Zoe Van Brunt

Hi all. I'm in pre-production for a feature where I'll be doing a lot of handheld, and last time I did that much my back was hurting badly every day. I'm interested in purchasing a lumbar support brace, and I was wondering if any of you had a suggestion for a particular model or brand, from personal experience. Thanks!

It wasn't real moon light I tested. I tested an HMI with 1/8th Plus Green as a backlight, and it gave the effect I wanted. Thanks anyway.

Thanks everybody. Turns out a condor costs about a quarter of what the balloon lights cost, because the balloon lights require us to hire a specialized technician from the balloon company, and the daily quote was averaging $1200/day which was stupid. I found a 60' straight mast boom lift for only $300/day plus $55 delivery and pickup (pre-negotiations) at NES, so we're going with that.

So I'm shooting a nighttime exterior with the Varicam on a farm with very few practical motivated light sources other than the moon and a car's headlights that wouldn't really motivate any light for the majority of the shoot. So nearly all of my lights are going to be emulating moonlight. I did some lighting tests and HMI's with an 1/8th Plus Green had the kind of effect I wanted. At the moment my lightting package includes two 6k and one 4k Arrisun Pars which I plan to use for my primary moonlight, with the 1/8th Plus Green and a sheet of opal to even out the light. The problem is my Gaffer and I are concerned about our options for getting a light high enough to light the 35ft high two story farm house. In the case that it's not possible, I have contingentcy plans, but I'd like some opinions on my options for height. Everybody asks me if I have a condor, and having never worked with one, I don't know if I can afford it in my budget or where to go to rent it. I asked for a quote from united rentals for a Genie 45 straight mast boom and a Scisor Lift, but they haven't gotten back to me yet. LA411 is not really being helpful for finding places that rent that kind of equipment.

I lit some green screen shots last year, and typically you want to give your subject a backlight to help cancel out reflected green that could be a problem in compositing. In terms of the limited space, I'd say try to take advantage of the "inverse square" rule. If you use lower output lights closer to your actor, it will cast less light on the backdrop than if you had a stronger source farther away. Softer sources will also cast less shadows, but the farther away they are the harder the shadows too. As an extreme example, the moon is reflected light, but acts as a point source because it's so far away. If you have wide shots where you show the entire actor, that's a whole different animal, and I don't really know the answer.