Jump to content

Joseph White

Basic Member
  • Posts

    144
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Joseph White

  1. Really nice work overall - some great contrast, interesting shadowplay esp with the shadows on the dead girl in that overhead shot. Really good stuff. Nice variety as well.
  2. Posted this on another section, but figured I'd try it here as well - would love any feedback on content/layout/anything. www.josephwhitedp.com Best, Joe
  3. Hey everyone, been a long time since I've posted. Hope this finds you all well. I recently updated my cinematography website and would love some feedback/thoughts on anything - content/style/layout - everything! www.josephwhitedp.com Best, Joe
  4. I just finished two back-to-back movies on the ALEXA - one on SxS cards in Prores 4444 and one on HDCAM SR on a Sony deck, and both were shot 2.35:1 - images came out great, and even though we couldn't shoot anamorphic, the image quality was pretty astounding. Another factor is your locations and conditions - I've shot numerous things on REDs in hot, humid, or extremely cold environments and had problems - we were shooting all over the jungles in Singapore during monsoon season and we were never down. This might not be a huge consideration for you, but the ALEXA overall just seems so much more durable, if that's a concern.
  5. Thanks David! I haven't been able to find any Master Zooms in Barcelona - the Fujinon looks great too. Will explore!
  6. Hey everyone, prepping my second ALEXA feature "11-11-11" in Barcelona - can't wait to get there this weekend - but concerned since it looks like I'll be using Ultra Primes (for the first time!) and am wondering which is the best zoom lens out there in terms of matching (color/contrast). The director and I have done two other films together and he's done 3 other films beyond that, ALL on Panavision lenses (usually Primo primes and zooms) so have never had to think about this. On HD projects in the past that were non-Panavision I always used Cooke S4's and Angenieux Optimos and thought they blended fairly well - should I just use Optimos as well with the Ultras? My director is ZOOM CRAZY and always wants one at least on b-camera. Thoughts?? Cheers, Joseph White
  7. I graduated from the MFA program at USC in 2004 and shot tons of film there, both in classes and in the 14 or so thesis films I shot. I know that recently they have been selling a lot of their older 16mm cameras (Arri-s, a couple of Aaton LTRs) and that video has largely replaced film in actual classes - but USC only has about 3-4 cinematography classes TOTAL (frustrating to me when I went there as an aspiring DP) and I believe in the Advanced Cinematography class they still shoot 35mm. I know that for student thesis projects, however, students still shoot a LOT of film currently so while in the few cinematography (and directing) classes it's largely gone, lots and lots of students at USC still get to shoot film.
  8. Thanks so much for all of your advice everyone! Will let you know how it goes...meeting with the camera house today...
  9. Great looking stuff Charles - sorry I owe you and email - sweating away here in Singapore....
  10. Hey everyone, I'm prepping a micro-budget feature film right now in Singapore (first time in Asia - this is truly an amazing city!) that we begin shooting very shortly and we're still basically deciding between these two cameras. Budgetary constraints have basically dictated that if we want to shoot RED, we will shoot MX - which is great - but if we want to shoot Alexa, we have to shoot onto the SxS cards in Prores 4444. My question is this - I've had so many people tell me that unless you are doing something for television or web, you HAVE to shoot RAW. Problem is, we have SO little money that the difference in cost between the cards and the deck is a deal breaker. My main issue is that we are shooting during monsoon season in Singapore and we have TONS of day exterior work in all of the old canals, abandoned schools, along train tracks and will have few resources to really control much of what we get during these scenes. Director is super cool and doesn't want to shoot tons of coverage (I've been spoiled by someone who wants her film to resemble Days of Heaven, Red Desert, and George Washington haha) so I'm not super concerned about matching lots of shots within a scene with rapidly changing light, but since all of her visual references are fairly low-contrast, naturalistic images I need a camera with as much latitude as possible. So obviously this lead me to pursue the Alexa since it is purported to have a greater range, but the compromise is the capture format. Anyone have any thoughts on this? So little Alexa footage is out there now and most of the cinematographers I have polled haven't used it yet. Anyone here have any advice? I've shot several features on the RED ONE and several commercials and music videos on the MX and I'm slightly concerned about my highlights and the ultimate lack of control I'll have on set. Any and all feedback would be greatly appreciated - I'll post some images once we start filming as man these locations are unreal... Best, Joseph White
  11. is this aaton still for sale by any chance?
  12. saw the demo of this stock this past wednesday and was really impressed. there were three short films on a 35mm reel, all done with the provision from fuji that they could shoot whatever they wanted as long as they had a variety of different skin tones to show how the eterna vivid 500t responded to them. these films were made by Dion Beebe, Kramer Morgenthau, and Phedon Papamichael. all took a slightly different approach to the tests, but all definitely went after a series of extreme lighting conditions to showcase the stock's high contrast, deep saturation look (ie Papamichael shot some people dancing by bonfire with no additional sources, Beebe had some great night exteriors, Morgenthau had some theatrical lighting with some extreme ratios). all in all it's pretty excellent. they really took some risks with this stock - and the grain is pretty damn fine for a 500t stock, yet you still feel like you're looking at film. this is now a very strong contender for the film Mothers Day i'm prepping. the stock officially comes out in september. i guess if we use it, we might be one of the first features to do so...
  13. Anyone do this on a feature yet? Pros/cons? Debating it for my next movie I'm prepping up in Canada. Shooting 2-perf Super 35mm. Want something good looking for dailies that's convenient for everyone, in addition to FTP'ing everything. Anyone have any experiences to share?
  14. nice stuff overall - some nice composition and some nice lighting in the bar scenes. one thing i'd suggest is just avoiding repetition in the reel as a whole - once you've used a shot or scene, don't come back to it as it gives the impression that you're trying to bulk up the reel time-wise. it's totally OK if your first reels are really short - even if it's like 2 minutes - as people want to see variety.
  15. Sweeney Todd has an absolutely gorgeous transfer. I just got The Watchmen which I'm excited to see today. And, shameless plug, but Repo! The Genetic Opera, which I shot on Genesis for Lionsgate, cinematography aside, has an absolutely stunning transfer - Genesis to Blu-Ray is a beautiful thing. And since it made no money in theaters, it's a BARGAIN at amazon and your local mega store :)
  16. i've seen the penelope at abel cine tech in burbank, but we're getting our cameras from panavision toronto (we're shooting in winnipeg) and they don't have any or access to any in time for us. we're using a platinum, a gII, and a lightweight for steadicam use - all converted to 2-perf. they have one or two xl's converted, but they are already spoken for. what's their resistance? you use marginally less negative space than 3-perf, and you have to be careful about hairs in the gate and whatnot - but when everyone brings this up i always say - well gee, shouldn't you always worry about this? and as for re-framing ability, yeah it's nice i guess, but come on - do a good job in camera and you shouldn't need to, right? one of the reasons i'm drawn to this stock is apparently it's the finest grain 500 speed film available anywhere (according to fuji, of course). they are showing me the demo reel at deluxe next week - i'll report back after...
  17. Hey gang, long time no chat. I'm prepping a feature that's shooting 2-perf Super 35mm and we're looking into shooting the new Fuji Vivid 500t - I can't seem to find anything here already on it (just some discussions surrounding the 160t which is a little slow for our purposes). I like that they are pushing it as a higher contrast, deeper saturation stock - which would definitely fit our film (a remake of the Troma film "Mother's Day" being produced by Brett Ratner, Richard Saperstein, and being directed by Darren Lynn Bousman, who directed Saw II, III, IV as well as Repo! The Genetic Opera which I shot for him). I haven't shot much Fuji ever, except for a couple of music videos years back on the Reala 500d. We're still looking at 5219 and 5260, but I'm pretty stoked about this stock - anyone? Any thoughts?
  18. hey all, shot our first proper round of tests the other night on the genesis (with principal cast on some of our nicer sets) and started to map-out our on-set workflow. i really like the system of using LUTs, having so many options on set, yet still treating the camera like a film camera. i still rate it at 640 iso yet can imagine different film types in my imaginary magazine (we have a LUT that is sort of our 5218 setup, and a clean one, and a lower contrast one as well). we've landed on a very nice one that i think we'll use for the majority of the film - has a somewhat bleach-bypass look but with a little more saturation than normally associated with that process. we're using a lot of atmosphere (smoke, fog, haze, flames) which i normally stay far away from with HD but in our tests the stuff had SO much texture and was just lovely. plus our skip bleach look incorporates a bit of gain, but even when cranked up the Genesis renders it almost imperceptible and when we eventually do our filmout and DI, we'll have even more fun. bottom line is, for a young DP like me doing my first real studio movie, having amazing looking dailies is the only way i'll be able to sleep at night - and with our customized LUTs and awesome post workflow offered by Deluxe in toronto, i think i might even be able to keep my job! we go to camera on monday and after seeing our tests and showing it to some of the producers, i'm a lot more confident. every time my gaffer and i walk around these huge sets we're pretty thankful to have the genesis even over the arri d20 - i cant imagine lighting this movie rating a camera at 160/200 iso as we're maxing out our package everywhere just to chase down 640. more soon as we get going, joe
  19. i think a lot of it depends on what format you're shooting and how much light you'll need. i did a similar thing on a video a couple of years ago for a sony artist named "sara overall". we shot super 35mm on 5229 pushed one stop and rated at 800 asa. you can check out the video on my website www.josephwhitedp.com - the song is "individual". we used a truss for the stage lighting, but when the singer is wandering around the woods, we were on steadicam and i had my gaffer walk alongside flanking the operator holding a single HMI Sungun (i forget what wattage - it was battery powered though so i think it was a 400) and we had plenty and got what i thought was a lovely falloff (helped in part by the stop push). these lights are fairly inexpensive and available from most vendors - we never shot wide open either - i think at about 8 feet away we were shooting at a 2.8 on cooke s4's. hope this was helpful - happy shooting! -joe
  20. well by virtue of the fact that the 100d is a reversal film (historically with a much smaller latitude) and the 200t is not only a negative stock but a vision2 stock (kodak's line with increased latitude even for a negative stock - definitely less snappy than the older 74), i'm not surprised that you're finding the 200t a more utilitarian stock to shoot. in terms of not correcting for daylight, ive used the 17 outside with and without filtration and definitely found that using an 85 gave me a much more naturalistic feel, but you might like the look of just correcting it in the transfer better - it's pretty subjective. a lot of post houses have told me that they really don't require us to use color correction filters as they can do everything, but unless i'm going for a cooler, more washed-out sheen, i generally just use the 85 and call it a day. i shot a movie, albeit on 35mm, with the 17 and found that i could go pretty hot in my highlights and have plenty of information, where there have been times shooting the 85 or older velvia and have found that things 2 stops over are just GONE. anyhow, post some stills if you get the chance. the 100d looks AMAZING cross-processed, its fun if you haven't messed around with it yet. and thats the best thing about super 8 - its cheap so messing around won't break the bank! best, joe
  21. hey all, haven't posted in a while and this might be the wrong section for this, but i'm entering my 4th week of prep as dp on the lionsgate/twisted pictures sci-fi rock opera "repo! the genetic opera". we're shooting on the panavision genesis system (2 of them for the run of the show from panavision toronto) and i'm getting really excited as we go to camera on september 10th for 7 weeks. we landed on the genesis after going back and forth between panavision and clairmont with the arriflex d20, but in the end the camera's fast iso rating and panavision's competitive pricing led us to the genesis and i couldn't be happier. it's a dark, horror/sci-fi comic book-esque rock opera with some amazing music and equally amazing sets (whole film is being shot under one roof here in toronto - production designer david hackl is doing some amazing work with the post-apocalyptic world he's been tasked to create). anyhow, i haven't seen a lot of action on the genesis board so i figured i'd post something and i'll drop some diary entries while shooting. excited to be on the genesis seeing as how this is a pretty dark and noir-esque show - thankfully no day exteriors for HD to have its way with! best wishes to all and wish me luck! -joe white
  22. i'm pretty sure Panavision Dallas has super 16mm cameras - and they're REALLY cool people, too. their contact info is likely at www.panavision.com
  23. yeah, even with di's getting cheaper, its still an expensive process regardless. i shot a super 16mm feature last december that has a small theatrical run slated for this fall and while we saved money on raw stock and processing, having to do a DI is costing a lot and almost made the two different formats side-by-side (super 16mm to 35mm versus shooting 35mm to finish 35mm) cost almost the same. its still definitely more to do 35mm, but not as much as it once was - seeing as how virtually nobody who shoots a film on 16mm does an optical blowup anymore. super 16mm is a great format for independents and low-budget indies alike. and there are houses that will do a DI for well under $100k now - especially if you aren't doing tons of crazy effects and what not. i'm prepping a super 35mm feature now shooting 3-perf and doing a DI at IO in hollywood and the deal we're getting is insane - mostly because its a comedy and we're not doing lots of windows/tracking and extensive color work (i hope :). if youre doing a direct-to-video movie, super 16mm is a great idea. also still popular for some tv movies as well. newer film stocks look great on 16mm (especially 7201 and 7217 - really fine grain and lots of detail), and if its only ever going to be on small-screen, you can get some really lovely stuff and save a lot of money.
  24. love cooke s4's for anything small screen, love older e series panavision anamorphic lenses for anything scope. also love the clairmont anamorphic primes as they're soft and fall apart easily, but in lovely ways :) i use 1.3 zeiss superspeeds A LOT as they're cheap and snappy and look great for close-ups if using the 85mm. love that lens. cooke speed panchros are really fun and soft and gauzy. i find i use even less diffusion on my lamps when using cookes because i know there's an inherent beautiful softness with the lenses themselves. my favorite zooms are the 10:1 super panazoom anamorphic lens (50-500) - the thing looks like a piece of military equipment but i used it on a shoot in chicago and man the images were just gorgeous. for spherical, you simply cannot beat the angenieux optimo zooms, i've used the 17-80 and the 24-290 and they are both amazing (and huge, especially the latter) lenses. hope this helps :)
  25. laser pacific has great low student rates and good colorists too. at the end of the day, you get what you pay for. they also process film too and are usually inclined to give you an even better deal if you are doing all of your lab work there. talk to denise angelo there - she's great. fotokem is hands-down the best for 16mm processing in los angeles, though, i think. ive used them for a number of super 16mm music videos and for a super 16mm feature i shot last december and they did excellent work.
×
×
  • Create New...