James Brown

HI JD, Yeh i found the only way to control them is to create a snoot on the front with blackwrap at least 4 inches long. I have only used the Light Panel ones and the little Rosco light pad. Love them for certain things but never for particular shaping. Little 300 as you said would have done the trick much better Cheers, James

Bout bloody time. Seriously. What took them so long.

Thanks Justin, Will let you know when it's cleared from festivals. Cheers, James

Hi, Rosco - Click Me - Cheap and punchy Light Panel - Click me - Not as cheap - more punchy and IMO a better and more controllable quality of light. In my experience these will give you enough punch for the face if you are shooting profiles and competing with the outside source. Remember, it's Natural to have inside about a stop down from the outside rather then try light it up completely. Cheers, James.

Hi Guys, Would love for you to check out this new short i completed. Sony F-35 - Optimo 24-290 - Graded on the Scratch. Mongrels Creed Trailer Kind Regards, James.

All sounds good. Lets hope other countries follow suit. Except this bit "Under the new law, however, internet users who feel they have been wrongly penalised will be able to take their case to the Copyright Tribunal, for free." That will clog up the systems for sure. James.

Devastatingly beautiful - great work. Just checked out your Egypt / Lebanon Montage also. Some amazing imagery. The pocket dolly ads such a big creative advantage in those types of situations. Congrats. Regards, James

Besides the compression issues i think the two biggest downsides with the DSLR world is the "small camera, throw anywhere, it'l do" philosophy that is coming back to play which reminds me of when mini DV cameras first came out AND the fact that more and more stuff is coming out soft. You throw away the whole camera team infrastructure (it's pretty damn hard to have a focus puller on those stills lenses) and people are starting to think it's "ok" to have all these soft shots because it's a DOF "look" that comes with these cameras. I'm just seeing more and more beautifully shot low budget stuff on Vimeo and it seems to be a look evolving that 1/4 of the film is out of focus. Regards, James.

I love the new DSLR world but seriously are you saying if you don't have a DIT there is no point using this camera??? Or if you don't have the newest DIGIPRIMES dont use this camera? I have shot some great stuff on the F900 with a set of Fugi zooms and no DIT and a lot of the TV series down here don't have DIT's on set ever. Kirk, Practically - for shooting drama, the F900 is a better alternative IMO. For Commercials, your project - only projecting on Television, i would go the 7D's. Is it possible to shoot some tests and show your editor, or if the budget doesn't allow grab a 7D and shoot a little mood piece to calm his nerves. Regards, James

Hi, I've done this a couple of times and it's super simple. Make a mini T-Bar rig (Inch and 1/8 stand, Barrel Clamp and then a 6 Ft scaff bar) and rig either a couple of 650's or 1k's on the cross bar. Have the Barrel clamp loose and just pan it over your scene. It helps to have these lamps doubled up into a dimmer for more control so as you pan it onto the scene come up on the slider or vice versa. Hope this helps, Cheers, James.

Thanks for that - much appreciated. Cheers, James

Dingle - grab some high stands and some trees and use them for the most realistic gobo's OR fly a 12x12 Silk for a super soft overhead and shape from there with some bounced HMI's. I prefer the Dingle in this situation. If you want it to be warmer tone you need to shoot the Daylight stock. Cheers, James

12 volts Dedo or Sun Guns are great as discussed. Light Panels for a softer source. One thing that is quite nice is when you get a couple of people out of frame with small soft silver boards and shine the light into them, hide some small boards and poly in the grass so when the characters walk through the field there is a whole bunch of light play. Depends on how realistic you want it i guess? Could work with a china ball on a boom pole over the front of the character - put the lamp into a slider and have it come up and down intermittently as they move the flashlight. Just a thought. Cheers, James.

Hi, Specifically what do you want to use it for? Is it a 3/4 high key for a general ambient wash or an overhead in a big space or something different??? Lighting ballons (IMO) are more often then not too much hassle - extensive rigging is required when the wind pops up and a lot of the light becomes wasted unless used directly overhead. Large HMI's into BIG frames is the simplest way to achieve a large soft source otherwise you're talking scaff rigs and goal posts rigs to get a similair quality as balloons. Regards, James.

Hi - It's hard to tell whats going on in the image. Have you put it through any other tests? Maybe some simple tungsten lighting effects flashing a pup on and off and see if it is a similar degradation of the image. . We shot some concert stuff at Falls Festival of the 5d & 7d with pretty full on lighting effects and didn't see any of the problems you have here. Regards, James

Hi, Tungsten is definitely the way to go. Saying that you will need much larger sources to match your HMI grunt of a 2.5 Par therfore needing bigger power requirements. If you need something spotty you could use a bunch of Par cans or Source 4's and for something larger i would be using 2k, 5K or 10K Molebeams. http://extranet.mole.com/public/index.cgi?...900&id=1906 These are amazing lights and Dimmable. Still - Your 5K molebeams are still not as punchy as 2.5K par. As discussed HMI's don't dim all that much whether they are Pars or not. When dimmed they go slightly Cooler (ie: higher colour temp) where tungsten sources are the opposite. Cheers, James.

The new courses are the best undergrad in the country (doesn't say too much) but they have amazing resources with a never ending library and great teachers. You can always move to Sydney to study - i did. Regards, James

Hi, Do you have to use HMI's? for the Colour? You can't really dim HMI's - they only drop about 20 percent with the dimmer in the ballast and you defianlty cannot put them into any type of dimming device because of the ballast. Use some larger Tungsten Units - 5k's / 10k's. If you dont have a Genny get a bunch of Blondies. Regards, James

The Major difference is with Australia and the US is that our courses are HEAVILY subsided. The Post grad course was $5,000AU per year with an acceptance of only 4 students per discipline. The Government / some heads of media divisions got upset with the "elite" attitude of our film education and broadened the intake and increased the fees. AFTRS still has resources that rival US film courses and is a great deal if you can get in. I wouldn't bother studying any practical film courses in Australia at a post grad level besides this one, they are only getting worse. Regards, James

Hi - When mixing formats we have been doing a 30-25 Frame merge using Compressor and found good results. But this causes issues if you want to cut with avid with the 30p stuff for the offline. The only way around is to get your go takes - export to Prores HQ and then frame merge them. This is quite a time consuming process. With quick pans you already have some motion blur / smear that is accentuated by the frame merge. I Haven't shot any fast moving action on the camera so i have never seen horrible results. Hanging for the 25 frame firmware to come out. Canon are sure taking their sweet ass time. Regards, James.

It's happening a lot in Australia. DSLR with the RED for Commercials, Virals and Music Videos. Similar DOF but throwing the camera in hard to reach places. Inside cars to get quick CU's of people feet, faces etc - rigged on cars, bikes, paragliders, surfboards etc. Imagine the rig for a RED on a mountain bike - super clamp and a 7D for a quick 2 second shot. I'm not advocating mixing the two BUT there is a necessity out there to do it and it's only becoming more and more common. Post issues? Not really - Render H264 straight to ProresHQ and that is your offline and online. Latitude and Compression are unavoidable and if you cut straight from a beautiful red wide shot to a CU 5d and hold on it the game is given away. It's something to embrace i think and the camera is offering people 35mm DOF in places they havent been able to put the camera beforehand. Regards, James.

Loved the Wide Aspect and the use of empty sapce. Very structured shots - good symmetry and great coverage to tell such a simple story. LOVED the in shot colour scheme change when something positive would come into his life. Cinematography and tone of storytelling not to forget stella performances made great work of very basic script. Regards James.

AFTRS is great but the MASTERS has been cut. It's now a 1 year grad dip and less selective. Well worth a look in still. The Directing course which i believe you are looking at went from accepting 4 students to 18 last year but has produced some exceptional talent. NIDA - Purely theatre based. If you want to get into film dont go to NIDA. VCA has been completly restructured (as discussed) merged and funding cut. Australia post grad courses have taking a hefty slice in the last 2 years. AFTRS is still the only recommendation i have. Regards, James .

Thanks Satsuki - i'll try rustle them up down under. Hey Chris - Yeh i have done this a few times and never found the clamp on's to be very sturdy. Cheers James.

Hi List, I'm shooting a travel commercial with a 5d and 7d and going for a heavily diffused look. Full BPM on the 5d setup with Follow focus / Matt Box etc but on the 7D i need the stills equivalent with a Screw on. Shneiders offset B+W have nothing similar and it's hard because you cannot test these filters (in Australia no-one has them in the shops, special order only) Has anyone had much experience with photography softening filters??? I can't set them both up with matt boxes because i'm looking for the smallest camera kit possible to mount on mountain bikes / hang gliders etc. Thanks in Advance. Cheers, James