Jump to content

Larry DeGala

Basic Member
  • Posts

    41
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Larry DeGala

  1. Are you referring to shallow depth of field? Can you be clearer? I'm emphasizing that sharp focus is the difference between getting the reality gig or not. many inexperienced operators have difficulty where their shots were soft all the time. master the basics. the subject's eyes are sharp. that's the life lesson of getting your gig (or not).
  2. Robin R Probin, It's okay. We're talking about "beginner stuff." We haven't gotten up to speed with your more advanced "Bourne stuff." When we're ready, we'll call you if that's okay with you.
  3. Stuart Brereton, not sure where "be safe" was lost in translation. it is better to be forewarned than to be forlorned. Safety first.
  4. If you need the forward section to be absolutely rigid, you can position this clamp underneath the lens to create a "cantilevered spine" that will make 15mm rods as solid as the cheeseplate. It is impossible to bend or flex the rods to the point the anamorphic element would be misaligned. The cheeseplate must face down so you can use the lens mount on top of the 15mm rails. I find that rod clamps spaced evenly on the 15mm rod made the rods more rigid and mitigated the potential to flex on any portion of its length. Like suspension bridge engineering. Go figger!
  5. Corn starch is biologically safer than talcum powder (remembering the time students clapped chalkboard erasers, eek!). When using any flour, do not have an open light source (such as burning candle or torch) nearby. Fine flour misted in the air will ignite, and anything flammable in that flour mist will also burst into flames (actors). Be safe and have fun!
  6. I like my rig to mimic the form of the old 3-chip 2/3-inch broadcast cameras (Sony / Ikegami ) because of their ergonomics and balance despite their heavy weight. The film cameras in 90s did not have the same ergonomics. You had a belt with a rod to hold up the front portion of the camera while the rear base perched on your shoulder. Rigs became the mother of necessity when DSLRs said smaller is better. I needed to go back to heavier mass, so I'd stack V-mounts by 3s for more stable handheld, mitigating unintentional shakes and jars. I'd use a monopod fully retracted, the end jammed in my belt. I'd give myself some room for error by shooting at f/5.6 to f/11. Pulling your own focus on a reality show or documentary came with the territory. Your subject is moving, you're moving, the focus ring is spinning like a roulette wheel. An easier range is 25mm to 50mm. More experienced operators can nail 85mm to 135mm with ease. The important thing is to remain tack sharp throughout recording. Experience will come over time. Thank the ARRI gods for making the AMIRA user-friendly in its ergonomics!
  7. hey, Satsuki, that (Element Technica) support I could trust to hold up Zeiss cz.2 lens or Optimo zooms. The ARRI LS-9 is very similar, but for 19mm rods. It is only $200 more. The lens support on 15mm is more to take up any lash, essentially locking up the barrel of the Angeniuex zoom to the CP-16 mount. On the other hand, the 19mm rod system is rigid enough to carry the full weight of very heavy glass like CZ.2 or Optimo mounted on Amira. May be overkill for a CP-16, but if you have the money to burn, by all means do so. my problem with Angenieux zooms on CP-16 was critical back focus on the wide. always needed re-seating. probably less so once properly supported. any support is better than no support. smallrig.com is a start.
  8. Wow, still technically solid for film negative to digital. I am very impressed with the evening (sunset) shot at the end. I love how it handles the boulevard with high contrast lighting. And the reflected light from passing traffic spilling into the foyer shows films sensitivity. It very much mimics how the human would see. "The Walking Dead" is over one million feet of Super 16 film negative and probably on their way to shooting two million feet of Eastman Kodak. The thing to look out for is critical back focus on the wide angle, apparent on various zooms. I was messing around with the 2.5K RAW of the BMCC camera, seeing how far I can trash the sensor and see what a "best light" grading could come up. My f-stop was wide open at 1.4 and 2.8. I used the highest and noisiest ASA of 1600. Comparing with your S16 negative, my sunset shots did not fare too well and the daytime high contrast shots are not as even as your boulevard. This test was for my own curiosity, as the YouTube codec was darkening client footage by two stops. I also have Vimeo Pro but working on a quarter million views per channel on YouTube, I have no choice but to go where the traffic is. The half hour shows were running almost 200 gigabytes. Using H.264 YouTube specs, I get to upload a measly 2 gB (wondering where the 198 gB went??). The vimeo codec was giving me a respectable 20 gB from the 200 gB original. I just hate math. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFAwMp07mkc
  9. You're absolutely right. In the six months of shooting, I've never seen main camera take "a rest." But the backup rental sat there day after day. As well as the backup of the backup. Probably a DP who only shoots film neg and somehow convinced the producer back in 2012 this was the safest way for digital film acquisition. In "Paul Blart: Mall Cop II" they didn't have a hickup except for the dust shadow that threatened to take down main camera and freeze up the week of shoot. Oh, wait. There was no backup camera in Las Vegas. Not even a backup of a backup. Sh!t
  10. Fog in a Can, anyone? :rolleyes: (no, i don't work for Fantasy FX) Use with bare naked bulbs. No diffusion necessary. Absolutely no bounce or reflected light. 1K or 10K doesn't matter. Hard light gets you hard shafts. On the other hand, soft light gets you thick blanket of fog. As for dust, I wouldn't sprinkle that on actors or all over the room. Sprinkle it three feet from the lens and have the operator (and other crew, i.e. dust wrangler) wear a mask, with a basin out of frame to catch that dust. An "eye light" nearest the front of the lens can reflect most of the dust particle without killing your asthmathics.
  11. glad to be of assistance. wooden camera is the other brand if you do want to spend the money. i do not work for wooden camera or for smallrig. i have done a gig for wooden camera in the past. i have yet to bend a rod and had no success.
  12. If it is an epidermal and saline solution, it's no problem. Your pharmaceutical client can possibly arrange that. On the other hand, you'll need a makeup artist, some long injection needles and a butcher. Go to your local butcher and get a cut of pork with skin still intact. If the cut is frozen, you can allow it to thaw overnight in the refrigerator. You won't be able to stab a needle into it if it is rock solid. Wash skin surface with soap and water and pat dry. Get a good macro lens, usually a long telephoto that does macro or even a regular 50mm lens with +4 closeup diopter. Have the makeup artist apply a foundation on your pork that closely matches that of the actor's skin tone. Compose in a way you don't see the edges. Get in really close. You may just want to see the bottom portion of the syringe where the plunger bottoms out, pushing the last milliliter of liquid for effect. Have your actor wince in medium shot so the general public can feel pain and uneasiness. Unfortunately, the pork cut cannot convey same.
  13. I recall the Angenieux zoom on the CP mount is quite sturdy. You could get away with 15mm rails for a lens support. It's also stiff enough for mattebox and two 4x5.65 glass filters if you're keeping everything mounted on a tripod. I've got large, heavy 180mm and 300mm telephoto lens cradled on 15mm rods. But if you need 19mm rods, you can look into smallrig (I don't work for smallrig). http://smallrig.com/smallrig-19mm-rod-clamp-1629.html
  14. It appears that Carl Zeiss lenses are all manufactured in Oume, Japan (no longer made in Oberkochen). Most Sony lenses are Carl Zeiss optics construction, but I believe the CineAlta are Minolta construction, good enough to rival Zeiss glass. Anyone can confirm?
  15. On set for episodic television, we'd have three F-55 cameras. They never ran as multi-camera typical of television drama. One shot all the scenes until the backup camera was needed to give the first camera a rest. The third camera was a backup for the backup camera. Camera Department could not stop filming as there were almost a hundred cast and crew, from PAs to extras, waiting and staged to do their part. Episodic television scheduling is very tight.
  16. You can contact your local Scorpio Crane exclusive dealer for leads. There is also the Super Techno Crane as well. They are quite knowledgeable about rental houses and smaller owner-operators who may always need a stable of technicians.
  17. I could have mention all the technical problems but content is king. You borrowed where you needed to borrow. The deadpan delivery was right on where deadpan is concerned. your paying homage to scenes straight out of many noir titles was witty and humorous. the Moppet was real. Yes, goofy but real enough. the flashing strobe brought memories of Agent Cooper and the Dancing Midget. the pacing was good. the dialogue was unpredictable. the public domain footage tied everything into a dreamy hot mess. i laughed. i cried (not really, i was laughing). i had memories of film school, the crew obsession, the gear envy. but content is what keeps bringing the audience back. don't need to over-think this one or second-guess yourself. as they say-- make stories you can enjoy. surely, others can relate to and enjoy those stories. and when it stops being fun, you can always get off this amusement ride. and do it again tomorrow
  18. btw I would keep the 2.8 in the EF version and pick up a used 2.5K on eBay and have the Tokina/BMCC for mounting on speeding car chases and also flying rigs on heavy-lift drones. The 2.8 is light for drone flight whereas you don't want to risk a heavy $2K glass optic for drone work. or car crashes.
  19. the Tokina 2.8 11-16 is great for the APS-C sensor, but I don't know about Super35 sensor (I should slap it on a 4K BMCC super35 global shutter and find out). I know on the full frame sensor EF Canon camera, it vignettes like the Dickens. With a full frame sensor, 16mm is okay, but at 15mm, you see the front threads in lower corners. Images look like GoPro wide angle. If that's the look you want, go for it. I can't guarantee the 2.8 is parfocal zoom at every f stop. For documentary interview, you might be tack sharp zoomed in at 16mm and then soft at 11mm. Have to run tests at f/8 and higher, and f/8 and lower, and be sure. The 3.0 cine is designed to be parfocal zoom. I hope the pull focus on the cine version is better than the still camera version, seeing the 0.8 pitch focus gearing. And nice to have manual f-stop ring. as you've mentioned, no PL version yet for the 11-16. Only for the 16-35mm and the 50-135mm. Stay tuned!
  20. Joker line is not too bad. Most kits at JR Lighting are always out. I don't work for JR lighting or for Joker. But I know they work, and they're always at the job site. http://jrlighting.com/rental-catalog.php?id=1
  21. I was using Tiffen 4 x 5.65 ND 1.8 with circular PL and got massive red shift (on digital camera, BMCC 4K). I got hot mirror ND 1.8 and still ended up with red shift. I forgot to remove the circular PL. Everything looks great. The circular PL was attenuating IR pollution. Go figger! You won't need hot mirror for film negative. Maybe just a UV-B/haze filter just to protect your front element from scratches.
  22. I might be interested in an S16 GSMO with (HD) tap. Started with CP-16 over the 16BL because it ran very quiet, had adequate zoom, and didn't need a lens barney. But not familiar with noise level of a S16 GSMO
  23. http://www.walls.com/workwear/workwear-coveralls/Walls-BlizzardPrufreg-Insulated-Coverall-YV309.jsp Comfortable for hours in otherwise bone-chilling weather
  24. You can go to your local 3-D printer to print you a dummy battery to fill the void and give you two hard points for copper contacts. Fish your power line through dilled hole in the cap. And you're finished.
×
×
  • Create New...