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Scott Simmons wrote an open letter to cameratechs, Please label tapes and disks: An open letter to DPs, camera ops, DITs. He pleads to label tapes/harddisks in the following matter:

a descriptor of the project

date of acquisition

resolution w/ progressive or interlaced

frame rate

acquisition codec

camera used

contact information for questions

notes

So a tape label might look like this:

Fluffo corporate video
6/25/09
1080i
29.97
HDV
Canon HV20
Michael Bey cell 555-1212
director shot 24p

All pretty reasonable, and should be adopted as common practice. Actually, I would suggest adding ratio, operator and sound information.

Download the pdf

I prepared a simple form in the popular .pdf format that you can download here: Tape card

I also added a line for ratio, pre-filled some standard values, and added some info as to sound. Feedback is very welcome!

You can print out a couple of these sheets, cut them in fourths and have them in the camera bag. Even when you are in a hurry, you can quickly give valuable information to the hard working editor. (If you have an inkjet printer, it might be an idea to get those labels photocopied, so that they will survive the rain you and your camera will have to endure.)

…and since we are into co-operation: An open letter to editors

Dear editors, it would be great if you could give us camerafolk some feed-back about the raw footage. Both what you liked (we are humans, too), what is useless, what would make your life easier, and any other form of constructive criticism. (And if you could make a copy of the finished edit in the highest possible quality, you are entitled to some serious cameraman love )

Flash press camera

By Christine Berrie

At times the menu of the R1 can be a bit counter-intuitive, for example that phantom power is under System>Sound, while the recording level is placed at Video>Audio. Helpfully, Octamas from Switzerland has been publishing a visual guide of the Red 1 menu system, and they’ve just released their guide for still-warm Build 20.

Bits, pieces and links

And for inspiration, hop over to As the Dust settles, a documentary in progress about the amazing Burning Man Festival – all shot on RED. They have a lovely photo gallery.

If you ever need a manual for an old camera, check out IscanManuals. They charge a small fee.

Trying to hide in the open with your camera? LensCoats makes, well, lens coatings, for pretty much any make, including the Canon 1200mm beast:

A quick fix around the gamma problem in QT and OSX.

As a follow-up to yesterdays’s post on Clients not paying, here is one from the writer’s perspective – but that one works just as well for any one who has ever worked for “deferred payment.” I’ve done that mistake as well, and of the maybe dozen (mostly short) films I’ve done that way, I ended up getting paid exactly zero times. And I have never met a single sould who did end up getting some money from a deferred payment job.

If you need the experience, you may consider working for free – just do not fall for the production assistant’s crap promising money down the line. If a film by chance should turn out to be a financial success, any self-respecting producer will immediately start a new production company, sell all rights to the film to this new company, and can rake in all profits.

And when it is time to make the next, proper budgeted, film, guess who they will not call? You. Because if you work for free, you can’t be any good, right?

Harlan Ellison with sharp, sharp teeth

Ellison is a veteran Hollywood writer, and even he get occasionally asked to do freebies. Here is an extract from the documentary “Dreams with sharp teeth”

If you are intrigued as I was, have a look at the well made trailer:

It made me order the DVD.

Since I did not get my Andy Lesniak (aka. Wicked Circuits) dumb Canon mount to work properly (see previous lens mount test), and Birger Engineering is offering their Canon mount in a dumb version, I have now ordered one of those. Shipped today, and should be with me next week. Am very much looking forward to testing out thier mount. Watch this space for more info.

Every once in a while you will get a client that will ask for a favour. Be it an extra round of editing, extra graphics, or 50% off. Imagine if we would do the same in every day situations – we would be ridiculed. Yet, every one working in the creative realm will get asked sooner or later.

Here’s a film that shows how ridiculous this really is. Enjoy.

And here is the visual proof:

…or is he?

Who can spot how he managed to lift those 30 kg – and balance them – merely on his shoulder and the tips of his fingers?

With the convergence of stills- and videocameras comes the convergence of the job of photographer and cameraman. And both will start exploring the “other” medium in new, creative ways. For example making movie posters, that suddenly come to life.

Professional stills photographer Alexx Henry has put together a nice clip showing how this is done, also thanks to RED.

(via)

AwkwardFamilyPhotos is a blog that posts just what it says.