I had an interesting film shoot today with the owner of a hotel in the Catskill Mountains back in its hay day and a comedian that worked there for 14 years. Great stories, very entertaining, and just a fun day of work with good company.
Every summer the hotels would have a basketball tournament with their staff members. Apparently Wilt Chamberlan was on their staff for 2 years. I'm guessing they won those 2 years. How cool is that? They apparently had a lot of big time ballers and boxers that use to stay with them. Mohammad Ali and when he went by Cassius Clay trained out there. So those are 2 big names haha. Every big comedian and singer performed at these hotels in the Catskill Mountains. This was before my time, but one name that stood out to me was Rodney Dangerfield. "I don't get no respect!" Apparently Patrick Swayze's Dirty Dancing character was based on a dance instructor that worked at this guy's hotel. Just awesome stories. Fun stuff to film. Pure gold.
Well looks like that's it for this post. Just wanted to share a great day of filming.
Friday, January 3, 2014
Thursday, January 2, 2014
Shooting Video With 7 Cameras?
I apologize to my one blog fan I currently have for not posting my second blog post sooner. I hope I didn't lose you and I hope to gain some more blog fans :). As far as I know that one blog fan isn't my mother either! So I am sorry and hope to be putting out more frequent blogs for you and others.
Well let's get to it.
Today I helped out on a Documentary film shoot with some filmmakers from New York in Boca Raton. I was just a Production Assistant on a small crew, but I did get my hands on some cameras since we shot with 7 cameras. That's right 7 cameras. 9 cameras if you count my 2 cameras I pulled out to get a couple quick BHS (Behind The Scenes) shots. I got to see the BlackMagic up close, which is an awesome camera, but unfortunately it has a few limitations like short battery life being a deal breaker for my next camera purchase. But I still am a big fan and can't wait to see what they come up with in the future. I also got to see the BlackMagic Pocket Camera for the first time. Pretty cool little camera. Would love to play with it for a weekend and make a vlog (video blog) about it. Don't think I will be using the Black Magic Pocket camera for video production, but it looks like an awesome camera to have in my back pocket for small video adventures. Plus, if I like it I can recommend it to my mom and step dad that do a lot of traveling and document their traveling with both photos and videos. Plus they always buy the video and photo toys I recommend. Looks like I just added 2 more blog fans and one IS MY MOM. Oh joy. We also shot with a 5D Mark 3 and I'm looking forward to adding that camera to my arsenal in the near future. We also shot with 4 GF3s. A nice little camera I used for a wedding once. Not the greatest cameras, but very affordable and good for how they were using it as a cutaway side profile camera shot.
I really enjoy filming daily whether its with professionals I have worked with a number of times or new people that I can learn new techniques and play with their different equipment. There's always new techniques and certainly new equipment to learn and play with. The more techniques, the more creative options you have, the more solutions you have to communication problems and video is communication. We recorded sound with a few shotgun microphones including the same Rode NTG2 I use and some lav mic's. Met another local filmmaker running sound today and I look forward to working on some projects in the future together. So another good day of filming in the books and I always get film geeky when I get around other professionals with knowledge and especially when there's different equipment in the equation.
Until next time, stay classy Boca Raton.
Well let's get to it.
Today I helped out on a Documentary film shoot with some filmmakers from New York in Boca Raton. I was just a Production Assistant on a small crew, but I did get my hands on some cameras since we shot with 7 cameras. That's right 7 cameras. 9 cameras if you count my 2 cameras I pulled out to get a couple quick BHS (Behind The Scenes) shots. I got to see the BlackMagic up close, which is an awesome camera, but unfortunately it has a few limitations like short battery life being a deal breaker for my next camera purchase. But I still am a big fan and can't wait to see what they come up with in the future. I also got to see the BlackMagic Pocket Camera for the first time. Pretty cool little camera. Would love to play with it for a weekend and make a vlog (video blog) about it. Don't think I will be using the Black Magic Pocket camera for video production, but it looks like an awesome camera to have in my back pocket for small video adventures. Plus, if I like it I can recommend it to my mom and step dad that do a lot of traveling and document their traveling with both photos and videos. Plus they always buy the video and photo toys I recommend. Looks like I just added 2 more blog fans and one IS MY MOM. Oh joy. We also shot with a 5D Mark 3 and I'm looking forward to adding that camera to my arsenal in the near future. We also shot with 4 GF3s. A nice little camera I used for a wedding once. Not the greatest cameras, but very affordable and good for how they were using it as a cutaway side profile camera shot.
I really enjoy filming daily whether its with professionals I have worked with a number of times or new people that I can learn new techniques and play with their different equipment. There's always new techniques and certainly new equipment to learn and play with. The more techniques, the more creative options you have, the more solutions you have to communication problems and video is communication. We recorded sound with a few shotgun microphones including the same Rode NTG2 I use and some lav mic's. Met another local filmmaker running sound today and I look forward to working on some projects in the future together. So another good day of filming in the books and I always get film geeky when I get around other professionals with knowledge and especially when there's different equipment in the equation.
Until next time, stay classy Boca Raton.
Thursday, December 19, 2013
DSLR Worthy?
Some people believe DSLR cameras are not worthy to be considered professional cameras and yet every serious production house has these inexpensive work horse cameras. Naturally some professionals will say they're not worthy to shoot video on because they have invested much more in what is probably a superior camera. With that said I've seen superior cameras produce some inferior results and vice versa. It always depends on the user.
For example here is one of the very first DSLR short films made.
http://vimeo.com/7151244
Now tell me was the quality is not worthy to be considered professional.
Exactly, the hands and eye behind the camera makes the shot.
Now you might know some technical terms and be thinking that RED cameras shoot in 4k and full frame DSLR sensors shoot in 2k and crop sensor DSLR are slightly less and blah, blah, blah.
I'm hear to tell you it doesn't matter! That's right. Deal with it.
1080p quality found on cropped sensor DSLRs is enough.
Don't believe me? Are you thinking well, What if you used a full frame DSLR or God forbid a cropped sensor DSLR for an independent film? Well then it would have to go straight to DVD because it couldn't possibly be shown on the big screen, right? Wrong! Oh still don't believe me. Let me name some movies that have been shown on the big screen and used DSLRs and some are a little bigger budget than independent films too.
Here's the list:
Captain of America
Iron Man 2
Avengers
Black Swan
Like Crazy
Red Tails
Red State
Secretariat
127 Hours
Act of Valor
The Pirates! Band of Misfits
and the list keeps on growing. Oh and did I mention that most of these even used a cropped sensor DSLR for some shots as well. I received this list from here.
Now stop being stuck up and ill informed about DSLR filmmaking. You know better now. How do I know you know better? Because I just told you. But seriously if you have a quality DSLR, quality lens, and lighting, then you can produce amazing shots with the right knowledge and eye for it. So keep shooting my friends. Don't let the big price tags slow you down.
For example here is one of the very first DSLR short films made.
http://vimeo.com/7151244
Now tell me was the quality is not worthy to be considered professional.
Exactly, the hands and eye behind the camera makes the shot.
Now you might know some technical terms and be thinking that RED cameras shoot in 4k and full frame DSLR sensors shoot in 2k and crop sensor DSLR are slightly less and blah, blah, blah.
I'm hear to tell you it doesn't matter! That's right. Deal with it.
1080p quality found on cropped sensor DSLRs is enough.
Don't believe me? Are you thinking well, What if you used a full frame DSLR or God forbid a cropped sensor DSLR for an independent film? Well then it would have to go straight to DVD because it couldn't possibly be shown on the big screen, right? Wrong! Oh still don't believe me. Let me name some movies that have been shown on the big screen and used DSLRs and some are a little bigger budget than independent films too.
Here's the list:
Captain of America
Iron Man 2
Avengers
Black Swan
Like Crazy
Red Tails
Red State
Secretariat
127 Hours
Act of Valor
The Pirates! Band of Misfits
and the list keeps on growing. Oh and did I mention that most of these even used a cropped sensor DSLR for some shots as well. I received this list from here.
Now stop being stuck up and ill informed about DSLR filmmaking. You know better now. How do I know you know better? Because I just told you. But seriously if you have a quality DSLR, quality lens, and lighting, then you can produce amazing shots with the right knowledge and eye for it. So keep shooting my friends. Don't let the big price tags slow you down.
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