Nelson Rogers

I agree with Phil Rhodes. If you have $15,000 to spend on a short, put it on the screen and not in a camera. You can easily rent any camera you would like to use, Alexa with a nice set of lenses etc and the gear you need to shoot, plus some knowledgeable crew for that amount of money. You could easily spend the $15k on a camera package and still not have everything you need for it. If you're not a working cinematographer, I wouldn't purchase something. I know the idea of buying seems attractive, you have a tangible item after you shoot and can re sell it if you want after, but you could probably rent and not spend the full $15k. All I know is that before spending all your hard earned money, do a budget of renting gear and paying people first. If you are shooting all day exteriors you will mostly just need grip equipment that is cheaper than lights to rent as well. Just do some homework first, good luck! -n

I have used the Alexa and 4k Blackmagic Production Camera together on a feature. We shot 4k RAW on the BMPC. I found it stood it's own when we used it on stand alone scenes i.e.: handheld work and INT car stuff. The Alexa was set up with Canon Cinema Zooms and the BMPC had the Canon Cine Primes. I think using matching lenses helped a lot. We did end up using it as a 2nd camera on the same scene cross shooting a dialogue scene at dusk. The Alexa did have way better detail in the shadows, but after the color grade I don't think the general audience will notice. I also used the BMPC on a few shots on a Ronin for a night EXT scene set in a wheat field for running shots, the rest was on the Alexa. It was lit with an 18k backlight on a lift and 5k's through 8x's on the ground. I was happy with the results. I have also done some testing of just city streets with available light and if you have fast lenses you should be fine. I'd maybe test shooting at 400 ASA and pushing a little bit compared to shooting 800 at night. I find 800 ASA a bit noisy still if not properly exposed. Also, shoot 4k RAW to get the best image possible. For the day stuff, use IR ND's to keep the black detail from getting polluted. I personally haven't used the 2.5k Blackmagic, so I can't give an insight to it, but the 4k has the global shutter, so you won't have any issues with rolling shutter with the 4k version. Hope that helps a bit. Just make sure to put some good glass on it, hopefully matching to what you shot on originally. Good luck. -Nelson

I've used the BMPC 4k and Alexa and had decent results on the feature "Unearthing". We used Canon Cinema Zooms on the Alexa and the Canon Cine Primes on the BMPC. I used the BMPC for hand held and Ronin shots as well as tight spaces like car INT's. We tested in post and had good results shooting 4k RAW. My DMT found the BMPC footage easy to work with to get a close match while grading the dailies on set. It also has a global shutter so we didn't have problems with rolling shutter. Anyway, my 2 cents on it. Hope it helps. Good luck.

I will be shooting the DVX in Germany in a few weeks. I´m from Canada and am used to shooting with a NTSC version of the camera. I am looking for any tips and info on shooting with the PAL version. Any concerns I should have?..etc. Thanks, Nelson Rogers

What PatrickNeary mentioned is your best bet. You need a Stove or Dryer Plug to Joy adapter. (It should split into 2 female joy plugs) and from this you can run lengths of joy to a "dief" aka 3x20 which has 3 20amp edison plugs. Make sure you check what the breaker is rated at..ie: if it is rated at 30amps, remember you only have 30amps available to you at each dief, which you can run two from the stove or dryer plug. So in total you can have 60amps of power split between the two diefs. I have done this many times on lower budget shows that can't afford a generator. I have managed to run a 4k HMI, 2500 and some 1200's all from using the power from stoves and dryers. It works great, and allows you to be able to use a bit bigger lights then you can with just normal house outlets. But like I said, make sure you check what the breakers are rated at, and tape up the extra outlets on the diefs if you can't run a full 60amps, just so that someone won't plug more into it then you have the power for. And when it comes to electricity, always always safety first! Good luck! Nelson Rogers

In American Beauty, Conrad Hall ASC, had amazing eye lights. One scene that stands out is the scene with Thora Birch and Wes Bently after they have just watched the bag being tossed around by the wind and Wes is talking. He is back/side lit with the camera side of his face completely black. But his eyes are on fire. Does anyone know what Conrad might have used as to not bring up the level on the shadow side, but have such a bright sparkling eye light? I really loved this look. Thanks

I wouldn't get too stressed about it. I am colourblind as well (red-green) and have been exposing film for over 10years. I started out in photography and the only time I have ever had a problem was printing colour prints and doing the colour correcting for them. Since I have been involved in shooting film (past 5 years) I have not had a problem. It depends how colorblind you are, but as for myself I have become able to tell what a colour is that I might not be too sure of by it's density. No one has ever questioned me. But like Mitch Gross and Phil Rhodes mention, Don't ever tell the client or people that are not color blind. If your not colourblind, most people assume that you don't see colour. But that is a misrepresention of colourblindness. I can see red and green, it is just that sometimes when the density of the two colours are close that they look similar. But at the sametime, more severe cases of colourblindness do have a lack of some colours and are replaced by grey tones. Good Luck!