Jaan Shenberger

A little off topic, but I recently watched the director's cut of Legend on blu-ray (transferred from an answer print)… I was shocked to feel that it's visually and atmospherically on par with Blade Runner. Lighting and production design are really superb. The theatrical cut is pretty bad though… no wonder it's been largely forgotten.

Hello all. To clarify, I'm wondering specifically about the usage of "DoP" versus "DP" — thanks.

Thanks for the insight Phil. Mark - what about specifically "DoP" versus "DP" in Australia? (sorry, I should've been more specific in my original post — I'll edit it to do so).

Hello any international people on here — is "DoP" still used much in print, on call sheets, business cards, etc? Thanks in advance for any input.

If your digital spot meter's response time isn't fast enough to meter the police light's cast, then maybe try using an old analog reflective meter (pointed at a gray card receiving the light's cast). You can watch the exposure needle swing back and forth as the light varies, and easily get a feel for the average reading for the red and blue. I did this back in the 90s when metering for light being caustically reflected off water and it worked great. Hope this somehow helps.

Thanks for the info Stuart... the producers and myself are aware of the wide range of options in regards to Indian production gear, I was just hoping to get a firsthand recommendation from someone. I also have no idea if Chinese-made units from brands I'm unfamiliar with are more prevalent over there. I'd also like to avoid dealing with adapters, not to mention shipping from the US and back. Thanks again for the info.

Also, can anyone recommend where to rent Chimera or Jem chinaballs or pancakes? Thanks.

I'm going to be DPing a feature in Sri Lanka in a few months and have never shot in that part of the world, nor any 240v country. So I have no idea what the selection of 240v light units is like, relative to the US. I'm very fond of using multiple 24" chinaballs by Lanternlock that are very sturdy and affordable (http://lanternlock.com/), and was hoping to find something similar for rent or sale in India or Sri Lanka. Also, can anyone recommend where to rent Chimera or Jem chinaballs or pancakes? Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

I'm going to be shooting a feature in Sri Lanka in a few months and have never shot in that part of the world, nor any 240v country. So I have no idea what the selection of 240v light units is like relative to the US. I'm very fond of using multiple 24" chinaballs by Lanternlock that are very sturdy and affordable (http://lanternlock.com/), and was hoping to find something similar for rent in India or Sri Lanka. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

there's nothing wrong with your file's color and no actual color shift is occurring as it moves from software to software. for some reason, apple's corevideo technology incorporates color profile tags which often result in unintended gamma shifts when particular movie files are displayed in some software. for example, your quicktimes that look washed out to you in quicktime player, etc will look exactly right in firefox on windows. if you apply your homebrew gamma/contrast then it'll look darker than intended when viewed in firefox on windows. this problem exists with numerous codecs and player software programs. i didn't read everything in this thread, but most often people are most concerned with producing h264 encoded movies that "look right". and to do that the current industry standard is to use the x264 codec which performs well compression-wise while also excluding the gamma tag nonsense. it's free...http://www.videolan.org/developers/x264.html hope this helps and best of luck.

since complex, i've been using gales creek insurance, who i was referred to by complex. after contacting about a dozen other options, i found they have the best rate, at least for my particular needs (though not as cheap as complex was, obviously). hope this may save someone some time. and thanks for everyone's suggestions.

thought since nearly everyone in sf seemed to go through complex corporation for insurance, i'd try asking here... anyone found any for single day that is anywhere near the great prices complex used to have? thanks for any suggestions.

I'm not a working DP, but rather a working director who is his own DP (if that makes sense), so take my advice with a grain of salt. If you're still in high school, then I suggest you do these thingees: - shoot as many projects as you can (duh) - shoot as much informal stuff as you can, like the way a painter uses a sketchbook (many of your best ideas about lighting/composition will come from this) - try to edit, yourself, some of the projects you shoot (understanding coverage, continuity and shot sequence is essential) - try to handle doing the costumes and props for a few projects (understanding how surfaces/materials work with lighting, etc.) - use books as the basis of your self-education rather than the internet. two or three $30 books will answer 90% of all your questions, including ones you haven't even asked yet-- unlike the internet which answers only your immediate question, and often superficially) - find some kind of still photography class that you can take - spend twice the amount of time studying lighting techniques than you do camera movement techniques when you get to college or as a young pro: - always remember that for any project you do, 1/3 of your real compensation is the money, 1/3 the experience/reel, and 1/3 to help lead to your next project (via contacts etc) - always do the best you can, no matter how dumb or under resourced the project (duh). people notice this and will remember you for it. - find out what directing major has the richest family and start shooting his/her projects (yeah i know it sounds crass, but i have seen it pay off for some). hope this helps and best of luck.

i think those stills are all powerful images... making something look pretty is easy-- and textbook as hell. being able to depict your subject as anything else is a mark of a truly talented photographer or cinematographer. the look seems well-suited for your one-line synopsis-- to me, the look evokes amatuer myspace non-camera flash portraiture, but with a sombering slant and a subtle (and assumingly conscious) use of light on the actors faces... though i hope the writing and acting is able to work with the imagery. i look forward to seeing the final.

somewhere in canada, there is an asphalt road that was paved with tax dollars and is driven over only once a month. discuss.

using color finesse in AE is quite primo... just not (anything remotely close to) realtime. if you know what you're doing, you'll love it.

for CRTs, it's much easier to keep the brightness higher if the color temp is higher.... and supposedly, consumers want TVs that can go really bright. thus, 9300K is the standard for consumer TVs-- even though the industry standard for production monitors for color grading is 6500K. yeah, i know, it makes no sense. so it's crucial to see your grade on a consumer TV. the biggest difference is that any blue in the shadows (especially noise in the blue channel) will be brighter, and yellows take a minor hit in perceptive saturation. and of course, on top of that, all consumer TVs are different because of varied manufacturers'/models' quality, and most of all, due to consumers' own picture settings. which explains why it's industry standard to set your monitor to 6500 and just pretend like all those other factors don't exist. but i feel it's better to have both in front of you and split the difference.

i only skimmed over the replies, so i apologize if this is redundant... if you're concerned about color grading for broadcast/dvd, then i would suggest you have the following four things: - an HD-res high quality LCD (just make certain that it's not a cheapy model-- those sometimes are only 6-bit and will display banding when there actually is not any in your footage/image) - a CRT production monitor, even if standard-def (ie. the sony pvm series) - a standard-def consumer CRT television that is at least a few years old... kinda the lowest common denominator reference for your color grade. consumer CRT TVs are usually set with a 9300 white point, which makes a considerable difference, and this is how your work is going to look 95% of the time for the next five years. - vectorscope, which most software already has

the frame with the polar bear is a great image. based off those stills, your exposures seem to be perfect for shooting for a color grade... which is a compliment. but i feel like now it really really needs a color grade-- even if it's just a matter of pulling the shoulder up a little in luminance... it would look really great. but regardless, the stuff looks really good.

in addition to the others' advice, i'd just say to try and shoot all your wides in the morning when the sun is a nice natural kicker/backlight (and work out some kind of bounced fill), and then use the late afternoon semi-horizontal sun to grab any more wide shots you might need. and maybe try and scout out the location ahead of time to plan for those wide shots. hope this helps.

i just skimmed the other responses, so i apologize if this is redundant... as long as your footage is properly lit and shot/"exposed", then the DV100 4:2:2 (aka. DVCPRO HD) will key just fine with any half-decent keying software/plugin. do your keying/matte extraction in HD and your downrez to SD is going to look very nice (the key will look better than keyed digibeta footage in my opinion-- the 4x pixels trump the qualitative advantages of digibeta). hope this helps and best of luck.

spot meter from the same angle as the camera lens... and obviously, the three factors involved are how well-illuminated the subject is, how dark the area behind the glass is, and how reflective the glass/material is. and also, use no pola.

richard, sorry for clumping you into that remark via the "of your ilk" thing. it's heinous of me to try and associate you with such an extreme ideology... though it was intended to be exaggerative for humor's sake. again, best of luck, and my sincere apologies.

isn't there a minimum amount of assets one must have before being welcomed to canada? i'm not rich like you, so i may not qualify. and not to flame, but you should really look through the nfb catalog... maybe the other two organizations aren't the same, but the "canadian experience" is clearly there. best of luck.

richard, the nfb is notorious for being partial to granting funds to projects that are canada-specific. just look through their catalog. also, i love how any project that isn't some slave-trader/apartheid/xenophobe apologist story featuring only white protagonists has somehow become unilaterally classified as "politically correct" by those of your ilk... "hey, there's a brown person in this with more than four lines who isn't a villian! what is this social welfare politically correct garbage?!"