Jon Kline

Looks like a cool app, but $13.99 is a lot. 
Is there any chance you can get camera rental shops to pay for it instead? If a company like Keslow bought you out, they could make it free in the US and use it to create new orders automatically. 
 

Don't make the mistake of assuming price is the only thing that matters.

I've had three different agents. The first one disappeared when I had trouble with my claim. The second one gave me bad advice about what risks to cover. The third one costs more on paper, but has already saved me a ton by pairing me with the right coverage from reputable companies.

If you work with crews from varying locations, they will all have varying expectations (and language!) for what they want to use. 
If I were getting started in the lighting, grip, and electric category, I'd put my emphasis on the less glamorous stuff that people never fly with: c-stands, sand bags, a 24x36 flag kit, clamps, and a crate of 20-amp stingers. Then LED lighting (probably something from LiteMat, LitePanels, or Quasar).

Tungsten is great and I use it often, but I wouldn't buy any more. If you really like shooting with it, wait until the big rental shops have their sales/auctions, and pick up whatever you like at a bargain basement price. In my experience, any tungsten bigger than a 2K tends to go for super cheap.

I'm expecting my Alexa Mini LF soon. It's a big jump for me from owning FS7s.  I work as a DP/owner operator and own a small-market camera rental shop, too. Most of my cinema camera gigs are commercials and ultra low budget narrative.

I'm wondering what accessories make the most sense for me to put next on my list. It will be a few years before I can take on another monstrous expense like Signature Primes, but there are lots of "smaller" items I'm guessing clients will ask for or expect? What accessories should I have that make operating easier? Have you gone the Arri path for accessories, like the WCU and WVT, or third party? Do you feel strongly about going one way or the other? What items can wait and which do I need to have ASAP? Will clients look at me crazy if I suggest shooting on cinema primes that cost less than a luxury car?

I'm asking this specifically in a non-branded forum to avoid the rabid fanboy responses. :-)

When shooting something more traditional I'll usually make sure that the front of the face key side is in 70-75 IRE as viewed in REC709. When you want the dramatic edge light look, you can go darker (45-65 maybe) and give yourself room for contrast without blowing out highlights. It will look dramatic but the down side is things are harder to discern. If what you're doing is demonstrative, it probably needs to be brighter.

In log, the numbers are different but the philosophy is the same.

I just realized that in 10 years we will be digitally simulating CMOS smear, and in 20, rolling shutter. ?

You get kind of walled in with the need for an edgy look with the dynamic nature of a live workout. I shot more than 100 follow along workout videos and this was definitely a challenge. If you're doing a shot at a time, just find out what the motion is and light each shot individually. If you have to do the whole thing as if it's live, manage some expectations. Definitely get a sense from your client if the priority is to show the moves or to convey the intensity/emotion/brand. Sometimes they may fall in love with a look, but it has to be modified to suit their goals.

things I found were:

You can make the background as edgy as possible, with high contrast hard light taking over textured surfaces. Art department is your friend.

If you key with a neutral white and edge with a bit of color, it's easier to forgive stray shadows. Don't light to 70 IRE.

Fog is helpful, spend the extra for a device that can output a continuous effect.

Grid cloth is great, for sure. You might experiment with some non-standard options and save some money in the process. I've had great luck with huge plastic rolls for diffusing light in greenhouses. You might also consider translum. Sometimes having something with a bit of rigidity and durability helps to build your set pieces.

Since it looked like just two fixtures, and not particularly high wattage, my guess was some LED moving heads. You could do it with whatever is available, but there are a ton of affordable LED heads out there.

I own an AV rental shop and have basically gone crazy trying to teach beginners how to set up two or three fixtures on a basic lighting board. It is very simple, kind of. Assuming they can set up truss, hang fixtures safely, run power safely, run DMX cabling or wireless effectively, terminate cable runs, configure appropriate DMX addresses, and operate a board is probably too much for most novices. If you are comfortable with lights and you have a willingness to learn and time, no problem.

That is definitely moving head LED fixtures. It looks pretty small, maybe just two lights and a controller, plus fog. If you don't know DMX, it's probably easiest to hire a grip who does. You could rent a kit like that for under $500 for the day where I'm from.

Do you have a lot of power available? Tungsten might be easier.

Don't feel too hemmed in by what's motivated. If you look at what real moonlight actually looks like on camera, it's almost like sunlight. The 360 degree requirement is also already really limiting what you can get away with.

You might also try a vari-cross filter. These let you make two streaks of an adjustable angle around point light sources.

I've done some work that was match-moved with a 1/48 shutter, but not handheld. I would do a test shot at 1/48 and see if it lines up easily. If you use a prime lens and are smart about keeping some trackable points in the frame, it probably won't be an issue.

Are the lamps relatively new?

By the time you're negotiating payment, you're obligated to the production in a way that you wouldn't be for $0. I work for rate, or I work for free. If the producer tries to push for something in the middle, I use it as an opportunity to up the camera department budget.

If I'm working for free, you can bet I've got a drive on set and I'm going home with a copy of the dailies myself. And I'm making sure to get some face time with everyone.

I've used a Gelly Roll for the sizes up to 20x24. Something like this: http://www.samys.com/p/Color-Filter--Diffusion-Sheets--Rolls/GL2G/Gelly-Roll-Gel-Storage-and-Protection,-20-x-24,-Gray/7804.html

I keep cardboard poster tubes in my office for sheets. I have a tube for CTOs, one for CTBs, one for diffusions, and one for random other stuff. I've seen some nice handmade boxes for holding 48" rolls vertical. If you build a little eggcrate-style divider on the top, it gets a little easier to manage them. I've seen people build racks to hold rolls horizontal, but they end up taking a huge amount of space unless you have 100+ different rolls.

by my experience the FS7 seems to be still in a bit unreliable firmware stage (I've had dozens of situations with a rental camera where the video scopes stop working with all settings and have to rely only on zebra for exposure. sometimes may have other quirks also. these may magically fix themselves during the day, sometimes not).

With the firmware 3.10 on the body, 2.0 on the extension unit, and whatever is current on metabones adapters, I've had no issues. I do tend to factory reset a lot, but that's because I rent my camera to others and you never know what's going to come back set funny.

I did stop relying on the camera to do everything anymore, and got a Gratical HD to handle scopes and LUTs. It's a useful item for any camera, but HUGELY helpful for the FS7.

I'm thinking I will bring up the ambient behind the camera to help control squinting.

I'm considering a crazy high concept idea and curious if anyone here has any experience combining a ringlight with a teleprompter/interrotron.

I'm thinking it should work if I put the light a bit closer than usual to the talent and use a long lens. But if someone has any pointers, I'm all ears.

Wolfrs & Jimmy Jib, this is a real, full names forum. you need to contact the Forum Administrator, Tim Tyler, to have your screen name changed.

 

Thanks.

Awww, c'mon, Jimmy Jib could totally be someone's name! I'm pretty sure he's engaged to Dolly Fisher.

Maximize the distance between the talent and the wall. The only way you'll want to use big soft sources is with flags/eggcrates or by using distance to keep the wall dark. It will help if your lights are as close to the talent as possible. You'll probably move your key and fill wider and higher than you might otherwise.

If you can keep your BG really underexposed, you can use harder sources to add shape and drama as you like.

If you're letting the background go dark in spots, you'll probably want a nice edge on people, especially for their closeups.

Don't judge your potential in any career based on the number of people currently working in the field.

You should be looking at where the future is going, and your level of skill, passion and dedication relative to the other people in the field. It doesn't matter if there are only three working DPs in your country. If you're creating top-tier work, telling compelling stories, marketing yourself, and making connections, you can be one of them.

The most valuable thing you can get from film school is a network. I wouldn't spend money on a certificate or yearlong program. Use your money to get a nice tripod, or a light kit, or make a short film. Meet people, volunteer, and Google everything. There are SO MANY tutorials online and so many people willing to answer your questions as you go. There is no magic that happens inside a university, other than combining resources, knowledge, and time.

Until then, three old raquetballs would let you use it indoors, at least.

Definitely get all your talent lights up before you even start to light the cyc. You're probably not going to need much, depending on the distance between things.

Are you thinking you want a dirty white look where the corners vignette into the 80%s, or are you hoping for something more dramatic?

Remember, even if you light the cyc to a flat 100%, if your lenses vignette, your corners won't clip anyway. You might not need as much shape as you think.

The F3 has 3.36 effective megapixels. That means a maximum luma resolution of about 2440 x1372. Assuming a traditional bayer array, you have 64% of the spatial chroma information needed for true 4:4:4. Of course, you'll also have bit depth, which will be much higher coming off the sensor than you'll be recording into the video file. So assuming the debayering algorithm is working well, you'll have a lot more information available than can fit into 4:4:4, even with the limited chroma sampling sites.

It would not be expected to perform as well during green screening as a "true" 4:4:4 camera with more photosites. But for everyday work, the extra bit depth information will exceed the resolution limitations. For green screen, you probably want a 4K camera anyway.