Michael LaVoie

The question on my mind is not so much "What else could I do?" but rather "Where else could I do this?" I don't know about you all but I'm starting to feel a little paranoid about our crumbling economy. When congress starts discussing martial law, you know the poop's hit the fan.

Looks interesting. I think the media player you're using might be squishing it a bit though. Faces look a little bit squished horizontally. Compression might also have milked the blacks a bit. The night interior footage may be a bit oversaturated. The light on some shots almost has a redish hue that looks like sodium vapor streetlight. I like the outdoor cinematography and the titles and music is great. I'm not sure I get the story completely though. Not yet. But I'm curious and that's good.

Brians advice really depends on where you're located. And whether you have easy access to renting whatever gear is required and whether there really are qualified freelancers around to hire. Assuming that it's a yes to all of that, I have to agree with Brian that you should build a client base first and foremost and pour all energy into that. Sales professionals are really the best tool to a start up company. However, I may be stating the obvious and if you're already set up with that and you really don't have rental options or trustworthy crew nearby, I'd purchase a midlevel camera like the HVX200. It will afford you the option to buy lighting as well. I'd start off with some used HMI's and used grip & electric gear. Hunt around on Ebay. Used HMI's and Kino-flos are better to have on hand than brand new tungsten. You'll have the option to shoot day for day which is cost prohibitive for the average startup.

I was considering a new Mac system. It's my hope to begin authoring blu-ray versions of my reel and movies and getting more familiar with Adobe's Encore program. Mac is still a little behind in this area. They don't seem very interested in hard media at all and they may just skip the whole Blu-ray thing entirely. No one knows for sure. For less then the cost of a Macbook Pro I could get an Alienware laptop with kick ass internals and a bluray drive and have the ability to cut 1080P and output 1080p BluRay disks. Premiere Pro CS3 is also a lot friendlier with .mxf files. Something to consider. Alienware is a company dedicated to building systems for gamers. Gamers have the need for a lot of horsepower but the market isn't exactly big spenders. They're mostly targeted for teens. So you can get serious hardware at a decent price

I can't give away the ending but I do think it's an uplifting film. I am really happy to have been a part of it. As the director Todd said, "It's a film for anyone who's ever had a dream". I think it's universal among those in the visual or performing arts. We are torn between real world responsibilities and the obligations we have to our own artistic impulses.

There's an art to this. It's got to be subtle. I've never "taken over" but I have offered up opinions on things more than I normally would when I've worked with people with less experience. But it's a delicate balance of offering solutions and allowing directors to make decisions based on your choices. Telling a director where the camera should go is the same as when a director gives an actor a line reading. It's lazy and or a desperate last ditch effort when all other communication has failed. Always try and make it seem like the director has made a decision. It can be a collaboration but the director always has the final word on it.

Just wrapped up a feature in July. The director finished his final cut and has uploaded a trailer. You can see the preview here: http://www.drawingchalkpictures.com/previews.html

Whatever grain you may have picked up from the underexposure can be taken out later. There's a plugin called Neat Video which is phenomenal and will eliminate all grain with no artifacting. Check it out. Also, if you want to lift the shots a stop or 2 in post, Magic Bullet's Post Contrast plugin will allow you to pull the blacks back down and restore contrast to the image. I now go into night shoots with these two tools in mind because with a 35mm adaptor you're often at a ridiculous ASA without enough lights and not enough crew so any tricks in post can really give you freedom to get those wide shots without fear. Here's a few stills from my last feature to show you before and after: Before- After: The stills are too small to really see it well but my point is that there's way more detail being captured than what you can see on a smaller monitor and you'll be surprised how much will show up when you raise the brightness later. But the key is to degrain and pull the blacks back down.

If any of you have ever done an ebay search under "HMI" you have no doubt seen listings for 1200HMI pars brand new with electronic ballasts going for about $3200. You will also see 2500's 575's and an assortment of tungsten units. They all are painted to look like ARRI units but of course they're not. Has anyone actually tried any of these lights? The ebay store is called Seven.Studio

You've gotten some great advice already and I know you're probably overwhelmed but there's one more thing to keep in mind, even if you were shooting on 35mm, without a mattebox and filters you're not going to understand how to control the image you're taking in through the lens. This is critical. It's going to be tough to do with a bolex 16 or super 8 camera cause you'll be hard pressed to find matteboxes for those. Without a mattebox and filters you'll be at the mercy of shooting the ASA of the film stock and you won't be able to keep your iris open and practice shooting at the 1.4-2.8 F stop range which is where you want to set your iris 90% of the time while shooting a film. Whatever camera you do eventually get you want to make sure that those two functions of focus and exposure are fully manual and you also want to try and set some money aside for the mattebox and a small assortment of Neutral Density filters. These will help you cut the amount of light coming in through the lens and therefore you won't have to close down your iris to F16 while shooting outside. Keeping things in the T2 range will ensure you selective focus and your images will take on that cinematic look. But again, it will be extremely tough to do this without filters. A really good tripod is also essential for smooth panning and tilting. If I were you starting out, I'd put the money into these accessories and go really cheap and basic with the camera because the accessories will outlive the camera. Matteboxes haven't changed much in decades. Not nearly as much as the cameras. But a good one will cost way more than a cheap camera. Then again, it will also retain its resale value.

I didn't notice anything visible in the footage. I can see how an actor moving near the gel could create air disturbance and cause it to move around if it's not flat against the window. Usually air conditioning is off during shots so the chances of it blowing around aren't great unless it's outside in which case yeah, it's a bad idea.

I had a grip use velcro tape once and it was excellent because I could pull it off and add it as needed really quickly Because the gel wasn't stuck to the window but rather floating in front of it, it could be pulled really taught without ripples.

Best investment I've made was in a small Optoma HD65 projector. I now watch everything projected 1080p in my apartment on a 5x8 foot screen with dolby surround. Blu-ray is absolutely stellar. Normal DVD's are uprezzed to 1080p and look better than any film projection I've seen in any multiplex. The whole system was under $2000. Time is now for home theater. It's gotten truly amazing. I used to work as a film projectionist at a multiplex when I was in high school and I can tell you that few projectionist take pride in the job and none really care about how the movie looks. I can't go to any movie theater and not find something wrong with the image. Bad framing, scratches, dim bulb. At 10bucks a ticket its' hardly worth it. The perspective with home theater is actually a lot more accurate anyway. In a movie theater a close up of someones face is strange when it's 50 feet high. With a 6 or 8 foot screen most of the time, you're viewing true human perception and it feels a lot more natural. People are sized on the screen similarly to how they would be if they were in front of you vs viewing them as gargantuan.

Criticism of spoof films in general is partly justified because the films they are usually spoofing are blockbuster hits which are typically awful to begin with. Not all of them. But most of them are pretty terrible. Because the movies being parodied are often (not always but usually) so bad to the point where you want those 2 hours of your life back, we kind of want to see the films slammed and when the slamming itself falls flat, it's even more annoying than sitting through the actual film. For this reason, I find spoof films like this incredibly annoying but part of me does wish they were done with more thought and in a slightly more dry, Monty Python/South Park/Family Guy (actually funny) kind of way. But that interview Ayz posted with the screenwriters is great. It totally explains why the films fail.

Dick Pope Paul Sarossy Ellen Kuras Lance Accord Slawomir Idziak

On most of my shoots I've heard this job referred to as the "P2 tech". It's been the assumption that almost anyone can do this as we had an intern doing it for the first week and then a computer software writer was actually doing it the second week. How he came on board I have no idea. Finally when he got frustrated with it and left the producers took over and started dumping the cards themselves. Which I was actually most comfortable with anyway. If something were to happen I'd prefer the producers assume full responsibility. In my contracts I always state that it is the sole responsibility of the production department to collect and keep safe all media containing the days footage whether electronic or analog. Like a lot of jobs on film sets, it varies with the level of the budget. On smaller no budget stuff, having the assistant editor or the actual editor doing this can save a lot of time later. In addition to emptying the cards, there's a lot of other cool stuff they can take care of such as labeling the files, metadata and importing into an NLE for shot matching, for waveform verification, etc. This is impossible to manage with a rotating crew. It's a job for a permanent crew member. Not an intern/student type of position.

I don't know what ASA you're shooting at but remember that it's always possible to push the film on that wide shot a bit or if it's HD don't be afraid to use a little gain. For a wider shot, it's sometimes necessary. Not sure about the line loss. The flicker may be an issue depending on whether the ballasts are magnetic or electronic. If you're shooting HD and you have a monitor you can usually see flicker. IF it's film you may not catch it with your eye. I'm not sure that half cto on an HMI will match firelight that well. It may be a bit cooler. Considering I usually use half cto on a tungsten light to match fire you may want to consider full O or even something stronger. But if the HMI's are just a backlight it could work.

Offering deferred pay for a short film is a great way of testing the level of experience of your crew. If they take you seriously and actually expect to recieve pay eventually, you know that they're kind of new. Short films don't make any money. Everyone knows this. So how would you eventually pay them back? The best you could do is offer your DP the "right of first refusal" to shoot your next film if you have a script ready.

Sometimes miscommunications occur and you can't always control the outcome. I just lost 2 interns on set last night who assumed I was pissed off at them cause I started lighting very quickly on my own. I did this just to show them the way that pro grips hustle and the value of time and how much quicker we can move. I however didn't explain myself well enough and they inferred that I was angry at them and the next day they were gone. Sometimes even good intentions are misinterpreted and I learned a lesson here. Explain yourself, especially to the interns and students cause they turn into your grips on future shoots.

When it comes to interacting with strangers on a regular basis which is what our business is all about, it helps to have great personal skills. Some tips to help you out if your shy: When looking at people you can look at the space between their eyes and the other individual cant tell. This can help you get started. When you overcome your shyness, it helps when getting to know strangers to assume a respect and admiration for individuals right away. Have a smile right on your face and feel as if you're reuniting with an old best friend. Believe it or not it works. But you have to really feel like you want to know them cause if you're bullshitting, it will be obvious. What I'm saying basically is you have to be a good person and really like people to have good people skills. Unless you're a great actor. Don't force new people you meet to prove themselves worthy of your attention or time cause that will distance you right away. Focus on the ways in which others are similar to you and try not to let the ways in which they are different affect your judgement of their character or worth. Just know that this is always in the background of your work and whenever your stressed on set, it's never okay to lose your cool or hurt another persons feelings to get the work done.

I just recieved the HVX200kit from LetusDirect. It includes a new achromat adaptor designed specifically for the HVX200 and the new HPX170. I've swapped out the old one for this and it's definitely way sharper than what I've seen before from the Letus Extreme. I thought the adaptor was fine as is and it had the same softness as any adaptor though slightly better but now it's like you don't even have an adaptor on at all. For any Letus Extreme owners who have an HVX it's definitely worth the extra $300.

I wouldn't expect an on-set PA to commit to a job for less than $50 a day on a low/no budget indie. Hollywood films tend to be closer to $100 per day but it's taxed and you don't see the money for like 3 months. It's 2 totally different jobs though. On a small indie film, you're backing up almost everyone in every department and learning a lot. On a Hollywood film, you're firewatching props and sitting in traffic lockups. There's often more hands on learning on the indie set and that's typically why one can offer less money cause there is more opportunity to break into a department and get friendlier with technicians. The set technicians are the ones who will pull you onto bigger projects with better pay rates. If you're open, willing to learn and have a good attitude. You'll get more future work from the crew then from the producers or director.

I have both bags from Cine-bags. The Production bag and the DP bag. They both suck big time. They are hysterically heavy with nothing in them. The plastic latches are extremely tough to use and the shoulder straps are falling apart probably due to the extreme weight when I add my light meter and a copy of the script. Worst part is that company doesn't ever answer their phones or give call backs. Avoid Cine-bags.

The differences go beyond the screen size. Anamorphic lenses are way heavier and longer and that affects your decision. It's difficult to shoot in practical tight locations with anamorphic lenses. They are also slower and that can play a role. There's also a spherical format called Super 35 which will give you the same aspect ratio without the distortion of scope glass which may or may not be desired. Some love the flares and other characteristics of scope glass. Super 35 however requires an optical blowup and can lead to a slightly softer picture, unless you're doing a DI but that's another reason why some might go with anamorphic. Visual Effects also play a key role. Many concerns beyond the screen size. I've found that anamorphic projection in movie theaters tends to look like ass also because most projectionists today are high school students who really don't give a crap. Union projection is all but gone outside NY and other major cities and you'll often see misaligned lenses and things will look crooked, out of focus on the sides and just generally soft so your best opportunity to show your film in a multiplex is really subject to a 17 year old choosing to care whether it looks right. I'd rather stick to the 1:85 ratio and avoid the issue altogether. On DVD and home theater projection, 2:35 will mean a screen that is 40% blacked out. This is because there are no 2:35 televisions and home theater projection will require an anamorphic lens. These are very expensive items that also require a large space for the increased screen size. Most people won't own an anamorphic lens so although I love the look of 2:35, it's getting increasingly hard to justify providing a smaller picture to your audience. The original intention of 2:35 was to provide a larger picture.

My dream camera would be the size of the scarlet but it would shoot in 3D stereoscopic vision. 3D really is the glass ceiling untill we start building holodecks.