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Rex Harris

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About Rex Harris

  • Birthday July 20

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  • Occupation
    Cinematographer
  • Location
    UK
  1. When I worked as a gaffer a few years ago we had plenty of those kind of lights hanging at 45 degrees and even higher angles than that with no problems. As Jon said above, oil on the bulb is the most likely culprit, especially given the time frame. Providing your gaffer didn't handle the bulb the rental company should have no argument.
  2. Hi all, I've become involved with a music video project which has a rather low production budget (naturally), the director as a result has decided to shoot on HDV and for various reasons will not have their mind changed. Now I have no problem with this but having never worked with HDV before I have little idea how to go it. The director wants interior shots, artificial light (incandescent), lots of shadowy corners etc. They're very against a daylight look so the likes of kinos and neutral practicals are out of the question. My initial thoughts are to light up the scene with tungsten and WB to get them around 4000k, light up the shadow areas and crush them back down in post (I'm aware of low light problems in HDV).. However the director wants strong colours, if I go too warm with the Ts how will HDV register the colours? Sorry for the vagueness but any help pointing my feet in the right direction would be greatly appreciated! Cheers, Rex
  3. I usually have a bunch of weird things that I seem to collect and that remain in my tool pouch... Actually the weirdest thing I carry is a diagram of street-lamp wiring, it's a sort of in-joke coming from my days as a gaffer when one rather outrageous DP insisted that since our generator was no where to be seen, we should wire in to a street-lamp and 'not tell anyone about it'... I rather recklessly went over the post, switched it on and told him 'here is your key, now go f--- yourself', then I walked off the set. I picked up the actual diagram as a present from a friend working at the local electric company some months later. Oh I have a set of the most useless screwdrivers in the world also, they're designed to work on a screw that hasn't been invented yet, I really must get around to inventing that screw when I have time..
  4. Well quite clearly this is getting rather heated so let me introduce a few notes from my own experience using DIY C-Stands and before anyone goes tearing into me for being irresponsible, I come from an engineering background, I know how to build these things safely (paperwork to prove it! ;)). So clearly there is concern about the materials used to make DIY stands. I have to agree, I would be a little concerned if someone used aluminium piping with $3 threads to hold a 5K but I don't see why you couldn't use those cheap materials to support something light like a flag etc. From a technical point of view, the joints are the weakest point, I prefer to get steel threads as opposed to the brass alloys that you commonly see in DIY stores, steel is stronger and less likely to snap. Another thing I like to do is put a little weight at the bottom of the stand (I use a heavier center pole for the lower segment), really all this does is lower the center of gravity and make it unlikely that should some incompetent crew member set the thing up ready for a light, then run off to find a sandbag, leaving the stand alone and dangerously close to a man who has a passion for bumping into things, I can be confident that it would take one almighty shove to cause the thing to fall over and potentially injure someone. Although this risk is present with professionally made C-stands too. In most cases, common sense prevails but I'm always paranoid about these things, it comes from seeing the damage badly made DIY rigs can do.
  5. When I said the design was 'flawed and unsafe', what I meant was there are no safety guarantees, it's not been load tested and you have no idea how much weight you can put on it safely, also it lends itself well to toppling over at the slightest bump and the top pipe which goes to the 5/8 pin could well bend or snap if you get the 'weight balance' wrong. I'm not saying 'don't use them', I'm just saying I personally would feel a little uneasy about it, especially leaving them in the hands of crew members who may be a little more reckless.
  6. A DP friend of mine was enjoying a rich and steady work flow shooting commercials until he made a fundamental error. During a shoot for a restaurant commercial the client complained that the food looked 'off'. This was universally agreed amongst the crew to be the fault of the food stylist who in fairness was lovely but rather inexperienced. Rather than taking the issue up with the food stylist and 'keeping the client happy', he took the issue up with the agency 'go-between' who promptly fired him and he was replaced shortly after. He was a damn good cinematographer who was well on his way to bigger and bigger projects but thanks to this little diplomatic oversight his work-flow has decreased and his name is tarnished. If you have respect for everyone on set, you'll find it easier to progress.
  7. Good choice, those lights have served me well during many a shoot. In fact in four years of use I've only ever had one major problem with them which I suspect was caused less by the fixture and more by abuse from an incompetent crew member. Don't forget to get a set of scrims, I can't stress how useful they are (or have been at least to me).
  8. Sorry if this has become an old issue but I just saw it and felt the need to add my opinion. I agree that on set there is nothing better than the use of reliable and trustworthy, professionally made C-stands, upon which you can rely to do the job safely. I must say however that a few years ago I built some DIY C-stands to my own design which I have used many times on set which much success. I admit the design in the link above is unsafe and flawed and I wouldn't trust it with any of my crew who's safety and welfare I'm responsible for. I should add though, I used to be an engineer and with that background comes the knowledge of what metal structures will hold a massive weight and what will fall over or collapse etc. So in short, unless you know what you're doing, I wouldn't put the well-being of yourself and your crew in the hands of any DIY design, I wouldn't even trust someone else to build my own design for those very reasons. But that's just my opinion, not the undisputed law of the universe.
  9. It should be fine to store the film in your van providing you don't leave it in the window in full sun etc (common sense obviously). The space blanket sounds like a good idea. You can also get covers to put on the windscreen of a car to prevent the heat from turning it into a sauna, you could use one of those perhaps. If memory serves me correctly baking the negative can result in lower contrast, with blacks turning slightly more blueish, also note an increase in graininess of the film. I wouldn't do it without testing first. Good luck!
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