Tim J Durham

The flare makes alot of difference in how your blacks look. Seperate and distinct from the black balance performed with the iris capped, the flares are set with the lens irised up under current light conditions with a black reference in scene (chip chart prefered). It is also a moving target. Once you pan the camera, the flares change but starting out your scene with proper flare settings is about as good as you can do without a video operator and/or a CCU.

You can rent a kit once you get in-country for about $75-100 a day. Then you won't have to ship it nor search for adapters. The more stuff you travel around with, the bigger the hassle crossing borders (with carnets (sp?)) although that may have been mitigated by the EU.

I've used it a bunch. It's got native 16x9 chips but only 60i, so you'll have to do your film-aping all in post. It's got the same menu structure as the DVW-700/790 so if that's familiar to you, you'll be right as rain. If it's not, try to get your hands on Paul Wheelers book, "Digital Cinematography" in which he takes you on a pretty thorough tour of the Sony menu structure.

I just watched it a few nights ago and followed up by watching it again with the directors commentary. There was alot going on that I didn't notice (or get) the first time around and learning it after the fact made it a much more satisfying film for me. It's a shame that multi-layered and unconventionally structured films like this come and go while something like "Independence Day" and "Top Gun" linger on and on and on. There's little accounting for taste, I spose.

In every Sony camera I've used since they first offered DCC (BVW-300 had it and IIRC so did the BVP-7), the white clip has been adjustable (by opening the side of the camera). Now it is in the engineering menus (atleast the DSR-570 and the DVW-700 and 790) and you can customize how you want it to respond by working on your knee (point, slope, saturation) levels and your white clip level. So if you don't like the heavier effect of the current (3) upgrade, I suspect you can get it to work they way you like it in the menus. Paul Wheeler suggests setting the knee saturation to -50 on the DVW-790 to match the less strident effect that the DVW-700 DCC had. Knowing how Sony does things, it is likely a similar difference between the two releases of the F-900.

OK, I just put it in my Netflix queue.

Here's a thread where they talk about the process used to create the look of the film, "Amelie" which had a beautiful green cast to the color palette. http://tinyurl.com/cp847

Whoops, I just remembered "heydo" is goodbye. Should have said "Hey" or "Hej". Carry on.

Heydo Lars (sorry, that's Swedish but close as I can get to Norsk), Try to contact these guys: http://www.anica.it/ They have it indexed here: http://www.anica.it/arc/1969/69ag2588.thtml So I suspect it means they have a copy of it on hand. Good luck, it sounds like a fascinating subject.

It's lively over there: http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/filmissues/messages

Thanks Jay, and I found www.resellerratings.com Royalcamera . com doesn't fare too well: http://www.resellerratings.com/seller1895.html Bummer.

Hi, I happened upon a site called "Royal Camera . com" and they claim to be selling new XL2's for $2079.00. That's $1500 below B&H, so I'm more than a little suspicious. I called the 800 number and the guy claims they are brand new. Has anyone ever heard of this company? I have seen posts that mentioned a site that had dealer ratings but can't find it now. Anybody know that site? Thanks

I'd like to hear how it went for you, as well. The difference between a PD-170 and DVW-790 is akin to that of a piper cub and a jumbo jet. They both have a Sony nameplate but that's where the similarities end. Half a day is not much time to school yourself in those differences, still, I was pulling for you if that helped. So how'd it go?

"Black Robe" "Touching the Void" "Winged Migration"

You mention Kieslowskis "Dekalogue" which he had originally intended to have different directors for each of the 10 parts. Instead, he decided to direct them all himself and hired a different DP for each one.

Your first post and you use it to rip on a guy? Good luck to YOU. Sounds like you'll need it.

You are going to stage an accident at the side of the highway and then re-stage the whole thing on the other side of the road later in the same day? Have you done this before? The OT for the traffic control alone is going to cost you $1000's. Let alone the hassle of stopping traffic to move the wrecked cars and then replacing them exactly enough to not be noticeable. I'm not sure what you have in mind (doind it in the afternoon on the other side of the road) but maybe you should try to get a permit to leave the staged accident at the same roadside (far enough away from traffic so you don't have to re-route) for two or three days and just shoot it over a couple of mornings. I presume you want to try to preserve the low sun angle? It will still look different on the other side of the road.

I prefer to rob a 7-11 as opposed to a bank or liquor store where there are more likely to be guns. Plus, you can do the set catering while you're there.

Is this what you're after? http://bssc.sel.sony.com/BroadcastandBusin...d=70134&d=10001 Or you could call the Sony office in the Phillipines: http://www.sony.com.ph/ Cheers

Shoot the profile shot when the sun is no longer in the frame and add it in later in post. That way, you can light the guy however you want, unaffected by the actual sun. For the "nice flares enhancing the hot feeling" try a Schneider Black frost filter. That's what they use on CSI: Miami for their exteriors.

Yeah, that sounds like a breeze, it's a wonder everyone's not doing it. Thanks again. Cheers.

Couldn't agree more with bringing a sound person. You've got more than enough on your plate. The BVW-790 is a very-high-end SD camera and can be (is) complicated, so having to deal with sound is biting off more than you should be chewing. As for the zebras and format, the engineer at the rental house can set up all of that stuff for you. There are two sets of zebras for that camera, If I recall correctly, I set the diagonals on 70ire and the cross-hatches on 100ire so you know when you are blowing out. For the first time, you may want to only have them set the diagonals and I would set them at 70ire as well. The engineer will also set the back focus for you and this is where I would disagree with DM. In my experience, if you are not familiar with doing this on a regular basis, the back focus RARELY goes out midshoot unless you are changing lenses frequently, and playing with it is fraught with peril. Once it is set, leave it alone. You can master it before your next shoot. 99 times out of 100, when it appears as though the back-focus is out, you have most likely upset the macro-ring from its detente position. If you don't know youve done it, it looks the same as a back-focus problem. The macro-ring is made to be easily operated, so it is easily engaged unknowingly. The other thing is to make sure you know how to find the tail of the timecode. When the producer asks to review a shot on the monitor (and they always do), you MUST know how to get the tape back to the end of the recorded time-code so there are no TC breaks. ASK THE ENGINEER HOW TO DO THIS! Time code breaks will get the editor talking smack about you as quickly as shooting out of focus or in the wrong filter. If you can get a copy of Wheelers book, the engineer can also set the camera menus for you. Otherwise, stick to the factory positions. Two last things, the stuff you're going to be carrying is much heavier than what you're used to. An all day shoot can eat up 3-4 batteries easily and they are heavy and you'll have to bring them. Your shoulder is going to hurt so don't let them rush you. That's when you lose things, very expensive things. Sound people are used to carrying the camera batteries, so try to get a sound person. And when shooting in the taxi, engage the dynamic contrast control. This will keep the cab windows from totally blowing out on you. Ask the engineer about it and how to engage it. Good luck, you're going to need it.

Hi again, David (and Thanks for the lesson, btw) So the editing goes on after the processing and telecine but BEFORE color correction? Is that right? If it's $500 p/hr I guess you wouldn't want to do all your raw footage. Atleast I wouldn't. Ouch. Then color correct, then back to film? Tim PS: I just moved "Northfork" to the top of my Netflix cue. Ebert gave it 4 stars and had some very nice things to say about you in his review so I'm gonna check it out. I'm all curious now.

Hi David, Any idea what the per hour charge would run for that sort of work? How many hours would a standard Da Vinci session require for, say, 20 minutes of finished product? I've never dealt with a Da Vinci but I am seriously considering attempting to shoot my next short in B&W S16mm, which I haven't done since my high school film class. So I'd llike to get an idea what sort of budget I'm going to have to come up with to go that route. Let's see... Camera/lens/battery/tripod rental + someone who knows how it works... Processing Color correction/Da Vinci (is this the same step?) Printing What's missing? Thanks, Tim

David, Do you think that directors in Hollywood are more susceptible to "flavor of the month" syndrome than DP's? Just curious. Thanks.