Buster Blakeney

Man, Jaron, that was an awesome post. Thank you so much for the thoughtful, informative, kickass answer. You make a ton of cogent points. DSLR has never been high on my list, although the DSLR/Camcorder hybrids that are springing up have their allure. I did not realize that Slumdog was shot on a 2/3 Camera - I just assumed it was shot on RED. And I definitely see your points about renting versus buying - the idea was to have them for future productions to be good to go on subsequent shoots. But yeah, rental just makes more sense - it'll probably save us thousands in overhead. And flying by the seat of our pants as we will be, it makes a hell of a lot of sense to have a contingency plan in place so production doesn't get derailed. I'll have to check out Youth Without Youth. Haven't been into Coppola's post-1991 work, so I've yet to see it. In any case, thank you very much for that awesome answer. All things to consider, but consider this post forwarded to the EP. Really cool to see somebody care enough to make such a detailed post. Thanks. --Buster

Good deal. Well, I'm not holding my breath for the Scarlet, but the RAW part doesn't bother me. I've shot on RED before and had no problems with the DI workflow, and post deadlines aren't too rigid. But after watching Philip Bloom's excellent comparison of a few of the cameras mentioned above, I keep going back to the AF100. Just seems solid all around. It doesn't perform quite as well as the PMW F3, but it holds up against the FS100 pretty well and the price point is tough to beat. Perhaps rental will end up being the way to go, but I like the idea of the agility of having two AF100s for the cost of one F3. Thanks.

If it DOES come out by the time we start shooting, what would be the advantages of an EX3 or an AF100 when it hits the scene? Just read it's something like a 1400Mb/s bitrate at 3K with shooting modes of up to 120 FPS. Seems pretty killer. Wonder if the lens on it is going to be a detriment or an advantage. --B

It is 8-Bit, but forgive me, I'm still a bit new - where in the pipeline does the SDI output come into play? There will be very little, if any, greenscreen work but it's an eventuality I'd like to be prepared for. I agree about the DSLR "Revolution", though. I bought one, and I want my fixed lens tapedeck back. Great for misty valleys and stark deserts, but trying to pull textures out of the antialiased mess you get is like trying to pull teeth out of a toothless man. But that's an excellent point as to the flexibility of the format. The kind of documentary feel we want to give doesn't lend itself to shallow focus, but it is a narrative film so it sounds like a perfect compromise. Why were the codec/lenses a problem? Perhaps firmware will be able to fix the former? Thanks for all your pointers, man. Really appreciate everybody's comments so far. EDIT: Panasonic's AVCHD's HE mode is 24 Mbps; PMW F3's codec is 35Mbps. I take it that's a pretty significant difference.

Adrian, what do you think of the AF100? Here's specs. Any hands-on with it? Looks light and flexible (only 3.5 lbs). Price is great, too. I don't have any experience with 4/3 though.

I suppose when released they'll be available for rental... For 1500 a day.

Adrian, I suppose I am overestimating the importance of compactness. I keep forgetting we're not ACTUALLY shooting a combat documentary. We could always just use some burned-out HVX and put it in the actor's hands for his "set-up". But yeah, I guess it wouldn't make sense to buy for the production given that the new standard is already upon us. Maybe a pair of Scarlets. With the rails and grips that RED integrates it might actually make a lot of sense. And yes, I agree, I got to try out an EasyRig with a fully-loaded RED while I was in Serbia last year, and it made it SO much more manageable. It couldn't work enough magic to make me a steady shooter, though - my tests were all over the place. :) What are your thoughts on the Scarlet? I know it's not out yet, but from what can be inferred does it seem like a good solution? Or would DOF be unmanageable for real visceral stuff with that fat sensor? I guess anything can be done with a capable cinematographer, but Scarlets seem like they would be a sound investment and lightweight and manageable enough to let us flex our action muscles.

Thanks for the response, Vincent. All the options are appealing, with VariCam/F900 rentals being about 2000/wk that puts us in at 12k for our production's two cameras. The downside is they're limitingly big, and don't quite allow for the same run-and-gun flexibility we'd be ideally looking for. So EX3 may be the way to go. Brian, checked out the XF300 - looks good but when I saw a comparison of the EX1 and the XF the Canon looked much, much flatter and not quite as punchy. Thoughts? Thanks for the replies, guys. Appreciated.

Thanks for the pointers, Adrian. Those definitely seem like viable options.

Hey Everybody, New to the forums, though I don't know why. I've been involved in film in some capacity since I was twelve, now I'm making the transition into professional AC/Writing/Directing work. But this place seems great so far, and I'm happy to have joined a community where there seems to be a large quotient of serious know-how. The reason I'm writing is because I need to figure out what the best type of rig will be to shoot an upcoming project. It's feature length, Cinéma vérité-style (note: I mean realistic, not shaky), and we plan on running two cameras. It's a fictionalized combat doc where the protagonist is doing the brunt of the filming, so he should have a practical, flexible, and lightweight setup. Cheap would be good too. I'm not saying sub-2k, but keep in mind, we're trying to keep the TOTAL production cost around (preferably below) 50k. My first thought initially ran to a DSLR ENG Rig, but there will be a lot of movement as necessitated by the plot and action, and shutter roll seems unappealing. Also, the fact that you can just shoot as much tape as you can carry without having to import until post is appealing. We want the production to be as agile as possible, because it'll be by the seat of our pants. The production will be supplemented by weapon- and helmet-mounted GoPro Hero Cameras. I'd love to see what the consensus is for the ideal set-ups. The alternate camera rig will likely be appearing on-camera frequently, so we want it to be operable by actors if there are certain shots that mandate them being in there with a live camera. The DP will, of course, set up aperture/stock/lens settings, but if we need to put it in an actor's hands we want to be able to say "GO SHOOT!" They will be briefed on cinematography and opping in pre-production. As far as the rigs go, we're looking for flexibility over beauty, but banding, shutter roll, etc. isn't going to be acceptable. So there we go. All comments, input, and suggestions welcome and appreciated. Thank you all very much in advance. Respectfully, --Buster Blakeney