James Mann

Hey All. Are there any EPIC SPECIFIC issues to know about when shooting green screen work using the Epic? I'm not talking about lighting or any other typical green screen "tips," I am just wondering if there are any strange quirks that have popped up or that people know about when using the Epic to shoot green screen stuff. Thanks James.

Okay, John. I see the words on the screen but I can't quite ascertain their meaning. Can you please go a little further into detail here. Thanks James.

Okay. I am shooting a documentary. We are doing a series of timelapses (ala Baraka, Koyaanisqatsi, etc...). We are trying to do a timelapse of the stars twirling in a circle. We will be on a remote island in the pacific, so light pollution will not be an issue. But is there something that I should know going into this? We will be shooting on the timelapse stuff on the Canon 5d. What type of exposure should I expect? What are the effects of reciprocity? Thanks James Mann

I am shooting a music video in a few weeks on the 5d. We will shoot it at 30p and most likely finish it in 30p as well. What I am wondering is what frame rate should the music be in? Just as it is on the CD/Mp3? Or should it be converted to something else. I am trying to avoid some post sync issues. We will not have a DAT. Just playing the track off a boom box. Does any of this change if I decide to finish it in 24p? 23.98? Thanks James.

Folks. I am trying to achieve a THREE AXIS move (pull out, boom down and track right) in stop motion. Unfortunately there is no money for a motion control rig. What are some possible ways of achieving this effect and where would I be able to get the necessary equipment (I am in Los Angeles). Stop Motion gear is pretty esoteric or so it seems. We are shooting using a Canon MarkII. Thanks James.

Unfortunately, The Flicker Tests proved inconclusive. Attempted: 23 fps @ 190 degree 23 fps @ 170 degree 25 fps @ 190 degree 25 fps @ 170 degree Found nothing. Though the rest of the test went pretty well... Oh, the scientific method. James.

DAVID Thanks for the timely reply. I will be shooting a test tomorrow and will try out the 23 fps and 24 fps and a few different shutter angles. I think that there may be some synch sound in the scene that I am trying to achieve this effect for so changing the fps may be a problem. But I'll talk to sound and see what he's got to say about the matter. I'll post about the results... Thanks Again. JAMES.

MATT, Thank you, that is a good idea, but let's imagine that I am shooting in a supermarket with hundreds of overhead fluorescents fixtures. I have no way of dimming each unit individually and putting a dimmer somewhere in the store's power main doesn't seem feasible. Is there something that I can do on the camera that would help me achieve the effect I am looking for? Thanks JAMES.

Shooting in a Super Market and would love to have the overhead Fluorescents pulsating noticeably. Would adjusting the SHUTTER ANGLE do anything for me? Shooting on a PANAFLEX 16. So our shutter is adjustable from 200 degrees to 50 degrees. There is some synch sound so adjusting the speed may not work. Another option I suppose to make the key light flicker/pulsate somewhat. But it would seem a lot more motivated if the rest of the store had a sort of pulsating to it. Thanks James

Tyler Thanks for your input. When we get back to Los Angeles (which is where we will be posting, though not shooting) I will will definitely look you guys up. Have another project that is getting ready to strike a print from the HD master. Will get them in touch with you... Thanks Again, James.

I am prepping a low budget Super16 feature. It is a five week shoot and we would like to have dailies to watch each week. The last S16 feature I did, we got a "one light" transfer to SD (mini dv) and then got those put onto DVD for easy viewing. It was a good and cheap way (.12/foot total including processing...yeah for real) to do some quality control on the image. Before that shoot began, I was aware that there was a 2k scan lined up for when we finished. That was also very discounted, so the idea of cost effectiveness was not an issue. All of that being said, I am meeting with a local lab/transfer house in the next few days and want to discuss the possibility of doing our initial transfer to HD (D-5? HDCAM SR? Some other format?) and getting our DVDs off of that. I figure this would save us some money down the road of having to transfer everything again in order to edit (and have the time code numbers match up. Because HD and SD would have non matching TC right?). Then at some point we would do an online and a "tape to tape" correction. And come out with an HD (D5, HDCAM) master. And then if a film out ever came up, go the poor man's route and do it off the HD master. How is my thinking here? Feel free to tell me I am wrong about stuff. Also, what would be the best HD format (especially if we want to protect for a poor man's film out)? Thanks James

Hello Friends of Knowledge. Am getting ready to shoot a film with Panavision's "ELAINE" (thanks to Panavision's generous donation thru the emerging filmmakers program - if you don't know about it, check it out). Will need to sync up the camera to a CPU monitor (unfortunately not an LCD but rather one of those old school black-screen green-text monitors). I was looking through the ASC book about the camera and it said (i think this is where I got this crazy idea from) that you can eliminate the flicker thru shutter control. I know that the camera has a variable shutter (from 50 - 200) and a variable speed (4fps to 50fps). Our package does not come with a precision speed control (to punch in 29.97 and then phase out the bars) and the rest of the production doesn't really call for one so I am wondering: HOW would one go about eliminating TV/MONITOR flicker thru the use of the shutter. Thanks. James Mann

A question of taste for you folks. I am shooting on a stage in a beautifully designed Deco style apartment. There are two windows in the main room (very closely separated) and two windows in the bedroom (again very close to each other). Am trying to decide between getting some seamless (have done this in the past with varying degrees of success depending on the desired effect and time of day) or getting a couple of different painted backdrops (a daytime one, a dusk/dawn one, and some duveteen for nite). The film takes place at all hours of the day over a few days. So there is some dusk and some dawn and some high noon and some night. We are going for realism. Also, just so you know, we are shooting HD. Curious to know other people's thoughts, tastes and experiences. Thanks James

Just thought that I would do a follow up here... I ended up making strip lights that we built (recessed) into the set. The strips lights (containing btwn 5 and 9 household flood/spot fixtures) were put through flicker boxes and we were able to find a setting that looked like some genuine florescent flicker. We did however take some time to experiment with a set of florescent fixtures that the production designer had bought for one of the rooms on set. After a good deal of patching and repatching we discovered that we were able to get the florescents to flicker considerably and consistently by cube tapping them onto the same line as any tungsten unit (xmas lights also worked) on their way to the flicker box. I can not explain why this works, I can only ensure you that it does work. So for those of you out there looking to make your kinos flicker as though something is wrong with the wiring or power or whatever effect you feel this would be good for, make sure you cube tap the units along with any constant source (standard light bulb, xmas lights, incandescent unit, etc...) and then send the line to a flicker box... James

My friends, I would like to hear what some of you have done to get good florescent flicker. Something that would be repeatable and somewhat controllable (I want to be able to start and stop the flicker). In the past I think I have put kinos (the ballasts) on hand squeezers (putting them under voltage). I thought that this worked well. But it really has been a while and I can not quite recall. Also, we will be shooting over a few days so if I am going to destroy these bulbs/ballasts/fuses, I would like to know about it upfront (so I can order more or try a different technique). I look forward to your responses. Thanks, James Mann

Friends, A quick question on the topic of speed ramps... Getting ready to shoot an action film. We will have lots of off-speed stuff. Under crank. Over crank... The director and I have carefully choosen our moments for the off speed work but want to reserve the right to change our minds down the road AKA after the film has been shot. So I ask you: Can we shoot at 60fps on the VARICAM, import the footage into FINAL CUT as 60fps and then decide that we want to play the footage at 24fps instead? Will this look strange. Or will it play normally? Yes, we could shoot it both ways (at 24fps and at 60fps) but I am wondering if that is neccesary. Thanks, James

Hey thanks Mr. Nash. I guess I wasn't clear here...We are shooting the Varicam on DVCPRO HD tape at 720p and a frame rate of 24p. I think that John's numbers are pretty good. Just found a guy to help us through our post process and his numbers were very similar to John's. Mathmatics I guess... Well. Thanks for your help fellas. I do appreciate it. James

I am curious what the effective ASA of the VARICAM is and what it becomes once you compensate for the PS Technics Adapter. I am only interested in a ball park estimation, I know that the numbers are not exact. Thanks again. James.

Hello All I am trying to get my mind wrapped around the various complications related to the DVCPRO HD post process or workflow, if you must. One thing I am having trouble getting a straight and consistant answer on is: How much drive space is needed to digitize/capture DVCPRO HD footage at its full 720p resolution (uncompressed; intended for editing). The answer I am looking is something like: 1 hour of DVCPRO HD footage = _______ gigabytes. Thanks for playing. James Mann

Hello friends at home and abroad. I am shooting a television show in a few weeks. We will be traveing to France, Italy and India. The production company is based in the U.S and ownes all of its own gear which we will be bringing with us on our travels. We have a fairly small lighting package coming with us: An 800watt HMI joker, a 3 light Tungsten Arri Kit, a couple of LED light panels and a few china balls. From my memory the Joker Ballast has a 208v switch on it, and I have seen 208v incandescent bulbs floating around the office, but what else will we need for everything to work? Some type of Edison Three prong to regional prong adapter? Will we require any type of power transformer and/or converter to charge our camera and LED batteries? Or to power out incadescent heads? What about the procelin bases for the china balls, do they nned to be 220v?) What other things am I not thinking about? What are some of the other considerations? Please note, in each country we will have a few locals acting as our guides/translators etc. So if we need to find things once we are out there we can. But I would love to be totally prepared when the plane touches down. Thanks James Mann

Hello friends at home and abroad. I am shooting a television show in a few weeks. We will be traveing to France, Italy and India. The production company is based in the U.S and ownes all of its own gear which we will be bringing with us on our travels. We have a fairly small lighting package coming with us: An 800watt HMI joker, a 3 light Tungsten Arri Kit, a couple of LED light panels and a few china balls. From my memory the Joker Ballast has a 208v switch on it, and I have seen 208v incandescent bulbs floating around the office, but what else will we need for everything to work? Some type of Edison Three prong to regional prong adapter? Will we require any type of power transformer and/or converter to charge our camera and LED batteries? Or to power out incadescent heads? What other things am I not thinking about? What are some of the other considerations? Please note, in each country we will have a few locals acting as our guides/translators etc. So if we need to find things once we are out there we can. But I would love to be totally prepared when the plane touches down. Thanks James Mann

So... I will be shooting a short film that warrents a very strong look. I think the best way to achieve what we are after may be on a bleach bypass somewhere in the printing stage (IP, IN). However, this film has no plans to be printed. It will probably live and die on dvd. So, that being said, what is my best option? I had considered trying to achieve this photochemically but I don't like the idea of not having the abilty to scale the intensity of the effect...Also, the money involved is pretty intense (and no matter what we will be paying to transfer the thing). Will a DI enable us to do much more specific corrections/modifications than telecine (yes, it all depends on the post houses and the machines that they are running; but let's pretend that we were at a top notch place with the best of both). What do we think? James

So I should add a few details before this gets out of hand... I am shooting a commercial that is not intended for theatrical release/projection. We will be transfering the project to digibeta and/or uncompressed data files. three scenes are day exterior, three scenes are sunset time lapse (plus a few hours on each end), three scenes are night exterior (two of which are landscapes that will be shot by the light of the moon, which is a whole other can of worms). The location is the desert and it lends itself beautifully to the aspect ratio...I just thought that the added detail of anamorphic would make the picture jump off the screen (even the small ones). What do you all think... James

Aside from the need for a fatter stop what are some of the challenges (and pitfalls) associated with shooting anamorphic? Thanks James Mann

Thanks for the info everybody. I'll be heading out to the library today to do some research. I will also be going out on that tech scout this weekend (getting out of LA). I'll be bringing my light meter and still camera so we will see what we see. Thanks again for the references. I'll keep you posted on the results. James