Werner Van Peppen

I'd shoot any plates and or shots which require effects work clean. That way you can add the effects/filers overall alter on and they will be more consistent

It is best to get a balanced negative to the DI stage, which gives you maximum latitude to play with . Bear in mind DI is a tool and cannot rescue everything so a good neg is important. That said if you know that you want a specific look then go for it. Just be aware what impact it will have later on.

I'd go and talk to the D.I. facility and get a feel for what they require and can do (is it their first D.I.?). The more you know the more you can anticipate problems. Speak to the colorist/DI facility manager about what you are trying to achieve.

Good luck

Werner Van Peppen

systems Engineer, Quantel

I'd go for the HD100 any day. Capturing some tapes to premiere pro at the moment (HDV25P) No problems whatsoever. Incredibly sharp picture, reasonably large dynamic range... Don't get caught in the 1080i is better than 720P debate. It's good

So far the earth stake hasn't moved from the locker. The result is that I'm living in a world of constant small electric shocks, and I'm fairly convinced we've killed the A input on one of the video monitors. I've taken a policy of knocking the shells of BNCs together before mating them, frequently drawing visible sparks. At the moment of that spark, an 18K HMI is being earthed by my video distribution amp...

I'd stop and think, probably walkaway if it's not fixed. Potentially you could get yourself into a lot of trouble if an accident happened with your gear because somebody else couldn't be bothered with the safety rules on their equipment which your gear relies on.... Depending on the legal code in the US you might be part of the lawsuit. Here in the UK you'd definitely be liable in one form or another and it's up to the health and saety executive as to how much they think you are not you....... They can prosecute people, have people arrested, shut down sites etc. etc. Get it fixed....

Werner

Sometime Gaffer and not doing anything without a massive earth with 100KW gennies...

there are no intermissions in the UK, but im sure its still a common thing in italy, no matter what film it is

Saw the aviator in Delhi last year with an intermission.

Same in Holland, although in Amsterdam, more and more theatres are showing the film uninterrupted.

Werner Van Peppen

Post engineer (Quantel)

London, UK (no intermissions here.... ;))

Thank you all for the sound advice!

 

I will begin by working on the control items that Harry and Capt. Video spoke about. Also, I will consider a gaffer for the project!

 

Thanks All!

:D

Always handy to have would be to get some chinese lanterns. Stick a photoflood in and you have an instant fill light. As mentioned before It's not the amount of light you have but what to do with it. I've been on a few shoots were we had a truck full of lights and ended up using one jemlight (a big fancy chinese lantern) with some duvetyne (or black velvet) to shape the light, leaving all these lights unused in the truck.

If you're still buying lights I'd get some 300w fresnels. They're small (great for indoors) and quite versatile. I've got filmgear branded ones and they also take 500W bulbs which is nice as they have an extra use then. Get some dimmers for finetuning (if you're up to it get some dimmerunits from the DIY store and wire them up, only though if you know what you're doing) , A set of scrims and some stands to put flags on. In fact just get some wood and paint it black and you have an instant flag.

Buy the book "painting with light" by john alcott for a good primer. www.theasc.com The only way you'll learn is by doing. Go out and shoot with a videocamera, study films, lighting setups. I'm always surprised at how few lights we can get away with. That's why the 300W units are great as you can take em anywhere quikly. Also think what do you want the audience to see/feel. Noir films are great in that respect as they sometimes don't show the main character lit at all...

As for gels, some 1/2 CTO, 1/2 CTB, frost and scrims, however only you can decide (with a gaffer if oyu're hiring him) what you need which is why reading the books and websites is very important

W

Thank you all for the sound advice!

 

I will begin by working on the control items that Harry and Capt. Video spoke about. Also, I will consider a gaffer for the project!

 

Thanks All!

:D

Always handy to have would be to get some chinese lanterns. Stick a photoflood in and you have an instant fill light. As mentioned before It's not the amount of light you have but what to do with it. I've been on a few shoots were we had a truck full of lights and ended up using one jemlight (a big fancy chinese lantern) with some duvetyne (or black velvet) to shape the light, leaving all these lights unused in the truck.

If you're still buying lights I'd get some 300w fresnels. They're small (great for indoors) and quite versatile. I've got filmgear branded ones and they also take 500W bulbs which is nice as they have an extra use then. Get some dimmers for finetuning (if you're up to it get some dimmerunits from the DIY store and wire them up, only though if you know what you're doing) , A set of scrims and some stands to put flags on. In fact just get some wood and paint it black and you have an instant flag.

Buy the book "painting with light" by john alcott for a good primer. www.theasc.com The only way you'll learn is by doing. Go out and shoot with a videocamera, study films, lighting setups. I'm always surprised at how few lights we can get away with. That's why the 300W units are great as you can take em anywhere quikly. Also think what do you want the audience to see/feel. Noir films are great in that respect as they sometimes don't show the main character lit at all...

As for gels, some 1/2 CTO, 1/2 CTB, frost and scrims, however only you can decide (with a gaffer if oyu're hiring him) what you need which is why reading the books and websites is very important

W

I wasnt refering to Pals capabilities, just my understanding of Pal. What I know i learned how it correlates to NTSC. I actually have nothing mroe than limited accedemic knowledge of PALS workings. thats what I was saying.

How does it not have a hue? I understand the chromanence is not phased in on top of the lumenece, and so a true hue/phase potentiometer is unessicary, but do phosphors not shift in reponse? are you telling me there is absolutley no need for a hue on any PAL television? If so I like it already. We got screwed with NTSC. backwards engeneers.

The reason that PAL does not have a hue shift/button lies in the way the signal is created. PAL means Phase Alternate Line. The luminance (B&W signal) is overlaid with a sine wave. The phase difference with a refernce signal (this is the colourburst before the luminance signal ) the height of the sinewave determines the saturation (done to make the signal backwards compatible for B&W tv's.

Noe the trick is that for every other transmitted line the sinewave changes phase, end therefore any shifts caused by atmospheric interference will be cancelled out per pair of lines when the phase is reversed in polarity for the hue to be recovered. As these lines are very close together the difference gets averaged out. Our eyes are much more sensitive to luminance than chrominance, so small errors like this (smaller than NTSC at least) are impercebtible. Add to that the 100 extra lines 720x576. The 25fps temporal resolution is a small trade off, and most people like to emulate the film look anyway..

Also a point aside. I'd like to point out that for an interlaced signal the kell factor determines that the maximum resolution is 2/3 of the line res. ie: 1080i = 2/3 * 1080 = 712.3 lines. I'm getting pretty tired of people going for the numbers game. maybe they should buy a HVX200. I hear their CCD's have lots of pixels....

I came across these lamps in the pound shop (they were next to the DVD's from the other thread) and it made me wonder exactly what kind of lights these are. They aren't exactly spotlights as they aren't foccussed right? But I assume the light would be more directional than an ordinary bulb?

 

http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro.jsp?id=11581

 

Can anyone give any comment on the quality of light from these things as I'm not really familiar with them. What kind of thing are they normally used for and can they have any cinematic applications or are they just plain weird?

 

love

 

Freya

Correct they are more directional. Some variants have a silver reflecting surface on the area from the metal thread to where the sharp bend in the glass is.

They're quite common. Usually used for small spots (think clamp on lights)

My reading of this..."mirror in the viewfinder' is the small 20 x40 mm mirror betwen the ground glass and the viewfinder system, in the door. This 2mm thick front surface mirror would cost about $4

 

Regards

 

Bruce

Reading it again you might be right. It's not really explained or shown in detail. From what I read in the article is it must have been sitting on ashelf for a number of years and got some rust on the drivemechanism.

my $2c or pennies in the Uk...

Reason is suggested an openface (redhead originally) is that they're so darn cheap 2ndhand. I agree that if space weight is an issue the lowel kit becomes interesting. I'm kinda spoilt that I usually drive a car/van/truck with a few dozen or more lights and am far removed from my run/gun days.

Another link I found which is very interesting is from Walter Graf. On his website he give some examples, including homemade fluorescent!! for about $20... His pictures/examples look good, so see if it works for you.

http://www.bluesky-web.com/new-page6.html

If you really wanna go for fluorescents get some hydroponic grow lights and buy some kinoflo 55W tubes (tungsten colour)

this light for example (uk only sorry): http://www.hydroponic-shop.com/product_inf...products_id=676

can also be bought without tubes so the price is a lot lower (and runs flickerfree ) so I used a bunch of them and their 4fixture friends to light up a large area. For the price of one divalite you can't complain...

Hi,

I knew there was an article about oceans 11 (which was shot in a casino and i've found it:) http://www.stevensoderbergh.net/articles/2...matographer.htm

Hope it helps a bit. At least you can see some of the effects he tried (not sure how succesful though) if you've got a copy of the film

Best of luck

Hi,

 

I knew there was an article about oceans 11 (which was shot in a casino and i've found it:) http://www.stevensoderbergh.net/articles/2...matographer.htm

 

Hope it helps a bit. At least you can see some of the effects he tried (not sure how succesful though) if you've got a copy of the film

 

Best of luck

My $.02 re lighting

You could also try to work with practicals in a 2/3 strip wagon rigged with practicals or photofloods above the actors with black skirting to fall off outside the table. Gives a nice soft warm light. If you really want to go warm use normal household bulbs.

920x1080 and 1280x720. Pal is 720x576

that means that with 1080i the effective resolution is 1080/100 * 66 = 712.8 lines which begs me to wonder, how come the marketing machine is so good at making people drool over Interlaced HD.... One of the reasons progressive has a lower horizontal resolution is that there are no fields and therefore no jagged edges which make movement less sharp. (As i'm recollecting from my tired brain)

Leider fehlt im Sucher ein Spiegel und

It means that there's no mirror in the viewfinder, which from the design of the camera must be the mirror shutter.

If you're hunting for another auction in German drop me a line and I'll translate it for you.

Werner

Whats a good affordable lighting kit (tungsten) for the panasonic AGDVX 100A. I'm doing a skateboarding documentary with a lot of indoor interviews.

thanks

I'd get an 800W or i believe they're 650W open face. with some 300W fresnels (you can get away with one). Get some hampshire frost or opal for the open face (or a chimera box) to create a nice soft flattering sidelight and use the 300w as a hairlight. Get some white polystyrene boards from you local dyi store and paint one side black (for negative fill) and use to bounce some openface light back on the subject. The other 300W can be used to rake the background to create some interest. If you haven't got the money get aq chinese lantern for the flood with a photoflood or a exposure bulb.

hi, ;)

so far with the little money i had to recreate a moon shine, i only could use a 2K open face with a chimera on a balcony.

But from working on long features i could see, as an assistant, helium balloons wich seem to be a first class moon.

But between those to extrem moons (cheap an expensive) what option do we have at the lighting rental house from your experience?

One thing you could try is to have some small weather balloon (they're usually white) and bounce a fresnel off them when they're up. A trick they used in Brokeback mountain (read the ASC issue with memoirs of a gesiha on the cover they have some pictures) to simulate fireworks going off as reflections on the actors faces. I can't find no reason why they cannot be used to simulate moonlight.

I like the screenplay, but woul like to make a suggestion... How about the two of them are driving the car with one of them instructing the other learner driver.. THEN, the mom is the leaner driver and the SON goes off to get some money, whatever. In the meantime the BANKROBBER gets in and forces her to drive off. I think it makes ofr a much stronger premise. Think mom with naughty schoolkid (bankrobber)?

The budget doesn.t really allow, but the main question here is not really being addressed...which is does the mbox...or tascam us-122 record the seperate mic imports on different tracks or not...the digi002 would be nice because I.d get 4 imports instead of two, but right now I can cut it with two...maybe in the future i.ll pick up the digi...but right now the budget won.t allow it.

 

Mark.

Yeah it would be stereo, which would allow you to record each input on a separate channel. You could also try a firewire powered unit from motu. motu traveller. That would give you the means to do a multichannel mix at home and you'd have more inputs. Get a cheap behringer mixer and you could go upto 6 channels.

I know budget is your issue but it's better to spend a little more money upfront rather than buying something you probably can't use or doesn;t suit your purposes down the line.

I'm about to shoot a TV show title sequence on DIGIBETACAM. it consists of macro shots and close ups of lab style equipment and the workings thereof. What is a good lighting system to use to give a cold, clinical laboratory feel to the light? Keeping in mind there will be backlit liquids flowing though clear tubes ..... please, any advice will go a long way for me, as I'm a graphic designer / After Effects animator trying to move into direction.

A couple of miniflos or fluorescents might do the trick. If you really want to give a colder feel to the image you could set the camera to 3200k and use daylight balanced (bluer) 5500k tubes

Another trick is to mount a couple of 60W bulbs on a board (say 6) and wire with two or three lights in series a fluorescent starter (60W bulbs is the max you can use) and of course use CTB

Werner Van Peppen

Gaffer/Sound/Camera Operator

London, UK

One of the tricks we used a couple of years ago. (We shot from the backseat so it might not work when shooting from the hood, unless you keep it out of the way) was using a small round chinese lantern (from Ikea) with a halogenbulb(s) (or a carbulb. I think we used two 35or 50W bulbs) wrapped in CTB to keep the shadows from filling in (We stuck it behind the passenger with some clamps next to the Aaton). A couple of white towels on the actors laps might help with some bounce. The bulbs can be fed from the cigarette ligther socket.

(I think we shot 500ASA Kodak stock.)

Werner Van Peppen

Grip/Sound/Cam. Op

London, UK

Strangely I have shot under compact flourecants here in the u.k. with an ntsc camera and there was no flickering. Under normal strip light flourecants there was flickering like crazy with the same camera.

 

Can't comment on colour temp as I was shooting in black and white.

 

Not sure if this really tells you anything...

 

love

 

Freya

Most modern fluorescent lightfittings use electronic ballasts nowadays to improve their efficiency. Especially in office buildings the power savings can be quite big. Shot recently a short where the entire floor was lit by electronic ballasted flos and would dim/fade out if the heatsensor wasn't activated for about 5 minutes. A quick wave and it would gently fade in. Interesting effect.

Strangely I have shot under compact flourecants here in the u.k. with an ntsc camera and there was no flickering. Under normal strip light flourecants there was flickering like crazy with the same camera.

 

Can't comment on colour temp as I was shooting in black and white.

 

Not sure if this really tells you anything...

 

love

 

Freya

Most modern fluorescent lightfittings use electronic ballasts nowadays to improve their efficiency. Especially in office buildings the power savings can be quite big. Shot recently a short where the entire floor was lit by electronic ballasted flos and would dim/fade out if the heatsensor wasn't activated for about 5 minutes. A quick wave and it would gently fade in. Interesting effect.

David,

Thanks for your very informative journal. Really cool, love it, learnt a lot of things from it as well. It's always a pleasure to have somebody share their experiences so generously. It should be required reading for cinematography students.

All the best.

Werner Van Peppen

London

I've got the AMvona stands. It's cheaper to buy them on Ebay and ship them to the UK than buying the Avenger stands here. They are solidly build, very heavy, but something I like about them. They're all turtlebased. Sometimes there's a few (small) scuffs on them new, but hey a filmset is not a doll house. Worth it if you calculate the postage in your price..

Werner

Sound/Spark/Grip

London

UK

Keep an eye on eBay, searching for 'matthews', etc., but don't expect great deals. Most grip gear doesn't lose that much value over time.

 

I've bought stands from Pyramid Films in L.A., but they mainly sell used lighting.

 

I just won a couple of $40 new C-stands and a combo stand from Amvona (through eBay) and I expect they'll be fine. I got some $7 sandbags from them and was surprised at the good quality of construction.