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Obviously the overacting is intentional, so it's hard to get too wound up about the lack of quality of the acting, it works. The light looks very natural, was it lit with electricity or more natural light? Either way good job. Although I would have appreciated an explanation as to how he died, i.e. pills or something.
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May 14, 2010 07:28
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Openknees posted:By chance are there any posters that went to film school, or did most all of you just kind of jump in and learn on your own? I went to film school (RISD), and I'm pretty sure the biggest thing I learned was that I didn't need to go to film school and I should've used those thousands to buy equipment and start shooting anything and everything I can for others and myself as that's how pretty much every successful person I know in the industry got going. I mean honestly, I work at a camera rental house now, and most well established people I've met who work on set just started working on jobs and pretended to know what they were doing and eventually jobs just started falling into their laps. Frost posted:The glaringly wrong thing here is that the chip is smaller than your average professional camera. Actually the 5D has a fullframe sized chip which is significantly bigger than a 35mm frame or its equal in chip size, like the Red One has. (The 7D has a reduced size chip though) The 5D/7D do have a terrible compression and require lots of post work. The aliasing issues are right on though and the rest can be called an informed prediction. Yes I was going to say something about that mistake too. These cameras suddenly became all the rage at this rental house I work at and now every other day we have another job renting like 3 7D's. We've had like 2 film jobs this whole month. Sigh... But then again, who am I to talk. Because it's all I can afford and I am also into still photography somewhat, I bought a Panasonic Lumix GH1, which is a another 1080 24p DSLR which competes with the 5D/7D. I've been shooting some short scenes for my first feature project, trying to create a trailer and a good 30 minute portion of the film to show to potential producers. Last fall I created a short demo of stuff I shot last summer when I was first getting acquainted with the actor I'm working with and it's basically just to show the mood/setting/look of the film, not to show story or character just yet. I've shot a ton since then and will be editing together more of a teaser trailer type thing soon. Let me know what you think. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fWWI_NIsAI Also, I'd like to know if anyone recognizes any of the music? (Other than the stupid reggaeton playing on the radio in the thrift store. That needs to get replaced.) Gossamer fucked around with this message at 07:58 on May 14, 2010 |
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May 14, 2010 07:56
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I got the idea somewhere that the 5D had a 35mm sensor. Like I said, it was a pretty low effort paper since it only counts towards something like 10 points out of 300 for the class and I don't think the teacher is even aware of what a sensor is.
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May 14, 2010 08:31
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Openknees posted:By chance are there any posters that went to film school, or did most all of you just kind of jump in and learn on your own? Went to film school and enjoyed it. There are plenty of aspects of post production that can't be learned from YouTube tutorials.
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May 14, 2010 17:34
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Slim Pickens posted:I got the idea somewhere that the 5D had a 35mm sensor. Like I said, it was a pretty low effort paper since it only counts towards something like 10 points out of 300 for the class and I don't think the teacher is even aware of what a sensor is. Nice ethic. I'm old now I guess, but "got the idea somewhere" never really was acceptable for any kind of paper. I mean it doesn't even meet the standard of a forum post.
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May 14, 2010 18:50
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This might be a tall order, but has anyone seen 5D film out? Or better yet 5D cut with Red film out? We've got two Reds and 2nd Red will live with 2nd unit when it is not needed, but our schedule was just cut by 5 days and a back up would be nice to have just in case. Might be leaning on 2nd unit even more than we originally thought.
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May 14, 2010 18:52
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Slim Pickens posted:I got the idea somewhere that the 5D had a 35mm sensor. In photography terms, it does. Even the crop sensor in the 7D is way, way, way, way, way bigger than any standard video sensor. 
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May 14, 2010 18:57
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Openknees posted:By chance are there any posters that went to film school, or did most all of you just kind of jump in and learn on your own? I went to a four year school and majored in cinema production. It was a fantastic way to go in my opinion - a bachelor's degree doesn't hurt, and I got to spend a lot of time learning in general, and thinking critically about not just film but all sorts of the general ed I had to take, I feel it made me richer as a person. On top of that, the networking opportunities that you get with spending 3-4+ years in the same classes with the same people is undeniable. Although I went to school and stayed in San Francisco, I still work regularly with people I went to school with, and I keep up with plenty of classmates who are in LA and working professionally. Sure you can learn how to make a movie in two days, but even the most rudimentary film school is going to be putting you with similar people for long periods of time, allowing you to hopefully meet and make long-term partnerships to actually go out and make those films. That, to me, is infinitely more important than knowing how to adjust my F-stop or the difference between 720P and 1080i. Plus the equipment you use in school is normally so outdated that you're going to be re-learning all your specific techniques in the field. Almost everybody who starts in the industry starts from the bottom, so you're going to refresher course either way. But there's a lot more to going to school than just condensed information.
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May 15, 2010 05:15
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Dr. Fishopolis posted:In photography terms, it does. Even the crop sensor in the 7D is way, way, way, way, way bigger than any standard video sensor. Yeah, poor ethic on my part for going off the assumption it was smaller because its chart(posted a few pages back) was shittier.
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May 15, 2010 07:09
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Thanks for your replies everybody! I'm not terribly worried about money, since I'll be using the ol' GI Bill. It probably won't cover everything but it will do well.infiniteseal posted:I went to a four year school and majored in cinema production. It was a fantastic way to go in my opinion - a bachelor's degree doesn't hurt, and I got to spend a lot of time learning in general, and thinking critically about not just film but all sorts of the general ed I had to take, I feel it made me richer as a person. What you're saying is honestly the best perk I've thought about. I'm looking at College of Santa Fe's Moving Image program, and the school has a studio on it's campus, which also sounds promising. If anyone has any input on schools I'd like to hear that as well, and I apologize for detracting from the original purpose of this thread.
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May 15, 2010 12:37
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Slim Pickens posted:Yeah, poor ethic on my part for going off the assumption it was smaller because its chart(posted a few pages back) was shittier. Your whole ethic comes down to you putting your "paper" on here and then making excuses about errors, then qualifying it with how you didn't put much effort into it because it wasn't worth much. That type of ethic will not serve you well at all in production. In production you do the best you can do whether or not it's bringing the van around or directing an episode of a show you don't really like. That's what pro's do and if you don't build a foundation for it early, you may never get it.
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May 15, 2010 16:30
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Openknees posted:I'm looking at College of Santa Fe's Moving Image program I hear a lot of good things about Colorado Film School.
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May 15, 2010 20:27
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Slim Pickens posted:Yeah, poor ethic on my part for going off the assumption it was smaller because its chart(posted a few pages back) was shittier. I don't mean to drag this out, but how does a resolution chart tell you anything about sensor size?
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May 15, 2010 21:05
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I'll be happy to tell you about my film school experience and offer my personal advice on film school, but I'd rather not write it all out here (since most of what I'll say isn't positive, or nice, or what you may want to hear). What I will write here is this: find the school that offers you the most student projects to work on, the most projects to shoot, and as much equipment as possible, and balance that against the cost you can afford (and I mean going into as little debt as possible). Take the theory classes, but also take the technical courses. You may not want to be a sound mixer, but knowing his job will help you know how the set works. The key is balance. Work on your classmates' projects. All of them, if possible. Please, please, PLEASE understand that the highest paid programs in the country may not educate you entirely about how to make a movie, so don't think that enrolling at AFI or NYU will be worth the debt, unless you know you can make it worth it. Film school, like most of college, is what you get out of it. Getting out with as little debt as possible is a great place to start. If you want to know more, feel free to message me.
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May 16, 2010 01:56
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Any other LA locals at the JL Fisher BBQ today? Good food, free beer, lots of toys. I did get a laugh from seeing this gem. The placard says: "Please avoid returning your dolly to us in this condition. House of Wax - Paris Hilton. Warner Movie World - Australia. Fire caused by candle left overnight. June 26, 2004."
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May 16, 2010 02:09
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Damnit. Here's a smaller version: 
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May 16, 2010 02:11
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Man has it been a year already? I went last year, it was 90+ degrees and I filled up on beer and crab cakes. I also took that exact same picture as you. Too bad today was so lovely outside. Fisher gave us a free dolly rental back in 2005 for a short film, but we haven't rented anything from them since. I have eaten a ton of free food and booze though.
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May 16, 2010 03:25
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ynotony posted:Man has it been a year already? I went last year, it was 90+ degrees and I filled up on beer and crab cakes. I also took that exact same picture as you. Too bad today was so lovely outside. I may have taken the same picture as you because I spent the afternoon doing the same thing you did. Actually, they were out of crab cakes, so I had the BBQ pizza. I assume you're being sarcastic, or just hate the sun, because today was fuckin gorgoeus outside. Great day to play with the Fisher 10's, stand under a Technocrane and run into old faces. I'm sent to Fisher pretty regularly for gear, be it a Fisher 11, 10 or that camerapod (the extension ladders in a pyramid, I call it the widowmaker). I think I've only gone by Chapman once, most of the DP's I work with seem to request Fisher. As someone getting fairly seasoned in the G&E department, I must say that accessory carts from Fisher are AWESOME. While I prefer Steadicam, I usually tend to take over leveling dolly track on set if we don't have a dedicated dolly grip. After working on some shows for over a year in lovely conditions in the desert, I can lay track just about anywhere. 
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May 16, 2010 05:05
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gently caress it, here's a dump of some photos I've collected over the last year:  Pretty cool 40x40 green screen we constructed for an army video I worked on last December. Speedrail, truss, cheeseboros and a condor. Pretty high tech, yes?  Light for night shooting.  Welcome to hell. 40 feet of dolly track (5 sticks of 8) running over a natural washout in the desert.  Gaffer wants a Musco truck without the benefits of mobile power? Solution is: stakebed with liftgate, Roadrunner stand ratchet strapped down, 12k partially raised and the 100 foot header running to the ballast. We built the contraption to put it over a large, menacing puddle. Working in the rain is loving miserable.  We get asked to make all sorts of things...  Like everything in this world, there's a much longer story to this contraption. However, for your purposes, just know that it worked quite beautifully (unless you ask the 1st AC, who had to hang out the front passenger window to pull focus.  Here we are, camera on board. For those wondering, this rig is made from: Ronford baby sticks, 4 foot camera slider, 1 foot Fisher dolly offset, underslung Cartoni Lambda and camera attached directly to touch-and-go plate.
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May 16, 2010 05:20
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Tiresias posted:40 feet of dolly track (5 sticks of 8) running over a natural washout in the desert. i just had a really horrible visceral reaction to that sentence i do not actually want to know how long that took to level but i'll ask anyway
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May 16, 2010 05:29
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Dr. Fishopolis posted:i just had a really horrible visceral reaction to that sentence Don't want to be a showoff, but I think it took us less than 20 minutes, 3 guys working constantly. That was our longest dolly track, we used pretty much every apple box, basso block and wedge in the package, and even had to use some 2x4 cribbing to span the washout trough. Basically, one guy was walking the track with the level, another guy was near the crates and boxes to give him wedges, and the third guy was hustling poo poo from the truck to the set. You can even see some pieces of 4x4 that we found laying around. The good news was this was skateboard wheels on a doorway dolly, and the camera was just a Sony EX3 on an OConnor head and hi hat. I think if we'd had even a Fisher 11 or a Super Peewee on set that day, we'd all have been really pissed.
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May 16, 2010 09:14
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Tiresias posted:Don't want to be a showoff, but I think it took us less than 20 minutes, 3 guys working constantly.
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May 16, 2010 09:41
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Tiresias posted:I may have taken the same picture as you because I spent the afternoon doing the same thing you did. Actually, they were out of crab cakes, so I had the BBQ pizza. I assume you're being sarcastic, or just hate the sun, because today was fuckin gorgoeus outside. Great day to play with the Fisher 10's, stand under a Technocrane and run into old faces. I guess by Fisher it was nice. Here in Santa Monica it was cold and windy. I feel like it was cloudy too, but that might just be extrapolation.
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May 16, 2010 09:56
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Steadiman posted:Dude that's nothing, I asked for this 60 foot puppy to shoot two people walking across the water on a 100mm. They had to improvise for this baby because the pavement sloped up a lot when it got to a bridge! Took them longer than 20 minutes though... Wow, those chaps sure did have to improvise! Are those some flat palates a few ties down the dolly track!?  Yea, if that was the high point, I'm sure they had to build it up underneath. While that track was probably more tedious and hair-raising, at least you can tell where the high point is immediately. We had a huge trough separating the two ends, so I had to guesstimate which end, 40 feet away from each other, was higher than the other. Good to see you're playing nicely with RED. ynotony posted:I guess by Fisher it was nice. Here in Santa Monica it was cold and windy. I feel like it was cloudy too, but that might just be extrapolation. Actually, it was clear as a bell and no wind up here in the Valley. No worries. You planning on going to the solid state lighting workshop next weekend thrown by the ASC? They're teaching all the old school guys not to be afraid of LED light sources.
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May 16, 2010 10:02
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Tiresias posted:Wow, those chaps sure did have to improvise! Are those some flat palates a few ties down the dolly track!? Not the highest one I've ever requested though, you can see that one pass by in this YouTube video I found...That one was really insanely high because there was a huge dip in the ground. And then we threw a crane on it! Also, I like the RED but whoever said it was lightweight and convenient really needs an anal baseball bat implant ASAP. Having that thing on your shoulder, blasting like a furnace and burning your ear off, is a nightmare! Imagine this on your shoulder! I'd rather have a 435, atleast they don't get so hot.
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May 16, 2010 10:21
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Steadiman posted:Also, I like the RED but whoever said it was lightweight and convenient really needs an anal baseball bat implant ASAP. Having that thing on your shoulder, blasting like a furnace and burning your ear off, is a nightmare! Imagine this on your shoulder! I'd rather have a 435, atleast they don't get so hot. I'll provide the baseball bat, sir. I had the Mantis handheld unit as well, and eventually just gave up the handlebars and grabbed the mattebox/iris rods. I shot a student short where I handheld a Panavision GII with 1000 ft mags top-mounted*, and as exhausting as that is, I didn't feel as bad a crick in my neck from the orientation of the EVF. Perhaps this is a false assumption, but as wide as film cameras are, their center of mass is typically closer to camera left, so the eyepiece usually sits in the right spot when you "shrug" to hold the camera up. With the RED in handheld, even with the Element Technica EVF mount, the eyepiece never sits in the right place. I'd hold the camera too close to my head to compensate for the center of mass, and I'd have to stare at the EVF image at a slight angle. As an operator, I now have to watch all my verticals for horizon because I know my head is off horizon, and the camera may follow suit if not careful. Hooray for handheld (BTS from the feature I shot in March): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nOTfaQDQvg *I had a green 1st AC, so I was loading the film myself, and we only had thousand footers since it was student film grant. I just bit the bullet and handheld operated top-mounted. Student film, so as you can guess, we did numerous 5+/- minute takes.
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May 17, 2010 04:45
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Tiresias posted:I'll provide the baseball bat, sir. I had the Mantis handheld unit as well, and eventually just gave up the handlebars and grabbed the mattebox/iris rods. And that's a really good point about the RED actually, I hadn't thought about that but you're right. My head is always at a crooked angle when I shoulder the RED. But I don't think it's just the balance, though that is a big part of it, it's also the weird viewfinder adjustment. There's just no real sweet spot anywhere in its range. Combine that with the offset balance, and the fact that you're always forced to slightly look up and left instead of straight ahead, and you end up with a crooked neck. Though I never had any level problems but my neck was drat sore after every single time! I'd never had that before until I ran into the RED. I also would just add weights to the back in order to not be front heavy, which just made it more uncomfortable. I mean really, look at this picture...does that look like someone who is comfortable to you? I didn't think so! I might even reconsider the 1000' GII if it'll get me out of shouldering the RED because I hate neck-ache more than back-ache. Steadiman fucked around with this message at 08:17 on May 17, 2010 |
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May 17, 2010 08:09
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What the hell school do you go to where you get to shoot your student film on panavised 35mm?
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May 17, 2010 08:28
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Dr. Fishopolis posted:What the hell school do you go to where you get to shoot your student film on panavised 35mm? I interned at Panavision for a semester, and their compensation was a free 35mm film package rental. Basically, the students get the same package as the "new filmmaker grant" that Panavision gives our regularly. Since I interned there, I got to request all the cool gear that I wanted, especially a set of Panavision Ultra Primes. Would have had Primo lenses, but they were all booked out that week.
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May 17, 2010 09:31
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Dr. Fishopolis posted:What the hell school do you go to where you get to shoot your student film on panavised 35mm? None of my filmmaking buddies or I went to film school, but Panavision lent us 16mm cameras several times for free. It's all about making friends with the right people. We never shot 35mm except for on an old Russian Konvas that we rebuilt and fabricated a blimp for. This was 5 years ago when shooting video was much more complicated than restoring an old 35mm camera and building a blimp for it... I can't believe that at only 24 I can say "kids have it way easier than in my day".
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May 17, 2010 16:38
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Openknees posted:I'm looking at College of Santa Fe's Moving Image program, and the school has a studio on it's campus, which also sounds promising. If anyone has any input on schools I'd like to hear that as well, and I apologize for detracting from the original purpose of this thread. Went there. Studio was nice, teachers were cool, drank all the time and did a copious amount of drugs. Everyone's movies were all shot days in advance with Handycams. Suddenly the school ran out of money. Teachers got fired. No one bailed them out, and they closed. I had a year left to graduate, so i had to move. Now i'm going to school in nyc, and my credits didnt transfer, so i went back to being a sophmore. Year later and now im a junior again. Still gotta finish this year to be caught up. Anywho my output has been much better and focused since leaving. If you like doing shrooms and molly and whatever in the middle of the goddamned desert and getting hosed over by terrible academic operations, go to CSF. Otherwise gently caress 'em. I wouldn't change my time there for anything in the world, but that's not really for academic reasons. linus the bear fucked around with this message at 11:39 on May 18, 2010 |
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May 18, 2010 11:35
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I'm about to head to Henry's. Can someone advise me of a good entry level principal light for lighting a talking head into a camera for youtube? My budget is $300 and I want to upgrade from the halogen flood lights I've been using.
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May 22, 2010 15:00
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Lowel Omni lights, or a pro light w/ stand if you don't already have a stand, that'll give you enough light for one face but just barely. A 500w omni will give you some more breathing room, or if you want to light up the whole room you can get a 1000w tota but that's not spotable, you could put a frame on it and some diffusion to make it a broad soft light but you won't be able to spot it.
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May 22, 2010 19:17
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If your video camera is fast enough, make your own china balls. It's easy, cheap and for the price, looks good. I know you live in Canada so I can't recommend where to go but look for china balls at an interior/exterior decor store. Then go to the hardware store and buy a standard light socket that can plug directly into a power socket. Then buy an extension cable and some high wattage bulbs and you're in business. It's not the best but it would only cost $20 per light.
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May 23, 2010 02:43
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So I made a short film, To Answer Your Question... (part one, part two). I'm not thrilled with it, but I learned a lot. It's not on the same level as most of the stuff posted in here, but it is in HD, and that makes it a better movie, right? 
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May 23, 2010 06:51
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leave the zoom alone. just leave it alone. stop it.
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May 23, 2010 17:17
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But if Robert Altman did it then I can too right? Right? I guess it probably doesn't help that there are three zoom shots in a row towards the end.
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May 23, 2010 17:53
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Magic Hate Ball posted:So I made a short film, To Answer Your Question... (part one, part two). I'm not thrilled with it, but I learned a lot. It's not on the same level as most of the stuff posted in here, but it is in HD, and that makes it a better movie, right? The "Steadicam" shot in the dressing room was really bad, I'm sorry to say. Whoever operated desperately needs to practise some more. I see what you were going for but it was so bad that I would suggest cutting it and replacing it with a locked off wide shot if you have it. Also, there's one shot where the girl very randomly steps in front of a completely blown out window, I'm assuming that was a deliberate choice but I can't figure out why, it does not work very well since the white is so dominant that it becomes annoying to watch. In general there were a lot of lighting/iris inconsistencies, even in the same shots, so I think this could do with another round of CC to bring all the levels in line. An example where it's very obvious is in the closeup of the girl right before she steps in front of the blown out window. In one shot she's pretty dark, you cut to the guy and then back to the same shot but now it's almost a full stop lighter. That's very sloppy! Also some shots, especially closeups were just too dark. Compositionally it was alright on the whole, though some of the master shots telegraphed that someone was going to walk into frame a bit much. Like the shots where the guy/girl walked through the door. It was a bit too pre-framed, if you know what I mean. And the zoom in the beginning, when the guy rides his bike, was incredibly unmotivated and made the shot obtrusive. Try to be more in synch with the actor if you do that. You probably would've gotten away with it if you managed to do the whole move while he was crossing and sitting down. Remember to try and motivate your movement, don't just move for the sake of moving (and yes, a zoom is a move too!). I hope you'll be more thrilled with the next one you do!
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May 23, 2010 18:06
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This is seriously the best ten dollars I've ever spent.Steadiman posted:In general there were a lot of lighting/iris inconsistencies, even in the same shots, so I think this could do with another round of CC to bring all the levels in line. An example where it's very obvious is in the closeup of the girl right before she steps in front of the blown out window. In one shot she's pretty dark, you cut to the guy and then back to the same shot but now it's almost a full stop lighter. That's very sloppy! That was really dumb of me. While we were shooting, it went from dark and rainy to bright and sunny in about twelve seconds, but I was so wrapped up in trying to get her dialogue right that it just kind of passed over my head. The sudden change in stops is me trying to fix it in post, which never works. Steadiman posted:I hope you'll be more thrilled with the next one you do! I hope so too! I'm not too hard on myself, I figure I'm still a student and making mistakes is, for the time being, my job. I think a lot of what you talked about comes down to me not being aware enough on-set.
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May 23, 2010 18:18
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The more mistakes you make now the less you'll make later. I'm kind of glad that I learned on really lovely equipment so that the video quality was pretty in line with my level of incompetence. Not at all related to cinematography but I'm going to be directing and exec producing a webseries that I wrote, and I'm wondering how to best compensate people. I'm funding this out of pocket and I really really can't afford to pay anyone. I was thinking of providing a travel stipend, but I don't really know how to figure that one out. If I just give a flat rate than any cast and crew that have pretty small roles get a pretty good deal while all of my principal actors and full time crew get screwed, but on the other hand if I just get mileage from people and reimburse them for that then there's a very good chance I'll end up getting screwed by at least some of the people I'm not personal friends with (hell I've lied about my own miles before.) I'm sure I could get away with the usual credit/copy/meals bullshit but I don't want to continue the trend of expecting everyone to work for free.
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May 23, 2010 20:56
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