Vital Butinar

Hey guys. I just wanted to get back to you all and thank you for your ideas on the camera rig. In the end we were able to rig the camera on her original shoulder rig but push the camera way back and extend the monitor forward. Which is great because I got to have a video feed because of the monitor. She's super happy with it and shoots really long days with it, but she additionally created a kind of shoulder pad, that she puts on as a sleeve, giving her some added padding and apparently it works great. We've been in production for 3 days now, each of them not shorted than 10 hours and no longer than 14 hours. Because of this rig we've shot over a third of the scenes of the feature. We still have 6 to 7 production days to go, but none of them, except one, will be longer than 10 hours. We've only used sticks for 5 shots and two dolly shots. So the rig is helping us soot very productively. One interesting note, I know this is a cinematography forum, but shooting with 32 bit lav mics that run the entire day and record the audio internally is also a benefit because we can just leave the audio running and monitor it during takes. If there's any sound problems it can be fixed in post with voice isolation. I've already tried it and tested it and it works great! Anyway thanks for all the help!

Well of course in some scenes the camera will be stationary simply because we need that later on for compositing. But the reason why it's handheld is simply because we are trying to make her as agile as possible to make her as fast as possible in finding the shots. The reason is since we have no budget to speak off, all of the locations we got by begging for them and there's no way they will let us use an actual airport for more than a day for free or an airplane, in fact any of the other more high production value locations. So we need to be able to shoot really fast, which means that she needs to find the shot quickly and get on with it. That's why the camera is handheld most of the time. The good news is that I tried to mount the camera right onto her shoulder which worked great as far as weight goes, she's still only about a 100 lbs so the whole thing is still heavy but as long as we pad the shoulder mount and find a wireless or wired follow focus so that she can focus, it should be fine. But the existing shoulder mount is not able to carry everything, so we'll be trying to find a different way to mount it. One of the ways might be that I might design a new shoulder rig thing that goes on both sides of the back and then 3D print it. The problem is I currently don't have the time to design something, let alone 3D print it, because I'm neck deep in actor rehearsals, shortlists, schedules and making 1000 decisions a day to be able to take time and design something well. But in either case thank you guys for suggesting mounting the camera way back. That did the trick, now I just have to figure out all the rest of the stuff. So again many thanks and best wishes to everyone.

Yeah, I've never used the ENG cameras before and the image was terrible compared to anything now days even used for music videos. But I did love the ergonomics, I loved the battery life and how quickly it switched on. Also the damn thing is a tank, I could put it down anywhere, light rain didn't bother it and it looked pretty much bullet proof. Yes modern small factor cinema cameras are great for rigging, but the user friendliness is much much lower with them than with the old ENG ones. I'll try rigging the Pocket 4K pretty much exactly on the shoulder. Hope that Leya will be able to focus, we discussed maybe changing the follow focus to her right hand. We'll see how things go. Like I've said, I love her shots when she has the ability to do them her way and thus it takes half of the burden off of me, because I don't have to warry about explaining to the DP what I want and she knows what kind of shots I want and what we need. That's the benefit of both of us usually also doing the edits and grades, that we know what we need. As a result we can work really efficiently, but whenever we've tried something new and different we ended up just doing what we usually did and it worked. But I also do like seeing what's going on in front of the camera with my monitor, before we had the wireless system I used to hover behind her back and watch the camera monitor, try not to talk too laud and stand too close while directing the actors. This is much easier now. But that's life on the lower budget place of filmmaking.

Yeah. That's exactly what I did. I tried to put the battery on the back on a plate. But I used a NPF battery because it integrates better with all the other equipment. The original batteries are really bad as far as how long they last. But also usable in some cases, we did use them for years. I'll also try to connect the monitor with a cable to the battery plate, that should work and try to put the camera as far back as I can. I'd really like her to enable her to be able to do the same shots that she's always tried to do, because I love the way they look. At the same time I've also grown accustom to having a monitor in my hand to see what's happening in the shot, so there's a bunch of stuff that's been added on the camera. You're right that these small cameras are really short and it will rest really far back. I hope she'll be able to focus. A couple of years ago I spent a weekend using one of those Sony ENG shoulder cameras and to my amazement it was really ergonomic. Thanks.

Thanks Brian. I'll definitely check out the wooden camera stuff and try mounting the camera as far back on the should as possible. Unfortunately I don't think it will be possible to buy much new gear, but we might get lucky with the local rental company. They've been really kind to us before and maybe they'll be willing to work with us on this project. Otherwise we're forced to make due with what we've got. Thanks again.

Thanks Albion. Well we tried the easyrig and she said it restricted her too much and she couldn't move the way that she wanted to. We did use it a couple of times and the shots were ok but she kept contorting into really weird positions to maneuver the camera into position. We're planning on shooting most of the film handheld due to time restrains. Ok, so I'll try to mount the camera as far back as possible onto the shoulder, like the ENG style Sony cameras and then extend the monitor in front of her. The only concern is the follow focus wheel being really back. Maybe we'll have to mount an electronic follow focus or use a focus puller. But I'd like to avoid that since she's very well versed in pulling her own focus and I'm afraid that having a focus puller might slow us down. Also we don't have a dedicated focus puller in the team so someone would have to do it and the learning curve might slow us down. Thanks, I'll try rigging something up tomorrow and see how it goes. Can't believe I didn't think of mounting the camera that way.

Hi Guys! So in a couple of months I'm getting ready to potentially shoot my first feature film called Pure Vortex. Unfortunately we were unable to get any financing (that old catch 22) so we're trying to shoot the thing without a budget and sheer willpower. Hope we're successful. But that's not what I need help with, the DP is my wife a very petite woman (about 110 lbs) and she also operates her own camera and most of the time she prefers doing handheld shots. Until now we've always used a cheap plastic shoulder rig (one of those that go over the shoulder and rest on the rib cage) since our small DSLR days and then migrated to the Blackmagic Pocket 4K. When needed we've always used kind of small form cameras like the Pocket 4K, 6K, Komodo, Alexa Mini, etc. (except for the 4K or 6K, they were always on sticks, dollies or other stuff) She also prefers to pull her own focus. Last week we tried a new shoulder rig while shooting a music video and she almost died because the camera was too front heavy now with matte boxes, follow focus, monitors, batteries, transmitters, etc. She said that she prefers the older shoulder rig since she can transition from shoulder to fully handheld very quickly. We also tries an easyrig multiple times and she's also not ok with it, since she says it restricts her movement too much and that she's not able to follow the action freely enough. The problem is there's no way to mount the new setup on the old shoulder rig without making it really front heavy. I tried mounting a bunch of stuff on the back, extending the rods and mounting the transmitter, battery and even a counter weight. But it just made the whole thing really heavy and unstable. Unfortunately we're locked into using the Pocket 4K since this is the only camera that we have access to that we own. Anyone have any ideas on how to mount this camera on her shoulder and not make it too front heavy, while at the same time not making it too heavy anyway? Previously the accessories on the Pocket 4K had been really light weight and more or less useless. Also the addition of better lenses and monitors, bigger batteries just made it heavier. She's been trying to work out and get her strength up but the music video shoot had shown us that it wouldn't help anyway. Thanks for the help and best wishes to everyone.

Congratulations David!

I don't know if this is still relevant, but some time ago working on a project a producer told me about these guys and they do exactly what you're asking. They license music for films, don't know how much it costs though. https://www.harryfox.com/ There's also an alternative that I learned of recently, that might be a better alternative if it's a lower budget project. https://app.lickd.co/ Hope it helps. Regards Vital

I remember this setup in the second Alien movie. The army guys had a setup like that.

Thank you @Joerg Polzfusz. I'm glad you like it. Yeah I didn't have much to work with at home and it was basically just a test for something I plan to do in the future. I love how graphics on practical displays look because the light just interacts with the environment in a nicer way than if it was CGI and composited. That's what I wanted to try out, because I have nothing against CGI but I preferer it for things like set extensions and not creating the entire thing. The display was my phone, the switch was our charging station extension cord switch and the buttons were my old mixing deck. I used a camera case insides for a background texture and a small rotating emergency light for the red alarm light. The reflections were made by a small projector and I got that idea from a shot from the Kurt Russell movie called Solder from 1998, where some graphics were projected onto a guys head like that. Thank you but I really don't like acting, but this was an experiment and sometimes I do act in things but it's only when there's no other alternative or someone else that I respect wants me to. Although for the love of it I have no idea why.

Hey @Khaled F. Abdullah I took a look at your film and it actually all depends on what you were trying to portray. I've been thinking about these things a lot in the last couple of months and I see a lot of people making really good shots but seldom do they understand the motivation of those shots. Or put in a different way, you always have two choices either find someone who can do something better than you and let them do it or invest the time to get better at something. I think this is at the core of being a filmmaker anyway you look at it. Yes you can never be the best at everything but the truth is that knowing something rarely hurts and often benefits. So having a good grasp on cinematography is great. Let me give you another example. I have never been a good writer, actually I spent a lot of time devoted to not reading or writing because I didn't like it. Turned out that this was due to dyslexia that nobody knew I had. But eventually I got into filmmaking and I figured that I would just find a writer who would write stuff for me and when I couldn't find anyone, I set out to start writing myself. I won't say that I was good at it and I still thing I have a lot to learn but even I have noticed a progression in my work, even though I still relay a lot on feedback from people. I've always strived to learn new stuff and do things just to practice and get better at them. That's the same in every field, even in stuff like parallel parking. ? So if you don't have anyone who can do your cinematography and you think it's not where it should be, just devote some time and effort into it, like you've already done and soon you'll be better off, even if you might not be completely content. Best of luck to you and remember that we never stop learning new stuff, the difference is once you learn to learn stuff it becomes exciting. Regards Vital

Hi guys. A couple of weeks ago I had some more free time and started rewriting some feature screenplays that I had been working on them. Then due to an unfortunate incident I stumbled onto a funny story for a short comedy film that I decided to write and shoot the next week, but at the same time had been wanting to try out a couple of things and since I was shooting anyway, I figured that's make another short. That's how this short sci-fi film happened. I shot it in order to test out a few things that I had been meaning to try out for another project down the line. Stuff like, a different approach to writing dialog, trying out some lighting techniques, playing around with a projector, finding a cheap way (as in stuff that I had at home) to show stuff like props and a couple of things to do with post production. Since it was a simple home test project, unfortunately I acted in it, which means it basically sucks since I'm no where near anything resembling an actor. Hope you enjoy it.

I like it. The aspect ratio and feel kind of reminds me of 8mm film. I especially love one of the shots outside on the sidewalk. Good job.

Dan, I sent you a PM yesterday. Regards Vital