Sam Javor

Thanks for the replys! Most likely I will be applying the gels as: 1. I live at the house we're shooting at 2. I'm the only technically oriented person of the bunch :) The sheet of acrylic would be best but I doubt I could get one in time on what remains of my "budget" ($500 remaining)...and still have to build the camera pedistal. The windows are small bathroom windows that will be directly behind the actor. The window faces south, so though the sun will be pouring in the enviroment outside will be backlit. We hoped to actually shoot at night to avoid this but the scheduling can't work out.

..and they're basically held in place with water/soap and a little scotch tape right?

As a newbie the internet has been invaluable is a technical manual and communication device. The most valuable thing as far as networking goes was a video art course at my community college last summer. The Prof. referred me to two writers and we started our own little group (start shooting our first feature Jan 8th) and many of the actors we are useing are in their video art course... we did get some people that are great by casting call posts on indieclub.com but we've met a lot of weirdos too. We have decided to not accept anymore people who we don't know personally, or don't have references we know personally. example: We would post "Need crew for non paid feature DV production" we get replys: "Suchandsuch Productions wants to team up...we're a film company, etc." Suchandsuch Productions turns out to be a shady group who's "good" DV camera is in the shop The "Good" DV camera turns out to be a 1ccd consumer retailing for about $300 Suchandsuch productions then wants total production control and directorial credit. We reply that they are insaine we get another guy "Highly experienced DP wants to take a look at your script" We ask for footage Highly experience DP has no footage Highly experienced DP asks for $300 a day and "has access to" a DVX100 We say "umm no" Highly experienced DP then says we're not dedicated to the project if we don't want to pay him. We accidently send an email calling him a pompus a**ho** etc, etc, etc However if I need a technical question answered the internet is the place to go...expecially this forum. :)

I have one quick dilemma with sunlight though windows. Obviously I don't want the halo of light to blank out everything near it so I assume I would set the iris to the window and then add light to the room. However is there a way to dim the light coming though the window? (besides closing the curtains :) ) The out side would be viewable so I don't think a curtain out side to produce a shadow would work. Just something to apply to the glass itself that is realitivly see through.

IP=Intellectual Property One question I don't know :) Whats the real datarate of uncompressed HD?

I guess I might as well reply to this... I am finishing preproduction on my first feature and I've only done a couple shorts. The best thing is that I have a good production group to work with, nobody really cares about titles and there is no "this is my film" mentality. Infact I was directing until one of the others was told by a professor that they need a directorial credit to enter their intened graduate program so volia they are now directing and I am DPing and we have the same picture as we three are all "producers" .. it's mostly the creative idea of the writers anyway and I just make it happen. Our production budget is about $2500 :) My hopes: Things are running smoothly (mostly) and this is a large production ...about 30 speaking roles and 18 locations so we should achieve some local noteriety out of it if completed successfully. Auditions went well last month and most roles are filled. My Fears: I am the technical guy... choice of crew and equipment is my "duty" and we've already run into some weird local production "talent" . I am ghetto rigging a system together which will do the job and be impressive but there are a number of people running around ohio with 1CCD cameras calling themselves "film companies" which is a joke... Also the "fix it in post" mentality is firmly entrenched with these people. On such company that came higly recommended actually suggested useing the sound off of the built in camera mic of their 1CCD camera...and said "We've always gotten good sound"... I about died... My expectations: problems pop up and there are delays. We are scheduling shooting over 6 months so we should not be pressed for time. Most locations that havn't been secured yet are not critical in that they can be shot at a different but similar location. The entire crew will have to be trained and sessions will be scheduled with actor rehersals. Crew will be around 6-10 people... some are the cast in small roles. We expect to start production in December and be finished in June. I also expect the nervous breakdown from the emotional release in June to last a week... where I will just lock myself in my audio studio and cry :)

Actually, I'd have to disagree with the worst looking broadcast video... I think the talkshow "Jane" gets that... :) ...heaven forbid a guest wears red lipstick...they end up looking like a deranged clown... wouldn't the quality be lost by broadcasing 4:1:1 through satallite? I not too familiar with how that works though...I think I remember an article somewhere about how C-band can mangle 4:1:1

The tape will play the first five minutes on every deck and then go to bluescreen on every deck. We know it was shot because it was watched the day prior (I wasn't there). Next moringing she took it to school to dump off the camera to a G4 to edit, plays for 5 minutes and bluescreens, she gets a loaner camera from the school and it does the same thing, and did so with a few other cameras. Until she said it was watched all the way through I was assuming that the tape went though a temperature change while recording causing it to go off track after 5 minutes of being played at room temp... or got moisture in the tape. If she recorded over it, it would go to a blackscreen (ie lens cap) I'm not sure of the fate of the camera but she now is useing a loaner from the school...the origional camera was hers though.

I feel like a thread hijacker :/ The problem manifested on the deck used to record it. It played fine the night before and the next day played for five minutes and then went to a blue screen and has done so sence for that tape on every deck it's been put in. She found a work around with other footage but it was for a school project due monday :) Ok... right now to keep my budget around $1000 I'm looking at a camera studio adapter with 32pin CCU out ($350) , a 32pin to 3x BNC cable ($160 for 50 foot but I probably don't want it that long), and the x3 BNC to firewire converter ($150 DAC-2 or better). Is it making better sense or still screwy?

I guess it's a matter of tracking down a studio adapter then... I'm not touching miniDV as I've watched my classmates suffer horrendus "accidents" with the format... no dropouts my ass :) the writer I'm working with just lost an hours worth of footage last weekend and I know a number of people with similar experiences.

$#@&! your right... better to find out now :) hmm... so whats your opinion on MII? specifically the panasonic AU400 deck? as thats my other economical option and then saving up for a good component video converter like a Promax DA-MAX and VCR in the next 6 months...or save up to rent a really good one for a day... :)

basically what I'm going to be doing is useing a panasonic M-II camera (1/2" 3chip 750 lines)... like an SP camera... but runing the BNC "monitor out" into an analog to firewire converter like a DAC-10 and then into a G4 laptop... so we should end up with uncompressed digital video... the only probablm is the bulk of junk to haul around :)

Currently I'd be more worried about consumer HDTV and LCD TV's having up to a 30ms slower pixel response rate from CRT monitors... you think it looks like mud on film... plus even God doesn't know what color temp they run the things at.... Gateway's are factory set to "HIGH"... and will burn-in within 30 seconds.

My "I don't have any more money to spend" solution was to rackmount my PC and use that in conjunction with my Aardvark Q10 sound card. 8 channels at 24bit 96khz which is an awful lot better than DAT. Nagra is analog and has those benifits... but the Q10 has some of the best solid state preamps... I can buy tube preamps if I get the money and it's 8 channels (4 with phanton power) and has SP/DIF in/out with timecode in/out etc, etc, etc. MOTU makes 24bit 192khz stuff which I've heard a lot of analog freaks say is getting really really close to converting them. The primary downside is that it doesn't run off batteries :)

I think it was the panasonic AJ900 that looked pretty nifty...only $65,000 Hopefully you notice the sarcasm..but this is a guy who still uses an analog camera because I'm a loser, poor, and like it :) Be sure you don't buy anything before you get a good pespective of what actually is high end. But to answer your question more directly... I would suggest skipping miniDV altogether and get either a DVCAM or a DVCPRO (D7) camera...provided it's dockable or has SDI or atleast BNC outs and interchangeable lenses and 1/2" 3CCD.

also maybe those people who say that assume you have a properly (or close enough) calibrated monitor... especially for video type stuff. I have a close enough monitor and don't meter anything... I just make it look how I want it to on the monitor and trust that it will transferr to TV reasonably well.... which it does. Should I trust what I see ot what some gizmo tells me? Sure you could do this with film but the tech developing it will want to kill you... Same thing is with audio (which is where I'm coming from) Mixing studios are so different from listening enviroments. I've heard better mixes come out of garages than million dollar studios because the engineer understands what he hears and how it relates to what the consumer will usually listen to it on.

Be sure that you can get away from your equipment if there is a problem. Atleast take a pocket knife. Neal Fredericks (best known for his work on The Blair Witch Project) died reciently during an ariel shoot. "Dear Friends, It is with great regret and remorse that I must inform you of the loss of a talented cinematographer, a caring friend, and a compassionate man ­ Mr. Neal L. Fredericks. Neal was onboard a small plane with his film crew on Saturday for an aerial shoot for his current project. The plane crashed into the ocean near Key West, Florida and sank. All members of his film crew managed to escape, except Neal, who was tightly strapped to his camera and to the plane during the shoot and sunk with the remains of the plane. Those of us who had the opportunity to know and work with Neal all know that he was an exceptional human being........"

thanks! I think I'll just avoid it :)

I came accross a DVCPRO deck with maybe blown maybe dirty heads for about $200 but I can't find any information on replacing heads and how much they cost. are all DVCPRO heads the same (within the DVCPRO25 catagory)? Can I replace the heads and not the drum? ...are they the same thing? :)

I'm working with a couple of writers on a long short (50-70min) and in the dilema of being poor we also want this to be somewhat marketable after we finish in about a year. Right now it looks like strait 30i video is our only option... but I was thinking about useing a cheap 16mm camera develop the film and have it scanned in at a very high resolution and then add audio etc. I have a history of doing all audio in post with SONAR. So... if I get like a Bolex H16 or REX 4 and record an audio scratch track on a seperate recorder. then have the silent film developed and scanned into computer at a high resolution like atleast 3000dpi and then use an editing software that support high resolution 24p like FCP and import all the frames and do editing/retouching etc. Then manually sync audio to that (which I've done to 30i AVI footage before in SONAR) and then export it for primarially DVD and VHS distribution.... I should end up with a highresolution master DV footage on the hard disk which if I get the $20k I could then "feel good" about transferring to 35mm if necessary right? Is this something that would only be tedious and time consuming while yeilding a good "generally" product or would God himself come down and confine me to hell for thinking of such a thing? I assume real productions go though a similar process otherwise there'd be no use for things like cinepaint.

I'm new to this forum (and generally video itself) and don't know your prior experience but just want to make sure that you know you need to white balance almost all the time when shooting ouside. Basically an elcheapo white card is a piece of blank printer paper held infront of the lens in the light as a reference for the white balance... that should correct over redening... unless it's smear. Basically red is a cooler light so you would get it under low watt bulbs and shooting in the afternoon and not rewhite balancing (the sun sets and changes color temperature)... it doesn't take much for it to get off.

...those tapes don't disintegrate on touch... I've ran them though airport xray machines and metal detectors without problems... just don't view it 100 times before you transferr to hard disk...or leave it on a magnet overnight :) I would transferr it to disk, edit, and use he resulting file as the masterthen you can reexport it out as tape or DVD with no repetitive quality loss...otherwise what would you do if your master miniDV tape wore out, was set on a magnet, got wet, was eaten by the deck, etc?

I'm a new video student (I can say that now that my college is offering 1 video art class :unsure: ) who happened to reciently temp as a technician for a very short while at an HDTV warranty repair center and I was curious as to the reliability of the cameras themselves as the TV's are horrific. (It's my understand the lawsuits between retailers and manufacturers has already begun) Currently HDTV's (actually many flatscreen TV's) supposedly last three years and suffer mainly from overheating and damage due to fragility and dust... and poor OEM parts. Do the cameras also suffer from a short lifespan? (and I not including becoming outdated :) ) What tends to break on them? peace sam zekthedeadcow@hotmail.com