Matt Irwin

3ality Digital in Burbank P+S Technik

Frank, I've had to use the old red zooms in a documentary setting, and optically they're not half bad. My big gripe is the build quality and handling on the barrel, you're in trouble without a microforce. They actually flex if you do a fast rack. Still zooms might be a good way to go- if I had to do a Red doc again I would probably test that route. A colleague of mine has been using the latest range of Tokina zooms for DSLR work and loves them- I think 11-16, 16-50, 50-135 - they're compact, built like a tank, all constant t/2.8, and sharp as hell. Just step the OD's to 80mm and add gears, and they could be a good option... Matt

Hey Xax, Beautiful work-- my hat's off to the both of you! Those S2's combine really well with the red-- do you own a set? I seem to remember you posting about another feature shot with those... Cheers,

Looks great Jean! Can you elaborate on your lens package? Which lenses specifically? Was the choice to use uncoated lenses unique to the project, or did you find it gave you best results with the 5D in general?

Thank you Daniel and Chris!! We will have an experienced rider for the mount shots, however the key shot in question requires the subject / talent to be riding on a flat, straight, open road for about 30 seconds of screen time. You make some very good points there regarding clamps and balance that we will be heeding. Because the shot requires the camera above the handlebars and slightly off from center, I want to affect the balance of the bike as little as possible in the interest of safety for the subject - which means using as little weight up high as possible. Since this is a $100k documentary with limited resources in regards to crew and equipment, Doggicam and Scorpio etc are out of reach for this project. I'm also under certain space and weight restrictions for equipment since we will be flying, then driving, then flying, etc. without coming back to LA. That said, more of a "caveman" approach is needed and I understand that compromises are in order. If we get the occasional bump here or there, fine, but I am trying to avoid constant, aggressive vibration. Say I start at four points- two on the fork and two on the handlebars- pipe clamps to extension arms to cheeseplate/camera. What sort of options do I have to reduce vibration? I know there are mounts that suspend a cheeseplate with bungies from the sides-- I'm wondering if there is something with less bulk? Or another option entirely?

Hey guys, I'm starting a documentary in a week and a half that's very much a road picture, and I need a way to mount an EX1 to a Harley (motorcycle) for a key shot. In fact I'll probably need to rig to other moving vehicles as well..... Anyone done a rig like this??? The requirements of the shot: camera facing backwards, about head-level with the rider (on a 32mm equiv-AOV), lens in front of the windscreen (so we see some of it in frame), smooth and vibration free on the rider & bike. I do not need to see the front half of the bike, but the ability to get slightly high on the face and see the tail of the bike would not hurt. Th requirements of the rig: needs to pack reasonably small as we are travelling in an RV, needs to be able to handle road wind at about 30mph, needs to absorb vibrations--- in a perfect world both rider and background scenery are glass-smooth but if the rider is at least smooth, then we're good. The bike, as of now, will be free moving so the rig can't completely obstruct the riders FOV or unbalance the load too much. Rigging to the top handle of the EX1 is out since it's so flimsy, so I'll be starting with a cheeseplate cage or something similar from Modern Studio parts. My initial idea involved baby pin suction cups and maybe cardellinis to extension arms and magic arms, but I'm not sure if that will be solid enough. Do I need to start off the frame? Or create my own rig points? I do no know exactly which model/year Harley this will be (if that matters), and I'm 99% sure the bike can not be destructively modified. Any ideas help... Thanks,

D.Goulder- If you're going for Flash or even H.264, I've had amazing results using Sorenson Squeeze instead of Compressor or Final Cut. I am Mac / FCP based too and it seems that no matter what I did, compressor just f*cked up the gamma, color, or compression in general. For my reel, I ended up using Flash's ON2VP6 codec out of Squeeze with sources ranging from TK'd film to DV to HD, and it beat what the Apple software was giving me by leaps and bounds.

Hey Ken, I think interviews and key shots on the red mixed with a eng or small cam for running around sounds like a good call. For what it's worth, my AC on this shoot worked in the camera dept. on "Leverage" and was telling me they mixed EX-1's and EX-3's with Reds, even intercutting them in coverage. Depending on your delivery format, mixing cameras could work very well. With a mantis and an easy rig though, many things are possible. I've heard of some operators using a red with a 12:1 Optimo on an easy rig, so your 10:1 could definitely work... if your back can keep up. :P

Normally the long boot time is a just a camera quirk that can be dealt with but when we're lean and quick like that shoot was and say.... the camera crashes right as my producer is saying "quick get this!", well.... that ruins my day. Sometimes we would have the double battery mount filled with a battery on one side and the drive with a t-clip on the other in order to balance the camera out for handheld. Too much weight on the top of the camera screws up the inertia. The harleys actually saved me big time. I'd often keep my right arm locked in a 90 degree angle and use my left hand to deal with both zoom and focus. Sounds odd, but it worked. By day 2 I ended up ditching the eye piece for handheld and used the monitor rigged right next to the mattebox via an israeli arm off the rods-- that was the ticket to balancing out the rig because I could slide the camera back and forth a lot more and fine-tune quicker, not to mention the extra peripheral vision. (a back-belt w/ brandalier shoulder pad also played a big part) I think there's a picture somewhere of me handheld on horseback with the full battle rig... if I find it i'll post it. We had a local Tampa soundman (Kevin Daughtry-- very cool guy and great at what he does) and recorded double system as per production. Though he was telling me that he had mixed a feature where they successfully recorded good, useable sound on-board a Red... apparently the first to ever do that. Some special process or equipment-- can't quite remember as this was months ago. No kidding! :blink:

Wow, talk about off on a tangent! ;) So the job I originally posted about is long over, and ended well- all things considered. Like I mentioned above, the shoot was a mixture of 2nd unit shooting for a feature that was shot on Red, as well as a documentary tv-pilot about people who follow renaissance faires across the US. (The feature was set at a renaissance faire as well). This was on a very tight budget, and production could not afford to rent both the Red for 2nd unit and an ENG camera for the doc work- so my assistant and I got to make it work. The feature was shot with S4's and an Optimo zoom, but I was not quite so lucky. I begged and pleaded for the Rouge compact zooms, but was denied due to budget constraints and was stuck with the two Red zooms. I went into the shoot scared sh*tless about having a T3 at best, but as it turned out 90% of the shoot was day exterior. Our package included: The Red w/ 60mm studio bridgeplate, 18-50, 50-150, FF4, a lightweight mattebox, both eyepiece and monitor, a double battery mount, 1 drive, 8 cards, a Sacthler video 25 with carbon sticks (great setup btw! and very light), and a dovetail-handheld-frankenstein-thing with 535 handgrips from the rental house. My assistant, Chloe Weaver, packed everything into a large photo backpack along with a few flex-fills, and away we went. I was luckily able to work off the tripod for a lot of the shoot, though I did have one full 12 hour day of handheld... including a walk-and-talk moving backwards with two people through the entire faire- over hills, through trees, almost running into that guy on stilts.. it was nuts. But the shot looked great! That was the day I was truly happy to have those Red lenses-- they weigh literally nothing and with a battery & drive mounted low on the back of the camera, it balanced very well- similar in heft to an SR. All in all, from this experience I'd say shooting a doc smoothly on Red is doable with two assistants - one with the camera and a backpack full o' glass and one downloading, better / faster compact zooms, a few fast primes, 10 SSD drives, and an instant boot-up time (I missed more than a few moments with the "computer" on my shoulder- ready and aimed, watching it load it's.... extensions?). I'm sure the new color science I keep hearing about would be very helpful as well. Given the choice next time, I'll take any ENG camera without blinking. Camera, lens, batteries, go. No offense to Red, but it's just not designed for verite. It's very workable in a dramatic setting, with a box of primes and a zoom on a 2575... but light and quick it is definitely not. If I want a compact fast zoom with range I need to window the chip to 2k or 1080 to use Super16 or 2/3" glass, so why would I stick with a camera whose primary advantage is 4k recording? I wouldn't. I'd use a 900R or a Varicam or Super16. But I'm preaching to the choir here, so I'll shut up now. (On a side note, I've been doing a bit of documentary work lately with EX1's and 3's- and I could not be happier. The image coming out of those cameras is incredible, and the rigs are so light and quick. With a proper set of picture profiles, I've been able to retain all the information I could ever need for flexibilty in grading... and it only weighs 6 lbs!) Cheers,

I'm looking to sell my HVX200 package, as well as a Cartoni Laser head and a Marshall R70P monitor, separately, listed below. Lens is scratch and fungus-free, and the package has been well maintained over the few years I've owned it. Never been dry-hired. I would prefer a local sale, but will consider shipping out of town. PM me with any questions or interest. Best, Matt HVX200 Package - Complete and ready to shoot- $7500: HVX Body w/ stock AKS (Charger/AC, Remote, Manual, shoulder strap, etc) (x2) 8gb P2 Cards (x4)5400MAh Batteries (2 panasonic, 2 lenmar) Lenmar Fast charger Bebob Foxi Wired Followfocus Bebob Zoe Zoom Control Chrosziel 450 Mattebox w/ eyebrow Chrosziel 450 siders Zacuto Universal Baseplate 82mm Schneider UV Haze Filter Canon brand D4-to-component HD cable 6’ (much more robust than panasonic-stock) Duel Systems PCMCIA-X34 adapter (for direct connect of P2 cards into MacBookPro) Audio Technica 835b Shotgun mic 16x9 "Grab & Shoot" Bag (made by Petrol)- holds all above, incl. cam w/ mattebox attached. Cartoni Laser Fluid Head - $1850 Includes head w/ 100mm ball, standard tie-down, large tie-down (for use w/ non-cartoni tripods), pan handle, camera plate. Head only, w/o tripod. Excellent cosmetic and working condition. Marshall R70P-HDA 7" onboard monitor - $900 Inlcudes: monitor, AC adapter, Canon brand D4-to-component HD cable 6’ IDX Battery mount on back **There is a cosmetic paint scrape on the under side of the monitor, thanks to the one time I packed it with an isreali arm attached. Does NOT affect function or performance. Otherwise in good condition.

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According to a rep I spoke with at NAB, the 9000 is intended to be a one-piece b-cam for the F23 (with no need for a tether if on a steadicam), and more significantly it's targeted at high end EFP projects like Planet Earth, etc, as well as TV drama. (Undoubtedly there will be other niches that this camera will fall into...) Though it's physically large and bulky compared to say a Varicam or F900R, I put it on my shoulder and it's easily as light as the 900R and nicely balanced with efp zoom and battery.

still available make me a reasonable offer if interested

I'd say equal to or better than... thought it's worth a look with a lens projector. 6.6 is WIDE, and there is some softening in the corners, but nothing objectionable to me. If anything the coating on the canon is much nicer giving you better flare supression and contrast (so *apparent* sharpness at least).

Todd- Can't say I've ever used the 7-63 before, so I can't comment. Compared to the 8-64 though, I'd say the 6.6/66 is sharper and has a better coating. I haven't noticed any fringing on 6.6/66. I had to look this up-- the 6.6/66's counterpart is a 10.6/180, also T2.7. Another zoom worth considering is the Angenieux 7-81HR. IMO, a "technical" equal to the new canons with a better range than the 10-1. Between the two, I like the look of the Canon a bit more, but would happily use either.

The 6.6-66 is a fantastic lens- my favorite of all the S16 zooms I've used for all the right reasons (contrast, sharpness, flaring, even the barrel itself). I think there is also a matched sister zoom-- 10-135 or something like that. I would agree with Chris's friends in that it's sharper than a lot of primes out there (probably not ultra16's, but certainly superspeeds).

Hey Nicholas- I agree with Bob-- get Goodman's guide. It will explain the Varicam in very straightforward terms and is good to fall back on in an emergency. The 27H is a great camera with quite a bit of lattitude and a very pretty picture overall. All of your questions regarding the image would be best answered by doing your own tests with the camera as there is only so much one can gain from reading, though I can tell you what I know based on my own experience-- remember there are always 25 correct ways to do everything... I tend to treat HD cams like a film stock while shooting narrative and leave all the small image tweaks for color grading- I'd recommend using FILM_REC mode and setup for widest possible latitude. With some testing you should be able to calibrate your eye and use a light meter, waveform, or both. If you have a DIT, then you have the extra backup of their knowledge and some paintbox control (but don't get too carried away- it burns time on set). I believe I rated the camera at 500 or 640 at night using film rec @ 0db. There is already a presence of noise at 0db, so test and see what you like in relation to '29. If you can afford it, get two matching cine style zooms. I've used Canon's 4.5-52 and 7.5-138, both T2.1, and very sharp. Fujinon also makes several E series zooms which are faster and I hear are excellent. Then of course there are digiprimes and digizooms.... Whatever you get, having a wide zoom and a medium-long zoom will cover you for most situations. Definitely carry a full selection of ND grads (SE and HE) and a POLA. You may never need/want them but they will save your butt in those times you may need to hold a hot sky and a dark bottom foreground etc, etc. Yes, you can use a 35mm adapter. P+S Pro35 and Letus Ultimate w/ B4 relay are the only ones for 2/3" that come to mind. For handheld, it's a fairly well balanced camera- it's ENG style afterall- though with a cine zoom it can get a bit front heavy so maybe think about some large batteries on the back to balance it out. Also look for a good set of grips that can keep your elbows at a 90 degree angle, unless you're the type that holds onto the mattebox.... As for on-board monitors, I like the 6" Astro w/ waveform because it's a convenient quick-reference monitor, with an accurate waveform. Panasonic 7" and 8" are beautiful, though according to an engineer I know and trust their built in waveforms are "not exactly true and correct." good luck,

Pictures:

Cartoni Laser - head only, complete: - baseplate - telescoping pan handle - standard cartoni tiedown also with: - large cartoni tiedown (for use with other 100mm tripods such as Miller or O'Connor) - O'Connor 2575 pan grip that I sleeved to fit the laser (for a beefier grip) Excellent cosmetic and working condition. Only one owner & operator (me). $1900 / OBO Los Angeles area Will ship inside of the US at buyer's expense. contact via PM if interested Thanks,

The Fujinon 10-100 is excellent, and a T1.8 if I remember correctly. On the wide end I've also been very happy with the Canon 4.5-52 as a coverage lens- shot a whole short with it exclusively and it performed very well in all sorts of interior and exterior situations.

I know that light meter questions have been beaten, nuked, napalmed, kneecapped, and guillotined to death on this forum-- but I couldn't find specifics on this with a search or browse.... Does anyone here own and use the 1-degree spot attachment for the spectra iv-a? http://www.spectracine.com/ProIVA-SP.html I'm thinking of picking one up to keep for the rare instances when I actually use a spot meter (like chromakey / cyc or other practical situations), and was wondering how it performs in comparison to dedicated spot. Thanks,

No, I don't think it would. You will of course retain the noise that is already there, but perhaps you can massage that with grain/noise reduction in the color corrector.

Hi Ryan, I went through that path for a feature a couple years ago- we shot 720p and then bumped it up to HDCAM 1080/24p for grading on a DaVinci. This was for a video finish and not a film print. The upres looked great- no softening to speak of at all, and the lighter compression of HDCAM did help in color grading. Worth every penny in my opinion. I recommend you test 1080 in the HVX transcoded to HDCAM 1080 vs. 720 bumped up to HDCAM- and take it all the way through the pipeline. I found that there wasn't much gained by shooting 1080 in-camera for a video finish, except a noticeable increase in noise. 720 to 1080 was much cleaner.

Hi Robert, Rest assured we will be using exactly the setup you described- MacBookPro w/ redundant RAIDs. Bluray is a good idea though! That Clipfinder program looks useful- thanks for that. We'll give it a try during prep with the workflow tests already planned. Cheers, Matt