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David Peterson

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  • Occupation
    Sound Department
  • Location
    Auckland, New Zealand.
  • My Gear
    Sony PMW-F3 / BMPCC / 360VR rig
  • Specialties
    Production Sound Mixer

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  • Website URL
    http://IronFilm.co.nz/Sound/

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  1. Put Countryman H6 headset lavs on all the cast. Rent Shure wireless (the options from worst/cheapest to best/expensive is: Shure SLX-D / QLX-D / ULX-D / Axient Digital). Use a Zoom F8n with a Zoom F Control for recording and mixing the audio. (you said it is an 11 member cast, but will all of them ever be on stage at once? If it is never more than 8, you can get away with a Zoom F8n. Otherwise, I guess get yourself a Zoom LiveTrak L12, but personally I'd be biased towards using an F8n)
  2. People really should only ever use omni lavs, not cardioid lavs. (they're much bulkier and more prone to handling/rustling noise, serious deal breakers for a lav of course)
  3. Quite a fascinating trip down internet history that was!
  4. NOW you can see it! As ARRI released the camera which can do 17
  5. Seems Noise Reduction isn't an option for lower ISO settings. Which kinda makes sense, is unnecessary. Thus we know ARRI isn't cheating DR claims by using NR
  6. Damn, very impressive! Well done ARRI. Am certain the ALEXA 35 is going to be the #1 preferred choice (when budget allows) for the next five years. Fascinating reading the FD Times report on the ALEXA 35. Seems all past cameras they took a waterfall approach to development, but the ALEXA 35 was the first time they used agile development. https://www.fdtimes.com/pdfs/free/115FDTimes-June2022-2.04-150.pdf This isn't RED! (or others...) ARRI has historically been more conservative with their DR claims, I'd be inclined to believe them, and that does appear to be what we're seeing.
  7. At least GPU prices are starting to come back down to earth, as the crypto mining boom is cooling off. People have been water cooling computers for many many years
  8. Probably the best looking camera there is! (certainly is if you exclude ARRI and VENICE) Incredible lowlight! But: Nobody will ever be requesting. You'd be better off owning a FX6 or FX9. (or even a FS7 or C300mk2/mk3) It is kinda heavy. (more like a FX9 at least, than a FS7! More than your URSA Mini) Kinda annoying have to reboot every time you change your frame rate. P2 cards are crazy expensive. (recording externally to a Shogun instead is a workaround for this problem) Timecode menu is a dumb idiotic design. (won't update like it should, even though it is jammed! Until you back out then you see the changes. Just a weird gotcha which might cause your soundie to have a heart attack or grow an extra grey hair or two, until they realize the issue. After that, then it is no big deal. Have shot a whole tv series last year working alongside 3x Varicam LT)
  9. Two big points to keep in mind: 1) the ARRI ALEXA Classic is huge! And is much much more battery hungry than anything else you've used before. Those two facts alone means you can't be a OMB with this. (except maybe the simplest of sit down IVs) 2) the new ARRI 4K S35 sensor is days away from being released, if successful this will make the secondhand prices of all other ARRI cameras tumble Bonus point: I don't expect you'd make money from own a Classic, there is no value in it really. The demand is all for ARRI Mini in general, or better (i.e. the LF).
  10. What are you referring to? That the original Z6 needed to be returned back to get the raw update? (honestly that's not different at all to say those with a Sony FS700, you also had to return that back for the 4K raw update! Is a common occurrence this kind of thing) Perhaps you could say people got mislead and carried away by the hype, but "falsified"??? That's a stretch to far. I don't think they ever explicitly said it would be a firmware update that the user could do themselves.
  11. I can't remember the last time I saw a manual follow focus on a film set! Has been years. They're rare as hen's teeth these days, nobody seems to use them. Oh wait, I think there was a zero budget short film I did this year where the DoP pulled his own focus and used one? (we didn't even have a 1st AC!) Everyone uses wireless follow focus now, especially as you can get "acceptable" level wireless follow focus which are dirt cheap. Such as the Nuclear M is one I see all the time on no/low/medium budget shoots these days, used by aspiring 1st ACs. (of course professional ACs use instead the standard tools such as say the ARRI WCU-4, or have ordered the new ARRI Hi-4) https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1507995-REG/tilta_wlc_t03_k4_nucleus_m_wireless_lens_control.html
  12. The monitoring tools, the robustness, the shooting options, the features (NDs, genlock, timecode, SDI, etc etc) are totally different worlds apart with the Sony F55 vs Canon R5
  13. Some minor corrections: Sennheiser G2 has been replaced by the G3. And the G3 has been replaced by the G4. So don't get a G3, get a Sennheiser G4. Except don't get a G4! Get the Sony UWP-D21 for the same price, as the Sony is so much better. (or don't get prosumer wireless at all.... and get pro wireless instead such as from Audio Ltd / Lectro / Zax / Wisy / Axient Digital / etc) MKH410 doesn't exist, I presume you mean the MKH416. That too has seen a successor: the MKH60 (which I've got myself). And the MKH60 has also seen a successor. the Sennheiser 8060! Still, I'm not keen on those. I'd suggest something else like a DPA or a Sanken if you're going to be spending over $1K to get a proper shotgun. Or.... get the Deity S Mic 2, it is 95% of a 416, at half the price! Likewise with the Tram TR50, back in the day it was a fine lav mic as a low budget choice. Very popular! And I guess still a good buy if you're picking it up very cheap. But for @Ryan Ivy on a tight budget in 2022?? I think just like the Sennheiser MKH416 (a design from the 1950's!), then the TR50 is also an outdated mic, and there are better bangs for your buck elsewhere. For example the Oscar Sound Tech lavs have been around for a very very long time now, and are better value on a tight budget. Or go for the Deity W Lav Pro (or W Lav Micro) would be my tight budget recommendations in 2022. https://deitymic.com/products/w-lav-pro-lavalier/ I agree that the Zoom F6 would be so much a better option than a Zoom H6 (even better is the Zoom F8n, best dirt cheap field recorder there is you can get for sub $1K!), it would be lightyears ahead of the H6. Would be like going from a Nikon D90 to shooting instead with a Sony FS7! Huuuuge. And yes, get as well either the Tentacle Sync E you mentioned, or Deity TC-1 or Timecode Systems UltraSyc ONE. Totally, I 1000000% agree! You could even spend a $100K buying all the toys and gadgets and spend a couple of years playing around with them together on your own shoots with friends and family, yet walk onto a real film set and be totally and utterly completely lost. (btw, $100K isn't actually anywhere vaguely enough to buy everything that's on the set of large productions! $100K is just scratching the surface. However spending even more money won't solve your problems here)
  14. You want to be able to get some sort of work for the three of you, so buying a Sony F35 is an outrageous idea. Don't do it!!! Your money would just be going to waste, and you wouldn't be recouping your costs. At your level you're looking at lower budget jobs: Weddings, corporate shoots, small budget adverts, low budget docos, reality tv, etc etc Sony FX6 would be ideal for this! But I fear would blow your budget out once you consider everything else. Very broadly speaking there are three broad classes of equipment you need even as a low budget OMB videographer: 1) camera body + camera "stuff" (lenses / batteries / media / support gear such as tripod etc) 2) lighting 3) audio You could go heavy in one of these, or even all in on just one of these (i.e. ONLY get lights, and focus on becoming the local go to indie Gaffer guy), or you could try to go fairly equal for each so that you're well rounded for anything. I'll give a fairly rough idea of if you go heavy, balanced, or light on each. Light: 1) mirrorless camera body (Panasonic S1/S5/GH5/GH6/G9 or Sony a7Smk3/a7mk4 or Fujifilm X-T3/X-T4 are all good solid picks here. Or the Blackmagic Pocket 4K, or even the Pocket 6K Pro. Quick shout out to the Z Cam E2-M4 or E2-S6 as well) + lenses + monopod + tripod 2) a single 1x1 LED panel and light stand, maybe some DIY modifiers / cutters / etc (perhaps get some old cheap secondhand tungsten lights for next to nothing, seeing as the likes of red heads are being literally given away) 3) stick with your rubbishy (am sorry, but it is rubbish) Zoom H6, but get 1x Sony UWP-D21 (the best prosumer wireless you can get!) and Deity V Mic D3 Pro (plus extension cable, plus aluminum boom pole and C Stand with boom pole holder) Balanced: 1) get a secondhand Sony FS7 (these are the classic workhorses which everyone seems to own! The #1 camera for many years in the low/mid budget market. Only recently are people moving away from the FS7 to a FX6/FX9 instead). Maybe take a look at getting lucky on a cheap C300mk2/F5/F55 (if crazy lucky, maybe even a Panasonic Varicam LT?). But outside these four cameras I've specifically mentioned, don't consider anything else! You'll be excluding yourself from too many jobs, as those four cameras cover the broadest range of likely work you could do. (hmmm.... maaaaaybe I could let the URSA Mini Pro sneak in there as a bonus mention. Maybe. But definitely don't get the older URSA Mini, the non-Pro, as shooting without internal NDs is too much of a hassle for this type of work) 2) get more in the way of lighting modifiers / cutters / etc, and get also an Aputure 300D and Aputure LS60D (together with their accessories, softbox etc), and of course a 1x1 LED panel. 3) Zoom F8n or Zoom F6 or MixPre3/MixPre6 (the F8n would be easily the best out of these four. Unless you're wanting to use it paired with a mirrorless, mounted under the camera body itself. Then get the MixPre3, because it is super small). Get 3x Sony UWP-D21, 3x Deity W Lav Pro, get a carbon fibre boom pole (at least 3m, ideally one that is 3m and one that is 5m), C Stand (and boombuddy), Deity S Mic2, Sanken CSM1, blimp, and all the various accessories etc. (bag/batteries/media/etc) Heavy weighting (i.e. now you're entering into the mainstream low/mid budget range for normal working professionals) listed out for each (these will exceed your budget, but am trying to stick with the lower budget options being selected. Not going crazy here! Always shooting the more "budget" options, so you at least should only be going over budget by "a few" thousands. But it illustrates why you'd have to focus on just one of the three options, you couldn't do all three at once, at this point in time): 1) Sony FX6 / Sony FX9 / Canon C300mk3 with lower budget but decent grade owner-op level lenses (i.e. you've probably spent more on the lenses than the body itself, but not silly money. We're still selecting the most budget level possible PL lenses. Such as DZOFilm CATTA Ace FF 35-80 & 70-135mm T2.9 PL Zooms, plus say the Tokina 16-28mm T3 PL wide angle. Along with a set of primes, such as the DZOFilm primes: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1679957-REG/dzofilm_dzo_v21k8pli_vespid_prime_cine_8_lens.html Of course there many many many other options than DZOfilm! Am just mentioning them because they're cheap, we're lucky that you're spoiled for cheap choices now in PL lenses! Such as Xeen, Meike, DZOfilm, etc... all of these simply didn't exist just a few short years ago!). Of course all the usual supporting gear: 100mm bowl tripod, gimbal, dana dolly, lots of V Mount batteries (or Gold Mount), media, monitors, wireless video feed, etc etc (the camera body is only going to be a small fraction of the total cost) 2) you'll likely be selecting out three of each of everything Aputure makes (again, I'm just picking Aputure yet again because they're a very very affordable brand which still has a solid reputation, just like why I was referring to DZOfilm before. Am not telling you to get ARRI SkyPanels here! As not even if you quadruple your budget could you go all in on those for everything. Am not even including a single HMI in this light! Truly keeping it very much lower budget tier here), Nanlite PavoTubes (2x 30C, 2x 15C, 2x 6C), dozens of sandbags, a dozen C Stands, three Combo Stands, 12x12 frame with a few material options, and lots more cutters/modifiers/etc And of course a Ford Transit van to carry it all in! (or similar) 3) Sound Devices 833 paired with the Sound Devices SL2 (or instead of Sound Devices 833: Zaxcom Nova, or Sonosax SX-R4+, or Aaton Cantar Mini), with 1x Lectrosonics DSR4 + 1x Lectro SRc (I'd like to select a second DSR4, but keeping costs low! So going for the older SRc instead) + 1x Lectro DPR + 1x Lectro SSM + 2x Lectrosonics LT + 1x Lectro LMb (I want to say Lectrosonics DBu instead of Lectro LT or LMb... but we're trying to keep costs low here!) + 1x Lectro SMDWB (this is the wideband version of the classic workhorse SMQV, and would be nice to have more than only just one here... but again, keeping costs low! That is why I put in a cheapie Lectro LT in there for instance), + 7x DPA 6060 lav mics, + Sanken CS3e, Sanken CS1e, Sanken CSM1, Deity S Mic2, blimps, 3m carbon fibre pole, 5m carbon fibre pole, media, batteries (many many many! I own over a 100x AA rechargeable batteries, just as an example), 1x Lectrosonics IFBT4-VHF, 3x IFBlue IFBR1C (half the price of the usual Lectrosonics IFB R1B!! Nifty product that only just came out. I only put down three here, as that should cover most of your low budget jobs, although I personally own a couple of dozen of these IFB receivers) (note: of course you don't have to go with Lectrosonics wireless! Shure AD5XD is super appealing too, Wisycom is good as well. Audio Ltd is worth a look too. And naturally if you chose the Nova, then you'll be "forced" to use Zaxcom wireless as it would be silly to own a Nova and not use it with Zaxcom wireless) Overall, I think you should go with the path of going super light in all three areas. Spend as little as possible, leave the rest of the money untouched for another couple of years. And work as much as you can on other people's shoots (even if just as a PA / 3rd AD / runner / actor / extra / whatever), so you're observing and hopefully using THEIR equipment. And learning on it. Then you will figure out what is good or not for you. Plus you might find yourself going off in directions you never realized. What if you realize you LOVE lighting?? (and/or there simply is a bigger gap in the market needing a gaffer, than anything else you're interested in) And you decide to become a Gaffer instead of a DoP. You're a bit screwed if you're spent already 100% of your budget on camera gear.
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