Andrew Jackson

Blah, didn't make the edit on time: Thanks for trying to help me solve this, guys. Umm...I didn't see flicker through the viewfinder, although I was mainly watching the actors performances when I was running the camera. And from the 4 shots -> 3 were in the same room(verse, reverse, master) and then another was shooting from outside the room as our actress walked past the camera and into the room where the dialogue takes place. Hard to tell if it's coming from a certain light, but in our master it seems worse than in the verse, reverse shot. Our master is a side/2-shot, and the others are over-the-shoulders, so we actually do see different parts of the walls.

I was using a crystal sync camera running at 24 frames per second with a 180 degree shutter. The sync light never came on (except at the very beginning of course), so I assumed that it stayed at a constant 24, although the equipment we were using is old. I didn't hear any noise coming from the fluorescent lights. We have a few shots from different angles. I had mentioned we used a 3500k compact fluorescent light as a fill, as the overheads were all rated for 3500k. We only used one of the compact bulbs though and it was focused on the actors, so the flicker couldn't have come from that one. The most visible flicker can be seen by staring at the walls (although you can see it on the actors, it's just harder to catch with them moving). I believe we do have enough coverage to edit around and not make the problem apparent. Although I've shot 3 films now, I still feel like I know about 5% of what there is to know....so bare with me here. A buddy of mine shot in the same location a year ago, in black and white, on 16mm non-sync camera (although, he also shot at 24 fps and 180 degree shutter). He claimed he didn't get any flicker. So, my thoughts 1) either something about the lights were different then 2) black and white doesn't show flicker as well 3) what is actually "flickering" is the color temp, and that's why it wasn't really seen on black and white (mine is shot in color) 4) he just didn't notice the flicker (he had a couple of fast cuts and lots of movement in the frame).

My words of wisdom: be careful. I did a lot of research before filming under fluorescent lights for my senior thesis. I looked up numbers on the bulbs, made sure they were all the same, and called the facility operations for the building, in which case they told me all the bulbs were less than a year old, and all were 3500k. I bought some compact fluorescent bulbs, rated for 3500K, and put them in fixtures to use as fill lights and such (and would balance the color in telecine). I did some reading about flicker problems in several books and forums, all said I would be fine....but my footage came back with some horrible flicker (some shots/angles worse than others). I didn't know why, but what you are saying Phil, with the the ballast units being old, makes sense. I was so confused the past day trying to look up what could have gone wrong... If you're serious about this piece, I definitely wouldn't rely on the "practical" lights that are already there...use your own units if you can.

I'm also needing a chip chart, and just recently I had come up with an idea, although it probably won't work. If I bought a graycard, then went to wal-mart and bought like a "paint variety pack" for $10 that contains a little bit of white, black, blue, yellow, red, green, etc. and I painted little circles on the graycard, would that work? I'm trying to be cheap, a la any film person. My options are pretty much A) use only a graycard B) use a color chart that someone will lend me but is just colors printed out on a piece of paper and slapped on graycard C) do the paint method Thanks!

I'm a senior doing a sync-sound film project on 16mm. For our sound recording, my school offers three options, but I'm having a hard time deciding which one to take. I obviously want great sound quality, which I heard the Nagra provides, but I have some issues with A) getting Nagra tapes and B) transferring the sound from the tape to my computer. I would be willing to send off the Nagra tape to get a high quality transfer if there is anywhere that does this, as I heard transferring from the port on the Nagra directly into a computer will hurt the sound quality. Any tips and suggestions on what to use? And if the Nagra is my best choice, anyone know where to get good quality Nagra tapes for a fairly cheap...and where I could get it transferred to a digital format that I could use in my computer? Or if I can't use the Nagra for these reasons, what would be my next best choice... I'm not sure about different "versions" of each or exactly which ones my school offers, but here are some sample pics...these look almost or exactly like the ones I have access to: Nagra (reel tape): http://www.sls.fi/Sparatalet/Bilder/Nagra.gif Marantz (compact flash): http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=htt...%3DdQb%26sa%3DN DAT (digital audio tape): http://www.gbaudio.co.uk/images/dap1.jpg (this picture is probably the one farthest from the actual item I can use. It looks something like this, but I don't think it is the exact) Thanks bunches.

will do! Thanks dude

sweet stuff, thanks! Hmm...you may be against this, and that might be the point, but how do you actually download it to your computer? I hate watching stuff on my computer and I always try to save videos that I might go back and watch on a DVD so I can just watch it on my TV

Hey Brad, is there any site/list/place I can look that shows all the union pay scales for different positions? I'm really curious, and it sounds like you might know!

Hey all, I'm looking for a tool that I could use to clean out dust from a lens. I have some canned air, but I want something that can be used anytime and doesn't run out. I see many things, like these rocket blowers (http://search.ebay.com/rocket-blower_W0QQ_trksidZm37QQfromZR40), but I'm not really sure how good they are, or what size to even get if they are good. I'll be using them for film cameras, for cleaning the gate. Thanks!

This is a pretty quick question that probably doesn't deserve it's own thread, but I searched and couldn't find anything related to it. Anyways, I'm going to be shining a light into a mirror and filming it. How would you take a reading of this? I'm guessing with a reflective meter, but I'm not really sure. Any help would be much appreciated!

that's a good idea, but I'm not really sure what that adhesive would be or where I would get it

Not really sure where else to put this, so here I go: I'm trying to get a shot this weekend where I'm on a leaf hanging from a tree, and it falls to the ground. The camera is going to be on the leaf while it's hanging, and it follows it down to the ground. I've been thinking of ways for this leaf to look attached, and then fall after hanging for about 20 seconds. I'm not really sure how to accomplish this. I've thought of sticking a small/weak piece of clear tape to the leaf stem, attaching it to the tree, and then having a really thin piece of fishing line to pull the two apart and let the fishing line fall with the leaf.....Any other suggestions? This is all I got at the moment. I'm sure there is a better way.

Thanks! From my tests it looked as if the reflected light meter was reading 200....close enough :P

I was just going to use it as a reflecting light meter when having a practical in the frame or when needing to like film a television screen or something like that.

The only problem is that I do not have a super8 film cartridge anywhere. I have an incident light meter, and I did the grey card thing....but I'd rather do it mathematically than by using the meters...