[Todd Terry]

Looks relatively straightforward, black studio (including floor). Lighting was mostly the practical flos that are seen overhead in the shots, with some supplemental lighting (probably some fairly directional instruments to control spill).

Obviously, the bigger the studio space the better, to allow light to fall off and not illuminate the walls. Even black-draped (or painted matte black) walls will “read” if they are too close, so by putting them as far away as possible the light will have fallen off enough so that they are not seen. Basically, as big a (black) space as you can get with the band in the center of the room.

Post effects such as cranking up the contrast (this piece was very contrasty) will also help eliminate any of the walls being seen as well, should any light spill onto them.

We did a limbo-black commercial once that featured a runner. We didn’t use a black soundstage, but were in a big windowless gymnasium. The room was large enough that even though the walls were actually light beige in color the space appeared completely black on camera. The talent ran in place on an out-of-frame treadmill as the camera dollied around him in an arc. Since every wall around us was about 75 feet away, there was no light spill and the space read as entirely black limbo.

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

I think you could probably do that, as Mark says, with adapter rings and extension tubes, etc… but there’s no way to shrink the size of the front-end hardware. Even if you used one of the smallest DoF adpapters (maybe the little Brevis?), you’ll still have a big adapter+prime combo sticking out in front that dwarfs the camera… especially if you attach it to something really tiny like the Flip.

The Magic Bullet suite does indeed work pretty well to give some shallow DoF simulation. It doesn’t truly give you a shallow DoF, of course, but does let you knock out some sharp focus on selected areas that can indeed make talent pop a bit.

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

Hmmmm…. possibly, that’s a very interesting idea and I hadn’t quite thought of anything like that… although personally I think that would be harder to rig than hanging the camera.

IF one were shooting film (or shooting video in HD for SD delivery) one could simply suspend a static camera straight down and do the rotation in post… you’d shoot with a wider lens (and higher resolution) than the finished shot to cover the corners during the post production rotation. You could add the spin while the film was telecined, or in the case of video later in editing.

One problem I would have with that though is that the post-induced camera spin would probably look somewhat artificial, rather than organic like a real practical rotating camera. The usual post-production tricks for smoothing out an electronic move like a pan (namely, usually a minuscule amount motion blur) would be difficult to implement because of this particular move. Firstly, it would need to be a rotating circular motion blur rather than a linear one… and secondly it would need to be variable so that while it was slightly noticeable at the frame edges that the blur amount ramped down to zero in the center at the axis of the spin. That’s a little bit above the ability of both myself and my equipment.

I really don’t think this would be all that hard to do practically.

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

We have different rates for different services. We don’t have tons of different ones though, really just three or four.

1) Shooting is our most expensive hourly rate, whether on stage here or on location. We have one basic shoot rate that includes any and all (or none) of our “toys,” just whatever is needed. Could be just a camera and sticks… or could include a jib, dolly, full HMI package, sound, whatever. It doesn’t matter if it is handycam DV video or 35mm film, the hourly rate is the same. I imagine other people have adjusting rates depending on what equipment is used, but we found that very hard to keep track of… and we like to think (or make them think) that clients are paying for talent, not the hardware… so there is pretty much only one rate for shooting since it always ties up the same personnel. We will add to this rate if something is complicated enough to require additional crew members or if we have to rent equipment (such as a special lens we don’t have, or more HMIs than we own), but it usually stays the same… except that we have a slightly higher rate if a shoot requires a teleprompter or Steadicam.

Of course, that’s just the rate for shooting… and does not include things like talent, expendibles, tape or film stock, location fees or permits, or any special expenses incurred to “get the shot”… but I think that goes without saying. The “base rate” is the same.

2) Editing is our next-tier hourly rate, anything that happens in one of our edit suites is billed at this rate. This could be editing, graphics production, animation, rotoscoping, compositing, dubbing, etc.

3) Next comes what I will call “administrative/creative.” This is pretty much a catch-all for anything else…. writing, meetings, casting, conference calls. It’s basically anything that takes up our time, but doesn’t tie up a shoot crew and equipment or an edit suite.

4) Lastly is travel time, which is (I think) usually just flat-billed at half the shoot rate.

Other people probably do this very differently, but this works for us.

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

If you want it to look truly “filmic,” then 24fps is definitely the way to go… especially if there is any chance that you will ever need to strike a real film print.

For 24fps, a “normal” shutter speed would be 1/48th. That shouldn’t give you bad stutter, it would be the same amount as if you were shooting real film. Faster shutter speeds are going to give you a choppier more staccato look. Slower ones will have more blur.

People who shoot 24p but complain about the stutter generally are forgetting that they should be shooting as if it were real film, not video. That means action, blocking, camera moves, and action speed as if you were shooting a full-blown 35mm feature, not a home video. Often times that means things like camera moves that are a bit slower than one might do with video… pans, for instance, are notorious for displaying stutter, not only for 24p video but for real film as well. The ASC cinematographers handbook will give lots of charts and such, things like “do not exceed” speeds for pans for various focal lengths. But mostly it’s just a matter of practice, and learning the limitations of the medium.

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

Far be it from me to call out any vendor by name in a public forum like this and bash them…. but I did do a quick search…

You’ll find lots of reviews of sellers online… do a little Googling and I think you’ll find the answer pretty quickly. And it will be the one that you expect.

One particular consumer blog had 25 total reviews for that seller… all bad, most of them nightmares.

Stick with well-known vendors with good reps, such and B&H and others like that. You’ll pay more, but at least you’ll actually get what you’re trying to buy. A bargain is no bargain if it’s bait-and-switch, or even worse…. if you get nothing.

Here is just one such of many reviews you will find about them….

https://thoughts-of-dave.blogspot.com/2009/03/danger-bingo-cameras-aka-bingocameras.html

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

Since others have done it so well, I’m resisting the urge to get on a soapbox and preach that using the 5D as a video camera… while doable… is really using the wrong tool for the job. It’s a great camera, mind you… but in the real world it’s a wrench when you really need a screwdriver. Oops, I guess I was preaching anyway.

All that being said though…

I don’t know of any way to actually monitor the sound that is being recorded, but it’s fairly easy to at least monitor what the mic is picking up. You can just use a regular headphone amp like most sound guys (especially boom operators) use. We use the Shure FP12. We’ve had this one forever, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if you can’t even buy this exact one any more, no doubt a newer/better model has replaced it…

With this guy, the mic plugs into the box (it has a belt clip, usually worn by the boom op), and then with another XLR cable you connect the box to the camera. Except of course in this case you’d use and XLR cable to connect it to whatever mic connection device (a little Beachtek or whatever) that will allow you to connect it to the camera. Your headphones plug into the box, where there is also a volume control. The box will take either XLR or quarter-inch mic inputs, and has both quarter-inch and eighth-inch headphone jacks. It will also pass through 48v phantom power if you are using a higher-end mic (such as the MKH416, etc.) that requires phantom.

Again, it doesn’t let you monitor the audio that’s actually recorded, but will let your sound operator at least know what the mic is picking up and whether it’s good on that end.

I think though that if I were going to try to use the 5D for video and there was substantial sound recording needed… I would just go with double-system sound rather than single system… and record sound to a separate audio device. It could be as easy as one of the newer flash-drive audio recorders… or even an old Nagra deck if one is laying around. At least the sound guy would be able to truly monitor recorded sound, and have it in an easy-to-use form after the shoot.

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

Great advice from Rick as always.

I’ll suggest just one little tweak, because I have a feeling that you’re looking for more of a 360° rotation than that might allow.

You could try basically the same setup, but make an “L” shaped 90° bracket to hold the camera. You can get quarter-inch thick aluminum stock very cheaply from Aircraft Spruce (aircraftspruce.com) to make the bracket (great people and lightning fast shipping). If you don’t have the tools or ability to make the bracket yourself, any machine shop can cut the material to the right size, “break” it (make the bend), and drill/tap any mounting holes you need.

Then you just attach that to your fluid head which is underslung under your high hat which is underslung under your apple box which is underslung under your 2×6… and voilà, you can shoot straight down and do a 360 ° rotation. See the top half of the illustration below.

Alternately and simplier, depending on how your head works you might be able to do away with the apple box and high hat completely… if your fluid head has a post/knob arrangment you can just drill a hole in the 2×6 and mount it directly (see the bottom half of the illustration).

Let us know what you do and how it goes.

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

Nick’s advice is very good, as always… but I’ll just make an addendum or two…

YES, get paid in advance, if it is an individual that you are working for. That’s less of a hard and fast rule if you are not working directly for the individual candidate or hastily-formed PAC. With only a few exceptions almost all of the political work we have done has actually been for an advertising agency or a political consultant. In those cases, these particular companies and agencies are big and well established and have been around for years and years. I think in the past we have always billed them net/30 just like any other client, and they have always paid that fast or faster. Many times they come in to view the spot for approval with a check in hand. Since that’s the standard MO in the political world, most of them are used to it. Now, a brand-new first-time candidate who is not dealing with any kind of political “consulting machine” might not be aware of that… in that case, YES, get his money first.

Whether you are labeled as a “red” or “blue” or whatever side, largely depends on what your role is in the whole shootin’ match. If you do creative, concepting, and ground-up consulting, then yes indeedy, you will probably be labeled one or the other. Political consultants, especially, always specialize in one side of the aisle or the other. Now, if you are “just” the production company, it doesn’t matter. We’ve done spots for Democrats and Republicans alike. There’s actually been a time or two that we’ve had one party’s candidate in a primary, and (assuming they didn’t win the primary) we’ve then done the opposite party’s candidate in the general election. Even though what we do we like to think of as creative, unless you are in on the ground-up concepting of a whole campaign clients generally don’t care who you have supported in the past…. provided that you do good work.

There’s also been a time or two when we’ve been approached by a candidate who might genuinely be a good guy or gal… but let’s say that they are a complete political newbie going up against a long-time incumbent and we absolutely know in our heart of hearts that they don’t stand a snowball’s chance of winning. Do we take their money knowing that they are throwing that cash away? Well, yes, we do… and I have to admit that I’ve felt a little bad about that on occasion. But they are going to spend it somewhere, and it might as well be with us, and we work just as hard for them and try to do just as good a job as we would any client. And, it may just be the first step in a long political career… everyone has to start somewhere, and a losing election is often the first step. A few years ago we worked our butts off for a newbie candidate in a local mayoral race, and we knew he didn’t have a prayer of winning… which he didn’t. But today he is a U.S. Congressman.

The thing I don’t like with politicals, is when things get dirty… which they often do. If we are ever in on the concepting end, I try my best to “keep it clean” and stay as free from any mudslinging as possible.

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

Mark is a better man than I am.

We’ve done tons of politicals, everything from the lowliest city election to national races…. often we know nothing about the candidates at all, especially if they are for races not in our area. Maybe that makes me a bad guy. Probably.

I struggled with the same question for a while, but finally realized that if you want to do political spots, but only want to work for candidates that you personally and completely support and whose views you follow… then you’re not going to be doing much political work.

Some would say we’ve sold our souls to the devil… but unless it’s a candidate that we just really REALLY can’t comfortably work for, we’ll pretty much take anyone’s money as long as the checks clear.

There are a couple of upsides to doing political… one being that generally the political work that comes to us is usually funneled through a campaign consulting company… therefore were are usually just handed a script and told to do it, and don’t have to be in much on the concept end. That helps a lot if it’s a candidate that you’re not 100% personally behind or have a vested interest in. We had a big highly-volatile mayor’s race last year that we DID do a lot of the concepting and creative on… however I was personally very much for that candidate and was a staunch supporter of him (and he won, thank God), so that was easy.

The other great thing about politicals, is that they usually don’t bat an eye at fairly decent budgets… and because of election laws and the money rules and regs they pay fast fast fast.

In the end, whether to do them or not is a problem you have to wrestle with yourself. I’m reminded of a great exchange on the wonderful show “Mad Men” where someone was berating the agency’s creative director Don Draper over a particular client they accepted. They guy asked “How do you sleep at night???” Don’s answer? “On a bed made of money.”

Fortunately I don’t think my attitude is nearly as severe as Don’s. I don’t have a bed of money, either.

All of us who do commercial production “whore ourselves out” to one degree or another. We don’t necessarily use nor would personally recommend to our friends all the products that we help sell. If you can look at a politician as another product… do it. If your conscience won’t let you, then steer clear.

I guess some in here will think I’m a bad bad man.

T2

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