TIPS TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES OF A SAVVY FILMMAKER

2012-01-06T09:59:00.001-08:00

“Billy Wilder once said that there are only two things aging directors can’t avoid…awards and haemorroids [sic]. I’ll stick with just the awards for the moment, please.” So says a recent Facebook post from the brain behind some of the greatest films of the last century, from Monty Python and the Holy Grail to Brazil to The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Yes, Terry Gilliam has joined Facebook, as an experiment to promote his latest venture, the short film The Wholly Family, about Italian Pulcinella figurines coming to life inside a small boy’s imagination. (I highly recommend following his status updates). Fortunately for Gilliam, he’s on the awards path, recently honored with the Golden Star Award of the 11th Annual Marrakesh International Film Festival.

Wearing a Filipino-print shirt he purchased at his favorite craft shop in Los Angeles, and socks covered with cows sporting sunglasses, Gilliam showed up the night after his award ceremony to the Palais des Congrès to teach a Master Class to an audience full of Moroccan film students. When asked why he films, Gilliam responded with a long pause and then said into the microphone, “I suppose it’s the best job out there.” For Gilliam, film is the one medium that combines every art form he loves. I caught up with Gilliam for a short chat before his master class. Here, in his words from both our talk and the class, are the combined lessons, or anti-lessons, he has to offer from his long and rich career in the world’s greatest profession.

1. Growing up is for losers.

As a child, I always drew funny creatures, funny characters. But I think the trick is not to grow up, not to learn to be an adult. And if you can maintain the kind of imagination you all had when you were babies, you would all be wonderful filmmakers. But the world tries to make you grow up, to stop imagining, stop fantasizing, stop playing in your mind. And I’ve worked hard to not let the world educate me.

2. Film school is for fools.

Live and learn how to make films. I didn’t go to film school. I just watched movies in the cinemas. And probably my greater education was actually making films, so that’s all I would ever say: watch movies, get a camera, make a movie. And if you do it enough times, eventually you start learning how films are made.

3. Auteurism is out. Fil-teurism is in.

Being an auteur is what we all dreamed of being, as far [back] as the films of the late ‘50s and ‘60s, when the idea of the auteur filmmaker arrived on the planet. And people kept using that term, and they do with my movies because I suppose they are very individual and they give me all the credit, so they say I’m an auteur. And I say no, the reality is I’m a ‘fil-teur.’ I know what I’m trying to make but I have a lot of people who are around me who are my friends and don’t take orders and don’t listen to me, but who have individual ideas. And when they come up with a good idea, if it’s one that fits what I’m trying to do, I use it. So the end film is a collaboration of a lot of people, and I’m the filter who decides what goes in and what stays out.

4. Put your ideas in a drawer. Take them out as needed.

I do have a drawer in my desk with all the ideas that I have and that I scribbled out. I put them in there and some day I use them. At the beginning of a new film, I often go in that drawer and look at everything I’ve done and see if there are some ideas that might apply to what I’m doing. But things grow, so I just start with a sketch and then refine it. And you do it with other people’s ideas coming in. That’s the fun part.

5. All you’ve really got in life is story.

I think the important thing is stay true to what you believe. I mean it’s much more important to make your mistakes than somebody else’s mistakes. Like too many other filmmakers have compromised because somebody advised them [that] if you change this, the film will be more successful commercially. And then the film isn’t successful commercially, and these people get so depressed and destroyed because they didn’t ever finish making their film the way they intended it. You’ve got to believe in what you’re doing. And you’ve got to be willing to take the consequences of whatever it is. If you succeed, fantastic. If you fail, you might have to get a proper job.

6. Command the audience with your lens.

I keep wanting to see more of the world always. When I’m looking through the camera, when we’re setting up a scene, I don’t feel like I’m in the scene. And the wide angle lens, because we see so much, it seems to wrap around me a little bit. I also like the fact that with long lenses, the director controls the audience much more because you show the audience only exactly what you want. Everything else can be out of focus. And I like it to be a little bit more vague so the audience has to be aware of the environment as well as what I want them to look at. I don’t want to really separate the character from the world that it’s in. So the world is as important, and the rooms and everything, as the character sometimes.

7. Nothing can defeat a director who is one with his actors.

I think the key is to make sure that the cast, especially if they’re big Hollywood superstars, likes the movie. My first film in Hollywood was The Fischer King, and Robin Williams and Jeff Bridges are playing the two leads. And I knew as long as Robin, Jeff and I were united, there was no way the studio could break it, and the film would go out. Same way with Twelve Monkeys. Brad Pitt, Bruce Willis and I were one. In both instances those films went very smoothly.

8. Surround yourself with improvisers.

I like the actor to surprise me all the time because the problem when you’re making a film, if you’ve written it and you’re directing it, you’ve been with it so long, it becomes a bit rigid. It can become mechanical when you’re shooting because you’re just trying to do exactly what you were thinking about for the last year. And what’s wonderful is when the actors come in and they do something that’s completely surprising, and suddenly every day becomes fresh. And it makes me stay awake.

9. Directing is not for the faint-of-heart. Or the sane.

What I love about Don Quixote is that he keeps misinterpreting the world. He thinks the world is either worse or better or whatever. He gets it wrong every time. But in the end he has these heroic, epic moments, and he seems to be unstoppable. He just goes on and on and on. I think it’s a great example for people, especially in film, in how to get through life, because film can often be incredibly disappointing. What I like about the Don Quixote documentary is that so many other filmmakers when they saw that, they started telling me their stories of equally horrible disasters. It’s a very difficult business. [Lost in La Mancha] should discourage anyone who is not willing to live in a world where disasters like that occur. Don’t make films if you’re not going to be able to deal with things like that.

I’m always working on it and one day it will happen. It’s changed me. If you’re going to make a film about Don Quixote, you’ve got to be as mad as Don Quixote, so the nature is helping me go crazy.

10. Be an enlightened despot.

I expect the actors to really be totally committed to the film and to their character and forget about who they are. Get rid of your vanity. Just be whatever the character demands. I think it’s horrible when I hear stories of actors coming and they bring their own makeup people and their hairdresser. Wait a minute, what’s going on here? The power is in the wrong hands. And if you let the power go to the actor, then you’re not directing the movie. And the actor is not thinking about the entire movie. Only the director is thinking about the entire movie.

I don’t ever want to be the guy that is saying, “this is the only way that it can be done.” I don’t want to be a dictator. That’s not interesting. It’s interesting if you can have a dialogue going all the time and trying to all agree to find what is the best way for this film to go.

Bonus Lesson: And whatever you do, don’t ever work with the Weinsteins.

I suppose it would have been nice to have made more films in the 71 years that I’ve been hanging around this place. And if I have a regret, there’s only one really, and that was working with the Weinsteins [giggles]. That’s the only one.

(Terry Gilliam photo by Henny Garfunkel.)

RED Sues ARRI Over Trade Secrets, Alleges False Advertising

2012-01-05T14:50:00.001-08:00

Lawsuit Alleges Two Company Execs Knew About VP's Email Hacking

By Bryant Frazer

Red Digital Cinema (RED) has hit ARRI Inc. and its ex-employee Michael Bravin with a lawsuit alleging "corporate espionage" on ARRI's part. In the 32-page complaint, RED says Bravin, a former executive at both ARRI and reseller Band Pro, accessed private email correspondence between Band Pro head Amnon Band and RED honcho Jim Jannard that included proprietary information about RED's then-unreleased EPIC camera as well as details of RED's efforts to buy Band Pro.

In the complaint, RED goes so far as to blame Bravin's actions for its eventual decision not to purchase Band Pro. The lawsuit alleges unfair competition based on email hacking, invasion of privacy, misappropriation of trade secrets, false advertising, unfair competition, unlawful trade practices, and more.

The lawsuit seems to have been first reported by the Courthouse News Service, which published a detailed summary of the complaint, including a PDF copy. (Scroll down and click the document icon at the bottom of the article.)

News of the scandal first broke in September 2010, when reports spread of a visit by federal agents to ARRI's offices in Burbank as part of an investigation of unauthorized access to a computer system. About a year later, Bravin signed a plea agreement in which he admitted to accessing Band's emails after leaving Band Pro and while he was working at ARRI as VP of market development for digital-camera products. That agreement did not mention ARRI. The other shoe dropped with the filing of RED's suit, which alleges that ARRI President and CEO Glenn Kennel and VP of Camera Products Bill Russell had "firsthand knowledge" of Bravin's activities, and that Bravin forwarded Band's email "on more than one occasion ... to colleagues at ARRI."

The lawsuit alleges a campaign against RED on the part of ARRI, including what it says were pseudonymous posts by Bravin at Reduser.net meant to promote the ARRI Alexa under the name "Ed Carlton." A Google search turns up several postings by a user with that name who was active from July 14 to July 23, 2010. (One passage in the document described a July 2010 meeting at Red Studios Hollywood where RED's Jannard and Land are claimed to have confronted Bravin, Kennel and Russell about that allegation.) RED also alleges several instances of "false advertising," mostly related to statements at the ARRI website about the imaging capabilities of its D-21 and Alexa cameras.

RED goes so far as to cite behind-the-scenes frustrations on the production of Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, which switched from the RED ONE to the Alexa partway through shooting, as evidence. RED's lawsuit claims ARRI personnel handling camera tech support caused problems on the shoot by hot-swapping cables on the RED. "Anyone with ordinary skill in the industry would know not to hot-swap cables on a digital-cinema camera while filming," RED claims in its suit, further alleging, "these acts were purposely taken to cause damage to the camera."

Jannard posted at Reduser.net to threaten a lawsuit against ARRI upon Bravin's sentencing in September, writing, "My full-time job is now dealing with Michael Bravin and ARRI. Nothing else." Jannard stepped forward again last week to say, among other things, "My bet is that we won't be the only plaintiff."

An ARRI representative did not respond immediately to our request for comment.

R.I.P., the movie camera: 1888-2011

2011-10-14T12:15:00.000-07:00

Matt Zoller Seitz----Salon

We might as well call it: Cinema as we knew it is dead.

An article at the moviemaking technology website Creative Cow reports that the three major manufacturers of motion picture film cameras — Aaton, ARRI and Panavision — have all ceased production of new cameras within the last year, and will only make digital movie cameras from now on. As the article’s author, Debra Kaufman, poignantly puts it, “Someone, somewhere in the world is now holding the last film camera ever to roll off the line.”

What this means is that, even though purists may continue to shoot movies on film, film itself will may become increasingly hard to come by, use, develop and preserve. It also means that the film camera — invented in 1888 by Louis Augustin Le Prince — will become to cinema what typewriters are to literature. Anybody who still uses a Smith-Corona or IBM Selectric typewriter knows what that means: if your beloved machine breaks, you can’t just take it to the local repair shop, you have to track down some old hermit in another town who advertises on Craigslist and stockpiles spare parts in his basement.

As Aaton founder Jean-Pierre Beauviala told Kaufman: “Almost nobody is buying new film cameras. Why buy a new one when there are so many used cameras around the world? We wouldn’t survive in the film industry if we were not designing a digital camera.” Bill Russell, ARRI’s vice president of cameras, added that: “The demand for film cameras on a global basis has all but disappeared.”

Theaters, movies, moviegoing and other core components of what we once called “cinema” persist, and may endure. But they’re not quite what they were in the analog cinema era. They’re something new, or something else — the next generation of technologies and rituals that had changed shockingly little between 1895 and the early aughts. We knew this day would come. Calling oneself a “film director” or “film editor” or “film buff” or a “film critic” has over the last decade started to seem a faintly nostalgic affectation; decades hence it may start to seem fanciful. It’s a vestigial word that increasingly refers to something that does not actually exist — rather like referring to the mass media as “the press.”

In May 1999 — a year that saw several major releases, including “Toy Story 2,″ projected digitally for paying customers — editor and sound designer Walter Murch wrote a piece for the New York Times headlined, “A Digital Cinema of the Mind? Could Be.” In it, Murch pointed out that only two major aspects of the analog filmmaking process had survived into the late ’90s, the recording of images on sprocketed celluloid film and their projection onto big screens by casting a beam of light through the images. Murch predicted that once digital projection became widespread, it would “trigger the final capitulation of the two last holdouts of film’s 19th-century, analog-mechanical legacy. Projection, at the end of the line, is one; the other is the original photography that begins the whole process. The movie industry is currently a digital sandwich between slices of analog bread.”

Near the end of 1999, my former New York Press colleague Godfrey Cheshire published a two-part article titled “Death of Film/Decay of Cinema“, which in hindsight seems eerily prescient. He predicted just about everything that would happen within the next decade-plus, including the replacement of old-fashioned film print projection by digital systems, the replacement of film cameras by digital cameras, and the near-total takeover of traditional cinematic language by techniques that had once been the province of television.

“Camera, projector, celluloid,” Cheshire wrote, “the basic technology hasn’t changed in over a century. Sure, as a form of expression, film underwent a radical alteration with the addition of sound, but that and other developments – color, widescreen, stereo, etc.–were simply embellishments to a technical paradigm that has held true since photographic likenesses began to move, and that everyone in the world has thought of as “the movies” – until this summer. [...] For the time being, most movies will still be shot on film, primarily because audiences are used to the look, but everything else about the process will be, in effect, television – from the transmission by satellite to the projection, which for all intents and purposes is simply a glorified version of a home video projection system.”

Although I’ve become more of a surly classicist with age, I was an early defender of movies shot on video, and I really don’t see the point of doing a Grandpa Cinema routine, waving a cane and hollering that the movies somehow “equal” film. That’s silly. Cinema is not just a medium. It is a language. Its essence — storytelling with shots and cuts, with or without sound — will survive the death of the physical material, celluloid, that many believed was inseparably linked to it. The physical essence of analog cinema won’t survive the death of film (except at museums and repertory houses that insist on showing 16mm and 35mm prints).

But digital cinema will become so adept at mimicking the look of film that within a couple of decades, even cinematographers may not be able to tell the difference. The painterly colors, supple gray scale, hard sharpness and enticing flicker of motion picture film were always important (if mostly unacknowledged) parts of cinema’s mass appeal. The makers of digital moviemaking equipment got hip to that in the late ’90s, and channeled their research and development money accordingly; it’s surely no coincidence that celluloid-chauvinist moviegoers and moviemakers stopped resisting the digital transition once they realized that the new, electronically-created movies could be made to look somewhat like the analog kind, with dense images, a flickery frame rate, and starkly defined planes of depth.

But let’s not kid ourselves: Now that analog filmmaking is dead, an ineffable beauty has died with it. Let’s raise two toasts, then — one to the glorious past, and one to the future, whatever it may hold.

Glidetrack HD

2011-09-14T12:05:00.000-07:00

Been making use of this handy tool recently. The 36" Glidetarck HD works well with DSLR's and compact video camera systems. The rail is of a heavier duty extrusion, which makes the HD perfect for mid size rigs that may include external monitors, matte boxes or support systems. The rig tracks very smoothly and the set-up time is all of 30 seconds.

I can easily pack it in the tripod case, throw it on the plane or take it with me on the road.

Check it out glidetrack.com

Final Cut Pro X- Thumbs up or Down

2011-09-13T10:16:00.000-07:00

“If you’re an editor working with Apple’s Final Cut Pro, you’re probably well aware of the controversy and debate surrounding its latest release, which the company has dubbed Final Cut Pro X,” Lawrence Jordan, A.C.E. writes for the Motion Picture Editors Guild Magazine.

“On a fundamental level, FCP X is indeed a flexible, powerful and incredibly innovative piece of software,” Jordan writes. “It simply is not Final Cut Pro in any way, shape or form. It is a super-charged update of iMovie, and Apple would have received a lot less flack from some of its most loyal (and vocal) customers if it had just presented FCP X this way.”

“Marketing debacles aside, once you dig in and start to really understand the breadth and depth of the things it can do, it’s hard to argue that Final Cut Pro X is not groundbreaking,” Jordan writes. “It’s a slick, sophisticated and innovative rethinking of the editing paradigm that, considering Apple’s weight and power in the marketplace, will very likely be embraced by an entire new generation of media creators––people who will be crafting stories into the future, for platforms and devices that don’t even exist yet.”

Jordan writes, “Although I can’t recommend it to my fellow editors for editing features or television in its current incarnation (after all, it is only version 1.0), I look forward to what Final Cut Pro X will have to offer as it matures and as Apple begins to deliver on promises of a professional-level product that meets the needs and expectations of both its new and experienced users.”

To those who have switched over to "X" , please express your comments here.

Have you gone to Avid MC, Premiere, or stayed with Studio V-1,2 or 3

Affordable Follow focus

2011-03-06T22:21:00.000-08:00

Well known DOF adapter manufacture Letus has announced a brand new follow focus unit. It looks very similar to the Arri MFF-1 follow focus. It also has a few of the same features. It has a reversible gearbox and the pivot arm looks almost identical. The estimated street price is around $600. That would be a far cry from the $1500 for the Arri MFF-1. Here is a rip from the Press Release.

Our number one most requested accessory has finally been completed! Introducing the Letus Follow Focus. The highest quality follow focus you can buy for under $600 (forecasted price). There is not a piece in this system that has not been custom designed and built. Not a single “off the shelf” part was used. Everything is completely made from scratch to our precise specifications. We also CNC mill every component and do not resort to cheap plastic or metal casting in our production process.

The Letus Follow Focus is built out of anodized aluminum and stainless steel. It features an adjustable tension so you can tame those loose focus rings. The lens gear can be moved to either the front or back of the gear box for easier positioning on lenses. The entire setup can be mounted either to the left or right of a lens depending on your needs/preference. The gear box has forward/reverse switching so you can have the wheel spin whichever direction you prefer for pulling focus. The 15mm bracket is quick release and can be snapped to your support rods without removing any other components. This makes it very easy to add or remove the follow focus without breaking down your kit.

We will be releasing further specifications, detailed pricing, and release date once our beta testers have completed their final reviews. We are extremely excited to bring this product to market and are proud of the end result. This will bring a high end follow focus within reach of the beginner/intermediate budget range.

Conversation with Coppola by Ariston Anderson

2011-01-19T09:58:00.000-08:00

Over the course of 45 years in the film business, Francis Ford Coppola has refined a singular code of ethics that govern his filmmaking. There are three rules: 1) Write and direct original screenplays, 2) make them with the most modern technology available, and 3) self-finance them.

But Coppola didn’t develop this formula overnight. Though he found Hollywood success at the young age of 30, he admits that the early “Godfather” fame pulled him off course from his dream of writing and directing personal stories. Like Bergman, Coppola wanted to wake up and make movies based on his dreams and nightmares.

Thanks in no small part to his booming wine business, Coppola now does just that. He recently wrapped his latest picture, “Twixt Now and Sunrise,” based on an alcohol-induced dream he had in Turkey. The film even features the latest 3-D technology – but as a brief dramatic segment that serves the story, rather than the typical two-hour, multiplex gimmick.

Why did you choose not to teach a master class?

For me in cinema there are few masters. I have met some masters – Kurosawa, Polanski – but I am a student.

I just finished a film a few days ago, and I came home and said I learned so much today. So if I can come home from working on a little film after doing it for 45 years and say, “I learned so much today,” that shows something about the cinema. Because the cinema is very young. It’s only 100 years old.

Even in the early days of the movies, they didn’t know how to make movies. They had an image and it moved and the audience loved it. You saw a train coming into the station, and just to see motion was beautiful.

The cinema language happened by experimentation – by people not knowing what to do. But unfortunately, after 15-20 years, it became a commercial industry. People made money in the cinema, and then they began to say to the pioneers, “Don’t experiment. We want to make money. We don’t want to take chances.”

The cinema language happened by experimentation – by people not knowing what to do.

An essential element of any art is risk. If you don’t take a risk then how are you going to make something really beautiful, that hasn’t been seen before? I always like to say that cinema without risk is like having no sex and expecting to have a baby. You have to take a risk.

You try to go to a producer today and say you want to make a film that hasn’t been made before; they will throw you out because they want the same film that works, that makes money. That tells me that although the cinema in the next 100 years is going to change a lot, it will slow down because they don’t want you to risk anymore. They don’t want you to take chances. So I feel like [I’m] part of the cinema as it was 100 years ago, when you didn't know how to make it. You have to discover how to make it.

Do you feel like you’re more of a risk-taker now?

I was always a good adventurer. I was never afraid of risks. I always had a good philosophy about risks. The only risk is to waste your life, so that when you die, you say, “Oh, I wish I had done this.” I did everything I wanted to do, and I continue to.

What’s the most useful piece of advice you’d give a student?

The first thing you do when you take a piece of paper is always put the date on it, the month, the day, and where it is. Because every idea that you put on paper is useful to you. By putting the date on it as a habit, when you look for what you wrote down in your notes, you will be desperate to know that it happened in April in 1972 and it was in Paris and already it begins to be useful. One of the most important tools that a filmmaker has are his/her notes.

If you don’t take a risk then how are you going to make something really beautiful, that hasn’t been seen before?

Is it important to veer away from the masters to develop one’s own style?

I once found a little excerpt from Balzac. He speaks about a young writer who stole some of his prose. The thing that almost made me weep, he said, “I was so happy when this young person took from me.” Because that’s what we want. We want you to take from us. We want you, at first, to steal from us, because you can’t steal. You will take what we give you and you will put it in your own voice and that’s how you will find your voice.

And that’s how you begin. And then one day someone will steal from you. And Balzac said that in his book: It makes me so happy because it makes me immortal because I know that 200 years from now there will be people doing things that somehow I am part of. So the answer to your question is: Don’t worry about whether it’s appropriate to borrow or to take or do something like someone you admire because that’s only the first step and you have to take the first step.

How does an aspiring artist bridge the gap between distribution and commerce?

We have to be very clever about those things. You have to remember that it’s only a few hundred years, if that much, that artists are working with money. Artists never got money. Artists had a patron, either the leader of the state or the duke of Weimar or somewhere, or the church, the pope. Or they had another job. I have another job. I make films. No one tells me what to do. But I make the money in the wine industry. You work another job and get up at five in the morning and write your script.

This idea of Metallica or some rock n’ roll singer being rich, that’s not necessarily going to happen anymore. Because, as we enter into a new age, maybe art will be free. Maybe the students are right. They should be able to download music and movies. I’m going to be shot for saying this. But who said art has to cost money? And therefore, who says artists have to make money?

In the old days, 200 years ago, if you were a composer, the only way you could make money was to travel with the orchestra and be the conductor, because then you’d be paid as a musician. There was no recording. There were no record royalties. So I would say, “Try to disconnect the idea of cinema with the idea of making a living and money.” Because there are ways around it.

You have to remember that it’s only a few hundred years, if that much, that artists are working with money.

What’s the greatest challenge of a screenwriter?

A screenplay has to be like a haiku. It has to be very concise and very clear, minimal. When you go to make it as a film, you have the suggestions of the actors, which are going to be available to you, right? You’re going to listen to the actors because they have great ideas. You’re going to listen to the photographer because he will have a great idea.

You must never be the kind of director, I think maybe I was when I was 18, “No, no, no, I know best.” That’s not good. You can make the decision that you feel is best, but listen to everyone, because cinema is collaboration. I always like to say that collaboration is the sex of art because you take from everyone you’re working with.

What is the one thing to keep in mind when making a film?

When you make a movie, always try to discover what the theme of the movie is in one or two words. Every time I made a film, I always knew what I thought the theme was, the core, in one word. In “The Godfather,” it was succession. In “The Conversation,” it was privacy. In “Apocalypse,” it was morality.

The reason it’s important to have this is because most of the time what a director really does is make decisions. All day long: Do you want it to be long hair or short hair? Do you want a dress or pants? Do you want a beard or no beard? There are many times when you don’t know the answer. Knowing what the theme is always helps you.

I remember in “The Conversation,” they brought all these coats to me, and they said: Do you want him to look like a detective, Humphrey Bogart? Do you want him to look like a blah blah blah. I didn’t know, and said the theme is ‘privacy’ and chose the plastic coat you could see through. So knowing the theme helps you make a decision when you’re not sure which way to go.

What’s the secret to working with great actors?

I’m going to tell you the story of how I prepared the actors of “The Godfather.” Of course, we were all nervous about Marlon Brando. As theatre students in the ‘50s, we looked at him as the greatest. And there was going to be the first time when all the actors were going to meet. Of course, Al Pacino, Jimmy Caan, Bobby Duvall, Johnny Cazale – everyone just admired Marlon. He was the Godfather. I knew that, and I said, “I can use this.” Napoleon once said, “Use the weapons at hand,” and this is what a film director has to do everyday. So what I did is I arranged for the first meeting as an improvisation.

I said, “I want you to come and be hungry.” And they came to a restaurant that I had arranged, the back room of the restaurant, just a table that looked like a home. Marlon, I had sit at the head of the table, and to his right I put Al Pacino, and to his left I put Jimmy Caan. I put Bobby Duvall, and I put Johnny Cazale, and I had my sister Talia, who played Connie, serve the food.

They had a dinner improvisation together, and after awhile everyone is relating to Marlon as the father, and Jimmy Caan is trying to impress him with jokes, and Al Pacino is trying to impress him by being intense and quiet, and my sister was so frightened – she was serving the food. And after that dinner they were the characters. So one tip I give you is, with improvisations, they really stick if there’s something sensual connected with them, like food or eating or making something with their hands.

Napoleon once said, ‘Use the weapons at hand,’ and this is what a film director has to do everyday.

How do you adapt a novel into a script?

Well, usually it’s the novel that’s adapted. The novel, unfortunately, is not a good form to adapt to film because the question of the novel is it’s usually much, much, much too long with too many characters, too many parts. The short story is the natural narrative, linear narrative to become a film. Many, many short stories have become films.

With a novel, what I can recommend is when you first read the novel, put good notes in it the first time, right on the book, write down everything you feel, underline every sensation that you felt was strong. Those first notes are very valuable. Then, when you finish the book, you will see that some pages are filled with underlined notes and some are blank.

In theatre, there’s something called a prompt book. The prompt book is what the stage manager has, usually a loose-leaf book with all the lighting cues. I make a prompt book out of the novel. In other words, I break the novel, and I glue the pages in a loose-leaf, usually with the square cutout so I can see both sides.

I have that big book with the notes I took, and then I go and I put lots more observations and notes. Then I begin to go through that and summarize the part that I thought was useful. And quite naturally you’ll see that the parts fall away, or that you have too many characters, so you know that you have to eliminate some or combine some. Working on it this way, from the outside in, being more specific as to what you think… then when you finish that, you are qualified perhaps to try to write a draft based on that notebook.

In the case of “The Godfather” I did that, and although I had a screenplay, I never used it. I always used to take that big notebook around with me, and I made the movie from that notebook. In the case of “Apocalypse,” there was a script written by the great John Milius, but, I must say, what I really made the film from was the little green copy of Heart of Darkness that I had done all those lines in. Whenever I would do a scene, I would check that and see what can I give the movie from Conrad.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve given to your children, inside and outside of the industry?

Always make your work be personal.

And, you never have to lie. If you lie, you will only trip yourself up. You will always get caught in a lie. It is very important for an artist not to lie, and most important is not to lie to yourself. There are some questions that are inappropriate to ask, and rather than lie, I will not answer them because it’s not a question I accept. So many times we are asked things in our work or in life that you want to lie, and all you have to do is say, “No, that is an improper question.”

So when you get into a habit of not lying when you are writing, directing, or making a film, that will carry your personal conviction into your work. And, in a society where you say you are very free but you’re not entirely free, you have to try. There is something we know that’s connected with beauty and truth. There is something ancient. We know that art is about beauty, and therefore it has to be about truth.

You now have all the resources to do your own production, writing, directing. What’s the biggest barrier to being an artist?

Self-confidence always. The artist always battles his own/her own feeling of inadequacy.

How do you overcome that?

I’ve learned an interesting thing. When I was young on a movie set, I would try to stage the scene and the actors would read it, and I said, “Well, you stand here and you sit there, and blah, blah, blah.” They would say, “Well, I don’t think I should sit there, I should stand there. And I don’t think this line is right.” And they would begin to challenge the text.

What I learned, which is a simple idea, is that if you hold out with your vision a little bit, it’s like a cake being put in the oven. The scene doesn’t work immediately, you have to bake it a little bit. It’s unfair, when you begin to create a shot, say, or a scene, that it’s going to immediately be like those beautiful scenes in the movies. It needs a little bit of time to mature. It’s like taking the cake out without letting it be in the oven for more than a minute. Like, oh no, it’s terrible. So you have to be patient, and then slowly everyone starts to see that the ideas are right, or make the corrections. You have to battle the lack of confidence by giving the scene the chance to solidify.

Do you use that approach in life as well?

Yes, I think. We are very insecure. People are insecure, not just young people. Everyone is insecure. They say that Barbara Streisand, when she goes on, she has a panic attack. She feels she can’t sing. Of course, she can sing. I believe that when you write something, when I write something, I turn it over and I don’t look at it. Because I believe the writer, the young writer, has a hormone that makes them hate what they’ve written. And yet, the next morning, when you look at it, you say, “Oh that’s not bad.” But the first second you hate it.

Net Neutrality Rules Approved By Divided FCC

2010-12-21T11:25:00.000-08:00

A divided Federal Communications Commission has approved new rules meant to prohibit broadband companies from interfering with Internet traffic flowing to their customers.

The 3-2 vote Tuesday marks a major victory for FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, who has spent more than a year trying to craft a compromise.

The FCC's three Democrats voted to pass the rules, while the two Republicans opposed them, calling them unnecessary regulation. The new rules are likely to face intense scrutiny on Capitol Hill once Republicans take over the House. Meanwhile, public interest groups decried the regulations as too weak, particularly for wireless systems.

Known as "net neutrality," the rules prohibit phone and cable companies from favoring or discriminating against Internet content and services, such as those from rivals.

The rules require broadband providers to let subscribers access all legal online content, applications and services over their wired networks – including online calling services, Internet video and other Web applications that compete with their core businesses. But the rules give broadband providers flexibility to manage data on their systems to deal with problems such as network congestion and unwanted traffic including spam as long as they publicly disclose their network management practices.

The regulations prohibit unreasonable network discrimination – a category that FCC officials say would most likely include services that favor traffic from the broadband providers themselves or traffic from business partners that can pay for priority. The rules do, however, leave the door open for broadband providers to experiment with routing traffic from specialized services such as smart grids and home security systems over dedicated networks as long as these services are separate from the public Internet.

In addition, the regulations prohibit wireless carriers from blocking access to any websites or competing applications such as Internet calling services on mobile devices, and require them to disclose their network management practices, too. But the rules give wireless companies would get more leeway to manage data traffic because wireless systems have more bandwidth constraints than wired networks.

Genachowski said the regulations will prohibit broadband providers from abusing their control over the on-ramps that consumers use to get onto the Internet. He said the companies won't be able to determine where their customers can go and what they can do online.

"Today, for the first time, we are adopting rules to preserve basic Internet values," Genachowski said. "For the first time, we'll have enforceable rules of the road to preserve Internet freedom and openness."

Cook Your Looks

2010-10-08T10:23:00.000-07:00

Red Giant Magic Bullet Looks is a great jump forward in ease of use and still delivers stunning new looks for your digital video. If you want to give your video a certain mood or motif or simply make it jump off the screen like never before, Magic Bullet Looks can get you there. And, for most of us, it won't require too much time reading how to do it.

You can get your hands on the demo version right away with a 54MB download from Red Giant Software's website. The demo will add a red X watermark across your images as a result, but it's fully functional and, like any effects software package, it's extremely fun to play with for hours and hours.

Our installation took just a couple of minutes, and there were no updates at the time. Throughout our tests, we saw no hiccups that would suggest that an update would chase this initial 1.0.0.0 release. Magic Bullet Looks is available to both Mac and PC users, and it works with Apple Final Cut Pro and Motion 3, Avid Xpress and Media Composer and Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro (be sure to check the technical specifications to see which versions apply).

We quickly checked the Help documentation before setting off on our journey. We chose to install Looks in Premiere Pro CS3 on our HP xw4600 workstation (2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Quad processor, 2GB RAM, NVIDIA Quadro FX1700 with 512MB video memory). A few minutes later, we felt confident that this latest version would be much easier to navigate than previous versions.

The Builder

Just like any other effects plug-in, Magic Bullet Looks installs the Looks effect as well as a myriad of Magic Bullet MisFire effects (i.e., dust, scratches and other film effects) into the effects library of your editing software. We chose to make some outdoor action-sports footage get a Looks makeover.

The LooksBuilder is the main software interface for manipulating your different Looks. By "Looks," we mean the grouping of different image adjustments and effects that you tweak within the LooksBuilder to create the final look of that image or video clip. It might sound complicated, but it's far from intimidating, as the LooksBuilder has a new graphical interface that's incredibly simple to use. We don't want to fool you, however, as the practice of color timing and its theory are not at all elementary. But the LooksBuilder will allow beginners to tinker and learn how to apply these effects with a straightforward building-block approach.

At the launch of LooksBuilder, a still frame of our video clip is at the top left position. Looks chooses the still from where our playhead rests in Premiere Pro (you can change this in the Preferences). To the right of the image, you can toggle on and off an RGB Parade monitor or a Slice Graph monitor. Both monitors are a necessity for understanding in general terms what you are doing to your image. Below, you'll find the new Tool Chain, which organizes your image adjustment tools into different stages to help you make better use of each tool. The stages are Subject, Matte, Lens, Camera and Post. Certain tools will correspond only to their relevant process stages, so a general understanding of color timing will help you achieve maximum effectiveness within the Tool Chain. Red Giant has done a great job with this interface, removing any mystery in what's happening by adopting a graphical interface. This greatly benefits new users, too, as the Tool QuickDrawer lays out your tools by the process stages.

The QuickDrawers are windows that slide in and out, giving the editor a quick peek at either the preset Looks (located on the left side of the interface) or the individual tools (right side of the interface). Using a cooking analogy, consider the Looks QuickDrawer a library of recipes you can pull from and apply to your clip immediately. Meanwhile, the Tool QuickDrawer contains all the separate spices/ingredients that you can choose in unique combinations to customize your own Look.

Overall, we were very impressed with the new LooksBuilder. As in the last version of Looks, the presets are incredibly useful, and the customization options allow for endless possibilities. There's more under the hood than we have space to write about, so to summarize: Red Giant Software has nailed its new LooksBuilder in terms of functionality. But, there's one tiny exception. Several times during our test, we applied a tool from the Tool QuickDrawer and decided fairly quickly to remove it from the Tool Chain. We then acted on this decision by clicking the Cancel button. This task seemed intuitive, but we should have dragged the tool to the trash bin to remove it. The unfortunate result is that we closed LooksBuilder altogether without saving our latest changes. A good fix would be to add a prompt to the Cancel button that asks if you really want to cancel and close the application (make it idiot-proof). This would save users from the accidental Cancel syndrome that seemed to plague us. Otherwise, you may end up learning the hard way not to hit the Cancel button unless you really, really mean to cancel your Look.

Rendering Looks

We ran a few tests in Premiere Pro CS3 with some native HDV clips. We put together a very short sequence: two outdoor sports-action shots that ran a total of 9 seconds. First, we added a Look preset to see how long it would take to render. We chose the Buffalo preset, which basically crushed our black levels a bit and bumped up the blue channel (overall, there are 6 image adjustments in this effect). Render time for our workstation to process the Buffalo preset came in at 1 minute, 34 seconds. Your experience will differ, depending on your workstation and video card, but, when rendering Looks Presets, you can expect to spend a good amount of time waiting to see the final results. We could play back our clips at draft quality with a noticeable number of skipped frames. The un-rendered draft-quality playback is fair, but you'll definitely want to save Looks for when you've locked down your edit. Lastly, we decided to make a custom Look, but, instead of a wild concoction, we simply added a single Contrast filter. Draft-quality playback improved significantly, yet it was still a bit choppy. Naturally, our render time was much faster, clocking in at 34 seconds.

Google+Verizon=No Net Neutrality

2010-08-09T19:06:00.000-07:00

So Google and Verizon went public today with their "policy framework" -- better known as the pact to end the Internet as we know it.

News of this deal broke this week, sparking a public outcry that's seen hundreds of thousands of Internet users calling on Google to live up to its "Don't Be Evil" pledge.

But cut through the platitudes the two companies (Googizon, anyone?) offered on today's press call, and you'll find this deal is even worse than advertised.

The proposal is one massive loophole that sets the stage for the corporate takeover of the Internet.

Real Net Neutrality means that Internet service providers can't discriminate between different kinds of online content and applications. It guarantees a level playing field for all Web sites and Internet technologies. It's what makes sure the next Google, out there in a garage somewhere, has just as good a chance as any giant corporate behemoth to find its audience and thrive online.

What Google and Verizon are proposing is fake Net Neutrality. You can read their framework for yourself here or go here to see Google twisting itself in knots about this suddenly "thorny issue." But here are the basics of what the two companies are proposing:

1. Under their proposal, there would be no Net Neutrality on wireless networks -- meaning anything goes, from blocking websites and applications to pay-for-priority treatment.

2. Their proposed standard for "non-discrimination" on wired networks is so weak that actions like Comcast's widely denounced blocking of BitTorrent would be allowed.

3. The deal would let ISPs like Verizon -- instead of Internet users like you -- decide which applications deserve the best quality of service. That's not the way the Internet has ever worked, and it threatens to close the door on tomorrow's innovative applications. (If RealPlayer had been favored a few years ago, would we ever have gotten YouTube?)

4. The deal would allow ISPs to effectively split the Internet into "two pipes" -- one of which would be reserved for "managed services," a pay-for-play platform for content and applications. This is the proverbial toll road on the information superhighway, a fast lane reserved for the select few, while the rest of us are stuck on the cyber-equivalent of a winding dirt road.

5. The pact proposes to turn the Federal Communications Commission into a toothless watchdog, left fruitlessly chasing consumer complaints but unable to make rules of its own. Instead, it would leave it up to unaccountable (and almost surely industry-controlled) third parties to decide what the rules should be.

If there's a silver lining in this whole fiasco it's that, last I checked anyway, it wasn't up to Google and Verizon to write the rules. That's why we have Congress and the FCC.

Certainly by now we should have learned -- from AIG, Massey Energy, BP, you name it -- what happens when we let big companies regulate themselves or hope they'll do the right thing.

We need the FCC -- with the backing of Congress and President Obama -- to step and do the hard work of governing. That means restoring the FCC's authority to protect Internet users and safeguarding real Net Neutrality once and for all.

Such a move might not be popular on Wall Street or even in certain corners of Silicon Valley, but it's the kind of leadership the public needs right now.

If you haven't yet told the FCC why we need Net Neutrality, please do it now.

Compact Primes

2010-07-14T13:01:00.000-07:00

The Compact Prime II set, were made in response to the high level of interest in using HDSLR cameras for filmmaking. It helped that ZEISS made similar lenses for both worlds. The ZF series of lenses are smaller in diameter and lack focus gears. The Compact Primes have all the right moves for PL cine cameras, but don’t fit on Canon cameras without modification. So, now ZEISS has combined the best of both: Compact Prime lenses for use with EF-mount (Canon EOS) cameras. These new lenses feature a bayonet mount for a direct fit to the EF-mount and do not require any modification of the camera or lens. Since the optics are based on the ZEISS SLR “Z” lenses, they cover the full still frame 24 x 36mm image format without vignetting. The new Compact Prime II lenses will have an interchangeable mount system that can be easily changed from EF mount to PL mount by a lens technician equipped with collimator. This design lets you use the same set of lenses on both PL mounted cine/digital cameras and HDSLRs.

ZEISS Compact Prime II

covers full frame still format, 24 x 36mm sensor
lenses will be available in both EF and PL mount versions, with interchangeable mount systems
manual focus with smooth travel
barrel dimensions are identical and lenses feature internal focusing
each lens weighs between 2.0 – 2.2 pounds
support bracket is included for additional lens stability
300 degree focus rotation
14-blade aperture
geared for standard follow-focus
calibrated focus scales
8 focal lengths available, from 18 mm to 85 mm
estimated street price for a set of 6 lenses is under $20,000. Lenses will also be sold in a custom 3 lens set, or individually.

A Great Tool

2010-07-14T12:53:00.000-07:00

Redrock Microsystems, a manufacturer of cinema-quality camera accessories for digital filmmakers, has unveiled its new MicroRemote focus control system for use on DV and HD DSLR cameras. The wireless system includes an iPhone-compatible remote control unit, base station, motorized focus ring, and a sonar rangefinder.

The system allows a filmmaker to control the focus and other camera parameters remotely, such as when the camera is mounted in a hard to reach location, or when shooting with a focus puller (a camera operator responsible solely for focusing the camera during a shot).

The MicroRemote includes an onboard dock for an Apple iPhone or iPod Touch. Once connected, the iPod or iPhone displays detailed focus and aperture information, and allows you to create custom configurations depending on which lens you are using.

The MicroRemote works by communicating with the base station either wirelessly or using a cable. The base station is connected to a follow focus (a motorized focus ring) mounted on the camera, as well as the MicroTape sonar rangefinder. Simply twist the knob on the remote to control the camera’s focus ring. With an iPod or iPhone installed and running Redrock’s app, the MicroRemote will display the focus position of the lens. You can then input the aperture and focal length, and the unit will show a visual representation of the depth of field range of your lens. The MicroRemote can also read input from the MicroTape and tell you where the lens should be focused, or you can activate auto focus mode to have the unit do the focusing for you.

Redrock says the MicroRemote system can control multiple focus rings or other motors for applications such as controlling zoom and iris as well as focus. The system can also be used to control multiple camera rigs for 3D applications.

The company makes other accessories for DV cameras and HD DSLR cameras, such as Zeiss and ARRI lens adapters, mounting rigs, and focus pullers. Its products are designed to bring big-budget cinema-quality capabilities to independent filmmakers shooting with DV camcorders or video-capable HD DSLR cameras.

According to Redrock, the MicroRemote system will be out later this year. Final pricing has not been set, but expect a base system to run about US$1000.

For more information visit redrockmicro.com.

ARRI Alexa

2010-07-10T11:34:00.000-07:00

ALEXA — the first model in a new generation of digital cameras for feature, television, commercial, documentary, music video production and more. Compact, ergonomic and lightweight on one hand, robust with ARRI’s legendary reliability on the other, ALEXA’s new Super 35 format sensor delivers amazing images with a base sensitivity of EI 800, low noise and an unsurpassed dynamic range of 13.5 stops.
ARRI Imaging Technology (AIT) captures organic, film-like images unlike any digital camera, with natural color rendition and pleasing skin tones.

The unique Dual Gain Architecture (DGA) design of ALEXA’s CMOS sensor ensures the same wide exposure latitude across a range of sensitivity from EI 200 to EI 1600. This creates opportunities in post-production, where it is easier and faster to get the most out of the rich, captured images. Good detail in both highlight and shadow areas as well as a very low noise level help the colorist to reduce time, effort and thus, cost in grading.
ALEXA’s excellent signal to noise ratio and clean color separation are particularly effective for greenscreen and VFX work.

The ALEXA system represents the most versatile and quickest workflow from the set, through post to distribution. This is achieved through ALEXA’s efficient Direct to Edit workflow with a multitude of output options, complete metadata and integrated color management.

ALEXA is unique in that it can simultaneously record Apple QuickTime/ProRes files, output uncompressed HD video and uncompressed ARRIRAW data.

Completely new to ARRI cameras is the ability to record QuickTime files containing Apple ProRes encoded images onto on-board SxS memory cards. ALEXA’s internal recorder encodes ProRes 422 (HQ) or ProRes 444 images, along with audio, metadata and Final Cut Pro (FCP) XML files. These files load directly into FCP for editing, coloring and finishing work. Furthermore, the extremely high quality of Apple’s ProRes 422 (HQ) and ProRes 4444 codecs means that the edited result can be immediately distributed.

Two HD-SDI connectors supporting 1.5G dual link or two 3G signals can alternatively be used to output 4:2:2 or 4:4:4 uncompressed HD signals in addition to an ARRIRAW T-link signal. These different signals can be output to certified third party on-board recorders including those from S.two, Codex and Keisoku Giken. Through ALEXA’s Direct to Edit capabilities, the QuickTime/ProRes off-line editing proxy is created directly in camera, carrying the exact same images, audio, timecode and metadata as the on-line HD or ARRIRAW material. ARRIRAW is the only way to access the full potential of ALEXA’s sensor which has color and dynamic range capabilities far beyond standard HD. ARRI’s own ARRIRAW Image Converter (ARC) provides image reconstruction features for the Windows, LINUX and Mac OS platforms.

The Super 35 format CMOS Bayer sensor exhibits cinematic, shallow depth of field and allows the use of all 35mm PL mount lenses. The sensor’s 3.5K pixel count delivers an optimum in image sharpness, sensitivity and latitude for HD (1920 X 1080) and 2K DI workflows.
Additionally, the ALEXA viewfinder was specifically designed to meet the needs of camera operators by offering an extremely fast image display, high image quality, accurate color reproduction and a number of features inherited from our optical viewfinders, including overscan.

To protect the investment in ALEXA and to expand the filmmaker’s options when shooting, three major components of the camera are specifically designed to allow an easy upgrade path.
First, taking into account the rapid rate of change in storage technologies, the module that holds the memory cards is removable. Should another recording technology prove more desirable in the future, this module can be easily replaced with other storage modules. Second, the camera electronics, which comprise the whole right side of the camera, can also be removed and replaced by upgraded electronics with advanced features. Last, but not least, the Exchangeable Lens Mount (ELM) system allows the use of PL as well as Panavision, Canon or Nikon lenses.

Love the 5D love this video from Bathtub TV

2010-05-28T14:19:00.000-07:00

Oscar Nominated Documentries-2010

2010-03-05T10:07:00.000-08:00

Every one of the "nods" this year are excellent! My personal pick is "Burma VJ".
Having had- (((and I don't mean breakfast))) -spent a little time in that part of the world,
I know what a risk the filmmakers took to produce this.

Awesome year for Docs. Hope you can get out to view these films and support the filmmakers!

Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country

Which Way Home

The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers

The Cove

Food, Inc

Color Theory for Cinematographers

2009-03-13T11:03:00.000-07:00

Posted: March 2009, by Isaac

At this year’s San Antonio Film Academy, I gave two lectures on three Cs of cinematography, composition, contrast, and color. Color is often overlooked by beginning DPs, and it is an extremely powerful tool. I described color in cinematography as “the use of analogous or complimentary color tones to create contrasts between elements in the frame and communicate emotional ideas to the audience.”

Not a great description, but good enough for starters. Color can be used to communicate information to audiences in all kinds of ways. For example, the storyline in Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic takes place in three different places, each of which is a very different color. Viewers can instantly tell where characters are and what part of the story they are watching. This is a very obvious way to communicate basic information.

Color can also communicate emotional information. Certain cinematic conventions have developed which help with this, for example warm lighting to convey safety and cool lighting to suggest danger are about as standard as shadows to convey mystery and brightness to signify security. Some directors, like James Cameron, stick to these conventions religiously, but others are willing to shake things up.

It can be very helpful to depart from the expected if your film requires it. Spielberg flipped the light=good/shadows=bad expectation on its head for E.T., and Ridley Scott changed all the normal colors rules for Black Hawk Down. Because these films are more complex than say, a standard comedy, forcing the audience to adjust to and rethink the world of the film is very effective.

When we first see Scott’s Somalia it looks like this – dirty, grungy, and brown. A greeny-orangey tobacco-filter brown. This is not the rich golden Africa of Sahara or Gladiator, but a dingy and dangerous place. Diesel smoke makes even the sky grubby. So far, so good.

By contrast, US soldiers live in high-tech steel barracks lit by cool halogen lights and laptop screens. Remember, cinematic convention usually says that warm tones indicate a cosy safe place and harsh blues like these mean cold clinical uncertainty, but not in Black Hawk Down. This color palette is unfamiliar territory, just like Somalia.

When Task Force Ranger goes into Mogadishu they go into the warm, brown, dangerous sunlight and bad things happen. This bright warm orange light is not safe. This is different. The audience has been thrown a curve ball, just like our heroes.

Finally, our men begin to find cover. Inexplicably, the basements of the abandoned slums they hide in have a very cool lighting scheme. Subconsciously, even though this is not conventional color use, the audience knows that they are safer here that outside in the brown. By now, all our viewers have picked up on how the palette works.

As time ticks away the odds get worse, the situation becomes more and more dangerous. Even that deadly warm sunlight is trying to invade the cool blue safe house. Every part of the film, including the color palette, is communicating jeopardy to the audience.

And of course, the battle ends just as the blue light of dawn makes everything safe and secure. The grueling Mogadishu Mile becomes almost a victory lap with this new color palette. The Rangers are back to their normal hue, and all is well… pretty much.

Ridley Scott does a tremendous job with this film through clever color use. It might be a little surprising, since everyone wears the same clothing, all the buildings are the same shade, and a lot of the film takes place at night, but I think this film makes better use of color as a storytelling tool than even Gladiator.
To see how closely color is tied to the events of the film, take a look at the chart below. Brendan Dawes has come up with a great new way to examine the pacing and overall color of films, and here are a few more color charts to look through.

Interesting Idea

2009-03-12T15:07:00.000-07:00

Digital cameras and video cameras quickly become obsolete, but a new modular camera system will let photographers upgrade just about any part of their cameras rather than buying new ones. Aimed at professional photographers and filmmakers, the system uses interchangeable sensors, displays, hard drives, and other components that can be assembled in a variety of configurations. The complete cameras can produce both super-high-resolution still images and movies of a quality high enough for major studios.

Product: Red Digital Stills and Motion Camera
Cost: $2,500 to $53,000 for the digital sensor and processor, depending on their quality
Source: www.red.com
Company: Red Digital Cinema

Cool Tool- The Slider Plate

2009-01-26T15:34:00.000-08:00

The creative applications are endless. For a second-floor window close-up, the 4-Foot Slider can be mounted on a Condor or other aerial platform. The camera can then slide from a wide shot into the close-up, eliminating the need for a zoom. Mounting the 4-Foot Slider on a crane or other ridable camera platform creates many other tasty opportunities, such as beginning or finishing an arm drop (or rise) with a nice move in or out.

Say you need to shoot a scene in a small locker room. The principal has to walk from the first locker to a locker on the opposite wall. Even the smallest dolly would have less than two feet to maneuver between the lockers and the permanent benches. With a 4-Foot Slider mounted on the dolly, you can slide back and forth along with the dolly to create a move from profile to profile. Your two-foot camera move is now a five-foot beauty.

Need to shoot with two cameras simultaneously? No problem. Simply remove the ratcheting mount under the Slider and replace it with the Ronford-Baker quick-release wedge plate. Put the fluid head on the dolly, then snap the plate (which is now attached to the Slider) on the head. The 4-Foot Slider accepts two camera plates and you can now pan and tilt both cameras together. For instance, for a music video you could mount two cameras, one wide and one tight lens, spooning the cameras as close as possible to each other. You could then operate them as one unit.

The Slider’s engraved index marks make it easy to find and repeat camera positions. And it helps the camera assistant maintain critical focus, so everyone looks good.

Both the 3-Foot and the 4-Foot models have a unique smooth-stop index and an adjustable-tension brake, features you won’t find on any other Camera-Movement system. This allows the operator to pre-set stop marks to control the camera’s range of motion.

A Ronford-Baker quick-release plate is also included...

Keith Urban- Concert DVD Promo

2009-01-03T11:41:00.001-08:00

La Mission at the Sundance Film Festival

2009-01-02T12:03:00.001-08:00

Set in the colorful, seedy streets of the San Francisco district that bears its name, La MISSION is a story of redemption imbued with the curative power of Aztec tradition. Feared, yet respected, as the baddest Chicano on the block, Che (Benjamin Bratt), a reformed inmate and recovering alcoholic, resorts to violence and intimidation to get what he wants. A bus driver by day, Che lives for his beloved son, Jesse, his lifelong friends, and his passion for lowrider cars. Che and the “Mission Boyz” salvage junked cars, transforming them into classics.Che’s macho world is crushed when he discovers that Jesse’s been living a secret life. In a violent rage, Che pummels Jesse and throws him out of the house. Lena, an attractive neighbor and a force to be reckoned with, is a woman with a few secrets of her own. Mutual attraction percolates as Lena challenges Che to reconcile the life he thought he had.Sundance veteran Peter Bratt (Follow Me Home) returns with a powerful second feature. Propelled by commanding performances from Jeremy Ray Valdez as Jesse and Erika Alexander as Lena—and featuring an exceptional turn by Benjamin Bratt—La MISSION is a haunting story of healing and transformation: the healing of a broken man, of a father’s relationship with his son, and of a neighborhood struggling to break the chains of violence.

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR:

Peter Bratt - Peter Bratt's first encounter with the Sundance Film Festival was in 1996, when his well-received independent feature film, Follow Me Home, screened. He is back in 2009 with La MISSION, which stars his brother, actor Benjamin Bratt. Follow Me Home, Bratt's first film, explored race and identity from the multiple perspectives of Chicanos, African Americans, and Native Americans. The film earned Bratt the best director award at the American Indian Film Festival.

SCREENING SCHEDULE AT THE FESTIVAL:
http://festival.sundance.org/2009/film_events/films/mission

Goodfellas "Then He Kissed Me"

2008-06-01T22:09:00.000-07:00

Another great blocking sample and nice operating with the use of a Steadycam- Remember the opening shot of "6 degrees of Separation"- this shot rivals that one. This is all 1 shot -1 mag

Touch of Evil

2008-06-01T22:02:00.000-07:00

One of the great "early" samples of blocking-All done with out the use of a Steadycam- Again, 1 singular shot on 1 mag.
This was shot near the famed Venice circle at Venice beach. Many of the buildings still stand today.

Foley

2008-04-08T09:40:00.001-07:00

The post-production process known as “foley” refers to the art of recording “live” sync sound effects to picture. It is akin to looping the dialogue, but instead of recording the actors performing their lines while watching themselves on screen – skilled craftspeople known as “Foley artists” will walk, run, and act out any sync sound effects to match what the actor is seen (or implied) doing in the picture.

Back in the golden era of Hollywood cinema, this was done routinely for three reasons. First off, because the microphones deployed on those early sound stages lacked sensitivity, and were lucky enough to just pick up the loud dialogue of the actors on the set. And yes, in those days, the actors performed all of their lines in a robust “stage voice”. Even the “whispers” could be heard across the room! As for the quieter sounds (sound effects) that the actors made, such as footsteps, guns cocking, pens scribbling, pages turning, and so forth – the mics could barely pick them up from the distances above the actors’ heads where the mics were positioned.

Secondly, due to the insensitivity of these early mics, or due to loud background noise – the dialogue was often “looped” back at the studio. The looping or ADR process replaced the voices, but not the sound effects of the scene. So all of the sync sound effects had to be added to the soundtrack.

The third reason for foley is somewhat related to the second, in that studios wanted to edit their films with foreign distribution in mind. If you dub an actor’s voice from native English to anything else, then you will need to replace most of the sound effects as well (at least any of them that were recorded simultaneously under the dialogue).

Adding foley sound effects will add dimension and texture to your soundtrack. Sometimes, the sound itself becomes a critical part in the storytelling. For example, we see an actress hiding for her life in a closet. But we hear the footsteps and creaking floorboards of the intruder…

If you are a major studio, the process of foley recording involves a specialized recording studio known as the foley stage. The foley stage includes some manner of projection (film or video), along with the Foley on a Shoestring Creating Low-Budget Foley by Fred Ginsburg C.A.S., Ph.D. ability to record audio in sync with the picture. The studio itself features acoustic wall panels that are hard surfaced on one side (so that “interior” scenes will have some “hard-walled edge” to the sound), as well as a non-reflective soft side (for echo free “exteriors”). The floor of the studio is divided up into a grid pattern of foley pits.

Foley pits are small areas covered or filled with a particular “surface”, so as to be able to simulate footsteps. Examples of foley pits would include carpet, hardwood, marble, cement, loose wood planking, metal sheeting, ceramic tile, loose dirt, gravel, sand, and water.

In addition to the pits, foley stages also contain an assortment of common props and hardware, including doors, latches, light switches, drawers, and a ton of miscellaneous “toys” for simulating any noises that appear onscreen.

The dolly

2008-04-08T09:39:00.000-07:00

Moving camera shots, or dolly shots, are a fundamental visual element of today's narrative films. They are used to emphasize elements in the story to increase and build tension in the scene or to reveal important parts of the set’s geography. To be good or useful, a dolly shot does not need to be long. Often a dolly move of only a few inches can add much to the storytelling in a film.

Almost anything with wheels can be used as a camera dolly – wheel chairs, shopping carts and hand trucks, just to name a few. But for a dolly shot to be really effective and not call attention to it, it must be smooth. The best way to get a smooth dolly shot is to use a dolly on professional dolly track rented from a production vendor. You can rent a Chapman or Fisher dolly or a Matthews doorway dolly with track wheels, or build your own dolly using skateboard wheels; (do an internet search on "how to build a skateboard dolly" for lots of examples). Below is a brief description of how to set up and level your dolly track for filming.

Steps to Lay Dolly Track

1. Determine where the camera will be.
2. Mark the start and finish positions of the camera. Determine which way the camera will face (what is in the shot).
3. Roughly place the track in position and snap it together. Align the tracks so that they are straight and in the proper position over the start finish markers.
4. Locate the highest point in the track run and place at least one wedge under the starting cross support at the highest point.
5. Place pancakes and other apple boxes (or use dolly boards or both) under the track supports to achieve a roughly level track run leaving enough space for at least one wedge at each support point.
6. Level the track lengthwise starting from the highest point.
7. Put at least one wedge under each connecting track support point (the two cross braces where tracks are joined
8. Fill in the "air" in the other track support points
9. After leveling the "high side" along the whole track run then, starting at the highest point, level across bringing the low side up to match the high side.
10. Place a clamp on each end of the track to prevent the dolly from rolling off the track.
11. Place the dolly on the track.
12. Test the track run on the dolly for smoothness and level.
13. Call for the camera.

THE D.P.

2007-12-20T07:32:00.000-08:00

Today, too often in film criticism and education, and even among many practicing professionals, the cult surrounding the director means that the other arts and crafts, which combine to produce a film, are rarely sufficiently cherished or even acknowledged.

In today's Hollywood the production of a major motion picture is not the work of one "auteur" director. Nor is it the result of the latest whim of a box-office superstar who helps draw the audience to the theater. These perceptions are quite popular in the press and in certain film schools. The truth is that by the time the script appears on the screen, it is a product of the collaborative effort of writers, producers, directors, actors, cinematographers, editors, composers, and others who have labored for years to bring it to life.

The overall control of film lighting and cinematography, or the creative use of a movie camera, is usually given to one individual, the director of photography (or DP). A DP supervises the camera crew; the camera operators, assistant cameramen, grips (who handle the dolly or crane), the electrical crew (also known as engineers and gaffers and actually control the lighting setup).

The DP works very closely with the director to create the proper lighting mood and camera coverage for each shot. "They are one of the main reasons we fork over our hard-earned money to be entertained. Because, if not for the cinematographers' talent and knowledge, there would be no way to make a writer's words into pictures for everyone to see," quotes Cinematographer Michael Benson.

The DP is considered an artist who paints with light. He or she is intimately familiar with composition and all technical aspects of camera control and is frequently called on to solve many technical problems that arise during film recording. The DP rarely, if ever, actually operates the camera. Cinematographer Michael Chapman comments "in the 19th century, opera was the amalgamation of all the arts of the time, movies have taken on that mantle today." What makes a cinematographer put the camera here rather than over there? Janusz Kaminski states, "all one's experience of life subconsciously informs every creative decision one makes. That's what makes each individual cinematographer different."

Cinematographer Neil Roach believes the cinematographer is one of the key set dressers on a picture. "The most important things are the script, the performance of that script, and the director's vision," he says. "I see it as my role to create a certain kind of reality that supports the director's vision of that script. Hopefully, the cast seizes the reality in the lighting, which adds to their comfort and security and, just like good props and set dressing, may present them with opportunities to interact with the environment that I have helped create."

Neil says, "I see it as a part of my responsibility to work with production design and set dressing to help create a stage on which the cast and director are free and comfortable to satisfy the dramatic needs of the script. My best efforts as a cameraman are not going to save a bad script. My job is to try to get inside the head of the director, to figure out what he wants and help the performance where I can. I must also stay out of the way while I figure out how to satisfy my own creative needs as a cameraman."

Many people think the directors tell the actors what to do and the DP takes the picture. This is true, however there is much more to the process than that. The transformation from the initial script onto the big screen happens through the funnel of the DP. Filmmaking is gathering together what's out there and filtering it through one device- the camera. Until that first frame is shot it's only contracts, ideas, concepts, scripts and hopes.

Cinematography is not just looking through a camera and shooting a picture. It requires a keen eye and a creative imagination. It requires knowledge of chemistry and physics, precise sensory perception and a strict focus on detail. Most of all it requires the ability to lead as well as listen, to be a part of a creative team and process, to be willing to take suggestions along with constructive criticism. Cinematographers put in long hours on the job and in return provide viewers, for a short period of time, the opportunity to enter a whole new world.

Working with the Director

The primary responsibility of the DP is to create the mood and feel of the picture with their lighting. Depending on the style of the director you may be left to decide the look of the film for yourself, or, after meetings with the director and, usually, art department you may then be left to light the set as you see fit. Alternatively the director may have very firm ideas as to how the film should look and it will be the DP's task to fulfill these wishes. All these different ways of working are just as enjoyable-little guidance on the set is very fulfilling but working to a directors wishes and giving what is wanted and hopefully more brings much praise and loyalty from the director.

The director and cinematographer should constantly be discussing camera angles, color, lighting, blocking and movement of the camera. The director knows what he wants. How it gets done is usually up to the cinematographer. A cinematographer has to offer ideas and accept rejection. The director is the captain f the ship. How much or how little he wants collaboration is his decision.

As cinematographer Darius Khondji says "I see my job as helping the director to visualize his film. This can be a very intense process, so many relationships with the directors I work with are never just professional; very often we become close friends during the course of our collaboration."

"As production manager, I learned a lot about how to manage people. I learned how to plan and how important a team is. I learned to handle locations, work as an AD, drive mobile home, and for a portion of the show, even served as key grip. All positions were invaluable lessons," explains Neil Roach.

One of the most important lessons Neil Roach has learned during his career was that making movies is all about collaboration. "When you are working with the right director, you can turn out some beautiful work," he says. "But, no matter what director, you have to do the best-crafted work you can. Because of the nature of a cameraman's job, you are always being told 'no'. No, you want to many lights. Or, 'no' you can't do this or that. In self-defense, I was always figuring out a way to satisfy myself, and get what I wanted out of the job at the same time, giving my employers everything they needed. The lesson."
He says, "is plan, execute the plan, and being ready for targets of opportunity when they come along. Breaking a job into its component pieces reduces a big job to a manageable task. This is the key to success when you are faced with large photographic challenges."

Roach believes working with one director several times allows a cinematographer the ability to better problem solve. In the case of his long association with Peter Werner, he maintains that they have always approached each film in the same basic way. "After a few careful readings of the script, we will try to visit each location with the production designer," he says. "These visits will define the limitations. Later, in pre-production, we will spend many hours going through the script scene by scene. What we hope to accomplish is to come up with a shooting plan that works for every scene and a plan that also unifies the look of the picture." Today, everyone wants to get to the top- fast. Not everyone is willing to spend the time to master the craft.

A cinematographer must stand with the director. There are too many cinematographers who forget that it is the director who hires him- not production. That is the team to work with.

A Pro or a hack

2007-12-20T07:18:00.000-08:00

It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by the dust, sweat and blood; who strives valiantly;

who errs and comes short again and again;

who knows the great enthusiasm and the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause;
who, at best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement;

and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither defeat or victory.

Pulldown

2007-11-18T08:47:00.000-08:00

Understanding the basics of drop frame (DF) and non-drop frame (NDF) can help keep your work flow running smoothly. There are a multitude of video formats that can be used in a single project; this article will hopefully clear up some of the confusion caused by the concepts of frame rate, broadcast standards, and accuracy involving timecodes. Drop frame and non-drop frame were created before High Definition (HD), but the same rules still apply.

Timecode is used to provide search ability on your tapes, disks, and other media. It measures time in Hours:Minutes:Seconds:Frames and creates a distinct identifier for each frame, based on the HH:MM:SS:FF format. Every frame is given a unique timecode number, making it easily found by a non-linear or linear device that utilizes and reads timecode. You can find out more about timecode in a previous article on the B&H web site, Understanding TIME CODE- part I By Robert Morton & Jack Fettman.

Drop frame and non-drop frame timecode do not alter the visual image in any way. No frames or images are lost in drop frame; it is simply a way of labeling every frame. They are methods of counting. If two projects were created with identical cuts, both timelines in the software would be identical. Since this does not affect the picture, choosing between drop or non-drop frame can be determined by the specifications of the editing system, distribution media, or video editor’s preference. Understanding frame rate helps us understand why these two methods exist.

Frame rate is the measurement of individual images, known as frames created by an imaging device. Originally, black and white video ran at a true 30 fps (Frames per Second). Color video required that the frame rate be slowed to 29.97 fps, due to the physical limitations of the black and white circuits in older television sets, and issues involving sound waves. It's this slowdown of frames that causes the disparity between real time and the measurement of video time.

The 29.97-second frame rate does not divide into one second as easily as 30 fps does. Since creating a fraction of a frame is impractical, a method of counting and adjusting full frames is necessary. Drop frame timecode counts each video frame. When the remaining .03 second of 29.97 finally adds up to a video frame, it drops a frame number. It does not remove a frame.
Moving the decimal place over from 1.8 frames per second produces 18 full frames for every 10 minutes. These frame numbers are dropped over time instead of all at once. The distribution of those 18 frames equals about 2 frames (:00 and: 01) a minute, but no frame numbers are dropped in the 10th minute because the process has started over. There are never any frame numbers dropped when the minute is divisible by 10.

This means ten minutes in drop frame 00:10:00:00 is the same as 00:10 minutes in real time. Remember, you are not losing frames. The way they are being counted has been changed. 2,997 full frames are presented every 100 seconds. If you are cutting a scene using drop frame time code, the duration of 60 minutes is exactly 60 minutes and 0 frames. Drop frame is a standard for broadcast networks using NTSC due to this correlation with real time.

Non-drop timecode counts every single video frame and doesn't re-label any frame to account for the 29.97 fps. This means that if you have a 60-minute film and 0 frames in non-drop frame timeline, it is not the actual running time of the film. This makes non-drop lengths shorter than the real time. It is counting 3000 frames per 100 seconds when it's really 2997 frames per 100 seconds. A program using non-drop timecode is approximately four seconds shorter per every hour. 60 minutes of non-drop frame format will be 108 frames lower, making it 00:59:56:12 at the end of a real time hour 01:00.

One format is not better than the other when it comes to your editing system. Editing systems can now accept a myriad of formats and frame rates. Your camera person can shoot in 24 fps and you can capture in 30 fps drop frame or non drop frame. You can even toggle between drop frame and non-drop frame in most non-linear timelines. Check your manual for the correct way to switch between both.

An Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 user can switch between drop frame and non-drop frame. You can select the timeline window to make it active. While in the title bar, choose Window > Window Options > Timeline Window Options. Within the Timeline Window Options dialog box, select 30 fps Non-Drop Frame Timecode or Drop Frame and click OK. This process is similar in other editing systems.

Though most non-linear systems can handle drop frame and non-drop frame, capturing from tapes recorded with both drop frame and non-drop frame timecode may produce unexpected results. You will be unable to export a correct EDL or XML file, re-capture footage or use media management software when inaccurate timecode occurs. While working with tape containing both non-drop and drop frame timecode, stay away from any forms of batch capture. Capture each section individually to prevent timecode problems. You may want to label each section as a different tape and mark your original master with the changes.

You could also use a frame synchronizer to adjust the rates for different mediums even without a non-linear system. The AJA FS1 Frame Synchronizer and Bi-directional Converter is a universal SD/HD audio/video frame synchronizer and converter. This converter offers “everything in, everything out” architecture. The FS1 can work simultaneously with both HD and SD video for broadcast-quality video and 24-bit audio. The FS-1 can up- or down-convert between SD and HD, and provide simultaneous HD and SD outputs. Cross-conversions between HD formats are also supported, with simultaneous output of both formats.

First Known Photograph

2007-10-03T16:57:00.000-07:00

French inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépce uses a camera obscura to burn a permanent image of the countryside at his Le Gras, France, estate onto a chemical-coated pewter plate. He names his technique "heliography," meaning "sun drawing." The black-and-white exposure takes eight hours and fades significantly, but an image is still visible on the plate today.

Suggestions for film distribution

2007-09-19T08:34:00.000-07:00

Distribution is the process of getting your movie seen by your audience. Every time your movie appears at a festival or you hold an outreach screening you are distributing your work. Another way to get your movie seen by as many people as possible is to make your movie available for purchase by movie theatres, television broadcasters, home video watchers, schools and universities.

Self-distributing

There are several reasons why self-distribution might be a great option for you:
- If you can't find any distributor who wants to include your movie in their catalogue. - If you don't want most of the profit that comes from the sale of your movie to go to a distributor instead of to you. - If you already have contacts and relationships with potential markets through your partnerships and outreach work. - If you want to have complete control over where your movie is shown. - If you want to distribute your movie for free (or just for the cost of shipping).

Self-distribution is the answer to all of these concerns, but it does take time, effort and money. If you are interested in getting your movie theatrically distributed i.e. shown in movie theatres, you need to work with a distributor -- they are the ones who have agreements with movie theatres around the country and around the world. But more likely than not, you are interested in getting your film shown on TV and/or making it available for purchase for home video or educational purposes. If you want your movie to be broadcast, you should check out our broadcast section. If you are planning to self-distribute your film in a serious way, promotion and marketing are key. Whenever you mention your film in any promotional materials, you should include information regarding purchasing. You should also list your film in the YMDi.org databasewith a link to the ordering page of your Web site.

If you are going to self-distribute or sell VHS or DVD copies of your piece, you might want to make a nice cover or design for the packaging.

Self-distributing online

If you are interested in the home video and educational markets, you can successfully distribute your movie through your Web site. When you make your site for your movie, make a page called "Order Your Copy" or "Home Video." When visitors to your site go to this page, they will be able to get all the information that they need to order a copy. It is up to you to decide whether or not you want to charge for the movie or if you are willing to fulfill orders for just the price of shipping. Just remember, people value what they pay for, so there is nothing wrong with asking people to pay for your product.

You will, of course, have to decide how much you want to charge and this should be based on average prices for similar movies (do some research and find out what people are charging) and how much you think people will be willing to pay. It is also very common to have two or three prices -- home video, educational rate and nonprofit rate. Generally, the educational rate is the highest (up to $300) because it is intended for universities, libraries and schools, nonprofit rate is a bit cheaper (up to $200) and the home video rate is the cheapest (up to $50). You also need to decide if you are going to have an online order form by using a service like PayPal, or if you want people to send you an e-mail with their ordering information. The minimum information that you will need is their name, address, whether they are ordering on the behalf of an educational institution or a nonprofit organization or whether they are ordering as an individual.

Depending on your interests, you may also want to gather other information from your customers such as how they intend to use the film, what issues are most important to them and how they found out about your movie.

It is unsafe for people to give you their credit card information via e-mail, so unless you are using a secure order form through PayPal or another service, you'll either have to get credit card information by phone or fax, or have people pay by check. It is up to you to decide whether or not you will accept personal checks. Personal checks are not guaranteed to come through, so if you do accept this form of payment you may want to make sure the check deposits before you fulfill the order. If you are making money from selling your movie, you will need to pay the appropriate taxes. You should consult with an accountant and make sure that you save a percentage of your profits for the IRS.

If you are selling your movie online by distributing VHS or DVD copies, you need to come up with a plan for fulfillment. Fulfillment is not the path to spiritual enlightenment -- rather, it is the process of making copies of your movie, taking orders and mailing out copies to customers. If yours is a small-scale operation (0-20 orders a month) then you can probably handle this on your own (or with the help of some volunteers or a partnering organization). If you are getting more than 20 orders a month, you should consider using a video fulfillment house. A fulfillment house makes copies of your movie and stores them, takes phone and online orders, and mails out your film. If you use one of these companies, they'll send you a monthly check and a statement that tells you how many orders were made. Like a distributor, a fulfillment house takes a cut of the profit. Unlike a distributor, they do not do any marketing, promotion or outreach for your film.

Selling copies in person

Another way to self-distribute your film is by selling copies face-to-face at various events. You will need to come prepared with cash that you can use as change, copies of your movie, and a clipboard with blank forms where people can fill out their contact information. You might also want to put a comment card or postcard in with each copy you sell so people can let you know what they think of your work! If you organize an outdoor screening, you can set up a table where you sell copies of your movie on VHS or DVD.

The Noble British Physicist and the Color of Light

2007-08-17T11:30:00.000-07:00

The color of "white" light is a critical issue in lighting for film or video.
By John Jackman

The color of "white" light is a critical issue in lighting for film or video. There really isn't any such thing as white light in normal circumstances. Instead, our energetic and flexible brains recognize a range of light frequencies as white that actually have a predominant tint of yellow, green, or blue. The reason the issue is so important is because the camera (or film stock) isn't as flexible as the human brain--your camera can only recognize a single color, or frequency, as white. Unlike our agile brains, that camera can't blend together a range of tints and say, "Yes, that's white."

Lord Kelvin's bright idea.

The color of light is measured on a temperature scale that was proposed way back in 1848 by British mathematician and physicist William Thomson, Lord Kelvin (Figure 1). It wasn't initially conceived as a way for videographers to identify light temperatures; 1848 was the infancy of black-and-white photography, the era of the daguerreotype. The precise color of the light didn't matter for photography in those days, and presumably Lord Kelvin couldn't have foreseen television, the digital CCD camera, or white balance. The Kelvin scale quantified a physics problem, giving a natural, or absolute, scale for measuring temperatures. The scale ranges from absolute zero (-273.15C) upward using units that are equal to the Celsius scale. So a lot of the Kelvin scale is below the levels where any light is emitted. Water freezes at 273.15K, and water boils at 373.15K.

The Kelvin scale helped quantify the color of light emitted by materials as they were heated. If you've ever watched a blacksmith at work, you'll see him heating the iron in the forge until it begins to glow. He can tell whether the iron is hot enough for the specific operation by the color. A dull red isn't hot enough to be malleable, but a glowing yellow is. When iron or steel is tempered, it will get heated until it seems white hot, almost beginning to emit a bluish light. The Kelvin scale quantifies these changes for a theoretical "black body," an object with no reflectivity or other properties and no impurities to alter the color when heated.

Color temperature and camera presets

We are concerned with the part of the Kelvin scale that starts in the upper region of 2,000 K to 3,000 K, a range of yellow-orange light. Ordinary household frosted bulbs generally put out light that is around 2,800 K, definitely beginning to be orange. Quartz and tungsten bulbs, such as those designed for film and TV use, put out light at 3,200 K, a yellow tint that is generally accepted as interior or incandescent light. Your camera will have a white-balance preset for this temperature. Consumer cameras will generally indicate this preset with a symbol that looks like a light bulb. Film stocks that are designed for interior or tungsten light are balanced for this temperature.

The other part of the Kelvin scale that we pay attention to is in the 5,000 K to 6,000 K range, a blue tint that is accepted as daylight. Because the business needs a specific number to peg to film stock and white balance presets, daylight is generally defined as 5,600 K (Figure 2). Again, your camera will have a preset for this color temperature. Consumer cameras will indicate this preset with a symbol that looks like the sun. Film stocks designed for exterior use will be designed to represent this tint as white.

Of course, 3,200 K and 5,600 K aren't the only temperatures you will encounter. Most bulbs differ from their manfuacturers' designated temprature, especially as they age. Actual sunlight varies depending on the weather conditions and time of day. It can go way over 6,000 K and of course can turn golden and even pink-red at sunset. Then there's the evil green range, around 4,000 K, in between that's common with older or cheaper fluorescent tubes. This is generally not the best range for video cameras.

Now, why are we so concerned with these specific light frequencies? Because, as I mentioned, your camera can only represent one frequency (color temperature) as white, and will render all other frequencies as green or orange or blue. Your camera is dumb; you must tell it what color to home in on as white. If you make a mistake and shoot at the wrong setting, your video will be too blue (outdoors while on 3,200 K preset) or very yellow (quartz light while on 5,600 K preset). Recognizing that lamps are sometimes off one way or another, pros will generally do a manual white balance.

Useful Info

2007-06-05T13:44:00.000-07:00

Barry Russo is a veteran video image-recording specialist, having worked as a video-assist professional for more than 20 years.

While many clients are moving from film to HD production because of the significant savings on film stock and processing costs, they still want to shoot film-style, Russo said. The role of the Digital Imaging Technician continues to expand and his services are in demand more than ever before. He recently completed a shoot at Silvercup Studios East (New York, NY) for a 30-minute infomerical promoting Verison’s FiOS service. Russo brought two Varicams and two 26-inch (BT-LH2600W) flat panel monitors to the seven-day shoot.

Q: What is the role of a DIT on an HD feature production set?

A: My chief responsibility is making sure the camera looks the best it can and that everything is set up properly. There are so many controls on the new generation on of HD cameras that you have to be a pilot to use them effectively. I have checklist of settings and I do a worksheet for each scene of a production. For example, I make sure the camera frequency is set properly. With the Varicam, you can do a solid 60 or 59.94 fps. A little thing like that, if it’s off, can be catastrophic to a production if you’re shooting sound.

So I’m always checking numbers, frame rates and whatnot. Before I arrive on a set, I do my own color-correction for the cameras using a DSC Labs color chart and a vectorscope. Each lens is color-corrected, and I save the settings for when I need to change lenses. I provide a comfort level on the set, knowing that you have someone who knows the cameras inside and out as well as the HD workflow. I can offer solutions to problems quickly.

Q: Isn’t this a job the DP used to do?

A: No, not to this extent. My business is growing. I now see advertising agencies requesting digital production for their commercials. They save a lot of money by doing it digitally. According to my math, equipment costs are about the same when you compare 35mm film to HD. But processing is significantly different. It’s a dollar a minute for HD Media versus $100 per minute when using 35mm film. I’ve been on productions that shot thousands of feet of film per day, easily costing $30,000-$40,000 per day in film processing costs.

Q: What’s your experience with solid-state production versus videotape?

A: As an owner of a Panasonic Varicam, I like tape because it’s easy to use, secure, archiveable and very familiar to everyone on the set. Of course, solid-state reduces many of the risk factors of moving heads and tape machines. Yet, having said that, the challenge with solid-state is media management. You have to have a protocol or workflow for how you handle the files in the most efficient way. Everyone has their own way of working, which can be confusing to others. The industry has to come up with a universal way of capturing and processing video as files.

Q: What about hard drive systems being used in place of videotape?

A: I’ve heard that many insurance companies won’t cover a production that captures camera-original footage to a hard drive. It’s just too unstable at this point. If you save a bunch of scenes and a production assistant drops the hard drive, it could be trashed. I see camera manufacturers recommending flash-media recorders in the near term. You can easily make backup files by transferring the data to duplicate hard drives to protect against loss.

Unless it is requested, I don’t make back-ups of my original camera tapes. Tape is extremely reliable. Only one time did a tape break on the end leader and we took it to Abel Cinetech and they fixed it for us.

Q: For on-set monitoring you use a Panasonic LCD monitor. Is this the best tool for previewing images? Some would say CRTs perform better.

A: If you go in a dark tent or room the CRT does look better, but who wants to have to go into a dark room and break creative focus? I produce spectacular results with my setup and the images look gorgeous. With my flat panels, I don’t have to be in a tent. I can put the camera next to the monitor and we can see the results immediately. The LCD monitor shows me all of the subtleties a DP or director needs and the black levels are more than adequate.

I use a 26-inch LCD as my master monitor. It’s lightweight, easy to maneuver (on a cart) and it’s extremely reliable. I don’t feel we compromise a production by using LCD monitors. Some engineers might argue with me, but once my clients use LCD flat panels, they ask for them again. And do I want to spend $30,000 on a picture tube that weighs a ton and flickers if you’re shooting in 24fps, or do I want a lightweight LCD that’s sharp and easy on the eyes? It also exceeds the specifications of a CRT in terms of sharpness. For me, the choice is clear.

To reach Barry Russo, email him at brvp@optonline.net

Affordable HD edit system

2007-03-20T14:47:00.000-07:00

By Mike Curtis

The currently available Mac Pro towers have two dual-core processors running at your choice of 2.0 GHz, 2.66 GHz, and 3.0 GHz. All three are technically capable of doing uncompressed HD work, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend them all for all users.

You'd think the least-expensive tower that meets the required specs would be the recommended route, right? Well, no-the 2.0 GHz box is about $2,200. For only $300 more, you jump from 2.0 GHz to 2.66 GHz-a 33 percent increase in processor speed for only 14 percent more cost. That's money well spent.

RAM

2 GB is the dead minimum amount of RAM for working with HD material in Final Cut Pro. I recommend 4 GB or more for Group 2. Why 4 GB? Because Final Cut Pro reserves as much as 1.5 GB for its own libraries, caches, and so on, and only 2.5 GB is available for Final Cut Pro project data. Final Cut Pro (or any other app) can access only 4 GB RAM at most-it's a limitation of the current Mac OS.

Graphics cards

The stock Nvidia GeForce 7300 GT 256 MB is within spec for all the currently shipping pro video apps from Apple. But if you can at all afford it, step up to Group 2's recommended ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512 MB. Not only can it drive two 30-inch monitors, but this card is also much faster. And it is only $250 more than the base card-a no-brainer.

Computer monitors

More and bigger is better. Ideally we'd all have twin 30-inch displays, with one on its side as a monster bin window, but that's not affordable for everyone.

In short, I like the Dell and Apple options. Apple's monitors tout a prettier presentation, but they're more costly and not as bright or vivid in my experience (I have 24-inch Dell monitors as well as 23-inch Apple Cinema HD Displays). Keep in mind, however, that Dell's support-especially consumer support-doesn't have the best reputation.

Buy what you can afford-and if at all possible, get two. But one big and wide monitor is better than two small ones; stretching the timeline across the bottom is great, whereas spanning across two monitors doesn't work well. If you've got budget left over, bump up in size-you'll appreciate it. I've never, ever, encountered someone who was disappointed with the money they spent on large monitors-they give you room to work.

Users should look at a Dell 24-inch ($749) monitor if they can swing it, and a second 20-inch ($300 to $400) monitor for bins and so on. A single 24-inch is better than a 20-inch and 17-inch combo. The secondary monitor doesn't have to be as good.

Storage

Start with a 250 gig boot drive. for storage drives, and RAID-0 is all you can afford, baby, and be happy with it. Mac users should consider the Sonnet Tempo E4P card (see www.sonnettech.com). There are other options, but I feel this is the way to go. The card supports a feature called port multiplying, which, when matched with an enclosure that has this feature, allows as many as 5 drives to be connected via a single SATA cable-so as many as 20 drives can be connected to a single card. Port multiplying enclosures from Sonnet, such as the Fusion 500, are a good match; I also like the port multiplying enclosures from MacGurus (www.macgurus.com).

HD-SDI I/O cards

So if you just want to see the picture on an HDTV, use the $250 Blackmagic Intensity card for monitoring, connected via HDMI to the HDTV. There's no HD-SDI I/O or analog component output. It's really just a monitoring card-HDMI in/out only. If you need low-cost HD-SDI in/out and component analog monitoring (and you do for any real color correction), then get the Blackmagic Design DeckLink HD Extreme card (about $1,000 list). The AJA Kona LHe does pretty much the exact same stuff, but it's $1,800 list.

Video Monitors

Consider Blackmagic Design Intensity and an HDMI HDTV monitor. You won't have accurate color correction, professional features, or calibration, but you will see the picture as a consumer would. Don't be surprised if the video appears light or dark, purple or green, or whatever else on somebody else's HDTV.

Summary:

Mac Pro 2.66 GHz tower, 2 GB RAM, 160 GB boot drive minimum; Final Cut Studio software; Nvidia GeForce 7300 graphics card; MacGurus 1.25 TB, five-bay SATA RAID (port-multiplying, or PM, enclosure) with Sonnet E4P host adapter; Dell 24- and 20-inch monitors; Blackmagic Design Intensity card; and $1,000 HDMI-equipped HDTV. Total: about $7,600. Increase storage for longer-form projects as needed. Bumping up to Blackmagic Design HD Extreme and a JVC HDTV adds about $2,500. Getting Blackmagic Design's 4:4:4-capable Pro card (which lacks HDMI) adds $200.

Wanna win an Oscar?

2007-02-26T18:42:00.000-08:00

Taking home an Academy award needs more than a great film.

An Oscar for best picture depends on great acting, superb cinematography and spot-on directing. But that's not all. Behind the selection of each golden statuette winner is a complicated mix of timing, politics, the whims and caprices of Academy members and their secretive voting system. And, of course, there is the influence of Hollywood's formidable publicity machine.

Every year the studios hire "award consultants" and the aggressive tactics of these Oscars masterminds are not to be underestimated.

Miramax famously lobbied hard for Shakespeare In Love the year it pipped DreamWorks' Saving Private Ryan for best picture, sparking a cold war between the two studios. And there was a notorious smear campaign against A Beautiful Mind four years ago.

The timing of a film's release is crucial to its nomination chances. The later in the year it is released, the fresher it is in the minds of Academy members when they vote in January.

The voting system itself is preferential, which favours films with the No. 1 vote. It can usher in a film with a smaller but fervent band of supporters over a film with broader support.

Ticket sales do not count, necessarily.

The Golden Globes are a good guide for picking a winner, though they do not influence Academy voters because ballots are already finalised. Academy voters love anything about the 'American dream', with a sort of emotionally redemptive pay-off.
Never underestimate sentimentality in the Oscars race, pointing to the "Black Oscars" of 2001, when Denzel Washington and Halle Berry took out the top acting prizes. And Al Pacino's best actor gong in 1992 for Scent Of A Woman is a prime example of the Academy's fondness for giving out awards just because the contender is long overdue.

There are so many personal peccadilloes that go into voting, and there may not be any other organisation that's as full of egos and self-importance as the Academy.

10 steps to winning an Oscar:

1. Concentrate the plan media in Los Angeles-
 Knowing that the majority of the Academy members are actors, producers, and directors who live and work in Holywood, it’s useless to spend the precious marketing budget outside the city limits.  
2. Release the film 3 months before the ceremony-
 ..as voters have a short memory (old producers, alcoholic actors, drug use..). As one can observe, the self -proclaimed Oscar nominee the Truman Show missed the wagon. This permits the mass diffusion of commercials that refresh evasive memories, which then necessitates that the film remain on screen. 
3. Re-release the film just before the Academy Awards-
 Recommended in the case where the film was originally released the previous summer as a cash cow. In more technical terms, the category of blockbusters or commercial films that claim to be Oscar worthy 1999.  
4. B financial muscle-
 License to set off a "Media Blitzkrieg". Example: Miramax, the Shakespeare in Love studio, benefited from Disney funds to which the studio belongs, with the end of battling the no less warlike Private Ryan supported by Spielberg’s Dreamworks studio (for more details read: A Bug's Life-Antz: Battle of the Hollywood parasites). 
5. A Love Story-
 Whether it’s between a man and a woman, between adolescents or between a parent and a child, this unifying theme will win the votes of the women and the spoiled old men of the Academy. 
6. TV Station Saturation-
 In addition to unavoidable tv commercials, invade the talk shows and entertainment shows (Rosie, ET, EXTRA, late night shows, news) or diffuse "Allied" films; example: Schindler’s List exclusively on NBC a week before the Oscars. 
7. Unifying Actors-
 Use Tom Hanks, America’s favorite son-in-law, or the daughter of a known producer who was engaged to a popular actor. In a word, choose an actor with "connections". 
8. Non-reflexive screenplay-
 The story must be simplistic and under no condition force the spectators to reflect for fear of creating confusion and headaches. 
9. The highest number possible of nominations-
 It’s here that the technical nominations come into play. They’re numerous and easy to obtain (sound, pompous music, and colorful cinematography).  
10. Make a quality film-
 It’s rare but sometimes it works (Life is Beautiful).

Super 16mm Past Present and Future

2007-01-03T21:39:00.000-08:00

The Super-16 format was developed by Swedish cinematographer Rune Ericson, beginning in 1965. Ericson was looking for a way to shoot feature films for 35mm exhibition with a lightweight 16mm camera. He was supported by the Swedish Film Institute, and the film lab FilmTeknik. The first feature film shot in the Super 16 format, Lyckliga Skitar, with Ericson as the Cinematographer, began production at the end of 1969 and was released in Sweden in September 1970. This story is covered in the June 1970 issue of American Cinematographer.

When the Super 16 format was developed by Ericson, there were no cameras designed to shoot it. All Super 16 cameras before 1977 were modified 16mm cameras. 
The first 16mm camera successfully converted to Super 16 was a Eclair NPR. Subsequently an Éclair ACL was converted. Eventually Aaton became the first camera manufacturer to offer Super 16 cameras (Aaton 7 LTR) from the factory. ARRI began offering special order Super 16 versions of the Arriflex 16SR. With the introduction of the Aaton XTR in 1983, all Aaton cameras were Super 16 ready from the factory. ARRI did the same with the introduction of the Arriflex 16SR3 in 1992. Today all new 16mm cameras are Super 16 compatible. All professional grade 16mm cameras can be converted to Super 16, with the exception of the Arriflex 16BL.

The Need for Super - HDTV 
Originally, there was not much reason to shoot Super-16 for video transfer. The television aspect ratio was 1.33:1 in the US (NTSC) and the rest of the world. This all changed with the coming of the HDTV format. Also referred to as the Advanced Television Standard Comittee (ATSC). Although there are several HD formats, the most common being 720p and 1080i, they all share a common aspect ratio 1.77:1, commonly referred to as 16x9. Super-16's native aspect ratio of 1.66:1 is a perfect fit for HD video transfer. 
Standard over-the-air NTSC television transmission (referred to as "analog" TV) will go permantently off the air in February 2009. Now is the time to switch to 16:9 production!

Image Resolution: Super 16 versus 1080p/24sf Digital HDTV Video Super-16 is also a perfect fit for HDTV in terms of it's resolution performance. The highest resolution HD format is 1080p/ 24sf 1080 x 1920 pixels progressive-scan format. 
Because of the extremely high data rate generated by this format, severe digital filtering is used to limit the bandwidth of the video signal before it is recorded to HDCAM tape. Also because the CCD imager in these cameras is limited by the optical low pass filter, the response is zero at 1920 horizontal lines. The highest possible resolution it is possible to record on HDCAM tape is 1550 horizontal lines. Since the CCD response drops rapidly above 1550 lines, not much is lost because of the HDCAM digital filtering. 
The 1080p/ 24sf cannot be transmitted by air, or displayed by any of the currently available consumer HDTV sets. It must be converted to 1080i (interlaced) format for transmission. This reduces the vertical resolution by at least 25% to no more than 655 TV Lines, although it does not affect the horizontal resolution. In any event, no curretly available consumer HDTV set can display more than 1400 horizontal lines.  Therefore the standard of resolution performance needed to guarantee that a film originated program material will appear just as sharp on HDTV transmission as a 1080i originated video program is an MTF performance of at least 35% response at 655 x 1550 TV Lines. 

Everest: A Climb for Peace

2006-11-28T01:12:00.001-08:00


Everest: A Climb for Peace. Trailer for the upcoming documentary film. History was made as they had the first Israeli - Palestinian summit push; and a joint Israeli/Palestnian flag was raised on the summit. www.EverestPeaceProject.org

SLOW MOTION

2006-11-28T01:03:00.001-08:00


This is a great example of high-speed cinematography...Enjoy!

WHY WE FIGHT-DOCUMENTARY REVIEW

2006-10-30T10:42:00.000-08:00

The "military-industrial complex" has long been one of the bogeymen of the left. Not everybody, however, is aware that the term--which seems to describe some futuristic death machinery straight out of "Star Wars"--wasn't coined by George Lucas, Karl Marx, or Noam Chomsky.

No other than Ike Eisenhower, staunch World War II hero and two-time US President, first employed the words in his farewell speech in 1961. Filmmaker Eugene Jarecki uses the blunt warning contained in that now infamous speech to trace the history of the American war machine to the present. His approach is evenhanded and sober, and while the film might actually succeed in winning over undecided minds, "Why We Fight" offers little news for anybody who has been paying a modicum of attention.

When Eisenhower warned of the military-industrial complex, he meant a structure that consisted of the military itself, the contractors and plants who produced the weapons, and the politicians who stood to reap the benefits of both. In one strand of his carefully woven tale, Jarecki observes how Eisenhower's prediction has become a reality. Congress, Lockheed Martin, Haliburton and the branches of the military all benefit from increases in defense spending, and, the argument goes, "if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail." A country that spends more than half of its discretionary budget on a gigantic war machine will end up using that machine, one way or another, again and again.

Today's Copyright Laws

2006-10-10T14:04:00.000-07:00

Basics of "Intellectual" vs Tangible Property:
We easily understand the principle of "physical" property because it is tangible and for thousands of years there have been laws and codes to protect the rights of tangible, physical property. But it is much harder to define intellectual property, due to its being "intangible" and the laws that protect this kind of peoperty are much newer.

Let's look at a simple illustration of the difference between tangible and intangible property using a book as our example: If I own a book, the physical volume itself, it is mine. I can read it, give it away, write notes in it, underline key phrases and when I am done with it and do not need it anymore, I can then throw it in the trash, give it away or sell it to a used book store. But... But I cannot make copies of that book while it is within its period of time when its rights have been granted to the one who holds the right to make copies, etc. -- hence, "copy rights." I possess the book, its cover materials and all the paper that go into making it but I do not own the intellectual content of that book.

The intellectual content or property of a book is not the simple words that make up the book. After all, the words are found in any dictionary and anyone is free to use them. But the specific arrangement of the words is what is granted its copy right to the one who took all the time and effort to arrange them in the sentences and structure that communicates their ideas. The author is recognized for their original work in the specific arrangement of the words that makes up their original work.

Intellectual property ownership rights have grown until today in the USA, most copyrights are issued which extend for the life of the author plus 70 years -- this latter period was added to allow the heirs of the author to benefit from the work of their forebearers. During the period when a work is copyright, these rights can be assigned or sold but in no way can they be ignored -- not if you do business in the United States or other areas that recognize these rights.

Copyrights protect the owner of intangible works such as:

• Drawings, paintings, sculpture and other works of art,
• photographs, films and videos,
• stories, stageplays, television and movie scripts and other writings,
• software programs,
• music, voice and sound recordings,
• websites and web-based content,
• and many other works of an intellectual nature.

Copyrights are designed to protect the rights of authors, composers, artists, designers, playrights and inventors. They are the only ones who hold the rights to their work (unless they sell, share or otherwise assign these rights) and they also possess exclusive rights to create "derivative works" based on their original work. Some works cannot be displayed or performed in public without the permission of the copyright holder. Many intellectual property rights holders license their rights, especially in our industry, in return for royalty payments and other forms of remuneration. These licenses can be assigned for a fixed time in limited situations or they can cover as broad a scope as assigning an exclusive license worldwide.
While "copy rights" are indeed restrictive and have been legally argued as a form of censorship that limits the free flow of ideas and inventions, without these copyrights in place, there would be little incentive to spend the time, and often the money, to develop these intellectual works and inventions.

 

A little known movement to alert you to

2006-10-06T10:32:00.000-07:00

More often now, clients are requesting that projects be converted into a file that is viewable on the web for streaming. This service is both great for your client in terms of a communication tool and a wonderful money generating line in your budget.

Recently, one of my corporate clients came to me with an legal issue. It seems that there is a group of lawyers who bought the patent to streaming video. In turn they are going after corporations, educational institutions and the like, by requiring them to pay a fee for the use of steaming technology or be fined. That was the choice.

Legal experts from the targeted clients say the royalty demands could spell trouble for revenue-generating distance-education programs, which are relied upon to connect students across great distances while appealing to pupils with vastly different learning styles. If the royalty demands exceed the profits generated by such courses, they say, the practice could become cost-prohibitive, adding a debilitating expense to schools' already waning technology budgets.

My client opted to pull all of the streaming video we laboriously produced for them thus nullifying the threat any any future" streaming" work.

(Streaming Video Defined)
Streaming video is a sequence of "moving images" that are sent in compressed form over the Internet and displayed by the viewer as they arrive. Streaming media is streaming video with sound. With streaming video or streaming media, a Web user does not have to wait to download a large file before seeing the video or hearing the sound. Instead, the media is sent in a continuous stream and is played as it arrives. The user needs a player, which is a special program that uncompresses and sends video data to the display and audio data to speakers. A player can be either an integral part of a browser or downloaded from the software maker's Web site.

Major streaming video and streaming media technologies include RealSystem G2 from RealNetwork, Microsoft Windows Media Technologies (including its NetShow Services and Theater Server), and VDO. Microsoft's approach uses the standard MPEG compression algorithm for video. The other approaches use proprietary algorithms. (The program that does the compression and decompression is sometimes called the codec.) Microsoft's technology offers streaming audio at up to 96 Kbps and streaming video at up to 8 Mbps (for the NetShow Theater Server). However, for most Web users, the streaming video will be limited to the data rates of the connection (for example, up to 128 Kbps with an ISDN connection). Microsoft's streaming media files are in its Advanced Streaming Format (ASF).

(see article)
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStory.cfm?ArticleID=4937

Knowledge is power-

PS TECHNIK Skater Scope- Product review

2006-09-23T22:48:00.000-07:00

The SKATER Scope is the first truly compact periscope lens system providing all the creative freedom you want. It is the result of close cooperation between renowned DoPs and P+S Technik to ensure best performance in practical use.

As it is considerably shorter in its overall length, with clear operating controls, the SKATER scope makes it possible to work quickly and intuitively. Interfering vibrations or oscillations, which can occur with some existing longer snorkel lens systems, e.g. when remote controls are used, can be practically excluded.

By means of an optimized length between a short tilt element and a main snorkel unit approximately 2.5 times longer, the greatest flexibility is achieved for the DoP.

Nevertheless the overall length is still sufficient for critical light situations, to avoid an interfering casting of shadows by the camera body.

With an aperture of 5.6, the SKATER Scope is an ideal compromise between size and light transmission and is still faster than compararable systems of similar complexity. The calculated aperture is 4 1/3, the light loss 2/3 of a stop.
The SKATER Scope is characterized by the well-known high quality of products by P+S Technik. Only multiply coated lenses and optical components of superior quality are used.

The whole optical arrangement was newly calculated for the Super 35 mm format and is optimally adjusted for the pupil position of current lenses such as Zeiss HS 1.3, Cooke S4, and Arri/Zeiss Ultra Primes. Thus the excellent imaging quality and an extreme flat field with minimized vignetting is ensured even in the low aperture range.

Via a separate “Image Rotation” adjustment ring the image can be rotated completely around the optical axis by 360° (even several times) without restriction. A two-color scale with engraved angle degrees and a 0.8 module gear makes it possible to control the image rotation with standard lens control systems. The image rotation is used to level the horizon or to achieve “dutched” camera angles without altering the position of the camera.

By means of a back focus adjustment ring the close focus can be shifted similar to an additional extension of the lens of about 10mm, so that the close focus area is enlarged, to allow macro shots even with standard lenses.

Combined with motion control the SKATER Scope is an ideal solution due to the freely choosable range between the straight tilt module (borescope) and the bent tilt module (periscope). The SKATER Scope can be individually adapted to the requirements of the motion control path. Since the tilt angle can be fixed in any desired 2.5° steps, pre-chosen angle positions can be reproduced.

The small 50 mm lateral offset of the tilt element can be electronically compensated, so that operating with a precise nodal point of a lens does not present a problem.

Because of it‘s short design the actual path of a camera head when panning or tilting around lens nodal is much shorter. Dynamic limits of the rig are not as easily reached, and also the snorkel in itself is less prone to vibrations. The image rotation can be controlled as an additional axis by a focus motor to add rolling (flight) movements without any need of a bulky mechanical roll axis.

SPECS.........
- Adjust tilt element from -105° to +105°

- Lens block pivots full 360°

- Full 360° unlimited optical image rotation

- Back focus extends close focus to macro

- Superior image quality, covers Super35

- T 5.6

- Camera mounts: PL or Panavision

- Video version for HD/SD with B4 camera mount availble

- Lens mounts: PL, Panavision, Nikon or Leica M available

- Expands creative freedom of your SKATER Mini Dolly

Create a moon effect

2006-09-12T23:55:00.000-07:00

I belong to a great web forum called CML indie. It is a site for cinematographers to share thier knowledge and seek advise from other DP's. Recently a question was posed about how to create a night exterior moon effect, Brendon McCurtis Phillips an LA based DP, offered a great tip which I wanted to print here.

"For the fog, Use the Fog tubing with a fan and spread
the holes in the tubing out evenly. It will give a
nice spread for the fog but it will sit on the ground
though. Elliot Davis used it on one of the night
exteriorrs on I Am Sam. It gave a real nice spread
for the lighting. This will not help much with the
shaft of light effect if your camera will be elevated.
If your camera is low to the gound however it will."

"Regarding lighting, I know some here are suggesting
Xenon. That is a good choice. Xenon’s have a lot of
punch and give you daylight balance and have a very
precise beam. They can be pricey, however you can
work angles if you are resourceful. I got one on my
AFI Thesis Film for free so maybe you can work it too.
That was a long time ago and Xenotec may not be as
gracious now. The other downside for this application
is the light from Xenon is very mechanical and can
look like Xenon. In this application, simulating the
Moons light, I would suggest an alternate. The
MoleBeam either the 2K or 5K. It has a lot of punch
and if you are shooting with a fast stock you will get
the desired effect if you keep your levels down. If
you need even more you could upgrade to a 5k. They
are cheaper than a 7K xenon and also a 7k xenon for a
moon effect would be nuclear. Also the MoleBeam can
be adjusted to give a more natural edge."

Misconceptions in Lighting

2006-09-10T19:52:00.000-07:00

Lighting with Super Saturated Color Gels

Another thing to watch out for is the using heavy saturated color gels on your lights. Red is probably the worst offender. It ís really an exciting color but on film it loses resolution and looks soft. Red is difficult for your meter to read and films are less sensitive to the color, so if itís the only color youíre using in the scene youíll need to overexpose it about by 2-3 stops.

On DV, red noisy frequency makes it hard to transmit cleanly and the color bleeds and smears when transferred. Try to avoid it.

Double Shadows

A double nose shadow on the actorís face is unflattering and distracting. It comes as a result of the key and fill light being set at the same exact angle, (usually 45 degrees to the side of the actor) and at the same intensity.

It has been said that each time you add another light you create another problem. And yet no matter how many lights you use to light an actor, that actor should still only cast one shadow. The chance of even seeing the cast of a single shadow from an actor can be reduced by using soft light sources, or flagging hard sources and by avoiding staging scenes next to plain white walls.

Allowing a practical lamp to cast itís own shadow

If the only light in the room is supposed to come from the practical lamps then what is casting the shadow of the lamps on the wall? Since a light in the real world shouldnít cast itís own shadow, this immediately tells the viewer that the source illuminating the scene is artificial. Youíll need to balance your lights to match the direction of the practical lamps and use flags and nets control the spill.

Forgetting that your lighting is affected by other variables

The art of lighting extends far beyond turning on a few lights. You have to understand the effect of set design, location, costume, time of day, placement of the action, filters, the film stock, the lab and the colorist contribute toward making the image.

One of my favorite cinematographers told me, I can light a set better with a bucket of black paint. Now while he admitted to that being a slight exaggeration, his point was very clear. If the walls and backgrounds of your set or location are lighter than the skin tones of your actors then they will always seem darker by comparison.

Try to keep the walls down in value by at least 25% in relation to your actors or you spend too much time trying to take light off the wall. The same thing applies to doors, and dark skin toned actors in white t-shirts standing against walls.

Robert Richardson, A.S.C. (Kill Bill, J.F.K, Snow Falling on Cedars) observed the [color] timer and the lab are two most important choices for a director of photography. Only by shooting a variety of tests will you learn about the film negative ís ability to give you the results you want when you light.

Being Afraid to Mixing Color Temperatures

Another principle taught in film schools and lighting textbooks is correcting lights of various color temperatures within a scene so they match one source (or adjusting the white balance on your digital camera to the most dominant lighting source). Take a look around at what you see in real life and you realize this is another rule that begs to be broken. Mixing color temperatures when youíre shooting on film will actually give the colorist more to work with in post which can lead to some really stunning images.

Murky or Washed out Images

When you under expose all areas of a scene the results are images that are murky and flat from being placed too low on the toe of the negative. This image lack contrast and fails to give the eye comparative areas of highlights and shadows. If you overexpose all areas of a scene placing them too high on the shoulder of the negative, the result are images washed out, without contrast. Without shadow detail the eye is once again denied comparative areas of highlights and shadows.

13) Becoming a slave to your light meter.

When lighting a scene a common practice is to try and meter every thing in the scene. Thatís a mistake because your meter canít answer the most important questions, which is ìHow do I want this to look? How do I want to expose this? Put your meter away, take a look at the scene and then light it the way you think it should look. When youíre finished then read the meter. Learn to trust your eyes.

DV Lighting vs. Film Lighting

Good lighting is good lighting, regardless of the medium and that takes time. Granted it ís harder to light DV and make it look good than if you were shooting film. This is due to film's greater exposure latitude and tonal range. The exposure tolerance is DV has a narrower exposure tolerance is unforgiving towards over-exposed highlights or crushed blacks. Of course, this is all the more reason for you to use a matte box, neutral density filters, and to light carefully.

Ignoring the rule: Block, Light, Rehearse, (Adjust) Shoot

DV shot films are especially guilty of ignoring this rule. Not following this on set will not only waste time but also it can completely demoralize your crew. If you set your lights before the scene is blocked you may discover that your lights are in the frame line. Or you learn that the blocking requires you to re light the entire scene. Watch as the director blocks the scene with the actors, light the set, watch the rehearsal, make any minor adjustments and then shoot.

FCP5: Items to note when working with HDV

2006-09-06T14:05:00.001-07:00

When working with HDV (high-definition video) in Final Cut Pro 5, here are some special considerations that you should keep in mind.

Print to Video limitations using HDV formats
On computers that meet the minimum system requirements for HDV playback(1), the Print to Video command cannot be used if the Mirror to Desktop option is enabled. To turn off the Mirror to Desktop option:

1. Choose Final Cut Pro > Audio/Video Settings, then click the A/V Devices tab.
2. Deselect the Mirror to Desktop checkbox.
3. Click OK.

HDV Log and Capture Preview is disabled when a PCI graphics card is installed
If your computer has a PCI graphics card installed and you are logging or capturing HDV, Final Cut Pro does not preview video or audio in the Log and Capture window. You can still log and capture, but you'll need to use your HDV camcorder display to preview video.

Sony native MPEG-2 media must be exported for use in DVD Studio Pro
Sony HDV media records MPEG-2 media using an open GOP (Group of Pictures) structure, which means that B-frames in the MPEG stream may be reliant on frames in adjacent GOPs.

In some cases, using open GOP media in DVD Studio Pro can cause DVD decoder issues, particularly at the start and end frames of media files. To properly transfer open GOP MPEG-2 HDV media to DVD Studio Pro after capturing it in Final Cut Pro, export the media from Final Cut Pro using the Export QuickTime Movie option (File > Export). This command conforms the beginning of the MPEG-2 media to a closed GOP structure, which is compatible with DVD decoders.
HDV footage with timecode breaks may report a stream error during capture.

In User Preferences, if you choose Abort Capture from the On timecode break pop-up menu, capturing is aborted when a timecode break is detected. Depending on the signal on tape, you may see one of two messages if the capture is aborted:
• A "stream error" message
• A "timecode break error" message

Shooting DV at High Noon

2006-08-17T07:34:00.000-07:00

DV—or indeed, any video, whether analog or digital—is particularly difficult to light outdoors. The problem is the limited contrast range of the sensors (CCDs) in video cameras. In video, the range between the lightest and darkest pixel values can't be much more than five f-stops. Outside that range, the lighter values all register as blown-out (100 percent white) and darker areas are either muddy or just black.

Shooting outdoors in bright sunlight is a worst-case scenario. If you stop down (decrease the exposure) so faces and highlights don't blow out, you'll lose all the detail in the shadow areas and even medium-toned clothing will appear way too dark.

Film can reproduce a much wider range of values—showing detail in both the lightest and darkest areas. But that doesn't mean cinematographers like shooting in the sun. Deep shadows are unflattering and will not look good on any of your actors—unless you've hired them to appear menacing and frown a lot.

So when a feature crew shoots outdoors, they take along some of the biggest lights they have to "overpower" the sun and fill in shadows. That's expensive. High-powered lights and related gear are costly in themselves and you'll need a big crew to transport, rig, operate, maintain, and strike them.
Videographers on a budget, however, can do a respectable job of shooting outdoors by using the sun rather than fighting it.

First, remember the three elements of classic, three-point lighting:
• Key light is the main highlight on the subject. It's usually hard (casts sharp shadows) and comes from above and in front of the subject.
• Fill is area lighting on the opposite front side of the subject, usually a soft light that fills in shadows cast by the key light (thereby reducing overall contrast range and flattering the subject).
• Backlight comes from behind the subject and helps separate it from the background, giving the illusion of depth.

Assemble Your Tools
Besides the sun, you'll also need:
• Bounce board—a large white card (such as foam-core) to reflect soft light—used for the soft key and fill
• Shiny board—a bounce board with an aluminum-foil surface to reflect hard light—used for the key light (pro boards are two-sided—shiny and dull)
• Flag—an opaque panel, usually black felt, for masking light
• Silk—a panel of translucent white cloth or plastic, used to filter and soften a hard-light source

A production assistant can hold and position a panel during a shot or you can mount the reflector or mask on a C-stand (heavy-duty, all-purpose, hold-everything tripod used by movie crews).
You might need relatively few of these tools if you take the easy way out—shoot only when the sky is overcast. The cloud cover acts like a giant silk stretched over the sky; the resulting light is soft and flattering. As long as you've got some sun, you can use bounce boards and shiny boards to add highlights to your subjects'

If it's a bright, sunny day, move cast and crew into the shade and reflect the sun back at the subject as key light, possibly using a shiny board and a flag for greater control. Use a bounce board from another angle to provide fill. Face your subjects away from the sun to use it as backlight.

If you insist on venturing into the bright sun, mount a spotlight on your camcorder and use that for the key light. Face subjects away from the sun, using it as backlight, and provide fill with a bounce board. If the camera has a Spotlight mode, which desaturates pixels at the center of the frame, turn it on to tone down the spot and avoid blowing out the highlights.

You can see a good example of this technique in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones when Luke returns to Tatooine. Even though this big-budget HD production no doubt had the luxury of all the movie lights they needed to provide fill, notice that the sun is always at the actors' backs when they are in the bright afternoon sun on desert sand.

Another useful technique is to avoid dressing your subjects in dark-colored clothing. This helps narrow the contrast range. In many of Episode II's scenes, notice that most of the costumes have about the same medium-toned grayscale value. Distinctions between characters are made instead with color—dressing the stars in the warmer tones so your eye is drawn to them.

Kinos, Chimeras & Chinese Lanterns

2006-08-15T16:17:00.000-07:00

Traditionally, filmmaking techniques change slowly over time. For example directing and producing techniques are pretty much the same now as they were fifty years ago. Editing and cinematography standards were equally stable until the 1990s when digital cameras and non-linear editing systems took the industry by storm. Techniques then changed dramatically within in a short period of time. More recently, there has been a change in lighting technology and aesthetics. Though this happened with little fanfare, it has been significant nonetheless.

In a nutshell, there has been a shift towards softer, lower intensity lighting. The illumination is achieved primarily with Kino Flos and Chinese lanterns. This approach is used in both film and DV, small and big budgets.

In the past, soft lighting was typically used for high key setups. The current breed of cinematographers use soft lighting for both high and low key setups. The trick to avoiding the flat look usually associated with soft light is to use side lighting. This results in shadow areas which serve to model the subject. Of course, the precise angle of the light depends on the look you are trying to achieve. To create side lighting, the Kinos and Chinese lanterns are placed at strategic points around the perimeter of the set, usually at eye level.

On locations where you want to preserve the natural light, the existing light sources are used as a guide for placement. The Kinos and Chinese lanterns will then serve to enhance the natural light. This approach is often used for documentaries and productions with tight schedules.

Whether you use Kinos or Chinese Lanterns (or both) is a matter of personal choice. The quality of the light is similar, but the fixtures are radically different. Some cinematographers favor Kinos, while others favor the simplicity of the Chinese lanterns.

Fill light is important in creating the key level (mood) of the shot by increasing or decreasing shadows. This principle still holds true here, but with an interesting twist as to how the fill is achieved. Kinos and Chinese lanterns are low intensity lights. They are so low, in fact, that ambient light on the set is usually enough to act as fill. In other words, in most cases, you will not need a dedicated fill light. If the ambient fill light is not adequate, you can:
• use a reflector board to bounce light into the shadow areas
• use an additional fixture (bounced) to raise the ambient light of the set

Lighting Control:
Kino Flo Production Lighting and similar brands have their own accessories for lighting control, including louvers and dimmers. Louvers are used to control directionality and spillage. Chinese lanterns are a bit tricky because you must improvise. A black skirt made of Duvetyn can be used to direct the light and control spill. Professional Chinese lanterns like those made by Chimera Lighting have their own accessories for lighting control.

Exposure Metering:
The principles of exposure and contrast previously discussed still apply, too. The catch is that using an exposure meter at such low light levels becomes increasingly difficult. Film stocks are becoming faster and DV cameras are approaching the sensitivity of the human eye. It makes sense, then, that your eyes are your best tool in judging exposure and contrast. Consequently, when light levels are too low for the proper use of a meter, the best approach is to make the lighting look as natural as possible to your eye. Do the final tweaking by checking the shot against a video monitor, particularly highlights and shadows.

Achieve a Film Look with Video (In Camera)

2006-08-14T10:41:00.000-07:00

If you’re trying to create the look of film with digital video, setting the proper light levels is critical to creating the balance of light, shadow, and contrast that film provides. The DV cinematographer benefits from following film lighting techniques and using a light meter to measure the quality of light being recorded.

With film, lighting is measured according to the speed of the film itself. The lens and light work together to bring the appropriate image onto the film’s emulsion. With video, the videotape itself has no light or speed rating. It’s the camera which controls how light is recorded by the CCDs onto the tape.

Light meters are read according to settings based on the speed of the film being used. For example, a cinematographer can point a meter and know how the light going to the camera will reproduce on film because the meter reads F4 and is set to the film’s speed of 200 ISO. To use a light meter in video, you have to know the camcorder’s speed rating (measured in lux) and calculate that to an ISO (formerly called ASA) film speed rating.

The best way to achieve a film look is to set your lighting and ratios using a meter. Then you’ll know that the ratios will be right no matter what the setting of the camera.

Most professional video camcorders have published lux ratings, so it’s easy to calibrate light meters. Popular prosumer digital video models often don’t, however.

Using the smaller cameras with a light meter is tough, because some of the F-stop settings on the palm-size cameras do not coincide with F-stop settings on larger cameras and meters. Basically, some DV cameras have their own F-stop systems which are not consistent with the rest of the world.

The work-around is to calibrate your light meter to your camcorder. This involves lighting a gray card and setting your meter to match the F-stop reading from your camcorder, as follows:

1. Purchase an 18 percent gray card, manufactured by Kodak and available online or at most photography stores.
2. Light the gray card with a flat light (no shadows.) Take an F-stop reading from your camcorder’s built-in meter. Make sure that the exposure is set to 0 dB gain.
3. Using the camcorder’s F-stop as a reference, set your light meter so it reads the same F-stop at 1/60th second, or 30 fps.
4. Note the meter’s ISO reading. This becomes your camcorder’s ISO number.
5. To use your light meter on your shoot, lock it to the camcorder’s ISO number and take readings relative to that setting.

When lighting for digital video, a contrast range of about 4-to-1 (two F-stops either above or below the key light level) will yield accpetable video picture.

To achieve a film look start by keying your subject at F4 or F5.6 and lighting the shadows to fall within his two stop limits. If your key light reads 5.6, that is the highlight. The shadow should read F2.8 to be two stops darker. Always begin with the desired highlight reading and work your ratio with the shadow area.

Simply lighting by mathematics alone is not the end all. Personal style and the requirements of the project are the starting points for lighting any scene. But following standard lighting rules and ensuring the light falls within acceptable ranges using a light meter are the basics upon which artistry in lighting is built.

DI Digital intermediates

2006-08-13T10:14:00.000-07:00

Digital intermediate (often abbreviated as DI) describes the process of digitizing a motion picture and manipulating color and other image characteristics to change the look, and is usually the final creative adjustment to a movie before distribution in theaters. It is distinguished from the telecine process in which film is scanned and color is manipulated but only intended for video and television distribution. A digital intermediate is also customarily done at higher resolution and with greater color fidelity than telecine transfers and utilizes only digital tools (no analog video devices).

Although originally used to describe a process that started with film scanning and ended with film recording, digital intermediate is also used to describe color grading and final mastering even when a digital camera is used as the image source and/or when the final movie is not output to film. This is due to recent advances in digital cinematography and digital projection technologies that strive to match or exceed the quality of film origination and film projection.

In traditional photochemical film finishing, an intermediate is produced by exposing film to the original camera negative. The intermediate is then used to mass-produce the films that get distributed to theaters. Color grading is done by varying the amount of red, green, and blue light used to expose it.

The digital intermediate process uses digital tools to color grade, which allows for much finer control of individual colors and areas of the image, and allows for the adjustment of image structure (grain, sharpness, etc). The intermediate for film reproduction is then produced by means of a film recorder. The physical intermediate film that is a result of the recoding process is sometimes also called a digital intermediate.

For purposes of clarification, the order in which Final release prints are made with DI images included in the process is published below:

1)Original Film Negative
2)Digital Intermediate (DI)
3)Film Scanner
4)Conforming Workstation
5)Film Recorder
6)Inter-negative
7)Release Print

Below are the traditional steps taken when Film is the sole medium:

1)Original Film Negative
2)Optical Film Process
3)Cut Negative
4)Optical Grading and Timing
5)Inter-positive
6)Inter-negative
7)Release Print

MILESTONES
• 1990 - The Rescuers Down Under – First feature-length film to be entirely recorded to film from digital files; in this case animation assembled on computers.
• 1993 – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs – First film to be entirely scanned to digital files, manipulated, and recorded back to film. The restoration project was done entirely at 4K resolution and 10-bit color depth using the new Cineon system to digitally remove dirt and scratches and restore faded colors.
• 1998 – Pleasantville – The first time the majority of a new feature film was scanned, processed, and recorded digitally. The black-and-white meets color world portrayed in the movie was filmed entirely in color and selectively desaturated and contrast adjusted digitally.
• 2000 - O Brother, Where Art Thou? – The first time a digital intermediate was used on the entirety of a first-run Hollywood film which otherwise had very few visual effects. The work was done in Los Angeles by Cinesite utilizing a Spirit Datacine for scanning at 2K resolution, a Pandora MegaDef to adjust the color and a Kodak Lightning II recorder to output to film.
• 2004 – Spider-Man 2 – The first digital intermediate on a new Hollywood film to be done entirely at 4K resolution. Although scanning, recording, and color-correction was done at 4K by EFilm, most of the visual effects were created at 2K and were uprezed to 4K.

Proof your Frames

2006-08-03T10:05:00.000-07:00

An invaluable tool for cinematography is your digital camera to proof your shots before you even roll a frame of film or tape.
   Like it's predecessor the Polaroid, the digital SLR camera has become key on set as a communication tool between the director and cinematographer, on commercial scouts we sometimes pre-shoot every shot, it makes it very easy to sell camera positions, they can see it. Working with a directors finder is cumbersome in that you both may be looking through it at very different frames and you have to get the director away from crafty to go look at the shot!
   As far as reproducing the gamma and subtle colors of film, no digital camera or Polaroid that I've ever used will show you all the potential of film negative, but with most digital cameras, if you can get them to look the way you want on set, you will have no trouble duplicating the look in TK and you probably can get a traditional photo chemical finish to look really close. Highlights blow out without much provocation just like they do on HD.

Check it out and good Luck!   

Boost the "Look" of your Low- Budget Show

2006-07-02T21:16:00.000-07:00

As I work on projects in and out of the busy LA production scene, I can't help but to observe the use of so many different video formats that are being utilized. It seems that every manufacturer has their answer to inventing a Video format that can somehow reproduce the look of film. As I watch these shows on Television, I notice that they don't quite hit the mark- I feel time and time again that the value of the production's bar can be raised considerably.

I have been using DV formats since 1999, beginning with Canon's XL and GL systems. Early on, I explored ways to make DV "look like" 16mm, utilizing then Final Cut Pro's version 1 and Canon's "frame mode". For about a year and a half and through FCP V-3, I simply brought my images into FCP, edited the piece and crunched the black down with the contrast filter, as much as the then simple filters would allow, then add a little red hue to it. It looked cool, I was pleased with the results back then, even so it was still lacking.

Now a day's, I use Panasonic's DVX and HVX systems and for the money, both produce fine image qualities in 24 frame progressive mode. Shooting in 24P and utilizing FCP's color correction filter, again by crunching down the blacks, slightly over saturating picture and also, throwing in a magic bullet filter from time to time usually achieves a 16mm "look". I use the term "usually" because you need to start with a fat image. Without a well-exposed image, there is virtually no hope of enhacing something that's not there. In addition, you will be hard-pressed to achieve a 16mm look with images that are too over-exposed or shooting contrasty exteriors. One trick, while shooting in the bright mid-day sun, is to adjust your gamma in camera. Most, if not all the pro-sumer cameras have film-gamma setting that can and will help you achieve the look.

The truth is film is still the image standard by which all other formats are compared to. Many Doc's that I am asked to shoot have built into the budget the utilization of super 16mm for B-roll. I really like the over look of a given show when both film and video are used and so do my clients.

Some producers are skittish about utilizing film in their show due to budget constraints. The truth is though, a well planned out shot list and by negotiating your process, prep for telecine and transfer cost bring the overall cost down considerably. Film can be puchased new for about .30 per foot and in the low .20's per foot for short ends or recans. There a number of vendors that sell film, some include THE DR. GROUP and REEL GOOD to name a few. In terms of telecine, transfers houses will generally give you a rate of $200/hour using the spirit. The spirit uses a halogen bulb and gets all the rich, vibrant hues out of every frame, in other words, you have a lot of latitude to play with. If you really have a solid sense of what you are going after, you can spin thru at least 1200' of film in an hour or roughly 24 minutes of footage, give or take-in B-roll land that is a mountain of footage.

The final results are a show that was shot for say $20,000, looks like it was shot for at least double that.

Avoid Burnout During Your Edit

2006-07-01T10:22:00.000-07:00

It's not easy. You put your lifeblood into a project. Weeks of prep, many months shooting it, more prep then at the end of that process you realize that you've accomplished only 40% of your film. Now you have a mountain of footage to log, capture then edit.

Now a days, we can realistically do so much ourselves. With post technology that is genuinely affordable, very powerful and compact enough to set-up and use in a home office, why wouldn't we make our own films. In theory, it all sounds great, until you get to that point of realizing that you have been so isolated that you have not seen, talked to or returned any calls from you friends and family in months. The dishes in the sink have congealed into a something that resembles a piece of post modern art and your so mentally exhausted, all you want to do is sleep... But you can't, you got another 60% to go.

So what is the answer to remaining in balance with your life, keep a high energy level, remaining consistently creative, always able to expand on your film to make it better, with out getting burned out.

I certainly have been in this space before and have found a few approaches that keep me going for the long haul.

1-Designate your work hours for that day. I like to be more spontaneous, so I allow myself to make that decision the morning of. I know I have only so many hours in a day, have a family with two young kids, so for me 9:30am-4pm. And being the nocturnal guy I am, 8:30- midnight or so.

2- Pre-Visualize what you will be editing before you sit down to edit. This is kind of like a meditation of sorts. What you want to do here is to rough out what you will be editing that day, how it will look when cut and what elements you will be using. This one practice alone shaves many hours off my week.

3- Learn the ins and outs of your edit program- Knowing how the system tics is key- Do you use the mouse more than a keyboard shortcut, the other way around or both. Develop the most efficient work flow you can. Keyboard shortcuts for example will save a lot of time in the long run.

4- Give yourself permission to walk away from your project when you are capturing or even rendering. Leave the room and do something completely different. What your doing here is giving yourself space from your project and the project space from you. I find that by doing this helps me keep the creative juices flowing when I return.

5- Designate a little down time for yourself somewhere in the day and definitely have lunch. Not a working lunch at your edit station, but a real lunch away from the work. I have worked on a lot of crews over the years and got used to 1/2 hour lunches- doesn't seem like much time? You'd be surprised...

6-Lastly, connect with at least 1 live person, other than yourself during your day, At lunch on the phone, whatever...

I have employed these simple steps into my daily editing routine and because of that I get more accomplished, sustain a higher level of creativity and hey, my clients are stoked with the results...

Happy Trails

Gearing up for Remote Locations-Amazon Style

2006-06-30T19:06:00.000-07:00

Recently, I was asked to co-shoot and co-produce a project in the remote area of the Peruvian Amazon titled Curandero-The Plant Doctor. I have shot in many remote locations including Mt. Everest and this felt like it was right up my alley because A: it was warm and thawing out from 3 months at Everest seemed like a good idea and B: the subject matter of documenting Curanderos and thier way of life is important work. So, my knee-jerk reaction was " hell yes, I'll take it. What an opportunity!" All day, my mind romantically roamed with visions of David Lean shooting Lawrence of Arabia in the Sahara...

After sleeping on it though, reality set in. We did not have a budget of a big studio feature, after all we are just a small Documentary film crew, so, hiring extra hands from the states to help us with humping equipment around, sound, etc. was not feasible due to budget constraints. My Filmmaking partner and I had acquired and owned outright all the necessary equipment for the gig, so that was not an issue, the challenge was logistical: How were we going to get equipment into Peru undetected by customs officials (customs payoffs are very costly) and if accomplished, how were two guys going to manage 1 video camera with accessories, sound gear, tape, film, 1-16mm film camera and accessories, a Gyro unit and a tripod (all told we had roughly 175 lbs of gear) on our trudge deep into the Jungle...Our transportation was mostly by foot and on top of that, there is no electricity to charge batteries and the high-humidity, we assumed, may pose a problem for our delicate equipment, so special considerations were employed for that which translated into more gear, more weight.

The first issue of personnel was taken care of by the hiring of locals to help. I have found that everywhere I have gone in the world to shoot, the locals tend to be strong, willing to learn and very intelligent with a knack for the technicals of production: In other words-they are fast learners. Basically, under our circumstances, 2 guy's humping 175 lbs+ worth of equipment, by foot through thick flora and fauna, rough, narrow terrain, through rivers waste deep or higher is not a great option, so, our new friends assistance was a real blessing.

The Second issue of getting into the country was to use non-conspicuous army-issued duffle bags with the gear stoed tightly in pelican cases within. That and prayer for safe passage did the trick.

After 3 trips now we have, through trial and error, cut down our equipment to a manageable weight: every little bit helps. Below is a list of 14 pieces of light yet solid gear: As long as I have these tools- I am confident I will succeed in getting my documentary in the can and not get hemoroids or a slipped disc in the process.

*Interview Camera: Panasonic HVX 200 or DVX 100B (Both are light, compact and produce wonderful images)
*Beauty Shot Cam: Aaton A-minima super 16mm camera ( Light, compact and very rugged)
*8mm prime, 14mm, 12-120 zoom, 2x extender (maximum focal length coverage-minimal weight)
*Batteries- Expedition Batteries found at automatedmedia.com ( No need to re-charge these babies)
*Packs- Kata BP-502 pack. (We used 1 for all our Aaton Gear and a second for all our Video/Sound gear and AKS)
*Bogen Mono pod with pistol grip and 3 leg screw in tripod mount ( Light weight- great for interviews)
*2-Sennhieser EW100eng Wireless Mic systems- with a shotgun plug in transmitter
*1- Petrol rain cover (I had my DVX partially submerged in a river with this baby on and the camera remained protected from mineral-rich agua)

Quote of the day- Lazlo

2006-06-30T19:01:00.000-07:00

Quote of the the Day- Vittorio

2006-06-30T19:00:00.000-07:00

Know Your Tools-Here's How

2006-06-30T14:11:00.000-07:00

For many years, Show Biz Expo was the mac-daddy of all filmmaking-related expos. Technicians from all departments ranging from Grips, Gaffers, Production Designers, DP's, Producers, Editors and the likes, would flock to the Los Angeles Convention Center to check out the latest and greatest products from vendors. Here, we all had an opportunity to see, touch, feel and discuss all the latest tools of our trade-under one roof. I used it as a tool to continue my education and in this day in age when technology changes in a big way every 18 months or so, staying up is a do-or die prospect. As these things go, show biz got too big and too expensive for the vendors, many moved on and "Show Biz" became "Slow Biz".

Last week, I attended CineGear Expo in Westwood, Ca. with a good friend and a fellow DP. Exploring the couple-hundred booths, I learned more in two-days about current camera technolgy, camera support systems, 4k and lighting gear than I could have surfing the web in the same amount of time. The difference here is that equipment is mounted and ready for anyone to demo with qualified techs standing by to answer any questions you may have about that peice of gear your salivating on. In addition, Expos are a great place to purchase gear at a reduced price.

Don't feel swayed by the high-entry fees, most can be waived by unions or association affiations you belong to. Whether your just breaking into the business green as grass or a long-time pillar, attending one of the many is extremly beneficial to your career.

Click on the links below to find one near you and participate with an open mind ready for an education.

CINE GEAR

N.A.B.

HD EXPO

HD WORLD Conference & Exposition