[John Sharaf]

Bryce,

The disturbing part of your question to me is that you “keep or split rights” to materials you shoot as an employee.

This is a contradiction in terms; when you are an employee the employer owns the materials and without a contract to support your claim to co-ownership, any use of these materials by you would likely be considered theft, which is criminal.

If an issue were to arise about the propriety of filming without permission of materials you “kept and/or split rights” to, you would then be liable.

I would suggest that you return all such materials and inform your employer that going forward you will no longer be keeping any materials, and that you’re happy to comply with his instructions, but do so under duress as regards any rights or usage he/she might profit on after the fact.

In such case, you could clearly state that this arrangement predated any legal action, the real exposure to which would be having to hire an attorney to defend yourself. Your employer presumably has E&E insurance to at least cover legal their expense in this situation.

I believe ultimately legal exposure would be “shared” by all who profit by the sale of the footage, whereas you could properly maintain you had and have no knowledge of what your employer did after the production of the materials, and that you were just following their instructions.

I’m not a lawyer, but I too have warned employers (often as a contractor not necessarily as an employee) that they are breaking the law, such as shooting on private property and/or recording audio in a two-party state without consent, but don’t necessarily want to refuse to do what they ask, as I don’t want to alienate a client.

This is slightly different if the client is a news company or organization, which embodies other protections from the First Amendment that are not accorded to a profit making commercial entity.

JHMO

JS

[John Sharaf]

Think it out, in a color camera, what is color but the b&w picture plus saturation?
Turn say down to zero in camera or in post and you have b&w
Some cameras are available in b&w versions in very limited numbers (like Leica, ARRI, RED)
These cameras use ALL the pixels in b&w mode, so are SHARPER than dumbing down from RGB pixels

[John Sharaf]

HI Bob,

Yes, I still love them!

I have 14 pieces in M/R BJ’s, BB’s and 407’s half daylight and half tungsten

Still waiting for the 5K version, it’ll probably be 400 watts. Hoping they’ll reveal at NAB

Cheers

JS

[John Sharaf]

Hi Mark

With the success of the Varicam V35 and LT there are lots of 256GB P2 Express Cards available in the rental market.

Average price is $60/day

They have recently introduced 512 GB versions of these cards too. Expect to pay 50-100% more

JS

[John Sharaf]

Always better to shoot at the higher frame rate and “drop” frames in the conversion than trying to “create” frames by interpolation. AJA FS boxes do a great job, probably better than software only solution

JS

[John Sharaf]

HI Chris,

A common error in shooting 24 FPS is to forget to turn the shutter “on”

When shutter is off, the exposure is 1/24th of a second not the 1/48th

This is what it looks like.

I’ve made this mistake myself, if it’s just a talking head you won’t notice it, but with the type of action in your sceen it becomes very apparent.

JS

[John Sharaf]

Hi Max

Typically a rental stage of that size would have 400-600 amps. This is because the legacy lighting kits are tungsten units that come in sizes like 10K, 5K, 2K and 1K watts.

Nowadays with fluorescent and LED lighting the power budget can be much lower, so ultimately it depends on what and how many units you intend to you.

Best practice would be to design your lighting plot for you typical application, add some extra, know that you don’t want to exceed using an 80% load and go from there.

Practically, you must decide if you ever want to use a 10K or a 5K lighting instrument, and if so, you’ll need the proper power distribution equipment in addition to the power supply. Most stages provide CamLock connectors that feed “Distro Boxes” with 100A and 60A Bates Connectors that feed 100/50A “Lunch Boxes” with household connectors.

The small (under 20A units) connect to the Lunch Boxes and the bigger units to the Distro Box with 100/60A Bates extension cables.

As you intend to be hiring lighting crews, you should consider to hire a Lighting Director and or Gaffer to assist you with these planning requirements. It will save a lot of headaches and expense later.

JMHO

JS

[John Sharaf]

HI Kevin,

Good instinct! Lowering the ISO does lower the noise.

Of course the other unintended result is to raise the middle gray so that there’s less above and more below.

Manufacturers typically rate the nominal ISO to be either at an acceptable (to them) level of noise and/or so the middle gray allows an equal number of stops above and below.

Some brands are noisier than others, and reflect both the quality of the sensor itself and the subsequent amplification.

The exception is the Panasonic Varicam, which has “Dual Native ISO” technology of mothe 800 and 5000 with one dB of noise difference.

JS

[John Sharaf]

Hi Todd,

As I suggest, legacy fresnels, especially MR 407 Babies are readily available on eBay for $200-300, so a ReLamp 1K can be put together for under $1000. To be able to have a hard LED light in the quiver is “priceless”.

Cheers

JS

[John Sharaf]

I’ve mentioned these units in the past as a LED retrofit for conventional small fresnels like Mole and Arri Babies.
VisionSmith’s products are a way of making a very predictable quality of light that we are all familiar with, and for when you want a “hard’ light look or sharp shadows.

If you already own lights for which they make ReLamps you won’t be disappointed, especially because you’ve revitalized an existing asset. Even if you have to buy the heads used (I recommend eBay) AND the VisionSmiths, I think you’ll still find it economical. (visionsmith.com)

Another option for hard LED light is the forthcoming HIVE 100-C. For about $1100 you’ll get a 100 watt hard light, with COMPLETE dial-in color control and many interchangeable accessories like Source 4 Optics, lightbanks, DMX & Wireless Control and ProFoto Strobe accessories. ( hivelighting.com)

JS