Daniel Stigler

This is my Camera There are many like it, but this one is mine My Camera is my best friend It is my life I must master it as i must master my life Without me my Camera is useless Without my Camera i am useless I am married to this machine of metal and glass And i will be faithful I must pull focus true I must keep my equipment in good shape I must keep the gate clean I will Before god i swear this creed My DoP and myself are defenders of asthetics We are the masters of the set We are the saviours of this shooting So be it Until there is no shooting but wrap Amen. Did I mention I have some good stories about breaking up with girlfriends that involve cameras?

You can usually buy them at camera rental places. Ask at Moviecam/F.G. Bauer or Arri Rental. Personally I use a flashlight and a magnifiing glass. On longer focal lengths you can do the gate check through the lens.

Not to forget that cameras that run film are by now a lot easier to work with than any videocamera i've ever seen. I took a look at the RED website last week and i really hope the final camera will not be like the graphic. What am i supposed to do with a camera without any 24V RS outlets? To name just one flaw...

I'm used to do shots like that with stabilized remote heads like the already mentioned Libra. The Nettman Stab C is also a very good option. While the normal Scorpio head is top notch the stabilized version still has some issues...

I'm curious about this. Won't the remjet backing come off and spoil the chemicals and stock????

Two years ago i had to work with a Sony videocamera with two horrible Fujinon zooms. I remarked the barrels with my Putora chart but found out painfully that the marks were only good for the focal length and iris setting they were done with. Of course back focus changed all the time. It was frustrating as I never knew where my focus was. Eye focus helps out, but when actors miss their marks or improvise I need reliable marks to correct. Measuring sometimes is a psychological procedure. I remember a shooting day (SR3 with Ultra Primes) where we shot in a stairway the whole day. I measured the width of the stairway, the size of the platforms and the doors and I was good with that. During lunch break my DoP told me that the director nervously asked him if I knew what I was doing because for his understanding I was using my tape measure so little.

Well, if you see that the image on the monitor is soft, it's too late. I use the on board monitor in situations where the focus choreography is crucial and needs to be timed with the movement of actors or the camera or something like this.

Slightly off topic: I own a full body harness designed for construction climbers and window cleaners. It has a lot of mounting points for carbines which come in handy when i'm getting strapped to quads or other shaky vehicles. I like to be strapped tight to the vehicle as in shooting situations like that i need both of my hands to operate a wireless focus device.

I won't argue with you about that, but you can't deny that it makes a hell of a difference is you shoot with a MasterPrime at 1.3 or an old three blade standard mount Zeiss Opton at T1.4. While the image shot with the MasterPrime is still acceptable the Opton doesn't give you an image anywhere near sharp.

The S4s are optimized for shooting at T2. As a focuspuller i have to add once again that the different internal mechanism and the spacing of the marks of the Cooke lenses feels much better to me then the Zeiss lenses do.

Hi Thomas! Nice to see you, man. Actually you'right, i don't use a laser meter or even own one. For me it's too much hassle and i'm faster with a normal tape measure. And i never take readings from the camera when pulling focus on steadicam shots. I take some reference readings like the size of the walls, pieces of furniture or anything useful like that and the rest is guess work. ;)

HILTI is the only alternative for a Disto i can think of.

You're welcome :) Not once. I've shot two commercials in the UK though, but that wasn't with local crew. At the moment i really can't tell what sparked the idea. Btw: i was standing in the white tent across the second main entrance and if you recognized a pretty loud quad with steadycam hardmount, i was sitting in front with a CMotion in my hands.

Sorry for the mullet thing. At Cinec some guy wearing glasses, a special haircut, a striped sweater and a brown leather jacket and me gave each other a stupid look and i got the feeling i know the guy from some shooting and that he's from Luxemburg. i thought it could have been you.

I got that right. It can happen that the matte acts like a second iris in front of the lens taking away some light. Off topic: other than in your avatar, do you wear glasses and some kind of mullet in real life?

Apart from what Max said, there are practical reasons as well. Eyebrows and sideflaps can easily be adjusted to a wide range of focal length while hardmattes have to be pulled out of the case, exchanged and the old one put back in the case. I only use the hardmatte when there's no other way.

My favorite, the Arri FF4 goes for around 3000 for the complete set incl. marker rings and whip, etc. Concerning matte boxes i usually rent an MB14 wich i think goes for about $4000.

You can also try and use a split-diopter.

Actually i prefer the scales on the Cookes. And they give a different feel when pulling focus due to their inner mechanics, which are completely different from the Zeiss lenses. It's hard to describe, but pulling focus on a Cooke lens for me is a lot more intuitive than with a Zeiss lens.

It's a good idea to tape the gap between camera body and mag on Arri SRs when shooting in severe conditions. I once had a job in Morocco where we were exposed to extremely harsh sunlight (T22 upwards!!!) and the stock had edge fogging that entered the machine through that gap. Taping it up solved the problem.

Heimat (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087400/) has the most perfectly done focus choreographies i've ever seen. Pretty often that means that you don't see anything.

P&S and Gecko Cam in Munich, Germany do magnificent jobs.

Mitch nailed it down. I have it in the kit as an special effects lens every now and then.

I was there all three days at the GripDepot booth. It was great fun, especially the test rides on the 6x6 quad we offered. We also shot an imagefilm about the quad on 35mm. I'd like to thank Wolfgang from Pille Rental for the cameras, Stephanie from ARRI for the extra mag, Bob from Schneider for the filters and Christian from CMotion for the additional marker rings they supplied.

For marking i also bring lead filled pieces of garden hose and golfballs in three different neon colors with me as tape can't be used on all surfaces.