John Sharaf
Forum Replies Created
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It’s got nothing to do with “old school”, to the contrary.
It has to do with the fact that motion picture and televsion lighting is often best when pursued with the ideal of finding “elegent” solutions to otherwise impossible problems. This is why there are so many unique types and varieties of lighting equipment that have been developed over the years and are still being improved on.
The Lowell kits you mention are if anything “old school”, developed in response to the lack of portable location lighting equipment thirty years ago. In the interim there have been many more “elegent” solutions put forth in the market both by full line lighting companies like Mole and Arri and also by innovators like Kino Flo.
If cheap and portable is what you want, for example, Mole makes a great starter light in the teenie-weenie mole. This is a small open faced quartz unit that takes a 600 watt bubble and can be used directly as a “hard” source or diffussed with a light box (like a chimera) for a soft source. It can also be lamped to be powered by battery and three of them fit in a tiny kit box offered by the manufacturer.
Mole’s designs are well thought out on terms of safety and handling such that they can be touched and operated without gloves if necesssary and gels don’t burnup and singe on the doors. These things are important for new DV shooters and old hands too.
I’m sorry if you were insulted by my comments, but I thought I’d try to counterpoint your suggestion so that Oceansmoon and others in his/her position do not make the mistake of buying a light kit that will burn their fingers, maybe start a fire or cause other unknown suffering later on. For the same price or a little more there are other alternatives which I feel will provide better longterm usefulness. Take it or leave it!
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Yeah, Varicam will cover principals of video, lighting, filmmaking, etc. that would apply to any digital photography, but does focus on their application to the Varicam in particular (menus, settings, attachments, accessories, etc.).
There are comperable “workshops” for the F900 and others which distinguish between what DP’s are interested in, or for folks more interested in DIT function. In fact, some of the rental vendors are offering similar classes and workshops in order to help their traditional film clientel become more conversent with video technique and terminology.
JS
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The Int’l Cinematographers Guild (Camera local #600) is sponsering a “Feature Film Lighting Workshop” starring Bob Primes, ASC and Matthew J. Siegal from July 3rd (?) to July 9. Perhaps it’s not too late to join in. Tuition is $1195 or $600 for ICG members. I guess you could call the office at 310-769-0007 for more info.
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Normally I wouldn’t say anything to a post like this, but I really must advise against purchasing any “Lowell Kit” of lights. They are crude at best, burn very hot and are difficult to control despite a large catalog of accessories. If you must buy a lite kit, look at the many versions sold by both Arri and Mole.
JS
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It’s a funny thing, but lighting guys, who are called upon to work really hard long hours, lift heavy weights, operate hot equipment, endanger their lives by being near to and sometimes having to attach to high current, and get little credit or recongnition, usually demand a decent hourly rate; in the neighborhood of $35-$50 per hour (ten hour minimum). And they can be worth every penny or more!
Regards,
JS
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Michael,
There’s a “Varicamp” coming up on July 21-23 in LA. Search “varicamp” for more info.
JS
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Alan,
Most film that is shot at 24fps uses a default shutter speed of 1/48th of a second, which corresponds to 180 degree shutter. In the design of a reflex camera with a spinning mirror, this allows half the time for the operator to view through the lens and half the time for the film to be exposed through the lens.
Some studio style film cameras allow the shutter to be openned even a little bit wider, to 210 degrees, which gives you a little more motion blur and a little more exposure; you can set the Varicam for either of these settings.
In the menu allows you to choose either fractional shutter speeds or degrees like a motion picture camera, depending on whether you are in Film Rec or Video Rec. In any event you can use the shutter switch on the front to turn the shutter on and to set the exact speed desired; refer to page 16 of the Varicam manual “7.Shutter Switch”.
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Perhaps I’m missing something, but I’ve had similar problems trying to do “digital cut” from my Avid to a BVW50 which like the 1200A is “not an editing machine” so it will not do it. As a workaround, I just “layoff” the finished timeline with the TC slaved on the deck from the timeline; voila, a finished product with the timecode in the right place to que up the program at 01:00:00:00. Can’t you do this with the 1200A? This presumes of course that you can extract the TC through some spigot; I’m not familiar with FCP, is there such an accomodation?
JS
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Ethan,
This is a new one on me, but I’ve haven’t done siuch a shot with my Varicams. I’d say, don’t worry about; if the noise is really being recorded in the “black” just replace the blackness with clean black in post!
The Varicam is a noisy camera per se.
My guess is that you’re looking at the picture on an LCD screen, am I right? If so they are inherently noisy themselves.
Really, go ahead and shoot the scene and “fix’ the black in post.
Regards,
JS
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I have several XC999’s in my fleet; they are really “old-school” single chip 1/4 or 1/3″ CCD cameras, origionally intended for instrumentation or machine inspection, but which were often repurposed for POV or even hidden camera applications. They have either a control box or can be wired for power and video to a 26 pin for use with a BVW35/50-type portable VCR. These applications are now more often accomplished with a Toshiba three chip “ice cube” camera that has a “c” mount lens (sorry I don’t know the model number off hand) which are much more accessible and better quality than the miniature lense mount on the XC’s.
When used without the control box, the camera was adjusted/setup with on-board dip switches. One of the more interesting and useful adjustments was a variable shutter setting that served to auto-expose adjust. This way, when used in an unattended application (like POV) the exposure was automatic even in lieu of auto iris control on the lens.
People even built there own underwater and/or hazardous use houseings for this camera out of d-cell sized “Maglite” flashlights!
I often built hidden camera rigs with these cameras by installing them in attache cases, or women’s purses, after I found a leather whole punch the exact size of the lens oriface.
Needless to say, the picture quality was never really that great, and the demand for hidden cameras, especially here in California which is a “two-party-state” has definately diminished, so we mostly use our small DV cameras (like DVX100’s) for POV and car-mount applications.
Needless to say, I’d sell you my two XC999’s real cheap!
JS