chris kempinski

Now that the first episode is out on Youtube and Koldcast.tv I can talk about what's going on from a camera and lighting perspective. first here are the links http://www.koldcast.tv/#/video:hunt youtube http://www.youtube.com/user/Riesetheseries#p/u Here's the boring bit. All of the outside stuff was MOL. Steve Goad ( Gaffer to the stars ) ran after us all day with a 2K putt putt for video village and some smoke machines. As you can see with some shots, we had crappy party smokers so the atmosphere was extremely unpredictable. I had a bunch of PA's and art types blowing smoke into garbage bags, ripping holes in them and hiding them behind trees and bushes. When the wind shifted direction it all turned went away, and that happened often. On the next bunch of episodes we are spending the money to get proper smokers and tubing to surround the location. The fight sequence started first thing in the morning, super shafty light, warm, beautiful. Because we were in a valley we lost our sun early, that meant we lost our shafty warm, beautiful too. It ended up being a 24 setup sequence with 2 cameras, one shooting 60fps and wide, the other 24fps and tighter. Once we lost our light I tried using mirror boards from the top of the hill. That managed to help with some background hard hits for our tighter shots but still not what I was hoping for. The other thing we lost out on doing for that scene was a high shot of the fight. I had an AWP man lift with a mitchell mount on the top of the hill, so it would have been almost 75 feet straight down to where the fight was happening. Oh Well, always fighting the clock it seems. I did really like the dream stuff, it was mostly lots of smoke, camera set to 4000K, We did tweak it a fair bit in Final Cut color. Most of this was shot splinter unit. We are very fortunate for our budget to have what we had, 2 cameras, one steadicam, and one studio set-up, a 1500 amp gennie, 10 ton lighting truck, 5 ton grip truck (all thanks to Huyghe Meakes Illumination, the best commercial guys in Vancouver). Next time we are talking three cameras YAY! We had to keep switching the steadicam rig to a bastardized studio rig quite often for hand-held fighting stuff. This episode coming up we are talking about keeping one body left full time as steadicam and having an A, and B cam on most shots. I think this is going to be a life saver in terms of time and energy on poor Mischa, wicked 1st AC by the way, I love long lenses and T1.3 The other thing I thought turned out well was the green screen, Matte painting. I didn't light the green screen... I put my subjects in the light ( diffused ) and the 20X20 green screen in the shade. I'm sure it was rotoscoped but I didn't hear any complaints and it looked pretty good. when I get more time I'll write more in regards to pre-pro on these next episodes. let me know if there are any specific questions, I love reading all your experiences in my spare time!! cheers for now Chris

A quick update... The trailer is out and the series airs november 2nd Download it free from the website cheers

Production just wrapped on this steampunk/action/adventure series. It should be able to download off the website in early November. This is going to be the first chapter that consists of 5, 10 minute webisodes http://www.riesetheseries.com I will post photos when I get the OK cheers Chris

The Lab I use does not admit to "endorse" Ultra, but I've never had a problem with them. They do always give me a verbal warning that they are not responsible if there is rubbing or scuffing. PM me and I'll give you the low down in Vancouver if you want. I don't think any lab will openly admit they can support Ultra as a format...... yet

Hi Chase Great looking work again! I just worked with Jesse on SuperNatural last week and he had nothing but praises about you. It sounds like you did have the "Dream Team" working with you on this one in the grip and lighting department. Congrats, and keep us informed about screenings. Hope we work together soon. Chris

sorry about the confusion. I've been quoted up to $7000 for a conversion to super 16 with a PL mount. I had a jeweller mill my gate for $50 and it works great.

oh yeah and to all those not sure about ultra, If I had the $7000 to convert my camera and magazines, which I don't, I would rather spend that money on an Arri SRII that is already super 16 and has a PL mount. What I have done to my camera has cost me nothing and looks great! Supported format or not, it works for me.

I converted my GSMO years ago and have yet to have a problem. In fact I shot some re-shoots for a show we originally shot on 35. Other than minor grain we could hardly see the difference with a low grain stock and 4K transfer http://www.fullmotionpictures.ca/evuoto_reshoot.mov

On the movie Pathfinder we waived our hands in front of maxi brutes with spot bulbs, from close range Oh yeah! That was fun

This is going to be my first Red shoot. I'm not as nervous as I probably should be but it's just another camera right? Plus I am surrounded by very skilled people lighting, grip and camera. This time it's a story told in dance of a moth that falls in love with a butterfly. Very well choreographed and an amazing creative team involved so far. We have rigged most of the lights and are building a scaffolding tower so the puppeteers can wield their magic from a catwalk above. The entire show is taking place at night in a forest (on a sound stage of course) and is going to be pretty neat to watch. The puppets are being woven with an LED fabric that comes to life with animatronics to control wing flapping and head movement. We go for camera tests on the 6th and I am very concerned about the rolling shutter and these moving glowing actors with dimmable LED's. When I get some stills I will post them. I plan on lighting with a grad of rosco cal cyan. We did some camera tests earlier and decided to use doubled up cal 90 on the background trees, single cal 90 backlight leko's with gobo patterns for light shaft effects (we have some atmosphere) a cal 30 for the key and a cal 15 for a very subtle over the camera 12X12 bounce for an eyelight/front fill I have been given all the toys this time. Dolly, Jib arm, crane with remote head, steady-cam everything but a techno-crane. If I can't do this one right perhaps I'll take up cooking.

you shouldn't have to worry about flicker as most honda gennies are inverted. But it's always good to have electronic ballasts if you plan on going off speed at all. I do think you're a bit mad trying to light that much space with two small lights though.

When a large light strikes the voltage drops quite a bit. You need to have someone with a meter at the end of the line and one person at the gennie to adjust the voltage as the second light comes up to speed. The three legs will differ and need to be adjusted so the lower leg stays around 208V otherwise your light will drop out. The voltage reading at the truck doesn't help at all, higher guage wire helps with the drop but so does bumping up your voltage. The only trick is you could fry things closer to the truck with voltage higher

So.... an update for those of you that follow this kind of stuff. The shoot went great and I have photos on the way. I hope to clear them from the on set photographer in the coming days and will post what I can. Just as a rant, the days were kept to 12s! That to me is incredible. But, that being said, we were behind schedule every day. The director had a few big montage sequences in mind. Lots of close-ups, and I mean lots, plus coverage of each set in reverse order from cluttered and filled with chicken bones, to a clean room, three or four shots later taking a bit of clutter out of the room each take. The sets were small, and I wanted the entire show to be about fall-off and shadow. I gave each set a different feel, but mostly used a 19" gemball and a snooted tungsten source (usually a scrimmed down baby). I did mix a fair bit of HMI and tungsten so once the images are posted I will let you know more about lighting set-ups then. The dolly and jib arm saved me so much time! I could hardly imagine doing a show without them. Plus the camera moves really gave me a run for my money. By far the most challenging for me to date. The other toy we had out were the small dimable LED light panels. They came in handy so many times when I just needed something small in a corner, or behind a tv or in a drawer. I think I am going to have no choice but to buy a kit for my self. When we went on location the only light I had was a 4k Fresnel, I would have liked bigger but we only had a 6500 honda to power it. The good news is that the Director and Producer seem happy with the dailies and like I said, when I get some photos in I will post some more. Cheers for now.

So I have just loaded in the gear, and am bunkering down for a very fun and crazy filled 4 days called "The 11th Spice". A tale of one mans obsession to break the Colonel's secret chicken recipe. Thankfully the production side has been well organized and the story boards are great and pretty straight forward. I have been talked out of 16mm by the producer, so now we're going to shoot with an HVX200. By far not my most favorite camera but I like to think of it like canvas vs paper. I have been given an very good package for light and grip gak so I really have no excuse to make a good looking picture but in the heat of the battle...... I will try and post pictures over the next few days to give a visual of what's to come. The director wants dark and colorful. I like when directors ask for that. cheers for now. Chris

we just did this the other day. cut a huge 4X4 piece of gel and wrap it up, both the 1000W bulb and joker are too hot to do anything on the inside, from my experience.

One of my favs was a long scene in Million Dollar Baby, very subtle and very well done.

either scrim down your redheads. or bring in a fill and bring your f stop down, then bring up you blacks in post. if you are talking about practicals like lamps seen on film, buy smaller bulbs like 15w instead of 60s.

Alberto, Honda gennie's are great! We run a 1200 on the 2K's all the time with no problem at all. You will need an electronic ballast, and set it to square wave when you use the light. The electronics can handle the varied voltage the a smaller generator puts out and will compensate and keep the light running. If you use a magnetic ballast the light may not strike, or may turn off due to voltage drop. Another trick is to use a transformer, but that's another thread all together. oh and tungsten is always flicker free. good luck Chris

I couldn't agree more JD. Most of this thread has talked about what a lamp op should wear on their belt. The gaffer should have a light meter, color temp meter. I have been a lamp op for 7 years now and my main boss gives me instructions, and if he needs a tool... I hand him or her mine, as I am usually standing right beside them. Chain of command is a must, and how things work smoothly. As a side note. How can you be in charge of the lighting department and not have a meter? I understand video is lit more by eye, but so is film. I have always known the DP to ask the gaffer what ratio and stop there is. A Gaffer without a meter is like a car with no wheels.

I am shocked that no one has mentioned an inclinometer to measure the sun's path, and a color temp meter. I guess the color meter isn't as important with the digital side. I would also recommend a gaffer's eye or contrast glass, and I always have both the harry box's handbook and the cinematographer handbook handy, both for charts and angles or in case the DP wants something I haven't used before personally. Oh and a long tape measure, for a bunch of reasons. and the color swatches from rosco and lee.

Clive, Thank you very much for the info. I am glad I didn't waist my time and money. And my apologies about the milliframe quote, but I am glad you were the one who responded.

does anyone here know if a Media Logic miliframe adapter would fit into my GSMO if it works on an arri and aaton. According to the manuals they all look the same, but different sizes etc? thanks power.tiff

So here is an update...... Post Production is on the way, I am very curious as to what they are going to do with the green screen. I did a very sloppy job in Final Cut to colour correct some of the scenes, but I left most of the show over exposed by about a half stop on the HDCam. Once we do a Tape to tape and lay in the effects I am going to sit in and do one more final coluor and saturation sit-in. So here's a link without the real music. They have named the show "E Vuoto Per Amore" or "He is Empty for Love" http://www.chris.kempinski.ca/evuoto.html

two more photos and that's it I swear.

It was all shot on a BL4, short ends..... and all studio, here are some more pics