James Brown

Just following up on this? thanks jb

Hey Cine hive mind. Every time i have shot low frame rate motion blur on the Mini LF (anything under 6FPS) i have had almost unusable dead pixels that show up in the image. Wondering if anyone has achieved a good workaround for this or if the Arri 35 has solved this issue? cheers, james brown DOP / Sydney

Shot Designer is a great and super quick resource to use. Especially on an ipad why you are on location. It is a bit simple but when you are trying to block movement of actors and quickly draw a floor plan there isn't anything that is a quick. I use Illustrator with 'film set objects' which has all the camera and lighting etc for some more complex but still super efficient to create lighting and camera plots. You really don't want to get too bogged down in the tech of it.

I have had to do a couple of low budget helicopter shots recently. One on an f55 with the 30-80 angenieux and one on a scarlet with 16-35. I really recommend just taking a bunch of bungey rigs if you don't have a mount option. Different strengths of elasticity put together to get the right tension with a few carabiners to rig with. There is always a few options in choppers for this. This way you can get the camera in the position you want and is much easier to operate. But yes, shooting 4k and stabilising in one of many programs later is a get out of jail free card, especially when you hit those wind pockets. Cheers, James

Gregory i just want to congratulate you on creating such beautiful images. I'm religiously watching series over here in Australia and The Killing s02 is the most beautiful. Soft subtle top light and letting so much black play within the frame. It's pretty much one long feature, great coverage, great REAL driving scenes, practically justified lighting and just overall a beautiful aesthetic. Another sad day for Film but at least you were one of the episodic last. > James

Hey Marcus, Because it was shooting at 4kHD its the same as shooting the REDMX. 5k with the same lens was to wide and and there was quite alot of distortion in the verticals in frame when we panned. If i wanted to i could have used a longer lens and gone to 5k but the 10mm Ultra is a beautiful lens and was happy to use it. We mounted the camera directly on the operator, it was quite difficult to operate and an actor wouldn't have done a suitable job, just the way the hand / eye works when you are watching a monitor rather then your hands is super difficult. I was lucky the epic came into sydney the week we had that shoot because otherwise it would have been SI2k or 5d and lighting for a 10mm lens i needed all the help i could get in the grade. Good luck.

I did a really simple POV commercial with an Epic (4kHD) and all on a 10mm Ultra Prime. The lens choice for FOV is super hard, we didn't want the distortion of the 10mm within the space but the 12 and 14 just didnt see enough of the actors arms. Check it out. another ad from the same campaign again, super wide lenses but a whole bunch of tricks to be the Bunnies POV. Cheers, james

This whole topic belongs somewhere else. Karl, get your hand off it and chill out.

I'm shooting a commercial on the epic tomorrow. We are shooting everything POV on a 14mm Lens. I only had a few hours to test the camera but we did a basic daylight under / over test, Tungsten Under / over test, whip pans for rolling shutter and some HDR stuff. After ingesting into the Baselight at FSM i was pretty happy with results. 5k FF or 5k 2:1 looked like we were getting way to much distortion from the Ultra Prime so we opted for 4k HD @ 5:1 compression. We did all the tests @ 800ASA. This felt "right" for the Nighttime tungsten scene we tested but the Daylight test looked like it rendered less noise and better skin tones when it was @ 320ASA. Rolling shutting on such a wide lens was as expected - Bad! Baselight didn't like the HDR but the 4-5 Stops i put in pulled all the information back in the sky and i imagine will be quite useful in the future. Overall i feel the skin tones render a little better then the REDMX but the highlights still just clip on the waveform quite harshly compared the 'roll off' with the Alexa. These are my very short, brief experiences with the EPIC and wondering if this is what other DP's are thinking?

Hey Team, I have a music clip we are shooting in Tokyo next week and looking for a Tungsten van package and Gaffer for an Interior Club scene. Not a huge budget but just seeing who anyone can recommend. Thanks in advance,

Hi People, Just about to shoot a clip tonight and had a thought about doing the opposite of what we usually do when syncing music clips (Shoot at 50fps and Speed the track to 200 percent) I saw this clip and it's the look we thought we would try. Do you think they shoot at 12fps and Slow the track down to half speed and then play it all back at real speed in post? Cheers and thanks for your help Kind Regards, James

thanks heaps for that. amazing. Cheers,

Last time i shot with a flame bar i was shooting RED & DSLR. I remember using a single flame bar @ 320 ASA, i had the flame at full capacity and i was reading 1.3 / 2 split on the flame. These all vary as per what type you get and testing would be a great idea. As discussed an overall ambiance will help with this scene if you have the resources. A soft overhead a couple of stops down or some flicker effects with a matching flame gel could really add to the scene. Cheers, James

I agree with Bryan, use electricity at least as some overall ambiance. If thats not possible, You would be suprised how much those gas powered flame bars can emit. I really like using the natural fire in the FG of a shot and lighting the characters with flame bar, they have the consistency of a real fire and never look like you have lit it artificially. I would suggest getting two flame bars so you can control the shape of the light a bit more. Try get a REDMX and steal some extra stop. Ultra Primes are 1.9.

Hi Guys, First time in San Fran, Love this place!! I need a bunch of little things for this shoot and wondering where to go. Rental of a Kessler Pocket Dolly? 15mm Rail adapter for my chrozial sun shade mattbox Step up Rings for primes to a 77mm 77mm Genus Rotating ND Noga Arm for my Ikan Monitor to a 15mm Rail Kit Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks in Advance, Regards, James Read more: http://www.cinematography.com/index.php?showtopic=49294#ixzz170orwlCk