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Chris Steel

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  • Occupation
    1st Assistant Camera
  • Location
    London
  • My Gear
    Preston 2 channel - HU3 MDR4

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  1. My Hilti lives on my hip so it comes out constantly and I am very aware of where it is pointing before even turning it on. My hand is often ready to cover the laser if somebody moves or I get bumped. I regularly walk the scene with a hard tape a laser to gauge where the cast can go and where they might end up (no marks these days). Part of this I will take measures to the camera position. I'm not concerned about being super accurate for this so I point the laser at the tripod head below the camera. Many of my 2nds are used to standing on marks, holding a board next to their face and closing their eyes. I personally don't like this at all as I never put a laser that close to someone's face even if they close their eyes or cover their face with the board. I'll take a measure to their chest or shoulder. If it's a super critical close up then the soft tape comes out or I take marks from the monitor.
  2. Take measurements, hope they hit their marks. It really comes down to the traditional techniques of focus pulling and responding to the action. DSLR shooting adds an extra element as you probably wont be using as accurate lenses. I think talking with the DoP or Director and explaining your limitations and that you might require more stop compared to S35 shooting or shooting on a production camera with cinema lenses.
  3. There is a second scroll wheel and button on the body of the eyepiece. with the screen flipped and blocking the first scroll wheel, reach around the eyepiece on the top left there is a little wheel and a button next to it (below the user buttons) One item of note is the media needs time to "finish" after a take or playback before ejecting. Arri says 10 seconds before taking the card out. Waveform on the eyepiece monitor is also missing currently (Q1 2021) but this may come in future SUPdates
  4. The app I use (Pocket AC on android) has several CoC options which are pretty useful based on the camera format selected. Either 'traditional' based on sensor size, 'resolution' based on photosite size, and 'hybrid/dynamic' which combines the two. I switch depending on output the format that is likely as music videos are usually only seen on phone screens and commercials could be seen on 55" TVs. Most of the time there's not much need to check these days. Mostly looking through the app before working with a new format to see how it compares to formats I'm familiar with.
  5. Also, from a frame size perspective. Shooting on an Arri LF or Sony Venice in open gate mode and cropping would give you the same "effective" sensor size if shooting spherical. This may be an easier way of achieving certain parts of the look but obviously you don't get the anamorphic aspect Mini 3.2k is 26.4mm x 14.85mm so with the anamorphic going vertically that is "effectively" now 29.7mm tall. Flipping that sideways gives you 29.7mm x 26.4mm, compare that to the LF sensor OG is 36.7mm x 25.54mm (or two OG mini sensors stacked together). 35mm 4 perf Anamorphic was to some extent a cheaper way of doing wide screen as it gave you similar DOF and FOV of Vistavision 8 perf
  6. On TvLogics you can set custom aspects to squash and stretch the image however you like. Little bit of testing and some prep you could set up several onset monitors for this. The eyepiece would be somewhat unusable though.
  7. There's a thread on the focuspulleratwork forum about tips pulling without a monitor which may give you insight into how focus pullers deal with the sort of action you describe. https://www.focuspulleratwork.com/forum/10-things-about/10-tips-of-how-to-pull-focus-without-a-monitor As always, spot on from Gregory.
  8. I think you're describing Alpha wheels https://1a.tools/alpha-wheels There are a few options like the DJI Master wheels and PLC Veracity Wheels. You'd have to check if these are compatible with cinetracer.
  9. I see what Phil is talking about on set and I just don't get it. There's a weird over macho thing on some crews. Inducting new crew by taking them out drinking the night before then have them spend a work day hopelessly hungover - "if you can get through today, you can get through any day" nonsense. There's also the idea that you need to be the biggest burliest bloke to get the job done. Carry an easy up in one hand and a camera coffin in the other. Really is no need. Being fit enough to get through a day, only carry what you're strong enough for, split everything else or put it on wheels. What Gabriel said about core strength is spot on though. I switched to eating plant based on set and the quality of my food in general has been so much better. Occasionally I have to ask for double portions but overall I feel more alert after lunch than before where I'd want to curl up and sleep after the meal.
  10. https://www.filmfrogmedia.com/mdr-cheeseplate Along with their vlock wedge? I have mine setup with a cinelock and anti twist cradle. Any reason for that particular plate? Wooden camera have something similar too
  11. I've not had access to kinefinity cameras since the kinemax 6k so I'm guessing they've improved build quality since then. The kinemax was a bit of a mess. Badly translated and confusing menus. Didn't play well with teradeks, in-fact sdi outputs where pretty shoddy, worse than some video taps. Had several issues around monitor connections (like the red one used to have). But then the footage would be transcoded from raw and the image looked amazing. There is the risk with kine cameras that they have a bunch of small issues or bugs which may take a long time to fix. They are targeted at indie film makers so are never going to get wide market acceptance. Plus it'll take a while before the company is taken seriously. The Mavo Edge is the most promising camera they've made but I'd still have some concerns powering accesories through it. Not sure what that Lens port at the front will be used for, possible just iData or the likes
  12. Absolutely true Phil, the problem often lies with lower quality boards not using polycarbonate or acrylic but a lower grade plastic with a coating, which degrades fairly quickly. They are often also quite thin pieces of plastic so are more likely to snap (as many of mine did). The right material should be no more than £5 raw, getting them engraved and painted is what usually costs the money.
  13. Every AC here uses TF90 (Inhibisol Cleaning Solvent) I'd avoid using anything as harsh as acetone or sand paper. That also looks like a fairly low quality board, the acetate might have already broken down making cleaning almost impossible. Pretty common with boards from amazon. I understand it can be tricky to source higher quality boards at a reasonable price point but my board cost me £60 and has lasted 5 years so far and will last another 5 easily. Even if the board breaks the resin sticks will be going strong. Before that I'd go through an amazon board every 4 to 6 months.
  14. I personally find a chest rig more comfortable in general as it spreads the weight and lets me attach a radio quite securely. My rig is one made by arri rental with magnet closing so that also helps when putting something away just after action is called (no loud velcro rip). It doesn't hold as much as most hip pouches so it's less heavy to start with. But these days, I have a belt with just my Hilti and Fatmax. It's nice to have everything on hand at a moments notice as a trainee and as a loader but when focus pulling I really tire of carrying all that and a hand unit around all day. When needed I still will wear a chest rig.
  15. I run my 058w with Hawk woods mini vlocks - getting about 2 hours from the 50wh version with teradek plugged in. I usually have this attached to my HU3 in a run and gun type setup. With the 98wh betteries it does get a bit heavy. I haven't had any issues with v-lock plates outside of really beat up rental cameras so I wouldn't worry about the battery falling off. It's a really positive lock these days. I think a full size Gold mount would be quite a lot to swing from the back of the monitor with a teradek on there as well. If you already have Gold mount and you're on a stand most of the time, maybe a bracket that attaches to a stand to power everything. Then for run and gun, put that on a tac vest or in a bag?
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