Jason Mann

I'll second that. If you know a filter can give you the effect you want, and it's a nice piece of glass, it'll be easier and better-looking to shoot with it. The less post tweaking/effects stuff, the better. (IMO)

I liked the poll actually. I'm thinking of voting for "from the south" but I'm still on the fence. My Spectra is incident only, but it does that trick well. I've never met someone with one of the Sekonic 508/608 models who wasn't happy with it. Good luck!

Go test, young man! (And report back, because I've never shot a time lapse I was happy with...)

High Output is nearby too. (They rent lights/ grip stuff, etc...) I just worked on a project with them and they were very helpful and gave us a good deal.

Thanks guys! Any formats you guys prefer if I do decide to finish on video? (I have no idea if my budget will allow HD, or even how much that would cost.)

Let's say I shoot a project on 16mm and want to edit on my Final Cut Pro 4 system, but want to preserve the option to finish either back on film or on high resolution video. I have two basic questions. First, can I simply have a mini-DV transfer made with a window burn and then output an EDL for negative cutting? I've heard that miniDV timecode isn't "real" while DVCAM timecode is... Second, should I have a higher resolution transfer done first (maybe DigiBeta or HD, though I don't know the costs of either) and then dub down to miniDV to edit? Would that lead to Keycode/timecode confusion? I know Cinema Tools is supposed to help me with this, but frankly I don't understand how. Sorry if this is a bunch of silly questions, but I'm very excited about a project I have coming up and don't want to screw it all up. Thanks!

I will hopefully be shooting a doc in June of this year and I'm having trouble making a camera choice. Unless budget miracles occur and we shoot on 16mm, I think I'd like to shoot on MiniDV. I've used the DVX-100 a bunch, and I'm thinking of buying the 100A in time to shoot this summer. But should I wait? Will there be any new cameras by then (maybe Canon?) Does anyone know of any breakthroughs on the horizon that would make renting a better option? I don't want to buy a DVX and then see a 24P XL1 come out in August for the same price. On the other hand, I really like the look of the Panasonic. In short, "Help!" thanks in advance for the advice...

Couldn't agree with that more. As to whether his choices on Rabbit Proof Fence were the right ones, I can't say. But even if he chose "wrong", whatever that is, who cares? He's an artist. Isn't the whole point to screw up a different way each time? I mean, if choosing the wrong look two films in a row means you've lost it, then what's the point in being adventurous? Isn't the risk the whole point? Ah.. I don't know...

it worked !!!! thanks guys!

Well, I've started working on this project and I wanted to test how the footage looked by capturing, cutting and outputting the same footage both with the pulldown removed (23.976) and without (29.97). In Final Cut, unless my eyes deceive me, I see a huge difference. The 23.98 stuff looks much better for motion and the jagged interlace lines are gone. The same is true for the MPEG2 files I output using Compressor (one at 29.97, one at 23.98) Here's my problem: When I imported both movies to DVD Studio Pro, they both showed up as 29.97 fps. I double checked the actual .m2v files and the progressive one is a true 23.98 file. So did DVDSP convert the frame rate when I imported? Or is it confused? And if so, is it possible to have 24p material on a DVD? What I thought I understood from before was that the DVD player would add a pulldown. Maybe it's the program that adds it? Help! (thanks in advance)

If you're exporting an MPEG2 from FCP, you shouldn't have to save it in a different format before the conversion. As I understand it, this is one of the benefits of Compressor (you can also do MPEG export with the Export > Quick Time Conversion option.) If you have to save an intermediary file before encoding, I think rendering it with the Animation codec should help reduce compression artifacts. But I may be wrong. Anyone?

Chandler's awesome. (I worked there with him.) I think he may be working on something, but here's another recommendation for him.

I'm planning to shoot a small project on a friend's DVX-100. I've been reading, and realized I can reverse the 2-3-3-2 pulldown on capture into Final Cut Pro4. I'll be finishing the project on video and using DVD Studio Pro to burn it to DVD. So should I bother to reverse the pulldown? My understanding is that I'd have to add a pulldown at the end before burning the video to DVD right? Or else my video wouldn't play back on a standard TV? (Or am I way off on that?) So are there any visual advantages or drawbacks to editing a 23.98fps sequence and then outputting a 29.97fps final project to mpeg2 vs. editing and finishing entirely at 29.97? And do I get some kind of most-questions-per-post bonus?

so is there any way to beat this tendency with the divas? b/c i love the size and dimmability of them, and i think they'd be nice little lights otherwise... thanks!

Be careful with them color-wise... we just used them on a shoot and their color temp was all over the place. Could be a bad set of tubes, but we had two Divas and lots of spares and they were all pretty unreliable. just a cautionary tale....

I really like Reflections. It's a cool book based on workshops taught by famous cinematographers at USC. They have stills from the shoots and lighting diagrams, etc... It's worth checking out...

BBB? Anyone have a phone number/contact info for them? Thanks...

The lens I mean is a Canon lens that's black in color and marketed specifically as a manual focus lens for the XL-1. It has true focus marks (i.e. endstops like a normal lens, not the endlessly spinning focus ring) but also has a servo control for the zoom and, I think, an AF switch on the barrel. I know this lens exists, but I'm not sure it's the one he's describing. (Maybe I'm thinking of the servo switch for the zoom and the lens doesn't have AF. I don't know.)

This might not be true with your lens, but I know the manual lenses I've used with the XL-1 have still had an AF option. Maybe it was AF? But I doubt it, because usually the AF is pretty jarring when it starts searching for something, and it sounds like your problem is more subtle than that. Wow. I guess that's totally unhelpful. Sorry.

I ordered 300 ft of 16mm film from a company I thought was fairly reputable in December, and it's never arrived. I've heard one excuse after another, and they've repeatedly claimed that a replacement order was on the way. After I asked for a tracking number for the shipment (because I didn't believe the film was actually coming) the company simply stopped responding. I've called and emailed literally dozens of times, and at this point I can't even get a human to answer the phone. (They must have caller ID). It's too late to protest through Paypal (which is how I paid, though it wasn't an auction.) Does anyone in the Los Angeles area know how to address this? (I'm in Maine, so going to their warehouse isn't an option.) More importantly, why on earth would they act this way? Is it because 300 feet is a small order? It's depressing really. Anyway, if anybody has any ideas on how to get my money back, I'd love to hear them. ps. The company is DVfilm.net. (They have several websites, like simplepix.com, but all have the same contact info so they must be the same company.)