Manure

[Paris Remillard]

I love the light in the shot as the rising/setting sun effect. Simple and brilliant.

 

[David Mullen ASC]

Another thing I want to do is get the rental house to make a proper groundglass for 2.40 for my lens finder for the RED at 4096, which is not as wide as Super-35.

I keep lining up shots with the lens finder and having to remember (or forgetting) that the RED 4096 pixel image is slightly cropped from that because it is 22mm wide, not 24mm wide. Took me most of the first week to figure out why all the shots were tighter than I lined-up with using the lens finder. I thought the dolly grip was laying the marks down wrong.

 

[Anders Holck]

Or better yet, make RED utilize those 424 spare pixels in 2.40:1....

 

[David Mullen ASC]

Or better yet, make RED utilize those 424 spare pixels in 2.40:1....

Then I lose the nice feature of seeing an oversized area around the framelines on the monitors, at least side to side...

 

[Frank Weeks]

Beautiful images Dave. Now I know what you were talking about when you said (in your ask Dave thread) that you had a film coming up that required a warm look. You have managed to get a great look with what appears to be mainly 5600K lighting. Great work.

 

[Daniel García]

Did the reason for the data loss become clear? Did the drive get bumped on its way to the downloading station, or was it a software issue? Any new insight into do's and don'ts so that doesnt happen again?

Deanan, care to share something else about the incident? That was scary.

David I'm incredibly thankful for this invaluable thread. And the shots are beautiful. Thank you.

/OT:

Or better yet, make RED utilize those 424 spare pixels in 2.40:1....

When you say RED do you mean the camera o the company? In other words, is that possible now or just a feature in your wishlist? Sorry for the OT.

 

[Conrad Hunziker]

Did the reason for the data loss become clear? Did the drive get bumped on its way to the downloading station, or was it a software issue? Any new insight into do's and don'ts so that doesnt happen again?

During our initial conversation about the issue the people at red thought that it might have been a case where the drive was pulled from the camera without being properly dismounted. However, when I was in the IT room monday night, I clearly heard clacking from the drive, meaning that the drive heads were not in sync with the spindle. To anyone thats heard this noise before, its indicative of a hard drive failure, and time to get the data off fast. Unfortunately, it wasnt fast enough.

I was able to get the last 30 or so seconds of each clip, but not the start.

Being that there are 18 hard drives on set (9 red raids), there is a pretty good statistical chance of a hard drive failure within 10,000 hours. We just didnt think it would happen within the first 100.

When you say RED do you mean the camera o the company? In other words, is that possible now or just a feature in your wishlist? Sorry for the OT.

Its currently not possible to record those extra 424 pixels to the sides of the image. They are displayed to the operator, but not recorded in any of the 4k formats that red currently records. This helps to see things as the approach the frame before they become a problem. I honestly hope it doesnt become a standard in the red. Its what helps the red to stand out. I know it hurts for Red (the company) to pay for pixels they are never using, but it helps tremendously. Sony and panasonic wont do it. Im glad to see that red does. It helps to set them off from the electronic crowd.

 

[James Mathers]

Possible Reason for Data Loss, and Hot-Swap Batt Adapters

Possible Reason for Data Loss, and Hot-Swap Batt Adapters

Did the reason for the data loss become clear?

I can't say since I wasn't there at the time, (off in the California desert doing a fun commercial on RED with Meerkats), and we will never know for sure; but I can tell you that all the symtoms of the data loss problems as described to me by David and his crew are identical to what happened to me once before when there was a power loss before the mag could be dismounted.

The other incident happened when we were using non-RED batteries, (before we knew any better), which do not communicate their status to the camera and easily allow you to run out of power without warning. This time, I think it's possible, especially with everyone on the crew working long hours with little rest, that someone could have inadvertently pulled the power before dismounting the media...Just my guess. It's really pretty easy to do, and I wish there were some safety mechanism to make it more difficult.

As the person who assembled the camera package while doing the prep for Manure, I knew the boot-up time would be an issue, and tried to purchase Hot-Swap battery adapters, which have been on backorder, but should finally arrive early this week. It will be interesting to see; but I think this will greatly improve the situation which has frustrated David, since we simply will not have to be rebooting so often to change batteries or save power. I'm sure David will let everyone know how it works out.

I'm back on Manure starting tomorrow to shoot some Second Unit, and am very proud to be associated with the picture and working with David; as you can all see, he is an Awesome talent!

James Mathers
Cinematographer, Studio City, CA
Digital Cinema Society
President and Co-founder

 

[James Mathers]

Conrad Hunziker wrote:

I clearly heard clacking from the drive, meaning that the drive heads were not in sync with the spindle.

While I was writing my last post, Conrad also replied with an update. Since he was there, and really knows his stuff, I will have to stand corrected; perhaps it was drive failure, rather than human error.

James Mathers
Cinematographer
Studio City, CA

 

[Draccan]

Awesome frame David

I totally second that!

I really respect your work David and I must say Northfork is a great film!

It is very generous and graceful of you to share your knowledge on these boards!

One question: Don't you get problems with the very static sky? I am thinking mainly since there are so many clouds? How do you handle this? By moving the camera a lot?

 

[chuck colburn]

And most important of all is, why don't cars have wind wings anymore?

 

[Charles Angus]

Poor design, that's why.

c.

 

[Peter McCully]

David, I hope that American Cinematographer covers your shoot. It will make for an interesting article, a well deserved plug for you and for Red.

 

[Ken Hendricks]

Can't get enough of "Manure"!

Can't get enough of "Manure"!

David, I'm loving reading all the details about this film straight from the cinematographer himself. This is priceless! I am truly looking forward to seeing "Manure". Will it be presented in full "Smell-o-round"®? :biggrin:

 

[Tom Lowe]

David, I hope that American Cinematographer covers your shoot. It will make for an interesting article, a well deserved plug for you and for Red.

I'm pretty sure AC will cover this.

 

[Ketch Rossi]

Totally love the look David, even so I dislike back drops of any kind, especially in Still Photography, but the results here are great, and this is just with the limited viewing if the small jpg's.


Ciao

 

[Jarred Land]

Breathtaking....

 

[zak forrest]

David, I hope that American Cinematographer covers your shoot. It will make for an interesting article, a well deserved plug for you and for Red.

This thread is already way better than an American Cinematographer article.

 

[Charles Angus]

True. I always look through them, but they seem to gloss over more than they explain.

Thanks, David, for such detailed and useful technical information.

c.

 

[number6]

Thanks, David, for such detailed and useful technical information.

c.

And thanks to the Polish Bros. for allowing David to do so. They're like... open source!