Laurence Avenet

Hi, FilmGroup was actually a division of Crawford Communications. They shut down their film lab, but Crawford is still around. http://www.crawford.com/contact-us/ I hope this helps. Laurence Avenet-Bradley DP/Cam Op Los Angeles CA

I purchased the new Panasonic AF100 a few weeks ago. The project I bought it for fell through, so I need to sell it now. It's been out of the box, but it's new and has never been used in the field. It includes all the original packaging (including all manuals, black warranty card and Barry Green's book.) $4,800 I'd like to preferably sell it in Los Angeles for pick up. email me: laurence (at) avenetimages (dot) com

Hi David, It looks beautiful! The lights on the cranes on the boat, are they all practical or did you add lighting to it? Laurence

Once on set, after the gun was checked and loaded with blanks and everyone had earplugs, we had plexiglass to protect the lens/camera and myself from blank debris flying. But another time, the actor shot too close to the line of the camera (must have been from the power of the shot), and the blank went through, pierced a hole in the plexiglass, and luckily just grazed my cheek (a slight scrape, no blood). Anyway, just to say that blanks are very powerful and dangerous. Laurence Avenet-Bradley

Thank you Brian and David. Here is the update: I had the company I'm dealing with double check with their post house in Germany. It turns out the post house can work with 23.976 HDCAM tape and it doesn't make any difference for them in terms of quality or added cost. At 23.976, they'll still be able to do: - a Digital Betacam PAL DownConvert from the HDCAM source. - if needed, a transfer to 35mm interpositive or 35mm internegative - an HDCAM transfer in 50i or 25P. They are also doing a double system sound as I have a 5.1 mix of the project on DA88 at 29.97 Thanks again. This has really saved me money. Laurence

Brian, I shot my project on 23.976 for the US, but now, there's a company in Europe which is requesting it in 24p. Do you know of a place in Los Angeles that can do that? Thanks, Laurence

Hi, I need to transfer a 23.976 HDCAM tape to 24p. Does anyone know of an affordable place to do it in Los Angeles? Thanks, Laurence Avenet-Bradley

Hi David, I just wanted to see if you've found an intern yet. Are you looking for someone for the length of the project or would you consider an intern for a short period of time. Let me know. Thanks, Laurence Avenet-Bradley

I've used a CamMate 2000 series that would meet your length specs. Here is a link to owners/operators from the CamMate site: http://www.cammate.com/owners_operators.cfm Laurence

Landon, I never said they made it for a distributor. They made an indie film, they shopped the movie around to many distributors, and at the end, they made a deal with a distributor. Laurence

The decision was based on the distributor's policy. Laurence

Hi, By the way, I'm a woman, not a guy; it's a French first name. You need an E/O insurance ONLY when your distributor requires it, which in the case I mentioned early, it was Warner Brothers. You most always need it for TV deals. My last film for example, Ghost of the Needle, didn't require E/O insurance for the video release because the distributor said so. It really depends on the distributor you have. A lot of times with indies, distributors upfront the cost of insurance for the filmmaker if it's really needed. Laurence

It can become an issue when you're asked to get E/O insurance. Before getting the insurance, a lawyer has to watch the movie and check for clearance/release problems. A logo issue happened to our friends' feature. In the movie, there's a pan across the yard. Even though you could barely see the logo on a bag of fertilizer during the pan, they were asked by the lawyer to show the product release. They didn't have one, so they requested it from the manufacturer, who declined. So at the end, they were forced to digitally remove the logo in order to get the E/O insurance. And they did it because, otherwise they couldn't get distribution without the E/O insurance. The other solution could have been to remove the shot entirely, but in their case, the shot was important to the story of the film. Laurence

Hi, I did it for the opening title sequence of "Ghost of the Needle." After the roll of films shot were processed, the negative frames were scanned, assembled and composited inside a film strip in After Effects by our visual artist Sarah Paul. So the film image looks like a film strip is moving across the image. I used an FM2 with a motor drive and I had the actors play the scene in slow motion. It worked great. Best, Laurence Avenet-Bradley

What was amazing at Cinegear 2005 yesterday was listening to cinematographers (Laszlo Kovacs, Shelly Johnson, David Mullen, Isidore Mankofsky, Ron Garcia, Dennis Lenoir, Karl Lindenlaub, Allen Daviau) talk in detail about how they lit select scenes. It was very inspiring. Laurence

do you have exemples of tricks for continuity that works good and other that doesn't work at all except the rule of 180° which is the first one ..... <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Storyboards help catch problems with movements and geography. On our shoots, in addition to the storyboards, I create a continuity binder with a page for at least each scene which contains stick figures for all characters involved. All changes in continuity (lighting, wardrobe, special effects, props, location, time issues) are noted throughout the whole movie. If something changes during the shoot which affects other scenes, I update all possible changes on the continuity book. I take polaroids of particular lighting setups (or anything else for that matter) that need to be replicated later on and attach it to the scene page in the continuity book. It's tedious to create in pre-production but helps catch problems when it's hectic on the set. Anyone in the cast and crew can check it, and as a team, anyone can notice continuity problems. This method, in addition to the storyboards, has been working for us. Laurence Avenet-Bradley

In addition to the above, if your distributor requires you to have an E/O insurance, the attorney involved in that process may ask to see some or all of your releases for the project. Laurence

I guess I should have mentioned safety precautions with gun shots & mirrors. On our shoot, no one else is allowed in room/area beside actor and operator. Actor has specific targets to hit away from mirrors or operator. I haven't had any mirrors break, but safety is of upmost importance before attempting this. Blanks and mirrors are very dangerous. Laurence

I've used mirrors to bounce back the flash that comes out of a gun (loaded with blanks) in a pitch black room. Laurence