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Rakesh Malik

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  1. Rakesh Malik
    Our shooting ratios tend to be fairly high, but most of the time it's from how many takes we use when it really matters... and most of the time, if we need a lot of takes, it's because either the focus puller (usually also the operator due to the crew size) missed focus, an actor missed a mark and the framing ended up off, or there was a plane/truck/other noise we couldn't plan for stomping on actors' lines... which usually happened when everything else was spot on, naturally. Most of our actors have been good about hitting marks, which has been a big help. I compose shots pretty carefully and try to use the entire frame as much as possible, so with tight closeups, the actors have to be pretty spot on for the shots to work the way we want.
  2. Rakesh Malik
    On a feature film that I was shooting we ran into a situation where we were filming a scene that was very important from both a story and emotional point of view... and we hadn't rehearsed that one scene, mainly because it was, time wise, a small scene, in spite of being rather tense. It wasn't until we got the blocking figured out that the actors and the director were able to make it come together, and then I was able to figure out how to compose the shots to support the intended tension we wanted. It really helps to underscore the value of blocking; it's not "just" for storytelling!
  3. Rakesh Malik
    It only slightly sucks. Some of the other experienced PAs took a few minutes out to tell me the protocols and all before production began, so it wasn't like I was being thrown to the sharks. :)
  4. Rakesh Malik
    The discussions here have been very informative, something I realized early on once I discovered it. It's just that I found it after that PA gig. :)
  5. Rakesh Malik
    I wish I'd joined this forum before I did my first PA gig on a big production (for Kia). It was quite a learning experience.
  6. Rakesh Malik

    This needs to be stopped.

  7. Rakesh Malik
    Me too :)
  8. Rakesh Malik

    The stock footage archive is slowly growing...https://app.nimia.com/profile/WhiteCrane/videos/?page=1&limit=20

  9. Rakesh Malik

    Some more kit up on Camera Lends:https://www.cameralends.com/rental/blackmagic-pocket-cinema-camera-seattle

  10. Rakesh Malik

    Starting to rent gear...https://www.cameralends.com/rental/cinema-camera-mft-2-5k-video-camera-seattle

  11. Rakesh Malik
    Wow. I want to see The Big Trail now. Why isn't that part of film history curricula? I wonder if it got dropped from mine due to the film history class being squashed from 40 weeks down to 10. :-/
  12. Rakesh Malik
    Also a good point. I prefer to light scenes that need to be dark a little bit brighter than the goal, but with deeper shadows, and then darken it a little bit in post, though sometimes a lack of resources (i.e. not enough lights, crew, and time) forces the opposite, where we shoot the scene a little darker than we'd prefer, and then brighten it in post. If it's close, then it usually works.
  13. Rakesh Malik
    I've had good success using Black Magic cameras in moderately low light situations. While it's nowhere near as sensitive as an a7s (what is?), it's quite a bit better in low light than it gets credit for. We could have done more with this in grading, but we ran out of time before the deadline: https://youtu.be/bw4N0fqkRQE
  14. Rakesh Malik
    I would have guessed that it was just a projector with green imagery in front of it, because green lasers sparked some controversy due to their ability to permanently impair people's vision. Of course, the bad apple syndrome had a lot to do with it, some people pointed their green lasers at aircraft, and blinded some pilots. Do these laser projectors diffuse the beams enough to render them safe, or are they something different from the green lasers in pointers that some of us are probably thinking of?
  15. Rakesh Malik
    That's a big one for me. I've had gaffers try to tell me how to do my job, and then when I put my foot down, they botched the setup anyway. The film was a disaster, and needless to say I would never inflict that gaffer on anyone again. I've also had experiences working with crew that had a lot more on-set experience than I had who ended simply being great collaborators, and those shoots have been great, but on set and the end result.
  16. Rakesh Malik
    I don't know either. I've found that some experienced gaffers have their own way of doing things, and refuse to budge on important things like how to light a set, because they think that they always know best, and don't listen to anyone who disagrees with them. That said, one of the more experienced gaffers I've worked with not only knew what he was doing, but worked with the director and me to find ways to accomplish the lighting options we were discussing. Having him on set allowed us to get rolling sooner and with a look that was pretty close to what we wanted for the shot, rather than relying on post to create the look as was necessary with the first type. I know which type I'd pick. The catch is that often you can only find out what sort of gaffer they are by working with them.
  17. Rakesh Malik
    The director who picked me to shoot his third indie feature picked me because of my stills portfolio more than for my reel, because I didn't have that much in my reel at the time. I'd worked on some student films and some promos, but mostly it was my photography that convinced him that I'd be a good DP. I'm now in pre-production for my 2nd feature film while the first is in post, nearing picture lock. If the director likes your work, you're probably up to the task, unless you talk yourself out of it. A good gaffer and AC would be a big help though. We were lucky to have a good gaffer work with us whenever he was available, and his help enabled us to speed up our setups quite a bit, so we didn't have to compromise and go with the fix it in post approach, which none of the people that I work with favor. We prefer to get as close to the look we're after in camera as we can.
  18. Rakesh Malik
    The secret to using shotgun mics indoors is to use ones with narrower pickup patterns, though it requires more care in mic placement and orientation to get clean sound that way.
  19. Rakesh Malik
    The Zoom preamps are pretty noisy, so it's generally not well liked as a recorder for film. You might want to look at the NTG-4 instead, it has a narrower pickup pattern that makes it easier to work with, plus I'd recommend looking into a Tascam or BeachTek rather than Zoom for recording. Both have much cleaner preamps than the Zooms do.
  20. Rakesh Malik
    The normal focal length does vary by film format. It's the focal length that gives you a view comparable to what your eyeball would give you. So on a 135mm still camera, it's 50mm. On a 4x5, it's 150mm. On a super 35, I think it ends up being around 35mm? And so on. It's a good reference when you're deciding on a focal length for a shot, I suppose. I don't worry about it much any more. i just pick the lens that makes the most sense for what I need for the composition and depth of field.
  21. Rakesh Malik
    That's not great advice. Sometimes a longer lens works better, and sometimes a wider lens does. Sometimes you want a very deep focus, and sometimes you want a shallow depth of field. It depends on the shot, the story, and the style of the DP and director.
  22. Rakesh Malik

    Florida State Government orders staff lobotomies:http://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article12983720.htmlThe sad thing is that this is NOT an Onion piece.

  23. Rakesh Malik

    Out-of-state films produced in Washington bring money and jobs to the Washington economy. And that's good for all of us.http://washingtonfilmworks.org/washington-filmworks-news/spokane-film-project-giles-catering

  24. Rakesh Malik

    I have a NAB press pass :)

  25. Rakesh Malik

    15 more stock footage clips released:http://www.pond5.com/artist/WhiteCranePhoto#NatureIsSpeaking

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