Wow, it's been while, Huh? 

Life can get in the way of things can't it?

I'm going to start working on the blog again this summer. I'll start with CineGear Expo. I'll post some reviews of things that I see next week.

Also I'm going to post some observations on Final Cut Studio 2 (FCS2) now that I've had a chance to play with it for a while.

Related to this, I'm also going to start posting observations about the reel making process.  It's astounding how powerful the new tools that are out there are.  I've had a chance to do some work on Avid Media Composer and I'll talk a little about how I worked with it to do the finishing on a film I short a while back.  I've had a chance to work with it in the Color program of FCS 2, so I'll have some thoughts about that to publish.

There's so much going on that I feel I need this as an outlet to formalize some thoughts in my head in prep for writing the book I've been putting off doing for a while.

One final thing, let me suggest that you link to the RSS feed of this blog.  This is great for keeping tabs on what's going on without having to explicitly point to it unless there's actually something new happening.  Just press the "syndicate" link in the upper right-hand corner and you'll have in in the address field of your browser.

So, during the next couple of weeks wish me luck in getting my hands on an iPhone and stand by...

The  Flash Meter VI is the worthy successor to the wonderful Minolta Flash Meter V.  I guess most noteworthy is that it's both a spot meter as well as an incident meter.  This is obviously a response to the highly successful Sekonic line of incident/spot meters, most notably the L558 Cine.


My main reservation about this meter is that it doesn't read foot-candles.  Also it doesn't directly compensate for filters though, as on the FM V you can enter a stop offset which I've found works just fine.  It has an analog T-stop scale that runs all the way, top to bottom covering the entire length of the face of the meter. That's an obvious nod to the old Cinemeter.  I have to admit a sincere affection for the Cinemeter with all its flaws.

There is an exposure range function that, though not new, makes good use of the combination of luminance and illuminance features of the meter.  The users manual is available on-line.  It's broken into parts one and two.  You might want to take a look at it before you seriously consider this complex meter.

One advantage of the Flash Meter VI over the L558L is that the Konica Minolta meter uses a single AA battery as opposed to the CR123A used by the L558 Cine.

There's an interesting story in the NY Times about the practical/impractical (depending on your perceptive) nature of film school.

I saw a Lacie external DVD drive that I thought would be perfect to burn reels on.  Besides the fact that it's extremely fast (16X) and double layer (8.5GB) you flip the DVD over and the burner prints your label design on the other side.  It uses the same laser that it uses to burn the data on the DVD to burn the image you want on the other side.  This makes for a professional looking presentation of your material.

It also comes with Toast & for the Mac.

I've discovered an on-line sun position calculator that is a great alternative to SunPath if you don't already own that program.  It can be found at Isitinthecan.com. 



I corresponded with Mike Brackenridge, the designer of the site.  He's obviously worked hard to create a well designed tool.

The displays are both thorough and clear.  The site is fast with a clean user interface.  The printouts (below) are as good as anything else on the market. 




There are lots of locations available whose calculations are absolutely free.  However, for $18.00 For A Year subscription, you get full use of the site.  That fee gets you the printer friendly output you see above as well as an extensive database of locations.  I consider this an extremely reasonable price.  For a professional cinematographer, this is nothing less than a service to the industry. 

Google Earth is an invaluable tool for location scouting.  It is now available both for the Mac



as well as the PC. 



I've been playing with it for a while now on the PC.  It just dawned on me what a great way to look at potential locations.   In addition to the obvious, which is getting direction to locations, (it will actually drive the route for you), you can get an idea of possible conflicts with traffic noise from freeways.  You can look at elevations that might effect sun times as well as possible problems and solutions for lighting night exteriors. 

The amazing thing to me is that it's all free of charge.  Download a copy today and see if it might be useful to you.

If you've been waiting for Google to take over the world, they already have.

I read an interesting article in the LA Times about the simultaneous release of his new film Bubble theatrically, on cable and on DVD all at the same time.  This is an interesting and important development for young filmmakers in general and cinematographers specifically.  What will we concider to be medium of highest impact in the future?  Will it continue to be the theatrical release of our films?

FrameForge 3D Studio Version 2 has been released.  I consider FrameForge the finest previsualization software I've ever seen.  The new version has some remarkable new features. 

The interface has been substantially improved.  It seems a lot clearer, more intuitive.




A major new feature is a simulation of depth of field which they call TrueOptixâ„¢. 


They say "This is not a Parallax simulation, but is true Depth of Field based on the optical properties of the frame, its circle of confusion, the f/stop and point of focus." 

I'm not so sure about the value or accuracy of the DOF tool because I don't know how it could take the powerful influence of psychology into consideration.  However,


I consider the new distance measuring tool a major improvement for the cinematographer.

Unfortunately the new Room Builder feature is not yet available to the Mac OS version.  They say they will provide this feature as a free update as soon as it is finished for the Mac.



I haven't had a chance to look at it yet but as soon as I do I'll do a review of it here.

The Cinematographer's Field Guide in its printed form has been a wonderful source of information for years.  It's available as a PDF from the Eastman Kodak website.

The ASC web site has a terrific article on color space which was posted in its January 2005 issue.  It's full of great graphics and lays out the subject in an extremely clear matter and in real depth.

There is also a part two that was published in the April 2005 issue.

 

This is a spreadsheet that helps to calculate HMI Safe Speeds and Shutter Angle combinations.

Bill Dill, ASC

Yesterday we received a demo the new JVC GY-HD100U 24P HDV (DV) camcorder. 

 

This was an impressive little piece of gear.  The clear design idea was for the use of this camera in ENG applications and education.  The camera can be configured with a full studio setup. 

The camera has interchangeable lenses.  This is the key feature of this camera.  We screened the images from this camera through a high quality high def direct view monitor.  The image from the camera, even in the standard institutional lighting of a hallway in Demille Hall at Chapman University was impressive.  The big problem came when we screened material that had been recorded on the on-board HDV recorder.  This recorder records with MPEG2 compression.  The reduction in quality of this recording from what the camera itself can produce is considerable.  The recorder can only preserve 19 Mb/sec of data.  Standard definition DV is 25Mb/sec.  The image uncompressed from the 1/3" chip of the camera is already a reduced 1280X720 progressive image but was impressive.  The recorder is a real problem.

The other drawback with this unit is that the images can not yet be edited in 24P.  There's no facility for editing the footage from this camera with either Final Cut Pro or Avid.  With the quality of this little camera I'm sure this will happen.  The price of the camera, as we saw it was in the vicinity of $7,000.  Amazing

The Kung Fu Hustle I saw is not the film I saw promoted in it's trailers.  This is a hard core, Hong Kong action pic which brings it's funny side above the surface.  The trailer simple promote the slapstick aspects of the film.  This is not Airplane.  This is not Caddy Shack.  This is closer to Jackie Chan, John Woo, Chow Yon-Fat.  I enjoyed it, but then again I liked Airplane and Caddy Shack too.

The Newport Beach Film Festival is in progress right now.  I have a group of students with screenings in the festival.  The film is entitled "90".  Jason Wise is the director and writer.  Jake McCurdy did a brilliant job as cinematographer and editor.  The film screens:

Wednesday April 27 9PM
Edwards island 3

Tickets are $10.00

To buy tickets call 866-NBFF-TIX
The film plays in the Getting Your Shorts in a Twist program.

It's a fine film.

I've noticed that there's plenty of traffic on the site but almost no comments.  Much of the value of the blog is lost without active participation on the part of readers.  If you have questions ask them.  If you have questions about the info published here ask about it.  If there's something that you'd like to know more about, ASK.  If you just have observations that you think others should know about post a comment.  I may be able to augment your comment with a post of an article to follow up. 

The other thing that would be helpful would be to post reviews of recent films you've seen.

I've been enamored of fiber optics HMI's for years for lighting in tight spaces.  I got a terrific demo from a company called Lite Panels.  This is one of the first uses of a technology that we're going to see more of in the future, solid state lighting.  These little units are just beautiful.  You have a lighting source which is extremely efficient from a power standpoint.  It remains cool in use and creates a lovely quality of light.  It's also dimmable from 0% to 100% with little change in color temperature.

Microdolly Hollywood makes a line of clever little camera support gear.   more »

I want to call your attention to Film And Digital Times.  This is a new newsletter published by Jon Fauer.  I spoke with Jon at NAB.  The inaugural issue is due out for May/June 2005.  The first issue is full of great info.  It's beautifully written and design so it's as visually pleasurable as you would expect from Jon if you've seen any of his previous offerings.  There is a PDF sample available of the first issue.  Their phone number is 877-445-8301.  Ask about their educational discount.  Tell them Bill Dill, ASC referred you.

Since my palm started acting up, I felt PCAM-less so I found this online depth of field chart.
 
I have not tested it's accuracy yet.

Another interesting device was the "Skater Mini" which seems to work very well for smooth small camera moves:  

J.L.Fisher have it for rental.

There is another bit of news i got from the Arri tech at their booth.


Apparently they are striking a deal with Grass Valley for the "Venom" flash mags to be used under a different name for the D-20. I think the images shown at the Arri booth were recorded using HDCAM SR so it can only get better.

The following info came to me from a fine cinematographer Guy Livneh.


In the Lowel booth there was a silly looking tabletop light named "Ego". In itself it was not impressive (could be an interesting prop) however the bulbs were interesting.


They were 27W daylight balanced fluorescent screw-in bulbs which could possibly be used in other instruments such as china balls etc. The color temp was better than BCA's et al. I hope to find a more inexpensive source for these bulbs.  

I bumped into an English company called Hamlet Video International.    more »

There were a few things I saw at NAB that caught my eye and I'll try, in the next few days, to comment on them.   more »

Today I tried to focus more narrowly than on previous days. I decided to concentrate on cameras, projection and post production systems.    more »

Panasonic spoke a lot about the future possibilities of their systems. This was interesting. It was as if they were more enthusiastic about where they’re going than where they are. I was not overly impressed with the AD-HVX200 camera.    more »

Today I did my first introductory session at the convention...   more »

I got these from Eric Trageser.  He was a great camera assistant and is now an extremely gifted cinematographer (a fine teacher too). 

He passed them on to me and I'm now passing them on to you.  They're a little dated now but easily updateable.  You should have orders on standby wating for the UPM to ask for them.  It shouldn't be a big deal to do an order for a package.  You shouldn't have to reinvent the wheel everytime.  Take these forms and customize them for your use.

Kind of hard to work efficiently without a PDA these days.  In my opinion the PalmOne line is as good as these things get.

In my opinion Planetarium for the Palm works every bit as well as sunPath.  It also has the virtue of allowing for last minute changes as you stand on the set.  It will also track just about anything in the sky, day or night.

I highly recomend the Suunto line of compasses and clinometers for use in day exterior cinematography to track and predict the position of the sun.  The reletively inexpensive MC-2G works just fine.  At some point, though you will prefer the sturdiness and precision of the higher end units.

Sunpath is a fine program for use, primarily but not exclusively in day exterior cinematography.  Widescreen Software is the publisher.

DDH Software are the publishers of HanDBase.  It's a great program for organizing information.

This is an entire system to help you organize your approach to a project.  This works with the popular Palm OS database program HanDBase.

The central hub of the system is a file called Cinebase.pdb.  This is the file which accumulates info from your camera assistant (Camerabase.pdb) and your gaffer (Lightingbase.pdb)  The general approach is that you breakdown the show with Breakdownbase.pdb.  Then you give these other files to your gaffer and camera assistant and at the end of each day you receive the info collecteb by them.  At the end of each day you now have a good solid summary of the work done.  You can sort and search this info as you continue to shoot your film.  There are various pop up menus to speed up the entry of info (Filmpop.pdb, Cameraeqpop.pdb, Primepop.pdb, Zoompop.pdb).  These will need to be updated from time to time.  They are just provided as a guide. 

All of this can be modified to suit your needs of course.  If you have any questions about this system feel free to contact me.

If you have suggestions for changes, this is a good way to use the blog.

This is the first of two sets of files.

This the second of two sets of files. These are the pop up menus which will help speed up the entering of info.

This is an Excel spreadsheet which you can use as a simple camera log.  It's obviously not as extensive or sophisticated as cineBASE, which I've also published here but you should use at least something like this to keep track of the huge volume of info you need to follow on the set. 

You can just print these out, fold them and write on them on the set or you can use a spreadsheet program on a Palm Pilot.  The advantage of the software approach is your ability to search, sort and, select.  This can be a real time/life saver.

This year's event was terrific blessed with good weather after a threatening forecast.   more »

I've been thinking about this for about a year now...   more »