Cillian Daly

Rob, Brian, thanks for your comments, they're much appreciated. You're both quite right, fresnel would be miles better, considering what I'm gonna be using them for. Time to rethink my purchase! Cheers guys, Cillian

Thanks Brian, I'd kinda come to that conclusion anyway. Makes sense the more I think about it! My only question now is which manufacturer to go for: Arri or Photon-Beard. I've used Arri lights in college, but not Photon-Beard, and I can't find much in the way of reviews or people reporting on using them. Anyway, thanks agin for the reply. Regards, Cillian

Hi everyone. I'm a film student from Ireland, and I posted the below message in the HD forum, but i think it may be reaching the wrong audience there! Anyway, it's reprinted below for viewing. Cheers. --------------------------- Howdy all. I am currently pricing a combination of camera (V1E most likely) tripod kit (manfrotto 503DV Kit), sound kit (Sennheiser 416 Kit), and a Photon-Beard Red-head lighting kit OR the Sony DR60 HDD storage drive. My question is really would it make more sense to go with the lights, or the convenience of shot footage archived to tape and captured to hard drive at the same time? I'll be primarily using the gear to shoot documentaries (final year specialisation) and shorts. I'm leaning towards the lights as being more useful on a doc shoot, but at the same time I'm tempted by the convenience/safety of the hard drive. Any advice/experiences/problems with the above, I'd much appreciate it. regards, Cillian

Howdy all. Am currently pricing a combination of camera (V1E most likely) tripod kit (manfrotto 503DV Kit), sound kit (Sennheiser 416 Kit), and a Photon-Beard Red-head lighting kit OR the Sony DR60 HDD storage drive. My question is really would it make more sense to go with the lights, or the convenience of shot footage archived to tape and captured to hard drive at the same time? I'll be primarily using the gear to shoot documentaries (final year specialisation) and shorts. I'm leaning towards the lights as being more useful on a doc shoot, but at the same time I'm tempted by the convenience/safety of the hard drive. Any advice/experiences/problems with the above, I'd much appreciate it. regards, Cillian

Michael and David, thank you both for your comments. Having spoken with the neighbours properly, they don't seem to have a problem with (clean!) lights and cables taking up much of their homes, so lighting kits are now on the cards. What do you recommend? I can buy my own small kit in or around the ?700 ($850aprx) mark, if any exist, or i can rent some. I was thinking of getting two Arri juniors either 300 or 150 watts. Any suggestions? Thanks again guys.

Hi all. I'm shooting a short next month in three different victorian houses. The houses belong to my neighbours, but i'm also using my parents house aswell. That I can light anyway i want, but i'm worried about the neighbours houses; I don't want to take over their homes completely and am a little hesitant to put blondes and redheads up all over their front rooms etc. Does anybody have any suggestions for shooting with no/reduced lighting, such as the practicals on location, reflectors and maybe some gelled halogen work lamps? Everything may be ok after i explain the set up to the neighbours, but i'm trying to cover the "worst case scenario" syndrome. I'm hoping to get a look similar to that "Tetra Pak" ad from a few years ago, called "Trees", there's lots of tracking shots and some very specific lighting. Shooting HDV with one Sony Z1. Thanks in advance for any help any of you can give. Cillian

Vegas does have the same panning box aswell. And you can pan during playback, and i think you can get the program to record your actions, though i stand to be corrected on that point. It does take a lot of experimentation to get it right, but it's really cool when you get it sounding great, and hear the surround playback on a home cinema. Check the Vegas website to see if they do an upgrade for something like Premiere at a discounted price, it could be a cheap way to get the encoder, as it only comes with the Vegas+DVD bundle, unfortunately. Hope some of this was useful.

Thanks Johann. Yeah, it's a real nice location, especially under the light in the first image. That whole veranda/decking can be closed off from the paths in the park too, so we have a bit more control over it, while not interferring with the public too much. Cheers for the advice.

Hey guys. I'm shooting in a little under 3 weeks in the location shown in the attached images. They were taken in nice August sunshine. I'll have reflectors and bounce boards on location, but unfortunately, a gennie isn't an option, so powered lighting is out. The stock is Fuji 250D, shooting on an Arri 16SR, during the day, in mid September, so given the climate here in Dublin, it could be lashing rain one minute, then bright sunshine and a 5 degree temperature increase the next. The scenes involve 2 actors talking while sitting on the bench or leaning on the railings in front of it. We can also get our hands on some C-stands, so flagging is possible. Myself and my DP are going to block and map out all the shots with the camera a few days before the shoot, hoping to iron out some of the problems that could arise, but we're sure to miss some things. If anyone out there has any tips for this kind of lighting, I'd appreciate any help you can give us. thanks in advance, Cillian.

Thank you very much, Miha. Didn't realise there was that much different music used in it. Goes to show you, I guess. thanks again,

Howdy. This should probably be in "Off Topic", but since the trailer is on the big screen, here goes; Does anybody out there know what music is playing with the trialer for Narnia in theatres? It sounds like it could be 2 seperate pieces, but it may be just 1 suite. I think it sounds great, and would like to pick it up on CD at some point, if I can. Also, is it possible there may be a different piece of music playing with the UK/Ireland trailer, than there is in the U.S.? Any help is appreciated. By the way, I think the film looks bloody good. Not as dark as LOTR, but nice and clean, and fantastical. Cheers.

Thanks Rupert, appreciate your help. And I have a few patient friends lined up for this. Sure, they'll only be standing with their arm out for two days; they can pretend it's an endurance test! Regards,

Matt, I've never tried to bring in PSD's to V2, but i don't remember seeing any option to, I never noticed it in the "file type" dialogue box, anyway. In the press release for v6/DVDv3 i noticed Sony pushing the fact that it took in PSD's, so I'd assume that v2 doesn't. I could easily sort this by checking my version, couldn't I?!?!?! In work now, so I'll check for my own piece of mind later! I didn't know about the layer transition position or menu loop seetings in v3, though, it'd be very useful. Cheers for the info. Regards,

Come to Ireland, we get some or all of our fees paid to attend college here! 750 Euro registration fee, each year, then the majority of the rest is paid by the college, including film stock, lab, TK, etc. We pay for any extra stuff, more stock, if we want, any props or sets we may require, books, obviously. That's all very simplified, and it's an ongoing bain in the side of our government, but in the context, it might be worth your while checking out colleges in Europe, here, or the UK, you may get in on a scolarship etc. look at www.education.ie, or email them at info@education.gov.ie they may be able to help you regarding studying in Ireland. Or look at the UK colleges; St Martins College, London, is supposed to be good, but no idea if they've a film course, or there's Briminghaam college/unniversity. I personnally couldn't pay 7200 Euro per year, but what price education? Hope this is some help Regards,

Howdy all. Was wondering if the 5 in 1 kits, a diffuser + 4 interchangeable/reversable cover are worth getting. There's a UK website, Warehouse Express, selling the 95cm/38" version for £52 sterling + £20 delivery. that's about ?106, or $132. It'll be mainly used for outdoor stuff to begin with, since that what I'll be shooting next, but obviously it would be used for all situations that could benifit from it. Any thoughts? Cheers,

Howdy. I'm also late to this topic, but as a student film maker going into 2nd year, I just have to add to Phil's comments. If I was getting a respected camera man to work for free on one of my shoots, I would hope I would treat him with the respect he deserves. I hope I would be open and upfront about the whole project. i.e, we will probably get some things ass about face, we'll be a little bit slower than a so called pro shoot, and we'll all be very young. But we would all be energetic, honest, polite and treat crew and cast like professionals. I don't think I would have even worked on that shoot, Phil, even though I'm just a lowly student, and could probably use the experience. This Guy B is like the type of person a friend of mine dislikes in the industry: he is in love with the idea of being a film maker, not MAKING films. Huge difference. Regards,

Yes, another good thing I've noticed, thanks to Matt fo reminding me, Vegas rerely crashes, only 2 incidents come to mind in the years i've been using it. It just seems excessively stable. I too use Photoshop extensively. It is also damn fine at what it does. Which reminds me, Matt, is DVD Architect V3 a huge improvement over V2? regards,

Hi all. Couple of questions: 1. Are the kodak wratten gel filters for sale on the Filmtools website good enough for a student 16mm shoot (ha! what isn't???)? 2. If they do the job as well as the rather more expensive glass versions by Lee and Co, would anyone out there know where the heck I can buy them in Ireland, or failing that, the UK? Even somewhere like France would be a start. For some reason, Filmtools won't ship to Ireland, but will ship to the UK, because they say we've a different credit card system. We don't, by the way, but they still won't ship. Any help/ideas would be greatly appreciated. regards,

Howdy. just "invested" in a Sekonic L558 Cine. Only have it a couple of days, so I'm only playing with it at the mo'. It has the cine feature advantage, such as being able to change the shutter angle in 5 degree incriments, and filter compensation etc, and every frame rate i can imagine. It does light up when it gets a low reading which is kinda cool, but I'm sure other meters do the same. If I take good care of it, it should do me right through college and into the professional world of film making. It feels nice in the hand, but the button layout does suit right handers better (damn you lot!), but i've figured out a contorted way of holding it to suit my south paw tendancies. It'll probably give me repetitive strain injury, but I guess you have to suffer for your art! I've taken some stills photographs using the camera's (canon EOS 30, or Elan 7 for the American viewers) meter in different modes, and the reading I was getting from the Sekonic. I've to pick them up tomorrow. I have noticed the Canon to overexpose slightly on ocassion, so we'll see what happens. Anyway, I like the meter so far, and I'm shooting a 10 minute short on 16mm in a month, so I'll see how well it performs. Just as a query, does anyone out there know if this meter, or others like it, would perform within a reasonable toleerence level straight out of the box? I.e, if i turn it on, set it to 24 FPS, at ISO 200, and expose some 16mm film rated at ISO 200 with the F-stop set at what the meter tells me, will my film be reasonably well exposed, or is there a chance it could be more than a stop out either way? I will be in a position to compare it to a minolta III (i think) nearer the shoot, but it'd be nice to know sooner. Hope some of the above helps, John. regards,

Howdy. I use Sony (formaly Sonic Foundry) Vegas+DVD, version 5. Soon to upgrade to V6. I bought it originally, back when Sonic Foundry was the name on the box, because it came with 5.1 Dolby Digital mixing and output, integrated DVD authoring (though basic) had some great audio mixing tools and lots of other features. I used and still use Soundforge in college, so the interface was very similiar. It does only have one preview window, but i've gotten used to it having edited a feature with it. Honestly, i really love the program, and as far as i know, V6 can import layerd psd's, and i think it has real time effects output to DV aswell. It also has all the HiDef features Sony are pushing. I don't have a HiDef camera so it's bugger all use to me at the moment! I have used Premiere before, but while i use Photoshop constantly, and think it's a brilliant program, Premiere can annoy me sometimes. As an aside, i tried to open a 3Gb DV file in Premiere 6.5, i think, and it crashed it repeatedly. Vegas V4 opened it in a few seconds, and was happy to scrub through it as much as i liked. No idead what Premiere Pro is capable of, only "played" with it once! And i use Avid DV Express in college. Hate it. Sorry Avid. I try to edit everything at home. Hope this is useful. Regards

Ha! that is so cool. Apologies for the outburst, but I'm a film student/film geek, with a "thing" for technology of all kinds. I'm surprised my girlfriend didn't dump me when i paused the DVD and dove across the room to look closer at the Aaton. My college only let us poor lowly first years use the Arri SR's last year, so anything better and bigger, especially if it's mounted on a Steadicam rig, will get us going. Sad, but true. You don't happen to know what stock they use? I can understand that it's lit evenly all round since it's going out on TV, but it still looks very free of grain. I'd expect a high ASA, but then again, with good lenses and all... Cillian

Hi all. Just curious, but having watched the entire box set of season one, was/is Scrubs shot on Super 16? I'm sure I saw a Steadicam rig with an Aaton Super16 camera mounted on it in one of the docs on the DVD. And if it was, what stock did they use, as the hospital always seems lit from every angle, but with no obvious lights, considering the many tracking shots used in the production. I leave to the Pro's to answer! Cillian

Thanks for all your tips guys. If we ever get to shoot the film, I'll let you know how it looks. Thanks again. Cillian

Thanks David, I wasn't aware that the 500D was soft and grainy in 16mm. Although I wouldn't mind grain, as I love shooting B&W stills on my SLR using Neopan 1600. Would it make more sense to use the same fluorescent lighting set up using Fuji's 250D film? I know that loses alot of stops, but would it remove the softness from the image? And would overexposing the 500D, or indeed, the 250D, by 1/3 of a stop effectively reduce that softness, under available light or flourescents? All the daylight shots will be in a woods/forest, so that will also reduce the amount of light falling on the scene, hence me leaning towards the 500D. I know I keep mentioning Fuji stock, but in Dublin it's easier to get, cheaper than kodak, and they'll give me a student discount. I'm not really in a position to complain! Thanks for your quick reply. Cillian

Howdy. I'm hoping to shoot a short film in August on 16mm, here in Ireland, using Fuji Reala 500D, as I'll probably be shooting early moring until late evening, and I wanted as much exposure latitude as possible. I see on the Fuji website, that the Reala stock can be used with normal fluorescent lights with no need for a compensating filter. Since i have some indoor scenes that start the story, i was hoping to stick to the Reala for these scenes and light it via fluorescent lights, if need be. The only thing I'm worried about is whether or not I'll get any colour cast from these lights, or is this the sensible option, as i can't really afford an extra can of 400T or 500T just for 3 short shots. Any tips would be very welcome. I am studying film production at college, but as we've only finished first year, of four, they've only given us the basics when it comes to the expensive art of shooting film! Myself and my DP are confident we can shoot it this way, but I feel it's no harm asking those with more experience if they've been in similar situations. Thanks in advance for your time answering any of the above questions. Regards, Cillian