The Astronaut Farmer Wk. 7

[timHealy]

A few months ago I was talking to Alfonso Beato about "Dark Waters" and he said he shot it all at f/2.8 on the Primo anamorphics. I just can't imagine getting away with that level of depth of field. He must have had a kick-ass focus-puller.

 

Hey David,

 

I mentioned your kick ass comment to Heather Norton who was the focus puller on the New York portion of Dark Water and she appreciates your comment. But she only did the NY half. The rest of the movie was shot in Toronto.

 

Best

 

Tim

 

PS very nice stills. Clean, simple, and elegant setups.

[Charles Haine]

I haven't used the Panatape, but my impression of the Cinetape was that it didn't feel very precise: sure it read out in feet and inches, but it was hard to tell exactly where it was pointing (the forehead? the ears?), which makes very shallow focus (when you are shallow enough you can only really get one eye sharp) still a challenge.

 

Very useful for the wide shot if the actor misses a mark, fantastic for shooting a charging Rhino at 300ft on a 10000mm (or so I hear), not particularly useful for wide-open anamorphic close-ups.

 

chuck haine

[Brad Grimmett]

Very useful for the wide shot if the actor misses a mark, fantastic for shooting a charging Rhino at 300ft on a 10000mm (or so I hear), not particularly useful for wide-open anamorphic close-ups.

 

chuck haine

Actually, I think most big 1st's would disagree with you. I think it's a matter of getting used to it and knowing when to trust it and when not to. The Panatape has even become the standard for steadicam work, whether anamorphic or not. But it wouldn't be affective at all at 300ft because it's not meant to be used for anything further than 20ft or so. There is a new device that is suppossed to overcome the limitations of a Panatape or Cinetape. It's called the Ward's Sniper. It's an infrared laser that is accurate to 1/8th of an inch at 500ft and delicate enough to track a human face on a 300mm lens inside of ten feet (according to an article in ICG magazine). Sounds cool but I've yet to use one while I was operating. Panavision and Keslow Camera are both renting them now. But these are all just tools to help a focus puller do their job better. They can't be trusted 100% of the time. There's a lot of interpretation and judgement involved with pulling focus, and nothing is going to completely remove the challenges of the job and make it easy.

[K Borowski]

Dave, sorry to hear that. I'm just surprised that a theatrical film has only enough money to afford DVD dailies whereas TV shows are now using HD, and were using D5 before that, which is about 700 lines of res., IIRC.

 

Regards.

~Karl Borowski

[David Mullen ASC]

Dave, sorry to hear that. I'm just surprised that a theatrical film has only enough money to afford DVD dailies whereas TV shows are now using HD, and were using D5 before that, which is about 700 lines of res., IIRC.

 

Regards.

~Karl Borowski

 

That's because the transfer to video for a TV show is the basis of their final master, so it has to be high-quality. A video transfer for a theatrical feature is thrown away after editing, then the neg is cut, answer printed, etc. So there is less incentive for HD dailies except on the biggest shows that formally had print dailies. For films that traditionally budgeted only for SD dailies, HD dailies is a big increase in expense.

[Matt Lazzarini]

I echo previous comments when I say absolutely stunning shots. Everytime I see a new one from you I realize how much just how much more learning I have to do.

 

Forgive me if you already mentioned it, but were any filters (like a pola) used to achieve that awesome looking sky in those silhouetted shots in addition to underexposing the ground?

[David Mullen ASC]

Forgive me if you already mentioned it, but were any filters (like a pola) used to achieve that awesome looking sky in those silhouetted shots in addition to underexposing the ground?

 

Well, those were just snaps from my digital camera remember, with no filters other than warming it up in Photoshop. For the actual funeral scene 35mm footage, I added a soft-edge Coral grad to the top of frame. Polas don't do much when you shoot directly towards the sun.

[Tim Tyler]

David,

 

Noticing the Fisher in your INT snapshots, I'm wondering if the camera lived on the dolly for most of your interiors.

[Adam Frisch FSF]

Notwithstanding Davids obviously great imagery and fantastic light, I must once again say how utterly appaled I am at the latitude of digital cameras. Examine any of David's beautiful sunset shots and you will in each one see complete clipping into white on clouds and sunsets. Not only does it just scream digital to me, it's also quite underwhelming considering the sheer underexposure of the main subjects. I think one could expect more from a medium that's been here for quite a long time now - instead of chasing resolution maybe they should start adressing the main problem - the fact that these cameras are useless unless severly underexposed/fill lit?

[David Mullen ASC]

Well, in defense of my little Canon camera, I was shooting on AUTO exposure I believe and had to darken them and add some contrast in Photoshop -- the originals are a little flatter and brighter. But the contrast range is nothing compared to the film negative, which held detail all across the range from sky to ground amazingly well. In fact, if I get to do a DI, I probably will be adding some contrast because I want more of a graphic silhouette effect.

[Jonathan Spear]

David, a few new-B-Q's if you have the time:

 

1. So just how much does one of those 4K Xenons or 18K HMI's weigh?

 

2. How many crew members were involved in setting up the lights on that gym shot ( shot #4)?

How long did it take them?

 

3. Who's the last one to leave the set at the end of the shoot/day?

 

4. If you're shooting in different states (countries) do you opt for renting a single package and dragging it with you everywhere, or would just keep renting the same package from different locations (rental houses) as you go along? Never really understood how any of that works..

 

Thanks,

Jonathan

[David Mullen ASC]

It generally takes a few people to lift an 18K HMI or 4K Xenon onto a stand; they aren't light. The Xenon is tempermental and in fact broke down at some point in the cold weather and never got fixed.

 

If I ever got into a situation where I needed more mobility or fewer crew people, I'd swap the 18K HMI (which is a big fresnel lamp) with a 6K HMI PAR, which can be set-up by one person and is nearly as bright -- it just lacks the spread. Some people like the newer 12K HMI PAR's for that, but those big wattage PAR's get SO hot that they can be difficult to deal with (like trying to swap the lens in front after they have been lit.)

 

It works out cheaper in general to rent a package for the whole shoot than to day-play items unless they are expensive and you really only need them briefly. For example, we carried two or three 18K HMI's for most of the shoot but added a few on specific days or locations. Our lighting package came from Paskal Lighting in Los Angeles, even though there are some local New Mexico companies -- mainly because they had a bigger selection and it probably worked out to be cheaper than piecing together a package from two or three companies.

 

Big lighting set-ups like the gym need to be pre-lit by a pre-rig crew or else you'd be waiting for three hours when you arrived. Sometimes it's enough just to give some regular crew people a "pre-call" and have them show-up an hour early, but that can get messy in terms of feeding them, giving them their turnaround from the previous day, etc. especially if the shooting day goes long or the previous day was long. But there were some days where I had a pre-call for some grip & electric to get some advance work done. But big rigs should be done the day before with a pre-rig crew or electrics and grips. Usually you have a rigging Gaffer and Grip that works occasionally on a show, but sometimes they work all the time, staying one day ahead of the crew. This requires more equipment, of course, since you're going to be laying cables and setting lights the day before on another location but still need equipment for where you are currently shooting.

 

So the gym was pre-rigged with three scissor lifts outside of three windows, each with an 18K HMI, and one more scissor lift on the opposite side outside a smaller single window, with a 24-light Dino on it, gelled blue for daylight (fill side of the scenes) and then it became my sunset key light (now ungelled) when I flipped screen direction for the last scene and keyed from that smaller window with an orange beam of light.

 

We had some last minute changes on the shooting day itself. I actually got lucky because when I shot the first shot of the sequence in the morning of the two men entering the gym from the back door, the morning sun was shining directly through that door, creating an effect like a 7K Xenon would as the door opened and closed. But later I had to move an 18K HMI outside of that door to create a similar effect when it opened and closed in other scenes. And when I did the sunset effect with the Dino on the final master shot of the last scene there, I found I had to bring in a 10K tungsten fresnel inside the room to have more control in the closer shots as to where the sunset light fell on people -- the Dino had too much spread and couldn't be easily moved and pointed outside that high window.

 

Generally the last people to leave the shoot at the end of the day are those dealing with paperwork (the film loader, the script supervisor, and the 2nd AD) and those that drive them or lock-up after them (the transpo people). Transpo people generally work the longest days since they are there before and after wrap, especially if there is a company move for the next day's shooting. But during the shooting day, things can get rather light for them.

[Jonathan Spear]

David,

 

Thank you very much for that info. Sounds like your job, and everyone elses on set for that matter, can get to be pretty stressful. It's truly amazing how everyone works together so efficiantly. Sounds like you have a fantastic crew (but I bet there's a lot of crap to put up with at times).

 

"""We had some last minute changes on the shooting day itself. I actually got lucky because when I shot the first shot of the sequence in the morning of the two men entering the gym from the back door, the morning sun was shining directly through that door, creating an effect like a 7K Xenon would as the door opened and closed. But later I had to move an 18K HMI outside of that door to create a similar effect when it opened and closed in other scenes. And when I did the sunset effect with the Dino on the final master shot of the last scene there, I found I had to bring in a 10K tungsten fresnel inside the room to have more control in the closer shots as to where the sunset light fell on people -- the Dino had too much spread and couldn't be easily moved and pointed outside that high window."""

 

Whoa. All those calls! Moving lights, recreating sources with other light sources. I probably - no, definately - wouldn't even notice those changes. That's what's truly amazing about movies... watching a series of shots that blend seamlessly and tell a story without leaving any trace of the guy siting behind the camera, how the scenes were blocked and lit, or whether that sunlight coming in from the window was 'real' or just a big heavy lamp with a sheet of gel over it.

 

Magic.

 

-Jonathan

[Kevin Zanit]

David,

 

Since Xenon sources can be so temperamental and noisy, have you tested Mole beam projectors at all? They have tungsten and hmi units.

 

I have played with both separately, but never did a side by side. I would imagine that a 7k Xenon would have comparable output to a 12k beam projector.

 

 

Kevin Zanit

[David Erlichman]

"DARK WATERS"' Toronto focus puller was Johnny Colavecchia. Amazing guy. I've known him since his trainee days and have had the pleasure of working with him twice this year and am starting another project with him next week. A real pleasure, technically inclinded, and not thrown easily. His resume can be found here:

 

http://www.iatse667.com/producers/430.pdf

 

Dave

Toronto, Ontario