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James Malamatinas

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Everything posted by James Malamatinas

  1. Cheers Michael, it was a daily so unfortunately I wasn't part of prep, also the camera I was using was a camera bought over from main unit just for the night. Main unit gear was from Panavision whilst 2nd Unit was Arri just to complicate things a little more! Definitely agree though, would check this out in prep usually.
  2. On a recent shoot I narrowly avoided a serious potential problem when I plugged in an Arri 24v battery into a Panavision Alexa. Thankfully the result this time was that the Alexa simply did not take power from the 24V, however the 1st AC I was with, when I bought up the issue, pointed out that we were lucky the Alexa didn't blow due to a difference in polarity with the batteries. At the time I didn't get a chance to ask any more detail, but could somebody explain exactly what the issue is here - I'm not that learned about electrics, voltage, amps and so forth. What exactly is going on and, in future what sort of things must I be aware of when mixing different components from different rental houses? Also, are there issues connecting 24v batteries to equipment that should usually accept a 12v battery, or does it simply power it for longer? Purely for my own interest, is this something that should be obvious to a 2nd AC? It was a multi-camera shoot and a couple of the other 2nd AC who had been assisting didn't realise this either, but it seems fairly important to know given the consequences! Thanks in advance for the input.
  3. I've been a 2nd AC for a few years but would now like to try and move up into working on 2nd Unit shoots. I've always had a huge passion for cinema and filmmaking but in particular visual/practical effects and action cinematography, the main responsibilities of the 2nd Unit. I was wondering if anyone here has much experience working in 2nd Units, and if so whether they could tell me if there are any particular skills that you need as a 2nd Unit AC, or any specific knowledge that would be helpful in terms of working here rather than main unit. Also, if anyone has any articles or links to networks/forums when 2nd Unit crew meet or 2nd Unit work is discussed that would be very hepful, I'd really like to talk to someone to get a better idea of how 2nd Unit operates since personally I do not know anyone that has done it. Thanks in advance, James
  4. Hi, First time posting in VFX so go gentle if this is in the wrong place... I’d like to start learning about visual effects and visual effects cinematography. I’m a huge film fan and got into the industry a few years ago as a camera assistant which is something I still do and absolutely love doing, but I would really like to work with 2nd Unit’s and visual effects crews if I could, so to help me get there I’d really like to begin to understand the craft, techniques and everything else involved. What I’m looking for is a recommended way to start researching / engrossing myself in this aspect of filmmaking and hoped people on this forum could offer advice. I realise I’m not going to learn it overnight and just want start building up knowledge as quickly as I can over time. Are there basic concepts and theories that need to be learned before looking at actual techniques? Or is it better just to study films and learn how the effects in those films were created i.e. looking at the Stan Winston School tutorials, YouTube documentaries and so forth. I have to admit to being more in love with practical effect and doing effects in camera, but I think that’s just because I was bought up in the 80’s and 90’s on action films and sci-fi! At the same time I’m completely fascinated by CGI, and even more so by the combination of the two, there’s been a number of recent films that have blown me away in this regard (surprisingly one is Black Swan, just because of how well the visual effects were used so subtly). I’ve recently purchased two books that I wanted to read: > The Art and Science of Digital Compositing: Techniques for Visual Effects, Animation and Motion Graphics > Techniques of Special Effects of Cinematography Both of which seem to be great resources, however I feel that perhaps I need a better understanding of VFX before I can get the most out of them – especially the second which refers to a lot of film techniques that I am beginning to understand only through reading the book itself. So after that ramble – I guess I’m asking for advice on how I should approach learning such a huge subject and could anyone offer recommendations for resources including; books, forums, websites, videos etc. which would help me get started? Obviously, I’d love to start doing it rather than reading about it but I haven’t found my way in just yet! Finally, what is the difference between special effects and visual effects (if any), and what term best describes purely computer generated effects (CGI?) Also, where does Virtual Cinematography fit in! Thanks for reading and for any suggestions, James
  5. Thanks Brian, I wasn't completely familiar with flashing although I found a previous discussion this forum here - http://www.cinematography.com/index.php?showtopic=36685 - which helped explain it pretty well. It doesn't sound quite as fun to do it in the DI, although understandable as it sounds like there were some risk in doing it on the negative... Completely unrelated and I know I should start a new thread, but just in case you know... the other thread on flashing mentioned that double-exposure was one way of flashing the negative but that the film had to be lined up to the exact perf when doing the second exposure. How do you actually go about "rethreading" the film to the exact spot without accidently exposing any frames, and was it the 1st AC's job to do this when required?
  6. I overlooked the simple fact that taste in aesthetics simply changes and that's a good point, just like with editing styles and other aspects of filmmaking. Saying that, say we took a film like "The Conversation", or even something more recent like the first Indiana Jones as examples, both of which show the kind of washed out, low contrast look that I was trying to describe (at least in un-remastered prints) - would these films, if reshot today with the same film stock, still display the same tone and saturation in colours on our TV's and at the theatre? If the film stock is still capable of recording a wider colour gamut then we can display, and if broadcast standards have not changed substantially, is it due more to the original film transfer that the colours appear as they do in comparison to modern cinematography? I don't know if I'm trying to be too specific, I'm just fascinated by the way some films hold up more than others 10,20 or 50 years after they were made, and was trying to get a finger on some of the characteristics that affect this.
  7. The last few nights I've been watching a number of older films, and in particular, TV shows, a number of which always make me feel old because they're never as vivid as you remembered when you watch them years ago. There's a ton of stuff that affects how well/badly an image endures over time, but one thing I often find stands out is that the colours are often washed out or less saturated, which got me thinking - what is the technical reason for the image on these shows to look like this compared to the images we see today. It's obviously not one single breakthrough - but is it more to do with advances in the actual TV's and displays we watch the images on, or is it improvements in digital camera / film stocks that continually make newer images more vibrant. Obviously a lot of older material gets re-mastered for new formats such as DVD, Blu-Ray and these versions do much look much more like today's images in terms of colour - but is this due to a solely digital improvement, or is it the fact that all of the colour information was in the original medium - just that displays at the time couldn't display it all. Hope this is the right place for this! EDIT: Also, what is the best way to future-proof this information when shooting now?
  8. I'm currently trying to bind together a few digital cinema concepts which I've always had vague understanding of, but never really the big picture - in this case I'm curious about the pipeline luminance values goes through from sensor capture to post-production. I've recently been getting to grips with the basics of sensors, in particular how colour is handled from using Bayer filters over the sensor, to debayering, colour models, colour spaces, gamut's and so forth. However my understanding of what happens to luminance values is more vague, and in particular what sort of processing luminance goes through after the photosites have captured photons on the sensor. So my question is - can someone please provide a broad, not deeply technical overview or how photon's measured at the sensor get converted into the final exposure and luminance you'll end seeing in the theatre. What concepts are relevant in the same way that colour models and colour spaces help explain the final colour rendition you get on the theatre. Or, alternatively to point me in the direction of resources that explain this in a not too scientific manner (I can get deeper into it later!) I'm not completely in the dark about this, I understand that the main concept here is probably gamma and gain, and that Log conversions are a large part of the processing - I'm just trying to see the bigger picture and order or processes so I can do my own further reading on the subject. Thanks in advance!
  9. I personally completely agree, I find changing lenses with caps more difficult, time consuming and increases the risk of something being dropped - at the same time however I think it makes sense in conditions where there is a lot of stuff in the air. I was also always taught to adapt to however the 1st AC you're working with wants things to happen, so generally I will ask their preference at the start of a shoot and do it that way. I'm with you all the way though when I 1st AC myself! Also agree on the prep side, unfortunately it seems that over here they are become less and less common, especially on smaller day shoots which is really frustrating since a lot of issues could be resolved with a days prep and end up saving production a lot of money.
  10. Thanks guys for the advice, finished the shoot and definitely took what you said on board. Thing's I learned? Don't work with the Red Epic! (Haha, kind of half joking, but it sure as hell didn't make our life easier - faulty recording, crappy BNC connector, random power down, random setting changes etc) Work with the 1st AC and use shot list to find the best possible place to put the kit so you don't have to move it too much, I know this is general good practice anyway, but even more so on a beach - it's more effort and takes longer to do everything so try and be as efficient as possible. Make sure you have a ground sheet - the magliner on the beach just doesn't work and but you'll still need to get the kit close to where your shooting whilst minimising the sand getting into any of boxes. As above, make sure you keeps the boxes clean, especially the lens boxes and filters because the sand could end up scratching the glass. For this reason keep take the lens to the camera with caps on (something I know some 1st AC's like at all times anyway). Make sure you have appropriate monitor hoods and black-out material so that you can avoid the monitor picture be washed out in the sunlight. Michael said it, but sunscreen and water will make you feel a lot better - we didn't have the sunscreen and believe me my lobster skin definitely isn't happy! Michael again nailed it about open ports and cards - tape these up to stop unwanted sand getting inside. Our weather was pretty good in the end, but if had turned bad I'd definitely recommend more ground sheets to cover the kit - you can try an E-Z up but it can get fairly windy at the beach and you'll be struggling to stop it blowing away. Michael, I'd not heard of the camera coffin idea before but definitely something to consider for future shoots. Do you try and use this on a lot of your shoots or just ones when you think the conditions are going to be particularly bad? Thanks again for recommendations - I hope this helps anyone else too.
  11. Thanks guys for the advice, finished the shoot and definitely took what you said on board. Thing's I learned? Don't work with the Red Epic! (Haha, kind of half joking, but it sure as hell didn't make our life easier - faulty recording, crappy BNC connector, random power down, random setting changes etc) Work with the 1st AC and use shot list to find the best possible place to put the kit so you don't have to move it too much, I know this is general good practice anyway, but even more so on a beach - it's more effort and takes longer to do everything so try and be as efficient as possible. Make sure you have a ground sheet - the magliner on the beach just doesn't work and but you'll still need to get the kit close to where your shooting whilst minimising the sand getting into any of boxes. As above, make sure you keeps the boxes clean, especially the lens boxes and filters because the sand could end up scratching the glass. For this reason keep take the lens to the camera with caps on (something I know some 1st AC's like at all times anyway). Make sure you have appropriate monitor hoods and black-out material so that you can avoid the monitor picture be washed out in the sunlight. Michael said it, but sunscreen and water will make you feel a lot better - we didn't have the sunscreen and believe me my lobster skin definitely isn't happy! Michael again nailed it about open ports and cards - tape these up to stop unwanted sand getting inside. Our weather was pretty good in the end, but if had turned bad I'd definitely recommend more ground sheets to cover the kit - you can try an E-Z up but it can get fairly windy at the beach and you'll be struggling to stop it blowing away. Michael, I'd not heard of the camera coffin idea before but definitely something to consider for future shoots. Do you try and use this on a lot of your shoots or just ones when you think the conditions are going to be particularly bad? Thanks again for recommendations - I hope this helps anyone else too.
  12. I'm 2nd AC on a shoot this week and it I'll be shooting on a beach for the first time, I was wondering if there are any special considerations to be taken into account, or any tips for making life easier? Currently looking like we'll be enjoying some typical "wet 'n' windy" British weather to make it more fun! I'm guessing the Magliner should be left at the truck unless boards are going down on the beach? Anything else - I know it's not quite the same as preparing for sub-zero conditions, but always good to be prepared. Thanks.
  13. Can anyone recommend a book, or online resource(s) that provides a clear, accurate and comprehensive overview of digital image concepts. The kind of thing I'm looking for would cover the following topics and show how they are related, how they are different and how they are actually applicable both during shooting, and then later how they affect the post-production pipeline. Colour Model e.g. Hue, value, chroma, saturation, tint, shade etc Colour Spaces Colour Gamuts Luminance Gamma Curves Bit Rates Codecs Transcoding How different colour spaces look on different monitors Wavelets Scopes Difference between RGB / CMYK / YCrCb I'd really like to get a solid understanding about how all of this fits together so that I can be far more useful on set as an AC - I realise some of this is much more important for a DIT or those in post-production but there have numerous times where I've felt that having this information would be really useful and although I know many of the basics I'd like to expand that quite a bit. I realise that there is also a "Books" section but thought that maybe it applied more to DIT's - please move if necessary. Thanks in advance.
  14. Hi Solomon, I can't answer all of you're question but I thought I'd recommend Saul Oliveira's guide for it which you can find here http://www.sauloliveira.com/index.php/en/working-material. It might help you pick up a few tips on using it before you get on set. Hope it helps and good luck with the shoot.
  15. I'd obviously take more features as a 2nd if I could! In fact, I have done a couple, and done dailies on a few more; if the people I know and work offered me the chances I definitely say yes. At the same time though, like so many people, I'd love to be on the bigger productions and for that it seems like the trainee route is the established path. I've had some people say carry on working as a 2nd and try and get in that way, and others say you've got to go through the trainee role first - I guess I just want to cover both bases and see how far each take me. I do see some great benefits of being a trainee in terms of learning from top clapper loaders and 1st AC's who've been around for a lot longer than me, and of getting experience on large scale productions without quite so much responsibility from the off. I'm just really committing to trying to find myself an opportunity whichever way I can - but like Phil says there are hundreds of other's doing just the same!
  16. Thanks for the advice guys, I am actually already a 2nd AC and have been for a few years, it's just now that I'm trying to make a move and focus on features. Actually, one of the hardest things I'm find at the moment is making it clear that despite being a 2nd AC I just want to learn more stuff and how to improve! A keep getting told to mention my experience as little as possible, to this effect I've actually created a separate trainee CV to go alongside my usual AC one. Stephen, I like your idea of suggesting helping out at prep, I've already started contacting people directly to see if they need anyone, I'll definitely offer this and see if anyone is happy to bring me in for those days, like you say just meeting people and learning more about the kit and different configurations will be a big help. I know the lists are a long shot, as Phil mentions by the time they appear anywhere they've probably already got their crew. I just thought it would be another avenue to try, although I was never intending on contacting the production itself, just the crew working on them if it was possible to find who they are.
  17. Hi, Is anyone aware of an existing directory that lists UK films and their production status, in particular films that are in pre-production. I've found a few, including the BFI Film Council Site and IMDb Pro, but they don't necessarily seem to be completely up-to-date and I feel like there is probably an industry standard directory/mailing list for this which I just haven't found yet? I'm currently trying to find camera trainee opportunities on features and I figure knowing which films are about to start shooting would help me narrow my focus on whom to approach. Thanks, James
  18. I've just been looking over the specifications for the new Sony F5 and F55 ahead of a demo day and noticed that they are touting new "Olivine" li-on batteries. Does anyone have experience with these? Are they already used on any of other cine cameras yet, and if so do they make a genuine difference with regards to faster charging and longer life... or is it just marketing again? Anything making battery management on-set easier makes me a happy AC!
  19. Cheers Dom, I'll check both of those sites out and try and get the books. I've been recommended a few other books too which I'm trying to get hold of; Applied Photographic Optics: Lenses and Optical Systems for Photography by Sidney Ray, and Hands-on Manual for Cinematographers for David Samuelson. These, the first especially, seem to be fairly advanced and physics led and I was looking to develop more of a foundation before getting stuck in. I was definitely misinterpreting the theory, mainly because I was stuck thinking in 2D. Your explanation does a great job of clearing that up and explaining the actual reality. Hopefully when I go on to look at lens aberrations, depth-of-field, the effect with tilt and shift’setc it will make a lot more sense. I’m definitely going to look for more in-depth information on this though so thanks for starting points. It would be nice if there were a 3D simulation of light passing through a lens so you could interact, change aperture, focal length etc to see the effect! The closest I’ve found is this: http://nagykrisztian.com/synthrays/synthrays.html
  20. Thanks for all of your input and sorry for not following up sooner. I realise now that I may not have been too clear on what I meant but Dom seemed to hit the nail on the head and understood me correctly. I understand the image is demonstrating focus but it was the best image I could find to try and illustrate the actual question I was asking, and Mark I think you made an important point to in that it illustrates a few points of light and not really the structure of the image. The way I was interpreting the image was that the top rays (as illustrated in the diagram) represented the top part of the image - imagine an image of a person with the top rays representing their head. As per Mark's explanation however this would be incorrect and instead the entire image is passed along the lens at the point of the iris and thus only the amount of light is reduced and not the angle of view. Does anyone have any links where I can read more about this, or about the actual structure of the image as it hits and passes through the lens? Thanks and sorry for the confusion! James
  21. Hi, I've been a camera assistant for a few years now and understand the effect of lens concepts e.g. opening up decreases DoF, however I'm not trying to understand the why, and the mechanics of a lens and how it affects the image. Can someone please help me understand a few basics, I'm going to try and understand them one at a time so my first question is below: 1. Why does changing the aperture not affect the angle of view? I have attached a diagram from a book I'm reading showing light travelling in a lens with a wide open aperture, and also in a stopped down aperture. What happens to the rays of light that I have highlighted in red, in the original diagram these lines do not exist and instead the light is shown as simply passing through the smaller aperture, however if the aperture is not affecting the actual focusing ability of the lens there must still be rays of light being refracted along these lines. What happens to these rays of light that are now hitting the closed down aperture? If these were contributing to the final image wide-open, why does the image not change when stopped down? I'm sure I've made it sound more complicated than it is with that description! Thanks, I'm sure they'll be plenty more to follow! Any suggestion on places to read up on the basics of lens mechanisms would be great too. James
  22. Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I've taken a look at http://www.filmrescue.com and they seem like they know what they are talking about. I've spoken to my Dad too and it seems like he does sadly have Kodachrome as well as some Ektachrome and AGFA colour. It's a real shame that they can only be processed in B & W, I think he's a little disappointed by that. I've noticed that there are ways of mapping colour to digital B & W photos so I might look into that once processed. Does anyone have experience doing this or using a service that does?
  23. Thanks for that Matthew, I've asked him what type film the rolls are so I'll be able to find out soon. This may sound stupid, but if there is noone who develps the particular stock he has, are there ways of scanning the negative and then processing it digitally? I imagine this may be expensive...
  24. Not quite cinema related but heopfully someone might be able to help anyway. My father has a large number of undeveloped rolls of film (which have been kept in the fridge about 30 years!) from his old Canon stills camera that he would like to get developed. If possible he is looking for a service that would develop the film and also scan them so he would have both prints and digital files. I have absolutely no experience with this but didn't want to risk giving these old stocks which have a high personal value to a company that may not be very experienced, so I'm looking for a company people have used and been happy with. London based would be ideal. Thanks for any suggestions.
  25. Thanks for the info guys. I’d really love to learn more, especially about practical effects, yet have focused most of my film learning to date on areas more directly related to camera assisting. If I was to start exploring and understanding the visual effects world though, is that book - "The Technique of Special Effects Cinematography" - the best to start learning from? I've heard of it previously and it seemingly has the reputation as being a bit of a tome for this subject area! At $120 though I want to make sure it’s worth the purchase. Is it hugely technical or is it fairly accessible not family with the VFX already? I understand that some of the techniques may have been superseded but love practical effects and want to know how films have been made in the past just as much as I want to learn about techniques and the use of CGI over practical.
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