Sedona's Rule

Jamie Metzger · August 8, 2009

Here are some frame grabs from a feature I shot back in June. These are screen grabs from the Quicktime Proxy files. Red @2K. On some of the clips I have done some minor Curves adjustments, nothing that can't and won't be done in the DI. These shots do not reflect the final look of the film.

Jamie Metzger · August 8, 2009

Jamie Metzger · August 8, 2009

Jamie Metzger · August 8, 2009

Jamie Metzger · August 8, 2009

That's all for now.

Richard Vialet · August 11, 2009

Cool stuff. The overhead shot of the lady on the bed as well as the stuff of her at what seems like a vanity mirror all look very sexy.

I'd like to know more details about the story...to put the shots and lighting into more of a context.

I'm sure we'd all like to know more info about the technical stuff as well, like what lenses were used and lighting specifics. How was the night scene in the car lit? All natural?

*Maybe my only lighting gripe would be the still of them in bed. The levels seem a little high to me. But I'm not sure what you were going for and it might be easy to remedy in color timing.

* And why did you decide to shoot at 2K throughout? Was it a hard drive space reason? All the RED footage I've seen at 2K always seems WAY softer than it should be. I shot a music video all at 2K, and I was very disappointed. I would try never to do that again. The stills here seem a little soft as well but maybe thats what you were going for. It might also be a product of the lenses and/or the proxies.

Richard Vialet · August 12, 2009

Sorry just realized that part of my post about my only lighting gripe was pretty vague (there are many stills of them in bed)...

I meant the still of them sleeping in bed with what seems to be like blue moonlight.

Sorry for that vagueness in the previous post...

Edited August 12, 2009 by Richard Vialet

Jamie Metzger · August 13, 2009

Richard:

I chose to shoot on the red for a lot of different reasons. We used optar 16mm lenses that opened to a F 1.3, although the image started to get "glamorous" (ie: soft) when we opened up, so our "wide open" was a F2.

The night scene in the car was lit with Rosco Light pads; the 3"x6" size. We taped them to the windows and cross lit the actors. We did use black paper tape to feather and control the spill a bit. Beware of the green spike in those Rosco pads!

The still of them on the bed is supposed to be at night, with nothing motivating. If I had a picture to show you how tiny that bedroom was and how it was a loft with no windows, you'd understand. I am hoping that the director will put a faint TV sound, but that might not be necessary.

I haven't played with the footage too much in RED Alert or RED Cine, just the quicktime proxies. What you are seeing is screen shots from the proxies, so the final images will be sharper.

1st day of production, my gaffer suggested we use 400 lux on our main actress, after I asked him for something heavier than 216. 400 Lux worked beautifully on her, and we used it for every shot that she was in. I told her about it the last day, and in her last scene before her picture wrap, she looked up and noticed a light with the diffusion on a 2x4 kino and said to me "that's my light!". Beautiful diffusion and it doesn't eat a lot of light.

I tried to keep the lighting simple and motivated. I really don't like bare kinos, so every kino got some kind of diffusion treatment. I mixed hard/soft lighting and color temperatures, although I wish I had done more.

We shot 90+ pages in 10 days of principal with 1 day at a page count of 12 1/3 and another at 17 (8 minute steadycam shot helped).

Crew was great. Everyone got a long. Last 4 days of principal we BBQ'd for lunch and took our time since we were blazing through the shot list.

I couldn't have asked for a better crew for the terrible rate. I am thankful they all stayed on and worked very hard for me.