[Todd Terry]

Then BUY them from B&H, for crissake. They are dirt cheap.

Or buy from Adorama or Filmtools or any of the other scads of vendors.

I wasn’t suggesting you rent filters from B&H, they are a retailer, not a rental house.

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/102426-REG

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/102526-REG

For use in a standard 4×4 matte box but both also come with a free plastic filter adapter that lets you attach a 4×4 to the front of any size lens barrel without using a matte box.

Dirt cheap and exactly what you’ve been asking for.

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

[ryan elder] “wouldn’t there be a lot of situations where a filmmaker would desire moving more than three feet though?”

Obviously, yes.

And that’s when you use a dolly, or a stabilizer… or a tongue move with a jib.

Use whatever is the right tool.

No one said sliders would do everything. But if you want a short dolly move nothing else does it easier.

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

This is one of the biggest non-problems I’ve read in this forum.

The problem: Have no ND filters
The solution: Get ND filters

As I’ve said before, every cine equipment vendor in the world sells them, and they can all deliver next day.

And you don’t have to buy $300 glass filters. In particular Lee makes very inexpensive 4×4 gel and polyester filters that are perfectly serviceable… and if you don’t have a matte box, they even come with a free plastic holder that has this rubber band thing that will let you attach it to any lens, regardless of the barrel size.

If you need ND filters there really are no other solutions that work as well or exactly the same. For example, silks overhead cut light but also diffuse it (and you didn’t ask about diffusing, so assuming you want hard light). Pantyhose on the rear of a lens will cut light a tiny bit, but adds a ProMist look. The solution is using the correct filter.

So… get them. It’s easy.

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

I fully understand, because I, myself, am a Dapper Dan man.

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

Yeah beginning to think the same.

This ND story makes no sense to me. Filters are readily available. And if they are a must-have, why try to figure out a way to half-ass it without them?

Maybe it’s not important, after all it’s only the film’s principal photography.

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

This is a non-problem with an easy solution. You can certainly, of course, get ND (or any other filters) in any size imaginable delivered by the next morning to just about any location in the world from the usual vendors… B&H Photo, Adorama, Filmtools… any of the usual pro cine sources.

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

I use our sliders tons, just because it is so easy. Honestly, I can’t remember the last time I did a legitimate dolly. If I walked next door to the stage I’m betting the dolly has stuff piled on it.

My rule of thumb is, if I need a dolly move three feet or less… I use a slider. If longer is needed, then obviously that’s a dolly job… or I re-block the scene so that a shorter move will work as well.

For years we wanted a curved slider that would emulate an arching dolly shot, but at that time there was no such thing and we couldn’t find anyone to build one for us (we tried several machine shops). Finally a few curved dollys came about, but the arc was always way too tight on them… good for tabletop stuff but that’s about it. We finally contacted one of the manufacturers who makes great equipment, but doesn’t know that much about film. They said “What should the arc be? We just guessed.” I told them that if they designed one that had a six-foot radius, that arc would be exactly the same as curved Matthews track. Well they did, and it works like a charm. In our productions 99% of the time now if you see a classic dolly arc it’s not really a dolly shot at all, but our curved slider.

Slider shots are just SOOOO much easier/faster/cheaper to pull off, that’s the usual MO here.

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

[Robert Olding] ” if you need to capture closeups of the face, perhaps you can have the actor jog in place while the camera is on a monopod. “

Good suggestion… or do the same thing but put the actor on a treadmill for more realistic-looking running.

If the shots were long enough that it gave away that the background was static, you could even put the treadmill on a low-boy process trailer and pull it… that way you’d have the equivalent of actual running, but able to mount a camera on the trailer so that the actor could stay perfectly framed and the same distance from the camera at all times (which personally I think is one of the hardest parts of dollying with talent… a focus-pulling nightmare). But that’s all getting pretty complicated (and maybe a little dangerous) with some darn expensive big-Hollywood-grade gear.

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

I know of no stabilizers that operators regularly use with long lenses. That’s just not what they are made for.

And you are never going to get the look of that Hanks shot handheld, no matter what kind of stabilizer.

The Hanks scene is a dolly shot, not a stabilizer shot. They are completely different tools.

What you are saying is “I need to screw these screws in, and I need to cut tin. Why kind of screwdriver do I need to buy.” That screwdriver doesn’t exist… you need a screwdriver for one and tin snips for the other, they are two different jobs for two different tools, and you simply can’t make one tool do the other job, or at least not do it well or the same as if you were using the appropriate tool.

And why are you buying all this gear for a short? Rent it.

T2

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