Todd Terry
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COW Coin
Forum Replies Created
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Been there, Mark, it’s not fun.
Tornados ripped through my area of Alabama two years ago, the death toll was 300+ (including two distant cousins) and it did indeed look like a nuclear bomb hit… impossible to describe.
I often wanted to crawl through the radio and smack some of the hilljack callers (to the one station still on the air) who were whining about being without electricity. Yes, it was dark for a week with no power and darn inconvenient, but we were alive. Priorities, people.
Very glad you made it through safe and sound.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Yep, listen to John, as usual.
Lots of post work there… BUT… the vast majority of that “look” happened at the shoot. Set, wardrobe, and really perfect lighting. I’m willing to bet that this is one of those cases where the simpler something looks, the more complicated it actually is. The lighting is so soft (yet without being flat) that while it is almost unnoticeable, I bet the actual lighting plot was pretty darn complex.
In the end I’m sure there was a ton of color grading in post… but I’m also betting those images looked pretty darn great right out of the camera.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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[Gary Huff] “Since Into Darkness was shot on 70mm… “
Actually only specific IMAX shots were 70mm. I didn’t see the movie, but I doubt that scene was one. The bulk of the film, I believe, was Panny Millenium and Arri 435-ES, but there were even some RED shots in there.
No matter, any camera format can be either single- or multi-camera. I’m betting that scene was single camera though… there wouldn’t really be any decent reason to shoot that scene multi-camera.
There are other clues, too. Mostly, the lighting is different in the two setups… obviously that is one of the huge benefits of single-camera, you can light ideally for each camera position, not light in a way that is “good enough” for all camera positions. In Pine’s shot, the key is predominately to his right. In Cumberbatch’s shot, the key is to his right as well… an impossibility since they are facing each other.
Also, right at :34 there is a head movement that crosses an edit that doesn’t match perfectly. Oh, it’s more than good enough, just not as exact as if it were all multi-camera from the same take (not that it still couldn’t be multi-camera, just edited from different takes).
Pretty sure it’s single-camera, though.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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[Michael D. Dennis] “…way of doing this just with one camera ? “
Yes, Michael, you can definitely do this with one camera. That scene was likely done with one camera. Pretty much the way most movies have been made for the last, oh, hundred years or so.
The vast majority of higher-end film projects (features and the like) have historically been single-camera productions. Higher-end TV as well. Really only of late have features seen much in the way of multi-camera productions, and those are largely things like Judd Apatow comedies where improvisation happens with a lot of dialog (and even entire scenes) which would make single-camera coverage darn near impossible. Television often uses multiple camera today, even with what are typically still considered single-camera shows (as opposed to conventional multi-camera shows shot on stage), in this case it is done for speed during tight schedules. Done a lot too in action scenes, for obvious reasons.
In the Star Trek clip, while that might have been multi-camera (who knows?), it could just as easily (and probably was) single-camera. Even if it was multi-, it wasn’t a true live cut. All of the audio in that section that you reference came from the master take on Benedict Cumberbatch, and none of it came from the take shooting Chris Pine. Watch the back of Cumberbatch’s head very closely when the shot cuts to Kirk. His head movements match with the dialog very closely… almost perfect. Almost. It still isn’t perfectly exact (it’s actually quite a bit better than the vast majority of dialog in reverse shots like that that you’ll see). So when you are seeing him talk and looking at the back of his head, that dialog is actually from another take. He’s either matching his performance very closely, or the editor adjusted the timing in the audio performance (there was a pause in there) to make it match. Either way, it works.
It’s all about the editing, and in this case primarily about the audio editing… but it’s done all the time. The typical feature will have dozens and dozens of scenes in it that are just as complex or even much more so than this one.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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[Tim Wilson] “Todd, what’s the story with your system? What is it, and why did you decide to do it? “
Well Tim, firstly I’m an old film guy, not a computer guy by even the remotest stretch… so my vagueness isn’t on purpose. It’s merely ignorance.
A tiny bit of background…
16 years ago I started with one edit suite, running a DPS Perception machine (anyone besides Tim Kolb remember them?). It cost half as much as my first house and people would come in (even computer engineery types) and their jaws would literally drop as they marveled at its 15GB hard drive. Fifteen! GIGS! It edited with Premiere 4.0.
After that, we went through a couple of Canopus machines (loved Canopus, actually, until they got out of bed with Adobe and ditched Premiere for Edius). Then a couple of AJA machines. Then we finally had two Matrox AXIO LE machines. After years of hearing terrible things about Matrox we had decided to give them a try when AJA just didn’t seem quite up to handling the switch to HD. Turns out we really loved Matrox.
So with our last renovation, we retired the AXIOs for two Matrox MX02 machines. I wanted to stay in the Matrox family since we had so many legacy projects that contained countless Matrox AVI files as assets. Again, not a computer guy, but we told our vendor (a local computer outfit) to basically build us the most badass boxes they could around the MX02’s, loading them up with the fastest processors they could and with as much RAM as the machines will hold, and with solid-state OS drives. Each has a 6TB RAID for video, which I know isn’t huge today… but we live in the 30-second world so frankly even that is way overkill. They are both Windows 7 machines.
We also wanted to stick with Matrox because there are tons of Matrox filters that all operate in realtime and don’t require any rendering. I can throw on any Adobe or non-Matrox filter, of course, but sometimes those do result in having to render a little. It’s never more than a few seconds usually… but zero is better than some. Most of our projects are fairly “clean” video without 50 layers of effects, so often times we’re really only doing color grading as the main manipulation… and Matrox has four different color correction filters (from pretty simple to way-over-my-head-advanced) that all are renderless, so we usually use those. About the only thing we render around here is when Magic Bullet LOOKS is used (which I find really useful and use a lot), but even that is pretty fast. A 30-second clip with even a pretty heavy MB Looks filter on it would still render in well under a minute.
Compatibility was the chief reason we installed our last MX02 machine, which is upstairs in my chief editor Joey’s suite. For the last 10 or 12 years or so we’ve always had three suites, but generally only two of them are in use at the same time (the third has usually been an older machine for archived projects). Never until now though have both suites been absolutely right-down-to-the-last-byte identical, because we’ve never replaced both at the same time… they just didn’t need retiring at the same times, nor could we usually afford two at once. This time we did bite the bullet and do two at once though (well, about a month apart), so for the first time we can juggle projects back and forth totally seamlessly. We could always juggle them before, but there was invariably at least one or more hoops to jump though.
These machines both have the full CS6 suite (not on the cloud yet). We’ve had them for about six months… so I guess we’ll get another six months or so out of them before people consider them dinosaurs. Sadly.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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[Neil Gowan] ” Should I take out a loan and buy my own equipment? “
No, definitely not… unless some very specific circumstances warrant it. Now, this is me saying “Do as I say, not as I do,” because I myself did indeed get a loan to start my business 16 years ago. Not a ginormous one, but not chicken feed, either… mid-to-high five figures. BUT… when I started my company I already had a guaranteed production contract in place with an advertising agency for an amount and duration that made payback of the loan easy and of little risk. If you do NOT have guaranteed income in place like that, I would not recommend getting a loan. Rent what you need for now.
[Neil Gowan] “what tips would you have specifically regarding camera? “
The fact that you ask this bothers me a little. I may be completely out of line and I certainly don’t mean to be condescending (honestly, I don’t), but is this an area of your proficiency? I mean, it might be, and you might be a fantastic shooter, but just based on your description in your question (freelance editor for 7 years) we can’t tell… I don’t know if you shoot every day and can compose images like Spielberg, or have never touched a camera before… we can’t tell. I think sometimes I’m a little touchy (probably overly) about that because cheap prices can now put a good camera in anyone’s hands… but running out and buying a camera does not make one a cinematographer. I’m a decent DP, but it’s taken me 20 years. If you are not an extraordinary director, DP, and camera operator, my question would be, “What’s your plan for becoming one?” Because in today’s production market you need to be very good at those three things. Again, not trying to be condescending, you might already be great at those things. But if not, you need a company plan to be great at it… whether it’s learning, hiring experienced directors and DPs as needed, or whatever.
Specific camera questions are probably best for the cinematography forum… lots of experts in there. And no, interchangeable 35mm-format lenses aren’t on the way out… they’re in more than ever. It’s just that that AF-100 was a plastic toy that was too difficult for consumer-level users but not nearly up to the level of pro users, so it went bye-bye. There are still tons of (better) options. Blackmagic, RED, a Sony or two, anything in the Canon C line (C100, C300, C500… I personally shoot the C300PL). The answer to that question is somewhat driven by what lenses you want to shoot… or, more often, what glass you already have.
I’m sure others will have tons more specific business advice.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Short answer, “no.”
I think jibs and cranes will always be relevant, or at least for the foreseeable future.
They can do some of the same things as helicopters, but they don’t both do exactly the same things.
Each is just another tool. I do a lot of slider shots now where in years past they might have been a dolly shots (did a few today, in fact)… but now the slider will get me what I need easier and faster. I still have dollys though… they’re not irrelevant, sometimes nothing else will do.
I think it’s the same for jibs. Those other tools may take a little bit of a bite out of them, I don’t think it will kill them, not by a long shot.
Maybe if the helicopter systems get to the point where they are a fraction of the price they are now, take a fraction of the time to set up, are easier to use, perfectly stable, perfectly repeatable, can carry a legitimate load, and are totally completely 10000% silent and with zero prop wash… well then they might render jibs irrelevant. Not there quite yet.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Seems pretty straightforward (liability notwithstanding)…
DISCLAIMER
I disavow the workability of this scenario and do not consider it “advice” but merely a description of the ways I would try to do it, if I were to choose to do this… which I probably wouldn’t.
Ok….
To attach it to the top, I’d affix a sheet of plywood to the top of the Jeep, strap it down (with appropriate pads/spacers to protect the top). To that plywood, near the rear or at any point of choosing, I’d screw down a high-hat. On the high-hat I would mount my jib.
To attach it to the rear, I’d get a short piece of appropriately-sized square steel tubing to fit in the trailer hitch receiver (that is, guessing you have a hitch receiver, my jeep has one). To that I’d weld a cross-piece of tubing so that forms a “T.” To that “T” I’d then mount a small piece of plywood. On that goes the high-hat, and on the high-hat goes the jib. Obviously all the appropriate holes are drilled in the tubing for mounting bolts, etc. You might even be able to get away without the welding, the “T,” the plywood, or the high-hat…depending on how your jib is made. My particular jib has a flat kinda-Mitchell-style base, so I could probably just drill one hole in the tubing that is stuck in the hitch receiver and mount the jib right to that.
Now I’m not sure of the workability or controllability of this setup. But in my defense, you only asked how to mount it… and either of these would do that.
Let us know what you decide to do, how it goes, and where to send flowers.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Hi Kyle… glad those shop lights are working for you. I figured they were bright enough depending on how you use them, mine are more than enough.
[Kyle Campbell] “Can you adjust the angle in a grip head so that the “arm” going through it is level?”
You can adjust a grip head in most any position. With the flos I don’t use a grip arm though… just a C-stand and grip head, putting the post on the instrument right into the head.
[Kyle Campbell] “If you can recommend the particular c-stands/grip heads you use I’ll just buy those. “
Well, lots of choices but most are very similar. I personally like Matthews C-stands, although they are going to be one of the more expensive options. There are other brands that are a fair bit cheaper. All of my bases and risers are Matthews. My grip heads are a mix of Matthews and a couple of other brands, but the Matthews ones are the best of what I have. For greenscreen work with the flos I usually use the shortest C-stand risers, which are more than tall enough. For work on stage you’d likely just need the plain ‘ol regular turtle bases for the risers… no need for the adjustable “Rocky Mountain” leg ones.
You can down load the whole Matthews catalog at https://www.msegrip.com/ (you can download the catalog by chapter at https://www.msegrip.com/blog-content/?p=2090). Find what you like, then order it usually cheaper from your favorite vendor (whomever you usually buy stuff from, we usually just go to B&H Photo).
A couple of links…
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/33054-REG/Matthews_339574_Century_C_Stand.html
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/139495-REG/Matthews_350580_Hollywood_Grip_Head.html
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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[Mark Suszko] “…the info people put on the countdown/ leader is another separate subject entirely.”
And in this day and age of electronic delivery, largely a moot point.
I’m trying to think on an exception, but I believe every single one of the broadcast/cable outlets that we regularly deliver to now completely forbid countdowns or slates of any kind… a delivered file of a 30-second spot has to be exactly :30… 900 frames, no more, no less. Even 901 frames gets it kicked back and slates/leaders/countdowns are verboten.
We haven’t put a countdown or slate on a commercial spot in a couple of years or more now.
Which I kinda miss… I liked our funky retro countdown.Way off track of this thread… but maybe worth mentioning.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
