Have you been busy on set all week? I hope so. Nothing makes me happier than to hear that you are getting more work and becoming a better filmmaker — whatever department it is you’re in.
If you have been drowning in work lately and haven’t had time to come to The Black and Blue, no worries, I’ve rounded up the weeks best comments for you.
So dive on in and get your fix for the week.
This Week’s Comments
Here are this week’s comments in no particular order
1. Quentin on The Hidden Cost of RED Epic and Digital Cinema
I have been acting as DIT on a lot of commercials and music promos recently shooting on the Epic.
I have to say that your 200GB per camera per day estimates are very conservative for these sorts of jobs. We have been doing long days and invariably turn over a lot more than you might on a drama, with a lot of high frame rate shooting to boot.
My top one day shoot on Epic so far generated over 700GB of data from one camera and that was using RC 9:1 compression! Two camera shoots have generated around 1TB a day!
Yes we work with and supply maxed out full DIT stations like you pictured to handle this and support our Epics on jobs and provide on set look generation & transcoding. Over 400GB of prores422 generated from transcoding per day on the last two days of 2 camera shoots!
Shooting at 96fps all day can do that to you!
2. FB on The Hidden Cost of RED Epic and Digital Cinema
Actually, what I’m seeing is less and less request for DITs around, even though the use of digital cameras is clearly increasing.
I’ve talked to 2 cinematographers who are currently shooting on Alexa and Red MX (not Epic), and they both gave me the same answer: they test the digital sensor just like they would test different film stocks, they choose the look and the settings, and they try to achieve as much as they can in camera, leaving whatever post processing they might need to later, just like they did with film.
In their opinion, they don’t really feel like they need a DIT on set, they’d rather pick a 2nd AC/ digital loader/ data manager, as they feel DIT belongs more to post-production than on set.
It’s just two people’s opinion, but I’ve been hearing more and more of this kInd of talk lately.
3. Tom C. Hall on The Hidden Cost of RED Epic and Digital Cinema
I think it’s part of the reason RED is sitting on it’s scarlets, they will seriously undercut the Epics for low budget/series televsion/3D stuff.
Their part excuses about Japan don’t add up when they can run epics off the line no problem.
This is why i like the Alexas, Prores444 is standard for most jobs.
4. Eric Buist on 5 Steps to Boost Your Professional Credibility
I have had to re-establish myself into two new regions (due to moves) this year and I have followed these simple steps each time. For me the most important thing was sitting down with everyone that would have me and buying them a cup of coffee. Simple face to face communication, works every time!
5. Teddysmith on 5 Steps to Boost Your Professional Credibility
My voicemail instructs callers that I am often on set and can not quickly return calls or even listen to voicemails but I can usually txt and email on set. It works great. My callers almost always follow up with text messages or emails which are easily returned in between setups.
Also, my voicemails are done through google voice which automatically transcribes them and forwards the transcription to my email. Handy for the stubborn caller who insists on leaving a voicemail only.
Add Me to Your Google+ Circles
I’ve heard the gripes, “Why do I need another social network?”
Well, you don’t. But if you’re like me and think Google+ might turn out to be kind of a big deal, add me to your circles on Google’s social platform.
It’s a whole new way to connect and I’ve really enjoyed sharing comments with readers of the site over there the past few weeks.