Paul Maibaum ASC

A producer/director friend of mine who I have known for a long time (he is trustworthy) is looking for a "PBS Style" documentary camera person for a number of shoot days coming up soon. Equipment is required, a Panasonic DVPro 50 (or better) camera package, I assume some lights, and 2 wireless lav mics. Shoot days are: Lexington, MA. Jan. 22: Lunenberg, VT. Jan. 23-24: Seattle, WA. Jan. 30: Sarasota Florida Jan. 31: Miami, Florida Feb. 1. Locations within close proximity of one another could be handled by the same individual. Specific project particulars, adjunct crew and rates can be discussed with the producer, Jim Ruxin. Any interested parties should e-mail their resume and list of equiment to jimruxin@aol.com. Good luck.

Happy New Year Bob! I tend to go with soundtracks of films. Scores by Hans Zimmer and Danny Elfman come to mind.

Change shoes at the end of the day for the drive/ride home. You will feel like you have new feet.

Pre-ordered that one! A truly jaw-dropping film in all aspects.

try Fletcher Camera. 312 932 2700

USC takes foreign students in every department and discipline. At the School of Cinema-TV, when I was there, many years ago, there were students from the U.K., Argentina, Venezuela, and Turkey. Contact the school and find out what the requirements are. There is a general USC website, www.usc.edu, and from there you should be able to get all the contact info you need. Best of luck.

Absolutely, and it is not just the potential for the problems mentioned above, but diffusion obviously changes the intensity and quality of the light so before it is turned on it needs to be dressed with whatever diffusion, as in "paper", i.e., opal, 250, 216, grid cloth, that is called for by the DoP or gaffer. After this is when I would start loading up scrims to cut down on the lumens, if necessary.

"Would anyone please comment on how a light should be offered to a D.P." Qualifying the response by mentioning that my preference is to have the light turned on at full flood and focused (aimed) by either myself or the gaffer looking at the lamp with a contrast glass (no burnt retinas). "Also, do we want to switch on and off the light to check it's effect in a scene.. or is it better to leave the light on and pan the light off the scene? Again, my preference, when setting the fill light, which I do by eye, is to evaluate the level of fill by turning the light on and off. I may also do this when setting a light that is lighting some area in the background, for instance a dark wooden surface where I am looking for a "kick" or reflection of the light source. I can't think of an instance where I would do the old "on-off" on a key light (main source of illumination).

Jean-Luc Goddard: http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0000419 "Sympathy For The Devil" is a great Rolling Stones documentary shot just prior to Jagger's appearance in "Performance" (Nic Roeg/Donald Cammel)

I hope you didn't make this decision just because there were some negative posts on this forum regarding your quailfications/skill set. Paul Maibaum DP/LA

"So instead of calling the hall or hiring an operator, they just take the job themselves. Anyone think that is accurate?" The issue brought forth had more to do with DP's doing their own operating and the union not enforcing the existing contract, the only contract in the IA that had mandatory staffing requirements, i.e. the camera operator. As the language exits now, in the new contract about to start 8-1-06, " A. when 2 cameras are used on a television or theatrical motion picture and the Direactor of Photography makes a request to the Local Union to operate one of the cameras, he may do do provided that: (i) the Producer notifies the local union and the International in writing of the request during pre-production; and (ii) a Camera Operator is engaged to operate the other camera and is employed at all times the Director of Photography is operating. B. When a single camera is used on a theatrical motion picture and the Director of Photography makes a request to the Local Union to operate the camera, he may do so provided that the Producer notifies the Local Union and the International Union in writing of the request during pre-production. C. In either situation described in subparagraph A. or B. above, if the Director of Photography is not a permanent resident of the United States and has not been employed as a Director of Photography under the Local #600 Agreement (or its predecessor agreement) and makes such a request to the Local Union, he may operate the Camera only if the Producer first notifies both the Local Union and the International Union of the request in writing during pre-production and recieves the written approval of the request from the International Union. The International Union agrees that it will not unreasonably deny any request for a non-U.S. resident Director of Photography to operate the camera." As one can see, item A. refers to both TV and feature production where item B. refers only to feature production. Item C. seems to open up a brand new way of keeping American DPs from gaining employment. There are also guidlines established by local 600 itself that must be adhered to when a DP wants to operate, i.e. the DP must make the request to operate a camera directly to Local 600's National Executive Director during pre-production and must acknowledge that he or she is denying an operator the opportunity to work, and have a longstanding history of operating a camera under Local 600's feature and television contract. As far as I remember, the only contrac that permitted a DP to operate was the so-called NBC side-letter wherby a DP could operate on certain lower budget MOWs working under that sideletter. I am am posting this for clarification purposes. I would also like to mention, that at the last General Membership meeting of Local 600 where this issue was to be discussed and where a printed hand-out of the contract language was made available, the turn out was pathetic. I thought with such an important issue at stake that it would have been standing room only, if for no other reason than making sure, as a member of Local 600, one would want to know exactly what the contract language was. Paul Maibaum Local 600 DP/LA

Yeah, my apologies if my description confused anyone....indeed, it is only the opposite of Camera Left or Camera Right if the lamp in question is pointed at the camera....Mr. Mullen's last post sums it up. Paul Maibaum DP/LA

How many Directors of Photography does it take to change a light bulb? .......One, no I think two, three would be better, can we get four? OR .......How many do we have in the truck? How many assistant camera persons does it take to change a light bulb? .......Four, one to change the light bulb and three to tell you how they did it on their last show. Paul Maibaum DP/LA

Lamp left, or lamp right for that matter, is based on the lamp operator's left or right when he or she is standing behind said lamp. It is exactly the opposite of camera left or camera right. Paul Maibaum DP/LA

"Conspiracy" directed by Frank Pierson, HBO mow, 2001..A dramatic recreation of the Wannsee Conference where the Nazi Final Solution phase of the Holocaust was devised takes place within one location, the mansion where the conference was held. Gripping. Paul Maibaum DP/LA

Anyone have any experience shooting 5299, the new Kodak High Definition film stock and the recommended telecine process with which it is used? Thaks, Paul Maibaum DP/LA

You got it right....I had answered the querie with the question, "fresh water or salt water?" Best of luck to you. Paul Maibaum DP/LA

Many years ago when I got in what was then Local 659 I had to take a verbal test that in front of a panel, members of the local and Dick Barlow (dec.) who ran The Burbank Studios (a merger of Columbia and Warner Bros studio facilities on what is now again just Warner Bros.) Camera Dep't. I believe that there were quite a few questions but they only asked me one and since I gave the correct answer they had no need to ask me any further questions. The question was,..."If a magazine with film in it is immersed in water what should one do?". I replied with a question of my own, which is apparently what they wanted to hear. Any guesses as to what that question might have been? Paul Maibaum DP/LA

"RELATED" on TheWB...1 hour dramedy. Paul Maibaum

"Related", a network 1 hour "dramady" is shot on HD with Sony F900 cameras from Clairmont.