Ken Minehan

Hi matt. Your pics look very impressive. How did you find working with the M2 adapter. I noticed that when i shoot with your setup, the adpater and lens eats so much light and the blacks will become grainy. Was focus an issue for you? Did you have to adjust the ground glass at all? Do you have the hardmount? Which lens mount did you use? Sorry to bombard you with so many questions. I'm just want to find out more on the m2 adapter from users. cheers Ken Minehan

Hi guys, great thread, very interesting. I read the PDF link and i was wandering, after setting up 80 cameras for example, how do they get the framing right for each camera so when strung together in a sequence, it flows smoothly? Or is alot of that readjusting done in post? How do they activate all the cameras shutter simultaneously? thanks Ken Minehan

Hello guys do you know of any online articles or reading material that talks about the DI process. I was a little confused when the article was talking about 6k and 8k scanning thanks ken minehan

Just use the projector. For the CUs you can use a poly to bounce some fill back in to the shadows. You fill find that the light from the projector is quite strong. regards ken

Ok thanks Jan. When i say softer focus i mean for the whole movie. It's not out of focus but it seems to have a softer feel. Which lenses do you think give you the sharpest image. I dont mean a video lens kind of sharpness, but the kind where you see all the lines and wrinkles on an old mans face for example. Thanks ken Minehan

Hi Guys, I had a question about focus. Sometimes i see TV commercials that has the subject very sharp in focus where as some other commercials and films are in focus yet softer. I have read in other threads that contrast in lighting gives you a sharper looking image? However I have seen beauty commercials that are very evenly lit yet seem extremely sharp. How does film stock play a role in giving you a sharper image? How about lenses. Which lens can give you a very sharp image? Thanks Ken Minehan

ok. So if i was to use tungsten stock, what filter would i use to turn it to white light? what about daylight stock? regards ken Minehan

If you use the fluorescents for the source of your light wouldn't you get a greenish tinge. How would you correct this when the entire buildings lighting is fluorescent. I can understand correcting the lights you use for the main talent, but the overall fill? Thanks Ken MInehan

hi guys. When you shoot 50p (PAL version) on the HVX200, do you set your shutter speed on 1/100? Ken Minehan

OK thanks guys for your answers. Would i be right in assuming that the bounced source or hair light is coming from several angles ie, from above, and left and right of talent? I remember an earlier thread talking about a strobe light? How does that work? How much post work is involved in hair lighting do you think. I remember a colourist back in Australia telling me that a lot of extra shines and shimmers are added in TC. Is that right? Ken Minehan

I've been watching some shampoo commercials recently. I am wondering how yuou get that very shiny almost silvery shine on the hair. I have shot Hair commerials before but the hair light i create doesn't seem as shiny. I have been reading other threads on this topic, but i'm still quite baffled as to how to get that kind of shine. So far i have always used HMI lights diffused on to the hair or sometimes bounced. Are there any other kinds of light that is used for this kind of shoot. Please see the link below for an example of the kind of hair lighting i'm talking about. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlIl-EZ6NVA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ok8FUeS__A regards Ken Minehan

My favorites: Sir Anthony Hopkins- "the fastest Indian" Kevin Spacey- "Usual Suspects" Edward Norton- "Primal Fear", "American History X" Billy Bob Thornton- "Sling Blade" Andy Lau- "Infernal Affairs" Tony Leong- "Infernal Affairs" Helen Mirren- "The Queen" Kirk Douglas- "Spartacus" This is what i can think of for now. There are so so so many more. Ken Minehan

Hi Jesus. Great site. Would love to see more entries as they come up. Please check out my site My Webpage its a behind the scenes look at some shoots i've done. Ken

Mr. Boddington, you make a very good point. It makes perfect sense to me. I think the problem every indie project runs in to is the lack of money for marketing. Yes $250,000 is more than enough to make an indie film provided that it is simple enough (not too much special effects, no highly paid actors, etc). But i think many great indie films made out there think of marketing the film after the film is complete, where as it should be thought of and budgeted in the pre production. I am learning more and more on the business side of film making now days as my girl friend works for UIP. She does the marketing for Universal, Paramount and Dreamworks. I started learning how hard it really is for Indie film makers to make money. eg: You put in $500,000 in to the film. The distributors in Singapore (where i'm from) will take a percentage of Box office takings (15%-25%). This is just the fee for marketing. The marketing budget will be paid for by film maker. Then the cinema will take 50% of box office takings. Now here in Singapore theres roughly 1 million regular movie goers. And the movie may only run for 2 weeks. the cinema will give you a 3rd week if it's doing very well in box office. So it's very hard for local film makers to make it in the film industry here. However, with that been said, if we can see the movie in Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia, we're laughing. Now the example i gave you is for Singapore. I'm not sure how it is in the rest of the world. I would love to here about how it is on the US, UK etc etc. Now going back to what I was saying earlier. I am all for the scenario given by Mr. Boddington. Hope it happens one day. A question for Mr. Nielson, You mean there is technology to sharpen an image in post now?? i know that you an do a bit of sharpening in TC, but it wont make an out of focus shot in focus. But still cheaper to reshoot right? regards Ken Minehan

The Oconnor head is one of the best heads i've used. I love it. Just wish i can afford one. How much is he selling it to you for? regards Ken

Mr Graff. Thank you very much for the explanation. It was very easy to understand. Once again thank you. regards Ken Minehan

Ok, thanks for the reply. It is still a little hard to grasp, but i kind of think i know what you mean. Kind of. As for shooting Green Screen with the HVX200, you wont have any trouble at all. I have done several green shoots with this camera and all have turned out fine. Regards and thanks Ken Minehan

Mr. Mullen Can you help explain how you get 4:4:4 from footage shot at 4:2:2 DVCPro HD? I didn't quite understand. Thanks Ken Minehan

Ok, thank you for the links. Regards Ken Minehan

Hello guys, i was just doing some random reading online with regards cooke s4 lenses. Then i came across this thing called Lens data System. I had never heard of this before. So i did some reading on this. It says that it shows you all the essential information like the focus, iris, zoom, DOF, hyperfocal distance, FPS, shutter, battery voltage, footage, film reserve and take length etc. From what i understand, does it make focus pulling easier? In Critical focus situations, can you check to make sure that the actor was within the depth of field? It would be great to hear from other guys who have used this system before. regards Ken MInehan

thank you very much for your prompt reply. Another question: When you say 50Mbps, that means the rate at which the information is been received in to camera or recorded? Whats the compression ratio. Sorry if I seem amature but i want to learn and understand this once and for all. Thanks alot. Ken Minehan

What is the difference between the DVCPro and DVCPro 50 setting. Thanks Ken Minehan

This is a great thread. I also want to learn more about lenses, and hear what other DOPs have to say from their experience. I'm always using carl zeiss Ultra Primes, Arri lenses, Digi primes, Angenieux. Many of the other brand are not that widely used here in Singapore. I have never shot with a panavision camera before. Was wandering what makes the Panavision Primo so good. This seems to be a common sentiment amongst many DOPs. Ken Minehan

hi Cole, let me just say the set looks great. According to the photos you had a pretty small crew? Also, You said at times you were shooting 120fps and at 45 degrees. Did you have enough light? What f stop were you working on? That cam looks damn heavy man. Was recently helping a DP friend the other day. he needed an assistant, so i thought sure i'll help you. The he turned up with the varicam, 10x10 lens, and on board monitor. I thought that was heavy, but nothing like yours. would love to see what you shot. Oh i just realised you shot on 500t. Should be enough light. regards Ken Minehan

Is the filter thats creates this kind of flare called the 2 point star filter? And does the light always flare horizontally. The examples photos showed previously on this thread was really very nice. I want to experiment with this filter now. Thanks for posting this up. cheers Ken Minehan