Jonathan Bowerbank

I'm sure we're all familiar with the famous shot from "In Cold Blood" of the rain droplets on Robert Blake's face. I was wondering if anyone's had the opportunity to recreate this scene in any way. Here's a poor image of the scene, it doesn't show the effect, but just to jog your memories: http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/people/sho....cold.blood.jpg Also, for a shot I have planned in a couple weeks I had the idea of casting the shadow of some white see-through patterned curtains onto an opposing wall. Any hints as to how I should go about accomplishing this? A hard open faced light? A spotted or flooded fresnel? I've yet to test out how to do it, so I was just wondering if anyone else had any tips before I did. thanks! Jon ps- tonight I'll put up a captured frame from Hitchcock's "Shadow of a Doubt" to give you an idea of what I'm trying to do.

It was Conrad Hall's doing...nuff said :D

I recall reading an interview with James Glennon who's shot a few episodes of "Deadwood" as well as some other great films. He noted the advantage of building a set that runs East to West, instead of North to South. On an EtoW set, you have the ability to shoot one side of scenes with the actors backs to the sun, then the other side of scenes later in the day with the actors' backs to the sun again. That way, the scenes intercut much better and really there's very little concern about which way shadows are cast in the backgrounds since it's bound to be a little blown out anyway if your exposing for the subject's face.

Has anyone seen the Aussie Western "The Proposition"? It's a beautiful film, and a gritty one at that. It's definitely up there with the likes of "Unforgiven" and Sergio Leone westerns. But I found Benoit Delhomme's work to be fantastic. He has some great frames where you'd swear the shot was a classic painting. I was especially impressed with the first exchange between Guy Pearce & John Hurt. Go rent it if you haven't had the pleasure and tell me what you think.

If you're going to kill the fluorescents all together, but still want a tungsten light source that mimics the look of indoor lighting, you can always take a tungsten lamp and point it at a bounce board mounted above the actors or just the cieling if that's easier.

Hey man, as far as I'm concerned this is still an open forum for discussion :)

I didn't notice before, but yeah. If you're shooting a feature why are you shooting Reversal film? Shoot negative, your post-production workflow will thank you for it :)

A full to 1/2 CT Straw might work as well. It's similar to a CTO, only more yellow and close to your target color. As always, test test test good luck!

The Sekonic Studio Deluxe is a good beginners meter: http://www.sekonic.com/products/products.asp?ID=109 Be sure to check it against a higher end meter before using though, just to make sure it's accurate. If you got the dough, get the Dual Master, it rocks, and it has a reflective meter as well :)

I think it depends mostly on whether or not you want to melt your gel and possibly damage your light, ha ha I've never put a gel closer to a light more than its barndoors will allow. And really, I see no difference between placing a gel on the barndoors and holding a gel 2 feet from the light on a c-stand. So I don't see what noticeable difference your scenario would conjure. As far as I'm concerned, the inner part of the light is for scrims only, because those usually don't melt.

You should definitely meter that kicker with a spot/reflective meter. Using your incidental reading and pointing the globe directly towards the light will give you an idea, but to be more accurate the spot meter is the way to go. And be sure to meter that kicker from the camera's vantage point. good luck!

Yeah, I'd definitely recommend overexposing at most 1 stop when shooting, then pulling the film back to normal during processing. You'll notice much more color saturation, deeper blacks and better contrast if your key-to-fill ratio when shooting was on the high side. Also, go for the slowest film stock you can find. The faster the film, the grainier the image. The Kodak Vision2 100T is nice, or you can go for the 50D with an 80A filter. Good luck! Jon Bowerbank