Todd Terry
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COW Coin
Forum Replies Created
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All good advice.
Though the original poster seemed to be asking about discretely shooting in places that were perfectly legal to do so… although they might require a permit. Maybe I’m reading his original post wrong, but that was the impression I got.
If that’s the case, to me the easiest/best/foolproof way to do that without threat or fear of any hassles is pretty simple — get the dang permit.
If the law requires you to be permitted to shoot a commercial project in a certain place, then do it.
We’re fortunate that most public places we need to shoot in do not require permits, and we have never once in 17 years been stopped or questioned in a place where no permits were required. But when we DO shoot in places that require permits, we get them.
People skirting that I will have to admit does irk me a little, I guess, because we are painfully honest and if a permit is required we get it and pay for it. It’s ever so slightly akin to irritation I feel when I hear what I know is unpaid-for copyrighted music on someone’s video. We never do that (as much as I would sometimes like to), so it bothers me to know someone else is ripping it off, too. The film permits don’t bother me quite as much as that… but still do to a degree.
If you are not shooting a professional or commercial production, then no… you don’t need a permit… and the advice given above is excellent. But if this is a paying commercial gig and a permit is needed… get it.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Another company does make one for about $60… but frankly the cheaper one works much better. The more expensive one doesn’t have a stem you put in the grip head.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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If you mean the “real” holders, these are the ones we use…
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/885688-REG/Auray_BPH_BOOM_POLE.html
Before we started using those, we on occasion used one of the bent-wire fishing pole holders from Kmart. They work ok, but the real thing is worth the price difference, in my opinion.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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I’m sure the consequences vary from city to city, state to state…depending on whatever the particular laws/ordinances are in that particular area.
I would imagine that in most cases if you were shooting unpermitted (assuming permits are required) you would be asked to stop, and possibly given the opportunity to go secure a film permit.
There probably wouldn’t be too many dire consequences in most places… in most places…
For example, I was directing a medium-to-smallish shoot with a crew at San Francisco International Airport… again, we were fully permitted (not only by the city but by the airport’s media relations office which requires separate clearance/permits/payment), but had we not been the consequences there would likely have been greater… and probably would have involved quite a while sitting in a windowless room being grilled… at minimum. Probably a lot worse.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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It depends entirely on where you are.
If you were on Fremont Street in Las Vegas, you would have four bicycle cops surrounding you before you even pulled trigger.
If you were in my hometown, you could shoot anywhere and everywhere on public property, with a 10-person crew and a 3-ton grip truck and no one would say anything. There’s no such thing as a film permit here. Not even an office to ask about it.
Chances are, with the minimal crew/equipment you are using, most places won’t even look twice at you.
And that Vegas story isn’t an exaggeration… it happened to me, and we didn’t even have talent, just a two-man crew with no more equipment that you’re using. Fortunately we were fully permitted, but the cops were sure there to check in a heartbeat.
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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[ron darby] ” I assumed most pro cameras had ND filters.”
In the “broadcast camera” world some pro cameras have built-in ND filters, but in the real “cine camera” world virtually none of them do. Canon was really lauded when they first added built in ND to the C300 (and subsequently the C500 and C100) a couple of years ago, it was almost unheard of. I didn’t know BM had followed suit with any of theirs, but it was a good move.
Barring built-in ND, the best and “right” way to do that is with a set of ND filters… I usually travel with four 4×4″ square ND filters: a .3, a .6. and two at .9. Those in addition to my camera’s built-in ND that usually gets me what I need in the right combination. I tend to like to shoot wide open (and my primes are all superspeeds at f/1.3) so I rely on ND a lot for exteriors, even with my ISO cranked down to the minimum (which on my camera is ISO 320).
But if you are runnin’-n-gunnin’ you might not have a lot of time for swapping filters in your matte box. In that case you might consider a variable ND filter (which is essentially a set of sandwiched polarizers), that allow you to dial in exactly how much ND you want on the fly without changing filters.
One issue with them is that they are not cheap… typically in the $150-$500 range. Best way is to get 4×4 or 4×5.65″ variable ND for a matte box… although that will be also the most expensive way (and requires you to have a matte box with at least two filter trays and one of them must be a rotatable stage). This really is the only way to go if you are using real cine primes (or cine zooms) since they typically don’t have threaded fronts.
But if you are just using SLR lenses (or the rare real cine lenses that do have threaded fronts) you can use the circular screw-on variable ND filters of the appropriate size, which are much less expensive… in the lower end of that range.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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HDR video barely exists, not real HDR video, anyway.
The closest thing I’ve seen to real HDR motion footage used a complicated rig with two cameras (I think they were 5Ds, although might have been REDs) conjoined with a complicated beam-splitter device to allow perfectly-aligned cameras each with exactly the same view, but shooting different exposures. Much like a 3D camera rig, but where both cameras had the view from one eyeball, rather than from two different eye positions. It worked to a degree… but the results were rather eerie and unsettling, if you ask me (especially footage of people).
Even then with that rig you are only getting two different exposures, as opposed to the 3-10+ different exposures needed for true HDR photography.
In theory you could shoot really high-latitude RAW images and manipulate the frames enough to simulate HDR photography in motion footage, but it would be very painstaking.
What you might be seeing these days that appears to be HDR motion footage is most likely not real HDR at all, but just really advanced manipulation and color grading that simulates something akin to that look. The Magic Bullet “Looks” plug-in would be a good place to start.
True honest-to-goodness real HDR photography is much more a still photography thing. I’ve yet to see any for motion footage that I’d put outside of the “experimental” world… at least at this point.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Keep in mind that for virtually all “cinema” cameras, whether film or electronic, that built-in ND filters are not the norm, but rather the quite-rare exception.
It can be a handy thing, though. My C300 has three levels of built-in ND, and while that’s a highly unusual feature, it is super convenient and one that I use every day.
I’d miss them greatly if they weren’t there… although I still put ND filters in the matte box all the time, just not to the same degree or with as much frequency.
So to answer your question “What happened?”…. nothing really happened, that camera is pretty much the “norm” and like most others. It’s almost more appropriate to ask “What happened?” regarding a camera that does have built-in ND, as opposed to one that doesn’t.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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YEP I ‘ve tried an electric carving knife, too… pretty jagged results.
I might have to pick up one of the single-rod wand-style knives sometime. With any luck I might be able to make it last 50% longer than a school kid. Nah, probably not.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Good to know about the Harbor Freight knife, Mark. I didn’t even look at it, just noticed the sign on the shelf that I passed.
You can also find quite a few nichrome wire cutters on eBay (or you could in the past), and I’ve seen DIY plans through the years… but never got quite that industrious (or bored).
Also, it seems to me that their function limits their usability. Don’t they, by design, have to be a wire stretched between two other things? Forgive my ignorance if that’s not the case. If so, that really limits the usefulness… at least for things I need to cut. Say you want to cut a smallish round circle in the center of a piece of foam for a lens… well, you have to get the wire inside the circle first. So, lets say you can cut a rough hole first, disassemble the knife, and put it back together with the wire through the hole. Then you have to have a frame for the wire with a “throat” deep enough to reach. Gotta be a better way.
What would be ideal is just a handle with a single rigid hotwire sticking straight out from it… but I know it doesn’t work that way.
Hmmmm…
I’ve also thought it might work to soak foam in water and freeze it… you could get a good clean cut with a fine-tooth saw blade (or a knife) if the foam was frozen. But then you have a sopping wet piece of foam, and foam takes forever to dry.
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
