The Secret of P2 Slating

Yesterday I shot a political spot with Simon Sommerfeld, a friend who saved the day after I pitched the concept for this no-budget spot to an agency that then said, “We’ll take it—make it as fast as you can for no money.”

Rewiring Wired

I’ve spoken now with both the author of the Wired article and Jim Jannard and I’m convinced the technical errors in the article are simply a matter of someone outside the industry trying to understand some complexities that not many inside our industry totally understand.

Composition Occurs in both Space and Time

I first became aware of composition over time while watching the film The Hit.

What Wired Didn’t Understand about Depth of Field

In the Sept. ‘08 issue of Wired Magazine, in an article about the RED camera called “A Star is Born,” the author states that the difference in depth of field between film cameras and HD cameras is due to “analog versus digital,” with no other explanation. I’ve written this for him and for anyone who wonders why 35mm film and large sensor HD cameras have so little depth of field.

Wired Magazine Gets the RED Totally Wrong

I’d like to encourage everyone reading this to pick up a copy of this month’s Wired magazine (Sept. 2008, page 128) and read the article. Then I’d like you to write to both Wired magazine’s editorial department (.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)) and the article’s author (Michael Behar, whose email address is listed at the end of the article).

This is one of the SLOPPIEST pieces of journalism I have ever read pertaining to the film industry. Here is the email I just sent to both the author and the editorial department:

RGB and the F23

The Sony F23 sees hues of colors I didn’t think a digital camera could see. Why?

The Swing of Things

I recently shot a museum project where the style required almost exclusive use of tilt/shift lenses. (We occasionally used a Zeiss 14mm prime, but that was rare.) It was a lot of fun, but I remember how tilt/shifts were a considerable mystery before I used them for the first time. Here’s the nickel tour of how to use these lenses.

Advice to a Camera Trainee

A film student, who I’ve been mentoring, landed a job on a low-budget RED project as camera PA. He sent me an email saying he’s starting the job tomorrow, and what should he know? Here’s the email I sent him to prep him for his first real camera department job:

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