Adrian Sierkowski

The flat diffuser helps but isn't really all that necessary I find. Generally I'll cup my hand behind the lumisphere to shield ambient light and get a more directional reading. The IVF has cine, you just have to cycle through all the shutter speeds to get to them. I think it's 8fps though something like 175fps, though may be 360 fps, I haven't changed mine from 24 in a long long while since most of my work is on digital these days.

I have a 508 zoom spot and it is fine; though I have found that you need to hold the read button in for a few moments to get the actual reading. it reads true compared to my Minolta IVf and 758. As long as you're not getting whacky with shutter angle or high fps, the non-cine will be fine. Personally I do a lot of those type of calculations in my head. I would recommend the 758 overall, but starting on a 508 and keeping it around as a back up isn't a bad idea. I would send any used meter to be calibrated though. I much dislike the 858 touch screen. EVERYTHING took longer to do on it vs the old scroll wheel.

If i'm doing a wide living room, I would want to get practicals in the scene to motivate the lighting. Then, generally, I would put lights overhead of those practicals (possible litemats with 40 degree snap grids) pushing the light to where it needs to be for the wide. Or maybe, we are doing an "overhead" light and It'll be a jemball with muzz and skirted off the walls. or a light from another room which could be anything, really, going through a frame (6x or 8x generally) using a doorway as flags and letting it fall off. It really depends on what you're doing with the shot. Sometimes it might just be best to have 2 lamps next to a couch giving off just enough light to make it right and cheating with something to hit talent just off of frame on either side. I think the approach you choose really comes down to your budget in time and money as well as the overall look you're going for. For some reason I always first think of Gregory Crewdson photographs for night int living rooms, but want to make it way more natural feeling. Basically take something like this: And tone it down to be more natural (which in my mind would be dimmer, on the whole, warmer in color, and less directional in lighting, softer perhaps is the right word). But in this type of photo, for me at least, I can sort of hyper see what the lighting is doing, and then work it to something that suits my personal taste.

It's most likely the bulb being too old. Generally, before I went to mostly LEDs, we would color meter each HMI at the start of a show and make up it's correction pack to get it to 5600 and not be green (or purple).

Generally your limitations will be space, power, and time ( also budget ). You kinda do the best you can with the time and space you get. I tend to large led sources since it's more even and generally I've already got those in the budget.

I have had issues with strip before. Here in the states, we would just rent a litemt 8 which is essentially that. If I wanted to do it on the cheap; I'd get a few Amaram F21x or C lights (or the F22s) and zip tie them together and to the frame. But that's a lot clunkier. I guess you could source good enough LED strip and affix it to coroplast (maybe even white coro?) with little sides and make essentially a litemat 8 type fixture.

Could and has been either; though I think to a certain extent that comes down to budget and which department has more leftover in it's budget. Hell, I've had CTO and Tokyo blue come out of the camera budget before because, well, that's where there was some money left on the table. Generally, both your lighting and grip order are going to the same rental house, who will stock it on a truck. On my orders, I personally keep ND/colors etc on the electric side, as theres a greater chance they will be doing cuts of them to go on fixtures. But I also might have some pre-skinned 4x4s on the grip side. It's really an academic distinction and not really worth getting too caught up in. (and with ND especially, we are moving pretty quickly into an LED world where ND isn't as used as it once was, as even on HMIs and larger tungsten heads it's often easier to just throw a scrim in from the bag vs cut and affix ND or bring in another stand to the forest)

Generally most trucks will have them pre-skinned; at least the popular flavors. I've found when getting to bigger or more specific things, it'll come out of the lighting budget for expendables for color, or the grip for diffusion. Since it's going on a frame, the grips will skin it/manage all that, and you'll work with them to make sure you have enough empty frames for what you're doing. But a lot of what I have done has been of "ton" trucks, be that 3, 5, or 10 ton which generally have a fixed package. For example: https://cinelease.com/wp-content/uploads/CL_TruckPackage_10Ton_D1.pdf that particular 10 ton has 10 empty frames, ready to be skinned. ( and a 10x12 lavender which I can almost guarantee is never used outside of food/beverage lol)

If it is going ON the light (like a cut of gel) it's generally the electric. If it's going off the light-- such as a 4x4 frame of CTO or whatever (bascially something going on a C-Stand) it'll be the grip. Same with light shaping. If we are using blackwrap (on the head) lighting, v/s a flag.

Why not use an Ergo Rig instead of an easy-rig, if you're shoulder mount then you wouldn't need a hole. Also there are tons of rain jackets out there for differing cameras. I would use one of those and then bag over if needed. You can also look into rain-deflectors to put on the front of the lens to keep it drop free.

I dunno, I like long beach, actually might look in that area next year. Though, I can imagine I'll like it less when we are shooting in the valley.

Obviously you were violating height restrictions in Pasadena Phil.

Try not to shoot to much in the heat of the day, and 100% Shade the camera. On the Red make sure fans go full when It's not recording. The 35 Is good up to 113F according to Arri, raptor is 104. Generally it won't be that hot in the shade in the southwest. Do not leave the cameras in the sun, even powered off. If it's really hot we have done a "cooling tent" to shoot out of (pop up with sides, and portable AC unit) and longer lens through a small opening. Obviously, kills sound and is a pain, but keeps things cool and people safer. Be aware, if it's too hot for the camera, it's probably too hot for the crew. It's really important, when temps get high, to schedule around the mid-day heat. I have had days at Willow Springs where we didn't do that, and nothing and no one worked (116 air temp, ground was at least 180 on the asphalt). You can also do cool packs, but I am always leery about condensation and electronics, and tend to think air-flow via fans is a safer, if louder, bet. A few USB powered ones can help push air through the camera. Obviously, check the rigging on it all to make sure no airflow is restricted. And maybe have a second body on hand if it's going to be really hot if you have to change out to let one cool

If you can get a place with off-street parking, I really quite enjoyed living in Koreatown (wilshire and western for me). It was doubly nice when shooting in DTLA and I could take the metro to set. I'm currently in Burbank. It's fine. Not exactly my cup of tea but I can walk to 3 supermarkets (Smart and Final, Vons, Whole Foods) in about 15 minutes. I could even go to Trader Joes by foot if I wanted to. I just wish there was more to do and more to eat (there are nice cafes and I do enjoy Bob's Big Boy, but it's just a little suburban feeling to me. ) I really loved Pasadena when I lived there, but it's kind of out of the way. I liked that about it, It felt just more-- home-y. But It added 15~20 minutes for most commutes to shoot. The Hospital is lovely though, and I liked that it was close to the mountains and road-trips (which I care about a lot more than the beach, personally). In the end, you'll live near where your partner gets a gig. No matter what you're driving to set somewhere, and rarely are you lucky enough to work right next to where you live. That's the LA thing. I would recommend being close to a supermarket you can walk to, it's nice to walk and get groceries for the day, and hopefully a good cafe. I haven't flt unsafe in any part of LA save for Skid Row-- but maybe that's because I was used to Philadelphia and New York before coming here. Just be aware it's hugely multicultural city-- embrace that and enjoy all the quirks and foods. As for film, it's very heavily around Burbank "The Valley" with some things in Hollywood, and some others on "the westside." there's a lot of filming in DTLA and The Arts District.

One of the ways I often use a Litemat is to wrap the natural light a bit-- generally with a litemat 4 right off of frame as close as I can get it, and as dim as I can get it (to still be doing anything on talent.) I often do this when going from a wide "naturally" lit shot to the close, where we generally want to read a little bit more in the face.