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don't you understand, the blurry rack focus is the style now. It's the bokeh that makes the image!!! not the thing that's in focus!! (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Aug 2, 2012 01:23
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exp0n fucked around with this message at 01:05 on Nov 30, 2014 |
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Aug 2, 2012 02:03
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exp0n fucked around with this message at 01:05 on Nov 30, 2014 |
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Aug 2, 2012 02:25
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The glass and grenades and fire hydrant and many other things were one-shot one-take deals that were a loss if we didn't get it so there was no reset time for those. A few were things that could be repeated easily. I feel like half of the high speed shots didn't make it in to the finished piece though.
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Aug 2, 2012 07:54
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The high-speed stuff kind of seemed pretty random. Kind of like "lookit we have a high-speed camera let's do stuff with it". I mean it looked cool, and colorful but almost seemed like more of a tech demo. Also was it a conscious decision to put giant piles of powder on the drums for the look of it, or did someone just get carried away?
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Aug 3, 2012 00:26
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Like I said almost half of the high speed shots weren't used, it might have worked better if they had included more of it. for instance, every person running through glass, every grenade filled with paint, every hourglass smashed by an anvil, we had four passes of each, each with a different color. I thought they were going to edit it so it was one smash but four colors, each color doing a portion of the smash. I don't know if that was planned at any point but they didn't do it either way. It should be artistic but the point above all else is to get fans of J-lo and/or Step Up more excited about J-lo and Step Up in a fun and cool way, that's where the priority lies and to that end it does what it should even if that's not satisfying to non-fans like us. J-lo isn't Radiohead or Bjork. The large amount of powder was quite intentional.
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Aug 3, 2012 02:53
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Well after today Im never ever working grip on a non-paid non-student indie ever again because its gotten to the point where its a massive waste of time for me and become increasingly obvious that most people are just looking for free labor. Im still a student, but Ive worked Key Grip on large enough shoots, both student and non student, enough times to where Im no longer learning anything on sets at this level. Today was day one of a four day shoot I agreed to work on to help out a friend whos DP on the film(plus its my first Alexa shoot so its nice to be able to tinker with the camera a bit), it ran 16 hours(4 hours over) and every single scene was either natural lighting or maybe one or two lights, completely stationary with maybe two or three camera changes and a max of 3 actors and almost every single shot took at least 7-8 takes, probably 2-3 hours per camera set up. This was elementary stuff we were shooting too. This type of thing is totally fine if the shoot is big, has complicated shots/blocking/lighting set ups but everything was so drat basic. Catering was loving terrible(Im talking CANDY AND CHIPS in the morning until they rushed over to Trader Joes, which took about 2 hours or so and got some stuff) and the AD was one of the worst I have ever worked with. Its clear she has never done this and was putting on her best "Im the AD so Im supposed to yell and be a bitch to the crew" impression. Ive had some stern and intense AD's before but they were at least respectful, organized and never were out right mean. It was terrible and I was really close to exploding in her face especially after she threw a loving used tissue at me after bitching at me about one of the rooms we were about to shoot in being dirty and the only thing that was in there was the loving tissue If I was getting paid for this, I would give a poo poo less, but my god could you be any more disrespectful to your crew thats working for free? She made the set so chaotic by barking orders to everyone about everything and causing a huge mess with no focus or organization. Many times she would yell at somebody to go do something that literally didnt exist or needed to be done and so you had 3-4 grips/PA's just wandering around the set confused and frustrated. Im sure plenty of you have way worse stories and have put up with this poo poo sometimes but my god this was the breaking point for me and I just had to vent. 3 days to go. AccountSupervisor fucked around with this message at 07:08 on Aug 5, 2012 |
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Aug 5, 2012 05:10
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AccountSupervisor posted:Well after today Im never ever working ... on a non-paid ... indie ever again I decided that for myself as well a couple of months ago. It's so weird, I have the feeling that the lower the pay, the more time and requests the "clients" feel entitled to. It's the same in post production, where I'm at these days (I've worked on set as well and did my fair share of free student projects too). Maybe it's because if there is no money, then the client is not experienced yet and thus doesn't really know how things work. Or he's afraid that, since everybody else works for free, those people are not experienced and have to be controlled and bitched at more. I don't know. Only that there definitely seems to be a better work experience with (higher) paying jobs.
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Aug 5, 2012 09:54
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AccountSupervisor posted:
ah horror stories...maybe this one will make you feel better (or worse) I got a referal to gaff a short for a dp I hadn't worked with before, but the friend who sent him my way vouched for him, and I was told he came up through electric, which I kinda dig, so I said sure, why not. The job was flat, rate was kinda meh (somewhere in the 275-325 range, can't remember) but, it was a cash job which is super rare, so that sweetned the deal. We did a tech scout, we being myself, dp, dir, key grip. We're doing large large interiors and exteriors, daytime, but the DP wants to be able to blast windows with a super large source, faking hard sunlight. I try and sell him on an HMI balloon for the exterior outdoor poo poo no dice. Rigging a condor with a 20x, no dice, too expensive, not safe enough with the lift they can afford, coverage is too wide anyway (basically one large city block, with a protest going on as background action)..Understandable, he finally settles on a 12k, plus the 1000a combi and package to go with that. OK cool. We agree on light plots, the 12k is a beast to move on a supercrank, so we agree on placement, ahead of time, like sane, rational gentleman.. This fucker, decides to instead dance the 12k around this mansion, basically switching from south to north windows on a whim. You can't hot restrike an HMI, when you move that poo poo, if you don't have the time to wait, you need to move everything (ballast, stand with unit, header) at once..it's a slow and man power consuming process if you're not able to turn it off, like sane and rational people. Did I mention, this is a 30 page short..in 2 days. No one told us this until day 1 of 2. We had 2 bodies, so we'd be shooting two setups at once..with a g/e crew of 3 + 3 and a swing (plus an intern I suckered into g/eing)..I really needed 4/4 once the gameplan went out the window.. So we got 16 hours day one, but morale is still up. Day 2, they don't feed us and we hit hour 17, and they are in scramble mode to get all their setups so they are still shooting away. Meanwhile second meal is 4 hours late, so we're now 10 hours in without food, and we're busting our rear end. At that point, myself and the key find the ad to have a little chat. Trying to keep it professional, we ask, where is the second meal? We've been told it's coming for 4 hours now..This son of a bitch AD, looks at both us, dead serious, and says "oh there was granola bars and chips. you guys could have had some. no one else is complaining." At that point it took a lot to not hit this dude. We calmly replied that we were actually working instead of checking facebook like the crack production team, and I walked back to the genny and let my op know I was giving them 10 minutes and then killing all power to the lines. All of a sudden martini is called 4 minutes later, and they sheepishly all gave us 20 bucks cash to "get food"...mind you we were on location, in the suburbs, at 2 am on a weekday, in the middle of nowhere. There's some even worse stories from that job... On the plus, that dp rehired me on a super easy commercial that consisted of 2 battery powered 1x1 litepanels and a fat rate. So he made it up to me eventually...Yay happy ending.
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Aug 7, 2012 04:15
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Holy god that sounds bad. Todays insanity include: The AD, on an UNPAID SET, firing the craft service person because she went out to buy breakfast because the AD and director were late to the set. She bought 40 dollars worth of food and they wouldn't reimburse her, so she got mad and the AD fired her. The AD today also refused to let our lead actress, who was having intense menstrual cramps, take a break while the director and camera department discussed a few things. The actors are absolutely champs on this set. They are getting ZERO direction but are killing it. She also ruined a shot that was rather hard to time and get right by shoving her head in a doorway that the camera was facing in the middle of a take. Everything about the shot was perfect except her, and it delayed us about 30min because we had trouble nailing it after that take. And I just found out the director has never directed before(shes had writing gigs on a few major network TV shows and soaps). Our AC has pretty much been stepping in to direct blocking about half the time. Fortunately my good friend, the DP, is shooting the hell out of this movie and it looks fantastic, so at least there's that. And Im also absolutely enamored with the Alexa, it is just so perfect to work with.
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Aug 7, 2012 05:33
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zer0spunk posted:Did I mention, this is a 30 page short..in 2 days. Jesus loving Christ. My stories are really tame by comparison, but I've only done about 3 gigs outside of class stuff so far. My first one was for a former roommate. I was getting paid to work as audio, which was pointless since the DP decided he wanted to make it narration-driven with no location audio. I pretty much just recorded when I could, then played PA and AC when necessary(it was a skeleton crew to say the least). Also, the DP never used a slate even though I was recording audio on a Zoom, "preferred natural lighting"(couldn't light poo poo), and best of all, had no idea that the f-stop effected DoF. Dude owns an XF100, Letus adapter and a bunch of SLR lenses, but doesn't even know the fundamentals of his camera.
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Aug 7, 2012 09:48
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Ugh those film school set stories sounds miserable. It makes me so glad that FSU runs a modified IATSE contract between the production and the crew so none of that fuckery can happen. We're guaranteed meals every 6 hours, the show has to use overtime over 12 hours which is given out and approved before use by the faculty, we have shop stewards in case any bullshit goes down, and if the contract is breached by production we can strike, though the only time I've seen that happen is when there was no water on set and it was 100+ degrees out and the producer was a complete slacker. This is what we use if anyone is bored/interested: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/10993439/FIST%20Agreement%20MTH-2012.pdf I removed the appendix cause it had faculty contact information but it basically said 4 hours of OT, the penalties for going over that (losing editing time), call time restrictions, and some other school specific stuff.
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Aug 7, 2012 16:18
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My last non contract gig (at this point film school sets were running pretty well comparatively) was a film shot in a house in the mountains. They provided one soapy water filled cooler of water with some plastic cups. Were charging for granola bars- something outrageous like $5 (as a donation to the film). They would not provide lunch on what appeared to be a 14 hour shoot. We were not allowed to leave to go get food, and we were required to wait in between set-ups in a covered porch during sub freezing weather. I told the A.D. I was leaving to go get lunch in an hour. She said 'no you won't'. I wish I were clever enough to have a priceless ending, but the choice ended up being pretty simple.
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Aug 7, 2012 19:26
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Wow. Those stories truly are the suck. Inept production has resulted in me being forgotten in the wilderness, set up as grizzly bait, getting no breaks for 36 hours, seeing the two execs/director/host/10 talent and helicopter lost on a glacier for two days because of weather while a crew of 60 waits below and finally nearly getting a child hit by an SUV (which led to me re-evaluating my work for that production and quitting). But never anything totally bush like being charged for granola bars on set when volunteering. That said today I shot an emergency surgery and amputation on a wild sea otter. Gross.
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Aug 8, 2012 04:20
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I'm gonna be shooting a feature on a hacked GH2 this Fall, and I'm looking for recommendations of manual focus 35mm and 50mm full frame lenses. Anything under $2,000 is okay. Something to consider is that we will be using a lot of natural light. So ones that perform well in low light would be ideal. Also, I tend to like deep focus, and long master shots. I'm not too keen on bokeh or excessively shallow focus stuff. Or pulling focus in a shot. Or anything handheld. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
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Aug 8, 2012 05:58
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codyclarke posted:I'm gonna be shooting a feature on a hacked GH2 this Fall, and I'm looking for recommendations of manual focus 35mm and 50mm full frame lenses. Anything under $2,000 is okay. I'm not sure natural light and deep focus are going to go together in that situation unless you're talking about direct sunlight with no ND filters. If you're doing interior scenes you're going to have to get some bright lights in there to stop down and keep focus on the background. This site has a lot of really great used Nikon manual lenses for sale. Great deals. I'm sure you can get an adapter for the GH2. http://www.keh.com/Camera/format-35mm/system-Nikon-Manual-Focus/category-Fixed-Focal-Length-Lenses?s=1&bcode=NK&ccode=6&cc=80342&r=WG&f
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Aug 8, 2012 12:20
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codyclarke posted:Also, I tend to like deep focus, and long master shots. I'm not too keen on bokeh or excessively shallow focus stuff. Pfff, I know you're just saying that to get to gently caress me.
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Aug 8, 2012 12:20
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BeavisNuke posted:I'm not sure natural light and deep focus are going to go together in that situation unless you're talking about direct sunlight with no ND filters. If you're doing interior scenes you're going to have to get some bright lights in there to stop down and keep focus on the background. Seconding old Nikon manuals. They're cheap as gently caress and built like tanks - I recently inherited a set from my dad and I expect to be able to give them to my children in 30 years. The adapters can be had for like 30 bucks, too. Just be aware that they focus "backwards" from other lenses. The AI-S series is reputed to be the sharpest (and most expensive). Also "low light" and "deep depth of field" are opposing concepts, though by its nature you'll get deeper DOF from the GH2 than a larger sensor camera.
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Aug 8, 2012 14:09
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Cool, thanks for the advice! I was already leaning toward old Nikon manual lenses, but I wanted to see what would be recommended without me mentioning that. I decided to pick up a Nikon 50mm f/1.8 AI from KEH on Ebay, after reading Ken Rockwell's enthusiastic review. Still looking for a good 35mm. Leaning toward the Samyang 35mm f/1.4.
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Aug 8, 2012 19:35
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I have a 35mm 1.4 AI-S and 50mm 1.4 AI-S, and aside from being a tad soft wide open they're pretty nice once you stop down to 2.8.
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Aug 8, 2012 20:48
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Gotta think about a wide angle too. 35 isn't very wide on a GH2. If I were trying to do low light and deep focus, I'd just use a Sony EX-1 instead.
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Aug 9, 2012 05:44
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Momonari kun posted:Gotta think about a wide angle too. 35 isn't very wide on a GH2. If I were trying to do low light and deep focus, I'd just use a Sony EX-1 instead. The EX-1 doesn't exactly fit our budget. But it looks like we might rent the Noktor 17.5mm 0.98 for outdoor night scenes. The softness and vignetting problems it has won't really matter in such a dark setting.
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Aug 9, 2012 08:53
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Momonari kun posted:Gotta think about a wide angle too. 35 isn't very wide on a GH2. If I were trying to do low light and deep focus, I'd just use a Sony EX-1 instead. You can get a 28mm Nikon non-AI for less than 80 bucks at KEH.com: http://www.keh.com/camera/Nikon-Manual-Focus-Fixed-Focal-Length-Lenses/1/sku-NK06009040502N?r=FE It's pretty slow, of course, but overall a nice lens for the price. It doesn't end up wide, of course - it ends up at 56mm, or more or less "normal."
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Aug 9, 2012 14:21
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TheBigBad posted:My last non contract gig (at this point film school sets were running pretty well comparatively) was a film shot in a house in the mountains. They provided one soapy water filled cooler of water with some plastic cups. Were charging for granola bars- something outrageous like $5 (as a donation to the film). They would not provide lunch on what appeared to be a 14 hour shoot. We were not allowed to leave to go get food, and we were required to wait in between set-ups in a covered porch during sub freezing weather. I don't know whether to respect your professionalism or call you a world class pussy 
Steadiman fucked around with this message at 16:21 on Aug 9, 2012 |
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Aug 9, 2012 15:12
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Steadiman posted:I don't know whether to respect your professionalism or call you a world class pussy Can't it be both? Professional world class pussy goes for serious bucks these days.
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Aug 9, 2012 15:27
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EnsGDT posted:Can't it be both? Professional world class pussy goes for serious bucks these days.
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Aug 9, 2012 16:28
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My first feature that I directed is starting its limited nationwide theater run in October. I don't have any prospects for another feature yet so I want to capitalize on the release and hit up some of the festivals for networking sake. I'd heard good things about networking possibilities at Sundance and I'm trying to decide if I want to go. Have any of you guys been there and what advice could you impart to me, not only for budget and logistics but also: what's the best way to network there, what events and parties should I go to, and what cool and fun things should I not miss? Should I buy passes for the first or second half only, or both?
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Aug 10, 2012 02:55
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Well, after that horrendous Key Grip gig, I finally got around to finishing a film I shot last spring. I got leant a Sony FS100 and some Zeiss Primes for a weekend and got two of my actor friends and shot this. Everything in it was improvised. It started off as a way for me to get familiar with the camera and see what it could do and turned into a 20 minute "documentary" that I chopped the hell out of down to this. It was basically a glorified camera test that got turned into an abstract, poetic, supernatural mens fashion piece. I always love the critique from some of you so Id love for some more. You are always such a big help in growing my skill. https://vimeo.com/47338594 edit: fixed AccountSupervisor fucked around with this message at 13:06 on Aug 11, 2012 |
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Aug 11, 2012 02:45
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Warning you in advance, this is going to be light on critique and pretty high on praise: I want to see the rest of this movie. And I think you do too. So keep filming. You have something here, even if you don't fully know what it is yet. There are small nitpick-y, subjective things I could say about the edits, but none of that is important right now. The mood is great, the freedom you're giving your actors is great, and the more you shoot of this, the more you'll be able to see what needs to be there and what doesn't. It'll edit itself. I'm speaking from experience. Coincidentally, like you, I'm shooting a sort of an improvised documentary thing right now. I'm about 80% done editing it, and I hope to have it done by the end of Summer. It's called Rehearsals, and it consists of me filming aspiring actresses in their apartments and dorms just going about their day, and then cutting it together into a day in the life of 'one actress' as played by many different actresses. For instance, one actress will be washing dishes, then leave the room, and it'll be a different actress in the next room of a completely different apartment, watering the plants or something. When I'm filming a scene for it, I have no idea what I'm doing. All I'm doing is just being in the moment and capturing what looks interesting at the time. And then the editing process is a jigsaw puzzle. I find scenes that just go together. It's been a very interesting, sometimes frustrating, sometimes gorgeous experience. And the results have been fantastic. Anyway, I wish you the best of luck with this, and I know it's going to turn into something great. And if you wanna talk further, hit me up on PM.
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Aug 11, 2012 04:31
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If you guys have some concrete ideas don't forget to apply for a Cinereach grant. They are giving out grants of up to 50k. I applied for a short doc I'd like to do inspired by the Trayvon Martin incident. http://www.cinereach.org/grants/how-to-apply1
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Aug 11, 2012 12:00
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BeavisNuke posted:If you guys have some concrete ideas don't forget to apply for a Cinereach grant. They are giving out grants of up to 50k. I applied for a short doc I'd like to do inspired by the Trayvon Martin incident. Very interesting. I'm gonna apply for one these for a different project that I'm in pre-production on. Good looking out!
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Aug 11, 2012 18:36
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Been 3D matching Illumina lenses all today. They are very pretty, horribly soft and flare easily, but very pretty looking. I guess they really are modern lomos. One thing that sucks though the lens barrel moves as they focus.
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Aug 12, 2012 00:23
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AccountSupervisor posted:Well, after that horrendous Key Grip gig, I finally got around to finishing a film I shot last spring. I liked this a lot and it's a really great idea to practice in this manner.
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Aug 13, 2012 18:35
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I'm going to be shooting a documentary starting within 2 weeks. The number one thing I'm concerned about is getting coverage as a 1 man (1 camera) operation. It's going to be about this guy's life and I'm anticipating at least a few dramatic/emotional moments during his retelling. How can I best capture this in a compelling way without risking missing it? In a regular, scripted project I could just do a few takes. In this situation though, it's not really acting so if I don't manage to get a good shot I've pretty much lost it. I don't see trying a second take having the same genuine feeling. I suppose I'm most worried about committing to a close up of an emotional moment and for whatever reason finding out later that I can't use it (subject moves out of frame, etc.). Is my concern misplaced? Does this kind of thing happen very often?
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Aug 14, 2012 02:38
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Empty Pockets posted:I'm going to be shooting a documentary starting within 2 weeks. The number one thing I'm concerned about is getting coverage as a 1 man (1 camera) operation. It's going to be about this guy's life and I'm anticipating at least a few dramatic/emotional moments during his retelling. How can I best capture this in a compelling way without risking missing it? I'm not sure I get what the situation is - is he walking/moving around or is this an interview?
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Aug 14, 2012 14:51
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Chitin posted:I'm not sure I get what the situation is - is he walking/moving around or is this an interview? Sorry, I should have been more specific. Right now I'm trying to plan it all out. I had hoped to do some of both and wanted to know what to watch out for.
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Aug 14, 2012 15:47
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Empty Pockets posted:Sorry, I should have been more specific. Right now I'm trying to plan it all out. I had hoped to do some of both and wanted to know what to watch out for. Use a camera that can zoom smoothly and quickly. In other words, don't use a DSLR. Keep a wide or medium shot and if something dramatic is about to happen, be ready to zoom in quickly onto his face to get the reaction shot.
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Aug 14, 2012 15:51
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Empty Pockets posted:Sorry, I should have been more specific. Right now I'm trying to plan it all out. I had hoped to do some of both and wanted to know what to watch out for. For seated interviews use two cameras - a close up that you'll control directly, and a medium shot that's locked down. Anything you don't catch on the close up (dramatic gestures and so forth) you'll get on the medium, and it gives you something to cut between. Borrow a friend's dslr or something to supplement your camera if you have to. If you're following him around then yeah, what BeavisNuke said. Real camera, wide frames.
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Aug 14, 2012 20:02
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BeavisNuke posted:Use a camera that can zoom smoothly and quickly. In other words, don't use a DSLR. Keep a wide or medium shot and if something dramatic is about to happen, be ready to zoom in quickly onto his face to get the reaction shot. Chitin posted:For seated interviews use two cameras - a close up that you'll control directly, and a medium shot that's locked down. Anything you don't catch on the close up (dramatic gestures and so forth) you'll get on the medium, and it gives you something to cut between. Borrow a friend's dslr or something to supplement your camera if you have to. Thanks guys! that sounds like it should work pretty well.
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Aug 14, 2012 20:53
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This is a long shot, but does anyone know of any camera rental houses in Tampa, FL? I'm gonna be down there for the Republican National Convention and will be shooting a round table discussion between a few different delegates, candidates, and activists. I would prefer to rent down there rather than fly with cameras.
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Aug 15, 2012 02:43
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