[Todd Terry]

[Simon Hitchman] ” is it simply then a matter of dialling through frequencies until the screen is no longer flickering?”

Exactly. Look at a monitor though, not the viewfinder.

[Simon Hitchman] “Should I alter any other settings on the camera?”

Nope.

You might have to increase your exposure a little bit, as the shutter speed will go up a bit (compared to 24p), but no other settings need to be changed.

I’ve found the toughest thing about using clearscan mode is simply to remember to change it back to regular mode after finishing the shot I needed in clearscan.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

[Rich Rubasch] “How big was the crew…”

There were three of us there that day, which is typical for almost all of our shoots. Locker room was shot in the morning, all the exteriors in the afternoon. I probably should have planned that the other way around, since it was about a thousand degrees outside that day, but the locker room required a lot more precision and was the hero scene so I wanted to do it first when everyone was fresh and not beat from the heat.

In this case it was myself as director/DP/camera-op, my biz partner as dolly grip, and an AC (who is usually our editor, and cut this commercial) who was pulling focus… although I ended up pulling focus myself for most of the takes, it was just easier that way.

Oh, we did have a tag-along, this wanna-be filmmaker kid who wanted to hang out… I think the job we gave him was to occasionally push the button on the haze machine.

More behind the scenes stuff here, if interested….

https://fantasticplastic.com/portfolio/news033.html

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

It will certainly be interesting to see what happens with this.

We happen to own one, the DJI Phantom Vision2+ and it does shoot unbelievably good video, especially for the price (I think it was about $1600). It has a 3-axis stabilized gimbal and a 16 megapixel camera which is absolutely rock solid. When hovering at altitude I sometimes have been known to double check the monitor to make sure it isn’t stuck on a still frame because it is so rock solid in the air.

That being said, we have not used it on a single “real” project, and I’m still fuzzy on the legalities of doing so.

We were recently visited by a friend and his biz partner who have started an aerial photography company, and they have three DJI helicopters (the really big ones, not the little one I have)… they’ve even flown a RED Epic with one of theirs with great success on some Nashville music videos.

This guy claims to have researched it extensively. When I asked him if it was legal, he claimed that the more important distinction was that is was not illegal… that although the FAA does not allow unmanned aerial vehicles for commercial use, nor do they really have anything on the books that specifically prohibit them either, nor laws with any teeth to quash such efforts (as evidenced by the fine that was overturned).

I asked him though, “But do you have insurance?” which would definitely be a prerequisite for us ever hiring them to sub any aerial work. He basically said “We’re working on that,” and that so far for existing jobs they’ve considered themselves a subcontractor under the insurance of their vendor. I told him that wouldn’t fly (so to speak) with us, that I know for a fact that our insurance company would never extend coverage to them if there were a claim, that they would jump all over the gray-area legality of it all.

If we ever do use our helicopter on a “real” shoot, I’ll work around it. It’s actually not a company toy, I bought it with my own money and technically own it myself. I personally don’t see any problem with me shooting, as a private individual hobbyist, and giving the footage free to my company to use. Of course that probably is not what the FAA would consider in the “spirit of the law,” but the law is still very undefined.

The Phantom certainly is fun and easy to fly. I might help some that I am also a pilot (fixed-wing) and went into it at least semi knowing what I was doing, but when the thing locks into eight different GPS satellites, I honestly think a kid could do it. On the downside that’s probably going to make for a huge proliferation of these things.

We shall see…

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

I love film… and a big part of me hates to see it go. But I do completely understand it.

I haven’t shot film in several years, and there’s still quite a few cans of 35mm taking up space in the fridge here, and probably will for a long time. I bought all the re-cans from the last season of The Sopranos a few years ago (50,000 feet) and because of that was able to shoot a lot more projects on 35mm that probably otherwise wouldn’t have warranted it, or been able to afford it.

I doubt I will ever do it again, though… there’s just no need to. Nor will I ever get sucked into the “film vs. video” argument again, it’s pointless.

I miss it, though… weirdly enough, mostly the smell of the stock, and the quiet whirring of the camera.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

[Al Bergstein] “I have taken to getting low cost leasing, from Canon, to lease my cameras (C100 for example).”

We do, too.

I normally not a big fan of leasing much of anything (except we do lease our vehicles, which makes sense for tax and depreciation reasons). However we do lease our primary camera.

When I was about to pull trigger and buy a C300 almost two years ago, Canon had a 24-month lease deal, with the payments totaling exactly what the purchase price would be (with a $1 buyout at the end). Since that was basically free money, the equivalent of a 0% loan, we did that (and woohoo in a couple of months it will be paid off). There was no compelling reason not to lease it instead of buy it.

Canon doesn’t always have deals like that going, but they often do.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

Yeah ringlights are cool….

UNLESS unless your talent happens to be wearing glasses. We were hired to shoot a bunch of talent for news opens once where I intended to use it… and turned out almost every one of them wore glasses… which makes for weird zombie-like eye reflections.

As to the side you put your key… listen to John and Rick. Also, while you said your talent was looking dead into camera, you didn’t mention the framing. Are they still framed dead center? If not, you would typically want to put your key on the side opposite their screen position. I.e., if your talent is on screen right, put your key to the left (on the talent’s right).

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

Listen to what Mark says.

But also… lose the Kinos, don’t even consider them. Yes, they are great instruments, but you have almost no budget. Get by with inexpensive tungsten or LED instruments until you have several multiples of that to spend.

I didn’t see any kind of software on your list… FCP or Premiere, After Effects, the Adobe Creative Suite, etc. etc. etc…. that will be a SUBSTANITAL hunk of that budget.

Not to rain on your parade, but there’s probably easily another 9-grand worth of little bits and pieces you’ll find you need to put together even the barest-bones of kits for a professional production company.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

Rich I haven’t used voices.com, but from what I’ve heard (and people who use both) is that they are very similar.

I THINK though with voices.com they work as a payment/clearing/escrow house as well… you pay them when you book a job, they release payment to the talent when you are happy with it. I BELIEVE that’s right, although someone PLEASE feel free to correct me.

Voice123.com though doesn’t do that, has absolutely nothing to do with the money side of things at all. They merely put producers and talent together (they make their money solely off of the talent who pay for subscriptions to be included in their casting calls). After the auditions, it’s entirely up to the producer to hook up with the talent, get the session done, and pay them directly in whatever timeframe and manner both agree on. I very much prefer it that way, although I’m sure both ways work fine.

I did work once with one other voice rep that had a model similar to the voices.com one, where you basically have to pay before delivery. That was not a good experience… even after multiple re-takes the talent just couldn’t deliver what we were wanting. We basically had to tell them that actor just wasn’t working out and ask for our money back from the service. They obliged, but I still prefer not having to pay until I have something I’m happy with.

I also believe (is this right, Rich?) that with voices.com you get auditions and rates from talent… right? With voice123.com, the producer sets the rate going in, and talent interested in that job at that rate will respond and audition. I think I’m paying less doing it this way, although we always offer a more-than fair rate, at market average or slightly above.

I know there are tons of voice actors who use both voices.com and voice123.com, so it’s not like you are getting an exclusive stable of talent with either one of them, so don’t let “who’s working with whom” affect that decision, I think everyone is working with everybody.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

[Ned Miller] ” if you ever need VO try Voices123.com”

V123 is the greatest thing since sliced cheese. I’ve probably hired 200+ voice actors through them.

If I need someone specific (Peter Thomas, Beau Weaver, etc.), then I’ll hire them… but if I know the general sound I’m looking for but don’t have a specific talent in mind, I never hit the voice agents anymore… I always go to Voice123.com… in fact I have two auditions up there right now that are ending today. It was a short call because I had something I needed to cast quickly so It was only a 24-hour casting call (I usually try to give it a few days), but I already have 84 auditions in for one of the jobs and more than half that in for the other one.

Can’t recommend highly enough.’

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

As for the day rates I offer, it all depends on the budget of the project, the requirements needed of the actor, what I need them to do and how long I need them to do it, and frankly how good I need them to be.

If I’m shooting a low-budget spot for a mom-n-pop client and I need an extra or background player and I know the shoot will be short and the talent will actually only be working a couple of hours… then we usually pay, oh, maybe $150 or so. I do take into account the length of time we need them, even though I consider that a rate for a full day. Often times these are not full-time professional actors but people who have other jobs, school, or other obligations, and knowing that I don’t need them to clear their schedules for a full day weighs in to that.

Farther up the spectrum, if I have, say, a medium-budget spot that we are producing through an ad agency, and if I need talent that has to carry a spot with a lot of voice-on-camera, and I’m looking for really good national-quality acting ability, then we pay a fair bit more. Those can go up to, oh, in the $1000-$1500 range per day. And while I hire “as local” as I said, sometimes we will pay more if we know talent has to travel a fair distance or stay overnight… but I include that in the day rate rather than breaking it out as separate.

If I hire union talent, I pay AFTRA/SAG scale, which is dependent on exactly what the job and usage is…. and is usually less than I would have paid otherwise.

One thing to look out for with agents… agents are notorious for giving you a rate (or agreeing to yours), and then tacking their percentage on top of that. They’re not supposed to do that (their fee should already be included in the rate and subtracted from what the talent gets), but most of them will try to stick it on as an extra. When we deal with agents, I’ll always quote them the day rate that is available and make sure they know that is INCLUSIVE of agency fees.

We do casting calls a number of ways. We will post casting calls on our website. We will also utilize the web, I don’t know where you are but there is an online service called the Southern Casting Call which covers all the southeastern states where I am, we post calls there. Also sometimes we use the services of a casting agency… they take care of sending out breakdowns, contacting agencies, etc., and corral talent for us to choose from.

The biggest problem with casting calls is wading through people. Actors are hungry, and you’ll get lots of submissions that are inappropriate. If we put out a call specifying we need, say, an elderly Asian man, I’m still going to get the headshot in from the 20-year old African-American woman saying “I know I’m not right for this part, but in the future…..” And that’s not going to happen once, but 50 times a call.

And stay organized. Many actors don’t seem to be too bright. I don’t mind saying that because I was a wannabe actor myself before I was a wannabe movie director. Even though I tell people to NAME their submissions with their name (JohnDoe.jpg), if I put out a call today for headshots and resumes at least half of the submissions I get will be named headshot.jpg and resume.doc. It’s easy to lose track of people. I have a special email address just for casting (casting@fantasticplastic.com) so that all talent funnels there, and keeps my main email from getting clogged or unorganized.

I don’t mind sending you our release… contact me off-forum (hit our website via the link in my sig just above the logo below and find me on the “Contact Us” page).

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com