Damian’s Feed

cinematography reel2 from Damian Calvo on Vimeo.

I like a lot of things, but reels aren’t one of them. I’ve edited reels professionally and have seen more than my fair share. Taking moments on film out of context  is antithetical, in my opinion, to the goals of cinematography. However, I agree it’s a necessary compromise when you are trying to expand your reach and get more work. I was impressed by the way Final Cut Studio 3 handled all the different formats in the same time line. I had difficulties in compressing and creating a high-quality DVD to send to a producer who requested it.The settings for “best quality” did not yield favorable results. The amount of aliasing, and the loss of color was unacceptable. The information on the net was surprisingly scarce. One tutorial said for short content, the uncompressed master imported directly into DVD Studio Pro would yield a better result. But this version did not play with the right aspect ratio or on a computer. Another tutorial said to boost the quality settings in compressor. This version turned out better, and for now it’s the one I’m sending out. The option of spending 500 dollars on a professionally authored DVD isn’t practical on a tight independent budget.

It’s been a wild and crazy couple of weeks. I’ve been working with a collaborator to photograph ten years worth of huge oil paintings. We’ve been shooting with the Cannon 5D MII and the Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0 L. Both the camera and this particular lens have performed very well.  Shooting in tethered mode we were able to quickly see the results on a laptop. Using Skype we were able to work with our sister studio Fotofuelle in Madrid who was able to see and interact with us while we worked. We used a mix of fresnels and open face 1ks and 250’s to achieve an evenly distributed light.

Later in the week we set up a couple of large industrial tables for some tabletop photography and future stop motion tests. The idea is to go back to the fundamentals: light, shape, color, surface refraction and reflection but on a smaller scale.

Finally one day I devoted to trooping through the snow in LIC to take some street pics. It’s important to me to keep working on subject matter in different scales.