Justin W. King

I have a job Coming up in Ghana, Africa. As an America based technician, I know the NEC and US equipment standards, but I am not so familiar with international standards on film sets. Could someone recommend some resources that I can use to train myself on the terminology and specific equipment differences before I start working there? Thank you! I am particularly interested in European and African (Ghana) Distribution systems, including the alternatives to camlock, 4/0(120mm), 2/0(70mm) #2(35mm) etc. Alternatives to 600a/300a boxes, and lunchboxes, and other important connectors. I need to create an electrical package, and don't think the American Terms will translate well. Thank you!

Thank you, I will try that, I am thinking it's more than the usual +Green, too what do you think?

I would love to figure out how to achieve this effect using film. I am thinking cross processing might be part of the procedure. What do you think?

Hello, I am trying to sort through what was done to get the blinds to be green while the light through the window is blue. Where does the green come from? Is it light? Or something else. When I see this my instinct is believe that maybe a light with CTB is outside, and the window shades are actually green, but the blinds are the same color as the string, which suggest that something else might be going on. So looking at this image that has been timed differently or is behind the scenes, it appears to be a rather typical lighting setups going on. Here is the actual scene. It appears that there is a different light in the corner of the room, lighting the wall. Maybe it is slightly CTO and then the film processing make yellow things appear green?? If that is the case, does that man that the blinds from the first picture are actually yellow? With CTB gelled light shining through the windows. And some type of process makes the films yellows turn green? My hypothesis is based o this picture of a table light that is green. What does everyone else think? I have more experience with lighting than post production, and film developing.

The antichrist is almost the exact opposite of the Tree of Life in terms of approach. The tree of Life is film, the Antichrist is Digital. The tree of life tries to use natural light, while the Antichrist had to use unnaturally bright light just to expose for some of their over cranked scenes. They also did unnusual techniques to give the lighting a more painterly feel, etc. If I'm not mistaken Antichrist uses a lot of hard lighting while the Tree of life had softer lighting. If you want fog, you will need a fog machine, unless the forest is naturally foggy. What time of day are you shooting? I f you shoot at night, you would need a light (or several lights) If you shoot at the right time of day and angle the camera so that the sun is back light, you can use a fog machine to put fog in the air to see the beams of sunlight. If it's already there you are lucky, but I wouldn't leave home without a fog machine and a generator if the fog really matters to you. Beams of light are more apparent when they are shooting through objects such as trees as back light. You probably want a lot of fog machines, otherwise you run the risk of only being able to get one puff of smoke in the air before it dissipates, then looks like a cloud of smoke and not fog. Make sure to test as much as possible before the shoot day, because Fog is not always predictable. If you are only interested in Haziness, you could try fog filters, but they look dated to me when someone tries to use them in place of fog. They are not the equivalent of fog. There are other uses for them as well. But do a camera test and see what you think about them, they may work for what you are trying to do.

Disregard the last post. At first I thought all of it was a practical location, but there are some shots that look like some large lights are in play based on the floor. They might have used a smaller light for the closeup though. You can see that ther is one shadow from a wall in the first shot where the elevator door opens. Also I look at the shot of her walking down the hallway with the city on one side and the wall on the other. I am starting to wonder whether it might be a digital city scape. I can't figure out how you could get that type of soft light pattern from a city scape, and the light on the floor seems to be coming from a soft light. You might know some details that I don't know, but I am beginning to suspect that either there was some digital relighting and grading, the some of the city elements where added, or something else. Based in the scene it was done on location, but I have used 12k hmi's on some of the films I've worked on. I don't think it was that large, but it seems like the light for some of the scenes was some distance away. Take a look at the floor, what do you think?

At first I thought all of it was a practical location, but there are some shots that look like a studio, or there are som set pieces. They might have used a smaller light for the closeup though. You can see that ther is one shadow from a wall in the first shot where the elevator door opens. Also I look at the shot of her walking down the hallway with the city on one side and the wall on the other. I am starting to wonder whether it might be a digital city scape. I can't figure out how you could get that type of soft light pattern from a city scape, and the light on the floor seems to be coming from a soft light. You might know some details that I don't know, but I am beginning to suspect that either there was some digital relighting and grading, the some of the city elements where added, or something else. Take a look at those scenes, and pay attention to the floor, what do you think?

It may be too late, bu a 650 is too small for what they are doing. You should take note that the entier floor is evenly lit. I would imagine they used at least a 2k from far away. considering the lights they used as props, they might have used a much larger light. The light behind the diffusion does matter, because of color difference, spread, and the sharpness of the light. A very directional light needs more diffusion than a large soft light. A Joker bug might clash with the streetlights, which might be what you are going for. This is what I saw, rushing through it. The first shot is 2 different colored kickers at a steep angle, one warm the other cool. (it was probably graded to be as dark as it was.) The second shot is a downlight slightly to camera right The third shot is probably the same The fourth shot is a kicker from camera right, theere are footlights on the curtain, and it is a studio set, and the light is placed a little ways away so that you can see the shadow of the flat. The fifth shot is her looking up to a light that is placed in front of her, that one might be a 2k zip or chimera. there is also a backlight The sixth Shot is downlight The seventh shot is the dame as the second shot. Graded The 8th shot the key is slightlly to camera left, and slightly above. Graded The 9th shot is city Graded The 10th Shot is what looks like 3 18ks hmi Fresnels. The 11th shot is the same, but probably with a bounce for her face. (They might have used a 1/4 grid for the sun but I doubt it.) The 12th shot is sidelight for camera(frontlightfor her) and probably a steep backlight from camera left. The 13th shot is sunlight from camera left. (no diffusion) The 14th shot is the same as the 5th shot The 15th shot is from the front.

If he or she only wants blue, you could also use kinos with super blue bulbs. The kinos may be too expensive though. If you want color changing, then Colorforce and Selador LEds are among the best LEDs for color washes. You could also try altman LED fixtures. If you are truly on a budget, you may want to try and get the super blues for the diva lights and rent a tungsten kit for the models. ( I would imagine they make super blue bulbs for the Divas as well)

Continuing what Henning Hoifodt said, If you get 3 lights of the same type and put one on each leg, you will not have flicker. So if you where going to use a 5k, maybe you would put 3 5ks/2ks side by side, and the dame thing with the dino. The phases should cancel themselves out, and it should be flicker free then.

Courtesy of the Set Lighting Technician Handbook

Can you rent equipment? If you rent, I would recommend getting 3 arri 650s, and a bunch of 4x4 kinos with green tubes in them. Also rent 2x3 and 4x4 diffusion, silk and opal frames, along with flags to shape the arri 650s. Use 1 arri from each side, and maybe slightly behind the sign language person, and then they may want you to add a light from 45degrees off axes of the camera(make this as dim as possible, while still making the client happy.. The Green kino wash will do the jib for greenscreen. Make sure there is plenty of distance between talent and greenscreen.

Last I checked according to the Henry box book, the DPY globe has a tilt max of 45 degrees. Maybe I misunderstood, or strand lights use a different bulb, but if he was using it at a 45 degree angle, is seems he was pushing the bulb to it's limit. That doesn't mean that it was the cause, but it means thatit probably can't be ruled out immediately. I've had a FFN MFL par64 lamp explode on me before, and shatter hot glass over the stage before, that no one had touched. Fortunately it was before the even and not after. So freak things do happen.

Double Post

None of the sample pictures that you show appear to be gritty. I ask what do you really mean when you say gritty. If you just mean that there is a blue or green tint to the image, then that is completely different than seeing the three actors in complete silhouette in front of large bay windows , as a single shaft of sunlight focuses our attention on a dead man laying on the floor, through the sky light above. When I think Gritty, I think http://s692.photobucket.com/albums/vv288/samityville_photos/?action=view&current=penance_02.jpg or http://www.joblo.com/images_arrownews/colp1.jpg or If you want to stick to the se7even movie, the picture at the top of this page. http://franzpatrick.com/2012/02/27/se7en/ If you want it to really be gritty, just pick a single direction of light and commit to only use light that supports that idea. And if the subject is dark, don't be afraid to let him or her be dark (depending on the dramatic moment), as long as there is contrast, and it makes sense. If the director wants more light see what you can do without adding another light source. You can add reflectors, or bounce light, or move the light a little. If you are using more than one light on an actor, then it's probably not gritty. If the key light is coming from within 60 degrees of Camera either way, it's probably not gritty. Chances are you probably want to use kickers and backlight, maybe sidelight and bounce light, while avoiding front-light entirely.

That's not right either. It's not their fault or his fault. Stuff happens. If a crew is not payed what they should be, you have a hard time getting skilled labor, you get what you pay for. The line producer took the risk of paying less to get inexperienced crew, and that accident (if it really was their fault) is part of the consequences of such decisions. Unless you checked in the equipment yourself, how do you know that it was broken if you didn't check your equipment in? Ultimately it is the producer's responsibility, they hired the crew, and they signed the rental agreement, they also have insurance. I hope you are not planning on buying a new part, because the shop deals with that stuff usually. They would charge it to missing and damaged, or do they not have that in Hong Kong? And then the production company would use their expensive insurance policy and pay for it. If it broke, why didn't you just send it in to be repaired or replaced? It sounds to me like you made the entire situation awkward for you and your crew. I hate when stuff of mine gets broken too, but stuff will get broken under your watch for the rest of your life, no matter what the production's budget is. As long as everyone is safe, you should be happy and thankful. People matter more than lights.

Thank you, I will check with Dual Camera and Bernie's. After the test I can get a good image if I use a tape measure for focus, so It would make me feel more comfortable, but it wouldn't be the end of the world, I just want to record a couple reels of footage to make my purchase worthwhile. lol.

I live in NY, and purchased an 814 camera. The Problem is that the viewfinder focus does not match the focus notches marked on the lens. After doing test I discovered that the lens is correct, and the viewfinder is incorrect. There was not diopter adjustment that would make the viewfinder match the lens markings. Does anyone know of a person near NY who might be able to make such repairs. I am hoping that whoever makes the repairs might be able to make my camera max8 compatible as well. Thank you for your advice, and help. Justin W. King

thank you for your advice

Im not sure what your budget is like, but if there is no light from the beginning, you could look into going tungsten and using mole feys, along with other tungsten lights. You could put them on a genie lift. If you have a bigger generator, you could even use 9 light moles. Tungsten lights are not as expensive, although HMI's are more efficient. You can use a filer or white balance to get the cold look. If you see headlights in frame though this could be an issue, unless you found a way to warm up the headlights separately. I am sure the more experienced cinematographers and gaffers have better advice. You are going to want to make sure you get a few fog machines, and some pipes to distribute the fog.

I am not entirely sure what you mean by ambience. Do you mean you want the entire room lit, or do you mean fill light? When I look at your second picture. The first and second picture are very different from one another. Both pictures seem to differ dramatically from what I am picturing you plan to set up. The second picture could have been done with only one light, and a practical in the background. The first one seems like it uses lots of light with different colors. There is a pink light and a light with CTB, that might even be double CTB or more. The colorful lights become the ambience, in that picture, so if you are going for that look, a chimera is a little more expensive to gel, and harder to control. Neither of these two shots appear to use a kino. Since you are in a period backstage theatre, I think you might want to use a tungsten light instead of a kino, They are too hard to control to create an image that looks like the ones you posted. In the first image the key light from below seems to be a small source shooting through diffusion, from below. The second picture looks some type of light bouncing through some type of light diffusion,

What does your hallway look like (Are there already lights in the ceiling, Are there Doorways? Are there windows? What about the color of the walls. If there are already lights in the ceiling then you probably don't need kinos, because the lights in the ceiling are not intended to light the people. Light the back of the hallway. If you really need to see the actors, then maybe a paper lantern or a pancake on a pole, with siders might be useful. If you want to put something in the air, Kino's without heavy masking go where ever they want to, so you may want to explore smaller point sources that are easy to hide, especially if you are interested in back light ( It might be easier to go for top light)

What hardware do I need to rent in order to rig 2 2.5 HMIs to a typical boom lift or scissor lift, with a grip helper. Thank you for your help.

You can have a light that moves behind the camera. You can also rig lights in such a way that if there is a missing tile in frame, that you just cover the tile in question.

From what I understand, it's hard to chroma key the floor, but you should be able to do the walls, if you do it correctly. I have scene people chroma key everything bu the floor, but its more work to make it look good.