Felipe Perez-Burchard

I ran into this problem a while ago, people at kodak told me Tiffen was now making the kodak grey card plus, but people at tiffen didn't seem to know about it. Mr. Plytak, would yo care to shed light? On another note, still related, has anyone used this system: http://www.gammaanddensity.com/ Thanks. -felipe

hey, Someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but here's how I've found the ASA of a video camera... you need a handheld meter, a grey card and a waveform monitor (or adjustable zebra bars on the camera). point the camera at the grey card... light should be hitting it full on, but make sure it is not at an angle that will produce glare. Zoom in to fill the frame with the grey card. Adjust the exposure in the camera so that the waveform reads 55 IRE or the zebra bars are gone (correct exposure, should be 55 IRE becasue it's middle grey); take note of the f/stop. Now take your handheld meter and read the incident light with the meter dome on "flat" mode; remember incident readings are telling you the exposure for middle grey (which is what you are reading), now adjust the ASA on the meter until the f/stop matches what's on your camera, this will be your video camera's film speed. To double check, now take an reflected (spot) meter reading with your handheld meter with the New ASA set. The exposure should be the same, after all the zebra bars or camera meter is reading reflected light. Now that you have this information, to figure out the curve, just shoot the same setup (with a person's face some black and some white information, and the grey card if you want) at normal, and then overexpose by 1/2 stops and then underexpose. It would be useful if you have the waveform here becasue it will clearly tell you when something has "clipped" on either end, but you can also just look at it and you'll find out where things go white with no information and how many stops it takes to put a face there for example. I'm not familiar with the specific settings of your camera, but you can probably adjust the black level and the highlights and this obviously affects the results. I would adjust the settings until I am achieving what I want, and then do the exposure test. Dont forgett to repeat the ASA test with the different gain settings if you plan to use those. hope this helps. -felipe.

Yes, Ed Wood is his best film (my opinion)... all of you that like Burton, it'll finally be availabe on DVD on Oct. 19, so rent/buy it then if you havn't seen it. -felipe.

Many many great painters including Whistler and Hunt have used a Green night look and achieved a very realistic effect. -felipe.

Thanks for all the replies, I agree with you Mr. King, and I appreciate your honesty. And it IS all about opinions... and that's the great thing, because I don't know you guys personally, you can be totally objective. I know it's not great stuff, I kill myself with some choices I have made, but I can't get worse, and I can't keep it locked up in the cellar and not show it to anybody because that'll do no good... that's why I posted it. It's best to hear about the bad, because it forces one to improve. I will cut a different version, allowing more of the production sound to come through and let it play more as scenes; slow the pace; in fact this version of a reel goes against some advice that was given in this forum, but I wanted to get one "quick cut / just images" version becasue a lot of other people whose opinions I respect as well suggested that this is what people want to see ("don't bore them"). I feel it doesn't tell anyone if I can shoot a scene, narratively speaking, or if the lighting can be consistent from setup to setup - extremely important things, but again, that might not be what people look at. When I get the other version done, I'll post that. Phil, thanks for the kind words. I'm sure your work is great, you've got to be confident (here I'm giving advice that I have heard over and over yet still haven't implemented :P Thanks again. -felipe. PS - the hardest part now... getting a work visa :(

Hello everybody, I just got to LA a few days ago after graduating from film school. I finished cutting my reel yesterday and would love to get some feedback. http://studentpages.scad.edu/~fperez20/ I know it's been discussed recently (Laura's post about being a trainee), but if anybody has any more ideas of what the next step would be, I'm all ears. Thanks. -felipe.

Morgan, thanks a bunch for the info (I'm in a similar situation as laura), do you know if there is a similar site for US production? Thanks. -felipe.

I was just curious why? Flare? In this situation if she really needs it, and she has a good lens and good AC I might go wide open (unless it is static / no characters and she can undercranck). thanks. -felipe. undercranck = slowing down the motor of the camera, so less frames per second are exposed; so you get sped up motion if you transfer normal (24 fps), but like it was mentioned before, you can transfer / print at the speed you shot and the length of the shot will be normal, but the motion blur will be enhanced.

Thank you so much for posting about your shoot. I hope it all goes better. When you say you sometimes combine the 1/2 Soft-FX with the 1/8 Promist on closeups, is it something you decide in the moment / day of shooting, just becasue thats what works/looks the best, or do you have a set of like mantras or a list (based on your tests / experience) of when to do it (like "if its a lady's CU at a wide aperture with 3:1 contrast ratio or more lit from the side I'll use the soft fx" for example)? Also, did you find that while the script supervisor and sound person and producers really wanted the monitor when you could'nt give it to them, was the director suportive and just saw the scene by your side or was he also demanding the monitor? Best of Luck. -felipe.

Another good book that will explain understanding waveform, vectorscopes and histograms is Color Correction for digital video by Jamie Fowler and Steve Hulfish. -felipe.

On the same topic, even though this is a cinematography forum... what could happen if a festival your film is in said it didn't matter that your film had non-original music? I'm not making any profit and the artist is credited... Thanks, -felipe.

Hi, In my student experience, for whatever that's worth, ND filters DO shift the color slightly depending on the brand. I did a test a while back, if I remember correctly, Tiffen were just slightly green and I think the other set we had was Schneider and that was slightly warmer. The effect was just slight enough that you could easily time it out. Do you guys think this was due to old equipment or is there any validity to my observations? -felipe.

Along the same path, but a bigger concern... So with a) loud people (which as it has been pointed out can be avoided), B) dirty cinemas, c) scratched prints with old bulbs in the projectors and d)less than satisfactory sound reproduction (weather the surrounds are off or a speaker is blown or the level is too loud)... do you guys think there has to be a new event to happen in cinema that will make audiences go to the screens rather than the cool, clean, at your own time, scratch free big widescreen tv, surround sound dvd home theatre environment? As cinematographers, we know the value of watching the image projected, but most of my friends "don't" see the difference, and prefer the home. However, looking at history, with the change to sound films and color films being done relitively quick, I don't think the digital theatre is as big a change (sound and color very much affect the end result, digital is just a different means of achieving the -relitively speaking- same thing). Any thoughts? -felipe.

I think it's also worth noting that Welles & Toland used a lot of Matte/Compositing shots, at least in Citizen Kane, to go even further with deep focus. -felipe.

Mr. Mullen's last post is the perfect note to end this 7 page drama on, but just in case anyone ever goes back to read all this, I wanted to clarify something I missed: John was right. All the equipment my friend used was school equipment... if anything else, filmschool lets you play with stuff at the price of your tuition, no rental fees :) -felipe.

One time a student friend of mine got some great vertical streaks by accident,because he used an aaton LTR and didnt make a big enough loop; but thats kind of risky and you're using an SR3. Yes, I've done this before, it works well in my opinion. (I could send you a test I did if you want, but its daylight and a different kind of action). PS - Daniel, if you dont mind me asking, did you shoot some music videos for SER? If you did, you worked with my brother there, I met you once... its good to have you around this site. Good luck on the shoot. -felipe.

Here's an analogy, it's not meant as an attack by any means... I'm sure at 16 when you were in school you had the standard "don't drink and drive" , "have safe sex"... and I'm sure your mature enough to be responsible about these things... Well the way I see it, putting yourself on the line to getting your family sued for 10million, going into a first feature project especially without being over prepared is IRRESPONSABLE. But I'm the guy that in my senior year, my final quarter at that of film school tells everyone, go above and beyond any silly class requirements, make a movie, not a grade, follow your gut... so I'm not someone to crush your dreams. You do what you've gotta do. Just remember it's not just about you, everyone around you will be investing their time, sweat and passion; you've gotta make sure that is not wasted; you gotta make sure it comes out right. Another thing is that you can't say you wont sell your film for less than 3 million if you have name actors; that is not a guarantee, be flexible on that (the voice of a big name actor was a major part of a film I did around the middle of my school term, that didnt open any doors for the film). The only thing you can be certain about is that things change and you have to anticipate and problem solve. If I was given the chance for such a huge inverstment, with so much riding on it, I'd probably shoot a short version if of it anyway (or of select scenes) just to prepare, to try out some ideas. And when I'm doing a project, I miss this site, cause I don't have time to come here, you seem to have some time available to you despite how "you could be doing more valuable things" or something like that I remember you said. So despite the advice given by experienced people here, your gonna do your film, I still think its irresponsable with that much money [why not shoot a smaller budgeted project first; a collegue of mine shot a 35mm feature for 20,000 all student crew, then a HD feature for 5,000 and now he is going to do a 16mm 20,000 one so its possible *this is of course w/o finishing on film or any kind of distribution] so, all I can say is Good Luck. Please do send us a copy of the film down the line. -felipe.

Someone once said that you have to plan and plan and know everything front and back and only then you can be free to improvise... I think its true, spielberg is a great example, only now is he starting to "wing" it if you want to put it that way, but he can "wing" because his EXPERIENCE allows him to. just my two cents. -felipe.

another alternative to let people now you are about ready to roll instead of "quiet on set" is "picture's up" ; or is this wrong? -felipe.

I heard a story once, which I have no idea if its true, that back in the early days of color, Fuji emerged in the asian market and the color curves were slightly different in the flesh tones. When used in the west and timed to a different flesh tone, it yielded a cooler image... wich started it all; of course then comes the package as has been mentioned and the technology has changed so much now that even if the story were true, it wouldn't be today. In fact in a test I did almost a year ago, comparing F-64 with EXR 45 50D, Fuji's stock was much more golden, but then who is to say it wasn't that particular batch? Anybody heard of this story before? -felipe

Days of Heaven was shot "entirely" during magic hour, but the crew was obviopusly there way before and scenes were rehearsed and then they just shot for a little while. Nestor Almendros usually split the difference from his spot reading of the sky and that of the shadow side of the face; giving him enough exposure on both ends to print it to get the desired effect and keep some semblance of consistency (did a good job). Lazlo Kovacs shot some film up in a hill and after studying the position of the sun mapped out were everything would be cheated to and made it work so that matching angles were in backlight (technically wrong but visually it makes sense... I think there was a post about this recently). Robert Richardson used a lot of negative fill and shot in backlight for The Four Feathers. hope thats useful. -felipe.

I'm in exactly the same boat, my OPT will start this coming October (!) My question is what kind of companies hire DPs as staff other than one you start by yourself. It seems to be that even companies that shoot projects with the same people over and over hire based on the freelance system (it makes sense from the company end; they don't have to pay benefits or anything like that). I was wondering if big films that shoot for a long periods can hire in some other way (of course getting on a big film is difficult). A friend of mine got a student academy award this summer which automatically gave him an O visa (outsanding person visa), so thats another way, but well, thats difficult too. Mitch if you don't mind me asking, how long did that process take, and is she involved in the film/tv/graphic world? Thanks everyone for their input. -felipe.

This might be obvious, or you might already have it, but it's available from amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...&s=dvd&n=507846 Great film, made me go get a theremin after watching it... it's very hard to play :P hope the link is of any use to you... -felipe.

"As for the projection...did anybody see weird cleaning spots or something on the print?" Yes, I saw these... I wasn't sure if it was projection, but you just confirmed it wasn't. I dare not think it was a dirty lens on the camera... I've been looking at a lot of reference material for an upcoming shoot, an this movie comes along... it's exactly what I'm going for lighting wise, so I'll go see it again for that... I'll go to a different theatre and see if I see the spots again. As for the content, I feel it's definately Night's weakest film... too bad, I really wanted to like it, but the story has some holes. I know Deakens used gold reflectors, and I'm sure he used some small kinos at times, but I was curious what aren some good methods of achieveng a very soft & specific (meaning on a narrow area) illumination for wide shots emulating candle light as seen in the Village. Thanks in advance to any response. -felipe.

Do you guys think that in the future the role of the cinematographer and the colorist will merge, or will they always be separate? -felipe.