Another crazy camera test

I have a long list of unusual camera techniques I'd like to test.  I tend to keep these to myself because a) I don't want to make people question my sanity more than they already do and b) on the off chance it works, I'd hate for someone else to do it first.

I'm going to throw this one out there because I am frustrated with the state of color rendition in digital imaging.

RED said 2k wasn't good enough, made 4k happen, and showed the world why it matters.

I'm still waiting for someone to say 12-bit Bayer ( or whatever) isn't enough, make a sensor that does color better than film, and show the world why this matters.

Here's a camera test that might work as a proof of concept.

Grab three Epic-M Monochrome cameras you might have laying about, along with the usual accessories. Get a red filter, a green filter, and a blue filter. You might want to have these custom made.

Carry all this up a mountain with clear air and a nice view to the west. I'd recommend doing this in Arizona in August, and bringing some rain gear just in case.  

Put one filter on each camera, line them up side by side and genlock them.  Compose a frame where everything in frame is far away.  Enough so that the distance between the cameras is irrelevant.  Since the idea is to use stereographic principles to create three identical frames, personally I'd ask a stereographer to help out.  Up to you.

Set exposure and focus.  Go for hyperfocal if you can.  Wait for sunset.  Roll cameras.  Cut.  Wrap.   Cook steaks on a campfire, put the rest of the food out of reach of bears and get a good night's rest.  Continue in this manner until you see the perfect sunset, run out of food, get attacked by bears, or wish you were on Asteroid B-612.  Go home.

If you don't live in a post-production facilty, go there next.  Tell them what you did.  Give them the footage and let them sort it out.  Wait awhile while they figure out how to handle an unprecedented DSMC color space.

This might not be easy, so don't be surprised if they complain.  When that happens, just throw fat stacks of cash at their heads.  As long as no one loses an eye, it'll make you both feel better.

Once the software development is done, get in the projection room with your colorist.  If he or she doesn't look at the vector scope and start crying, either you did something wrong or it didn't work.

Either way, at least you got to go camping.  With any luck, you've probably got the nicest footage of the colors in a sunset that anyone has ever made.

Sometimes credited as...

I collect misspellings of my last name.  To my surprise and delight, folks in Vietnam haven't added to that collection at all.  Until now.

I shot a film called Gia Sư Nữ Quái which hits theaters next week.  In a review (via google translate), I found the following - "The film promises more beautiful camera angles, the angle romantic image of the director (DOP) from Hollywood - Joel Spazeski."

How unfortunate.  Why couldn't that have happened in a bad review?

Surviving 13 million hits on YouTube

The other day I noticed that the trailer for the 3-D film I shot had 13 million views on YouTube.  This sort of thing can often be avoided by not using thumbnails like the one above.  However, should this misfortune befall you, my advice: Don't read the comments.

...to Thanksgiving Dinner at Angkor Wat

From November 26, 2008

I did not wake up that morning with an idea to go to Cambodia. Because we all need to get back to Vietnam and no one knows when the airport will reopen, a plan is hatched. Somebody talks our driver from the post-production house into taking us to the Thai/Cambodian border. We spend the night in a hotel and cross into Cambodia the next day. We take a van to the nearest airport and fly back to Saigon.



We passed by the BKK airport on the way out of town. There wasn’t much to see from the outside. Reportedly there were masses of protestors inside. Coincidentally, every time I find myself in Thailand, some sort of political unrest gets sparked.  Even though I don't believe it has anything to do with me, after the fires of 2010 Bangkok post-production houses started encouraging me to take my color-grading to Hong Kong.



A couple police trucks driving away from the airport were the only indication we saw that anything unusual was afoot.



If you ever find yourself in Aranyapathet, Thailand, I recommend this restaurant. The menu is in Thai, but just point at a few things. Or, if your post-production house has been kind enough to lend you their driver, let him order. This was the best meal I'd had in years.



The next morning we went by Tuk-Tuk to get our visas.

We walked across the border, took a bus to our van, and took the van to our plane.

Gambling is officially illegal in Thailand. Also in Cambodia. However the walk across the border is a little long because there is a narrow strip of land between the two countries that neither one controls. Hence it's packed with casinos. Or so the story goes.



There are not much in the way of paved roads in Cambodia. It is dusty.



So dusty in fact, that it is necessary to stop at a roadside bodega like this every couple hours to wash the dust out of the radiator.



It's just enough time to sit in a hammock and drink a beer.



The Cambodian countryside has a fantastic color palette.



We arrived at the Siam Riep Airport a few hours early for our flight.



So we decided to go to Angkor Wat by Tuk-Tuk.



On the way, my driver stopped at an Angkor gas station. That is, a lady sits by the side of the road with a bunch of gasoline-filled Johnny Walker Red bottles. You give her a dollar. A three-year-old fills the tank while she takes the money.

We stopped for lunch just across the water from Angkor Wat. This was Thanksgiving. Turkey was not on the menu, but mango salad made a fine substitute.

After lunch we crossed the water to Angkor Wat where this sign offered 3 possibilities of visit. Considering how we got there, I'd hate to think what the other two are. However you visit, it's an amazing place. See it before it crumbles.











Angkor Wat is famous for its Bas Relief imagery.



My buddy Vinh demonstrates why some parts of the Bas Relief Devatas are smoother than others.



Well that's about all there is that's fit for telling, Pictured above are the folks whose resourcefulness averted what could really have turned into an adventure. I was fortunate to be along for a nice smooth ride.  We got on the plane, got back to Saigon and I found the job I was so worried about getting back for had delayed for a month.

I wonder if I'll make it to work tomorrow...

From November 25, 2008

I arrived in Bangkok yesterday to do color-grading for a TV commercial. Tonight I walked out of the post facility and heard about the protests closing the airport down. I was floored because everything here seemed so peaceful and normal, except for the elephant I saw walking along the freeway - that was strange.

Then again, I've mostly been shooting in Saigon lately, where the streets (and sidewalks) are a pure chaos of motorbikes - so my perspective may be skewed somewhat. Anyway, my flight was for tomorrow, but it looks like I might be staying a little longer than planned.

At least I won't have to take a bus like I did earlier this week when my flight to Saigon was cancelled because of severe thunderstorms. That was bad. I got off the bus at 4:30am and started work at 5am.

I'm beginning to suspect I'm a magnet for these kinds of things.

The best example was the time in Baja Mexico when a hurricane struck on the second to last day of shooting. Houses were floating down the river. One of the actors caught a fish - while sitting on the toilet in his hotel room. Instead of a wrap party I found myself helping rescue ex-pat retirees from the floodwaters while drinking from a looted bottle of Courvoisier. Actually, that was pretty fun. One of the high points of my life.

I digress. I guess I'll make the best of the situation here. Maybe I'll visit a museum. Maybe I'll take a tour, especially since in my trips to Bangkok so far I've mostly seen the inside of a telecine room and the view out my hotel room window. There have been some taxi rides. But I hate taxis.

Maybe I'll misbehave. I've heard Bangkok offers ample opportunities in this regard. Doh! Did I just put that in writing? In reality, Bangkok is not, as I had been led to believe, a red light district of metropolitan scale. Also I've no need to go looking for trouble, it finds me without difficulty.

People talk about wanting to have adventures. Personally, I don't think that means what they think it means. An adventure is mostly a pain in the neck that makes for a good story after it's over.

Anyway, I'd better go to sleep just in case my flight isn't cancelled and I actually make it to work tomorrow.