AJ Young

I love Lite Mat's; they are versatile, lightweight, and produce excellent color and intensity. Like what Adrian said, they're on practically every set in Los Angeles, and for good reason. My only beef with the system are two things: The cable from ballast to head is weak; often there is an electrician on set re-wiring a unit or two because one of the cables got yanked out. Controlling the color temperature on the ballast isn't precise. It's essentially a turn dial knob with no clicking. You can turn the dial to 3200k, 5600k, etc and it's pretty close, but there's no read out for the precise color temperature (like the Sky Panel or Kino Celeb's would do). Wrapping up with a positive note; these lights can run off AA's!

My first film school had us shoot on the Canon Scoopic; loved that camera. It needs a second to get up to speed, and by a second I literally mean a second. The camera isn't too great a syncing sound; it's mostly 24fps, but not consistent. I notice you're in AZ; are you attending SCC?

Ah, I totally did miss that note. My mistake!

Middle of the day will give a less flattering light; you'll most likely get shadows in the eyes (racoon eyes) which will look bad (unless it's your intention). If you do shoot in the middle of the day, then you'll have some options: Diffuse the overhead sunlight with a large diffusion in the realm of a 10'x - 12'x and up. Fill in the shadows with fill as well. Safety becomes a concern when doing overhead diffusion because of wind. You'll need proper stands, sand bags, rope, and experience securely rigging a large frame overhead. Block the overhead sunlight in the same way as diffusion and then bounce in a more flattering angle onto the subjects. Cat's can be skinned in a thousand ways, and there's numerous approaches to lighting during the mid-day. These aren't the only ones!

I highly recommend a 2K Mole, but most require a junior spud stand to hold it. If you don't have a junior stand (aka combo stand), then your cost for the light will go up because you'll need to buy a stand. The different spud on the light creates other problems; you'll need a junior spud pipe clamp for grid work, a junior spud plate for screwing it onto a pancake, etc.

Dana Dolly here in the states is one of the go-to indie dollies. Incredibly versatile for simple moves; I use it on almost every feature. http://www.danadolly.com/

I agree that little to no student loan debt contributes to a successful career as a freelancer, but the reality is that the US job market is approaching a catch-22. The unemployment rate for high-school graduates is twice the rate of college graduates, essentially meaning a Bachelor's has become the new high school diploma. This New York Times article goes into good detail: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/20/business/college-degree-required-by-increasing-number-of-companies.html?mcubz=3 The best advice for cash strapped college hopefuls is to attend a school they can afford and use the system to their advantage. I personally went to a community college for my general education courses and beginning film classes. I was a movie theatre projectionist at the time and the company, Harkins Theatres, had an excellent education scholarship for managers/projectionists. They essentially paid for my entire college education while I was attending community college. From there, I transferred to a four year program and only had to attend for two years. Because of my 4.0 GPA, the 4-year-college gave me a scholarship. I of course had to take on student debt from the US government, but I only walked out with $16k in debt...which is essentially a new car. AFI, Chapman, USC, NYU, UCLA, etc all are exciting and enticing film schools, but their costs are astronomical. I have mentors who are shooting big budget television shows that are still paying off their debt from those schools. The key thing to remember is that the statistics are skewed in favor of those schools. Yes, there are a lot of AFI/USC/NYU grads who are successful in the industry, but there are far more successful people who went to other colleges and paid far less. These people were successful because of the work they put in school and out of school while they were attending. The bottom line is this: a degree will only help, not hurt. The cost of that degree determines where you should go to school, not if you should.

I should add that, in the US at least, you should get a college degree regardless. This video explains why in a tongue in check way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXM3a1dSIhM A key thing to remember about school and film schools in general: school will only give back what you put in. Meeting just the base requirements to pass a class isn't enough. You'll want to be engaged in class, strive to have a perfect GPA, be active in programs at the school (like film clubs, workshops, career fairs, etc).

Let's remember the point of Yedlin's demo: he analyzes resolution, not whether or not film/digital is better. His test was designed for streaming and can be downloaded at the lowest compression for offline viewing.

Damn, I'm waaay late to the party. Have you filled the position? I would love to throw my name into the hat as well. Here's my website: http://www.AJYoungDP.com And my reel: https://vimeo.com/202253508

First of all, it sounds like you're trying to make a digital image. ;) 1) You've kind of answered your own question. Over exposing and then pulling from the bath or adjusting the exposure in the DI will yield a sharper, less grainy image. See: Link 1 and Link 2 2) You'll need to make sure the 16mm camera system is working correctly, particularly with the gate. Are the tension bands holding? Pull down claw in sync with registration pin? A good rental house will have their film cameras in tip-top shape (like Panavision or Keslow). If I'm not mistaken, Panavision has the scratch tests from the magazines ready during prep. 3) Prime lenses are the sharpest you can get because they have the least amount of glass. In general, the less glass in a lens, the sharper the image. Furthermore, shooting at a deeper stop will give a sharper image (see F/64 club). 4) Film, particularly Vision 3, has an incredible highlight retention. It's best to over expose and correct in development or DI. Basically, see point number 1. Of course, you're going through all this trouble to get, by what you've been asking to do, a digital image. No grain, no image bounce? Walks like a duck, sounds like a duck... But, I'm definitely curious: why do you want to shoot on 16mm film? How does it serve the story?

2K and HD are virtually the same, so yes you are correct, Giorgio. A lot of movies, especially Hollywood films, have been shot and finished in 2K. I recommend checking out Steve Yedlin's resolution demo: http://yedlin.net/ResDemo/. He recently shot the new Star Wars film, if you need any back story on him. HOWEVER, I do recommend looking at a 4K camera because the industry is already heading into that direction. 2K is a perfectly fine format to shoot and finish in, but most producers and studios are beginning to require 4K standards (see Netflix). So, that being said, 4K is perfectly fine, you don't need anything beyond it. Instead, focus on better pixels, not more of them. There's a reason people still shoot on the Alexa Classic.

I started out in Phoenix, it's a very small market. Bigger commercials, narrative films, or documentaries usually fly in their department heads. Most companies that do not already have their own in house Videographer/Editor/Producer turn to the local freelance market. Like in LA/NYC, you basically have to live there to "break" in to the Phoenix market, which again is very small. I recommend reaching out to Phil Bradstock at the Phoenix Film Office and Matthew Earl Jones at the Arizona Office of Film and Digital Media. Phil in particular can give a better insight into the market for the city and state (he's had the position for I think ten years now?).

I think you will get a faster answer on ACES's official forum: http://acescentral.com/

I hope I didn't come across as crass! 8mm may look like home movies, but so did standard def DV footage. Of course, 28 Days Later was shot on standard def DV cameras... My point, the tool does not determine the quality, the person using it does. You could give an iphone to Annie Leibovitz and she'll make better images than an experienced photographer using a Pentax 645. Please let us know what the light is; we've all definitely used odd lighting to get what we want.

Like what Stuart said, a framing chart is used together with the viewfinder and ground glass. Rolling on the framing chart, at the bare minimum, defines where on the actual film your frame is. In theory, you would shoot the framing chart lined exactly with the ground glass. The telecine may ignore the framing chart and scan the entire film, but it gives you a starting point for what your original framing was intended to be (because you framed everything for the outlines on the ground glass).

It's only amateur in how someone uses a tool, not the tool itself. Believing the quality of the tool determines the quality of the work is foolish; do not get caught in that trap. Can you describe more what these lights are? I'm getting the impression that they're lights used for construction, but I could be wrong. Do you have any pictures or links?

I'd do Jaron's idea in a heartbeat. The same can be done with a dana dolly; just make sure to provide center support for such a long run. I use this laser pointer and believe it'll work well in your situation: link

Trust your sound mixer. In the US, they usually bring the electronic slate (aka smart slate). Check the timecode on the slate matches the timecode in camera and on the sound recording device.

Whats your post production workflow as well? You might be able to use power windows and qualifying to increase the effect in the color grade. I'd recommend lite mats; I've taped them to ceilings and they've held for a few hours with regular checking. I agree with Bruce; very small room. Might be approaching impossible, but nothing ever does!

You're shooting in the wrong neighborhood, David. :P

Slating helps with labeling shots; commercials tend to move to fast for them, but I always mandate to slate. Labeling helps find shots later and organize the shots/takes. TC on the slate helps with syncing multiple cameras and, like you said, if the jam or lockit box goes out of sync (like a dead battery).

There's really not a reliable way to send TC into the AS7II; there's not a TC in port afterall. If you're using external recorders with the AS7II's, then I recommend either the Odyssey 7Q or PIXE5. If you're not using external recorders, then take a look at the Tentacle Sync. I've had a location sound mixer use on on a GH4, but I'm not sure exactly how it works beyond the surface level. If all else, make sure to use a smart slate!

It depends on what you want your lens to do for the image. The closer to wide open, the more the lens will "fall apart". This could work in your favor for beauty; the reduced sharpness and contrast can act as a pseudo beauty filter. Of course, razor thin depth of field will make shooting a tutorial beauty video very difficult. Do you want accurate color representation? Then shooting in the "sweet spot" of the lens will reduce any chromatic aberration, flaring, etc. Want sharpness? Go deeper with the stop. It all depends on how you want your lenses to behave.

I'm with David, I enjoy popping in a Blu-ray/DVD and watching it over streaming. Streaming will definitely catch up and surpass blu-ray in quality, but for it's good enough for me to enjoy. We'll never escape bandwidth throttling, though. I usually purchase blu-ray and DVD's to pull stills for research; they're a lot easier to scrub back and forth than a stream. *I'm also that guy who enjoys listening to vinyl, so take what you will.