Dylan Birchall Posted September 24, 2006 Share Posted September 24, 2006 Hi, I have an upcoming student shoot with an Arriflex 16BL. I have little, to none, experience with lighting for film but I want to do the best possible job and the most possible preproduction that I can. My first question is: Can I reliably practice lighting for this camera using my 35mm still SLR? I was planning on setting up the lights (Blondies, Redheads and Arris) and taking a variety of stills to check the results. What do I need to control to recreate the film shoot? ASA of stock? shutter speed? etc? Is this a worthwhile exercise? I can't really practice with 16mm film because we are only given a very limited amount. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Tim Carroll Posted September 24, 2006 Premium Member Share Posted September 24, 2006 Get yourself a light meter that also has cine capabilities, I have an old Sekonic that can do 24 fps with a 180º shutter (which your BL has), which is a shutter speed of 1/50th of a second on the meter (really 1/48th). Then get yourself some slide film (Ektachrome) for your 35mm SLR, and set up your lights, take readings with your light meter (not using the cine scale, use the regular shutter speeds for your 35mm SLR), and shoot a roll and have it developed. See how it looks. Make adjustments, do the whole process again. Repeat as many times as time and money will allow. Then use the same light meter when you are shooting with the BL. That should give you some confidence in your shoot. -Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryan_bennett Posted September 24, 2006 Share Posted September 24, 2006 Is this a worthwhile exercise? I can't really practice with 16mm film because we are only given a very limited amount. I'm sorry if this is obvious but, you'll have to buy your own. Shooting the slide film is a great idea though you can learn but if you really want to test things using the camera/lens/filmstock, give Kodak or Fuji a call and grab the student discount. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daniel zepeda Posted October 1, 2006 Share Posted October 1, 2006 I dont know if the camera you are using has a video tap that you can connect a 16 :9 monitor thru a bnc connection, that should help somewhat, or even setting up the scene and looking thru the ground glass, but shooting pictures will be helpful but the framing will be off, you can also shoot pictures of your lighting set ups like a photographic over head, that should be good preproduction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Williamson Posted October 2, 2006 Share Posted October 2, 2006 I dont know if the camera you are using has a video tap that you can connect a 16 :9 monitor thru a bnc connection, that should help somewhat, or even setting up the scene and looking thru the ground glass, but shooting pictures will be helpful but the framing will be off, you can also shoot pictures of your lighting set ups like a photographic over head, that should be good preproduction. Looking at a video tap may help with framing, but it won't tell you anything at all about exposure. I find it better in all respects to be looking at the scene through the camera's eyepiece, no reason to get stuck in video village if you don't have to. Additionally, Arri 16BL's don't have video taps, unless someone has created a modification for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Chan Posted October 4, 2006 Share Posted October 4, 2006 Hi, Dylan. I am a Year 3 film student at Hong Kong, I used to shoot 16mm on BL at year 1 level. I think my experience would help... It is reliable to do preview by ur 35mm SLR which is loaded with slide. Remember to set the shutter speed of the SLR to match the BL expourse level. let say, if you are shooting 25FPS with 180 shutter angle, the shutter speed is 1/50(both set on the lightmeter and the SLR) then the f-stop as to get the right expourse as BL, mark down the lighting ratio... Use the lighting ratio from ur preview the on BL, no matter what lightmeter you use, you will get a result that close to ur slide. but for color and looks of 16mm, you should do a film test on ur selected filmstock.... 16BL do not contain a video assist or you just cannot preview the expourse on any monitor... but be confident that film is much more easy to control as to video... by the way, you should use a tungsten balanced slide for correct color temp. as Blondies, Redheads and Arris all go with 3200K or the color temp of the slide should match the filmstock u going to use on 16mm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aleksandar Bracinac Posted October 9, 2006 Share Posted October 9, 2006 (edited) Hi Dylan, If you can, choose the Nikon D70 DSLR with 50mm f1.8 Nikkor lens, choose right white balance, set your ISO value 2/3 of a stop less than your negative (if your negative is 500 ASA, choose 320 ISO) and shutter to 1/50, In custom menu choose low contrast (tone compensation -2) and shoot. Cheers! Edited October 9, 2006 by Aleksandar Bracinac Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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