Adrian Sierkowski

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.

To get it looking like that, I would 100% use tungsten fresnels if I had the power.

I have always gelled before I diffed—- mostly because it’s a lot easier to color a less diffuse source. Besides, Diff is changed out more often than color in my own experience so better to have it more readily accessible—- and by moving it as close to the edge of fame as possible (thereby making a larger source) you get a higher degree of softening.

Oconnor 100 head

Put a lower wattage bulb in the lamp and use something else to key the talent, flagging it off from elsewhere on the the frame. Black out the daylight and use a very low level blue soft light in the background and a harder warmer light frame right to edge the sheets on the bed.

The last time I cam-opped one of these things for Showtime it was on the C-300MKii. I believe the time before that was one of the disk based Sony XDCams with an HD Zoom. Granted this was all a few years ago. I also almost went onto one using the FS7, but that gig fell through. It's not that you couldn't do it on Arri or Venice, but generally, you'd want something lighter and better on power consumption and that can be easily painted if you're going live to tape, which many are.

Already is hard to get practicals. I guard mine like Smaug currently. Currently, we are ok on the professional globes, but as LED marches forward I could see that one day becoming an issue; though no time soon. Granted Amazon isn't the be-all-end-all of bulb ordering, but if you try to buy and ship to California currently, this is what you get.

Why do all the affordable things have to come up in the middle of a work stoppage

The lamp probably isn't lighting anything at all. I would suspect it's dimmed way down and there are off-screen sources providing the illumination. Personally I would've worked with lite-mat spectrums and snap grids, or astera tubes to start to dial in the colors on the day vs post. If the lamp was lighting it, you would expect the paper on the floor to either be much brighter in luminance, or talent to be much darker. Background as well, personally I would've used a spectrum 2L or something similar to get the lavender type color. Also the image is hazed, it seems.

Generally, when I have no budget on a show and need PL I go for the Pictor Zooms, for price, speed, and weight reasons. I keep toying with the idea of buying a set, but they are so incredibly cheap to rent in LA that it really isn't worth it. I may pick up the 14~30 though, since the 20~55 is often just a little to tight for some spots I wind up in.

Another very good reason to alter your stop is when you get saddled with a really less than ideal location-- where often you're stacking NDs and getting as wide open as possible to hide what's behind the action.

A lot of this depends on the camera. Some SLOG3 cameras are 8 bit and generally pretty not great to work with in SLOG. But, if you are over-exposing everything; then you just over-expose your night scene too-- which means you have to light it. The idea being you'd then bring down the entire scene later on (thus crushing the noise down) and getting an "appropriate" night exposure. If you aren't lighting then perhaps SLOG is the wrong choice for night shooting-- but you will need to actually test this for your situation. Personally, I don't care if a light bulb blows out, especially at night. But in the case of a "character lit only by a lamp" i would re-globe the lamp down low (11 or 25w or an NYX) and then mimic the lamp light with a different unit (like a litemat 4) coming form a similar direction as the lamp. Same with a TV. This depends on the shot you're doing though; but often this stuff will be hidden just off frame. I just recently shot SLOG 3 on an Fs7MKii, which I haven't used in ages. We had some night scenes, and some of these situations as well. I will say I never exposed to the right (on any camera really.. outside of 500T film) and I just looked at the scene via a SLOG3 to REC Lut on my monitor and judged exposure based on that. Occasionally I'd toggle over to LOG to see what the camera sees, and look at the waveform on the camera, keeping the image from crushing the blacks too much. Putting the footage into resolve later on to make some proxies for the director, i didn't notice any real noise. But SLOG in an FS7 is "meatier" than SLOG you'd get in an A7s for example (which is 8bit if memory serves) Also highly recommend using false colors when you can. Personally I like the use them from the camera (some prefer to use it on their monitor but I don't trust camera live outputs fidelity). It really is an extremely useful exposure tool especially for digital.

There are also bungee cam solutions that you can rig off of some ratchet straps looped around the ceiling/roof (closed in the door) https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/585863-REG/Matthews_395330_Red_Bungee_Camera_Mount.html (an example)

I used Elation Monet and Picassos for a stylized dry for wet; and it worked well. It really wasn't supposed to look realistic; but with the haze on the stage it sold pretty well. There's some information around on the film Leviathan which did really exceptional dry for wet. I believe they over-cranked a bit (perhaps to 48ish fps ? it's been awhile) to get the debris (feathers i think?) moving through the underwater world. They were smart to hide the actors mouths in these scenes so sync wouldn't be an issue for audio. Also don't discount the old trick of a Jo-Leko into a little cooking metal tray with broken mirror and water agitated to get some nice caustics. Rosco also makes a water Caustic projector; which looks interesting, but isn't very bright. Could be useful in a closeup: https://spectrum.rosco.com/index.php/2017/11/introducing-the-x-effects-led-projector

From the sun. I don't really think those LEDs will do to much unless you're in a close. 500w led is a bit, but really doesn't compare to sunlight. Could be interesting to use them though a light dome just off camera to help light faces/eyes (something I used to do with a joker 400 or 800 though a chimera many times).

I would recommend looking into some 4x4 mirror boards or at least shiny boards to provide the kind of back-light you see in those stills. You can break them through some 4x4 opal if it's a bit to harsh. I would also get 20x20 hi-lite for your overhead and certainly get a 12x12 ultra bounce (as it can also be a large neg in a pinch. ) For your 20x20 you'll need some good stands, at least grip head combos, as well as rope and bags to tie it off to trees in the event of wind. 12xs and 20xs become rather worrisome if a breeze pics up.

I wasn’t a fan of the 858 at all and have replaced mine with a 758, which I would argue is the best all around meter there has been. The touch screen on the 858 was just too annoying to use on an on set environment (though I did enjoy it’s AA batteries.) I also carry a Minolta IVF as well as a Sekonic 508 Zoom Spot in my kit, mostly as back ups. If I’m metering quick and dirty, I’ll pull the IVF, for anything important it’s 758. Rarely will i be changing shutter angle, and if I am I can adjust that with the EV offsets, or just do the simple calculations (e.g 90 degree takes 1 stop away— so maybe I’ll change the ISO down to compensate etc). Which ever meter you get, if it is used, make sure to get it calibrated.