Todd Terry
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COW Coin
Forum Replies Created
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Wet the pavement…. wow, brilliant idea. And no, I’ve never heard of that trick.
I’ve of course wet streets at night before, for reflections… but never during the day to tone it down. It wouldn’t have occurred to me that would work, but yep, now it makes perfect sense.
That’s definitely a trick to add to the arsenal.
Live and learn!
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Ooops… did I say “almost”?? That was a huge disservice… I’ve yet to know Rick to give anything other than spot-on advice. Yet. 🙂
And not to be Mr. Show-n-Tell, but here’s another scene from the same campaign, I shot this yesterday morning, a scene at a sidewalk café…
It was almost the same setup… full sun, backlit. I added a tiny bit more gear this time, but not much. Very high and to the rear of the scene is a 4×4 Hollywood frame with diffuse silk to cut some of the backlight. The main actor is quite bald and the full sun was just way too much on him. In front and to an angle is just another white 4×4. The angle on the 4×4 was just a little too low for my taste, but we were really cramped by the physical space and that was the best I could do with where I was constrained to put it.
This is the same case where backlit backgrounds made all the difference and still allowed for a full-sun scene.
It was also one of those “good enough in the time allotted” deals… we were only allowed to close the café for one hour to get the scene, so speed trumped artistry.
Again, there are a lot of hot spots, but I don’t mind them as long as they aren’t ugly or distracting.
Glad to know Rick likes hot spots too… that’s Rick “Invaluable Advice” Wise.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Rick’s advice is excellent, as it most always is.
At least one HMI would be a great thing to have, if you can swing it. Even a 1200w would be helpful, and easier to power. You might run into some snags juicing an 1800w unless you have very trustworthy power with a big enough breaker.
Camera blocking and paying very close attention to your backgrounds can make or break a scene, too.
In an extremely similar vein, I directed this scene at a downtown hot dog cart this morning for a commercial…
Not gorgeous, but more than pretty enough. I had a pretty good arsenal of lighting gear with me, but ended up using only one white 4×4 bounce card and absolutely nothing else (well, a C-stand and quacker clamp to hold the card, but that’s all). We pulled it off to the “good enough” level by paying very close attention to the background. This was on our city’s courthouse square… we had planned to be on the complete other (east) side, but at the last minute we switched to the west side as I had a lot more background control. I faced south so all of my talent (and the hot dog cart) would be backlit, and more importantly, that the backgrounds would be backlit, even though it was in full sun.
We positioned the cart in the shade from trees, but just inside the shade so that we would have plenty of direct sunlight just a few feet away to bounce into the scene.
There are some hotspots and the streets in deep background are blown out, but not too blown out and I think it’s ok. I learned from one of my favorite DPs Alan Caso (“Six Feet Under,” “Dexter,” and a ton of other things), that some hotspots are just fine, and that your talent doesn’t always have to be the brightest spot of a frame.
Again, not perfect, but “good enough.” So if you pay very close attention to your backgrounds, you can sometimes get lucky and leave a ton of gear on the truck.
But yeah, I did have HMIs standing by, if needed.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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[Ned Miller] ” …it’s best if you have the graphic artist be in charge of the printing even if it costs a little more.”
I should have thought to mention that, but yes that’s true as well.
My significant other almost always handles getting the printing done, for dozens of clients. A good graphic artist does this all the time and knows how to “speak printer” which has some pretty specific needs and requirements. And it takes the client out of the middle if the printer has tech questions… if a different file type is needed, if a particular embedded font needs to be included, a photo swapped or changed to a different resolution, etc. And while the end client does get to approve it, the graphic artist will be the first one to see the printer’s proof and sign off on it first and kill any issues before they become a problem.
And it actually usually doesn’t cost more… sometimes it even costs less in the end. Artists frequently work so closely with printers they are known to them and get different rates or sweetheart deals… just because the printer knows they are going to be dealing with someone who knows what they are doing and will make it easy… rather than just some joker who walks in off the street.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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By “auto-cue” do you mean with a teleprompter?
Your “other option” you mentioned would be the way that this is done 99% of the time… multiple takes with different focal lengths.
The other way to do it would be two different cameras with two different sync’d teleprompters, and your actor would have to turn from camera to camera on cue. But that would give you the sort of “newscast camera turn” look, which might not be desirable, depending on your project.
But yes, multiple takes with different focal lengths would be the way that this is virtually always done.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Just a quick observation or two…
While I do some graphic design myself, I wouldn’t exactly call myself a “graphic designer” per se…. although I do share my home with one (and she’s great), so I think I can make a second-hand comment or so.
The situation you’ve described is not one that really good graphic designers like to jump into… where a client (or potential client) has already “designed” something in Word (or, God forbid, Powerpoint) and want an artist who can “fix it” or “make it better.” Nor would they wanted to be dictated what tools to use to create it, as you specified Photoshop (A real graphic designer would never design a brochure in Photoshop, they would likely want to use Quark or InDesign or other creation software which is much more suited to that type of work, and is pre-press friendly).
Instead, I’d suggest you find a good graphic designer, and listen to them… see what they can do with a design fresh from the ground up. Tell them what you need, what you want, what you are trying to accomplish, who your target audience is, all that jazz… but do not dictate the design to them. If you find someone good, then trust them. You’ll get much better results.
You said you didn’t know how to “tell him/her exactly what to do.” Well, that’s just it, you shouldn’t tell them what to do, you should tell them what you are trying to accomplish, and let them tell/show you how to do it. You’ll be much happier and you’ll get much better and more effective results.
Find one or two potential candidates, look at their portfolios, see if you like their work and whether their style fits with what you have in mind and what you are trying to accomplish, and if their rates fit in with what you have in mind.
If, on the other hand, you are really happy with what you have and you are just looking for someone to, as you said, do “the final touches,” then you don’t need a real graphic designer. The guy or gal down at your printer (or even Kinkos) can do that. I wouldn’t recommend it that way, though.
I’m probably seeming harsh, but I often go home to hear horror stories of clients micromanaging their graphic designs, and most often those clients are people who are way out of their area of expertise who should be leaving it to the pros. Not all of them are, but the vast majority are.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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This is going to sound like an incredibly smartass and unhelpful answer, but honestly it’s not (or at least I’m not trying to be)…
Your estimate for the job should simply be YOUR RATE x THE NUMBER OF HOURS expected to complete the job.
I’m going to assume that you have a rate for your work. If not, obviously you need to establish one. What that is, I couldn’t say… I don’t know your geographic area, expertise, skill level or resources available to you… all of which would go into determining what a fair hourly rate for your work is.
Also, you might have multiple rates that you have to figure since there are different types of work going on, so make sure to account for that. You might, for example, have different rates for strict editing as opposed to CGI effects (we don’t, but you might). Or you might have different rates for the strictly print work, the poster (we definitely do). You’ll have to estimate your number of hours for each type of work at each rate, if you have different ones.
We also don’t have much of a clue as to the scope of the work. A “one minute animation” could be something that takes an hour. It could also take 100 hours, or a lot more… depending on what it is.
AND… when you give your estimate, give just that… an estimate, and it should spell out that it includes up to X amount of hours, and that overages due to client changes, revisions, re-dos, etc., are billable at your usual rates. And it should spell out your terms (I’d suggest some percentage upon booking the job, with the remainder due upon delivery).
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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I was going to heartily second Bill’s suggestion of the C100 until learning your budget.
Not to be a killjoy, but you (or the organization on whose behalf you are inquiring) will need to reevaluate either the specs needed for the camera, or the budget. I do not believe you will find one with interchangeable lenses and XLR inputs in that price range, or even fairly close to it. Both of those features (especially the XLR inputs) are only going to crop up on cameras a step or two (or three) above that budget range.
The higher-ranged cameras are obviously going to have better color sampling than the bargain basement ones, which is what will allow for clean keys. But then again you said you are not “looking for super great quality,” and considering that, almost any camera in your price range should do fair enough, as long as the greenscreen scenes are well/correctly lit.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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You don’t need a swing-away matte box. Now, swing-away IS a great thing, and I couldn’t live without it…. but I shoot almost exclusively primes and have to change lenses 100 times a day, so swing-away is great. But if you are shooting a zoom lens and aren’t often (or rarely) changing lenses, then the swing-away system is just a lot of extra weight and expense that you do not need.
For inexpensive matte boxes that are still decent, look at those made by Cavision.
But… your lens is FIXED at f/2.8? You can’t stop it down? If so, then you will really be wrestling with exposure, even with a full matte box system and a full set of ND filters. With that setup, I wouldn’t worry about a matte box, I’d use a circular screw-on Variable ND filter… you just dial in however much (or little) ND you need by turning it (they are really just sandwiched polarizers). They are not cheap… but less expensive than the cost of a matte box plus a set of 4×4 ND filters.
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=variable+ND&N=0&InitialSearch=yes&sts=ma&Top+Nav-Search=
You’d probably want to add a rubber lens shade in front, but wouldn’t need a whole matte box, rods, baseplate, etc. (unless you are also using the rods for a follow-focus or other accessories).
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Well firstly it is “matte box”… that might help you with your searches. You’d not likely get any results with “matbox.”
What you need to look for is a lightweight clip-on matte box, if you want to attach one directly to that lens… key words being “lightweight” and “clip-on.” Although I guess there could be, I don’t know that there is such a thing as a “screw on” matte box. If so, I’ve never heard of one.
Or you need a more conventional rods-mounted matte box with a baseplate/rods system for your camera. You didn’t mention what kind of camera you are using, so I can’t be more specific there.
You said you wanted it for your ND filters. So sounds like you already have a set of square 4×4 (or bigger) ND filters?… If that’s the case although a matte box is ideal, you don’t have to have a box to use them. A couple of manufacturers make these clamp-on square filter holders that work without an actual matte box. I even got one free once that came with a set of ND filters (Tiffen filters, I think). It’s a square black plastic holder that is held on the front of the lens by a thick wide black rubber band. I’m not sure if I have ever even used it.
If you have a real video camera of some kind (C300, C500, etc.), then yes a matte box is the way to go. But if you are using a smaller camera, just a DSLR or so (5D, 6D, etc.), then it would be much cheaper to buy a couple of circular screw-on filters for that particular lens than buying a matte box system… and much less cumbersome as well. If you have flare issues add a rubber lens hood to the front of the stack.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
