Comment Corner is coming fresh as ever today with five of the best comments from around the site including one from Facebook and another that dips into the archives of the site.

If you skip this post, you’ll be missing out on some great comments and informative opinions. Enjoy!

This Week’s Comments

Here are this week’s comments in no particular order

1. Teddysmith on The One Mistake that Cost Me $400

I would have definitely sent the invoice in no matter how late. I am the worst at invoicing and its not unusual for me to wait a month or two. Usually when my bank account gets low I look back over my calendar and see who I can invoice for some money. Producers don’t seem to mind late invoices. It just means they can hang on to your money longer.

Regarding rate, it’s entirely dependent on how busy I am, how bored I am, how broke I am, or how much I want that credit on my resume or that shot in my reel. Also, is it in town or out of town? Is there an overtime rate? Is there a kit rental, mileage, or anything else I can use to get a little more?

One thing I like about union jobs is the rate has already been negotiated for me and I can either take it or leave it.

2. Steveo on The One Mistake that Cost Me $400

I get invoices done 24-48hrs of the last day. if you want to get paid promptly, it starts with a quick invoice.  to that end, this week, I’ve gone 90 days on getting paid from a national network. they have lost my W9 4 times before some one called me, and I faxed it to them while I was one the phone. amazing… check should be in the mail.

3. Neil Ferdowsian on The Black and Blue Facebook Page

Have you ever seen the film Russian Ark? it’s a feature length film shot in one continuous shot. It just gets you thinking about how difficult the job must have been for the focus puller to try and keep everything in focus for 90 minutes. This is the first part of the behind the scenes video of the film, it’s a great film and very interesting.

4. Salil on Toolkit DIY: How to Build a Tagboard for a Slate

Note to everyone: be careful not to use too much velcro to attach your marks board to a dumb slate.  When you’re working on a show with a smart slate and decide to remove your marks board, the results of super strong velcro could be less than favorable.  In my case I was in a rush and the slate was likely brittle from age so it cracked in half.  Film tools offers a replacement slate board, but depending on your sticks it may or may not be a compatible width.  It also might be difficult to remove the remaining slate board from the slot in the sticks if the board has been glued in place.

5. Adam Richlin on How Backfocus is Serviced on Film Cameras

Keep an eye on where your equipment truck goes with the lens case… I did a shoot last week in the Nevada desert where we drove for two solid hours over unpaved (and utterly horrible) potholed gravel roads. Teeth-rattling, bone-jarring insanity for two hours.

The lens case was deep in the cube truck, and I didn’t think of it at the time… Our Arri CSC Ultra Prime kit stopped keeping crisp focus the next morning, and I’m 95% sure it was the insane bumping.

Guest Post on Going for Picture

If you didn’t catch it on the Facebook page or via one of my tweets, there is a guest post that I wrote up on Going for Picture, an excellent blog about assistant directing.

It’s called Three Ways to Make Your Camera Crew Happy.

I’m very happy to be featured on 1st AD Michelle’s great site and I encourage you to check out not only my article, but also the interesting stuff she posts everyday.