Bradley Credit

A lot! Every page of the script involves dialogue.

Hey everyone, This might be a bit of an amateurish question, but it's something I'm trying to figure out. I've shot 16mm pretty often with my Krasnogorsk-3, but obviously only using 100' rolls. The one time I've shot with an SR2 we used about 3 rolls for a 5 minute long project, however it was a shoot made up primarily of B-roll type shots and saw us frequently shooting at 48 and 60fps. I'm prepping a narrative short film which will probably run about 15 minutes and I'm trying to gauge our costs for buying and developing. We'll be shooting the entirety of this film at 24fps and with a mix of traditional coverage and a few longer takes. How many rolls of Kodak 7222 16mm film would be safe to get? Thanks!

Hello all, I have a music video coming up where we plan to shoot outside in a wooded area, and we want to get the affect of fog blowing through the background. Our budget is tight and crew is small so we can't get anything too expensive or heavy to lug around. I was wondering if you all might have some recommendations for fog machines that are relatively affordable to rent, as well as any tips you might have for making the most of the effect! I use haze machines often however only on interior shoots so this will be my first time trying to create atmosphere in an exterior so any advice will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Interesting! I think this may be the article here. Definitely an intriguing creative choice to experiment with.

This was a GREAT read, AJ. Thank you so much for sharing.

I feel a lot of this was achieved in the grade but definitely think he'd have had to shoot for it on the day. Camera was Alexa Mini.

Cinematographer Isiah Donte Lee shot this commercial and I loved how down the levels are. I reached out to a friend to ask how to achieve this sort of look, and in addition to knocking down a lot of level outside and choosing the right time of day, he mentioned that the DP rated the camera at 2500 ISO and did what is called "dynamic range remapping". I've looked online but haven't found any resources explaining what this is, so I was curious to see if anyone here has some answers and resources to point me towards for more information to deep dive into?

What are some circumstances where you would need Raw?

Yessir!

So I’ve been shooting on the BMPCC 4K for the last couple months, my first proper cinema camera that I’ve owned. Each project I’ve shot with Blackmagic’s RAW setting which obviously means massive file sizes. I’m planning on playing with ProRes 422 to test on some shoots but was wondering: how much of a difference is there really between the two? I understand that RAW gives you more ability with things like highlight recovery, changing color temps and ISO in post, etc. But assuming you’re exposing correctly on the day and intentionally shooting with a particular WB, how big of a difference does it really make? ProRes would likely make for an easier post workflow due to file sizes, but I’m curious to hear your thoughts.

Big thanks for this! I’m looking to get a similarly sized source to the one pictured.

Also, do you think a similarly desired effect could be achieved with a Kino Freestyle 31, or a Litepanel Gemini 2x1?

Thanks for this! 2 meters might not be long enough as I do want a shot orbiting around the artist as he performs. I’ll look into those other 2 lights you suggested though.

Thanks for this AJ! I do have choice of location to an extent but with the budget as tight as it is we’ve essentially locked in on the space that was in the treatment. I’m not deadset on the Skypanel, so I’ll definitely look into the sputniks. Would one still be powerful enough to punch through a layer of diffusion so the source is relatively soft?

Hey everyone. For the first time so far in my career I’ve got the opportunity to DP something with some budget. It’s still a comparatively low budget music video but it does give me some room to be a bit more ambitious. I want to do a top light that can change color throughout the take (want to be able to cycle through colors on a wireless DMX board). The idea I have is similar to the picture below, and I’m thinking of doing a Skypanel S30 on a Menace Arm, but have also thought of a Litemat due to the Skypanel’s weight. The light would also have a grid and duvateen so that it’s a single shaft of light and doesn’t spill into the background (which would be completely dark). Am I on the right track to achieving this, or what are your suggestions as far as to how I can pull this look off?

Thank you! Will try this out soon

Hey everyone, been poking around on Shotdeck lately. I came across these stills from Bradford Young's gorgeous work on Mother of George and was wondering how to get a similar color effect? I've seen this coolish grey look on dark black skin a few times recently and thinks it accents that skin tone beautifully. Is the key to this using a soft daylight-balanced source and setting the camera's white balance to something around like 4300K?

Been wanting to sign up for this but I’m not full time yet or with a school so I haven’t been sure if I qualify for the beta. Unless anyone can sign up for the beta lol

Hey everyone, Was wondering if anyone knows of places to find high-quality stills from TV commercials and music videos to use as references? I frequent Filmgrab often for stills from films but was wondering if there are places for short format films to source references from.

Hey everyone, hope you're all healthy and staying safe. I had a question regarding exposing different skin tones properly, specifically when using false color. The general understanding I've come to after some research is that 1 stop over middle grey is generally proper exposure for caucasian skin. However, on the grey scale, how does this play over to other skin tones, such as more "olive" skin tones or black skin tones? I'm trying to pay more detailed attention to the data that my camera provides regarding my light levels to make sure I'm getting the most out of the dynamic range rather than just using my eyes. I often shoot actors of color and want to make sure that I'm not underexposing them while also avoiding the reflective nature of darker skin tones. Being an African American male myself with a brown and slightly reddish complexion, I've beforehand based my exposure just off of how it appears through the monitor to me while considering how I think black skin looks best on camera. However, as I utilize false color more and more in judging my exposure, I want to know what a safe area on the grey scale is for darker skin tones. Additionally, if there are extra tricks some of you may use. For example, I read somewhere that the DP for HBO's "Insecure" Ava Berkofsky uses a polarizing filter when lighting black skin tones. Interested to hear your insights!

Hey everyone, hope y'all are doing well and staying healthy. I had a question regarding shutter angles. I've recently upgraded to a BMPCC 4K after shooting on Sony's A6000 mirrorless DSLR. This is my first cinema camera (even though it's not quite an Arri or RED) in the sense that many of the settings on the camera are similar to what one would find on a professional cinema camera. One of those settings in particular, is shutter angles. Coming over from a DSLR, I've been used to shutter speeds and choosing which ones to shoot at in accordance with the frame rate I was shooting at (i.e. 24fps at 1/50, 60fps at 1/125). How does that translate over to shutter angle when shooting at higher frame rates such as 48fps, 60fps, 90fps, and 120fps? I've been shooting a lot of music videos lately which often requires me to shoot for slow motion, but obviously I still want a realistic amount of motion blur when the footage is slowed down in post. I know the general rule of thumb, particularly when shooting at 23.98fps of 24fps is to keep the shutter angle at either 172.8 degrees or 180 degrees. But how does that change as a push to higher frame rates?

The spreadsheet suggestion and especially looking up unknown filmmakers at small festivals is great advice! Definitely a fan of talking more about life than work as well. I'd rather work with people I actually get along with rather than it feeling super transactional. I think everyone creates better stuff that way.

Thanks for the welcome and the feedback Tyler! I've definitely been keeping an eye on gigs and going after them, Facebook can be a nightmare though if you're not on it in a heartbeat. I'm still constantly shooting though, how would you suggest going about finding grad film students?

Thanks for this Mike! I recently shot a short film for a freshman director at NYU, which was his first film. Went pretty well and I'm hoping to be able to work with him more as he grows, but I definitely want to find more directors that are further along their schooling (and hopefully closer to my age). That's really encouraging to hear about how your relationships with directors were born! There's definitely a couple directors I've connected with that I hope to work and grow with. Just a matter of continuing to push on and meet more (especially when this pandemic is behind us).