Brian Wells

There are some examples of that effect on the Dedolight site: http://www.dedolight.com/projection/34.html

Hi, I don't have any answers to your questions as I'm primarily a video shooter, but I just wanted to say that your Whoolly Mammoth was by far the most fun guitar pedal I have ever owned. It sounded great with my Gibson Les Paul and Mesa Trem-O-Verb 212 Combo ("Stu-G" wanna be!)... I unfortunately had to sell a lot of my guitar gear when I became serious about camera work, but I'll be a Z-Vex customer again in the future, no doubt. Anyways... Thanks for creating your unique line of effects pedals for discriminating guitarists~! I think they're great!!! Have fun with Super16mm! Rock on, Brian

JD, Thank you, sir! As you can tell from my initial post, my knowledge of diesel generators is extremely limited. I appreciate you setting the facts straight on the import generator. I am a phlegmatic buyer (I like to sit on things for a while before making a commitment) and appreciate the sound advice. The terms you've provided give me some areas to research -- such as "frequency regulation" which I currently know nothing about. Because of your kind advice, I have decided to wait until I can afford a better brand such as Yanmar, Cummins, or Honda. That's the only way to be satisfied. I hate buying junk. Thanks again, Brian Wells

I am fascinated by the combination of these affordable devices: 4K DE HMI Fresnel with Magnetic Ballast $1000 to $1500 on eBay (generalization of what they sell for on a regular basis). 6,500W "<70db" attenuated diesel generater on eBay $1500 (includes shipping) Can't determine if it's pure sine wave or not... That's a question mark. It looks like a Honda, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything. http://cgi.ebay.com/Portable-6500-watt-6-5...1QQcmdZViewItem 4K Double-Ended HMI globes are selling for around $200 - $250 on eBay as well. So, it appears that $3000.00 will buy an older 4K HMI Fresnel, an MOS genny (in other words, NOT as quiet as a LitePower, but WAY better than a "putt putt"), and a 4K globe. Does this seem like a bargain to anyone else? What problem areas should I be aware of before buying a setup like this? The primary purpose of ownership would be for experimentation and spec's. I don't think I would trust this level of equipment for commercial work. But, for experimentation, yeah baby! Ownership actually works out much cheaper than renting at $500 per day, assuming the gear works for at least six days...

Check with Gear Monkey Rentals -- Orange county's largest and most successful rental house. They also have a fully stocked expendables store for your convenience... www.gearmonkeyrentals.com

Richard, I have only one question for you. Have you ever worked with a Canon EOS-1Ds digital still camera for any length of time? That's a yes or no question. If you had, you would see why professional digital cameras have gained respectability as serious image making tools. When you make comments like "RED is just another Betacam" that's like saying the 1Ds is "just another cellphone camera" Any logical person would dismiss it immediately. Not here to cause any trouble with you, just to point out my concern for your statements.

Have you seen 2nd Unit? It's an online video series with in depth interviews of accomplished DP's. Here's the link: www.2nd-unit.tv

Indianapolis is much worse. The city offers a generous trash pickup allowance of 10 containers per household, per week, free of charge. But, if you choose to recycle, you must pay a $10 weekly pickup fee. Hence, basically no-one recycles anything in my area. Compare us to Chicago. They actually encourage recycling. In Chicago, you will pay extra for more than 1 bag of trash pickup each week, but there is no limit on the amount you can recycle. Hence, lots of people recycle in Chicago. I wish more cities were like Chicago in this regard.

I have always taken the position of only buying stuff that's too inconvenient for me to rent. Litepanels is a really useful device, but it's a huge hassle to rent when the closest shop that has one is four hours away. Likewise, nobody rents matte boxes or filters in my area. So, I bought my own complete kit. A future purchase will be a 6x6 Cardellini/Avenger frame because I like the way it folds up... and, because they aren't available for rental in my area. But, if I lived in LA, I would think twice about owning equipment that was easy to rent. It's all a matter of convenience and how much you're willing to pay for the convenience. In my case, I really had no other option. I had to buy the tools of my trade, otherwise I would not have access to them.

First, you've got to have a real fluid head (i.e. - fluid in both horizontal and vertical axis). Very few of the "DV" heads are completely fluid. Assuming you have a real fluid head ($1000+) that is capable of smooth diagonals, then it's just a matter of practice. I have found it very difficult to get smooth diagonals using anything less than heads in the $1K price range. Most skills are easier to master if you have access to the right tools than if you are stuck with inferior tools, in my observation. I recommend the Cartoni Focus as the bottom of the rung professional head if you want to achieve smooth pans and diagonals. The Vinten Vision 3 is also very nice, but it has a completely different feel than the Cartoni. I would avoid Sachtler and Miller in the sub $2k price range because they have very few adjustments compared to the others and are not as flexible for different types of cameras (primarily in the area of counter balance). If money is no object, then look into the O'Conner Ultimate DV. I have the Cartoni Focus and have found it to be an adequate head for my needs and certainly a notch above all others in its category. Hope this helps.

B)--> QUOTE(Jason B @ Aug 28 2006, 02:05 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> maybe I should just buy a Diva. Diva's are just "OK" but not excellent. The 55W biax tubes have problems with color shifting. I speak from experience as the owner of several Kino Diva 200's. Save your money. If you can spend a little more, the 2' 4-Bank Select is a much more versatile light with better color accuracy.

Matt, I think you're on the right track. I suggest finding a DVD with Young Jeezy's "And Then What" music video for inspiration. Your description of the lighting setup reminds me of the club scenes in that music video. Good luck!

There are currently Still Photographers and Motion Photographers. I suspect that will change as soon as we have cameras that perform both functions well. Then, there will only be Photographers once again.

You have just learned a valuable lesson. When you own the gear, you have an enormous amount of leverage. Without it, you have practically none. If you decide to walk, it will be bad news for them. Even though you are very experienced and valuable to the production, remember you can easily be replaced with another warm body just to help move stuff around. But, they would have a much harder time replacing the sound guy and his equipment in the event he decided to walk. So, it's in the best interest of the production to pay him more to keep him happy. That doesn't mean it is fair or reasonable to the rest of the crew. But, that's how it works. You might think about investing in a 1Ton package so this won't happen to you again. Or, perhaps do sound work to fill in your camera dept and grip jobs.

To me, that looks like a traditional silver umbrella as the main light. Or, it could be a fresnel bounced into a large silver pop-up reflector. Or, a Photoflex Octodome or Briese light for all I know! Whatever it is, it's round. Because it's high in contrast, I tend to think it's something silver (umbrella or reflector), not a softbox. In any case, anything silver and round should get you in the ballpark. There are, of course, a couple of diffused backlights as Michael already mentioned. The backdrop is white seamless paper and is probably lit with a small heavily diffused fresnel or Dedolight. Just have to experiment to see what you can what you come with. This should help illustrate some of the techniques of studio portraiture: http://www.photoflexlightingschool.com/Equ...hion/index.html

I thought The Elms "Nothing To Do With Love" music video was well done for a Christian band. To see the video, go to the director's website: www.lukerenner.com For an article about the production, go here: http://www.screenmag.tv/feature.aspx?fid=1155

Sometimes it all depends on how the camera is set up and the post workflow. My ENG reel consists of 50% Panasonic SDX900 and 50% Panasonic DVX100A. By far, I get the most positive compliments on my DVX100A stuff. Why? The DVX100A is set up for slightly higher contrast and higher color saturation and with 0% IRE setup and is transferred via firewire into FCP. The SDX900 is setup the way it came from Panasonic, as far as I know, but with 7.5% IRE setup (should be 0% IRE and altered later for broadcast) plus it goes through 50 Feet of composite cable into an Avid Adrenaline 50 Feet away and is digitized using the DVCPRO25 codec (even though the tapes are recorded in DVCPRO50). Yes, I think it's incomprehensible that this company would have one of the finest SD cameras on the market and the finest Avid on the market, and mess up the process so badly. But, nonetheless, my DVX100A footage consistently looks sharper, with better contrast, better resolution, and better colors. It just looks better. Everyday people notice the difference immediately. So, sometimes it's more than just the camera or the format that determines picture quality. Often less expensive gear looks better because it's used more wisely.

Does anyone actually record sound with Super8? Phase cancellation of the camera noise is a novel idea, but it seems to me that anyone with money to spend would be shooting on a quiet S8 or even S16 camera and not have any need for a device that cancels out the motor noise. In any case, most peripheral noises can be mitigated by simply using the microphone away from the camera. If the microphone is mounted on the camera, sure, it can be tough to get good audio. But, by simply using the directional microphone on a boom pole pointed away from the camera, motor noise (on video or film) is dramatically reduced because of the effectiveness of the shotgun mic design. I still think a phase cancellation device for mitigating motor noise is a cool idea. I just can't imagine anyone using it for Super8 filmmaking. In_My_Opinion. Keep it up.

Yeah, mainly it's just lit really well. That's why it looks so good.

Truth is you probably won't be satisfied with the images from any camera without years of cinematography experience. At least that's how I feel about my own work. As much as I love the DVX100A, which is the camera I own and prefer over the XL2... I have to say that "28 Days Later" (shot on the original XL-1S) still looks much better than anything I've shot on my newer camera. Guess it all has to do with the experience and talent of the person behind the lens...

IDX batteries can "stack" onto each other for longer runtimes. In fact, Barry Rubin of IDX created an adapter to load 4 IDX Endura's on a VariCam at one time. It works great. The support team at IDX is superb, and their product design is second to none. My only hesitation in recommending them is that I've seen more than one Endura stop "locking in" after being abused by freelancers. The plastic casing on the front of the batteries (where additional batteries snap on) has a way of "chipping off" in a way I haven't seen before. My conclusion is that it's abuse. My feeling is that if you take good care of them, they'll work great for a long time. And, they'll be significantly more useful than a battery system that limits you to one battery at a time -- a real limitation on HD cameras that (obviously) need a lot of juice.

I have long been aware of the "Star Pattern" lens flare exhibited by the DVX100A... What I wasn't aware of before now was the beautiful "Blue Streak" flare possible only on a wide open aperture with this camera. Wow, what a terrific find! Here's what I discovered tonight: Equipment + Settings Camera: Panasonic DVX100A, 24PA, f/1.6 (wide open), 1/1000th Shutter Speed, Century Optics 0.7X wide lens, Focus was on "84" which is Pana-Jargon for 20-30 feet away. No filtration. Light: Dedolight DLHM4-300 (150W/24V, full spotted in the general direction of camera) Next, I racked the focus to "1" which is macro focus on this camera. I wanted to see if the flare was any different without the wide angle lens attachment. Turns out the flare is even more pronounced using only the built-in lens, without any add on's. I actually liked it better without the wide angle lens. As I "stopped down" the pretty blue flare started to give way to the "star effect" I'm accustomed to seeing from this camera. This still was taken at f/2.8, I think. By the time I reached f/5.6 the blue flare was completely gone. Just for fun, I popped in a Schneider Digicon 1 filter in the matte box and also aligned the Dedolight (still on full spot) directly into the lens of the camera and discovered this interesting effect. For the last shot, I flooded the Dedolight to see what would happen. Here's what I found. So, as you can see, it's possible to get some pretty neat flares with this camera and a point source! BLUELENSFLARE_DVX100A.mov

Overall I would consider this to be a fairly lazy attempt at shooting a commercial spec. The problems that immediately come to mind were the cockeyed horizon line, mediocre framing, and that disgustingly overused blue-green transfer look. We didn't have much time shoot everything before the employees starting asking questions like, "Excuse me, sir, what are doing here? I need to ask my manager if you're allowed to be here..." This was made about six months ago, thus the political relevance of it has long since passed. But, I thought I'd post it here anyway. All feedback encouraged. Thanks! http://homepage.mac.com/thisiswells/WiretapsSpec.mov

Only a pathetic person would get ever upset over something like that -- true professionals are friendly and understanding, at least to your face. In any given city, EVERYBODY remembers the people who are hard to get along with and they are always the last person called in for work. During periodical downturns in the regional workload, it's the meanies who suffer the most. The nice guys always get called before them. ;)

Barry sold the line years ago and is no longer associated with the product. As I recall, indietoolbox.com was selling an interview-sized screen for around $500 a year ago. Update: I checked the site and the current price is $650.00US, shipped.