So Cheap Pete's IS Just a Clever Name

So Cheap Pete's IS Just a Clever Name

I understand that this is considered a custom frame even though I pulled one off the self and just had the plexiglas add. What I don't understand is the turnaround time. I went in on Saturday November 12th and was to,d it would be ready by November 30th. Eighteen days to switch out the glass with plexiglas and put an acid free backing on. Seems a bit extreme if you ask me.

So now that I have experienced Cheap Pete's way of doing things I am now going to start looking for much cheaper ways to frame my screen prints. I have WAY to many to be dropping $200+ on each one.

Plexiglas

So I found a few website that sell UV filtered plexiglas. I'm still waiting back on the price from one website but Here (http://tinyurl.com/87q3g3y) you can get a sheet 1/4 thick 24 x 36 for $36. Thats a savings of $37! This website also offers discounts if you buy more than one.

2 Sheets 5% discount
4 Sheets 7% discount
6 Sheets 10% discount
8 Sheets 12% discount
10 Sheets 15% discount

Frame Backing Paper

When you get your print or poster framed and the plexiglas is place and the backing there is another step that should be considered. The frame backing paper. This is one more step that can help keep your art work pristine. This (http://tinyurl.com/6rudblk). You get 25 sheets for $18.99. Not bad at all. I like the idea of the individual sheets(which is a little more expensive) than a roll since I really do t have a good place to make cuts ie I'm lazy.

Framer's Tape

When you have your frame backing paper in place the last thing you need to do is seal it to the frame. A good product to do this would be acid free framer's tape or sealing tape. (http://tinyurl.com/78amr4z)

Corner Bumper

Here you can find rubber bumpers for the back of the frame to protect your walls. $1.50! For a set of 25 pads not pad at all. This will prevent the frame from marring the wall.

Update on 2012-05-01 07:50 by Kenfisk

So the UV filtered plexiglass that i posted about isn't as good as the plexiglass at Cheap pete's.  

Lesser of Two Evils

WE have been working on a project called CXL for a few weeks now.  In those few weeks we have shot some greenscreen footage for the film on the Panasonic hpx500.  The director Sean Gillane explains to me that this is more of a broadcast camera and not the best for Greenscreen extractions.  We decided to give it a try since our other option was a Canon 5D Mark ll.  The issue that this camera has when trying to pull a good key are the Red and Blue channels.  These channels have a tendency to be noisier than the Green channel.  Also you end with with this nice white line around the image that makes it really hard to key.  Check out my examples of these channels bellow.

Red Channel  

Blue Channel

The Canon 5D Mark Two  is a great camera and I love shooting with it.  To steal a phrase from Stu Maschwitz (his prolost blog is a must read) the 5D is an amazing Rebel camera, and it has done a lot for the VERY independent and not so independent film making community.  That being said it still has a lot of issue when shooting on Greenscreen.  the main issue is that its output is H264.  You end up with compressed footage that you have to try and get a key from.  Check out this alpha channel with a lose key pulled, you can see the compression ‘s square artifacts.  This will make pulling a key tougher, especially around the fine hair area.

Nice chunk of compression

Compression causing the hair to crunch

In this photo you can see on the back of her hair that its starting to crunch.  This is due to the compression.  There are tricks around this of course but I would obviously prefer to use a better camera.  

Quick comp with crunched hair

One way around the compression issue would be to use a Aja Ki Pro mini.  We thought this was going to be our savior for our compression issue.  It bypasses the camera’s compression and you get  a nice ProRes 422(HQ) file.  The only problem was that it didn’t seem to work with the 5D.  We could only get a 29.97 FPS and no 1080p.   Major let down when we found out that we could not use the Aja Ki Pro Mini.  

We have one greenscreen shoot left and I still need to figure out if we should use the Panasonic hpx500 or the Canon 5D Mark ll.  I keep going back and forth with this one.  

Ill see some keying results with the hpx500 and say “Lets use this one on the next shoot” then I see some keying results with the %D and say the same thing. 

We are shooting in a few weeks and I am now leaning towards the 5D.  One major reason is because the plate for the GS shoot was shot on the 5D and thats really the only reason. 

If anyone has any suggestions feel free to post some comments!

Drew Struzan's Frankenstein!

I cannot wait for this to be sold!  I have read that it will be upward to 30 color screen print which Kevin Tong did the color separation for.  This also marks the first movie poster screen print from Drew Struzan so, this is gonna be some hot shit and will sell fast!  I can only hope I am lucky to get one.   Check out the amazing poster after the jump.

I love the idea of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences are going to be archive film posters from Mondo.  They are archiving all posters that Mondo has been commissioning since 1999.

CXL

Before the big CXL shoot Sean was trying to prep everything he could and that included the greenscreen. He didn't have the time do the full screen so he only painted from just above the waste down, including the floor. With only half of the room being painted this created some concerns for myself as the Visual Effects Supervisor.  Its hard enough lighting a GS evenly, but its even harder to do so when it isn't painted evenly.

I will be posting some shots of the finished comps soon!

CXL

If you are unfamiliar with A Year Without Rent you should start reading Lucas McNelly’s blog.  The idea is he travels around the country helping out independent filmmakers on their films and they supply him with a couch to sleep on.

I am currently the visual effect supervisor on a film called CXL, which Lucas helped us out on for a few days.  He was a big help and a much needed extra hand for our small production.  Here is his take on his first day of the production.

A Tiny Day in the Jackson Hole Backcountry

I really love tilt shift photography and the look that it gives you.  I could watch good TiltShift photography all day long.  When I saw The Social network I thought the Henley Sequence was amazing.  I understand using Tiltshift came out of necessity rather than a conscious decision but it really worked and it was pulled off.

Here is a nice video of a Day in Jackson Hole.  There are some really cool shots in this video and looks like there was some sort of budget since it looks like there are some really nice helicopter shots in this video.  

Here are some iPhone apps for faking Tiltshift.  I've used Tiltshift Generator and it is worth every cent, its a great app.

Papercuts video

Here is a video some friends and I worked on for Papercuts.  I added the fog elements that are chasing him through out the video.  I had some really nice shots in here but Sub Pop didn't like them and went with another shot I did that I didn't think was as good.  Oh well that happens more often than not.  I had about a week to do about 8 shots for this video, would have liked more time since I did it in my free time after work.  I am actually in it for about 2 seconds at the :43 mark with my grenades hoodie on talking to the director Andreas Trolf.  The video aired on MTV2 and my old roommate said I'm a sell out.

Director: Andreas Trolf

Editor: Jim Dirschberger.

Papercuts - Do What You Will (OFFICIAL VIDEO) from Sub Pop Records on Vimeo.