Andrew Koch

A couple of other things: When using an electronic ballast, there is often a delay when striking the lamp, Once you push the igniter button, let go and wait. It can take as long as 10 seconds sometimes. Don't keep pressing the button, this just cancels it out and you will get no strike. If it takes much longer than this, then there is a problem. Different ballasts have different draw. I had a 1.2K that drew exactly 16.67 Amps (same as a 2K). A gaffer I know has worked with ones that have drawn a whopping 18-19 Amps. Some ballasts have the amperage written on the ballast (I'm not sure how accurate they are). To play it safe, give a 1.2K it's own 20Amp circuit. Color Temperature varies more on smaller units like the 575 and 1.2Ks. Since the globes are handmade, it is much harder for the smaller globes to be as consistent as the bigger ones because more precision is required. Many of these smaller units will be much cooler than 5600K. At checkout, get a color temp meter (if you don't have one, you can usually rent one for about 20 dollars, but this is no guarantee that it will be calibrated), and find out the color temp for each unit. Then label each light on place where it won't get too hot and melt off or gunk up the light. This way you will have an idea of how much correction gel to put on each light. If you are shooting where it is a bit cold, don't just shut off the HMI. The extreme temperature change can cause the lens to crack. Put a scrim in front of the lens for about 15 minutes before shutting of the lamp. The hot scrim will keep the lens warm and allow it to cool off slowly. This is also a reason to put the lens in the slot closest to the globe. I have never heard of putting scrims behind the lens, I was always told to do it the other way, but that does not necessarily mean it is the rule. I would be curious to hear other's thoughts on this. The head cable for 575s and 1.2Ks look almost identical, but the keys are oriented differently. Make sure you have them properly labeled. Often the rental house will color code them. Yellow for the 1.2Ks and Green for the 575s, Red for 2.5K, Blue for 4K (It might be different depending on location). Some electronic ballasts will have 2 inputs, each for a different wattage. Both of these are hot, so make sure you cover the one that is not in use. A great book that covers all of this in detail is Set Lighting Technicians Handbook by Harry C. Box.

I agree about the earthed ground. In a city like LA it is safer and more practical to have a floating ground and this is legal in Los Angeles. In response to the second paragraph, movies were made for decades without grounds because everything ran on direct current which doesn't need to be grounded. With the advent of HMI's the industry had to switch to AC. This resulted in a need for a grounded system. Just because things were done in the past doesn't make them okay (asbestos in costumes and curtains for example). But I must apologize for hijacking the thread. You are right tim, this is more appropriate for another thread.

I was best boy on a show where production kept plugging in an air compressor without telling me. The breaker kept tripping. We were shooting on a backlot and the art department for some big budget commercial was setting up next door. They kept plugging in their air compressor into one of my lunch boxes without asking me. Even after we told them to cut it out, they tried to do it again. Considering, that our own production's compressor was tripping the breaker, I was pretty irritated at the other production.

I don't mean to be harsh, but this very irresponsible advice. Don't even think about running an AC system without being completely grounded. If there is a short in any of the equipment, you will not be protected and the results could be fatal. It is totally not worth risking killing people on set to keep some lights on. It is also illegal. When someone dies, the authorities will ask why you didn't ground your genny. "We needed to get the shot" won't cut it. You could try an earthed ground as Tim suggested as long as it is done properly.

This is where you make creative choices. Averaging everything out is not always the best solution. You could expose for the highlights and make the shade look darker, or expose for the shade and make the direct sunlit areas brighter. There are no requirements for exposure. Shoot some tests and see what you like.

If you want to cover the heads, you can make rain hats out of Celo screen. If a drop of water hits the lens, it is quite possible that the lens will crack. This is particularly dangerous if rigged overhead because the glass could fall on the actors. I would be more concerned about anybody who is standing in the shower (actors, crew) The shock could be fatal if any of those lights fall due to the high conductivity of water. Definitely put every light on a GCFI. I agree that you should consult a very experienced gaffer who has worked in this type of situation. If you can, have the water completely shut off in addition to the knobs in the shower. Make sure you are abiding by all safety regulations, what ever they may be for your area. I know that SAG has it's own rules for working with actors.

I really like bouncing light off of unbleached muslin. I usually put it on a large frame, but on a spec commercial I was gaffing, we were REALLY low on budget and all we had for bounce was a 4x4 beadboard. The keygrip had some unbleached muslin and attached it to the beadboard. I was really happy with the results. I'm not sure what your budget is, but if you're in a pinch, this is something you could do for a very soft warm light.

In California, there are several MFA (not MA, that's only for film studies) programs specifically focused on Cinematography. They are conservatory based programs. AFI is one of those programs where you apply for their cinematography program specifically. I went to Grad school at Chapman University in Orange County, California. When I was there it was a general production degree with cinematography as an optional emphasis, but now they have changed their program to a conservatory where you apply specifically to the Cinematography program. UCLA also has a specific cinematography program, but I don't know much about it. I talked to a couple of my colleagues who went there and said it was pretty good. In my opinion, the best way to determine which school you want to go to is to visit them. Take a trip to Southern California for a week and visit ALL of the grad schools. Take the tours and get as much information from the school as possible, but more importantly, make sure you talk to the students (and not just the ones hired to give you the tour). Find out first hand what they think of the school. Since, they're not being paid by the school, they won't sugar coat it for you. A major aspect of Grad school is networking. See what the students are like at these schools. Do they have good attitudes, good work ethic? Are they passionate about what they do? It's kind of hard to determine this when touring a school, but ask around.

I was told by an old timer that it used to be common practice to wear steel toed shoes on set, but he now doesn't recommend them because if something heavy falls on on them, the steel in the shoes can actually cut off the toes of the person wearing them. The last poster seems pretty knowledgeable, so I could be wrong about this. At the very least, don't wear open-toed shoes, but I'm sure you already knew that. If you have worked on smaller shows, you may have noticed that sometimes the Grip is also doing double duty as an electric. I don't know how it is done in Canada, but in Los Angeles, if done according to protocol, grip and electric are two completely separate departments. They are also separate unions. If Canada operates the same way, be mindful of this and make sure you stick to your departmental duties. Don't start running cable or setting lights. The electricians will not like that. The only reason to do something like that would be if the key grip or best boy grip asks you to for some strange reason (They might if it is a really small show and there is a shortage of people, but this is something your superior will have worked out with the other department, hopefully) Never run on set. I don't care how much of a hurry you are in. It is dangerous, you waste needed energy for the long hours and the drive home, and it makes you look bad because people will think your brain is scattered. It is also a great way to show that you are new and inexperienced. I'm am saying this because when I first got on a decent sized show, I really wanted to prove myself and show that I was a hard worker and could get the job done fast. So when someone called for something, I would run to get it. One of the guys in my department was nice enough to pull me aside without embarrassing me any more than I had embarrassed myself and explained to me that it was inappropriate and dangerous to run on set. Good luck and learn as much as you can. Work smarter, not harder. For example, take a little extra time to grab that muscle cart if you need to haul over a bunch of sandbags. You won't win any points for lugging 4 on each shoulder,

A bigger concern of mine over the term "filmmaker" is who gets to have the title. I don't think this is much of an issue with the members of this forum since most have worked in several positions, but my concern is that some outsiders, and some new students see the term "filmmaker" as being synonymous with "director." To me, a sound designer is as much a filmmaker as a director or cinematographer or gaffer, key grip, or producer. People who do not work in our industry get this skewed perspective from things like "A Film by ****" or "A **** Film" in the opening credits. I am not trying to downplay the role of the director. It is an insane amount of responsibility with ridiculously high stakes and I have a lot of respect for the people who do it. I just wish that some people would realize that it is not the only major job on a film.

Bruce sees the Joker threaten to hold the world hostage on the television. broadcast from a remote hidden location. To show that Bruce has just come to realize the gravity of the situation, the camera does a 360 spin around his head. Bruce: He might be the Joker, but this is one serious son of a b***h

Are you planning on getting a regular 16 or Super 16mm. I'm not sure about regular, but with super, The PL mount will give the most options in terms of really good glass. With the Planar (PL) mount, you can use either Super 16 or 35mm motion picture lenses. A wide angle zoom lens with an aperture of 2 that is of good quality is going to be pretty expensive. I really like the Canon 8-64mm T2.5 Zoom. It is fairly wide and not too slow, and it doesn't breath that much, but I believe it costs somewhere between 7 and 10 thousand, but I could be way off on this number. It could be more or less, but I know it's not cheap. If you end up doing regular 16mm, you could do a bayonet mount. This will limit you to older lenses and none of the current 35mm lenses will work on it, but zeiss makes a great 10-100mm T2 Lens for regular 16mm in bayonet mount. It even does macro. It is pretty sharp, but it has some drawbacks. Unless you are shooting in Macro, the minimum focus is something like 4ft (not terrible, but at times can be annoying for certain shots) and the lens also breaths quite a bit. I personally am not a fan using 35mm still lenses adapted for 16mm. One problem with this is that it is hard to find 35mm lenses that are wide enough. Sure, an 18mm lens is wide in 35mm, but on a 16mm camera, that is not very wide. A 9.5mm lens designed for 35mm that is of good quality is going to be very expensive. Another problem with still lenses is that they tend to breath more than cine lenses. They don't have gears for follow focus, so you would need to modify them to work with certain cameras. The focus scale is also much smaller because they weren't designed for an AC to pull focus from the side. Good glass is not cheap and can often cost more than your camera. But it makes all the difference. You could rent your lenses. If you decide to go that route, make sure your camera has a PL mount.

I think the semantics don't really matter. Most music "VIDEOS" are shot on 35mm. We don't call them music "FILMS" unless they are really long and have a narrative structure like Michael Jackson's "Thriller," and then they might be referred to as a Short Film. I will be a hypocrite and completely contradict myself in the next sentence however. I do find it a little frustrating that there are several FILMschools in the USA, including Southern California, that only teach video production and completely avoid teaching film.

Make sure your generator is grounded. In Los Angeles, you can have a "floating ground" where everything is grounded back to the generator, which means no metal parts of the generator can touch the ground. You can usually do this with a block of wood. Laws are different for each city and this may not be permitted where you are. Some cities will require you to drive a huge metal stake deep into the ground (I believe it is at least 8 ft) and attach it to the grounding wire. You need to be properly grounded for a GFCI to function properly. Definitely get a GFCI. Taping the cable is definitely not a safe way to go. This will help make it somewhat safer, but I am still not sure if this would be a safe setup. Talk to a licensed electrician because if anything goes wrong and someone gets hurt, telling the the authorities that you heard it was safe on an internet forum won't cut it. This is not meant as a criticism of this forum. The people on this forum are very smart and knowledgeable and usually the info is solid. I'm just saying this so you can legally cover your behind.

I personally have never walked from a shoot and I hope I never have to. That is not to say that it is never warranted. I have been on several shoots in the past that did warrant leaving. It had nothing to do with the money. I knew the money would be crap going in and had already agreed to it. The best reason to leave is when your personal safety is concerned. I was on a set where we had been told what the shooting conditions were to be and they were fine. The conditions were quite different upon arrival. Things were done that threatened my safety and the safety of others. I voiced my concerns but was completely ignored. I didn't leave because I was concerned that word would get around that I was unreliable and difficult to work with. Fortunately, no one was hurt, but I can look back now and realize that I made the wrong decision. I was VERY new and was afraid to make waves, but that's no excuse. What I should have done is told them that I could not work in this dangerous situation and if they still didn't listen, then I should have walked. Besides, who cares what they think of me. It's not like I would ever want to work for them again. Everyone must have personal boundaries and there are certain things that are just unacceptable. Shooting in a desert with not enough water is grounds for quitting. Don't just leave, tell the production you need water and if they don't take immediate steps to remedy the situation, then you need to leave because you are putting your life at risk and explain that to them. Just an example. A person should only leave if absolutely necessary, and sometimes it is. Don't jeopardize your health or safety out of fear of some producer badmouthing you.

If you are working with nonlinear loads like electronic dimmers and ballasts, you should get a TRUE RMS voltmeter and amperage meter, otherwise your lreadings could read a bit low. I have a relatively inexpensive multimeter and it usually works fine, but can sometimes read a bit low when using electronic ballasts. I think it's time for me to upgrade as well. I have heard great things about the Flukes, but cannot speak from personal experience. The only thing that has kept me from getting one is the price tag.

I'm glad that you keep your days at a maximum of 12 hours. I wish more productions would operate this way. The thing is, paying a PA $20 dollars per hour might seem like a lot when it is coming out of your own pocket for a 12hr day. And if you're on a very low budget, that would be a considerable expense. But it is different when it is a large production working the PA's 18 hours a day. I know a PA who make $200 a day, but he often works 16-17 hours a day and there is no overtime. If you were to divide this into an hourly wage, it would be approximately 10 dollars an hour plus time and a half from hour 8-12 and double time from hour 12-17 according to California Law. It's better than minimum wage, but not by much. I'm glad that you appreciate your crew and try to give them opportunities to move up. I hope you keep your 12 hr maximum. It's better for everyone.

I'm sure many of us on this forum have done our share of freebies. I certainly have done a hefty amount of them in the past. This is how I learned and built up experience. This is fine when you are brandspanking new to the business and have absolutely no connections or experience, but eventually you need to get paid for your work. It is necessary for survival. It is impossible to pay rent without making money. I still can't understand how someone can work for 3 months on a no budget feature for free and still afford to live in LA. I can barely pay rent right now and I get paid to work. Matthew W. Phillips, is the reason that you don't pay your PA's because you can't afford to? If you are making something that is ultra low budget, I could see how that could be a situation. I just hope that you realize what a huge favor these PA's are doing for you. When someone works for free, they are a volunteer. Do you show them appreciation and say thankyou everyday to each of them. Do you feed them hot meals (not Pizza or Subway) every six hours. Do you compensate them for gas/ lodging, etc... If people are working for free for you, these things are the BARE MINIMUM. And I'm sure if you had a bigger budget you would pay your PAs. I know some PA's who make $250 a day. I don't know what the minimum wage is for a PA other than $8 per hour in California, but being a PA doesn't necessarily mean crappy pay either. This thread has gotten rather argumentative. I think everyone on this thread has interesting points and perspectives and I hope we can respect them all.

Changing the rating means you are either overexposing or underexposing. If you rate the film higher than film manufacturer's ISO, then you are underexposing it. If you rate the film lower, then you are overexposing it. Halfing or Doubling the ISO equals one full stop. 500 rated at 1000 is a full stop under for example. ISO numbers are in increments of 3rds (Ex. 100, 125, 160, 200, 250, 320, 400, 500, 640, 800, 1000). Here is one simple way to rate your film. Let's say you have 5218 Vision2 500T (or 7218 for 16mm). Kodak is rating the film at 500, but you want to rate it at 320, effectively overxposing the film by 2/3 of a stop (since 320 is 2 increments away from 500. 1/3 would be 400). Set your lightmeter to 320. Place a greycard under flat even light that you want to be rendered as white light (Ex. If you want tungsten to look "normal" on tungsten film, then light it with tungsten light and don't let any lights of other color temperatures spill on to the card.) Take a meter reading of the greycard. Shoot it at the same stop the meter says. If it says 5.6, shoot it at a 5.6, do not make any compensations. By setting the meter to 320, the meter is automatically giving you the reading that will overexpose the film by 2/3 of a stop. Shoot the rest of the roll with your meter set to 320 and do not make any compensations, let the meter do the math for you. Make a note for the colorist to time to your greyscale. When you go to print or telecine this footage, the colorist will calibrate the printer lights or telecine machine to your greyscale to compensate for your overexposure and bring it back to normal. The result is richer blacks, tighter grain, and greater saturation.

Are you transferring everything from the shoot for editing? Do you plan on doing a scene by scene color correction when the project is edited together? If this is the case, try not to spend lots of time locking in your looks, especially avoid completely crushing the blacks and pushing the highlights to their limit, you will need these details for later color correction. Get a nice, clean, flat transfer. This is not the final look of your film, but rather your "new digital negative." Once everything is cut together, you can do a tape to tape color correction scene by scene from this "digital negative." It is sort of a poor mans DI. When I was a student, I found this method to be pretty fast and cheap since the films were short with minimal footage and we weren't spending lots of time tweaking shots that may not even end up in the final film. (IF you have shot a lot of footage, as in a feature, you might be better off doing a cheap transfer for dailies and then re-transfer your selects to HD). The fastest way to do telecine is to have the colorist calibrate exposure and color with your greycard. As far as etiquette, the obvious rules apply: "please, thankyou, etc..." It is important to have a clear idea about what you want going in. It is alright to occasionally change your mind, but this can be frustrating for all parties involved and will cost you more money. A good colorist is very skilled and can offer a lot in terms of the look of the film, but they don't necessarily know what you are going for because they probably don't know the story yet. On a student shoot, colorists doing your dailies are unlikely to have read the script and had lengthy discussions with you about the look. They simply don't have the time for that. This is why when you first meet, try to SUCCINCTLY tell your colorist what the story is about and the overall look you are going for. Then when you are going through the footage, you can be more specific. Terms like "cooler" or "warmer" are okay, but this does leave some room for interpretation. It helps to know a little about color theory. Make sure you understand that blue is the opposite of yellow, red is the opposite of cyan, and green is the opposite of magenta. Knowing information like this will lead to less surprises and better communication. Find out if the facility is capable of secondary color correction and power windows, this will give you more options. 3 major controls the colorist has is shadows, midtones, and highlights, so you can be specific about what you want done to these aspects of the image EX: "could you bring down the blacks just a bit but bring up the highlights." These 3 controllers can be labled in other ways such as lift, gamma, knee, etc..., but I have never heard an objection from a colorist about referring to them as shadow, mid, and highlight. Once you feel you have clearly explained what you want the colorist to do, let him/her completely create the look for the shoot before you give your feedback. For example, If you say you want something to look really blue and as the colorist is attempting to make it happen, you interrupt by saying "it needs to be much bluer than that." That is not fair to the colorist because they are not done yet. Let them finish and then they will say "hows that" Then you can say "perfect" or "could you please make it bluer." Keep in mind that your eye will gradually adjust to certain things in the room. For example, if you keep looking at a blue image for a while on the monitor, your eye will start to time it out and you will want to make it even bluer than what you originally intended. If this happens, look away from the monitor at other things in the room and give your eyes time to readjust. Let your colorist know about this, they may have some advice about this. Try to learn about how to read a waveform monitor and what IRE units mean. Know that if your blacks are below zero IRE, they will be crushed and your whites will be clipped above 100 IRE. You will get more out of the session if you know some basics, but also be upfront with your colorist. Let them know you are a student and that you are open to suggestions and would appreciate their advice and guidance in the process. Show the colorist that you appreciate their expertise and generosity of their time (they are most likely giving you a heavily reduced rate). Try to establish a good working relationship with your colorist and request to work with them on future projects if you like their work. I personally think it is a nice gesture to bring some sort of thankyou gift for the colorist. If you bake, bring the colorist a cookie or two for example. Don't go too overboard with this because it might be considered inappropriate or against company policy. Just use your best judgment and if in doubt, ask.

Could you clarify whether you are doing a print or just a telecine or both? Since you said you are not planning on theatrical release, I'll first address the issue of a digital transfer. In this circumstance this process has nothing to do with the lab or printing, but rather happens in the transfer house (which could be in the same building as the lab, but it is not the lab). The fastest and simplest way to change the ASA of your film is to shoot an 18% greycard at the beginning of your roll under a flat light that you want to appear as white light (For example: If you're shooting tungsten film with tungsten lights and want the lights to appear white, then light the chart with a tungsten light) Set your lightmeter to 320ASA and take a reading of the chart. If the meter reads 5.6 for example, then shoot the chart at 5.6, there is no need to do any compensation. By lowering the ASA to 320 you are automatically overexposing the 7219 by 2/3 of a stop, If you wanted to overexpose by a third of a stop, you would set your meter at 400ASA. Now that you have shot the chart, leave your meter at 320 and shoot the scene normally without any compensation since the meter is doing the math for you. Once your film is processed, you now have a negative that is consistently overexposed from shot to shot bye 2/3. The benefit to this is that you have more information on the film, particularly in the shadows. When the colorist puts the film through the scanner, the first thing they will see is that overexposed greycard. All they have to do is dial down the brightness and neutralize the color so that it is a pure colorless grey. By making the chart look normal they are essentially "printing down" by 2/3 of a stop. Now the rest of your scene will have been "printed down" as well. If you can supervise this process, it would be ideal, if not then make sure you give explicit instructions to the transfer house to time to your greyscale. In terms of contrast, this is something you can very easily control in a transfer room with your colorist. By "printing down" you get richer blacks and less grain and more saturated colors. By printing down, you are using more of the finer, smaller crystals, and burying the larger ones, If you are making a print, you would still shoot a greycard the same way. Just make sure you give explicit instructions to the lab to time to the greyscale. When you get the print back, check the printer lights. Find out what the standards are for your lab. For example, standard printing lights for 16mm at one particular lab could be 25 for each color with 6 printer points equaling one stop (with some labs it could be 8, etc). If you over expose by 2/3 and they print down 2/3, then your printer lights would be something like 29 across. These numbers won't necessarily be that perfect (each color is not necessarily going to be the exact same number) but this should give you an idea of how you exposed your scene and how the lab printed your footage.

If you do use the 1200W firestarters and are lighting through the trees, make sure you have enough distance from the leaves or anything else because you will burn them and possibly cause a fire, hence the name. If you already know this than you'll know what to do.

Take a compass to the location. I don't know what country you are in because you did not specify, but if you are in the Northern Hemisphere, then the sun rises in the east and sets in the west and moves along the southern sky. So determine with the compass exactly where east is. Then use a clinometer toward that direction to determine the height of the horizon line relative to where you are standing AKA azimuth. This will help you if there are hills, trees or anything else. Make a note of this. Use a program like sunpath. Plug in the location and day you are shooting. It will give you a plot of where the sun will be every 15 minutes in azimuth. It will also tell you the time of sunrise and sunset, but you will need to know that clinometer info that you collected to determine the actual sunrise for your location. Sunpath is expensive (about $200), but it is very good. If you want to spend less, there is a program for a PDA called planetarium that is very good and very cheap. Hope this helps. One more important thing, please go into your profile settings and change your username to your first and last name as this is a requirement of this forum.

When you say print for 3200, this is a bit confusing. Printing for 3200K could mean printing for a tungsten projector rather than something like a Xenon projector. I assume you are referring to timing the print to make the tungsten units used on set to appear white. To take out the green spike will mean that the colorist will have to add magenta to the print. This will alter the look of your tungsten units unless the DP used plus green on the lights to match the fluorescents. If everything is equally green, you can easily time out the green, but since you have a mix of colors, it will be much more difficult for the colorist to time out the green spike without messing up the color of the tungsten lights. I have heard some mixed opinions about color charts. If you are making a print, I feel it's wise to shoot one at the head of every roll. If you are doing a supervised telecine you should at least shoot one in the beginning. This calibrates the session based on your original intentions on set rather than trying to guess.

Here is the standard way to calibrate NTSC video. If you use PAL, I'm sure there is a similar method http://www.videouniversity.com/tvbars2.htm