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Dickson Sorensen

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    Cinematographer
  1. Selling Canon HD video lens for 2/3 inch professional HD video camera (Sony, Panasonic,etc.). The lens is in excellent condition. I bought it new and only used it a few times. Comes with original owner's manual and sunshade. This lens is listed at B&H for $19,145.50. I'm willing to take a best offer but don't be silly. The lens can be inspected in the New York/Philadelphia area. Send me an Email (dpsfilm@verizon.net)if you have an interest. I'll put together some pics or make arrangements for you to see the lens. Dickson Sorensen
  2. If quality is not your biggest concern you can actually do it your self at home. I was suprised how good it looked when we did this our selves. My son came home from school with some super 8 animation that he wanted to edit and put on youtube. We projected it onto the back of a piece of duralene which is basicly a piece of frosted plastic. I think any good frosted material would do. Ours was about 14 inches across. We set up my video camera a good distance away and video taped it. The important thing is to use a good frosted material. If you have a zoom lens on your projector put it as far away as you can, the same with your camera. This minimizes the hot spot in the center of the screen. Turn off auto exposure on your camera so that it doesn't change while you are recording. This is rear screen projection. Experiment. You will have to flip the image in edit as it will be a mirror image. Check out the video transfer we did on youtube:
  3. Not sure, but the first question is what kind of lens are you using? The HPX 500 has CAC (Chromatic Aberration Compensation) for certain lenses. What I see in the picture you attached looks like chromatic abberation. If you are using a CAC lens make sure the feature is on. It can be caused by less than perfect optical performance of your lens, a filter or adapter on the lens, or perhaps misalignment of one of the chips (though I doubt the third possible explanation). Can you reproduce it under other circumstances?
  4. Either a reflected meter or an incident meter can give you clues as to the best exposure. The way you expose the film is ultimately up to your artistic expression. There has been much written about how to expose film but ultimately you must experiment and as you gain experience you may find that you use both a reflected and an incident both interior and exterior. If you want to know if your exposure is holding the sky you will want to use a reflected meter. If you want to know if you are burning out the pattern on a lampshade or picking up detail in a deep shadow use a reflected. If you want to know how much light is falling on a scene of mixed detail use an incident meter. These readings should be interpreted based on experience as to how the scene should look. Sometimes one might take an incident reading of the light falling on a face and decide to under expose the film for a dramatic effect. As examples: If the scene calls for an effect like a fugitive caught in a searchlight them maybe you want to over expose the face a little. If someone is standing silhouette against a sunset and the color of the sunset is desired then exposure using the reflected reading taken from the sky will be needed to made sure that the sky will not burn out to white in the scene. If a tiger is crouching in a shadow and you want the audience to see it you need to make sure that there is enough reflected light to lift his stripes out of the black of the shadows. To answer your question about which to use outdoors reflected or incident; if the light is fairly flat then an incident meter will give you a fairly safe guide. If there is a lot of sky with color, reflections off water, deep shadows, etc. use your reflected meter to check that you aren?t loosing important detail.
  5. You need a calibrated light source. If you don't have one handy use the sun, high in the sky on a clear day. It is constant. The problem with shooting a test is that the lab's development, and the f stop calibration on your lens can lead you astray. I always carry three meters that have been professionally calibrated and check them often against each other. Using the sun won't help you check the low end of the meter which you also should do.
  6. Hello, my name is Weena. I am sending you this message from the future. We want to know something about the time in which you live. My friend and I found a time capsule and in it were several objects. Perhaps you can help us understand what they are. There are several shiny disks. They are very pretty and must be some sort of jewelry but they are too large to wear. We have not been able to understand what they are for. My friend wears one on a string around her neck. Another object is a black shiny box with a long ribbon wrapped up in it. The surface of this ribbon is gray like iron. This material is very strong. We have found that it is good for tying packages together. Is that what you also used it for? The last object is a spool with a long ribbon wrapped around it. On it are many little pictures and you can see that each one progresses slightly from the next. When we look quickly along the line of pictures they create the illusion of people waving to us. Our historians are very interested in this as it shows all about the people of the past. One of the historians has said that in the earliest historical times important images were recorded on stone so that people could use them for a long time. Later they only recorded on paper, though now many of these have disappeared. He said that the spool with the images must be very important as they were made to last a long time. Thank you for making them for us.
  7. I'm very excited about the prospects of optical disks ( DVD, Blu-Ray, HD DVD) for long term hard storage. They offer random access, play almost endlessly without wearing out, offer different recording possibilities, are cheeper than tape. the play back devices require less maintainance etc. Why would any one pursue tape any longer?
  8. Seems like it's just a front page here also. Hype? As the well known Wendy's tv commercial said, "Where's the Beef?"
  9. I hope you are planning to continue your education. A major in journalism, a minor in film might be something to consider. Buy an inexpensive video camera and put an editing program on your computer. Shoot a documentary about the thing you are most interested in. Live, breathe and eat film and plan on eating a lot of film as you may not be able to afford food for a while.
  10. Here's a link to a deal memo http://www.aicp.com/doingbusiness/DP-Deal-Memo.pdf
  11. The only time I heard of someone being paid before they did the job was with a producer with very bad credit. Normally one gets paid upon completion or weekly if its a longer job. If you are acting as a production service, renting equipment, hiring crew and other out of pocket expences it might not be unusual to ask for up front money as you will be spending your own cash before getting paid. A friend who learned the photo business from his father told me that his father always told him: The most important thing to remember about photography is GET THE MONEY. Also your agreement should not be "informal" it should be "formal". Usually these agreements are called "Deal Memo's" and perhaps someone who has one handy could post an example.
  12. I have seen a great effect of fire done by reflecting a light off of mylar strips or "space blanket". Put the lamps on a dimmer and bring them up to increase intensity. Color orange with gel to suit your taste.
  13. Other than similar responces, make it look good only there's more of it. Think about making the area easier to get units and power where you will need it. Drop catwalks if the studio doesn't have a walk on grid. Get as much pre-rigging done before the shoot as possible. I like to have most of the heavy lifting done before the set is finished and dressed as it may be difficult to get units hung where you need them later. Work closely with the set designer to be sure he has considered your needs. Anticipation will help avoid on-set lighting delays.
  14. I went through this situation 3 times and played it by ear. Expect the unexpected. If you are having a child you probably can?t afford to turn down work. On the other hand you will have many more jobs than children and shouldn?t miss out on the very important things in life. Our first child was born when I was an AC. As soon as I arrived at the location the producer came up to me and told me that my wife had called and she was in labor. He said, ?Don?t worry you?ve got plenty of time.? I wanted to leave but he wouldn?t let me go until we finished that afternoon. I was nervous all day long that I would miss it. By the time I got to the hospital she was ready to deliver. The second baby came the morning after I prepped a night shoot. I stayed up until 2:30am with a plan that I would acclimate myself for the night shoot by sleeping until noon then report for the late afternoon crew call with plenty of sleep to make it through the night and into the next morning. Surprise, after only 1½ hours sleep my wife woke me up at 4:00am in labor. We rushed her to the hospital; she had the baby around 9:00am, I got out of the hospital around 1:00 pm rushed home, picked up my meters and went directly to the location. I shot all night long wrapping around dawn the next morning. I returned home feeling like one of the zombies in ?Night of the Living Dead.? By the time we had our third child my career had progressed to the point where I had a lot of leverage. I told the client I couldn?t shoot their commercial until the baby came. They waited. The day after delivery I flew to Italy for the shoot and didn?t see my daughter again until she was a month old. Sometimes it?s hard for people, spouses included, to understand the demands of this business on your time and personal life. You have to set your priorities and not regret the sacrifices you have made. Just remember, as important as each job seems at the time, as the years go by they become a blur. Your family and friends however are forever.
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