Mark Allen

Well, no matter what I use, I have to rent it because my sony pd150 was stolen. So, I figured might as well rent what I really want. Seems like the rental on the dvx100a is $150 US in L.A.. Guess that'll do. Thanks for the tips.

Two things caught my attention in this thread: David's comment that Director's being the least experienced on the set... Yes, that's one of those things which, as a director, you have to make sure you don't get intimidated by. The reason you're the director is because you know THIS story inside and out. You know everything about this story and the true professionals don't disregard you for your lack of set time - they use their experience to help ellicit from you what they need to do their job. What's going on right here in this scene and how can they contribute? I say this as someone who has over 100 feature credits and have been on both sides - director and collaborator - so not biased to one or the other. Another comment to comment on: "on a shoot that's big enough to have a "real" first ad i let them yell action." My first big shoot where I had a big crew, I let the AD do all the calls and I never spoke directly to the extras. That was the last time I ever did that. Things move a lot faster when I make the calls for action and cut and when I can talk to the extras about what I want. I thinkt he extras are performers. Now, the AD can run them during the scene for large crowds or something - but if something needs to be conveyed, better I do it. As for the calls - I like using the action call to set a mood or now and then. I also will very often toss out direction while the camera is rolling because you can get some very live variations. (I've never done this with video and I wonder if it would have the same effect - because even the actors can feel when the film is rolling.) My 2 cents.

Thanks - I'll look for those.

True - since these are just elements that will be manipulated later - we're trying to stay cheap. the dvcpro for example would be out of the question too expensive.

For part of a project I'm working on, I need to shoot some of the rehearsals a dance group is doing for their PBS special. This was tagged on, not budgeted, so I'm just heading out there with a DV camera - but I don't want it to look as bland as is will with the overhead flourescents - so I'm looking for suggestions on what to rent which might give me some mood lighting - yet would be easy for me to manipulate on my own. Was thinking of a kino or a lowell and a bounce and that's about it... I am looking for a sort of moody and partial shadowed look (which will hide the bland BG). Mostly going to be inserts of hands and feet - but there will be a couple full body shots. Any suggestions are appreciated. Trying to keep it simple - even if the suggestion is "go out and get a flourescent bulb from home depot" - if you think it works, suggest it. (The footage will become hued to sepia eventually btw)

Hi - I'm doing a half day instert shoot for some elements on a video and need to rent a 30p DV camera. Was wondering if someone might have a suggestion of a camera to look for and maybe even a place to look for it. Thanks. (24p might be okay as well, but 30p is preference.)

Hey David - those are fun photos. Was the story any good? Did you guys actually shoot the entire pilot or just test the FX stuff? - - - My 2 cents on the "old school" vs. CGI thought - usually it's more expensive to build and shoot things as miniatures or bigatures than to create it CG. There are lots of things though that are better done as models. I think combining the two whenver possible tends to work best.

Well - a few of us here think it was a really nice thing to offer and understand it was being done from a generous place. I can totally understand your sentiment here.

I seem to remember some information about an intern in the white house. I think internships are actually a GIFT from the production companies for the most part. I see it as a selfish act that my vis fx company no longer accepts interns. It's too much effort to educate someone in the middle of a job. We get requests, but I tried it in the past and it was just too much of a strain on time. I did an internship for six months unpaid - reading scripts, helping casting, etc.. My only regret was that after that I didn't do ANOTHER one in a company I felt I wanted to grow with. So, I commend anyone who takes on interns - just by being there - they are learning. It's up to the intern to make it educational though.

I'd send it via mail unless 1) they need it tonight 2) you have the time to deal with compressing and such - but there is a LOT to know about. If do need to send via email or on a web - then it depends on what OS you're on as to how to approach it. If you are on Mac and don't have access to original files - you can use cinematize successfully to convert it to whatever format you want - i'd recommend perhaps mp4 unless they are mac with QT7 - then nothing will beat h.264.

New Mexico is the New Canada. :) Suddenly every project that gets discussed "What do you think of shooting in New Mexico." Apparently there is some sort of 20% budget recoupment and free locations.

Did anyone happen to see the Superman footage at Comicon? Would be interesting to know what a trained eye might have thought of it.

I shot something on DV once with a DA88 seperated - but also with a line in to the camera (it was a PD150). My conclusion afterwards was - the advantage of having the audio separated onto so many different tracks really didn't help a great deal in the end compared to the pain in the ass it was to arrange for that as well as edit it (because most editing systems do not allow for cutting 10 audio tracks simultaneously with simple ease... now you could always go back and just reconform it in post or just pick the scenes you needed the separated audio out for - but by that point, why not just ADR if it is just one scene? So - if I were shootin gsomething on DV, I'd take advantage of the whole stealthiness of the DV phenomenon and record into the camera. You have two options with the tracks. 1. recrod stereo dialogue which is not traditional, but I've heard to some people starting to use stereo dialogue for their mixes. or 2. record one track at one level and the other track at a vastly reduced gain level to make sure you don't have any peaks. I suppose there are more options, you could limit/compress one and not the other etc. But you get the idea. To sum up - if I were shooting DV, I'd keep in mind that I'm trying to keep things imple and commit to that. Otherwise, I'd be shooting HD or film or CMOS.

Actually - Everyone in Hollywood might have an "idea" - but very few of those people - even the people who consider themselves writers - actually ever turn that idea into a script. And very very few of those people who do are open enough to feedback and learning that they sit down and write another one or rewrite it until it's fantastic. A truly great script is a rare find and is gold in Hollywood. I'm going to editorialize for a moment.... I've been reading these boards for a while now and I have really been surprised by the "it's impossible, so don't try" attitudes I discover here. Perhaps it's there to balance out some other influence I'm not aware of. But what is most surprising when it comes to discussions of Hollywood... most of the people commenting don't and never haved lived here - and, therefore, have never really tried. So, as someone who has lived here for 15 or so years and worked in the industry on some level for 13 of those years, I thought I might make some observations. Lots of people get the jobs they want, but it does take a lot of work. If you're someone who wants to do everything - that won't work, you need to focus. If you're someone who can't stand the idea of working for free at first and keeping a second real job to pay the bills if necessary... yes, it's going to be hard for you too. And... if you are someone who carries a lot of negativity where ever you go - that's going to be hard for you as well. People here know it's hard, they know that maybe they should be spending time with family and friends and not with their dreams - but they do it because they have a profound connection to the process of filmmaking. Something about filmmaking and being a part of the process of storytelling and therefore being a part of the lineage and history of storytellers and fantasy fulfills something inside them enough that they are willing to sacrifice... and if you want to be around them... you don't want to be telling them that their dreams are hopeless and meaningless and will never amount to anything. They don't want to be around that - they want to be around someone who shares their hope. They want to be around someone who is even working harder than they are to learn more and know more. That's the person they are going to help - and that is true for ANY profession. The grumbly people? They just got lucky - or they really are just so amazing they can't be replaced. More likely the luck. Best to assume you're not just lucky. Anyway - while I think it's great to have a balancing of opinions and I think it is really important to know what the sacrifice entails... if you decide to go for it. Do not go for it with a negative attitude - go out with an attitude which will inspire those around you.

Anyone with a lot of keying experience is making about six mattes anyway. Compositors never mind garbage matting things out, it takes seconds. What drives them nuts is spill - and, you're right on target - reduce the amount of green as much as possible - that helps. Also know that if you're going to have a lot of motion in the frame - if at all possible - try to shoot things moving at different speeds on different plates. That's not something I've heard anyone mention ever online - but it helps a lot. If it's unavailable? Okay - nothing you can do... BUT... if you have two people talking in the foreground and then some people walking behind them in the background - ask if they can be done on different plates. Reason is revealed in the motion blur - the way you have to handle the keying contamination of that is different than with the still people. And.. I'm thriding the underexposure vs. over exposure. Distance from the screen helps a ton as well.

With h.264 and HDDVD and Blue Ray etc. all around the corner, seems like everything is finishing in HD.

I tend to use the word "canted," however, here was an interesting postulation provided for the etymology of "Dutch Tilt/Angle" "I've been led to believe it comes from when coastal barges were commonly used in trade around and across the English channel. The Dutch barges had keels and the English ones didn't. When moored at low tide, the Dutch barges would lean over." reference: http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/29/messages/22.html (For the curious a "cant" is a deviation from a horizontal or vertical plane.)

The Mac OS ties to the mother board. And it will continue to do so. If it didn't, people would have been making mac clones for many many years. Only time it ever happened was when they were official and the boards were the Mac boards. Digidesign and some other companies use the same trick and you can't defeat it at any reasonable cost. Ergo - OSX will not run on anything but Macs. Windows can't do that because they need to run on a variety of hardware.

oh... guess I have to add my two cents. I've switched a lot of people over from PC to Mac. A lot. At my company two people have to use both systems (because some XSI only runs on PC) - but unless they are running that application - they are using their Mac. Eventhough their mac is a four year old outdated model, it's just a more pleasant environment to use. I had to be dual platform (actually triple platform because of SGI) for a while and there was no comparison. Now - interestingly enough with the pending chip change - that will not change the osx experience at all, but what it will do is for people who need to use "that one program" now and then... they'll be able to make their computers dual boot in Mac OSX and Windows. It will not work the other way around. Only Macs will run OSX. All this said.... If you are a gamer and buying today - buy a PC. You'll be disappointed in the mac game offerings. That is an argument I cannot fight. If you're a daytrader making live trades from home. While people do it on a mac using Virtual PC, I wouldn't risk that. And... if you are an XSI user.... can't do that on a Mac. Otherwise, life is a little easier in the mac world and all the cool things are actually working... iLife alone is huge. Things work better and you don't need a personal IT guy or a "friend who makes PCs" handy to figure out what the hell went wrong all the time.

Boy, I'm sorry, I was totally unclear on my post. I mean - is someone planning on showing the results from the shoot done at cinegear. I heard that Laser Pacific was going to make the side by sides available for the people who participated. Any indication anyone else will havea chance to see these? So much depends on how things look in motion. I don't mind if they grade the footage as long as it is the same colorist going for the same look.

Is someone planning on doing a side by side of all of these images from the different cameras?

I have the first Canon Digital Rebel and I like it. I have played with the Nikon though for about 20 minutes and thought that I would probably have been just as happy or maybe slightly happier with that one - but it wasn't available when I needed it - so I'm still very happy with the Cannon. Try both at a store and go with whichever you like more - but I have a feeling it will come down to one of thos - and probably you'll end up with a Nikon. remember you can see comparisons at www.dpreview.com

Well... I may totally be misreading what is going on in the shots, but I'll pretend like I have some sense of it just so I can offer some thoughts (other than the general comments that others have said that it is too soft and frosty unless it's a drea. I'm guessing maybe you're doing that to soften the video quality... maybe too much.) The best of the bunch is the third one. the first one needs some of the facial sculpting in the last one, his face ends up being totally flat except for the kick on his nose which I find distracting. I'd rather see some sculpting on his face. Since there's a shaft on the third one, seems reasonable there would be a little sourcingon the first as well. I have no idea of the context, but I wouldn't be so cloe on the first one - because I don't see anything that dramatic happning... so unless he's revealing a secret my inclination would be to open it up a tad so you can go in for the punch on the last frame (where I'm assuming something more dramatic is hapening) In the second frame from a design perspective I feel like you either need to seel the flatness even more by being further away from the grid element to create that very very definite stark straight on feeling - or - you need to angle the camera a bit and give the shot a little dynamism. Right now it isn't conveyng much of anything and I tend to like to see shots that give me a direction to read the scene.

That's a lot of books - great resource. If you're looking for a place to start, I would recommend "Film Lighting" by Kris M. and "Directing: Shot by Shot" I would also recommend watching the movie "Visions of Light." Then I would move to something that approaches the how-to technical side.

Adam sums up what I would say, but I'll add that I've found over the years that people read your script very very fast. I no longer capitalize sounds or all key props unless they tie into somethng that I absolutely need the reader to see and remember for a later point in the script. I stopped capitalizing sound when I realized that the people who would be adding them would never see the script. I'll only do it when it's for reading benefit. "The plates SMASH to the ground." - but avoid over capitalizing because you'll need that tool when you want to clue the the reader to something very plot key. There are lots of screenwriting rules and I've found that I've never heard anyone in any position of real power complain about a script breaking form in the details (yes, if it looks like a printed play they'd mention it). The only people I've heard complain about the screenwriting minuteau were people who were struggling themselves and wanted to act like they knew better. If you can structure a compelling story that keeps people on the edge of their seat - no matter what the genre. No one will say a word about the capitalizations in your script because they won't want to blow their chance of being a part of a good script (which is very hard to find).