A Friend of my girlfriend wrote a script for a web serious, which I think has a lot of potential. It's kind of like the McLovin side story in the movie Role Models, where the character plays dungeons and dragons, and a live action version of World Of Warcraft. It's not really my thing, but it's got some good one liners. In any event, I thought it would be a great chance to put some miles on my new Canon Rebel
T2i.
Yesterday, I brought all my gear out to Queens, where most of the show will be shot, to do some test shooting, to figure out how we will work in the space. Here are some "Aha" moments from that experience.
It's amazing what $30 worth of clamp lights and incandecent bulbs will do for the relatively poor lighting in an apartment. It's also amazing how damn hot it gets with 3 of those suckers on at once. I think we may switch to CFLs.
Actually shooting in an NYC apartment isn't as easy as I thought. I bought a Canon EF 28-105mm lens off of Craigslist for a sweet price, but I don't think I'll get to use it much. I had to use my 18-55mm at the 18mm mark to get every one in frame.
I really think it's important for writers to let their actors rewrite lines on an indy production. Drew Bellware introduced this concept to me, and I think the production really benefits from it. Unless the writer has several successful scripts under their belt, or is Blake Schnyder, the script probably needs some help any way.
There are a few lines in this script that the actors really had trouble with yesterday, a few line changes, or a bit of improv would fix the problem, and let the actors seem more natural. However, the writer was reluctant for that to happen. I think we will have a little chat and see what we can work out, because I really don't like doing more then 2, 3 takes at most on each shot. It wears out the actors, it wears me out as the camera man, and is a pain in the ass when I take the footage back to post for editing.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Craig and His Stupid List
Every so often, I take a stroll through the pages of Craigslist to see if there are any interesting postings for film jobs. Every time, without fail, Craigslist manages to remind me of how stupid human beings can be. It's really my fault for expecting anything else.
The majority of the ads read: Popular NYC-based band seeks talented videographer, experienced in all aspects of production/ post production. Grad or post grad student prefered. Must have own equipment and 3 years working experience. If interested send us a link to your resume and reel. We can't pay you, but if your interested in adding to your reel, and working with an awesome band, this is the gig for you.
Compensation: Possible Collaboration with soon to be hit band
At some point they stop being funny, and just become really obnoxious and a bit insulting. These people are basically asking editors to whore themselves out, because they are too uninformed/lazy to learn to do their own work, and too cheap to pay someone to do it properly.
Having my own equipment and 7 years experience editing, I think I might start trying to land these jobs, and when I do, do a terrible, horrible, out right shitty job, just to make a point.
The majority of the ads read: Popular NYC-based band seeks talented videographer, experienced in all aspects of production/ post production. Grad or post grad student prefered. Must have own equipment and 3 years working experience. If interested send us a link to your resume and reel. We can't pay you, but if your interested in adding to your reel, and working with an awesome band, this is the gig for you.
Compensation: Possible Collaboration with soon to be hit band
At some point they stop being funny, and just become really obnoxious and a bit insulting. These people are basically asking editors to whore themselves out, because they are too uninformed/lazy to learn to do their own work, and too cheap to pay someone to do it properly.
Having my own equipment and 7 years experience editing, I think I might start trying to land these jobs, and when I do, do a terrible, horrible, out right shitty job, just to make a point.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Color Correction, The Next Frontier
For the past two days I've been plugging away on this promo video I shot for the Bococa Arts Festival. For my first shoot with the camera, I'm happy to say that the footage came out much better then I expected. After putting some clips down in the timeline, and getting pretty close to the final edit, I decided it was time to do some color correcting.
Admittingly, I really don't know a hell of a lot about color correction in general, let alone how to do it well in Final Cut Pro. I know what images look good, and which ones don't, so that's general my method for correcting color.
I found this easy tutorial on using the 3 way color corrector in FCP. I gave it a shot, and it's not half bad. It certainly went faster then when I used Magic Bullet's Looks effect. However, I think looks has more of the tools I need to get the job done.
You see, I had read, that due to the compression on most DSLR cameras, it's better to over expose in production, and pull it down in post to keep good quality. On top of most of my shots being intentionally over exposed, I think I unintentionally forgot to set the white balance when I switch from indoor to outdoor shots. BAD DAVE!
Needless to say, I have my work cut out for me.
If anyone has suggestions for how to do simple and effective color correction, feel free to drop me a comment.
Admittingly, I really don't know a hell of a lot about color correction in general, let alone how to do it well in Final Cut Pro. I know what images look good, and which ones don't, so that's general my method for correcting color.
I found this easy tutorial on using the 3 way color corrector in FCP. I gave it a shot, and it's not half bad. It certainly went faster then when I used Magic Bullet's Looks effect. However, I think looks has more of the tools I need to get the job done.
You see, I had read, that due to the compression on most DSLR cameras, it's better to over expose in production, and pull it down in post to keep good quality. On top of most of my shots being intentionally over exposed, I think I unintentionally forgot to set the white balance when I switch from indoor to outdoor shots. BAD DAVE!
Needless to say, I have my work cut out for me.
If anyone has suggestions for how to do simple and effective color correction, feel free to drop me a comment.
Friday, June 4, 2010
Camera Lens
After yesterday's promotional shoot, I've done some thinking on lenses for my camera. Right now I have a Canon EF 50mm f1.8, a Canon EF 75-300mm f4-5.6, and the Canon EF 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 which came with the camera. I marched around with all three lenses yesterday, but only ended up using the 18-55mm. For that kind of run and gun shoot, it just seemed like too much work to keep switching lenses.
The 18-55mm really worked wonders and accomidated most of my needs, but in hindsight, there were a few shots it might have been nice to use the telephoto lens on. An advertisement from amazon got me thinking a bit. They had a Tamaron AF 18-270mm f 3.5-5.6 lens on sale. It's more then I can afford at the moment, but I think down the line, I may get one of those puppies.
For a run and gun day of shooting, it would be nice to have one lens with the focal lengths of the three I'm currently carrying. Then I could get all different types of shots without ever switching lenses.
The 18-55mm really worked wonders and accomidated most of my needs, but in hindsight, there were a few shots it might have been nice to use the telephoto lens on. An advertisement from amazon got me thinking a bit. They had a Tamaron AF 18-270mm f 3.5-5.6 lens on sale. It's more then I can afford at the moment, but I think down the line, I may get one of those puppies.
For a run and gun day of shooting, it would be nice to have one lens with the focal lengths of the three I'm currently carrying. Then I could get all different types of shots without ever switching lenses.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Today's Shoot with the Canon T2i
I would like to start by saying, I now know why so many people buy cameras and make indy films. It is a hell of a lot of fun to do.
The camera performed amazingly. I knew going into this that keeping focus would be a problem, and it was, but nevertheless, the shots still came out great. If I had my shoulder mount and follow focus, I think it would have been less of a problem. Instead I did a lot of run and gun with a monopod.
Two things to add to my camera bag: extra battery. It ran furiously for about 5 hours, and died. Not to bad, it just slowed down the shoot to recharge, but by that point it was lunch time anyhow, so no real time lost.
The second thing for the camera bag is sunscreen. I have the craziest looking farmers tan ever now.
The camera performed amazingly. I knew going into this that keeping focus would be a problem, and it was, but nevertheless, the shots still came out great. If I had my shoulder mount and follow focus, I think it would have been less of a problem. Instead I did a lot of run and gun with a monopod.
Two things to add to my camera bag: extra battery. It ran furiously for about 5 hours, and died. Not to bad, it just slowed down the shoot to recharge, but by that point it was lunch time anyhow, so no real time lost.
The second thing for the camera bag is sunscreen. I have the craziest looking farmers tan ever now.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Oh, the Power of the Internet
Before I went out and shot tomorrow's promotional video, I wanted to pull the test footage I shot off the memory card so I could start tomorrow's shoot with a fresh card. This brought up the question "how the heck do I get these .MOV files into Final Cut
Pro?"
I had done some research prior to buying the camera, so I had some sense of the problems I would encounter, and some possible solutions to them. FCP doesn't play nicely with .MOV files so they have to be converted to another format which is easier to edit, usually one of the PoRes codecs Apple now offers. Canon, being market savvy, and making their products more marketable developed a free plug-in for FCP users, allowing them to easily transcode to ProRes.
Canon EOS Plug-in E1 is pretty simple to install and utilizes the log and transfer function in FCP. The only problem is that it doesn't work with the Canon Rebel T2i yet. However, the Bui Brothers have this very easy video tutorial which shows you how to use text editor to make the plug-in work. It took me about 5 minutes to do, and it works perfectly.
Drew Bellware also explained the advantages of purchasing Red Giant's plug-in, Grinder. The main advantage Grinder has over E1 is that if you shoot in 720p60 on your DSLR you can use the plug-in to convert back to 24fps. The technical end of that is complicated, but as Drew explained it to me, it's like speeding up the frame on an old school film camera in production, and slowing it down in post to make for very smooth slow motion clips.
I think in the near future I will end up buying Grinder. I certainly see myself doing a lot of slow motion clips, so $50 seems like a pretty reasonable investment for smooth slow motion.
Pro?"
I had done some research prior to buying the camera, so I had some sense of the problems I would encounter, and some possible solutions to them. FCP doesn't play nicely with .MOV files so they have to be converted to another format which is easier to edit, usually one of the PoRes codecs Apple now offers. Canon, being market savvy, and making their products more marketable developed a free plug-in for FCP users, allowing them to easily transcode to ProRes.
Canon EOS Plug-in E1 is pretty simple to install and utilizes the log and transfer function in FCP. The only problem is that it doesn't work with the Canon Rebel T2i yet. However, the Bui Brothers have this very easy video tutorial which shows you how to use text editor to make the plug-in work. It took me about 5 minutes to do, and it works perfectly.
Drew Bellware also explained the advantages of purchasing Red Giant's plug-in, Grinder. The main advantage Grinder has over E1 is that if you shoot in 720p60 on your DSLR you can use the plug-in to convert back to 24fps. The technical end of that is complicated, but as Drew explained it to me, it's like speeding up the frame on an old school film camera in production, and slowing it down in post to make for very smooth slow motion clips.
I think in the near future I will end up buying Grinder. I certainly see myself doing a lot of slow motion clips, so $50 seems like a pretty reasonable investment for smooth slow motion.
Houston, We Have A Problem
Well I'm happy to say that my camera rig is just about complete, at least for now. I made a trip over to Adorama yesterday to pick up some Neutral Density Filters, UV protectors, and a Hoodman Loupe.
However, there seems to have been a problem with my shoulder mount. The company was backordered on the gear boxes for the follow focus, so since I ordered the two parts together, the shoulder mount didn't ship. This will certainly complicate tomorrows shoot, but I'll figure something out. Anticipating this I purchased a monopod in Maryland, so I'm not completely unprepared. It just would have been nice to have the sholder rig with follow focus.
Oh well. I'll work with what I have.
However, there seems to have been a problem with my shoulder mount. The company was backordered on the gear boxes for the follow focus, so since I ordered the two parts together, the shoulder mount didn't ship. This will certainly complicate tomorrows shoot, but I'll figure something out. Anticipating this I purchased a monopod in Maryland, so I'm not completely unprepared. It just would have been nice to have the sholder rig with follow focus.
Oh well. I'll work with what I have.
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