Fritz Gabriel Bauer, the man who helped develop both the Moviecam and Arricam, has gone on to create a system called EasyFocus. It isn’t designed to replace focus pullers, simply make their job easier, but what is it and how does it work?
Filmmaking Tips and Advice
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Zen and the Art of Camera Assisting
Camera assisting, I believe, takes a great deal of mental focus and zen can help push the mind to hone it’s power to the fullest extent. There are many zen proverbs that can offer advice about camera assisting and filmmaking in general. In this post, I’d like to take a look at some of my favorites and what they have to say about a career in film.
On Set: Making a 40mm Lens
When it comes to cardboard and gaff tape, I’m a real MacGyver. That combination of raw material brings out the engineer in me. With one in each hand, I’m like Edward Scissorhands in the brush or Michelangelo in a rock quarry.
How Many Hours Does Your RED One Have?
Have you ever been curious how many hours a RED One camera has logged in the field? Well, me neither, but when I found out it was possible I suddenly became interested. There definitely are some buggy RED cameras that I’ve worked with and wanted to know what they’ve been through over the years to make them so troublesome. Maybe this will help tell part of that tale.
Reverse Angle: Camera Operators in the Movies (Video)
The Society of Camera Operators and editor Bob Joyce teamed together to create a great little montage of camera operators throughout Hollywood films.
Quick Tip: Marking Two Actors with the Same Color Tape
Marking is fairly straight forward, especially when there are multiple colors of paper tape available to assign to each actor. There are, however, some situations where two actors are marked with the same color. How do you deal with this?
Behind the Scenes of NFL Films
Using a mix of high-speed, 16mm and HD cameras, NFL Films has managed to make even the most boring games seem like gripping tales of desperation. How is this Pixar-like track record of excellence maintained? Let’s take a look behind the scenes of NFL Films to find out…
7 Tips for Navigating Craft Services Successfully
ARRI Alexa Frame Line Composer
ARRI has another valuable tool available on it’s website: a powerful resource for those shooting Alexa called the Alexa Frame Line Composer. Much like the Alexa Simulator web-app, the Frame Line Composer tries to translate features from the camera itself into a format that is viewable on the internet.
Going the Distance: Knowing Which Measuring Tool is Best to Get Focus Marks
Soft tape, hard tape, and laser tape – all three of these tools measure distance, but they all do it in different ways. Some are more suitable for certain situations than others. Part of being a good camera assistant is having the right tools and knowing the right time to apply them.