Jayson Crothers

I'm out of town shooting an indie feature (I can assure you I would have rather been in LA at the expo); what were some highlights there this year?

Morgan~ I assume since you're looking for a place, you've decided to attend? If so, congrats and welcome! Give me a call or drop me a line and I can help out in finding you a place.

I've been using my Sekonic 508C for about 4+ years and it's never once failed me (and I've abused the living daylight out of it). Given that many folks are running for the new 608, 508's are getting cheaper and cheaper - and only needs a single AA battery to run. Highly reccommend it.

I'm in a wee bit of a bind; an associate is shooting a short piece next week and couldn't get someone to prep his HD package at Panavision (it's a gratis show). He called me and I agreed to go prep it; I've never had to prep Panavisions package though. I've shot a modest amount of HD, but never with Pana; anyone that can give me a a brief list of things to watch for during the prep (been a while since I had to prep a show in an AC capacity). This will teach me for doing favors. . . . :) Much thanks and appreciation.

While AC'ing for Jack Cooperman, ASC, he told me "You're not a success until you've been fired off of at least three big shows." A number of cinematographers I've spoken with tell about being fired off of shows for reasons that had nothing to do with them; the proverbial sacrifical lamb - so here's to all of us being fortunate enough to be fired a few times in the years to come!

David, what's the Starcam like? I can only imagine....

He recently came and spoke with some of us at AFI - wildly open and honest man; very articulate and forthcoming. He shared all his camera tests from "Amistad" with us - very interesting to watch them and listen to him speak about the progression and how he arrived at certain looks and why he made certain decisions.

If it's a 35mm Panavision show, I really like the Platinum. For non-Pana shows, the Moviecam (and I'm still a sucker for the older BL's - probably because I'm such a big guy - I like the heft of them). In 16 I really love Aatons. As for video based formats; they change so quickly! Been using the DVX100A lately and enjoying the results.

The Arri unit Kevin is talking about is called a Varicon. The advantage to the panaflasher is that it isn't a hassle in that it mounts at the magazine; the Varicon mounts onto a 6x6 matte box and is a bit unwieldy - it makes for some added difficulty with handheld shots - it's major advantage is that you can see the effect it's having through the lens and alter it on a shot by shot basis to achieve the effect you're after. Contact Arri and they'll send some decent reading material and some printed stills of what it does for you.

Contact me off list if you'd like to; I'm at AFI now and attended Columbia in Chicago prior to that.

Justin~ Used with software such as SunPath, it allows you to determine the exact position and movement of the sun at any time of any day at any place - wildly helpful for planning exterior shoots and for determining sun positions on location scouts that are weeks ahead of when you may be shooting.

A simple way to get an eye glint without filling up your shadows is to simply take a small unit like a tweenie, pile on about 12 layers of diffusion (such as 250), and place it near camera - place according to your eye and taste, but I find it to be a quick way to get glint in the eye and not affect the rest of my lighting. Or fix it in post....... (kidding!)

I suggest you speak to IO Film in North Hollywood; small facility with top notch people - they're new and are strictly a DI house, not a company that added DI's to their service list - they're doing interesting (and good) work in an efficient and VERY affordable manner over there - high marks all around.

Phil~ I think I have to disagree; being a woman is unfortunately a hindrance; this is regrettably a boys club by far and large, and while it's utter BS, it's a reality not to be overlooked. My close friend (who's a truly talented cinematographer) is often fighting for work because she's a woman; two weeks ago a producer actually asked her if she could operate the camera because of how small she is (I believe the actual quote was "Are you strong enough to carry one of those cameras? They're pretty big...") That's not to say it's impossible, nor should that dissuade you; my Key Grip is a woman and she's often turning down work because she's very much in demand, as is my 1st AC - just be aware that being a woman will bring new obstacles that shouldn't be, but are.

My director would like a number of slow motion shots in his upcoming production - shooting on DV, I'm obviously fearful of a cheesy effect done in post where it looks awful and strobing. I'm wondering if a faster shutter speed would create less motion blur, so when the images are slowed down, they don't have such a choppy look - any other input on ways to shoot for this inevitable effect would be appreciated. Of course, I've no time to test this..........figures. Thanks to all.

As with the entire forum, I congratulate you and your well deserved induction. Here's to many years ahead! Congrats again David!

I've a shoot coming up soon where we intend to use this device with Zeiss Super Speeds. I've done a great deal of research, and had a brief stint to work with it at the rental house, but will unfortunately not be able to properly test it. Any personal experience and advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

Got a shoot in a few weeks where our lead is an albino (not a make up job, a real albino). He's coming from NY, so I won't have time for tests with him (being that I'm in LA). I'm wondering if anyone in here has everworked with albinos and some thoughts or advice on lighting pitfalls/tricks; the piece is digital, so there's that to consider as well - most of the film is in a bowling alley, so at least there are minimal day exteriors to contend with. Thanks.

One of the best purchases you can make is a quality compass and clinometer (Suunto is an excellent comany that makes a combo called the tandem). Purchase SunPath software and you can plot EXACTLY where the sun will be at a SPECIFIC point on a particular day and a paricular time. Easy to learn, and for location scouts and planning it's invaluable - you can scout a location three months ahead of time and know that the sun will come thru a window at a certain angle naturally for exactly how long - of course, weather conditions can change it, but it's practically a necessity if you plan on doing any serious day work (in my opinion). There's another piece of software designed by astronomers that you can download for free, but I can't recall where to find it just now. Hope this helps.

A low-con stock is likely your best bet; on S16 you could go with 7277, but I'm a big fan of the 7218 because it feels a little less grainy and still has that wide latitude. If there are windows in the hut, some shiny boards thru 4x4 frames of diffuison will help raise levels inside the hut nicely, and a 20x20 or even a 12x12 outside will help bring levels down in front of the hut. If you have people moving from outside to inside, speak with your AC about iris pulls - I've been doing more and more of them lately (out of necessity) and am still amazed at how well they can be hidden - I recall speaking with the camera crew from the show "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" and they talked about doing iris pulls from inside buildings to outside with pulls that were anywhere from 4 - 7 stops; you could never tell. If you'd prefer a tighter stock; you could go with something slower and then flash it with a varicon, but I'm not sure of your budget.

I'll say again - this has nothing to do with cinematography or HD or anything else remotely associated with this forum. Please do not post these types of things on this site. Thank you.

As hopefully the final reminder: This is a cinematography forum, designed to discuss technical and aesthetic questions and issues about, and in regards to, cinematography. This post, and many of your others, has nothing to do with cinematography. Please stop posting these types of things on here. Thank you.

David, where are you going back to school?

There are a few factors to consider; budget, do you have a dolly grip who's comfortable with a particular model over another; space in the location, ease of set-up/take down, schedule, etc. I agree with Wendell entirely; I just wrapped a shoot where my camera lived on our arm for the entire day; we had a good sized working space and a 7 foot arm; very flexible to add a small move here and there and for much of the day we could simply rotate the arm around to a new position with minimal to no dolly movement. A very effective logistical and artistic tool if it can be had.

Ok......since I attend AFI, I should probably say something. Bill Dill, ASC, is our primary instructor, and his point about no excuse for bad photography is more a matter of photography that tells a story visually; it's photography that supports and propels the story along. Nobody in the audience will know or care about your low budget, short schedule, lack of a certain piece of gear, etc. If you don't have the budget, figure out how to tell the story the director and you want on the budget you DO have. Short schedule? Create fewer images that are stronger. One can ALWAYS find an excuse for bad work; "Well, we only had 160 days of principal photography.....and with so much above the line money tied up, that only left us with around $50 million............" Obviously better gear will allow one to do work easier, but too often film students get wrapped up in gear; I often hear "We got this really cool probe lens" more than I hear "It's this great story about a boy and his dog. . ." You're the cinematographer; it's YOUR responsibility to create those images for the story; you're the final gatekeeper of every image; part of your job is to take into consideration the resources you have available and make them work for you and the story; learn from others and remember that simple is often far more effective (both creatively and logistically) than some cool set-up; think of the well known scene in "American Beauty" of the man and boy standing outside behind the restaurant smoking pot; big wide shot with a key side light, fill, and a light in the doorway - Conrad Hall could obviously get whatever he damn well pleased, but look at what he did with such simplicity. I was recently at Mole Richardson and watched Jack Green, ASC, do a fantatsic lighting demo where he did beautiful work with 2 simple lights - and he worked for years with Clint Eastwood, who hated doing more than one take, didn't like to rehearse, and insisted on 8 hour days. I can assure you he made all of that work (and quite well in my opinion). What's taught at AFI (I can't attest for anywhere else really) is that you need to tell the story truthfully; you can whine about poor gear, or you can make it work for you in the best way possible. Gear is gear; nice gear is always nice to have, but not needed to do solid work of certain level of excellence. Too often people use gear as an excuse....... And I'll step off of my wee apple box now.