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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 )

1. Save on food
   Budget properly for catering. The more so if your crew is underpaid. The more so, the longer the shoot is.
   Doesn’t cost much more, but does wonders for crew morale.
2. 16 hour days, 5 days a week
   Just because this film is the No.1 priority for you, doesn’t mean it is for everyone else on set. Not only does the crew have a right to a life as well, and not only do they need to be able to work on their next film, but overworking the crew makes you liable for accidents that may – and eventuall will – happen.
   If all these arguments don’t count: My experience is that 6 days with 16 hours are not more productive than 5 days with 10 hours.
3. Concentrate on the money shots
   While nice for marketing and your show-reel, the audience will only sit through your film if it is good in its entity, not just some scenes.
4. Who needs a DP – I can buy a camera instead?
   An experienced cameraman will free you to concentrate on telling the story by giving your actors good instructions. An experienced cameraman will speed up the production by knowing what to shoot, what will work visually, which lenses to use, which stock to use, and many more things that you have never heard of. more…

Derek Powazek has written a great post on how to work on events. While written for stills cameras, the piece also applies to video shooting. (via) Just replace “flash” with “on-camera light”.Talking of which, I try hard to avoid using them. They just kill the lighting mood, and the light comes from the same angle as the camera, removing any texture. In the past 5 years I have used a on-camera light on 1 occasion, for about 3 seconds.If you have to use on-camera lighting, try to soften it. Either with a gel in front of the lamp, or use a softer fixture, such as a miniKino, or a Litepanel.

This weekend I got to see a fun film about the film business, The Last Shot (and don’t let the first 5 minutes of the film misguide you). Joe Devine pretends to be a movie director, and gets Steven Schats to believe that his film will be produced. At one point this dialogue entails between them:

Joe Devine: Have you actually seen a person die, watched them bleed to death, seen them take their last breath? I’ve seen that… many times.
Steven Schats: Why have you seen that?
Joe Devine: I used to produce music videos.

Which is especially funny if you have worked on music videos. Or pop promos as they are often referred to in the industry.

The types on a pop promo set

Pop promos are a totally different type of films from all the others; most notably there often isn’t a story, no one seems to worry about continuity, and generally there are 4 to 6 types of people on set: more…

A while ago, I wrote about the Red camera project. Now they have not only released some test films, but also a price list. But first a little note on the test films. Our editing station has two 24-inch monitors. Viewing the 1080p (not i!) resolution film fills out the whole screen. Every single pixel. Plain amazing! (just for comparison, here’s a link to a framegrab from a HDV camcorder) And this camera is capable of up to 2540p – i.e. more than 4 times the resolution of 1080p. (Framegrab, Framegrab 2-you see the structure of the mascara!)

Now I am really looking forward to trying out this baby. Luckily a guy I know has pre-ordered one, so hopefully I’ll be able to do some tests. But I am sure there’ll be lots of buzz around when this camera hits the sets.

¿Quanta costa?

But how much does this miracle of tech-specs cost? Well, let’s have a look at their price list, and put together a nice package to get us up and running: more…

Over at the Apple discussion board, I stumbled upon this gem:

I’m a film editor who’s had the privilege to work on $100 movies to $100 million movies.

Story is king. If your story is working, and crafted well, and paced properly, you can get away with almost whatever you want. For instance, when I cut scenes, I cut for performance… I don’t toss out takes because the glass of water was full in take one but empty in another. 9 times out of ten, even the seasoned filmmakers I’m working with never see the continuity errors because the performances are working.

Occasionally I work with first time directors, helping them with their first short. I see two main mistakes. First, they think that if someone knows how to operate [an editing station], that they are an editor. This is simply not true. I know how to use a chisel, but there is no way [...] I could sculpt the David. Editing is the same: knowing what buttons to push is the least important part of editing. Knowing how to tell a story well is everything. In fact, I know one Oscar winning editor who spent many years never touching the equipment at all. She chose the cut points, and had her assistants do the physical cutting.

The second main mistake amateur filmmakers make, IMO, is that they are not vicious enough when cutting their material. Every single frame of film you project should be conveying new information to the audience. If it’s not, get it out.

The same applies to the craft of cinematography. On discussion boards around film-making I often read questions from wanting-to-be directors on what camera they should buy, which lens they should use. Ocasionally I take the time to point out that if they want to become directors, they should not concern themselves about equipment. They should spend all the time they can on the story, developing the characters, working with the actors to achieve his/her creative vision.

Rather than buying a semi-professional camera, I advise to hire in a professional DP. S/he will not only bring superior equipment, but – most importantly – experience to the shoot. Take a good story and a knowlegdable DP, and you will have something in the cutting room to work with. Your chances of getting your film into a festival and ultimately to actually sell it, have tremendously increased.

Or you can spend all your money on a second-rate camera (never, ever believe the hype that the new HDV camera for $10.000 is as good as a $100.000 camera. But that is another blog…), and end up having to both direct and shoot on your first film. Not a good idea. Leave the technical worries to someone you can trust, and concentrate on your job: story telling.

Movie tip: Living in Oblivion by Tom DiCillo. 

Just heard that a programme I did camera on last year is currently airing on CNBC Europe. If you have a chance to see it, please do – and leave comments on the camerawork.

TX/DATE TX/TIME BREAK PROGRAMME BEFORE PROGRAMME AFTER

22/01/2007 11:27:50 CRB NAT POWER LUNCH EUROPE OCT 04 POWER LUNCH EUROPE OCT 04
22/01/2007 11:47:30 CB NAT POWER LUNCH EUROPE OCT 04 POWER LUNCH EUROPE OCT 04
22/01/2007 11:57:50 ERB NAT POWER LUNCH EUROPE OCT 04 US SQUAWK BOX/# LAST 2 HO

more…