[Todd Terry]

Yeah, I’m intimately familiar with all of that, and use some of that equipment all the time. I even have a big wooden form that I built in my shop that we use to make curved PVC track (it holds the pipe at the perfect curve while it is heated with heat guns). Perfectly bending PVC is a much harder job than most people would probably imagine, as we learned through much trial and error over the last few years. Key word being “perfectly,” which is important.

We also use rubber flex track when needed.

But this particular job though, for a variety of reasons (some simple, some complex), is an ideal job for the curved slider that we have. I appreciate the suggestions, but we are really not looking for any equipment alternatives to what we have already decided will work best for this job.

I’m really only concerned about what hoops we have to jump through to get it in and out of the country. We’ll gladly do the jumping, as this is what we are committed to using and in this instance it is well worth it…. I just wanted to be a bit prepared for how many jumps we have to do (and how high).

Thanks all.

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

As others have aptly said, the key to it all is establishing things in advance…

We rarely turn over raw footage (to be honest, we are hardly ever asked for it), and our contracts explain that we own it.

The vast majority of the time we shoot for projects that stay in house here through post production and delivery. But occasionally we are asked to do “shoot only” projects, where we are hired to shoot and turn over the footage.

We have different rates on that. Honestly, we make little to no money on shoots, because the overhead is so high. We do the shoots to get the creative/edit/post jobs, which are much more lucrative. Because of that, we have a slightly higher rate for “shoot only” jobs, to make it worth our while (and I don’t mind sharing numbers, we charge $100/hr more than our regular rate to shoot only).

There have been a few occasions in the past when a client, after the fact, asked for raw footage. In those instances we went back and calculated what the client’s charges would have been if we had used the higher rate… and the difference in that and what we actually did charge the first time was their cost to release the footage (the cost of the footage rights, there were usually some other charges for prep/converting files, delivery, etc.).

We haven’t done that in a while… most recently we were asked by an attorney client for raw footage from his four-spot commercial campaign shoot (we did not work directly for him, but rather an advertising agency). Apparently he found a source to get some web videos done cheaper than through his agency (using us), so he did an end-run around them and asked us for the footage directly. We quoted him the price based on those differences (which was a bit, considering it was a four-day shoot). His only email response was “That seems a bit expensive.” And we never heard from him again.

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

[Gary Huff] “Actually, it depends on your sensor size.”

I’ll respectfully disagree that, while that is a factor, it is a minor one compared to the quality of the glass… at least that is my personal opinion/experience.

A pushing-ten-thousand-dollars Cooke 18mm S4/i is going to absolutely beat the pants off a $300 Canon 18mm SLR lens as far as sharpness goes, even stopped down to f/22 or beyond… regardless of the film format or sensor size.

It’s really going to be a combination of a lot of factors.

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

There’s nothing magic to it, and it’s not at all earth shaking… its just like a regular slider except it curves, at exactly the same radius as Matthews curved track. It lets you make short arcing dolly moves, but without a dolly. It’s great for interviews and talking heads but when you don’t have room for a real dolly or room to lay track (or want to make a big production out of things).

And yep, you can get the exact same results with a dolly. But that takes a dolly, track, dolly wheels, a dolly grip, time to set it up, and most importantly room to do it.

You can literally set up a arcing dolly shot in 30 seconds with one person and one little 10lb piece of equipment in even cramped quarters.

I started to say I haven’t laid dolly track in a long time… but that’s not true, I actually did last week. But that was straight track. I haven’t laid curved track in forever. Most of the dolly arcs that I ever want to do are three feet or less, so it’s a million times easier to do with the slider.

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

Thanks Jim… yeah we’ve considered shipping it. I wasn’t sure if that would run into more customs issues etc or less than traveling with it… I need to investigate that more.

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

Happy to buy you some and overnight it to you if you need it… because that’s just the kind of guy I am.

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

[Mark Suszko] “We don’t have Hancock Fabrics here any longer, will have to see if Jo-Ann’s Fabrics in town sells something similar”

This looks to be it….

https://www.joann.com/frosted-clear-vinyl–8-gauge/9132705.html#q=clear+vinyl&start=4

[Mark Suszko] ” I really didn’t want to have to build big-@ss frames for silks,”

You don’t really have to, especially for interiors. You can always “Hollywood” it, just attach a piece to a horizontal grip arm on a C-stand. I do that with interiors all the time, if I’m in a hurry and don’t want to put up (or wrestle with) a full frame, or in a smaller space where a 4×4 is overkill (or just won’t fit), or if I don’t want a full 4×4 rag but just a piece of one. Doing it that way you can also easily double up the diffusion by just laying it across the arm so you are shooting your light through two layers… easier and faster the double-silking the “correct” way… takes two seconds, literally.

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

[Mark Suszko] “I know some will say plastic shower curtains, but I’m really worried about the heat melting them.”

Mark… I know common sense says it totally would melt, but I’ve used “shower curtain” material to diffuse JokerBug 800s and 1200 Fresnel HMIs oh, about a thousand times (including today), and there has never been any hint of melting, scorching, burning, or even them feeling the slightest bit warm.

I cut it into my own 4x4s and use it in Hollywood frames right in front of the instruments. I also have one 1200w that I modified the barn doors on (drilling four holes in the ring) to make its own built-in speedring) so that I could use four old softbox rods in it and attach a 4×4 of the vinyl right to the head without using a frame.

If you go to this page….
https://fantasticplastic.com/portfolio/news019.html
…look at the trio of pics near the bottom. In the top and bottom pics you can see the HMIs blasting through the vinyl in the Hollywood frames. In the MIDDLE picture you can see the vinyl attached right to the instrument head with the rods.

That’s all to show you just how close to the heads you can use it. Now, I do not leave these unattended… but as I said I’ve never had so much as a tiny scorch mark or even a warm spot.

This is the material I use…

https://hancockfabrics.com/clear-vinyl-frosty-width-004-738922.html

I used to use tons of conventional diffusion materials, lots of silks, yards and yards of Lee 250… but I swear there is no more beautiful light than what comes through this stuff. And it’s a tenth the price of anything else on the list.

I have tons of rags… that never make it out of the bag. I use this stuff like crazy.

Now, I wouldn’t use it with tungsten heads, no way. But HMIs are so much cooler per watt, it works great.

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

Hey thanks Tom!…

If/when this comes through (still waiting to hear the final “go” from the client), I’ll be sure to give you a private shout.

The warning about haggis was not necessary. At all.

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

[Zeke Faust] “When you go past f16 to like f22 the focus will be deep, but the whole image will be soft.”

Ehh… depends on your glass. With a lower-end lens (more likely DSLR lenses), perhaps you might see a little bit of that softness (which is likely there at all f-stops, but is more apparent at higher ones), but a higher-end real cine lens should be sharp as a tack at all f-stops, especially at higher ones.

[Zeke Faust] “Also, the small aperture will reveal ANY dust, hair, dirt or smudges on your lens and sensor”

If you have extremely deep focus and very close focus, it is indeed possible to focus on lens-surface things like smudges, dust, etc. Higher f-stops though have no effect on the revelation of any dust/dirt on the sensor. If you have a dirty sensor, it’s just as likely to show at all f-stops… the aperture setting has nothing to do with what you might see at the film plane. Fortunately if you follow really good lens-changing practices (clean environments, uncapping the camera body as briefly as possible), it is extremely rare that a will need cleaning, unless you change lenses very frequently in dirty environments.

T2

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