Rakesh Malik

Without some of the more specialized modules, Red cameras output HD. If your Teradek model supports HD, that's what you'll be sending to your director's monitor. AFAIK all of the current Teradek wireless systems support HD, unless there are some older models that I'm not familiar with that don't. As Jay mentioned though, you'll have to give your AC a wireless feed also. The Movi won't like having a cable to the AC dangling off of its payload any more than a Steadicam would.

I guess one difference there was that the director made up that mood board. She doesn't like to draw, so she snagged images and frame grabs, but it was very helpful.

On one film I was working on, we (i.e. most of the cast and crew) discovered when we arrived at our location that the owners of the house hadn't heard from the location manager or director in over four months, and didn't realize we were coming. We made the last minute switch to a cast member's apartment, and then discovered that the director had put no thought whatsoever into the production design. Of course, he was also the kind of director that thought that the DP's job was just to place the camera where the director told him to, and hit "record" on command...

This has turned out to be an interesting thread. Most of the shorts I've worked on have been planned to a degree, in that I met up with the director beforehand and we discussed how we were going to shoot each scene. Some have been completely off-the-cuff, and those have ended up being hit or miss as far as how well things went. I did have one director make up a moodboard and send me a list of films that showed looks that interested her, and the project where she did that ended up being one of the smoothest I've worked on. The moodboard approach seems really uncommon, so I've been curious as to whether others with more experience use that approach, because I thought it worked really well. It's nice to know that we're not the only ones doing that. :)

When a director doesn't do any of the shot listing and storyboarding, do you do it? I'm working on a feature film this summer, and the director is very hands off on that sort of thing; we're planning to do some blocking rehearsals before we begin production (we're scheduled to start principal in about six weeks, depending on whether or not the weather cooperates). Since that's coming up soon, and we have a little bit more location scouting to do, I want to start getting properly prepared for this film.

I resisted buying my own high end camera for a while, but since most folks here are more interested in the kind of camera you own rather than on your work, I finally gave in. (I sent my link to a producer who replied saying that he liked my work, but wanted to know what kind of camera I owned so that he could be sure that I knew what I was doing. Seriously.) Anyway... I did get myself onto a low budget feature film to be shot this summer purely by networking. He saw one of the films I'd shot at a film screening and recruited me based on liking my work. Nothing to do with what kind of camera I had... because he's more interested in what I can do than in what toys I have. :)

The results I'm getting with my Helium have been making me very happy. I haven't been doing much color grading on my Helium footage. And photographs. http://www.pixoto.com/images-photography/people/fashion/6583754027171840 Of course, it helps that in my area Reds are quite popular, a lot more popular than Arris... plus I could afford a Helium, but not an Alexa Mini. Either is probably a winner. Arris re still quite popular for a reason.

I've started using YouTube to promote my stock footage... let's see what happens. I'm just getting started at it, so I expect that it will take a bit to get things going.

That sounds like a very good idea. I'm going to start doing that. Thanks :)

I've tried to take on some of the briefs, but not many yet, mostly because the majority of them require being in other parts of the world, and I didn't have the budget for travel. I have a collection on Nimia (https://app.nimia.com/profile/WhiteCrane/videos/?page=1&limit=20) that I'm gradually growing, but I haven't made any sales yet. I don't think that I'm doing a good job yet of making my stock collection visible though.

I've had to listen to a number of actors expressing their frustration with directors who spend their time with the technical side and largely ignore the actors until it's time to roll; the actors described the experience as being posed like manikins. I've seen this also with inexperienced directors who are also acting in their films. I think they just don't realize what the director's responsibilities are.

My history is quite a bit shorter than yours, spanning only the last five years or so; before that I was shooting stills, initially primarily with 4x5 and 35mm film, though I eventually started using a digital SLR in 2008. I shot my first feature with a BMCC 2.5K and a Pocket Cinema camera, and eventually sold them to upgrade my lens kit to Zeiss CP.2 and an AJA Cion. More recently (i.e. two months ago) I sold the Cion and bought an Epic-W, which I'm using for two feature films right now, with two others possibly in the works. Hopefully also some documentaries and lots of mountaineering stock footage.

I can't tell you how many times I've crewed on projects like that, or have been recruited to DP a shoot at the last minute and sometimes didn't even get to see a script until the night before the shoot. It makes me appreciate the shoots where I get to be involved in the prep for that much more!

I think the Ursa has a liquid cooling system in it, so it doesn't need as much air circulation, and hence much less fan noise than most cinema cameras.

I believe that the solution is to adjust the response curves; if you have it set up for a heavy camera, the motors will generate a lot of torque because that's now they're configured. You can configure the gimbal to generate less torque so that it doesn't overcorrect a light camera. I can't give you more details than that, because when I was operating a Ronin its owners were there to help set it up and calibrate it, and they took care of that part.

Some of them are surprisingly loud when they're not recording, but they're very quiet when recording. Red loaned me a Scarlet Dragon and it's moderately loud between takes, nearly silent while recording. I'm working with another production company that has an Epic Dragon, and it's astonishingly loud between takes, yet just as quite while recording. The DSMC2 family is quieter from what I understand, but I haven't had a chance to play with one in an environment that wasn't louder than the fans like on the floor at NAB. :)

Yes, one can. It just takes less time and effort for some people than it does for others.

I don't agree that storyboards inhibit creativity on the part of the camera; on the contrary, I at least end up using them as a springboard. More importantly though, they enable me to go in with a plan so that we end up having more time to experiment with ideas on set, so the result ends up being MORE creativity. That said, some directors I work with don't storyboard either; often I watch the blocking rehearsal and then tweak the lighting and decide how to shoot it based on the director's blocking and what the director is asking for from the actors.

You can, yes. Raven's probably not worth it right now; order today and you will be in a rather long line; you probably wouldn't be getting your camera until early spring, if you're lucky. The images will look great provided that you know what you're doing, but if you're willing to wait that long, you might as well just get a Pocket cinema camera and solid light kit, then go out and shoot and learn while you save up for an upgrade. You might also want to check out the Kinefinity cameras. Geoff Boyle of the CML tested them last year and was pretty impressed with the images.

I understand your point, I just don't agree with it. Some of the scenes that got the most commentary weren't even sexual, and WERE story motivated... like Daenerys' rebirth. It's a very strange thing that bare breasts get so much commentary so many complaints when all of the often extreme violence gets so little since the violence is so much more prevalent throughout the series than the sex and nudity is.