| Author |
Topic:
Daily Life
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Bowen
Registered:
Sep '99
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Date Posted:
1/23 9:38pm
Subject:
RE: Daily Life
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jawafett posted:
Just because I got a Star Wars tattoo does not make me a "better" fan or of how much stuff I collect. It's just my way of expressing of how I am a fan just as everyone has their own way of expressing themselves. It's what makes us different and human.
I give you props for that, haha. I hate needles, I'd never get a tattoo. Plus in general I'm not a tattoo fan but I appreciate them on other people, basically. I love seeing all of those pictures of Star Wars fans with crazy tattoos, it's always really fun to see. I just can't imagine having one myself, haha, I only appreciate them on others.
-----signature-----
Author of Anticipation: The Real Life Story of Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace http://www.AnticipationBook.com And Revenge: The Real Life Story of Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith http://www.Episode3Book.com
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brigandarklung
Registered:
Nov '05
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Date Posted:
2/13 10:14am
Subject:
RE: Daily Life
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Hey all,
Wow where to begin. Well Amber (Aaylapants)and myself bought our house in August up in Deer Island (97054) and have been settling in. We do not have any internet out there so I haven't been on the boards at all. Also in August we are expecting our first child together and my father in law is moving up with us sometime soon.So all in all and very busy last year. Hopefully I will be back on the boards with some regularity within the next two or three months. Until then take it easy and may the force be with you.
Don
-----signature-----
"Half of writing history is hiding the truth." Capt. Malcolm Reynolds (Serenity) http://www.myspace.com/brigandarklung
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crashdown
Title: Oregon FanForce Former CR
Registered:
Nov '03
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Date Posted:
2/13 12:39pm
Subject:
RE: Daily Life
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Hi Don, Great to hear from you !!!
So when is Amber expecting? Do you know if it will be a boy or girl yet? Make sure to play plenty of Star Wars music around Amber, so the little one will start getting indocrinated early. 
-----signature-----
"The Jedi's true enemy is the jungle"
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Bowen
Registered:
Sep '99
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Date Posted:
2/15 12:19pm
Subject:
RE: Daily Life
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That's right, we need more recruits for the cause 
-----signature-----
Author of Anticipation: The Real Life Story of Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace http://www.AnticipationBook.com And Revenge: The Real Life Story of Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith http://www.Episode3Book.com
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jawafett
Title: Oregon Fanforce Chapter Rep
Registered:
Mar '03
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Date Posted:
2/16 2:27pm
Subject:
RE: Daily Life
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That is great news Don and Amber, congrats. Glad to hear from you and that things are going well.
I play Star Wars music for my son Lucas a lot, and we watch the movies a lot also, so yes indoctrinate them early.
So much SW stuff is coming out soon... 
I'm still working on my Fan Film script, but are gearing up for planning meetings with my crew mates soon. So much stuff to plan  . Today, I made a home made steady cam for my miniDV camera, and it works great. Next up is set designs, build, and acquiring greeblies.
The new Indy trailer looks fantastic. Can't wait.
-Eric
-----signature-----
May the Force of the others be with you!
Never Tell Me The Odds!
FanFilm Preproduction: Red Knights -2010
Rebel Legion/Kashyyyk Base Member-ANH Han Solo
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Bowen
Registered:
Sep '99
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Date Posted:
2/17 3:31pm
Subject:
RE: Daily Life
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What are you filming with? I hope at least a 3 CCD MiniDV camera like the DVX100 or XL-2, those are very affordable cameras and you can achieve professional results with them but it's not easy even with those cameras. If you have a 35mm lens adapter for either camera, though, it helps a lot, especially P/S technics or a RedRock M2 adapter.
I'd personally highly recommend shooting in HD with either a MiniDV camera like the Canon XH-A1 (still only about a $3,400 camera) or on P2 cards like the HVX200, which you can get with one 16 gig card now for $5,000. That might be out of your budget range for this project but it's just such a wonderful camera and is used professionally (we use it) on lots of shoots. It's too bad I'm not closer now or I'd try to help more.
-----signature-----
Author of Anticipation: The Real Life Story of Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace http://www.AnticipationBook.com And Revenge: The Real Life Story of Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith http://www.Episode3Book.com
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jawafett
Title: Oregon Fanforce Chapter Rep
Registered:
Mar '03
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Date Posted:
2/22 1:39pm
Subject:
RE: Daily Life
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It's easy to get discouraged, but life moves on.
-----signature-----
May the Force of the others be with you!
Never Tell Me The Odds!
FanFilm Preproduction: Red Knights -2010
Rebel Legion/Kashyyyk Base Member-ANH Han Solo
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crashdown
Title: Oregon FanForce Former CR
Registered:
Nov '03
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Date Posted:
2/22 5:13pm
Subject:
RE: Daily Life
- Date Edited:
2/22 5:14pm (1 edits total)
Edited By:
crashdown
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Bowen posted:
.......I'd personally highly recommend shooting in HD with either a MiniDV camera like the Canon XH-A1 (still only about a $3,400 camera) or on P2 cards like the HVX200, which you can get with one 16 gig card now for $5,000. That might be out of your budget range for this project but it's just such a wonderful camera and is used professionally (we use it) on lots of shoots. .......
Is that what you use to shoot with? I always figured that you would need to spend $10,000 to $15,000 or more for a professional camera. It's nice to know that professional cameras are still below $10,000.
What do the movie studios use? and what are the starting price of those cameras?
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"The Jedi's true enemy is the jungle"
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Bowen
Registered:
Sep '99
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Date Posted:
2/24 12:38am
Subject:
RE: Daily Life
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Well, it really depends, there's a wide range of professional cameras that can go from as low as $3,000 (like high end consumer / low end professional) to as high as many hundreds of thousands.
28 Days Later, a major blockbuster, was filmed with the Canon XL-2 using P/S techniks to give it a film look. The last two Star Wars prequels were filmed with the Sony F900 and Sony F950, which are very expensive cameras but really not worth much these days as far as their technology value. They still rent for a fairly high rate, and supposedly you need at least $100,000 to buy an F950, but it's just not much of a step up from the camera I use. The F900 is a 4:2:2 (color compression) camera shooting 1080p footage. The HVX200, which is a $5,000 camera (that's what we use), is also 4:2:2 and shoots 720p or 1080i, so slightly worse resolution but not much. The F950 is 4:4:4 though, which makes a difference, better color sampling and richer colors in general.
The reason the F950 is just not worth as much as it used to be is because the RED One, from Oakley founder, is a much, much better camera and far cheaper. It is revolutionary but the reason people are still using the Sony cameras is because they are tried-and-true on more major productions, whereas the RED One is kind of in beta testing almost. They used it to film Wanted with Angelina Jolie, and Peter Jackson used it to film a short, etc. It's a great camera but it has its kinks still. I have two on order still but I'm going to cancel because we're not getting high enough budget clients to justify using a professional cinema camera. The cameras we have now are perfect for anything shown on TV. The only reason we'd need the RED One is for high budget clients who want basically 35mm quality (I'd argue the RED is a lot better than 35mm quality, but that's my opinion, resolution is similar). The RED One shoots 4:4:4 and 4K footage, which is about 6 times the resolution the last two prequels were filmed in. 4K is roughly 2540p, so it's waaaaay better resolution than the Sony F900 or F950. Film is usually scanned digitally at either 2K or 4K.
The RED One is a $17,500 camera, but that price is really deceiving because that's for the body only. By the time you add one lens, batteries, recording media, and basic accessories you are already at $35,000. A professional tripod is going to cost you $6,000 minimum, but for a really good tripod $12,000 to $14,000 (the fluid head is the expensive part). Then you need a professional matte box and follow focus kit, that'll be $5,000 minimum. You need a very high end Mac Pro to handle the footage, that will cost you $10,000 being very conservative, I'd say $15,000 is more reasonable. If you want a set of RED prime lenses, which you're going to need if you're doing professional cinema work, that's $20,000. Then you might want another zoom for run-and-gun filming and that'll be another $7,000 to $8,000. An entire operational RED production workflow is still going to cost about $100,000 when all is said and done, but that's pretty sweet compared to what you pay for 35mm film cameras and stock. It puts a 100% amazing, professional camera into the hands of a lot more independent filmmakers. But unfortunately it's only "cheap" relative to other industry options, most people still don't consider $100,000 "cheap." I mean, I can't justify spending that for no good reason other than because I want it. I only had them on order because I thought we'd be able to rent them out and justify the expenses, make the money back a bit every month, but it doesn't make sense now. I'll probably get one a year or two from now though, because if I shoot a feature I want to use that camera.
The camera we use, though, is very sufficient for most applications. It's still misleading because the one thing I've realized in this industry is that you never seem to have enough gear. There's always something else you really want, or should have, to do certain types of work. The HVX200 is used widely for television filming (I've heard even ER has shot with the HVX200 before, so have other shows, especially documentaries), music videos, commercials, etc. Mostly lower budget work, though, it's kind of the independent filmmaker's #1 camera, after the DVX100 (like the XL-2, a standard definition MiniDV camera) was big for so long. For $6,000 now you can get an HVX200 with one 16 gig P2 card, which is what you record the footage onto, but you're still going to need a $100 adapter to plug the cards into your laptop if you're going to capture with a MacBook Pro, which is what we do and then use Final Cut Pro for editing. Of course Final Cut is a $1,300 program new. A MacBook Pro that's capable of high definition editing like that is going to cost about $3,500 to $4,000. Then the matte box and follow focus kit I got for my HVX200 was almost $5,000. Then the M2 RedRock 35mm lens adapter plus 20mm, 35mm, 50mm, and 85mm still lenses was another $3,000 almost. That's what gives the footage more of a professional look, the ability to turn your camera into more of a film camera (get the same depth of field, general image look, etc.). Plus all of that is great, but without a dolly ($2,300 for ours), Porta-Jib ($4,000), tripod ($600), etc. it's not going to give you the pro results you really want as far as camera movement. It's just a very expensive proposition, filmmaking in general. It takes a lot of time to understand why all of this is needed to get a professional result, but once you see it all come together it's pretty fun.
The camera, unfortunately, is just a small part of the cost. I have two HVX200s but even so they represent just about 10-12% of my overall filmmaking equipment cost. It's the accessories that kill you.
Other high-end digital cameras the studios use include the Dalsa Origin (Superman Returns), the Viper (Zodiak by David Fincher), and a few other offerings that haven't caught on much. Most of the highly professional camera setups will cost about $1,000/day minimum to rent. The HVX200 rents between $250 and $400 per day, but that's from the big rental companies. You can find it on Craig's List for like $150/day, because people seem to like giving things away at far below market value on that site. Great deals for indie filmmakers.
-----signature-----
Author of Anticipation: The Real Life Story of Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace http://www.AnticipationBook.com And Revenge: The Real Life Story of Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith http://www.Episode3Book.com
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crashdown
Title: Oregon FanForce Former CR
Registered:
Nov '03
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Date Posted:
3/29 2:45pm
Subject:
RE: Daily Life
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Sorry that I haven't posted much recently, I've been sick. I'm been sick for over 4 weeks now, and it just seems to be getting worse. It's like I just keep catching things. I must have the flu. I am on antibiotics, but I still have a fever, so I'm not sure it's helping. Oh well, I've sure I will feel better again........some day. 
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"The Jedi's true enemy is the jungle"
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Larena_Jade
Registered:
Nov '02
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Date Posted:
4/7 9:48pm
Subject:
RE: Daily Life
- Date Edited:
4/7 9:53pm (1 edits total)
Edited By:
Larena_Jade
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In other news, Kenya has got Lions and Tigers! Forget Norway!
EDIT: well well well the link didn't show up. Here tis: http://www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/kenya/
-----signature-----
My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But, ah my foes, and oh, my friends---
It gives a lovely light!
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Bowen
Registered:
Sep '99
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Date Posted:
4/8 3:15am
Subject:
RE: Daily Life
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I'm filming a music video this upcoming weekend, should be sweet but it's the biggest project I've done to date so I'm a bit nervous about it to say the least. The cast, crew, and band is 25 people total, which for an indie shoot is huge. Even for a label shoot it'd still be not much below average, depending on the budget. It's a two-camera shoot, too, which is the first time I've done that but we have time constraints where we have to get the performance footage quickly so we can double what we're getting with two cameras basically, rather than having to do as many runthroughs of the song.
This week is crazy busy, I'm supposed to finish my shot list yet tonight and I'm only about half-way done, a bit more. I have to meet with one of the actors tomorrow and I still have tax return stuff to deal with this week (oops). After this music video project we've got a bunch of corporate projects to do and that will occupy basically all of May and June, we've already been pre-planning them so it's been a long process. I might get to take a breather and maybe a vacation in early July back up to Oregon (though for this project I'll be in Portland for a few days anyway on business). That'd be nice, I love Oregon summers, they are the best I think. July 4th is so much fun up where my dad's house is too because the view is so great so I'd like to be back for that.
I guess there's no rest for the wicked, though, I don't see many days off at all in the next few months, lol.
-----signature-----
Author of Anticipation: The Real Life Story of Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace http://www.AnticipationBook.com And Revenge: The Real Life Story of Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith http://www.Episode3Book.com
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Larena_Jade
Registered:
Nov '02
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Date Posted:
4/10 10:34am
Subject:
RE: Daily Life
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I'm so dizzy and sick right now...
-----signature-----
My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But, ah my foes, and oh, my friends---
It gives a lovely light!
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crashdown
Title: Oregon FanForce Former CR
Registered:
Nov '03
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Date Posted:
4/14 5:19pm
Subject:
RE: Daily Life
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Larena_Jade posted:
I'm so dizzy and sick right now...
Ya, that sometimes happens to me too after I read Bowen's posts.
 I'm sorry, just kidding !! It was just sooooo easy !!!
I actually love reading Bowen's posts.
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"The Jedi's true enemy is the jungle"
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Larena_Jade
Registered:
Nov '02
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Date Posted:
4/15 10:57am
Subject:
RE: Daily Life
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Ooo ouch, Crash.
-----signature-----
My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But, ah my foes, and oh, my friends---
It gives a lovely light!
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