear, your muscles will remember how to move. Very zen. The idea is to anticipate, rather than respond to the subject's movement. Your brain can subconciously recognize the minute body language that says the subject is about to stand up, shift their weight, etc. Getting rehearsals for difficult moves is helpful too--I'm sure some masters can nail anything cold, but not me. I think your jerky or mechanical movements may be due to overthinking your own motions, or overreacting when trying to catch up with a subject. Or a sticky friction head.
  25. Matthew Kane
    I really like the look of a pair of fresnels--one as a sidey key, and the other filling in from the front. Two hard sources become soft when they're dialed in right, while still carving out details dramatically--an actress's cheekbones, for example. As much as I like (well done) soft light, that old hollywood lighting can be a really nice change of pace. The X-files is really a beautifully lit show--since I started watching it on Netflix for nostalgia, I've really started digging the hard light in a lot of scenes.
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