Michael Totten

I'm on a small documentary project that's traveling all around the world. Is there such thing as a C-Stand that will fold up or break down for easy travel on a plane, train and automobile. We've been renting locally... but sometimes it's more of a pain to find a grip house in some of these remote locations than it's worth. thanks.

I think you're right. We'll have a bunch of different diffusion on the day. thanks guys.

Michael thanks for the detail description. Very helpful. Your setup is very close to what we were initially talking about. Our setup is currently this: Instead of the keylight playing double duty as the backlight we opted to use 1K's mounted on the ceiling rafters as our backlight. We have 1K's cross keying which we'll blast through doubled opal. For the frontal fill we'll be using china balls or perhaps kinos. The lights will be mounted out of the shot, up on speed rail. I'm questioning the opal though... it might be better to go with a more heavy diffusion.

Yeah I actually have a couple china balls in my kit that I could use. What's the difference between a china ball and a gem ball ? It looks like the gem ball is just built to last but that the light they produce is very similar. thanks.

Unfortunately we're shooting on three HVX-200's with the fixed lens. I thought about using 35mm adapters (which would certainly soften her in an appealing way) but it's hand held / shoulder mount. I guess I could've used the "net" trick with an adapter as well... but with the fixed lens that won't work.

Does anyone have an example of how they would light a 3 camera interview. Cam 1: Medium two shot, profile (main) Cam 2: Medium OTS C/U on subject Cam 3: Medium OTS C/U on interviewer Also, the subject is a celebrity musician who is somewhat of a diva and is VERY concerned about her age showing. I keep thinking soft overhead light will be the most forgiving for her. Perhaps I could build a 20' out of speed rail and use kino flo's through quarter grid. Thanks in advance.

That's what I said to the producer. :lol: I'm sure I could bring an arri kit... the problem is that then I have to search around for 220 globes which are kind of hard to come by last minute... although I did find 2 of the 3 that I would need from "Visions of Color". The other thing about the arri kit is that the brightest light is a 1K and a lot of the time that's not enough....It's hard to say when I haven't been to the locations. My gut says an 800 joker bug would do the trick. Someone mentioned a 400 as well. I think I'll probably end up going that way.

If you had to choose one light to travel with for two weeks in the UK/NY that would be used primarily for sit down "talking head" interviews, what would it be? I'm thinking of an 800 HMI, which works well in most any situation.

We're using the red camera, which is fairly compact.

Nice. Where did you guys rent (or buy) the gear for the mount? I was thinking of buying from filmtools in LA.

I couldn't find any other threads about this particular kind of set up. Basically the whole scene will take place in the back seat of a car. No camera movement. So the camera needs to be mounted in the front center part of the car somehow (pointed straight back and center). preferably as close the the front (windshield) as possible so that there will be more room lens wise. The camera operator will be seated in the front passenger seat and then there will be a driver in the drivers seat (I know this takes up needed room) ? Any ideas? Suction cups, c-stand arms and cheeseplate?

Thanks David.

Thanks David. Curious what the advantage is using a Zeiss digi-Prime or perhaps the Zeiss Digi-Prime 6-24mm zoom over let's say other cine-style lenses such as the Fujinon C or E-Series Cine Zooms. The thing that attracts me to the digi-primes is that they open to a T1.6, but beyond that what is the difference? Some people say they're more "film like"... it confuses me though as I hear they're much more SHARP. To me sharp feels like video. I guess you can get a shallower depth of field in certain situations because they're faster? so that's the more filmic characteristic ? thanks, michael

Wondering how digi-primes translate to 35mm. I've heard it's 2.5 times. Is this correct? For instance... A 24mm digi-prime would be the equivalent to a 60 mm lens in 35mm ?

Looking for a skilled and experienced 1st A/C who can pull focus remotely. This is a two day local music video shoot that will take place on stage or directly outside of the stage (no company moves). Shooting day into night on both days. Shooting Dates: Sunday Oct. 7th & Monday Oct. 8th. A large portion of the shooting will be handheld and will take place in minimal light. Not only will the camera be moving, but the talent will be moving as well. We will be shooting on the Panasonic Varicam in unison with a set of Zeiss Digi-Primes so our ASA rating will be around 320 and our fastest lens stop is a T1.6. It is likely that we will be shooting wide open or close to wide open most of the time... so our DOF will be shallow and the focal plane will be thin, (challenging situation). We will be using a Chrosziel Wireless Remote Follow Focus or similar. You will have a native HD monitor for visual reference if you choose. Responsibilities include keeping talent in FOCUS, building / managing the remote follow focus system and working with the 2nd A/C and camera P.A.to keep everything pertinent to the camera department running smoothly. If you can do all this and are interested in the job, then please feel free to contact me! Thank you : ) If interested please email me at: doondoon@mac.com

Yeah, I'm NOT trying to "match" the two cameras in anyway other than aspect ratio and color. The POV is going to be it's own unique type footage that will serve the story well. The point of view is coming from a man buried up to his waste in a desert dry lake bed. So he is really close to death.... his point of view is a little "off". Here is a link to some set pics that someone snapped off. http://homepage.mac.com/michaeltotten/SCORP%20/ I'll post some actual footage in the next couple days. cheers, Michael

Hi- I just wrapped a short film using the Viper as the "A" camera and the HVX as the POV camera. On the Viper, I shot uncompressed 4:4:4 at 440 megabits to an HDCAM-SR deck in the 2:37 aspect ratio. We shot 1080p 23.98. On the HVX, we shot 1080p 24/ 16:9, so I guess we'll have to crop and zoom to match the Vipers aspect ratio and I know we'll loose some resolution as a result. Before our online edit and color correct we'll convert all HVX footage to HDCAM-SR so I think that'll help with big with matching the cameras/colors. My question is has anyone had any experience cutting footage from these two cameras together? If so, I'd like to here about your experience. Please send me a private message. Best, Michael

Hey everyone- I'm shooting a short narritive in the desert in a few weeks so I'm in the process of planning out each shot and trying to figure out the best lens/equipment to use. I've been doing some research, watching a lot of films including "Once upon a time in the west" and "Lawrence of Arabia". COMPOSITIONALLY, the look that I'm going for is sort of a hybrid between both films. Unfortunately we wont be able to shoot 2:35 like they did... but I want to try and "fake" that wide look as best I can with a lot of negative space on either side of the frame. Does anybody have any experience or ideas about how to achieve this look? EXPOSURE: I think it's going to be very hard to expose both the actor and background "properly". It's OK if the background goes a little hot (after all it is the desert), but I'd much rather have both in. HD's latitude won't really allow that without lighting the face of the actor pretty heavily with an HMI or perhaps some reflector boards or perhaps mirrors. We will, however be attempting to shoot the majority of this scence during the "golden hour" or softer light periods of he day.... and try to avoid the bright fllat high noonish hours, but I have a feeling that we're going to end up shooting all day anyway so I want to plan for the worst. The changing light won't be a story/continuity problem, but it could present some exposure and lighting challenges. Any thoughts? I was thinking of softening the overhead light with bleached muslin 12X12 and then bouncing some light through something soft on the actors face as a key. Then hiting the actor with more bounced/soft light with a 3/4 back skip (also key side). And then filling in to taste. I hope this set up works? I'm nervous... we don't really have a "lighting package"... more like a couple lights and a lot of bounce. Hopefully we can bring him up with the bounce enough... I'd like to avoid the HMI. We're shooting on the Varicam in unison with the pro-35mm adapter and several fairly wide Cooke S4's. I believe the focal lengths of the S4's are: 14mm, 25mm, and 35 mm. We are also getting one nice zoom with a longer focal length (I believe 100mm). So I feel that we've got things pretty well covered (although I have considered an even wider lens) for this next shot (and question). I want to get a really wide shot but also achieve a relatively shallow depth of field. The subject is buried up to his waste in the desert sand. The subjects torsoe and face will be prominently placed on one side of the frame (Medium Shot) and on the other side of the frame I'd like to have a lot of "negative space" or just sort of desert heat blur that leads into the "nothingness". Does that make sense? In the foreground I'd like to have about 8 to 10 inches of sand/ground (and it should be in focus... or very close) My thought is (instead of the long lens shallow depth trick I will do the exact opposite). If I move the camera really close to the subjust on a 14mm lens then I should get the same effect, right? I guess the lens would have to be maybe a foot or two away from the subject to achieve this. I don't mind a little bit of fish eye distortion as I think that characteristic lends itself nicely to the story line (he's buried in the sand and dying). My question is: Will this work? Do I need a wider lens? or do I need to pull back a bit and zoom in? Any comments or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Gearing up for a short film a couple weeks out. It's a western... so it'll be 95% daylight exteriors. Some of the establishing shots are going to be LANDSCAPE WIDE (I'm a little worried about those) as I understand the HVX doesn't render wide/landscape well. Hmmm :blink: We already have access to an HVX-200, so that's most likely the camera that we'll use so most likely we'll just have to make due with what we've got. We do however want to use 35mm prime lens and we're considering both the P+S as well as the movietube. What are the pros and cons of each? I want the best image possible. does anybody have experience with both?

I've been trying to get to the bottom of this too.. I've heard mostly great things about the Marshall, but it does seem to good to be true. I just don't understand how you can get good critical focus in HD on a monitor that isn't natively HD? I haven't as of yet heard an explanation that's really answered the question head on. The specs sort of indicate that the Marshall is probably better fit for the DVX-100 or whatever SD DV camera. But then again I haven't worked with or seen the monitor in person. What am I missing here? Am I going to have to spend 4K on a good HD LCD monitor? Or drag a big ole CRT to set??

Hey David- I'm wondering if I can send you an email? I've got a question I'd like to ask you. Thank you! If you choose, you can send me your email @: michaeltotten@mac.com Cheers- Michael

Hi- I know you made this post like a year ago... I just happend upon it through Google. I'm looking at buying a Sony HDW900 24" monitor and am wondering if it'll handle Hi-Def viewing from a Varicam and/or the soon to be released Panasonic HVX-200? You mentioned something about a downconvertor? Why would that be necessary? The resolution of the Sony is more than Hi-def. I must be missing part of the equation. Thanks, Michael

Hi- I'm wondering if there would be any loss in quality in the DLT workflow? Also, how long would the average DLT tape last? Thanks, Michael