PJ Palomaki

Thank you David, invaluable information! Much appreciated all the effort and patience in replying and clarifying. The point about high frame rates and sports footage makes good sense. Thank you, PJ

Thanks to all for replying and filling in, very helpful! So, a follow-up question - When shooting film, do you just have to settle for very little motion blur, if you shoot at 120fps, for instance (5 times less the amount of 24p motion blur at 180 degrees)? Or is this something you wouldn't even care aesthetically as it's slow motion? But when you under-crank, you should be able to match the motion blur as long as you adjust the shutter angle to match exposure time of 24/25fps, i.e. 24fps at 180 degrees = 12fps at 90 degrees? And as an artistic choice, you could shoot at, say 1fps at 180 degrees and have a lot ton of motion blur (providing you expose correctly)?

Hi, I recently had an opportunity to shoot on film for the first time in my life (crazy, I know) and a question came up which left me thinking.. Apologies as it's probably a very noob question: When I shoot slow/fast motion on digital, I change the shutter speed to maintain the same motion blur as for the 'normal' speed, i.e. shooting on 25p, 1/50 'normally' and then do 50p for instance, I shoot at 1/100 to have the same amount motion blur. Assuming you want the same motion blur, how would you do this shooting on film? I am right in understanding that 180 degree shutter angle will remain 180 regardless of what frame rate you shoot? I.e. shooting 25fps and 50fps means that the shutter turns twice as fast to maintain 180 degree shutter angle? I hadn't noticed but was told that Red has an option for shutter to have either a shutter speed (1/xxxx) or angle (degrees), does this mean if you want to shoot everything at 180 degrees, you don't have to keep changing the angle for different fps? But surely, even if you can capture everything at 180 degrees, in playback, there will be variations of motion blur as the angle was relative to the fps? I.e. 25fps has 180 degrees and 50p has 180 degrees, but compared to each other, they don't match? I would've automatically calculated the difference between the degrees when under/overcranking and changed the shutter accordingly, but I was told by two working AC's that this is incorrect... If anyone can shed any light or knows of any resource on this, I'd really appreciate it! Thanks, PJ

Hi all, I'm shooting a feature in Cape Verde this feb-march and although I've shot in Africa before (Burkina Faso & Zim), never a feature and at this level. Just wondering if anyone has any pointers on obvious issues and possible solutions to them? The whole shoot will be in a city with (albeit limited) access to power. Apart from the obvious issues of travel, accommodation, food & drink etc. the main issue we'll face is the light - top sun, dark skin tones, literally no golden hour (I think we'll be at around 17 degrees north), dark as death during the night, restricted access to power. Due to budget and logistical issues I have to be fairly careful with what we take over so I'm planning on using a lot of practicals-turned-film lighting, i.e. china balls, work lights. Also to fill frame & create interest, christmas lights, etc. By far most scenes will be shot during daylight hours so natural light will be no.1 but there are a few scenes during night. So have any of you shot in similar situations and have any pointers? I've read things like sowing white fabric under baseball caps while bouncing sun towards face etc. Any comments are appreciated. Thanks, PJ

@Alexander: Interesting! On this topic, I'm currently in the process of creating a basic syllabus but I'm planning on making it open to public modification (i.e. wiki-style) so anyone who knows/finds relevant information on a topic, can add it to a correct area. It'll take a while to get the skeleton up but hopefully with community effort it could take off? What do you guys think? Cheers, PJ

Hi all, I tried to browse the forums and search for an extensive cinematography curriculum which I could use as basis for patching any 'holes' in my knowledge of cinematography. Unfortunately I couldn't really find one and I was wondering if we could compile together such a thing? Its great that these days getting hold of a decent camera and shooting is a possibility for most people, but to get the best results, you need to know a bit more than just where the record button is located. There is a huge demand for cinematography courses and even though it would be utterly impossible to replicate that experience (time given, great tutors, certificate, connections you make, kit, studio, props, crew, productions, etc. to name just a few benefits), it would be great to have a good, solid curriculum, compiled by people who know what you should know and filled with articles, videos & book/film recommendations. This would help many, especially those who have some knowledge of cinematography already, but might have 'holes' in their knowledge as they might have never attended a decent course or the information they received is outdated. What do you guys think? If anyone knows of such a 'curriculum' already online, please share, I'd be keen to know! Just to point out, I personally am interested in Cinematography, especially, not about 'filmmaking' in general. A good place to start from I guess would be to look at the 'Responsibilities of a Cinematographer' at the BSC website and then convert those to a curriculum: http://www.bscine.com/information/training/the-responsibilities-of-the-cinematographer/ If there is interest, I/we/someone could even set up a wiki to keep things organised. Please chime in. Cheers, PJ

Thank you Freya for the feedback, I agree, especially the shot at 1:28, it's a shot I've been meaning to re-frame for a while but haven't got around to it. It's a 5K frame down to HD so shouldn't be a problem. Any suggestions on the framing on how to improve, always keen to learn. Thanks for the suggestions about going forwards as well, very helpful. It seems to me more and more like work in cinematography are getting thinner, leaner and over-saturated (like many other video/film-related ones), very difficult to crack it to a place where you're actually paying the bills.

Is there any possibility to 'do it in the post'? Just thinking of reflections as well. If there aren't many shots, should't be a big job to matte out and replace with content. I'm sure you've talked this through though. PJ

Hi all, First post here, thought I'd introduce myself. Having worked at a video production company in the UK for the past 5 years I've finally gone freelance as I'm looking to get more into shorts and gaining dp, 1ac, 2ac etc. experience. I know I'm at the very beginning but being 32 I'm not a spring chicken anymore. My first project is a self-initiated music video for an prog artist Crayola Lectern, shot on Epic and I was wondering if anyone had any constructive criticism on the piece? It's not fiction per se, being a music video, but I was aiming for a look which would work cinematically. All the rest of the technical info is on the Vimeo page but here's the video: https://vimeo.com/65640344 I know this has been answered in various posts by various people but I would like to get more experience on a set, either 1ac, 2ac (or dp, but unlikely get a break), what is the best way to go about this? Agencies? Just networking? Creating your own content (shorts etc.)? I know my stuff fairly well but I assume no-one will hire camera crew without real set experience or work credits. Thanks all in advance, PJ Palomaki +44 (0)7876 251565 www.pjpalomaki.com