Dave Plake

Ive got three subjects...couple of wide shots that will include feet..all blue screen...call time at 4pm so we have daylight and we shoot into the night. What do you recommend to light the wall and subjects. Just a clean key for the subjects, nothing too specific. Even light on the blue screen obviously. I have questions regarding color temp since we are going from day into night. I have only tungsten lights to work with. Or is this just a bad idea and we should go with either day or night. Any insight would be great. Thanks!

Does anyone know a good way of connecting with aspiring directors to offer up my services as a DP? I'd like to meet up and coming film makers and help bring their visions to fruition. Aside from heading to USC or AFI and looking on the post it board, are there any good ways of linking up with students or recent grads who are getting ready to break ground on production?

What is the best way to have a subject lit and have her fall off to black. Beauty light, soft, flattering, but the light falls off so taht nothing can be seen around her. Any tricks? D

what I am trying to do is film someone in 35mm against a black cyc. I want this person to fall completely off to black on the sides and behind him etc. So that he is lit somewhat dramatically in and sourrounded by back...he falls off into the black void. Any suggestions on lighting this? Ie. which lights...how to light it? The other thing I want to do is emulate poeple snapping his picture with strobes...however real still camera stobes are so quick that you can't really get illumination for a long enough duration to see the subject. I want the image to be completely black...and then you see the person..bam! because of the blast of light that illuminates him...then it falls off to complete blackness again. I like the idea of doing this with tungsten lights because they seem to fall off slower due to the fixtures still being hot and fading to black however I know a product like "lightning strike" customarily uses HMI. I want to shoot this at 64 fps 45 mm 180 degree shutter. In summation for the strobes part....I need it to be all black...the viewer sees nothing, then a flash of light long enough in duration so that the viewer can tell who the subject is, but short enough so that it looks like a camera has snapped his photo. Any suggestions as to which tools to use how... wattage I will need to be able to support...links to articles...anything would be great. Thanksl D

what I am trying to do is film someone in 35mm against a black cyc. I want this person to fall completely off to black on the sides and behind him etc. So that he is lit somewhat dramatically in and sourrounded by back...he falls off into the black void. Any suggestions on lighting this? Ie. which lights...how to light it? The other thing I want to do is emulate poeple snapping his picture with strobes...however real still camera stobes are so quick that you can't really get illumination for a long enough duration to see the subject. I want the image to be completely black...and then you see the person..bam! because of the blast of light that illuminates him...then it falls off to complete blackness again. I like the idea of doing this with tungsten lights because they seem to fall off slower due to the fixtures still being hot and fading to black however I know a product like "lightning strike" customarily uses HMI. I want to shoot this at 64 fps 45 mm 180 degree shutter. In summation for the strobes part....I need it to be all black...the viewer sees nothing, then a flash of light long enough in duration so that the viewer can tell who the subject is, but short enough so that it looks like a camera has snapped his photo. Any suggestions as to which tools to use how... wattage I will need to be able to support...links to articles...anything would be great. Thanksl D

Ok, so I'm sure it's been talked about before...must have been, but I can't seem to find it in the archives.... Which is "Better" or what peoples opinions on... cooke s4 primes versus Zeiss Ultra Primes I'm about to shoot a short and am trying to choose between the two. Any thoughts on the look of each of these? Thanks! D

February 25 and 26th. Looking for a couple of grips in San Diego. dw@metal-storm.com D

grip needed in San Diego for Sunday monday shoot D

Looking for an AC for Sunday and Monday February 25th and 26th in San Diego, that is VERY knowledgable about the Panasonic HVX200 HD camera. I need someone who can help download the P2 cards, make sure the media is in the right format on the hard drive safe and sound. Someone who will help workflow and maybe pull a little focus every once in a while (probably not very much though). If you live in San Diego...the shoot is in SD. If you don't and are willing to commute then that will work as well although no accomidations are provided. The rate is $250 a day. Contact Dave W. dw@metal-storm.com 310-413-9876 Thanks D

I am looking for any new AC's who are interested in gaining experience around 16 and 35mm cameras. We have test shoots from time to time that don't have a budget. Hiring Union ac's is not a reality due to lack of budget, but if there are any up and coming ac's that just want to get their hands on a 435 and become familiar with building the camera, loading, etc. and are willing to learn/work hard for free, then there are oppurtunities for you. Give me a shout if you are interested and are in the either the LA or San Diego area. Thanks D

Shot a music video...shot it with the 24pn setting as apposed to the 24p setting. It goes to post and I am told that I apparantly didn't shoot it at 29.97 because in editing they ended up having to play all the footage back at 80%. Is this because the camera was shooting at 23.97 and the dat was playing the music at 29.97? Or is there some other reason...or something else I screwed up in the HVX200 settings. I would have assumed that even if the camera did lay down a native 24fps signal onto the p2 card, the 3:2 pulldown in final cut would have corrected any sync issues. I am confused. Any thoughts? Thanks!

Shot a music video...shot it with the 24pn setting as apposed to the 24p setting. It goes to post and I am told that I apparantly didn't shoot it at 29.97 because in editing they ended up having to play all the footage back at 80%. Is this because the camera was shooting at 23.97 and the dat was playing the music at 29.97? Or is there some other reason...or something else I screwed up in the HVX200 settings. I would have assumed that even if the camera did lay down a native 24fps signal onto the p2 card, the 3:2 pulldown in final cut would have corrected any sync issues. I am confused. Any thoughts? Thanks!

I am not sure if this the appropriate place to be posting this and if it isn't I apologize, please remove the post. I am looking for any new AC's who are interested in gaining experience around 16 and 35mm cameras. We have test shoots from time to time that don't have a budget. Hiring Union ac's is not a reality due to lack of budget, but if there are any up and coming ac's that just want to get their hands on a 435 and become familiar with building the camera, loading, etc. and are willing to learn/work hard for free, then there are oppurtunities for you. Give me a shout if you are interested. This is one of the finest websites on the net in my opinion for learning. I am glad that there is an AC section. Thanks D

any tricks on how to hang a woman a couple of feet off of the ground in front of a green screen ino order to make her look like she's floating? just laying her on the ground looks so fake. What particular type of harness do I need? What else? Thanks D

I need to shoot a green screen shot where a woman appears to be lying down and is floating. If I have her lay on a green floor, isn't it going to be hard to key out because she is right on the green and will be contaminated? If so how would I do this? Thanks! D

I tried that way and it worked...another way that worked, and the way we eventually decided to go, was to light the dancer and backlight him for seperation. I used kinos with green tubes and the backlight really got rid of the spill off of the wall. It came out great...thanks for all your input guys. D

If I was giong to black the face with makeup, does anyone know where I could find such makeup in LA? Place in Hollywood maybe? I need to grabit today. Thanks!

why especially on cloudy days?

I am shooting a dreamlike runway show. Dreamlike in that things fall off to black and it isn't a "real"runway show...but kinda along the lines of the V-Secret show. I was interested in the streaking but not if the whole image is streaking...kinda useless...but if just highlights were then I think this would be an interesting look. Are there any more examples wher I can see how this actually looks so I can decide if it's something I'd like to pursue? Thanks!

Anyone familair with a streaking camera?

If you have a small studio 13 feet high 30 feet wide 40 feet long... what do you think is the best color to paint it in order to shoot motion picture commercials and music videos? When doing green screen work it can be painted chroma green, but otherwise do you think white or black is a better color for the walls and floor? Thanks!

thanks... good stuff

right but what about the object..like in the IPOD commercials..the silouette is holding the white ipod. How do you light for that? D

Actually... there will be a few differnt backgrounds put in in post, but here's another twist...what if the person is holding something, like a white or blue object..like a silver blue hard drive or something in his hand, and that is the only thing that won't be silhouette in post. In other words, the person will be keyed off the green screen, made to be a certain color, but the object he's holding needs to look normal or somewhat accentuated in post. In that scenerio I need to light the talent and especially the object correct? Should I key with a nice soft source like a barger bag light and just wrap tungsten around him while lighting the wall with kinos? Any more suggestions? Thanks again! D

I want to silhouette a dancer in front of a green screen so the black image of the dancer can be keyed out and put into another background, but colored red or white. It is similar to the ipod commercials where the dancer is a silhouette and you see the earphone cords and spikey hair of the dancer. I was thinking I'd light the green screen wall to a certain stop, and then backlight the dancer to try to make him a black silhouette. Any suggestions as to how to have the dancer a completely black image? Thanks!