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

Succeeding Trammel Hudson's Magic Lantern, here is from March 15th on:

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

Pretty freak'n rad. Looks great, hope to see more.

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.

I really hope NZ manages to pass this into law and set an example for the rest of the world:

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.

Very good work. Beautiful in a very,very sad and haunting way. I think I'll donate a little more.......

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.

1. What lenses can you afford to rent if you go with the F900? If you can't get good glass for it, then what's the point?

2. Do you have the budget for a good DIT on the F900 shoot? If not, then what's the point?

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.

or the Vimeo link : http://vimeo.com/9517097

Thanks for that - much appreciated.

Cheers, James

1) Bright late afternoon- ( 50d) beautiful girl in pool --

I'm trying to think of ideas for scrims and some kind of overhead gobos to turn the sun in to a patter.

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.

3) Magic hour 250D or 500T

If you want it to be warmer tone you need to shoot the Daylight stock.

Cheers, James

Tips?

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.

I love the quality of Helium balloon lights but as a student they are too expensive to rent. Is there a poor mans version of this. I want something like a china ball but alot larger.

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.

I need help to find out if this is a problem in the camera or something else ? Thank you !

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

It sounds like going tungsten would be the easiest way to do this one...

 

I have to ask though, when you dim HMI's from the ballast, do they give you a color shift similar to dimming tungsten units?

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.

I feel the same way about some of the undergraduate courses I have been looking at here (Curtin, ECU, Murdoch). I would love to do the foundation diploma at AFTRS (which they just introduced) but I'm on the other side of the country.

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

Hello,

 

For a music video I need to fade up and down several lights quickly with control. I have one 2.5kW HMI and two 1.2kW HMI lights.

 

I need to fade each one up and down quickly and individually form each other. Is this possible? I presume I need some sort of dimming unit, what would i need and how does it work in conjunction with the HMI's ballasts?

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

I only just noticed that. I wonder if it's got anything to do with all the major universities restructuring their undergraduate courses to provide a more liberal arts training (like in the US) with post-graduate training for professions like medicine, law, architecture etc.

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

In Australia, What are they doing about the frame rate? Are they shooting both at 30p? I have a shoot coming up where we are considering mixing the two formats (Red and 5D). Its very action heavy (a boxer training) and we will be shooting at 24p. Still, there will a far amount of night time, natural light, running shots through downtown Los Angeles that I was considering using the 5D.

 

I'm not a big fan of action at 30p and I have yet to see a good 30p to 24p conversion.

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.

I don't have a lot of observations to offer here but I did want to stir up some opinions. This sort of question is beginning to come up more and more often as vDSLRs get into the hands of creative people.

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.

I just saw this at the theater today and was blown away. The cinematography in this film was excellent and I loved the lighting and color choices. Many of the shots looked as if they could have been print advertisements, which was interesting and clever. They really fit the subject matter of the film. Has anyone else seen it and what did you think?

 

The film was shot by Eduard Grau and directed by Tom Ford.

S35. DI. Panavision Camera and Lenses

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.

Does anyone have any recommendations for masters programs in these countries?

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 .

Tiffen BPM filters are available in screw-on sizes: http://www.filmtools.com/tiflenfilbla.html.

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