Albion Hockney

I have had production companies ask about similar things before - they want to own all the equipment so they don't have to rent. Camera makes sense to me a lot of the time - especially those doing low/mid tier work and lots of it who are really busy - lighting and G/E can change so much job to job - unless you have a really consistent amount of work with the same style of setup (ie all talking head or studio or something) it can be hard to make that pay off. ...not that your looking for business advice but if I was starting a company and was a business person I'd save that 100k and build good relationships with rental houses and then if business was good maybe buy a camera package. That said the camera makes sense to me if you like Red and have the post workflow worked out IE Red Rocket card and ok with large chunks of data. An Alexa will probably hold value better and something like a C300MKII might fit the profile of work your doing and be easier to deal with (and also hold value better) Xenon's make sense, but there are alot of options now in that price bracket. I would also consider something like a set of Super Speeds which offer more character and are really solid stopped down - also will probably hold value better. Lighting - are you getting a grip truck/van? would consider if you are buying that stuff you will need to be loading and unloading all the time. a small production company I work with bought a small g/e package to save rental and the task of loading in and out almost makes it purposeless because its such a hassle and you need to rent a van all the time anyways. Much easier just to higher a gaffer with a truck for medium size jobs and since they come with the gear it can almost be cheaper then having to rent a van and additions ala carte. lots of little stuff too: I wouldn't get that geny - you need one that runs consistent and isn't loud (honda eu 6500 is the standard putt putt) I think people also modify them for a consistent out put of power? The plasma lighting is ok but heavy and expensive - I would go tried and true and just buy an M18 and a joker. Skypanel is a nice light but LED tech is like camera tech changing fast - it won't hold value that long and we will have much better options in 5 years. Honestly not a good time for long term lighting investments if you are just starting out. you need 4 mags for the red (128gb or 256 if you can afford it) you need 4 batts If you buy a wireless FF the cheapest product worth getting is a bartech For a red you need ND up to 1.8 atleast (2.1 or 2.5 is ideal) and you need to get good ND filters after .9 that filter out IR light Formatt firecrest or the ones to get that are most affordable. lots of debate on the best stands but I'd get American (that's what all the gaffers I know always say) you should get a 6x of magic cloth and save yourself the hassle of making book lights too

Richard of course your personal experience is valid. But it in no way defends making a joke that makes generalizations about an entire culture/place.

Richard, that is moderately offensive, and honestly just a bad joke

If your In a large city I would look for a film production Facebook group. I would also search for DPs in your area on google and look at reels.

AJ - I think the images look nice - but they don't seem underexposed by two stops. In all the daylight shots you have highlights creeping up atleast 80/90 IRE - so maybe your saying your under exposing the key light two stops on faces? but that is not the whole picture. For example in the third still you couldn't even really go much brighter without clipping highlights so I would look at like pretty much a normal exposure. Did you lift them back up in post? if so then yes its the same as shooting 6400ISO - the only difference is you did the lift in post with more flexibility but you could have shot 6400ISO in camera and gotten the same result - just a slight different process. I personally have never understood this whole idea of underexposing a film by a number of stops - I came up on digital though and am a waveform/monitor person. My question when people say that is always. underexposing compared to what? this idea assumes that the normal way to shoot a movie is have every face you shoot registering the same f stop as the camera with a incident reading and pretty much no one shoots like that.

could be done with one light. Light is place behind and above talent - hard to tell exactly how soft it is - but for sure soft. Lots of ways to achieve that (bounced light - kino with diffusion - a Fresnel rigged high and put through a diffusion frame - all possibilities). This light if placed at the right angle could be lighting both the background frontally and the talent from behind. Or for more control there could be one light on the talent and one light for the background. The background light is softly cut so there is mild hot spot in the middle - Maybe a little fill on the front side too with beadboard or something or that just could be natural bounce from the glossy white surface they are lying on.

the key difference being picking a specific light fixture isn't really a strongly artistic choice in itself (not that it isn't creative or important...but there is a reason the gaffer often makes that decision). I wouldn't say LED lights really have a "look" - its more that some people think they have some technical problems still. which of course they do to an extent.

I Just use actually lower CRI tubes if I want green or color shift. Cool white with tungsten white balance gives the Cyan look with the green that most people like. Underexposure also helps for a more raw look. I think you only need diffusion if you want to really spread the light to wrap around faces or feel more ambient - if you want a more raw look you might not even need it.

Led's cause a lot of arguments these days! A lot of people Love LED - I Know several grip truck owners who have invested heavily in it and I'm pretty much there too. I think we should take out some of the other variables here - CRI on most LED's has got to be at least as good as HMI now - and I'm not just talking about the really expensive ones - the mid end 1x1 panels. All the new LED's come in atleast 93/4 CRI - and some higher 97/98 - They are getting lighter all the time too and the output is going up. Even cheaper panels have pretty high CRI. I haven't heard of anyone complaining about green spike from any of the new LED products So the color of the light is good and only getting better Now, if we are talking LED vs tungsten fixtures and the beam of the light - The new Fresnel products do look good to me the shadow quality is pretty much there. I've only used the ARRI LC7 once but it seemed fine maybe to someone who is really into the perfect beam they might not like it but it is a single source light. It is also notable that most people diffuse lights and direct hard shaft of light aren't something every DP need's as much anymore. I would be a little weary to mix LED and Tungsten on set still - in the same way mixing Kino and Tungsten or HMI can sometimes be a problem. But the technology is only getting better. Led will only get more color accurate and brighter - we will all be using them in time.

I think the feeling of "stalking" or "hunting" comes from seeing someone at a distance often having them obscured a little. Might not be right for your project but I'd consider a steadicam on a longer lens (70-100mm) or even a much longer lens panning/tracking the subject on sticks or handheld ...maybe easy rig.

the inferno is 7" which is a lot different than a 5" monitor on a fs5 it will be very large for shoulder operating. I can't comment on the display quality of the inferno - the 502 I can say is pretty good - I never used a DP7 which people said was better or as good as the tv logic...I don't find that to be true of the 502. I always find the TV logic to look more accurate. I'd be very surprised if the inferno was any better a screen accuracy wise then the small HD though The inferno is also way brighter and does HDR - the small HD needs a hoodman and even then in bright daylight you really need a viewfinder. and then do you need a recorder or not - I'd start there and make that decision first. Recorders and Monitors just happen to be the same product these days ...but it's totally separate items really. It's very hard to judge which way cameras will go in the future likely there will be a lot of different options still and you may or may not wind up with a camera that does pro res or something easy to edit. Unless you know exactly your next camera now I wouldn't even try to guess.

I think your question is just how do you calculate how much light loss you are losing for a given frame rate. At 1000fps @ 360 Degree shutter you are effectively shooting at 1/1000sec. A 360 degree shutter seems pretty standard for high frame rate work - rather then the typical 180 degree shutter for 24fps (which results in the traditional 1/48sec shutter speed). So just calculate the light loss and you can figure out how much power you need. The light output you will need will (like any shoot) depend on the size of the shots and what you are looking to achieve. Obviously a table top will take much less light then a wide shot of a car! this is a useful tool many use to sort these questions out. http://calc.arri.de/calculator

I'd say 100mm tripods are totally sufficient for anything under large cinema camera setups (IE Alexa Classic with 19mm support and heavy lenses or heavy zoom lenses). Some people really like a perfect tripod that is super perfectly balanced and I understand that in some situations - but generally speaking the oconnor 1030D is the standard for just about everything these days unless you have a large crew. Sachtler 18 or 21 is also a fine head - the 18 is great for doc. the 12 is pretty lightweight that is more for something like an FS7 with no AKS and photo lenses or something. I can't imagine having a 150mm tripod head on a doc - maybe wildlife? I donno - that seems absurd.

I read through that review - I'm not sure. I think they will work but the DC charger and as they mention them falling short of the wattage ratting and not having the amperage to run a red or alexa tells me they aren't great and I wonder about long term reliability. Make sure they have enough Amperage for the black magic. A good Anton Bauer battery will do well for 5+ years and the charger much more then that. It will also charge batteries Fast - the DC charger might take some time. If this is a long term investment and you are wanting to be a working professional with this camera or future cameras I would certainly go with Anton Bauer 90W Batts and get a real charger - it will last and not break down. If you are just trying to get by for personal projects or really stuck on budget I'm sure they will allow you to get by for a bit.

The website you posted discludes a bunch of leading manufacturers and doesn't seem to reliable I have never heard of BCBS. I would do a good amount of research on them and make sure they are well. If you can't afford Anton Bauer (industry standard) I would go with switronix for a cheaper option. Also keep in mind you will need chargers for these batteries - they make quad and dual chargers - the more expensive chargers will charge the batteries much faster so I would look into the run time you can expect from a 90w battery (all the normal brick style batteries are around 90W) and decide how many batteries you need and account for charging time to keep you shooting. I believe black magic makes a v mount battery plate specifically for the ursa - I'm not sure but the back of the camera likely will have the screw holes setup to accept any standard v mount or gold mount plate. Gold mount is industry standard - but V mount is fine

You're not going to get a rep without strong work and great connections OR name directors. Build work, find more directors, meet everyone you can. If your work is good and you're a nice guy to work with it'll happen - but give it time. if you want to just direct I would start making your own work and try to find a production company to rep you - or keep your company for awhile to do smaller work to pay the bills and when you have strong enough work then make the jump to a production company as a director - getting agency work through production companies is a play for someone who wants to be a business person/producer and wants to own a production company - it is a long term play.

like everything luck/connections of course - but you have to do the work and put yourself in the right place to allow those "lucky" things to happen. It really depends what level you're on and how strong your work is ...and also how long you have been around. Making relationships with agencies takes a lot of time. Often production companies first step to jump to the next tier is to find a rep (sales rep) who are basically agents for production companies. They have strong agency relationships and if they like your work they will put you and your directors up for bids. That said you need work strong enough to go up for that kind of work and have done atleast some small/mid sized work with agencies already. agencies are also constantly taking mtgs with production companies. You cater a lunch and come in and show them reels of all your directors. You can even contact agencies cold to set this up and they will probably say yes and invite you in. Give them a good lunch and hope your work takes notice. It really helps to make relationships with these people though and you should go to all the parties and things like that you can. Make friends with Jr producers or young people at the agencies. I work as a DP this is all based on knowing friends with small production companies. The agency world is full of politics and BS so be prepared to put a smile on and play nice - that's what I like to stay on the production side.

Those rates were solely based on commercials and it seems what Johan was looking to get into.

this might help - be it maybe not quiet on the mark. http://nofilmschool.com/2016/07/how-much-you-can-expect-make-working-cinematographer It's hard to say exactly what someone is worth - your reel, the level of prod companies, experience, and cameras you work with all factor. I can tell you on the middle level you don't really have a "kit" rate - honestly even as a lower end DP you don't really do that. you can advertise that you have a camera package, But it will make you seem lower end if it's a gh4. Just to be objective about it and give you a bit of a barometer - if someone told me they were a DP and did most of there work on GH4 and had a kit rate I would look at them more like a "videographer" or a one man band and less like a "DP". There is a level of BS to all of this, but If you are seeking to raise the level of your work I would try to work with more substantial cameras and start relationships with rental houses. to give you a sense I would say the lowest end "DPs" usually people transitioning from working as AC's/Cam Ops or guys just getting going start at around $750/day for jobs shooting on cameras like C300's - this is usually doc/branded content stuff or interviews - maybe low end commercials for web/regional. These Shoots maybe have 1 or 2 crew members like an AC or maybe a Gaffer and an AC with you - you probably help move the lights From there I'd say move up to around $1000-1500 this is sorta where "Real DP" work generally starts - working on commercials shooting on Red/Alexa and having some crew behind you - like a Gaffer with a couple guys and a 1st maybe a 2nd AC. You don't touch the lights - but I try to check the ego and help wrap out still! This all said - its a total crap shoot out there! Rates vary all the time since there are so many angles into the market and wide varying understanding of what it costs to shoot something (IE corporate companies calling you direct, small production companies just starting out, ad agnecies of all sizes and level of experience with video, legit production companies with an understanding of rates on a higher tier)

if you just want to move the camera on one axis you can theoretically use a tripod head and mount the camera sideways. probably not the best idea, but with some different baseplates and stuff at a rental house that might be possible if your camera package is light. I had to do a straight overhead to tilt up shot and we used an Oconnor 1030 with a pretty light camera - that got almost to the 90 degree straight down position when we offset the ball mount. Even with doing it straight on it for sure wasn't the best option though. We tried to get the rental house to fine one of these - http://www.filmandvideolighting.com/mosteqcawepl.html - for that shoot. On a 150mm tripod head if you can find a way to mount that plate and the camera sideways well it might work out decently- (btw most dutch heads don't go full 90 Degrees on the side) you might get some better suggestions elsewhere though!

The variety of your references makes it hard to pin point what your looking for. Large budget music videos in the 90s were almost all shot on 35mm. I'm not sure when the CineAlta (f900) and Varicam were first released but when that happened some videos shot on those cameras - Either way the final output was Standard Def - which has such little resolution it can indeed be hard to tell the difference between an Varicam and 35mm. A lot of the look is just the period - the wardrobe - the use of wide lenses. If you want a strong effect you could try shooting on a higher end camera and Dubbing down to something like VHS or HI8 - this has a pretty unique look that can be equated to a standard def telecine of 35mm film.

Thanks for the replies

I have a shoot coming up and we are shooting on anamorphic (Todd AO). We are mostly in medium/medium wide shots but we do have a few close ups and I'm trying to sort out what diopters we need. Im waiting back on close focus for our set of lenses but it seems most Todd AO sets people are saying about 3ft-6ft. What Diopter strengths do people typically carry? and further more how do you calculate close focus of a lens with a given strength of diopter.

thanks Kyryll

Im talking about things like a Teradek Bolt, Time Code Box, ETC. AC's always use velcro to attach these items - and also on mattebox ...always putting velcro on matteboxes for filter labels.