Todd Terry
1
COW Coin
Forum Replies Created
-
Well, there are those of us who would argue that you shouldn’t… DSLRs are great tools, but for motion video they are a wrench when you need a screwdriver. I realize there are many many people who feel otherwise, but I’m afraid I’m an old-school “proper” video or film camera guy.
I can’t recommend a specific viewfinder because I don’t use a DSLR, except for stills. But there are several out there, I’d just suggest doing some hunting and researching. Zacto makes one, I believe RedrockMicro might as well. As far as true HD small TTF screens go, there’s SmallHD. Whatever you choose, just look at the REAL screen specs closely and make sure you aren’t really getting a low-res screen masquerading as HD.
The other thing you can do, is shoot with higher f-stops to increase the depth of field so that pin-sharp focusing is easier and focus pulling isn’t quite as critical. Of course that means more light and/or a higher ISO.
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
-
Yeah, the LCD on that Camera (and virtually any camera) is almost useless for precision focusing, especially when shooting with a very shallow depth of field. It’s just that the resolution of the LCD screen is just miniscule compared to the real image, it’s just showing a small fraction of the actual pixel count… so, no worries, you’re not doing anything “wrong”… other than using it for focusing.
Shooting large-sensor cameras pretty much dictates using an HD monitor for focusing (when manual focusing by eyeball, not using any autofocus)… and that means a real HD monitor, not one of the myriad small TTF monitors that say they are HD (look at their actual resolution specs, often they are are really only SD or less, they can just take an HD signal).
Or, there’s the old-fashioned “Hollywood” way of focusing, which is still used today… the good old trusty tape measure, and focusing by measurement and the witness marks on the lens. Be warned though, SLR lenses don’t always have exact accurate barrel markings. Real cine lenses yes, but SLR lenses, no. They all bear testing.
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
-
[Rick Wise] “I jury-rigged some small Lowel clip-on barndoors to hold a piece of flexible bamboo I bent into the right size circle…”
I’ve done that too, Rick… but I’m lazier than you and didn’t build that from scratch myself.
At Hobby Lobby (or similar stores) you can find bamboo hoops made for embroidery work in various sizes, from tiny to pretty big. I’ve bought several of them and used them to hold gels inside softboxes and some other rigging as well… and since they are a ring-locking-within-a-ring you can just sandwich gel in them. Best of all, they are so cheap they are practically free…
https://shop.hobbylobby.com/products/10-embroidery-hoop-642231/
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
-
I agree with Rick… I don’t think that’s anything you can buy off the shelf.
Very cool piece of rigging. Probably a fair bit of work went into that shot… one that, I’ll note, did not make the finished cut at all.
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
-
Be REALLY careful with that.
News monitoring agencies do indeed sell news stories, newspaper copy, etc., but they are not necessarily selling the rights to reuse that material (nor even own those rights to do so in the first place), especially in a commercial venture like a film.
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
-
[Aaron Cadieux] “Is this common practice in this industry?”
I don’t think there’s an established “norm.” Many news outlets sell footage, many do not. For those that do, it’s often not cheap. The last time we had to buy any footage from a news organization was several years ago (from CNN), and it was well over a thousand dollars for just a few seconds.
[Aaron Cadieux] “Wouldn’t a station want to make money issuing permission to use their news clips?”
They probably don’t feel it is worth their time/energy/liability, that most people wouldn’t pay a rate to make it “worth their trouble,” and/or they’ve had a bad or litigious experience in the past that caused them to establish this iron-clad policy. If you were planning to offer them enough cash (an amount with several zeros) they’d probably revisit that policy, but if you were wanting the clip for something like a few hundred bucks then it’s simply not worth their time to bother with.
Keep in mind that virtually no (any?) television stations are single-owned by an individual person or company. This station is almost certainly owned by a larger group that probably owns several media properties. You could try going up the food chain and making the request to their parent company or group… but I don’t think there’s a real good chance of getting a different result.
Since this original interview was only a short time ago (2011) it’s not exactly like vintage archival audio of a witness who had just seen the Hindenburg explosion, so I don’t see any downside to conducting a new interview yourself since the subject is apparently available. You’d get something much better than the TV station’s crappy “phoner” anyway.
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
-
We use QuickBooks here, and have for, oh just forever.
I’m not the beancounter here, but as far as I know it has always worked pretty flawlessly.
Come tax time we just do a backup to a thumbdrive and take it to our CPA, or he comes here and takes a backup copy.
Just from what I’ve heard it seems to be what most people are using. Well, I mean at our level… people like CPAs use more advanced products like Peachtree, but for a small biz I’d recommend QuickBooks.
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
-
I’ve never done the Streaks-n-Tips thing on a bulb in a lamp, I’ve only used it on car headlights… I’ll have to try that.
I’ve done the blackwrap thing too. And inevitably remembered that I left the blackwrap in some unsuspecting person’s lamp, usually about an hour after leaving location.
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
-
[Ned Miller] “But….how do I hire someone with 10-15 years experience who is still in their twenties?”
That’s the point. You don’t.
You said one of your rules (that you broke) was that you don’t hire people under 30.
If you want to stick with that rule, don’t broadcast that. But if you do say they have to have a certain years’ worth of experience, that will let you legally (and without being blatantly ageist) restrict yourself to the 30+ group.
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
-
As Mark says, you can do it either way… the easiest and most controllable (and what you usually see done on sets) is to use “squeeze boxes”. Also known as “squeezers.” Just plain ol’ rheostats.
We carry a few regular lamp dimmers with us for this, cheap and easy from Home Depot…
You should also pack a few regular tungsten bulbs. These days so often you’ll go to someone’s location and they’ll have a CFL bulb in a lamp… and of course the dimmers don’t work with those.
As you ramp down the lamp the color temperature will drop like a rock and get much more yellow… but usually that’s not a problem. Sometimes, the look is even desirable.
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
