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Brett Allbritton

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Everything posted by Brett Allbritton

  1. Brett Allbritton
    Oops, I guess I forgot the floor plan. Here you go.
  2. Brett Allbritton
    Hey everybody, I have a short film shoot coming up soon that's becoming quite a challenge. I've attached a rough floor plan for reference. Hopefully, soon I'll be able to go in and get actual measurements of the room. Basically, the scene is about a couple in their bedroom at night. The director wants a warm, somewhat dim look. The scene from Sicario when Jon Bernthal's character attacks Emily Blunt comes to mind, though far less of a silhouette. We'll be doing some tests later this week and possibly rearranging some furniture, but this is what I know so far: The scene must be done in one continuous take, meaning I will have to follow the actors as they move around the room from the vantage point of the camera near the corner. At various times throughout the scene, the actors will need to be at the mirror, the closet (it's a long closet with sliding doors. I'll be getting a profile shot of one of the actors looking into it at the spot I currently have them pictured at here), and going out into the hallway. With so much of the room being shot, and with the room being fairly cramped, I'm very worried about how I'm going to be able to light it and yet still manage to hide everything from the camera. My current idea is to rig up a wall spreader with two diffused lights (I'm thinking two 420w Peppers) aimed in the direction of my actors to imitate the glow of the lamps behind them. Then I'll set up a light in the closet to provide a little bit of fill, thus suggesting another practical source within the closet, but I'm honestly not sure how good this will look, hence why I'm planning to do some tests later this week. I feel like this is going to be pretty challenging, so I'd be very thankful to hear whatever thoughts or advice you guys might have.
  3. Brett Allbritton
    I have an adapter made by RAF Camera that seems to have been specifically designed for using that lens on Micro Four Thirds cameras. It's longer than a typical adapter so that the end of it doesn't hit the sensor, and I've used it to put the lens on a GH4 without any issues. I've also seen footage from a Blackmagic Pocket Camera using it. The only issue is that, as already noted, the lens doesn't fully cover the sensor, though at longer focal lengths the vignetting is much more subtle. It's at least something fun to play around with, or if you don't mind cropping the image to look like 16mm. I actually saw a short film shot with a Blackmagic that cropped the image to 1.33:1 and just went with the 16mm look. Search for "RAF Camera M42x1 lens to MFT" and you'll find it.
  4. Brett Allbritton
    Hey everybody. Coming up this week I'm going to be shooing a commercial for a company that makes granite table tops and was hoping to get some thoughts on how to light it. The idea is that we'll be shooting overhead looking down as we see hands on the counter doing different day to day tasks. For example, we will start with one counter top as we see a hand throw some keys on the counter, cut to a different one as we see someone else's hands preparing food, then another as we see the hands of a kid playing with a toy car, and so forth. I'm curious as to how some of you guys might tackle lighting this. I'm imagining high key, soft lighting. Obviously I can't use a soft overhead source because my camera will be in the way, and I'm a bit concerned about distracting reflections on the counter top. I have a few Arri fresnels, Lowel Pro's, Omni's, and a Tota available to use. At the moment, I'm thinking along he lines of shooting a 650 Fresnel through some kind of diffusion to the side, maybe even a book light, but I'd love to hear your suggestions. Thanks!
  5. Brett Allbritton
    I actually have a 2K just like the one you posted a picture of. I got it for free from the TV station I work at. It was laying around in the back of the studio, unused for years, so our engineer didn't mind just giving it to me. I thought I'd clean it up but have yet to do so, and it doesn't have a bulb in it so I can't test it. Honestly I've been thinking about getting rid of it ever since I learned that there is asbestos in it.
  6. Brett Allbritton
    I've been thinking about making a post like this for a while, but have been hesitant. I also work in the creative services department of a local television station. When I started two years ago I thought this job would be a stepping stone, but it quickly became clear that it's a dead end unless I want to be a manager in 10 years. Because of how things are run around here I basically only get to do pretty run and gun style shoots for local businesses. We barely have any gear available (I've brought my own color chart, C-Stands and so forth on a shoot before and my bosses seemed to not really know what they were). It's quite seldom that I get to utilize the skills I've worked so hard to improve through practice at home and reading this forum over the years. When I've tried to get my foot in the door, it feels like the prospect of landing even the smallest of positions on larger productions is almost impossible. I've learned not to have too big of expectations, but I don't even know where to start other than the general advice of moving to a bigger town and trying to meet people once there. I don't mean to hijack the thread for my own purposes, but I imagine you're feeling pretty similarly, and I doubt we're the only ones in this position.
  7. Brett Allbritton
    Hey everyone, I recently have been attempting to understand ACES. Currently, I am using C-LOG footage from a C100 mk II, but I've noticed that the IDT for C100 C-Log isn't listed in the Resolve project settings. I've found a CTL file for this (presumably) on Canon's website, but I have no idea how to install that in the program, and the more I try to delve into ACES the more complicated everything seems to be. Does anyone have advice for this? Thanks!
  8. Brett Allbritton
    I recall noticing that B&H has a how to guide on photographing an eclipse that might be helpful. I will say though, I've personally decided that I'm not going to worry about recording it, I'm just going to watch. Some of my coworkers said that they're going all out and setting up every camera they have, but I know myself well enough that if I tried to shoot it I'd just end up missing out because I'd be fiddling with my camera. :P
  9. Brett Allbritton
    I recently purchased a color chart to use while grading and am curious about how to treat middle grey. Intuition would tell me to place it around 50% on the waveform, and articles I've seen on the subject say 45%. However, I know that different cameras record middle grey differently, for example, C-LOG places middle grey at 32% IRE. I haven't been able to really test it with the C100 I use at work yet, but I'm curious, when grading a C-LOG image, should I correct middle grey to 45-50% IRE, or should I leave it at 32% IRE, and just adjust my highlights and shadows accordingly? Thanks.
  10. Brett Allbritton
    Hey everyone, Lately I've been looking for wide angle m42 lenses to use on my K-3. I'm quite fond of wide angle lenses, so the limited options available for this camera have been a bit frustrating. Even more so though, I've been really frustrated with the minimum focus of 2 meters on the Meteor 5-1, so my objective lately has been to find a decently wide M42 lens with a much closer minimum focus that I can use as my "normal" lens. Naturally, I've come across the two most common options; the Peleng 8mm and the Zenitar 16mm. I've seen good images with both, but I feel like the Peleng's more apparent distortion might be annoying for some shots (even though I'd love to have that field of view). Perhaps I will try to acquire both eventually, but lately I've been leaning towards choosing the Zenitar and just dealing with the fact that it's not much wider. Then I discovered another wide angle M42 lens that doesn't seem to get mentioned much: the Peleng 17mm. Sure, the Meteor goes to 17mm, but the Peleng has a much closer minimum focus. Do any of you have experience with both the Peleng 17mm and the Zenitar? I've seen it suggested that the Peleng looks a bit sharper altogether, but I'm curious to see if any direct comparisons have been done. Thanks! P.S. If anyone knows where I can find an SMC Takumar 15mm for a good price, be sure to let me know... ;)
  11. Brett Allbritton
    Hey everyone. The other day I was testing out different bulbs in my 1K fresnel to see how wattage correlates to output (switching from 750 to 1K only resulted in 1/3 stop difference, which I found really surprising). I did something stupid though: since I only had my light on for a few seconds to take a quick light meter reading, I thought that the lamp probably wasn't that hot, and waited far less time than I normally would for it to cool down. Basically, I touched the bulb with the gloves I happened to be wearing at the time (which aren't real proper leather electrician gloves but rather a pair I found at Home Depot with faux leather-like tips on the fingers designed so you can use touch screens), and some of the faux leather finger tips melted right onto the glass of the bulb. Fortunately, these gloves are thick enough that I didn't get hurt, but unfortunately, I have this melted stuff stuck to my lamp. Are there ways to clean off lamps? I know mine might even be a lost cause now, but this seems like it might be useful information for the future. Thanks.
  12. Brett Allbritton
    I had this same problem a little while ago while learning to load my camera. I ended up just finding a cheap roll of expired film on Ebay because I wasn't sure if you could just ask film labs for scrap film.
  13. Brett Allbritton
    D'oh! *facepalms* Suddenly everything makes sense again, hahaha. I think in my head for whatever reason I was imagining the scene itself getting darker, hence my hypothetical meter reading numbers getting higher, rather than stopping down in camera to underexpose... Yeah, I'll use that excuse... Thanks, AJ! I'd love to see more of the film sometime. Coincidentally I'm going to shoot a short film later this year that is also set in the 60s, and your footage is quite inspiring!
  14. Brett Allbritton
    I’m absolutely fascinated by this, but completely lost! Hahaha. I’d love to ask a few questions if you don’t mind, as I think these shots look great! What I didn’t know before reading this is that changing the ISO isn’t actually making the camera more sensitive to light, but rather shifting how much of the details above and below middle grey that the camera records. More details in the shadows are recorded when decreasing the ISO and more details in the highlights are recorded when increasing the ISO. I guess this is what initially made it confusing for me, as it seems so contrary to how I normally think about it: lower ISOs for bright, usually daylight scenes, and higher ISOs for dark, usually nighttime scenes. It seems ironic that the scenes which might really benefit from a high ISO are already really bright. The part that really confused me though is that you set the ISO on the camera to 1600, but referred to that as underexposing 1 stop from 800. I’m sure there’s some conceptual thinking at work here that I just don’t understand yet, but that really threw me off as I would’ve taken this to mean a one stop increase from ISO 800. To help clarify myself, suppose your incident meter gives a reading of f/8 at 800 ISO, which would be equivalent to f/11 at 1600 ISO. Wouldn’t 1600 ISO minus 2 stops be f/5.6, which is equivalent to the meter reading for 800 ISO minus one stop? You also mentioned that your incident meter was set to 6400 ISO, which would give you a reading of f/22 in this scenario. If the camera is at 1600, wouldn’t this reading be just two stops under exposed, not three? Sorry if I’m rambling, I’m just very curious!
  15. Brett Allbritton
    Thanks, Bill. That's certainly what I'm looking for: quality that gives me objective results. I'm curious now though that I just read Art Adams' article on the X-Rite Color Checker vs the DSC Labs OneShot which he designed, as he mentions that it includes a scale of common skin tones as well as RGB and CMY which line up more accurately with a vectorscope than those on the Color Checker. Then I noticed that the Kodak Grey Card Plus appears to have been similarly designed, and is also slightly cheaper. Has anyone used these three and can speak to the differences?
  16. Brett Allbritton
    Thank you. Perhaps then I will save some cash and buy the used set.
  17. Brett Allbritton
    Hey everyone, I'm looking to get a set of scrims for 1K Fresnel that I acquired a little while ago, and I wanted to ask a quick question. I saw some used scrims online that were a decent price, but they had that "burned" look after lots of use, reminding me a lot of how the protective screen on my Omni light looks. This might sound silly to ask, but does that affect the quality of the scrim at all? I know that gels tend to fade over time, so it made me wonder if perhaps a heavily used Double scrim might not really cut a full stop, for example. Does anyone have experience with this? Thanks!
  18. Brett Allbritton
    Hey everyone, I was hoping I might find someone here who has experience with a Bell & Howell 2585 projector. A few months ago, I took my K-3 for a spin, shot a roll of film and had it printed. Long story short, I had a different Bell and Howell projector at the time that I put a lot of effort into fixing so that I could watch my test roll, but eventually discovered what was really wrong with it; a cracked worm gear. So some time passed and I still wasn't able to watch my film, which was very frustrating. Eventually I ordered a Bell and Howell 2585 projector off of Ebay that was I told was in working condition. My problem is, I just got done using it for the first time, and I think I've already messed something up... Fortunately, I finally got to watch my test roll which was pretty magical, but my continuing issues with projectors have just made me really frustrated with the whole experience. First, there seems to be an issue with the autoload function. I managed to get around this by doing it manually, and I'll likely take a video of this in a little bit to show what my concerns are here, but for now this is the less pressing issue. My real problem came after I watched my film for the first time. I noticed that it seemed to be playing back at a slower rate, maybe 18 fps. I ignored this for the time being, thinking maybe this is just a setting I missed on my projector. Then, after the film finished, I did something stupid. While the leader at the end was still playing through the projector, I turned the knob to the reverse setting. I quickly realized this was the wrong way to rewind the film because the projector made a bad sound and then slowly came to a halt, so I shut it off. I then put it back in forward position, let the film continue all the way through the projector to the take up reel, and then rewound the film the proper way, just one reel to the other. My problem is that when I try to play the film now, no clear image is projected, just strange smears of light on the screen. Did I mess up my second projector already when I tried to put it in reverse with the film still in the machine? Does anyone know if this is fixable? I appreciate any advice, as my 16mm film experience has turned out to be way more frustrating than I'd hoped.
  19. Brett Allbritton
    Hi everyone, I just wanted to get a few perspectives on grey cards. I currently own a cheap Neewer card that has worked fine for my purposes so far, but I've always wondered how accurate it is. Because I intend to test some film stocks soon, I want to find one that I know is perfect. I've been thinking about getting the Kodak R-27 card, but the price tag of $27 for a piece of cardboard has made me hesitant to do so. I can't help but think that if I'm going to pay money for a reference like this, maybe I should look at other options as well. Does anyone have any grey card recommendations as well as advice on using one? Thanks.
  20. Brett Allbritton
    Thanks, Mark! By the way, I saw your video on how to load it and it was very helpful. I got worried about keeping the gate clean while practicing loading it. I used the same 3' piece of scrap film multiple times, then wondered if maybe that would leave behind some kind of residue. I also didn't have an extra metal spool to use, and had to use the plastic ones; the sprockets don't seem to fit properly on those. Do you typically clean it every time you load a new roll of film? I'm sure that I have a clean, unused paintbrush somewhere that should be useful.
  21. Brett Allbritton
    An update: I got my K-3 back yesterday after having the loop formers removed and the camera cleaned, and I'm really happy with the result. I've even been able to practice loading it with some scrap film and I think I'm getting the hang of it. Does anyone have any advice on cleaning the gate? The manual I found for it online suggests using a Q-Tip, but I feel like this would just end up leaving little strands of cotton behind. I'm thinking of just using an air blower I have for my lenses, but I thought perhaps someone here might know some good tricks.
  22. Brett Allbritton
    I actually drove from Tallahassee to make it to this workshop they when they held it in Atlanta. I highly recommend it, especially for someone like me with no real film experience. I learned quite a bit and Randy was a really cool guy!
  23. Brett Allbritton
    Oh! I just tried again and it worked. I never realized you had to pull up the top part before you move it. Thanks, Wiliam, that solved one problem. :)
  24. Brett Allbritton
    Hello everyone, I've been lurking on these forums for a couple of years now, but this is my first time posting. Usually whenever I've had questions I can find answers here, and I'd like to thank you all because I have learned so much from this community. I have some concerns about my Krasnogorsk-3 that I'd like to discuss. I've been interested in learning to shoot on film, and I managed to purchase one back in January for about $60 after shipping. For a simple camera to learn on, I thought the price was great. As far as I can tell it runs smoothly and is in pretty good condition, but of course I'm not quite experienced enough to make that call. There are two things that I've noticed might be issues for my camera though, and before I start a short personal project I plan on doing soon, I'd like to get everyone's insight on it. One problem is that the top loop former doesn't move when I push down the plunger. I can physically pull it up myself, but it doesn't open up the way the bottom loop former does. At first I wasn't that worried about this because I was thinking I'd remove these anyway, but after watching the disassembly and reassembly videos several times, I chickened out and will likely send it to a professional for that if need be. The second problem is something I noticed that seems different about mine compared to those I see in Youtube videos about loading the camera. In a couple of these videos, the rollers that you feed the film into are able to open up slightly, as can be seen in this video here at 1:22. When I tried that, they won't budge at all. Are these serious problems for my K-3? Will it still work despite these issues? I appreciate any insight you all may have.
  25. Brett Allbritton
    I'm really surprised that I missed this, I've been searching Ebay lately for FS100s. Is it still available?
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