Mathew Rudenberg

I'm looking for some examples of interior car footage (daytime in particular) shot with LED screen backgrounds to show production that it can look good. Preferably from larger shows. I've done a bit of this but don't have any examples that I can get my hands on currently. I'm also curious about your thoughts on this and how best to approach it. I enjoy the controllability of the situation - in particular the windscreen reflection being something you can dial in exactly. I find that with a process trailer I usually have to put a solid up to remove the reflection entirely. However I do find myself forced to do a lot more QC as the plates often have issues - bumps, chroma noise, lens flare - that have to be addressed. Thanks

I was immediately struck by a couple of images in the opening of Godzilla vs Kong. They show a very particular lens flare and a distorted circular bokey reminiscent of a helios. I see online it was shot on Alexa 65 with DNA primes. Are these artifacts typical of DNA primes or was a particular lens was used to create them? Thanks in advance.

That kind of scene is always tricky, there's a couple of ways to approach it, I would say two of the most common options are stylized or subtle. The stylized approach would be to forget about eyelines and impose a strong aesthetic over the scene, ie shoot the whole thing as a moving circle dolly (tarentino style) or shoot each actor with static centered frames (wes anderson style) Neither of these is technically perfectly correct for eyelines but they both tend to work for the most part. For the subtle, or more naturalistic approach it gets more complicated. Basically I would choose a master angle, perhaps over the shoulder of the main character that most of the interactions will be directed towards. Then I would shoot the principle coverage following that eyeline so that all the cuts with his/her closeup would work. Then I would add coverage to characters that have their own interactions that do not work on the primary eyeline (ie the characters turn away). Where you end up on how much coverage you shoot will then depend on the complexity of the scene and the amount of time and cameras you have. I have easily seen a 6 person dialogue scene take most of a day with three cameras shooting every possible eyeline.

The shot at 0:45 is very pretty but also quite grainy... could I ask what iso/ shutter/ stop it was at and if you tried any post filters to reduce the grain?

I have a shoot coming up which involves compositing in a giant tarantula and I'm looking for suggestions on ways to shoot the spider to comp in and make it appear giant. We're shooting on Alexa at 2k and we will be shooting the background plates first, and then later shooting the spider against green on a raised greenscreen so we can get suitable angles. - Slow motion - I believe slow motion usually helps give small objects weight. Is there any recommended frame rate for this type of work? - lenses - I will naturally need to focus rather close. I am also concerned about shadows with how close I will be. I believe the Frazier lens system is often used for this kind of work and supposedly provides increased DOF. However it is quite expensive and we are not a panavision show. Is it worth it and are there other alternatives that are similar in quality. We've been looking into the Optex Excellence, Innovision Probe, and Century Periscope (which would be the cheapest) Any experience and recommendations regarding these lenses? - Lighting - I imagine I will need to light to a rather deep stop while not baking the poor spider. I have two cineo quantum 120s LEDs and a velvet 2 from thelight.es, which I think might be cool enough and bright enough to get the stop I need but would be happy for any suggestions. Also any thoughts on a stop I should aim for? Thank you for your time.

hmm, that is very compelling - the color shift from ND filters, and IR filters in particular, is usually extremely annoying and compromises the image.

I don't think your actors will catch on fire but I'm fairly sure they'll be very uncomfortable and I doubt they'd be able to open their eyes. Other then that it'll probably look good though.

Are you saying the image on the external monitor doesn't manage the image on the red camera? It's been a while since I worked with the Red One, but it's possible you have the gamma set to something like 'raw' or 'log' which doesn't reflect the metadata (the iso, the whitebalance)

Thanks for the tips guys. As I feared they sound useful, but not that useful... I'll probably ask for them but then drop them quick if I get any push back.

I haven't used the Alexa XT and I'm debating internal vs external filters for an upcoming project. I would love to hear thoughts and opinions from ACs, Ops and DPs. Also if I have my facts right. As far as I can tell: Pros - no reflections - light weight - more space in the matte box Cons - Hard to access - have to take the lens off for each filter change I tend to change ND filters fairly frequently as I prefer to maintain a consistent stop and I'm concerned that the extended time necessary to change a filter would outweigh the benefit of not having reflections. Thanks,

Personally I wouldn't take a feature less then three weeks - which is already tight to do anything interesting. I think you could do it but it means stressing every day and compromising all the time. One of my ops constantly heads to Louisiana to shoot these low budget 12 day features. They get through them somehow and he says it's great training. My advice is be selfish - how do you benefit from this if you're not going to have time to make some good looking footage. Does it have a great script and/or stars attached. If not, why bother?

Bringing it in closer would actually increase the amount of softness - a small frame near by creates the same size light source (relative to the subject) as a large frame far away.

I did a little comparison of some vintage cinema lenses on my blog, the Alexa screen grabs at the end might be of interest to you: http://cinetinker.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/comparing-lenses-blur-characteristics.html Thanks for the tests - that meyer gorlitz primoplan bokeh is pretty phenomenal - where do you rent those/are they pl mount? I hadn't heard of those lenses before...

Hello lighting people I'm looking to light a stage for an extended shoot and I want to pepper the set with a fair number of cost effective soft boxes that I can control to create daylight or moonlight fairly quickly. A couple years ago I did a shoot in Montreal where they had these marvelous 4k (4x1000w) 4x4 soft lights - like mini-coops. The gaffer gelled two globes 3/4 CTB for me and left the other two tungsten so we could switch between the two easily. Does a similar light exist in the states? I feel like I only really see coops and space-lights here - neither of which seem quite as convenient. Thanks.

My wife used to be an AC, and she says that video made her feel physically ill :) Not being able to make those fine adjustments or be able to trust your marks is ridiculous, I'm glad they finally saw sense and agreed to make a change.

For what it's worth, the steadicam operating and focus work immediately stood out to me as excellent - so many extremely fast push ins to close and then nailing the landing with no float and near perfect focus. I would imagine that with his love of improvisation David is the kind of director that doesn't like marks or rehearsals, which often leads to the kind of camera work shown in Silver linings playbook. You and Geoff really elevated the visuals of the film with your work. I immediately looked you guys up and noticed that you had worked on The Fighter as well even though Hoyte was not on American Hustle. I was curious if David specifically asked your team back?

I attended a Q&A with him at the Egyptian theatre several years ago where he said that he shot it in black and white so they could save money on lighting - ie use tungsten lights and not have to worry about color balance. Also mentioned the weekends. Maybe the no lighting referred to exteriors?

For your situation I would recommend you consider a slightly different but in many ways simpler and safer approach... What if you hire a balloon operator along with his/her rig? 1) Hiring a balloon operator and equipment would probably be similar in price to hiring and having delivered an aerial lift along with the light and cable needed to power it. 2) you would have an experienced and qualified operator 3) it's relatively mobile and and flexible (compared to a condor). 4) a balloon is far safer - ie. it won't topple over and crush someone/ kill he person in the basket if it isn't properly leveled or the ground shifts. Best of luck!

The more cameras there are the more benefit for me to supervise rather then operate. For a single camera shoot I will always operate. 2 Cameras I prefer not to operate but with the right B-op and Gaffer it's doable. 3 cameras + and it's a disadvantage for me to operate, as my time is better spent managing the cameras.

The beautiful shot of the boat sailing through the ocean at magic hour is incredible. Sadly the print I saw was rather old and in some reels it was hard to tell what the original lighting/ contrast levels were really like...

"As a cinematographer you can only be as good as the director allows you to be" Funny, I say this all the time, nice to see I'm in good company...

Usually if I'm on a show where the c300 makes the most sense malleability is more of a liability then a benefit. If they can't afford a higher end camera they usually cannot afford an experienced colorist and true color correction suite either. While I'd usually prefer to shoot for the color session, in these situations hard experience has taught me it is better to bake in a look that's 80/90 percent there rather then leave color to the whims of an assistant editor messing around in final cut pro.

So I find myself constantly dismayed by the c300. Whatever I do I cannot find a scene file that I like. The gammas all seem way too contrasty, even the cinema2. So frequently I end up shooting in log, not for more latitude in color correction but just to get a decent looking gamma curve. On one shoot I had a Epic and a c300 next to each other and I swear the redgamma3 was less contrasty then the c300 log setting. Then there's the color. I've tried Art Adams Alexa look but the skin tones lost all their color. I've gone through the Abel Cinetech looks. Whatever I do the colors look weird - some are too saturated while others too weak, and skintones always seem off. Do any of you have scene files that you are completely happy with? Thanks in advance

I don't understand this rant - it's not like many of these people weren't involved in films that were terrible (or bad for other reasons including extreme racism and sexism). One of Orson Welles last acting roles was Unicron in the transformers animated movie. Walt Disney may well have been an Anti-Semite and has produced a series of racial parodies in his kids movies. D. W Griffith directed birth of a nation - possibly the most racist movie ever made. Spieberg was the Exec Producer of the live action transformers movie - a remake of a cartoon about giant robots! I fail to see why these guys would be rolling in their graves. I bet many of them would have taken the job if it were offered. Also, apologies for being pedantic but the Yiddish quote is 'Oy vey ist mir' - 'Oh woe am I'. Oy vey literally means oh woe.

I would actually say that silk, especially 1/2 silk, leaves a harder light. However, if you didn't like silk I'd definitely give grid a go as it all comes down to personal preference. Keep in mind you can still choose between full grid, half grid (light grid), and quarter grid. Just as with silk it's a balance between how much stop you're willing to lose and how soft you want the light to be. Why not bring a couple rags and switch them out, that way you can see what you prefer?