Brian Drysdale

Yes, you'd stop down 2 stops from the 24fps setting. However, unless it's a very windy day, you may find this this isn't enough for a good cloud effect, so you may have to try some single frame time lapse. Unfortunately, I haven't seen the American Express commercial.

Personally with a $1000, I'd make it a short. Do a rewrite and make it a tight 20 min short, it'll be much more impressive. Your resources will be much more focused on quality rather than quantity.

An older book, but "The Technique of Film Editing" by Karl Reisz, Gavin Millar is a good starting point. Editing is the unique part of film & TV production, so I feel that it's something that camera people should understand. Also knowing how a story works and is structured is a great help, so you can work out the beats within the scene. Often advertisements are heavily storyboarded, so these elements are worked out at the scripting and pre-producton stages. Also, "On Film Editing" by Edward Dmytryk. There are a number of books about editing software, so you'd buy ones that cover the NLE you're going to use. However, once you've learnt some theory the best way is to do some editing.

A couple of shorts that I made have sales to TV stations, however, you're extremely unlikely to make enough money from these to make a profit. Both films have a distributor, so he can package them in with other shorts. Personally, I only know of one short that has made a profit (I expect there are only a small number of others out there) - you really need to have a mass market appeal. I believe amounts that you now receive for a short has gone down over the years, so reducing even further the chance of making a return.

They're surprisingly well built. The local BBC were using 10 year old BVW 200s for news until they were replaced Betacam SX kit. Needless to say, they didn't have an easy life.

Yes, I was wondering about all the DVW references when I was googling, since all the Betacam SP series camcorders were BVW. The BVW 400 was my favourite in that series. I haven't shot 4x3 for about 5 years - it really throws you getting into gear with it again after a gap.

I did some very long, hard mounted Steadicam tracking shots down paths just before Christmas. They're not easy, every little adjustment just jumps out at you, everything has to be extremely smoothly done - fortunately there was hardly any wind. However, it wasn't anywhere near as precise as Garrett's shot. Nice opening shot to set up the film. I've seen amazing Garrett Brown shots that look like craning shots shot on a crane by climbing up a ladder with the Steadicam to get them. Yes, Garrett Brown is tall.

A Betacam SP version - the digital camera head of the DVW 700 recording onto SP. I've only used one a few times always shooting on 4x3 - I didn't realise you had an option of 16:9. Remember being able to buy 4 x 3 only DVW 700s at that time.

I recall that the DVW 700 was the first camera that had an optional 16:9 setting, all Betacam SP cameras were 4x3. We used a UVW 100 as a second unit camera on a documentary, the pictures weren't as good as the BVW 400 being used as the main camera.

Apparently the studio wouldn't pay the fee that Robert Duvall was looking for, so he got dropped. The story seems to have been heavily compromised by his losing him.

I don't about the US, but most of our lighting crew are qualified electricians, many of whom started in the construction industry before getting into film & TV. A couple Gaffers have become DPs.

Don't confuse the frame rate with the shutter speed. The interlace PAL cameras traditionally have 1/60th shutter speeds rather than 1/50th as a option (commonly the shutter is switched off shooting interlace), although, progressive frame cameras (like film cameras) do normally shoot at a shutter of 1/50th at 25 fps. The shutter settings for the 25p version of the Sony HDW 750 camera are 1/33, 1/50, 1/60, 1/100.... , so aren't limited to multiples of 1/50th. 59.94i cameras have the 1/100th shutter option rather than the 1/60th found on 50i cameras. Also, the clear scan allows you to set the the shutter speed so that you don't get flickering from computer screens. Once set, these shutter speeds can way off 1/50th.

Best way is to use a shutter speed that is a multiple of 1/60th, eg 1/120th of second.

Tapes do suffer a small amount of wear and can stretch a bit when you leave the camera in stand by. Some broadcasters reuse Betacam tapes for news, but for a only limited number of reuses (often about 5 times). Because MiniDV isn't the most robust of formats you'll be increasing the chances of drop out by reusing the tape. So, if you're planning to do this, I'd limit the number of reuses. I wouldn't reuse tapes to shoot important material.

I don't think it's important that the director knows how to use an exposure meter. Their job is to have a vision of the story that they're trying to tell and trying to achieve that vision with their collaborators. However, I'd be concerned if the DP didn't know how to use a meter when shooting film. Although, I seem to recall that towards the end of his career Douglas Slocombe didn't use one. Loved ?Pan?s Labyrinth?.

Last I heard an average commercial in London was around £250,000, but the really high end ones are a lot more (£1m plus in some cases). Regional commericials cost a lot less and can be just be extremely simple graphic costing a few thousand or with some live action costing tens of thousands.

The answer is the distance that you can achieve the a good resolution on the chart you're using when at the wide end of the zoom lens. If you go too far away the chart can be too small for you to make a judgement on how sharp it is. With a wide angle zoom you need to set the chart up closer than with the standard zoom, otherwise the chart can be too small in the frame to make critical use of the star.

When you're setting the backfocus all you're doing is ensuring that the more critical wide end of the zoom lens is focusing on the same plane as the telephoto end. Once correctly set up it has no effect on the distance you're focused on in front of the lens because the images from both ends of the zoom range are now focusing on the same plane regardless of the object distance. The macro selector changes the backfocus, so that you can focus closer, however, you can't zoom because it's only in focus at one focal length, not the entire range of the zoom lens If you have any doubts the best way is to check it for yourself. Certainly people have been setting their ENG lens backfocus by using a chart/dollar/newspaper like this for many years.

It doesn't matter if you do it indoors or outdoors, you set the Siemans star chart usually about 2 meters (6 ft) [although you can place it further away, it does get a bit small further than 4 meters], from the camera with the lens aperture wide open and set the backfocus. For wide angle lens you might have to use the chart a bit closer You can also measure the distance and check that the focus scale matches - just be aware that on ENG lenses focus marks measure from the front of the lens, not the image plane. A correctly set up video lens won't have any problems focusing at infinity when the backfocus is set up using a chart. On film lenses they use a collimator, which is set at infinity for setting the backfocus. Zeiss make a unit that uses infinity for setting backfocus video cameras, however, most people don't use these, they use a chart and both methods give good results. With SD you only need to check the backfocus when changing lenses, so you shouldn't have any problems. Checking the backfocus at the beginning of the shooting day will cover you if you're using the same lens all day. You don't need to check the backfocus every time you go from indoors to outdoors. However, on HD you have to much more aware of possible temperature changes, but that's getting more complex.

The best quality from the prosumer cameras is recording the HD SDI from either a Canon XL H1 or a JVC 250 onto a hard drive. Phil Rhodes has been testing this and says his results will be published in Showreel magazine. http://www.cinematography.com/forum2004/in...mp;#entry145789 Remember to factor in the price of the P2 cards when you're budgeting for buying the HVX200

I can't speak for the Panasonic, although I've heard good reports, but with the Sony LCD HD monitor you really need to be square on otherwise everything drops off extremely quickly. It can be scary when you glance at the monitor picture in passing.

Usually the budget is tight on shorts, so unless you really need to shoot for effects shots I'd tend towards the F900 (the F950 body is a lot more expensive to rent, then you need to hire a VTR on top of that). Since you're in a PAL country you could also consider the HDW 750 (around £450 per day), which is cheaper to hire than the F900 (around £650 per day). The HDW 750 can shoot either 25p or 50i. These rates excluded any lenses (around £150 to £175 per day for each zoom lens - you might 2 lenses: the wide angle zoom and standard zoom), lens accessories or monitor. The weekly rate is normally 4 times the weekly. Best thing is to ring around a few rental companies and get some quotes. For a short, you can sometimes hire a camera package for less than the headline price.

David's correct in a PAL country you should really be thinking about a 25P or 50i, not a 24p, 30p, 60i camera. Otherwise, the post production will only bring you grief because everything in TV & video is set up to handle 25 frames per second. You should make a list of the cameras available in your price range and look for online reviews and tests of these cameras. From these you can tell which one of these cameras will best meet your needs. You won't get 100%, but it should get you started. Also, don't forget the audio requirements, ideally for serious work you'll want XLRs.

You need a downconverter. A Miranda downconverter commonly comes with the F900, you should check with whoever is supplying the camera to see if one is fitted. The F900R can have an internal downconverter fitted as a option.

Just checked with a friend who's going to be doing post production on Dr Who. They're still shooting this on DigiBeta. "Torchwood" has been shot on HD, originally on Varicam then HDCam. I knew there was much discussion and also testing of HD for Dr Who, especially for north American sales, hence my confusion.