Hunter Sandison

I believe you can actually use some of the prime still photo lenses from Canon on the XL cameras. I've never seen it done though, just the 35mm adapters.

Canon makes an adapter which allows you to put canon Ef still lenses on an Xl mount. The format change makes every lens something like 7x more telephoto so it seems to only be very practical for nature videography.

Thanks for that info. I've been wondering about inventory sheets. The inventory sheets I have lend themselves very well to figuring out the numbers, but at the very bottom there is a section on how many full rolls you have left at the end of the day.

 

This doesn't really work if we're using both 1000 and 400 ft. rolls, because let's say we have 4, 1000 ft rolls and 10, 400 ft. rolls left. That would be 8000 feet total, but I wouldn't be able to indicate how much of that was 1000 ft rolls and how much was 400 ft rolls. On the last shoot I was on I simply filled out a separate inventory sheet for each stock and each roll size (even though there isn't any place on the inventory sheet to indicate the roll size, I just wrote it in next to the film type). We were only using two different stocks, but I ended up with 4 inventory sheets each day.

 

Is there a better way to do this? Are there some inventory sheets out there that separate the roll sizes, or should I just try to create one myself? I know some loaders use either a laptop or PDA and print out the inventory at the end of the day, but I can't afford that right at the moment.

 

Thanks for the help.

Hi Shaun,

The "full load" section of the inventory sheet should be filled out with a footage count not a roll count. If you get a nice round number (divisable by 1000', 400' or a combination of the two) do a quick hard count to confirm the number reflects the reality. Don't forget to count the hot mags loaded for the next day. Next add the "full roll" footage count to the "short end" footage count. The number you get should be the same as the "total raw stock" count (this is sometimes called "total film on hand", every stock should have a seperate inventory). Now you add that number to the "total film shot" or "total film expended" count and the sum should equal the "total film purchased" count. If you're square here its time to go home. I hope this helps.

Hello Satuski,

What's a batten? I realize connotatively from your posting that it is some sort of lamp mount. You must forgive my ignorance but I have always been Camera Department and never a juicer nor grip. It seems that it cannot be one of our standard lighting grids because you lowered it to 3' (with stage walls). If not on a stand nor a point, what is a batten?

I've worked as an A.C. in Los Angeles for a couple years now and gained a lot of experience(I'm by no means an seasoned veteran nor any kind of expert). From what I've seen, first shot off in an hour and ten minutes is a respectable time. Don't be so hard on your crew. Student or professional, set ups take a little time. After the first scene things tend to go much more smoothly(if properly planned) barring any stunts, guns, or problems with picture cars or actors. From what I understand of your scene, you have none of these issues.

The lighting diagram is very interesting. I only wish it had the camera positions too so we could see how you covered the scene.

Also what's an I-Ring. I' ve put nets and gel filters behind many lenses (although the whole idea seems less popular lately) but I don't know what an I-Ring is. Again my ignorance is showing but this time its Camera Department territory( and that can't happen). Tell no one.

I don't know anything at all about these large formats and would appreciate a quick education. What's this difference between the 65mm and 70mm films? Is 65mm a production format and 70mm a projection format?

Also, what is IMAX? Is it captured and projected sideways so the vertical frame not the horizontal is 70mm?

Visual Products offers a s16 and PL mount conversion for the CP-16. According to their website they're the only company that offers this service.

http://www.visualproducts.com/servicesProd...=92&Cat2=93

I forgot a useful trick that Doug Hart taught me: at a given stop and focus distance, if you mark the limits of the depth of field on the barrel of the lens (as in, a mark on either side of the witness mark for focus), it will tell you the depth of field at all other focus distances at that same stop. It will help you know your DoF so you can tell whether or not you nailed the shot.

This is a cool trick. But doesn't the depth of field grow with distance to subject?

The Seimans Star can give false focus in HD(about 18" off, I think). I don't know why but thats what I've been told at the rental houses. For this reason they use an HD focus chart. Its made of concentric rings instead of the triangles and is lower contrast. Its usually black and grey instead of black and white. If someone could enlighten me as to why this is, or if its true at all, I would appreciate it.

Let me preface by saying that I'm a simple A.C. and have never dealt with the financial aspects of filmmaking in any capacity. Every feature I've worked on was under 1 million and every single one used a rental house camera package. The nice thing about this situation is if you don't like the way a lens tapes out you can send it back for another. If a mag developes a jamming habit on set, have it replaced. The movie can march on unscathed with no delay. That being said what about buying a camera and then selling it after principal photography wraps. It seems to me that the value of the camera package would depreciate very little over the three or four weeks it takes to shoot your movie. Then you sell it for as close to the purchase price as possible and put that money towards post. Obviously, this is for very low budget movies only. You'd need to have that that initial money. Also it seems risky in that if the camera breaks you cannot continue shooting nor can you sell it for anything close to the price you bought it for. Would this work or have I overlooked something vital. No one seems to operate this way in L.A.

Thank you for the clarification, Mr. Mullen.

Two people facing each other shot in profile, sometimes called a "profile 2-shot" as well.

So you shot a wider profile 2 shot as your master and then punched in for a closer profile 2 shot from a similar angle in lieu of OTS singles? Did I understand correctly?

I remember doing this wide shot looking at a porch at night as someone walks up the steps and turns to talk to someone on the porch in a 50/50. The plan was then to shoot two raking overs of the dialogue. But when I got the camera on the porch for the first of the two overs, the AD tells me that he, the director, and the producer decided, in order to save time, to just cover the dialogue in a tight 50/50 2-shot from the porch looking back out at the street, a 180 degree flip from the wide master. So we eliminated one set-up, but I told the director that it would not cut as smoothly and he'd be compromising the point of the scene, which was this romantic look that the two people give each other. He said he agreed but he didn't have a choice because the producer was insisting that we do it in one shot, not two. So I lit the most romantic 50/50 tight 2-shot I could...

What does 50/50 mean?

It was covered in both the Nov. 2005 issue of "American Cinematographer" and the Oct. 2005 issue of "ICG Magazine"

 

According to these articles it was an optical blow-up at DuArt. It was indeed shot on Super16mm not 16mm (7218,7246) with an Arri SR and mostly on a Zeiss Super-speed 16mm prime. Yeoman refers to the 16 as their "workhorse", also sometimes using the 12mm and the 24mm. Good movie.

Here ya go: http://www.cinematography.com/forum2004/in...hp?showforum=69

Thank you very much Tim. Great idea, James.

Any chance for a new sub-forum for AC's?.....

 

How many people are working as AC's?...

This is an great idea. I truly hope you can make it happen.

What're cupblocks?

I'll be there. I must admit I'm pretty excited. Hope to meet some of you there.

"Sleuth" Brilliant film!

 

I love "Sleuth". Another good one is "Same Time Next Year"(1978) with Alan Alda and Ellen Burstyn. For the most part its two actors, one room and it spans something like forty years of their lives. The song over the ending credits is ridiculous though.

Hey Jason,

I'm sorry, I misread your topic heading. I thought we were talking about Arri SR mags when in fact the S's

were the magazines in question. It is just this kind of laser trained attention to detail that makes me a top notch 2nd A.C.. Please disregard my previous post.

Hello Jason,

Are you talking about the take up throat? You don't have to do what i would call "bend" the film, but the loop does curve in the opposite direction from the way its wound on the core(so the emulsion side faces out). The loop should be large enough that this is not akward at all. SR mags are extremely intuitive to load(in my opinion) so odds are that you're doing right. I hope this answers your question. I admit that I'm a little unsure of exactly what you're asking. Good Luck

I agree with Ian Marks,

My feeling was that the movie was making fun of the filmmaker character. I found pleasantly stylish, visually refreshing and above all really funny.

This actually brings up another topic as well (sorry to tangent). Do not use your XL2 as a deck. It's worth it to drop a couple hundred on a Canon z200 and let the little bugger take all the wear and tear to firewire connection, heads, etc.

Hello,

Can someone tell me a little about this and maybe clear up somethings for me. I'm rather ignorant about capturing and cutting video and I'm curious about some compatibility issues.

I did an internet search for the z200 and didn't come up anything. I did find a Canon ZR200. Is this the same thing? If I understand correctly, what Eric is talking about is using a lesser camera instead of a deck for importing because its cheaper than a deck. If if this is so do you lose anything that the deck camera cannot support that the xl2 can(e.g. resolution, 16x9, 24p, timecode) or is this not a problem at all.

Also, I'm using an older editing program, Final Cut Pro 2. This program came out a year or two before the xl2 or the dvx100 and 24p became available. Will it work? Also does anyone know how it will handle footage using the native 16x9 chip? I know it has cropping abilities but I never tried to use it with the xl2. Will it work?

Hey Robert,

Send me an email and I'll hook you up. hrsandison@yahoo.com

Hello,

I thought the movie looked really good. I especially enjoyed the use of the zoom and the reflections in car windows and rearview mirrors. It really put you in that international intrigue mode. I didn't find the lingual inconsistancies distracting in the least. That said I do find the topic very interesting, and I apologize in advanc for this brief digression.

In THE GREAT ESCAPE, if my memory serves me(and it likely may not), weren't Attenborrough's and Jackson's characters posing as French businessmen speaking a language that was supposed to be foreign to them(German) and not native speakers?

I wonder if the American convention of using accented english as a proxy for the native language of the character came out of those war movies of the 1940's where central European actors would often play German characters using their real accents(e.g. Premminger, Von Strohiem, etc). There was a British sitcom of the 1980's ALLO' ALLO' that parodied this technique very cleverly. It was set in occupied France in World War II. All the actors spoke english with exagerated French, German, or British accents representing their character's native language but could not understand the accented english representing the other languages. Bilingual character could swap from one exagerated accent to another. The it was particularly ammusing to see the British characters played by British actors using an extremely obnoxious British accent for a British audience.

The most egregious use of this convention(albeit the inverse effect) was the T.V. show SEAQUEST. The dolphin character Darwin's brain patterns were somehow translated via computer to audible english that was squeaky and throaty like a dolphin's natural voice. It always seemed to me if the phonynms originated with the computer it could have replaced the arrbitrary and irritating dolphin "accent" with, say the dulcet barritone of Michael Lonsdale.

Hello,

I have several longish bits and a couple full 400' of 16mm and also some 35mm that was flashed or too old too use, etc. If you want to pay for the mailing I'd be glad to send it to you. I'm in Los Angeles. I only keep it around for scratch test. I don't want anyone giving up short ends while I'm using this stock for paperweights, literally.

Laurent,

What if you set up a properly calibrated monitor then after making sure the 18% grey card is evenly lit adjust your iris until the grey on the monitor matches the your eyeball judgement of the actual card, then take an incident reading of the light falling on the grey card, and then simply change the ISO on your meter untill you get the stop that you set on the lens? Would this give you an accurate ISO of your video camera or am I missing something critical? If so could you or someone else please set me staight? Thank you and sorry for the run-on sentence.