Lance Soltys

I have the CAVISION bellows matte box and their mini follow focus, and I'm very happy with them. The only thing I'm thinking about upgrading might be getting steel rods. I think the rods are ABS plastic, and there is a tiny bit of twist in it I think. It does fit with Tiffen filters, as I have one and it fits fine. Also, I didn't get the CAVISION lens rings, I got the Redrock ones instead because they were wider which covers the focus travel on still lens, that may not be an issue with the lenses you're using. Follow focus itself works fine, though I guess I would whine a little about the way it mounts to the rods, it's a little difficult loosening if you have to make adjustments to change lenses.

I have a whole set of CAVISION filters and they do let in a whole lot of UV pollution, especially the 9 and 1.2. I even got their hot mirror and that helps a little but it is still pretty bad. I can only assume that more expensive filters might handle UV better, but I don't know. I typically like cavision stuff, I've bought a lot of gear from them and it seeme to me they fit into a good middle-ground of reasonably priced pretty solid gear, especially since I'm mostly a hobbiest these days and I'm not making money off my stuff. I should mention that I was able to color correct everything I shot with those (and it was just crappy 4:2:0 AVCHD files) but it was a pain.

I just did a quick check at Creative Commons and they have royalty-free video of a cheetah running. I didn't look at it, but the thumbnail looked nice. You do have to attribute the clip though. Here's the link: http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3ASearch&profile=advanced&search=cheetah+slow+motion&fulltext=Search&ns0=1&ns6=1&ns14=1&profile=advanced&uselang=en

Also, when you were testing the 1K did you have it on? I'm thinking the heat from the light might also effect the suction cups (there could be expansion on the surface). As far as the unibar, I used the wrong word, I'm thinking of autopoles (should have googled before I spoke). Here is a link: http://www.manfrotto.us/entertainment-autopoles I'm thinking of using them myself for a shoot coming up where I would like to leave equipment in for a week or two, despite the fact that it's someone's living space. I figure this would keep things out of the way.

I don't think I would trust suction cups on paint, especially with something over people's heads. Would a unibar work for you? Just to keep the thought-experiment going with the window dilemma, the perspective shift wouldn't be that bad if the images of buildings that you see throughout the window were far off in the distance. Parallax shifts reduce as the objects get farther away. So if the fake building appear to be way back in the distance, I don't think you would notice a lack of perspective shift, especially with curtains, soft-focus. While on the subject, I thought I read that Mad Men used translates on the office sets, but those perspectives do shift (of course the buildings are supposed to be right across the street in those shots). I wonder if they use biggatures or something.

Good question about the EVF. As someone who is considering buying a BMPCC, is having an EFV necessary? I would think it is for exteriors, but I'd like to hear from someone who has a pocket camera. Tyler is using the LCDVF, which I have for my DSLR, but they are limiting if you're at any kind of angle As far as the ND's go, I remember seeing a great comparison on here of different filter brands. I know I have the CAVISION ones, and I'll tell you I couldn't tell if they have a color cast because they let so much IR pollution through ( I guess I could do a test in tungsten light, but I almost never use them in tungsten). Keep in mind, I like their stuff, I have a lot of it, and the 4x4 filters are only $60 a pop (as opposed to $200ish), so I really can't complain. Because of this, I also got their Hot Mirror, and that helps, but it still is pretty bad. I'm using it on a Canon DSLR and not sure if they are particularly susceptible to IR pollution.

I wish I could wrap my head around all this color stuff, so I'm not an expert on that stuff. I can tell you though that the EX line is Sony's entry level. That in it self is not great, but more importantly it may not have a lot of calibration controls, so saving money to buy a calibrator might not really help you there. For around the same price you can get a mid-range 27" monitor with a wide-color gamut that you could set for different color spaces (NEC's, Eizo, and HP all make nice monitors in the $500 range). I remember looking at one that was supposed to be able to split the display in 2 different color spaces so you could compare. Speaking of that, am I missing something or do you almost have to grade things in two different color spaces anyhow? Images in rec 709 (for DVD's & Blu-Rays) look way different than things in sRGB (computer monitors). So what I grade for a DVD needs to be changed for a web version. Is that normal, or am I being stupid?

Just out of curiosity, what camera were you using? I've heard noise from the BMD products looks more "grainy" and I'm considering one of their cameras. You're right that Neat video will not work on PowerPC. I have it, and while it has definately improved some shots that needed saving, you do have to be careful of the plasticy look.

I first thought of front projection too. The only problem is it's expensive. The material, called Scotchlite, goes for around $700 for 2 x 3 meters, I think. Then you'd need a high quality beam-splitter to go in front of the lens (the projector then shoots into the beam-splitter, opposite the camera lens, so they are on the same axis). Too bad they don't rent set-ups for this. The plus side is the projector could be pretty cheap since it doesn't really need to be very bright, and those Picos that Adrian suggested are small enough they could go anywhere. I'm guessing all that will be cost prohibitive though. How about heavy ND on the windows to let a little "blue moonlight" (actually gelled down daylight) creep in. This might be totally crazy, but you might be able to build a craftboard or even cardboard skyline with windows cut out and then put LED's behind it. The whole thing might only be 2-3" thick, something like a big, weird shaped pizza box (You'd need sides and a back to the thing to keep the LED's from spilling all over, and you could coat the inside back of the box with tin-foil to spread the light out). As long as it's really out-of-focus with sheer curtains in front, it might work. You could even gel he little window cut-outs to give different color lights. Or, this could all look totally cheesy. Might be something to try though. It wouldn't be too expensive.

I just filled up a few bags, and was considering different options, both sand and lead shot. I went with sand because if there was a leak, it's easier to sweep up a pile of sand then have a bunch of shot rolling all over the place. I don't know how often these things tend to leak though. Also shot is pretty expensive.

Darryl's senario made me wonder if you couldn't put a light on the other side of the door (tucked in by the hinge) and have someone flag it open to mimic the door. You'd still have the problem of having your actor burn as he passes close to the light, but if you have any graduated scrims, that might help that problem.

One benefit of the SR3 is that it is pin registered. I've shot quite a bit of stop-motion with a Bolex and frame alignment can slip, especially in temperature extremes. As far as a video tap, would attaching some type of lipstick cam (or really any small video camera) next to it be close enough to do your onion skin? Are you planning on using Dragonframe, or a Lunchbox or anything? I know of some animators that would bet these little chip cameras, it was just a tiny lens attached to a printed circuit board (that was like 1" square) and they use that on DSLR's to feed in to Dragonframe to use as a guide. Something like that might work going through the Bolex finder, though I've never tried it.

I shot a movie a long time ago that was almost entirely set in a car. We towed the car. Nothing fancy, just some chains and ropes and a pick-up truck. This was mostly for sound reasons, though it did free up the actors from having to drive. THere was still a lot of noise, so we couldn't go over around 20 mph. Fortunately, it was set at night, so we found some empty streets. Camera was mounted to the hood of the car with this big suction-cup, around 12' in diameter that had a Mitchell cheese-plate mounted to it with a basic tilt and pan function. We found that at a rental house in Chicago, and it was pretty cheap. For lighting we just taped some bare 12" Kino's to the ceiling of the car running off the cigarette lighter I think. Obviously, if you're shooting in a high profile area, this wouldn't be such a good idea.

I mostly shoot very small, no-budget, short films and I did shoot and direct one of them, and I feel that if you do two jobs at once, at least one of the roles (if not both) will suffer. I remember it becoming very clear to me that what you're looking for as a director is almost opposite what you're looking for as an operator. When I was directing, I'm actually trying to avoid thinking about things like the frame (I would worry about that before the shot) so I can get into the scene and "feel" the performance. When I'm operating, I actually try and stay removed emotionally from the scene so I can focus on technical stuff: is the framing right, are actors in their light, anything in the frame that shouldn't be there, focus sharp, etc. Essentially all the things an operator needs to do. Maybe it's different on big pictures where there's a lot more crew (and time for play-back), but I found it was pretty tough. Plus I was DP'ing, which was a really bad idea, though sadly, I would probably do it again (I produce the movies I direct, so I'm just throwing my own money away).

Hilarious poster! I was just working on funding for Rhinos on a Bus. Sorry for getting off topic.

A long time ago, I think around 1993, I shot a low budget feature on 16mm, where half the movie takes place in a cab at night. I got Superspeeds (though the Rokinon cine's are just as fast) and we were able to get KinoFlo tubes (which had pretty much just come out I think) that we tapped on to the sun shades of the car, if i remember they plugged into the cigarette lighter. We also dialed them very low so there was still a lot of play on the actors faces from ambient light. Then we rented a big suction-cup mount and stuck it to the hood with me roped on the hood also. We drove pretty slow, so it wasn't all that dangerous, and we towed the car. One thing to think about is sound (which is one reason we were moving so slow). Do you intend to have dialogue during this? That could be a problem with the convertible and generator. We had our sound guy crouched in the back seat. Keep in mind, with the boom mic pictured as you do, you might get bad shadows. The overhead street lights cast long, repetitive shadows of anything over the head of your shot. By the way, we shot like this for four or five days in Chicago and the police never bothered us. Just lucky I guess.