Chayse Irvin ASC, CSC

From what i've heard David O. Russell has a bad rep for being a rage monger. There was a story about George Clooney chokeing David O. Russell on the set of Three Kings. It doesn't suprise me that footage has gotten out if he treats the crew like that. My mother was and still is a Jazz singer, and she has collected recordings of singers, the best one being Ray Charles, treating his band like dogs. The members in the band would make these tapes and send the recordings to their friends from other bands, who in turn would send recordings of their own singers treating them like crap.

No, because the unsqueezing will be done in post and recorded out to negative. This negative is used to strike the prints. That is one of the advantages of DIs, you can record several negatives to strike your release prints, thereby skipping the IP/IN stage.

Awesome. Thanks Max.

I understand what you're saying, but that kind of a test doesn't really emulate real-world conditions and wouldn't give you much useful information. Calculating exact stop loss is a bit of a moving target -- it changes so much with all the variables of a real setup that any "barn door test" figures you came up with would only confuse the issue.

 

It is useful to know the relative densities of various diffusion material, as a rough guide. But usually they're chosen for their diffusion properties more than for their transmission (until you get down to the really light stuff, where it may be more important to not cut the light too much). Because in addition to stop loss, there are the unique characteristics of the diffusion like how much hard light or double-shadow it creates, how directional or diffuse the transmitted light becomes, and so on.

 

If you want to use a heavier diffusion to get softer light, you often reach a point where additional density just cuts the light more, but doesn't soften it any more. You then have to step up to a larger surface area, or change your lighting setup (often by putting a less-dense diffusion a little bit in front of the diffused unit).

 

I like to experiment with different combinations of units and diffusion to get the look I want. For example, a Maxibrute through polysilk can give you a different type of spread, shadow, and falloff than a 10K fresnel through the same diffusion.

Aye. I see there are many variables. For my practical reasons I'm really starting to use more and more often double diffusion through 6x6 and 12x12 frames I'm trying to figure out what kind of light I?m going to need when doubling up Muslin because I?ve always used Full Grid, and I?m looking for a rough estimate of how much thicker Muslin is. I often get different looks with different lights but I've found that fresnel lenses have slight diffusion before the lens scatters the beam, but when I'm doubling heavy diffusion it really doesn't matter what kind of light it is, but how much you can get out of it. Maxi Brutes are usually my choice for night exteriors, and 2 Mini 9's rigged on an offset, with one mini9 above and another below the rig allowing me to cover the whole diffusion frame in tight spaces, are my current choice of fixture. But I?m really wondering if that would work with muslin because I hardly use it, but want to start experimenting. I'm also interested in throwing Muslin over kinos and such when I can get a light really close to the actor.

Thanks for the insight guys. If I were to shoot 3perf Super 35 for 2.35:1 aspect ratio, 4k scan to 2k workflow and print, is there still an optical stage going to Anamorphic release?

The light loss from any diffusion material varies with the size of the illuminated diffusion and its distance between the light and the the subject. It's not a scrim; the muslin instead becomes the light source.

 

I would expect to lose maybe at least 2-3 stops, if you're trying to estimate how large a unit to put behind it to reach a desired light level.

I'm looking to estimate how large of unit and what the heaviest diffusion I can get away with would be. For my tests purposes I'm going to place several diffusions in the same situation and read which one takes off the most light at whatever distance. For example if you placed all different types of diffusion on the barn doors of a lamp and take a reading say... 8 feet away. 216 (-3 1/2 stops), light grid (-3 1/2 stops), full grid (-5 stops)? now my question is how much light would muslin takes off? I'm going to have to test it.

My favorite part of DPing is collaborating with the Director and pre visualizing the film along with the Production Designer. I'm working with this new Director named Randy Ross right now and I'm finding it a pure joy. We have extensive conversations about how a scene should be played out visually and how we can manipulate the audience. That?s the real joyful part of film making for me. I'm not yet experienced enough to walk onto a set and start to come up with ideas, or better yet "brilliant" ideas that serve the story. Its great to work with a director that likes prep as much as I do, and then we can execute to the best of our abilities. We have been prepping for 3 months straight.

I kinda got the same thing going. Heres my list so far. It was super cool getting to watch Emmanuel Lubezki's demo reel at jacob and kole the other day. It felt like a honor hehe.

http://www.themackagency.net/

http://lspagency.net/dp.html

http://www.pfd.co.uk/agents/anaylor.html

http://www.radiantartists.com/

http://www.mirisch.com/

http://www.primeartists.net/

http://www.lenhoff.com/index.html

http://www.kmreps.net/

http://www.thecharacters.com/

http://www.thegelleragency.com/

http://www.jacobandkole.com/

http://www.judymarks.com/

http://www.nyoffice.net/

http://www.schneiderentertainment.com/

http://www.seslercompany.com/

http://www.sradp.com/

http://www.dattnerdispoto.com/

http://www.tdnartists.com/

http://www.utaproduction.com/

http://www.alistartists.com/

http://www.allcrewagency.com/home/index.php5

http://www.seslercompany.com/

http://vertigoreps.com/roster_index.html

How many stops does Muslin take the light down? I went to look in my harry box and coulden't find it.

I was asked a few questions about shooting Anamorphic 35mm for DI and it's costs, which I don't know much about. Does anyone have insight to what it would cost to shoot Anamorphic 35mm over 4-perf Super 35? And is a Anamorphic DI more expencive then a 4-perf or 3-perf 35mm DI?

Truly helpful insight. Hopefully I'm not going to be a huge burden on my GF for too long. :unsure:

You better lock that girl down Matt. Before its to late!

Haha. Bringing home the bacon. I better find myself a woman real quick!

That was about the crew size I had on "Twin Falls Idaho", which was shot in 17 days for about a half-million dollars. But it was a fairly controllable shoot, mostly in some small rooms at Lacy Street Studios. We didn't have much exterior shooting. We did work many horrendously long hours though, during a heat wave in July.

 

The problem isn't finding a DP as talented as I was (there are always plenty of more talented people out there than me) -- the problem is finding someone as cheap as I was to hire back then! I think I was working for $200/day on that shoot... and I did "Northfork" for even less than that ($1000/week for a six-day week, no overtime.)

Damn. Thats how much I'm making now a days and times get hard. How did you manage to get by?

I digged it! I loved the silhouette shot at the lake.

I'd add a loader and one more electrician to that list, just to feel comfortable.

Aye. It looks like David is looking for a David Mullen of 9 years ago. You know anyone like that David? hehe

Low budget are there will be 9 in the camera department????????

 

What on earth will those 9 people do?

 

R,

9 people is reasonable.

Camera:

1st AC

2nd AC

Lighting:

Gaffer (find a Gaffer that has a genny op ticket)

Best Boy

Lamp Op

Grip:

Key Grip

Best Boy Grip

Leadman/Dolly Grip

Leaving a spot in the budget for a day call that can be spred out over the shoot, I would use the extra spot for a Rigging Gaffer to lay cable out and throw up a few lights before we land at the next location. He can also lamp op on days where there is no pre light. Lots of reasons to bring in a extra guy in on the big days.

Well, I suppose it's one kind of lesson, that it's not so easy to make a good movie, despite everyone's good intentions.

Amen to that!

Movietube ST sounds like a great alternative to Varicam. Could it be motiflyed for a gyro if required?

Were shooting most the film handheld with Varicam + Pro35, but for this traveling stuff the varicam + Pro35 is even bigger then this other rig. But as far as cine lenses go I was thinking Angenieux OPTIMO 15 - 40 at T2.6. Varicam with a Zeiss DIGIZOOM 6-24MM T1.9 might give me what I need though, nice close focus so I can simulate some really shallow DOF stuff, it would probably be less cumbersome and easier to maneuver then the HVX w/ pro35, It would work better for my car mount stuff, and I could throw that gyro rig and some hand grips on there. Might cost a little more tho. Those Digizooms are expensive, and I'm not sure if Clairmont even has them. Thanks for the advice Michael. You?re a genius. Well see if production has the $$$.

Looks hott Matt. Keep up the good work!

Looking to do a shoot with the HVX + mini35. The shoot is handheld and I really hate the HVX's LCD position because to view it your moving the camera forward and it becomes really front heavy and uncomfortable. I want to rig it with this Gyro Rig for traveling footage. Any ideas on how to create a balanced comfortable camera with this rig? It needs to include a Mini35 w/ a small light wieght cine zoom, zoom control, wireless follow focus, and a monitor for the operator to use. Is it to much to ask for?

Has anyone worked with Kenyon Gyro Stabilizers?

They seem pretty cool. I've got a shoot coming up where we are going to be doing some handheld driving shots (shooting out of a van), as well as heli stuff, and we hired this crew to do some wire camera shots in whistlers night half pipe. The wire rig has a guy rigged to the wire and hand holds the camera as he swings threw the air. I've seen some footage and its mostly fairly smooth, but the director and myself will want them to go on longer focal lengths then I think there used to, so I'm thinking a stabilizer will be useful for all of the above. For these shots were going to shoot HVX200. The traveling shots being, with a mini35. This company has a really cool handheld rig with the gyro: http://www.aerialimage.com/page5.htm . I think it might work well with a HVX w/ mini35. Thoughts anyone?

I've had it fail on me a few times in cold weather conditions. The pins in some of the wires are very fragile and when frozen or cold they can break. Check it out might be that?

Thanks Phil,

Whats the effect actually called? What would it be called in a menu?

The vertical smearing of bright highlights comes from deliberately mistiming the shutter.

 

Normally the film does not advance in the gate to the next frame until the shutter is completely closed over the gate, but when the shutter is mistimed, the film starts to move before the shutter is completely closed, so the last few moments of the exposure are happening to a moving piece of film, causing brightest highlights (the only thing to register in this brief exposure moment) to get smeared vertically.

 

The movie was also shot with net diffusion filters, which can cause some star-shaped flares.

How do you adjust the shutter to do this David?

Sorry guys, I had to back out of the film to do another feature that I started last year. It was a tough call... but in a way I hope its not the last time that happens cus it will mean I'm working lots. <_<