Daniel Madsen

Use the fluorescents, but flag them slightly so they don't strike the wall. Do this by taping duvetyn to the ceiling on either side of the light. That will create a little separation between the subjects and the walls. You could then find a motivated reason for light coming through the windows- maybe a streetlight, maybe a soft blue light for your purkinje effect.

Matt, thanks for making the distiction between those two tubes for me. I did a little research, and for those of you who don't know T8s are much cheaper than T12s to use and buy. They also require different ballasts. The ballasts that come with kino's car kit does however support both varieties. Best

Can you put any type of fluorescent bulb in kino flos? I was shooting something inside a hospital and needed to match the light from the overheads. Unfortunately the tubes these fixtures take are four feet but much skinnier than kino tubes. Can you still use them? They don't clip in nicely but who cares?

I read in another forum that 7245 doesn't push very well. What about a stock makes it pushable/ not pushable. Grain structure? Best, Dan

Phil, I'm aware of that. I got a little frusterated during the shoot because the breaker box showed there to be six seperate curcuits, but I could find only two that were entirely or partly for wall outlets. Mr. Morlan- I'll check out your article on dv.com Thanks everyone.

I was the gaffer on this shoot that took place in a very small and old apartment- of course the way the place was wired reflected that. I found myself having to switch the breakers on and off for two reason, one because there was an unusual amount of outlets belonging to a single curcuit (so the breaker tripped a lot) and two because I needed to find out what outlets belonged to what breaker. So here's my question- does a breaker get more likely to trip the more it is used? They have to be replaced eventually ight? That's technical this is asthetic- any advice on lighting for a person's reflection in a window?

I think there needs to be more activity in the grip forum so.... share your favorite knots. My favorite knot right now ( I've become obsessed for some reason) is the truckers hitch- basically a ratchet strap made of rope. What a wonderful knot....just wonderful.

Martin Sheen....sorry

I was watching the scene from Apocalypse Now (great movie) where Charlie Sheen's charter and the cook are seaching the jungle for mangos. It caught my attention because both their faces seemed unusually grey compared with everything else. Was this look achieved through a collaberation between the cinematographer and the make-up artist? Has anyone out there ever requested that an actor's face be made up in an otherwise ugly color so that your lighting creates an interesting effect? What effect...please elaborate.

Good looking out... but no it wasn't.

I don't really understand the point of using a black surface as a bounce. How is the quality of light from a black bounce any different from using a regular bounce card a greater distance from the subject?

Glad you asked this question. When camping with a coleman I asked myself the same thing. If you do any tests please share results.

Not having done this before I only guess that rotating the table is easier. You may actually get tighter shots than you would not be able to achieve with a dolly. I am just trying to think how you would light this rotating table....a soft even light is a possibility but sort of boring. If you are thinking closeups you could have a light support coming out of the center of the table disguised as a vase maybe that your lights could be secured to.

Is there a specific reason why some kinos are color balanced to 2900k and not tungsten?

How about aiming two lights (one gelled red, one gelled blue) onto two seperate reflectors and rotating them on light stands. You might also get away with simply dimming these same lights in a way where only one is on at a time.

With little money film students still like shooting on location- duh. As a gaffer and DP in training I would like to provide my comrades with a power option other than a generator. Could someone please describe how they use a car battery to accomplish this. Do you connect an invertor directly into a cigarette lighter (easy to charge the battery that way) or do they make invertors that clamp onto the positive and negative terminals of a battery? How do you connect mulitple batteries up to the same invertor? I don't want to hear why a small generator by so and so is a much better option. In fact the word generator is not allowed in your reply :) Dan

Nick, How about a DP for hire contract. It would be interesting to see the contracts professional DPs use to insure they don't over extend themselves in pre-production. Not that I'll need one anytime soon...

Could you post a copy of that contract. You don't really learn the business end of Dping in film school. Thanks.

This is an interesting challenge because most riflescope shots are simply done using a long lens- cross hairs either on the lens or added in post. To me it sounds like you want a static shot with a riflescope searching the frame. If I wanted to create that effect I would shoot with two cameras simultaneously (you could do it with one but two is much easier). One camera would shoot wide and remain static while the other would roam the boundries of the wide shot with a long lens. You then composite them in post, after having cropped the long shot and reducing its size.

Do you believe too many filmmakers use the latest bells in whistles of the production industry (dollies, cranes and steadycams) just because they?re available, or do you believe they have motivation and fit specifically into the visual design of their project?

I don't know of any such device. It is the job of the HMI ballast to supply the head with enough power to maintain an arch. Be careful while using HMIs with a small generator. They require many more times the power to fire than they do to stay lit. A small generator will start to choke. Also, the generator needs to be crystal sinc or the ballast flicker free. Read up on HMIs and flicker.

Everything dealing with light is logarithmic. You could start with that subject and how it relates to the aperture of a lens, film speed, shutter angle? etc. I just posed a question about the inverse square rule in the lighting forum- that might be of interest. Check out Blain Brown?s book on cinematography and linos.com. Have them send you a catalogue. The stuff in the catalogue is pretty complicated though so have an optical engineer on call ready to answer your questions. I?d be interested to know what you decide to present. Goodluck.

Steve, the wheels that sit on the cable are powered by motors, right? Where did you buy them? How much is a remote head? Are you a welder?

Thanks

Lets say an object is lit to 1000 foot-candles from a light source ten feet away. How many fc would there be 15ft away? 500fc???? Lets discuss