[Bob Cole]

sorry, no. I was referring to the effect where the character is frozen mid-leap, and the camera rotates around him/her.

[Bob Cole]

[Steven L. Gotz] “It is the zoom that causes the loss.”

true; and so an option would be to reframe the sequence with a black border. You might also get points for “creativity;” I suspect many a “creative” black-and-white scene originated as a scene with the wrong color balance.

[Bob Cole]

I’m not a huge green screen expert but I do 4-5 shoots a year with it. A large green screen becomes a light source itself. If the green cyc wraps around the subject, you’ll have more and more green fringing problems, i.e. the green will appear on the subject’s shoulders, etc.

I’d go with a white background; you’ll know exactly what you are dealing with in real time that way, and if you do some post work on it, any fringing will at least be more natural-looking.

[Bob Cole]

I take it that your emphasis is on inexpensive lighting kits. Good news: for interviews, you can do very well indeed with a relatively small outlay.

Key: a Chimera (could be “small” or even “extra-small”) with an open face fixture, for which you’ll also need a “speed ring” to go between the fixture and the Chimera;
Fill: a reflector (could be a piece of foamcore);
Background: a Source 4 Jr. to put a pattern on the background.

There are cheaper versions of the Chimera from other suppliers. The background light is important but it not absolutely necessary. eBay is a good source for a used Chimera/light fixture/speed ring, but make sure you get a “video” or “hot light” Chimera instead of the still-photography kind (which can’t stand the heat and are designed for strobes).

Alternative for a key: a fluorescent.

Ultra-cheap key: open face fixtures with diffusion on the front. You can get a very cheap but durable Mole Nooklite on eBay periodically.

Ultra-ultra-cheap key: One of the “best-lit” interviews I ever shot was with a large window providing 100% of the lighting: a very soft, broad, natural look.

No matter what you buy, HOW you use it is much more important. I guarantee that some of the experts on this forum could light an interview better with a crappy light kit than the less-expert could with the most expensive light kit. Search the forum! volunteer to go on a shoot with a great local shooter!

Good luck, take pictures of your lighting setups so you can duplicate the good and avoid the bad, get on with it and start to play.

— BC

[Bob Cole]

[Peter DeCrescenzo] “My car gets 45-50 MPG”

Funny! but how’s the mileage when it has all that stuff in it?

My production van is a Camry, though it does force me to make choices about what to leave out. What I’d really like is a car that is uninteresting in itself to car thieves, and has a big enough trunk for all the gear that looks valuable.

[Bob Cole]

[donatello] “rent everything else at at location city”

— right, and if you can, hire a local grip who has the stuff. Sometimes the rental equipment doesn’t show up on time.

[Bob Cole]

I suspect that your question is why so many people like their Arri kits; cases can be a big pain in the butt. There are custom case manufacturers around; I’d be interested too if someone has a recommendation.

[Mitch Gross] “One of the biggest challenges is how to transport gear if you’re flying”

Great point. I hand carry the camera, and use Tuffpak tripod cases and Pelican hard cases with protective inserts or soft dividers for the rest. What do the rest of you find useful and protective?

— BC

[Bob Cole]

I respect your decision, but I’m not sure whether having a lawyer’s participation is realistic. They like to get PAID. And one of the best pages I’ve found on model releases is on a photographer’s website (https://www.danheller.com/model-release.html). Realistic pragmatic advice.

The law changes so fast, and is so full of fine distinctions, that even an attorney’s presence on a forum wouldn’t guarantee correct answers. You can never PREVENT someone from suing you; you can only act so as to limit the potential problem should someone decide to do so.

I was really not so much beating a dead horse vis a vis the COW as I was soliciting input about other websites that might offer a forum about legal matters and the media business.

[Bob Cole]

[Frank Otto] “It wasn’t a problem for incidental, just if the band was featured or recorded and played out later.”

I want to make sure I understand this: If the band was playing in the background, and you were doing an on-court interview or showing the players huddling on the sidelines, it was okay, even if you could clearly hear the band? But it was not okay, if you cut to a live shot of the band playing the latest top 40 hit?

[Bob Cole]

[Frank Otto] “A recent article in “Independent Film””

Frank, is this a magazine? Are you referring to I-F- Quarterly?