Francesco Chiari

Hello everyone. Has anybody had a chance to try out or test the new Canon CN-E cine lenses, primes and zooms? I'm in pre-production for a short film that I will shoot next month and I am strongly considering a set of these for the job. I will be testing them soon enough, but I would also like to hear if anybody has direct experience with them. Thanks.

Well...if your papers get soaked wet they're gone anyway. :P But, yeah I get what you mean.

From a DP perspective, the use of a tablet on set to consult diagrams,charts, manuals, storyboards and so on, makes sense to me. I wonder, though, from an AC perspective (especially for a 2nd AC), does a tablet really beat pen and paper? Would it really make things more efficient? I was looking into buying a tablet to use on set and I would like to hear the opinion of other ACs on the matter. I honestly cannot see myself benefit from typing my camera reports on a tablet in a busy and fast-paced production (aka 99.9% of them); yes, all my reports would be perfectly neat and clean at the end of the day, but at a big cost in terms of "speed" (ie, if I'm called to do something, I CAN drop a notebook on the ground). Does anybody here have any experience in using tablets on set? Is it really worth it?

The C300 is very light, much lighter than an Epic, even with a CP2 in front of it. Should be ok for a Body Rig, although it may be uncomfortable for the person wearing it compared to a 5D. Give the footage to a good colourist you can match it with the MX.

The main reason it's so popular is that it will NEVER get in the way, believe me. It's made for those who choose mobility rather than carrying more stuff.

Here in Oz this is very popular among ACs: http://www.setwear.com/RadioChestPack.html

I did shoot a candles-only setup once, but it was on a Canon C300 @ 800 ISO T2.1 and I managed to get skin tones properly exposed only by keeping a few of them relatively close to the subject. Shooting a Tri-X only 200 ISO seems very unlikely to me, because by comparison you should have a T1.0 lens and being a reversal stock there's very little room for mistakes.

Does anyone know where I could get an Arri production bag in Australia?

Sydney Film School, I graduated last year and it was worth it. It's a one-year intensive and covers every aspect of filmmaking, but cinematography definitely stands out in terms of teaching quality. Now I'm freelancing and getting into some nice gigs thanks to what I learned there.

Would you recommend to use a lightmeter for digital cinematography, even when working with a camera equipped with waveform monitor, false color exposure? Wouldn't be better to get a color meter instead?

In your opinion, a C500 at that price range is really worth it? Compared to what a RED Scarlet offers, for example.

What about Dynamic Range? Any Log curve options available?

It's for documentaries and run 'n gun shoots, there will also be a set of fast primes (probably Zeiss ZE) for short films.

As the title says, which would be the best choice for video purpose? The 24-70mm f/2.8L or the 24-105mm f/4L? - the 24-70mm opens one additional stop and according to what I hear delivers terrific image quality - the 24-105mm although slower, offers a longer focal and has a stabilizer It would be used with a C300 and DSLRs. Thanks.

Thanks everybody, very helpful.

I see which shots you mean, although we never used aerosol paint, what you see is all brushed paint I just checked with my Production Designer. Thanks for the feedback, I'll look more into it. Anyway, any thoughts on the Cinematography?

Hi everybody, what's in your opinion the best choice in terms of brand/model for an external hard drive for a Data Wrangler? I used to go with Lacie Quadra and Rugged with firewire 800 when I was at film school, what do the professional Data Wranglers use? Thanks, Francesco.

Thanks Freya. Which shots in particular are you talking about?

I've graduated from film school only a few months ago. This is my graduation film after a year focusing on cinematography: http://vimeo.com/francescochiari/endure password: endure13112011 Positive feedbacks are welcome, negative ones are MORE than welcome. All I'm asking for is to know the motivation behind your comment. Thanks :)

These are all great suggestions, thank you. I will look further into the Leica lenses and give a little more thought about it. The focus will be about 80% shorts and 20% doco so I guess a heavier tripod would be best, and Sachtler is my first choice for the head.

That's interesting, I didn't know the CP.2 lenses had the same glass of the still lenses. That actually helps a lot. Any thought about a basic rig configuration? What about a Zacuto one? Also, if I go for the Zeiss ZE can I just use any mattebox if it fits the lens diameter?

Hi everybody, I'm considering to buy a Canon C300 in about a month or two, but I'm still undecided about what I should include in the kit. The target is filmmaking (shorts and documentaries), and the budget I have is around $40,000, but I would rather not spend all of it since I need to take in consideration stuff like insurance for the entire kit. I hope to get some advice from you. - Lenses: my first choice was to get a 4-lens Zeiss CP.2 kit (28mm, 35mm, 50mm and 85mm), but I could also go with the Zeiss ZE Distagon/Planar/Sonnar f1.4 (same focals) for a much cheaper price at the cost of lower image quality I presume; - Rig: what brand would you recommend for a basic rig kit (baseplate, rods, follow focus and mattebox)? Arri provides unmatched quality, but it's quite expensive; - What about an external recorder, like the ATOMOS Samurai? Is it really worth it? - Tripod: would you recommend to get a heavy duty tripod (like a Sachtler system with 100mm bowl) rather than a smaller lightweight one? What would you recommend? Thanks, Francesco.

What's the difference in quality between the Panchro primes and zoom lenses like the Fujinon Alura 18-80mm T2.6 or the Angenieux Optimo DP Rouge 16-42mm and 30-80mm T2.8? At times zoom lenses can be very useful.

Thanks that is definitely worth checking.

Hello everybody. I am currently part of a group of young filmmakers that want to open a new production company, aiming to produce short and feature films. Since we have a pretty good budget to get started, the idea was to buy a digital cinema camera and the first choices (at the moment) are the ARRI Alexa or the RED Epic, that we will test in order to make our decision. What we are unsure about are the lenses. I have used RED primes kit before and I wasn't really happy about it. I also used Compact Primes .2 and although they're not as fast as the RED kit, I like the overall quality for that price. What would be the best choice for a kit of primes (around T2 or faster) that would be affordable for a small newborn production company? We're talking about $20.000-40.000 for lenses only. Also, would you maybe recommend to buy a decent zoom lens instead? Thanks a lot.