After a recent conversation with some fellow filmmakers I was reminded of how mysterious in some ways our industry is, and how many people may not even be clear of their job titles, and what responsibilities those jobs entail. There also exist a hierarchy of authority on a set and a certain level of professionalism is expected of the departments. In the professional realm with a full staffed crew there exist a level of professionalism and mutual respect for each others jobs and responsibilities, or at least their usually is. Sure sometimes you wind up on a bad crew getting chewed out for nothing. The independent world could learn some valuable lessons about team management and establishing departments, and establishing a creative chain of command. Even among friends there should be a degree of departmentalization and a chain of command for decision making. This will ensure that your production flows smoother and everyone can concentrate on their job responsibilities, which has hopefully been staffed to that persons strengths and abilities.
A chain of command doesn’t mean a dictatorship on set. It simply means people need to be aware of where their orders come from and who has final say so. Good leadership in department heads will ask for input when needed, weigh it carefully, and then make a decisive answer and take responsibility for that decision. This is the level of mutual respect, decision making, and leadership skills that have ruined more independent features than anything else in my opinion. Above the right gear, the right budget, and the right crew, good leadership with clear decisive chains of commands and communication to other team member is paramount. More than one well written story with an adequate budget and great gear has been ruined by the lack of these skills.
To that degree I have included a great job description and breakdown of crew responsibilities of a typical film crew compiled by Noel Paul at the University of Washington. Hopefully you will gain a better insight into the job responsibilities of each crew member. Remember now matter how small your crew is its important to establish a well thought out team with good communication between team member in order to work efficiently.

Continue reading ‘Production Jobs and Responsibilities of Crew’

Since the release of the first 25 Red One Digital Cinema Cameras into the wild it has proved to be somewhat difficult to process and digest all of the information. For up to the minute news and info you can watch the Reduser.net forums. Or stay tuned here at this post and we’ll be adding links to all things RED Digital Cinema as we find them.

*Adobe has added native Red .R3D support to Premiere CS3 and After Effects CS3.
*ShotPut has released Red Edition for automation of CF and Red Drive offloads.
*Want to know the finer technical details and info on Redcode RAW data rates and VBR compression? Mike Curtis has the scoop in this very detailed Pro Video Coalition article.
*The latest version of Build 16 has been released, as well as updates for RedCine, RedAlert, the Red RAW QT Codec and a new tool called RedRushes.
*Shooting with HMI’s and seeing flicker? Here’s the HMI shutter speed formula to know.
*Red vs. EX1 in a keying test. See if you can pick out which camera is which.
*Studio Daily has posted a short video in which Red’s Ted Schilowitz explains the workflow and post-production options when shooting with the Red Digital Cinema camera.
*Adam Wilt put the Red One, Sony F23, and Sony EX1 next to each other in this informal test.
*Scott Simmons on Crimson Workflow and 10-bit vs 8-bit workflow.
*Scott Simmons has written a in-depth overview of the current RED online/offline workflow options, and how they can be improved. Great article!
*Speed-ramping footage! Ramp from 24 fps to 75 fps over 5 seconds.
*Mark Pederson outlines the workflow used in a final Red 4K conform using Scratch. The workflow works.
*Jarred posted a tantalizing picture of the Nikon lens mount, this no doubt means they are getting close to a ship date on that particular critical feature for indie filmmakers. Side note: the mount swap should be done in a clean environment as it exposes the image sensor.
*Red has posted an updated delivery schedule. Reservation #’s 501-750 are being contacted this week (Feb 4, 2008), 751-1000 “will be contacted mid month.”
*James Mathers reports from the set of an indie RED feature.
*Redcine Beta Build 82 has been released, with a number of fixes and new features. Read all about it here.
* Flood at Red HQ! Jarred says the cameras are ok.
*If there is any question in your mind whether or not the people that make movies will adopt use of the Red camera, look no further than IMDB for quite a list of features that are using the Red One camera. And it’s not just VFX plates either.
*Red numbers 301-500 are reportedly ready to ship soon.
*The prolific crew over at Cineform has created a utility that will ease the transition of RED’s native file format to a PC-compatible editing format. Mike Curtis has the scoop on R3D codec to DPX and Cineform.
*Bruce Allen wrote in to mention a project he had some involvement in, a music video for Ringo Starr shot on the Red.
*Jannard has coyly posted a rendering of a mattebox with Red’s logo on it. Looks like some carbon fiber too.
*Due to concerns from the Red shooting community, cameras in development will be getting a board update that allows shooting in -20C temperatures. The cost? Another week’s delay.
*Understanding Rolling Shutter Artifacts. Practical explanations and examples of the issue and Red cameras, and how to work around it. Discussion here, and video example here.
*A new PL mount has been designed that allows backfocus to be set without the use of shims.
*Jim is frustrated; “This is a helluva challenge that we started from ground zero. I was nuts to think we could do it properly in this amount of time, let alone several months less.”
*The production delay to add a daughter board has been worked around in some other fashion. Production should resume soon, Jim says.
*The newly redesigned PL mount is back from the lab and looks good apparently. Brent says “Shims can join film on the next bus out of town.”
*Mike Curtis has an article on Red Day Zero in DV Magazine, and will be doing a presentation on RED at an Austin, TX rental house on December 4th. Open to the public.
*Soderbergh has committed to shooting “The Informant” starring Matt Damon using the RED camera.
*RED in SPAIN! HD For Indies has raw framegrabs and “curve-pushed” stills from a shoot in Sitges.
*The RED Digital Cinema camera was chosen for production of “Game”, another feature film helmed by well-established directors. They will be shooting with six cameras from the 1-100 prototype/beta batch.
*FXGuide has a short behind the scenes segment on a recent RED test shoot in Episode #017 of fxguidetv (direct hi-res MOV link here)
*Offhollywood 2K/4K film print test info here - Mark says “Our goal is to get a full 10 day color grade in Scratch, film-out in 4K, optical soundtrack, check print, and fully timed answer-print for under $80,000.”
*There is a Production Hold while the RED team retrofits cameras 1-100 with a new daughter-board, new shim-less lens mount, and firmware updates. Jim says “It is most likely that 101-200 will begin shipping November 30th and 201-600 will begin shipping December 10th.”
*RED mentioned as a viable 35mm alternative in the Wall Street Journal.
*Scott Billups says at CML “The chroma key is the best I’ve ever seen…RED > DPX pulls a key better than all film and all digital formats.”
*ProLost asks “Is the Red One really 4K?”
*The Hallowed RED Shipping Schedule has been updated yet again.
*Macgregor raises a few ISO/ASA rating questions, and notes a potentially troubling image/sensor artifact in this thread (view the direct post here).
*MacGregor (aka filmmaker Miguel De Olaso) rented a RED for a shoot in the Salt Flats…and he of course shot something amazing with it. Behind the scenes shots at Flickr.
*The first underwater RED shoot, DPX framegrabs available.
*Mike Curtis is hosting more 4K uncompressed TIFFs from the OffHollywood shoot in NYC. Go get ‘em and start abusing the images!
*What comes in the box? This RED unboxing video will show you, accompanied by an infectious soundtrack.
*HD For Indies is hosting the entire OffHollywood video presentation by Mark Pederson at Tekserve.
*Renegade filmmaker Steven Soderbergh has chosen to shoot yet another project with the RED camera…and with Panavision anamorphic lenses (effectively using only 2.4K of the Mysterium’s 4K frame).
*Graeme Nattress has posted a Mysterium sensor dynamic range update at the Reduser forum.
*HD For Indies has a wad of recent Reduser forum links and topics up, read them here.
*Having wrapped his “Guerrilla” shoot, one of the first to use the RED for a feature film, Steven Soderbergh made a few telling comments; “I feel I should call up Film on the phone and say, I’ve met someone.” Click here to read the rest at Reduser.net.
*Via the Reduser.net forum comes news of a new RED video clip sneak preview.
*Pederson’s final production diary entries are in…Seven, Eight, Nine and Ten. Spoiler Alert: He still likes his new RED camera. And he’s been just about everywhere with it…
Continue reading ‘All Things Red: Images/Video/Updates’

Well the long awaited development of Red Digital Cinema’s first 4K camera is over and the camera is now officially a reality. You can read a full article about the chipping details here at FXguide. More from me later on what this all means and some of the implications for our industry. Bookmark www.Reduser.net and check there for updates as the new users put the camera through its paces and we see their test footage and clips.

Update: Unboxing, framegrabs, and the first user submitted footage (shot at night, 800-1000 ISO) in this Reduser thread. Notice the irony of the Canon HV20 in the photo above…as a Reduser commenter stated “hv20 = best sub $1000 cam ever…Red = best sub $30,000 cam ever” -MJ

 SyncVue Pro 2.0 Tutorial [12:27m]: Download

SyncVue announced at NAB that they would be offering a new version of their remote collaboration software for editors and producers. We cover a lot of the new announcements and features here in our NAB podcast. Well the long awaited update is finally here and all existing SyncVue users will definitely want to grab it. I downloaded it myself and was very happy. The functionality is improved and the new features are killer. So I decided to do a quick little tutorial on setting up and using the new version of the software, I’ll be doing a second part to this podcast to go more in depth later. This first one walks you through the newest features and how to basically get around, but there will definitely be more later. View the video podcast via our FreshDV iTunes Podcast Feed or the Download links above.

There are a few things I wish SyncVue would address, namely its reliance on Skype. While I have found ways to make it easier for my clients, it is still a pain to have to download Skype, SyncVue (and the latest version of Quicktime for Windows users) and install those three pieces of software on their system. If SyncVue could incorporate a QT installer and find a way to streamline the Skype situation where there was only the installation of one software package to get all the needed components, it would be much easier to implement this system for clients who are less technically minded.

Continue reading ‘SyncVue Pro 2.0 New Feature Tutorial Pt. 1′

Simon Wyndham has written an excellent hands on review of the Panasonic HPX-500 well worth the read if you’re interested in learning more about this camera, go ahead and take a look.

SIMON SAYS:
With Blu-Ray discs managing to break into the top selling echelons of Amazon.coms’ charts, high definition has entered a new phase of mass adoption. This has meant that the demand for camera operators with their own high definition cameras has increased drastically even in the space of the last year or so. To enable owner/operators a way into professional high definition shooting Panasonic initially released the HDX900.

The 900 offered a good route for those who already owned or used the standard definition SDX900 and who were established in a DVCpro workflow. While the HDX900 offered a smooth upgrade path it was still a tape based camera, and as anyone who hasn’t been living underground for the last 5 years or so knows tapeless is the way the industry is going.

Thus we arrive at the new HPX500 camcorder. The HPX500 has been designed once again to allow a smooth upgrade path for those wishing to get into low cost HD production. One set of customers Panasonic appear to be targeting with the 500 are existing operators of HVX200’s who may be looking to move to a more professional style of camera.

READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE

Panasonic has recently released an updated version of their P2 viewer software which was only available for PCs. Their latest version is branded P2CMS Or P2 Content Management Software and is available for PC and MAC. P2 users worldwide rejoice, I recently downloaded it and haven’t had a chance to put it through its paces so give me any heads up if anyone encounters problems of any kind. You may download it here.
Continue reading ‘P2 Viewer Comes to MAC OS X’

 How To Calibrate a Light Meter For Digital Video [6:28m]: Download
 How To Calibrate a Light Meter For Digital Video [6:28m]: Download

You can subscribe to our complete podcast here.

A light meter can prove to be an invaluable tool on any set, allowing you to quickly and efficiently set lights and know the correct exposure values of those lights. Light meters were initially designed for still photographers and cinematographers can easily calibrate them to a given film stock speed for shooting film. But what about today’s digital cinematographer? I’m glad you asked. In this tutorial I’ll show you how you can use a light meter to quickly and efficiently light a scene, and gain better control over your camcorder’s exposure.
Continue reading ‘Calibrating a Light meter for Digital Video’

How about you, do you know what your job description as a cinematographer is?
Here is a list of typical duties required of today’s cinematographer. Some of them you may already be familiar with and others you may not, definilty a good read. Here is a sample:

# Visit laboratory to calibrate, customise and evaluate exposure system for any combination of electronic or chemical image capture; and establish developing, printing, set timing and transfer protocols
# Visit rental houses
# Explore new equipment
# Learn how new equipment works
# Invent (or cause to be invented) special equipment or techniques for show
# Standardise and create effects bible for show
# Help create and approve any story boards
# Design (or cause to be designed) and approve any built-in or practical lighting fixture
# Design lighting-plot plan and rigging for stages and locations with gaffer and key grip D. Quality Control

Motionworks a motion design firm has a pretty good selection of After Effects tutorials and project files on their site. A number of the tutorials reference Zaxwerks 3D plugin. Still all you motion design artist may find them of some use. Also be sure to check out Andrew Kramer’s site video co-pilot, as he has updated and posted some new After Effects tutorials as well. If you want to get the nitty gritty on using AE for compositing work Andrew is the man to check out!

If you have ever wondered what the difference between the way a video camera calcualate shutter by fractions of a second and the way a film camera calculates shutter in degrees, then this article by Stuart English at Reduser.net is just for you.

Default Exposure Time - Speed v’s Angles
Following up on the question about exposure time when in ramps, here is a quick comparison of exposure times when expressed in 1 / xx seconds v’s xx degrees. Calculations are at 24 fps.

If you want to convert shutter speed to shutter angles at 24 fps the math is (24 x 360) / Time Fraction i.e 8640 / xx where xx is 1/ xx sec
Continue reading ‘Shutter Speed Vs. Shutter Angle’

Yesterday Apple posted v.1.01 Pro App updates for Color, Motion 3 and FCP 6, all available here.

Redrock unveiled their new Micro Shoulder Mount at the Cine Gear Expo last weekend. While the FreshDV crew wasn’t on hand directly to document the event we asked Brian Valente of Redrock Micro about the new system and what we could anticipate. While there is no official word on pricing or availability we anticipate it being in keeping with Redrock’s business and pricing model, affordable.
Here is what Brian had to say about the new system:

The rig was shown as a concept rig to demonstrate three things:

1. that a small, compact handheld system is not only possible with a 35mm adapter, it’s completely capable.

2. The future direction of redrock gear, giving a sense of style. Of course for hard core cinemaphiles, black will always be available :)

3. To get feedback on the rig, which has been a resounding “when can we have it”!

It is not specific to the HV20 - any camera can be used in this configuration

Although it’s a concept rig, we anticipate shipping some of all of the rig in the Fall timeframe. You’ll notice on the pic many of the components are already available as Redrock gear, so it goes along with our modular approach to adding to your Redrock gear

Century Stand or C-stands are a must have on a set of any size they are invaluable as a way to hang lights, hold flags, bounce cards, emergency mic stand and much, much more. For the independent filmmaker on a cheap or low budget the fact that a good C-stand can cost upward of $175 each can be a bit of a downer. Well for those do-it-yourself filmmakers here is a great little solution for around $30 + a little elbow grease and some time you can build your own C-stands. Listed below is a brief overview of the pros and cons of this solution, read through it and if your up for a little fun check out the full set of instructions here. Continue reading ‘DIY C-Stand Tutorial’

Okay guys for everyone interested in recieving full e-mail feed updates, you may now subscribe. If you e-mail subscribed via feedburner earlier you may have only been recieving notification of new podcasts and not all the articles on the site. Matt has updated and corrected the problem but it will require that you re-subscribe to ensure that it works correctly. You may use the normal RSS site feed link on the top left or subscribe to e-mail updates here. If you have been recieving full feeds with no issues we subscribe heavily to the old adage, “If ain’t broke don’t fix it.” In other words leave it alone :)

As some of you may know, the FreshDV team gathered in Chicago this last week to put some filmmaking gear by top manufacturers under scrutiny. After 5 long days of extensive testing we managed to find some very interesting results. Lighting kits, follow focus units, matte boxes, and much much more. We will be posting extensive written reviews as well as complete video coverage via our FreshDV Podcast. Just a quick shoutout to some sponsors who provided us with some much needed support gear even though we didn’t directly test their gear. Special thanks to our friend Bruce Allen for providing us with his light meter. Special thanks to Fletcher Chicago for providing us with a Zeiss 85mm PL lens to test our gear on. Zeiss also helped us by providing us with a set of their ZF primes to test gear on as well. Below are some pics from the week. Thanks to the following manufacturers who provided us with gear: Continue reading ‘A Very Tired FreshDV Team :)’