David Grantham

Im' having trouble batch capturing from my XL2 via firewire. It's hit and miss. Most of the time miss lately. Prestriped Tape. Doing copious troubleshooting with software (Premiere Pro) and computer, but I'm beginning to wonder if it's the camera or it's port. There's slightly more play in the firewire connection than I'd like to feel, but not a lot more than my identical laptop port, which works fine. I"ve taken lately to using a cable holder (hair elastic) tohold fix the cable in place over that wimpy little connector. I've tried a new cable - same problems. The camera is in good condition, not used a lot, and I haven't used that connection much. Any experience of troubles with the connection?

I'm told that if you use a "Chroma blur" effect it'll blur the colour data ( R and B ) without blurring the image (because the luminance channel is unblurred) thus reducing aliasing when keying. Aparrently this is specifically what that effect is for. Mirage has one. Don't know about AE. (Makes for a lovely hand coloured effect also.)>

In the AC article it implies they were happy with the results of shooting everything (except skies, those they composited) with the XL1. On the one hand this is encouraging, and on the other it could imply a limitation, as they say they used DV to impart a harsh look to the film. Anyone know of anything else released on 35mm from an XL? (by the way, David Lynch shot his upcoming "Inland Empire" on DV (a PD150). That's encouraging too.

I've read that "runing n gunning" isn't well facilitated by the DVX 100A because the autofcous is too slow (hence named "focus assist") @ 24p. Comments? Is it any better with the XL2?