Erik Anschicks

I'm still trying to answer your question myself... If you're looking for a more traditional learn-the-craft type idea, I say go to the electric dept. When you're the one physically setting up and accomplishing the DP's lighting schemes, you'll learn a heck of a lot if you pay attention and always think about WHY (in a photographic sense) you are setting up what you are. Learn the tools of the trade and how to attack certain situations that you will find yourself in at a later time that may seem intimidating. You'll also be a lot more confident when you walk into a location on the scout and get a pretty accurate idea of what you are going to need, and the more you know about the lighting instuments, the more creative you can be. Also, to be frank, I've found that DP's who have come from the electric dept. tend to get more respect from the crew, simply because they speak that language. As a crewmember, I have, sadly enough, worked with more than a few DP's who were pretty much clueless when it came to the best use of the lighting instruments and the gaffer basically became the DP.

One light I LOVE for restaurants/coffee shops, etc. is a source 4 leko. When used with patterns, you can create shapes and knock them out of focus to create good texture, and they're great for toplighting tables or creating hot spots on the walls. They project light well and can be very easily controlled with the condensers. They are also not too heavy, so they can be hung fairly easily. Check out "The Man from Elysian Fields," they used those lights in the restaurant scenes to great effect. Also, I've loved the results I've gotten with the HVX in terms of creating warmth by balancing the camera to 5600K, using daylight sources as my keylights for actors and using uncorrected tungsten background light. This can give a wonderful warm glow to the backgrounds and highlights.

An Ultrabounce is going to give you more bang than a griff, and because of that I would go for it if you plan to use the booklight idea. I'm a gridcloth man myself, I might go for the 1/4 grid as opposed to a silk to soften the bounce, but that's just me. I agree with Tim and Andy in that controlling your spill is essential, and I would think an 8 x 8 would be fine in that regard, properly angled. The room looks deep though, how far back do you need to light?

I am doing an upcoming project where I had thought about a possibility that I had no idea if anyone had any experience with... My idea was to shoot an exterior scene correctly balanced (unsure of film stock as of now), but then use large tungsten units like a Big Eye 10K or a Nine Light Maxi for the lighting as opposed to HMIs, and THEN, use a bleach bypass on the resulting image. I realize this is certainly unconventional, but I am going for a very distinct look and I was curious to see if anyone out there had done this same process and what the results yielded in terms of seeing how the bleaching would affect the warmer light from the tungsten units. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.