Shooting at Night with Available Light and Skip Bleach

[Adam McDaid]

I'm shooting a 35MOS as my final MFA requirement in cinematography for AFI next weekend and I had a few questions for those with more experience. For the final day of the shoot, we plan on shooting around Los Angeles streets using available light. My camera is the ARRI 35-3 with the 5279 500T (rated @ 500) and I'll get a little help from a Panel Lite mounted on the camera. I'm also shooting the Zeiss Super Speeds (T1.3) to help me out with the low light conditions. The plan is to shoot wide open in order to have a super shallow depth of field. But, I also was considering doing an 80% Skip Bleach on the negative to bloom all of the sources in the background. I know that I should compensate one stop for the Skip Bleach, but am I insane in shooting this way when working with such low light levels? I won't have a genny on this project, so I need to work with what I've got. Or would I be better off rating the 5279 at 1000, processing normal to achieve more grain and dirtiness and then achieve the Skip Bleach look in the post from my telecine? Unfortunately, I don't have time to shoot a test for this before I shoot and any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

Thanks,

Adam

[David Mullen ASC]

I don't know who does negative skip bleach in percentages - usually it's all or nothing, or some places can do a half-way level. It's not controllable like ENR print processing.

 

I would definitely underexpose a little if skip bleach processing the negative to compensate for the increase in density, unless all you want is the hotter highlights. If you are worried, just underexpose by 2/3's of a stop or something (rate 500T at 800 ASA.) But this is assuming you expose accurately. If you are prone to underexposing, then rate normally.

[Adam McDaid]

I don't know who does negative skip bleach in percentages - usually it's all or nothing, or some places can do a half-way level. It's not controllable like ENR print processing.

 

I would definitely underexpose a little if skip bleach processing the negative to compensate for the increase in density, unless all you want is the hotter highlights. If you are worried, just underexpose by 2/3's of a stop or something (rate 500T at 800 ASA.) But this is assuming you expose accurately. If you are prone to underexposing, then rate normally.

 

David,

 

Thank you for your advice. However, I have one more question. Would you still do a Full Skip Bleach on the negative when shooting in such low light conditions? I'm only using the available streets lights and a Lite Panel for lighting. Will the shadows go completely black? Will my contrast ratios be too extreme to successfully pull off this type of processing in these types of conditions?

 

Thanks,

Adam

[Rolfe Klement]

My advice would be to rate it at 1000 or 800 and push - a one stop push is not going to go nuts with the grain on 35 - it will also make life slightly eaiser on the focus - and it sounds like you are not asking to get permission to shut hollywod down from Vine to La Brea :-)

 

thanks

 

Rolfe

[John Pytlak RIP]

I suggest rating the film at EI-1000 and using a push-1 process. Without pretesting, I'd avoid using skip bleach, and try to get the "look" you want in post. Of course 5218 would offer signicant advantage over the older 500T stock for reduced graininess, but I assume 5279 is what you have to work with.

[Adam McDaid]

I suggest rating the film at EI-1000 and using a push-1 process. Without pretesting, I'd avoid using skip bleach, and try to get the "look" you want in post. Of course 5218 would offer signicant advantage over the older 500T stock for reduced graininess, but I assume 5279 is what you have to work with.

 

Thanks for the advice John. I've shot the 5218 before, but I've never had the chance to work with the 5279 and I want to see less into the shadows. In regards to the Skip Bleach, I'm going to avoid it and rate at 1000 and then push 1 stop like you suggested. I want to bring up some grain and contrast. Doing the Skip Bleach in such low light conditions may have proved to be to difficult when considering the limited lighting package I'll be working with.

 

Thanks,

Adam