John P. Jack Beckett: Cinematographer in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles County, California.

you're welcome:-)

He was a great one. RIP, Grizzly.

Quantum tunneling is the principle at work here. A photon comes along hits the valence electron on the silicon atom and sends it into the ion well. A five-micron photosite can contain up to 25K photoelectrons. Depending on the camera electronics there could be 90 electrons of noise. Dynamic range is a function of the amount of charge you build in the photosite. The square rule speaks to this. You can see right away that any system using a small photo site has little or no dynamic range so camera manufactures use correlated double sampling a method of filling the photosites a few times and averaging the charge. Other systems use virtual electrons as in MCMOS. So when measuring the full well it is the number of photoelectrons that build in the pixel. Sometimes these electrons just fly off on their own and enter the photo site and we call that dark current.

Camera manufacturers are very candid about the sensor. They will not tell you the full well specifics because they would rather quote the A to D counts. The camera might have a twelve bit A to D converter but the Modulation transfer curve has a long tail where the voltage is not changing with the light level. A system with only seven bits of dynamic range maps the charge over a 14 bit A to D and they call it 12 bits Big lie.

For cinematography it is more relevant to consider the created image than the individual methodologies used in the camera electronics to form that image. Too many of those angels dancing on the heads of pins just don’t make it to the screen. The qualities of the images are readily apparent on a screen to everyone who wishes to see the results of when all of the internal science comes together. There is a difference in the images that different cameras make. If you do not think the difference is visible then certainly going with the less expensive product makes perfect sense. Some of us see a difference that we feel is worth the additional cost. The Alexa is currently the scripted television defacto camera of choice. Putting another Alexa into the pool of available cameras makes sense as it is a known desired quantity. I always find that the manufacturers that make their own sensors are quite forthcoming with accurate info, assuming you are not just talking to salesmen. Some manufacturers do lie about some things, but most don’t. Easy solution. Work with those who tell you the truth. If someone blatantly lies to you and you consider it egregious enough , never work with them again. There is only one camera manufacturer on my “never again” list.

Thank you so much, we'll keep in touch

Print and camera raw stock are 2 different things. 35mm camera raw stock is slightly over 11 minutes for 1000' at 24fps and using a 4 perf pulldown. Print stocks for projection are usually 2000' rolls so 22 minutes maximum if the editor uses absolutely all of the available footage.

At 24fps and four sprocket pull-down is 90 feet per minute.

When your finishing on 35mm, your editor edits on reels, each reel should not be longer than 20 minutes, so if you have a 120 minute film, you'll end up with six reels.

You've come up with a great business John.

Thank you, I think so as well. The machine we developed is a 4K, 12bit, 24fps, 35mm machine that changes the playing field for scanning content. Current technology, a frame in four seconds, fixes the cost for 4K at .35 cents per frame. A one hundred minute movie contains 144K frames. Our solution at 24fps brings the cost down to around .05 cents.

"It's digital, keep it rolling". THIS is the folly of video-trained thinking. Miles of mediocrity, instead of select, precise takes of intentional work. Both approaches take the same amount of time on set. The results are very different.

In my forty years as a DP, retired now, There have been many times that the director invited the editor to the set. This lasts maybe an hour and then he is sent back to the editing room. The movie is made on the set, not in the cutting room. Robert Aldridge told me "They can only use what we give them"

Pretty interesting!

Wonderful Juliez. . . I consider myself a verbal and some say glib person. I have worked on movies in the camera dept for almost fifty years. There have been many times where I have been asked to do a walk-on or play some bit, can't do it. When I'm on the other side of the camera its OMA OMA OMA Easter Island statue. I am in aue of actors.

Even on the other side of the camera, John, there's so much passion in this business! Truly looking forward to the day when we're both on set; growth and respect will be the topic of discussion. Thank you for reaching out.

Very strong scenes in your videos ,thank you for sharing. Scarying good.

Hi Johnny, wonderful song and idea for 4th July. You needed no backup music, or background help for this and this made it personal and special. I can't comment why I'm proud to be American, BUT like you say, "We are all the same". See you around on Stage 32!

Hi forgot to add I'm in UK. One day though, I will come to the States, hopefully to do some collaborating with some of my hook ups here on Stage 32.

I hate what's become of my country. For most of my seventy-five years, this was a place deserving of praise NO MORE. Love of country has been replaced with the cult of personality and the only real crime now is to be found out. Most of our religious institutions advocate love of one another. Our country was based on a for-and-by the people principle so. . . The government should love us. Do you think the government loves us?

exactly. I did this when I was a beginner photographer. It helps a lot. I still have my little notebook from '02...lol

I rarely have time to do this on most projects. It's always on to the next set up. Sometimes, I'll ask my gaffer to make some notes and or take some cell phone photos if I think I might have to come back to a set up again. I don't claim to have a photographic memory, but I can remember a lot of details about how I lit a scene by just looking at what was already shot. With a little memory jog, I can even remember details years later. But I can't tell you what I had yesterday for lunch. I agree with some of the other guys who have also been shooting for many years - I don't want to reference what I have already done. Every situation is just a little different. I want to try and take a fresh approach for each project. Of course, one develops certain techniques that work well in certain situations. But I would always want to avoid "painting by numbers." Even when I was metering for film shooting, I tried to light more by eye and feeling rather than using conventional lighting ratios and measuring every single light. Once you establish the desired level of your key light relative to your ISO, you can train your eye to see values of other lights compared to the key light.

most of my projects these days end up being a 1 to 3 man crew and if its one then I am that 1. running camera sound and lighting so I just don't have time for notes any more and I 'am sure I am not the only one out there these days having to run multiple cameras sound and lighting by them selves

Thank you, John, and what a great question! The best thing would be for our film Singapore Sling to be selected by the LA Film Festival so I could spend a few fabulous days in California and start shooting a new film... well, you asked :) What about you?

I just built a 35mm film scanning machine that will scan film in 4K 12bits at a blistering 24 frames per second. I would like to advance the funds to scan and restore content marooned on celluloid. We just benchmarked the performance and are ready to go. If you know of any libraries that are in need of restoration we will do it for a share of the revenue. thanks for asking.