Todd Terry
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COW Coin
Forum Replies Created
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Jumping in just a sec… John’s advice is, as usual, spot on.
I too would steer clear of any adapters, especially any that have an optical element in them (not just a pure mechanical adapters). They’re certainly not going to do you any favors, image quality wise.
I always encourage people to in use the best glass they can, you obviously never want the lenses to be the weak link in your chain.
One of the good things about lenses (at least for the mid- and higher-end ones) is that they really are an investment. Every single piece of equipment in my place has depreciated since it was purchased, that’s only natural. And anything electronic especially has depreciated like a rock. Not the lenses. My primes though, slightly vintage as they are, are worth a fair bit more today than when I bought them. And I only expect them to continue to appreciate.
“Vintage” or “used” isn’t a bad word either, as far as lenses go. There’s a reason that vintage Cookes have gotten so difficult to find (and so expensive, when you can find them)… often still preferred by DPs who have the resources to pick any glass they’d like.
I’m the third owner (at least) of my set of primes… the two previous owners being bigshot ASC cinematographers. That line of succession will probably end with me (at least for the foreseeable few years), but not because they aren’t in demand.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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I’m guessing you down own the one that John has… very few of us have that luxury (I certainly don’t). His slider will move an engine block as smooth as silk… and it ought to, they are not inexpensive.
One culprit of poor slider moves is simply equipment choice… either overweighting the one you have, or using a slider that is not up to the load that you are putting on it. I personally went through three different sliders before I landed on one that was workable for the load I usually put on it (I use the C300 which is only a 4 pound body… but fully rigged out and with the 10 pound head I use it stacks up to about 22 pounds). And frankly it’s still sometimes not as perfect as I like… I’ve often thought that one like John’s would be the ticket for me, but these days I’m really trying to cut down on gear size and weight his is pretty big and hefty. The weight actually helps the smoothness of the sliding move (just like a loaded dolly is smoother than a light one), but I’ve found extra weight just adds to the general instability of the rig which can show up as unwanted jitters and shakes.
The other thing is to make sure the track, rails, bearings (however yours is made), that everything is absolutely clean as a whistle. The tiniest bit of dirt, grit, dust, or any foreign gunk will definitely affect the smoothness of your shot.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Steven…
While this is not hard to do at all, I don’t know any conceivable way that it could be created as a single little stand-along thing (single image, file, or whatever) that can be easily and instructionlessly handed off to the uninitiated to simply drop on a track and have the magic happen.
It’s very easy, but still not a one-click or drop-it-on effect to create. Some things just aren’t.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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That’s helpful info…
Still it could probably vary wildly based on market/equipment/ability, but I’ll just throw out one number based on one particular guy that we sometimes hire as crew.
He’s actually a wedding videographer by profession, but a quite a good one (also some corporate work), and for a gig like this would use pretty much the equipment you describe. I think for a shoot-only job like this with minimal equipment his day rate would be in the $750-800 range (not including travel/mileage/meals/accommodations). He has the ability level that I would trust in a freelance shooter, and I think he sets his rates accordingly (and fairly), based on his equipment and ability. I personally wouldn’t hire someone “lower on the food chain”…. although there are plenty.
It could still vary a lot, both higher and lower, but maybe that gives you a starting point.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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It’s hard to say. You’re going to get what you pay for… and I don’t really get a sense of how “high end” or “low end” this project is. Knowing that would help. Is this footage that is going to be viewed on the web only on some local real estate website? Or is it content for a big-dollar national broadcast campaign? Or something in between (likely)? Knowing that would be helpful in establishing the financial scope.
You might want to tweak (or refine) your technical requirements as well. You might be needing footage out of an $80,000 Alexa rig with another $100K’s worth of lenses… but in actuality your specs of “Has the equipment and ability to shoot HD (1080p)” can these days include pretty much the lowest-end $600 handycam from Best Buy. Are there any lighting requirements, or all available light? Are there any sound requirements, or all MOS? Any camera support requirements (dolly, slider, crane, jib, Steadi), or are sticks and a fluid head sufficient. Is any grip equipment required, or are you literally looking for just a body and a camera?
So, the range is wide… could be $75 a day from a newbi college kid who knows how to work his camera, to $300+ an hour for someone really high end.
So as I said, more info would be helpful. At any rate, strike the “This could lead to future work with us!” line. Even if that’s a completely true statement in your case, pros who’ve been doing this a long time know that’s almost always simply code for “We’re not going to pay you much, in the hopes that you’ll work cheap while dreaming of a bigger job that we’re never going to come through with.”
People here always seem fairly loathe to ever discuss their own rates, but it doesn’t bother me at all so I will. For a gig like this I’d normally charge $2400 for an eight-hour day (if it’s all within M-F 9-5), excluding travel time, mileage, meals, and accommodations. But that includes fairly high-end gear and a decent amount of toys… your project may not warrant that. Or, it might… it’s hard to say yet.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Easy enough, there’s several ways to do this but here’s how I would probably do it…
Make a black and white matte in Photoshop… any kind of image is fine (.jpg, .bmp or whatever). This would be just an image that is your screen size (1920×1080, I’m guessing), that is black on the top two thirds and white on the bottom (or vice versa, it doesn’t matter), with the edge between the black and white feathered however much you desire. Save this image.
Back in Premiere, copy the video clip that you are wanting to effect and place it directly on top of the original clip (and trim it down to just wherever you want the effect). This will be your lower third “blur” layer. Go ahead and add your Gaussian blur filter to it, however much blur you desire. Then under your keying effects add the “Image Matte” filter (I believe that’s what it’s called, might be “Image Key” or something like that, but it’s definitely image something. When you’ve added it, in your effects panel under that filter click the button to browse for and assign an image for it to use as the matte, and select the image you just created in Photoshop. There will be a dropdown box in the filter where you will select “Luminance” (alternately, you could have built an image file with an alpha channel, and you would select “Alpha” in the dropdown). You might also have to click the “Reverse” checkbox, depending on whether you built your matte black-over-white or white-over-black.
That will give you the clip that is blurred only on the bottom third, with a feathered edge.
Then you can add whatever your supers are on a higher layer.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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[Todd VanSlyck] “What gives? “
Just speculation… but I’m betting all of the various branded cards that you have been seeking are all made by the same company at the same place (no matter what the brand), and they are experiencing a production shortage for some reason.
Much like two years ago… when Thailand experienced devastating flooding, and people were a little bit surprised to learn that virtually every computer hard drive in the world came out of one of two factories right smack in the flood plane. The price of drives skyrocketed, before they became completely impossible to get at all.
Unfortunately no suggestions, except to keep looking for vendors who do have them in stock until the production supply catches back up. There seems to be quite a few of them on eBay, so I would assume those people have them in hand ready to sell.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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[zoe griffiths] “Can anyone tell me how I would go about converting the C100 footage into a usable 24fps format?”
Normally you don’t have to “do” anything to get that to happen… it just “does” (nor should there be any conversion that needs to happen).
My experience is not with the C100, but with the C300… but it works exactly the same. I’m also editing with Adobe Premiere CS6… your mileage may vary if you are using a different editing platform but it should all be basically the same.
If I shoot a shot at 60fps and drop it on a 24p timeline, it is automatically slow-mo’d nice and smooth. It lays down on the timeline at frame-for-frame… therefore a 60fps shot on a 24p timeline is a slow-mo of 40% normal speed.
How are you doing it now that you are getting bad (or just plain confusing) results?
Knowing as many tech details as possible (such as editing platform, settings, etc.) may lead us to some more useful answers.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Follow Rick’s advice.
For a starting point (which can be overwhelming), give Lee 250 a look. That’s a good middle-of-the-road diffusion, also known as “half white.” While there what seems like an infinite number of choices, 250 is something you’ll find on every grip truck anywhere… it’s the “go to” diffusion.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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If none of those solutions give you satisfaction, then the likely culprit is misaligned heads.
It happens very easily, and the heads are so tiny on those cameras that the tolerance is almost microscopic. ANY deviation from right-on-the-money can cause problems.
The compounding problem is also that if a head gets out of alignment, it is entirely possible to still record and play back tapes fine, sometimes without a clue that there even is a problem. The trouble will be discovered when you try to play back that tape in another machine, or try to play back a tape that was recorded before the misalignment. OR if the misalignment gets worse again (these things can happen in stages). Then the problem will be evident. It’s sort of a situation that if it was recorded misaligned then it has to be played back in a device that is misaligned in exactly the same way (most likely in exactly the same camera in exactly the same situation).
At any rate, if you can capture now, I’d suggest capturing ALL your tapes immediately… and then get your camera to a tech for service promptly. You’ll want to do all that capturing beforehand, because if tapes were recorded with a misaligned head, they might not play back properly once your camera heads have been properly aligned back to where they should be.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
