Chayse Irvin ASC, CSC

I totally disagree. Manipulating available light and doing it well is probably one of the hardest and most difficult things to do in cinematography. Trying to cover a scene or execute a difficult shot at dusk or a certain time of day is extremely stressful and difficult for the cinematographer, crew, and cast. Cinematography is about light and camera in the service of story. The Academy thought Slumdog did the best job regardless of the technical aspects of the film. If technical is your mindset, example: to simply awarding a film like Dark Knight because it was shot on 65mm and is hard logistical action sequences totally asinine to me. Artistic considerations outweigh technical ones and I hope it always stays that way. Don't artistic choices dictate the technical ones?... wouldn't the story dictate your artistic choices? Cinematography by definition is "The art of making Motion Pictures.".

Sad day for young DP's looking to learn. :(

Thanks David. The incitation is something like 10k for DP right? If so I cannot afford to pay the fee. However is the a benefit in joining the Roster instead... and when a IA600 gig come along then throwing down for the incitation fee?

Ok... wasn't the question how do you join the union?

so confused. So after your accepted into the roster your still not a member of 600?

I too saw Che Part 1 at Sunset Laemmle yesterday, I went to a 1pm screening tho. I loved the film as well as the look. I did notice the clipping, but it wasn't so bad that it distracted me from the story. In a lot of those scenes it was staged in a wide with no coverage, if it cut in and out of the clip i think it would have been more noticeable. In fact I thought it was the best looking clip i've seen. It still had the texture of grain over top of it, whether that was added in the print or post i'm not sure, but I thought overexposed sunlight looked great in the context of the jungle setting. I noticed the lenses really softened at the edges of frame, but I liked it because most the staging was center frame and the edges being soft really drew my eye to the sharpest area of the frame (the center). The intercutting of 16mm and RED looked great... It was motivated by the story. The only times I've been bothered by mixing formats is when it feels unmotivated... and I think thats the only time audiences pick up on technical things like that. I can't wait to see Part 2.

The stills look awesome Sing. What was the project about?

Thanks Chris! Yeah, Jesse is great. He's going to be a really successful gaffer. He keeps his poop tight. Can't wait to book him for a feature.

Thanks guys! When i was coming up with how to shoot Fragile I wanted to create two different look but still maintain a continuity of image and light. So I designed two different ways of lighting past and present. For the Present I wanted to make it look as naturalistic as possible. I wanted a very overcast look for the film... but unfortunately we got a string of sunny days for the first two days of shooting and then snow! so I just had to go with the flow on that one. But for interior scenes used that idea as a basis in a lot of set ups. I mainly double diffused using double full grid or Full Grid and 129. I had 4x8 frames of 129 built and lit the present with the idea of building my sources long along the horizon of the character. And the past I lit using mainly bouncing joker lekos or plain lekos off a 4x8 muslin flop over the vertical of the character. As well as i wanted to create this glow blue color over some of the scenes in the past. I did this by draping 12x12 full grid behind camera then bouncing a 10k fresnel w/ Lee's "No Color Blue" off a 8x8 sky blue muslin behind the full grid. This created the slight hint of blue in the shadows and I underexposed it by 2.5 to 3.5 stops on the bleach bypass. And then I keyed the character with the tungsten leko bounce.

We actually didn't get to shoot Anamorphic. Its not a popular format in Vancouver so getting a set of lenses would have changed our deal with Panavision because they would have to be shipped up from LA. We ended up shooting Primo's, mainly the 27mm, 35mm and 40mm. We shot on the Panaflex Millennium which was a great experience. But I really owe the look to the crew I was able to get. Gaffer Jesse Keay brought out a great 5 man team that just killed it, as well working with focus puller Patrick Cronin who was simply amazing and hilarious. William F. Whites also pitched in a grip/lighting combo truck w/ a genny and a nice dolly. A huge contrast to the handheld, house power shows i'm used to.

Finally shot Fragile last week after it being canceled in the summer because of union problems with our actors and then trying to work around everyones schedule. Here are some stills from the first two days of the five day shoot. I ended up shooting the whole film on 5217 with the exception of a few dusk and night ext scenes on 5218.

I typically use 2x6 blade flags and stack them about 2-5 feet in front of the diffusion and tilt them, works like a charm. Depending on the size of the source tho you may need as many as 4-12 flags. I think it works better then any egg crate because thats just counter productive because its so close to the source. As you step away from the middle the light is narrowed and becomes harder.

Hey Daniel. I was wondering how you pushed the look further with your lighting in the forests? I'm working with your gaffer Owen Taylor right now on a film but I haven't had a chance to discuss anything... figured I'd ask you instead. :rolleyes:

Its the same as a book light. Its really just another way to fill a frame. I think it feels omniscient and natural. You could get a similar look by throwing a full flood Fresnel light through a few frames like full grid or bouncing a flooded fresnel off muslin. Some muslin can let hard light through, which is an interesting way to mix qualities of light through one source. I've used the book light in a lot of different ways over the years; Like using a light grid on the outside and filling the light on the ultra bounce but spotting in a parcan on one side, then placing that hot spot at a reflective angle. Gives it a little meaner look. I picked up on the technique while doing my first feature... I knew the quality of light i wanted and how it looked on the characters face by eye, but not how to achieve it. I pestered my Gaffer/Key Grip daily telling him that it didn't look right during a lot of set ups. I had suggested doing double muslin (which gives a similar look... almost identical) but he had refused to listen... I think because its not a typical lighting style here in vancouver and Im young, so he must have seen me as some kid not knowing what I was doing (hehe, something I have learned to deal with in a humble way). For 3 days they were stacking 3 4x4 frames random diffusions and then a 6x6 frame of muslin and still wasn't looking the way I wanted it to look. Finally on the last day in this key location, one of the lamp ops suggested to the gaffer doing a book light and he set one up during the first set up and I was thrilled to finally see what was in my head on the monitor. The Gaffer ended up taking credit and the lamp ops jokingly called it the "Earl Light" after the gaffer for the rest of the show. In fact I often get weird looks from crew when I ask them to build one, sometimes angry looks from the older chaps... but that look fades and soon they are crowding behind monitor. It is difficult to move and tweak, its time consuming, and requires a lot of light... but I like my photography to feel honest... a book light is just another tool to help me. Sounds great Mikael. Seems like it would be a good technique for what your attempting. Another note on how i lit #2. I had a 12x12 Silver reflector with a baby, tweenie, and 300w arri along a triple header spud to bounce back and create reflections on the characters skin... you can mainly see it on his lips. But the main light was coming from 3 leko's with 19º barrels about 50ft back.

No problem Mikael. Just remember that its more important to ask yourself why the light needs to look a curtain way instead of mimicking something else. Its important to know your technical as much as your theory, it should be 50/50. In fact knowing both it extremely liberating artistically. Watch movies and study the psychological aspects of quality of light, contrast, and the composition of light. Its very subjective, so study yourself and understand what caused you to emote within a story and how the lighting assisted it and why. The 4 light fays are the same as a Mini 9light. I usually use mini9's but the rental place was out of the ones with AC splays. Thanks Norm. How did the reinstall go? For #2 I pushed the light to as hot as i could before losing detail in his shirt. Then I bounced light off the floor to add texture to the walls behind him. #4 I keyed the actor to a +1.5 stops. Same for 6 and 7. The neg fill brought that down to a -2.5 to -3.5 under... but its hard to be certain. My memory has faded. But the lighting was brought to a pretty high contrast.

I had half color temp straw on all the lighting, which is pretty much half way to what I wanted. I typically want to do a little desaturating in post so I find myself often taking my colors part of the way there on set, and completing the look in post. But if I can take it all the way I will... its just sometimes i look for really rich tones and it kills the exposure I want from the light. I'll for sure post it when its done.

Hell ya buddy! Get ya up here on a trip. I'll let you know when its all done!

I used Par 64 Very Narrow Spot blubs. I gelled all the lights with half color temp straw for the golden tone. I had planned on using Lee's "Wheat" gel in combo with CTS, but budget didn't work out. I was lucky to get the CTS from the gel lady at White's. She happened to find a half roll and just give it to me when I was loading the truck. Thats a fair assessment. Everyone who stayed late got a tip as well as a bottle of wine. Love those girls and guys. Haha; George Clooney... thats Ross Taggard! Very well known and amazing Saxophone player. Thanks Jim. I think thats my favorite shot too.

Thanks Mike and Jamie. I lit the copy room scenes with 2 x 4light fay's on the ground bouncing off a 6x6 ultra bounce and back through 6x6 unbleach muslin. To control the spill we just pony clipped solids to the outside of the frames as well as did a bit of flopping, but I leave extra solid on the side and top so that I can shape the source depending on the blocking. You can see in the pict I dropped the down the solid to shape the top part of the 6x6. I also used a 6x6 double net that I pony clipped to the 1 half of the frame to bring down the key where it starts to come in at a reflective angle. For shots like pict 4 and and inserts I used 4x8 Muslin flop and bounce a full flood fernel off it, in pict #4's case I had the flop on the floor and a tweenie. On the fill side I taped and hung up solids around the action as negative fill. This picture shows the source and the neg fill draping over head on the left. The copy room scenes all have a black promist 1/8th.

Thanks Stephen!

About three weeks ago I shot and co-directed a music video for my mother whom is a Jazz vocalist. It was my first music video in almost 2 years. I stepped away from doing music video in a bitter way. I got my start directing an shooting my own videos for local artist and had a few bad experiences with recording artist not being 'artists' at all. Right after that I got my first feature and found my real passion in narrative projects. However, this is my mother! I had to do a great video for her. Unfortunately this was one of the toughest shoots i've done. I found this wonderful photo studio to shoot the video in. It was identical to the description i had in my treatment. We planned a night shoot from 8pm to 6am sunday, taking advantage of the twinkling lights from the harbor and North Vancouver in the background. The video was intended to shoot right after a short film I was scheduled to shoot with some friends during the week. I was going to roll over the left over film stock, camera, lenses, grip & elx, crew, and free post to accomplish the video with little cost to my father and mother. However, the short canceled days before we went to camera due to issues with the actors union, leaving me with none of the resources that were promised. Luckily my 1st AC volunteered to help out and got my mentors modified Arri IIC + Zeiss Super Speeds to shoot the video on. Getting Grip and Elx gear was easy too because of my relationship with William F. Whites here in Vancouver... the problem was Grips and Elx crew... all my usual collaborators were either out of town or on another gig and couldn't work the hours on a sunday. Through the co-director I got a few inexperienced, but extremely hard working guys, but they weren't available the whole shoot; so I decided that to save time I should pre-rig the studio. I spent two days rigging with my two best friends (whom were the production designer and art director combo) and came in early the shoot day to lay in all the lighting and grip for the first shot, which was a complicated steadicam shot. The shoot commenced and we had some difficulties of the bat. My mothers make up was behind by about 45min and we were waiting... as soon as that was done we got the 2 steadicam shots in the can... and then poop hit the fan. The 2nd AC, and 2 of 3 grip/elx swings left. Then the key members of the band were ready to leave. I scrambled to accommodate them and then the next thing im hearing is that our gorgeous model has to leave, then the dancers... it was 1am and everyone was ready to go even tho everyone knew the hours before hand. Haha... needless to say, with only 1 grip/elx swing, the steadicam op (whom covered for the 2nd loading mags and pretty much key gripped), and the 1st AC... I seriously got my ass kicked! I ended up getting very sick for 2 weeks after. In hindsight I should have made it a 2 day shoot... I shot the steadicam stuff with a test roll of 5219 and the rest of the video on 5217 that I purchased from the short that canceled. I transfered the video to HDCAM SR and then Apple Pro Rez to disk. I lit most of the video with a row of 5 very narrow parcan's back lighting the scene. I was going for a very organic feeling video. Classy, elegant, golden tones, a softness to the contrast in the image, with a bit of mystery. During the night I continually focused a 1 of the 5 parcan's down the lens to soften the image as well as give me 3 dimensions of motion; the background with the lights moving back and forth with the my handheld movement, the dancers in the middle ground, and the flares in the foreground. I'm happy with the results however I wish I had a do over on this one... I think there are quite a few things that I would have prepared better for, mainly scheduling an crew. The cancelation of the short film really hit me harder then I thought it would. Because of that disappointment I let the video suffer. I learned a valuable lesson in that even if a passion project falls through, I still have the best job in the world; and no matter what the project, it should never be considered a burden. Here are some stills from the shoot:

LOOKS AWESOME Stephen! What's the plan for post? All chemical workflow?

Last weekend I got to shoot a 10 page short film with the RED. It was my first time shooting the RED camera. We shot 4k 2:1 (1.85:1) and a set of Zeiss Super speeds. First thing that I noticed was that the RED had a distinct look to it. It?s very sterile and polished. I personally love grain and typically trying and bring that out; this being digital that wasn't an option and I don?t conceder noise to have the same feel that grain does. So I decided not to fight against the lack of texture, but to go with the polished look and build on that for this project. The short plays out in a very stark surreal narrative, so I built on that. I decided to not motivate the lighting in the most surreal of the settings in the film. Use it in a very stylized manner and placing it in unrealistic places, but if the light a quality that is very naturalistic. I tried to give everything a very clean textured light. I shot the majority of the film on a 35mm lens to give the viewer a certain subjectivity within the perspective, breaking it a few times to achieve an effect. I mainly used uncorrected tungsten light for the majority of the scenes in which take place in a copy room, going for a warmer look. I also shot the copy room scenes with a 1/8 Black Promist. There is a brief opening to the film in an old abandoned theatre. I shot that scene with a 1/2 Black Promist and the same warm look. To contrast that, the office scenes I lit with white top light with no diffusion filters on the lens. I had the grips and elx make a blanket light with a 6x6 ultra bounce with 8 x 4' daylight Kino tubes tied up to the ultra bounce, and then in front of that we draped an 8 x 8 Muslin. We rigged that over the action. I used a piece of gear that was new to me on this project. The Cartoni Sigma fluid head. It was great! It was on par with the O'Connor 25/75 but with a digital interface and it felt a bit lighter too. Going to try and keep one around from now on! We ran into some RED bugs right off the bat. I had done a camera test with the RED the night before and everything in the workflow worked fine. The next day the QT proxies were coming up pure black. After the first night of footage, I took the stuff home and transferred it and went to screen it all? only to see black. I started to think that a whole days work was lost. The next day, Norm Li, the cameras owner and fellow DP came down with his Mac and discovered some error that happened when I changed the viewing color space from REDspace to RAW on set. The footage became viewable in RED alert only after we clicked the default button. After this we couldn't switch the viewing space back to REDspace because all it would show was a black screen. Very odd. Still no explanation for it? Other then that I love the camera. It was the best digital experience I've ever had. I loved everything about it, the menus, eyepiece, weight, LCD, tapeless workflow, 150min record time on REDDrive, ect. I can't wait to shoot it again. I feel I still have a lot to learn from it. HERE are some stills:

I heard about this film last week. Its a documentary on Haskell by his son. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0420952/ I haven't seen it but I really want to. It might help.