Paul Bruening

Hello Teresa, If you can't afford the lights, foamcore insulation sheets will serve you well. You can get them as 4' x 8' sheets at construction supply stores. They are white, 1" foam core with silver foil on one side. That gives you a white side for near shots and a bright, shiny side for medium shots. The limitation with these is, You have to have as many as two crew members per board on windy days. You also have to block your scenes to accomodate the reflection angles. With these boards going for only $6.00 to $8.00 per sheet you may find their limitations well worth their value to your budget. I use the heck out of them. I run a length of duct tape over the edges. That makes them last a little longer since they can get busted up pretty easily. Good luck, Paul

Hello good folks, I prefer to own my gear. If you can afford it, buy it. Why line someone elses pockets? If worse comes to worse, you can rent out your own gear and recover some of the investment. I've already snagged a rental deal on my gear. The proceeds cover over half on my investment. Just a thought.

Hey Chris, I got my smoker off of a bee keeper's supply site. You can load straw, leaves, anyhting that smolders nicely and is organic matter. It smells like any leaf pile fire. Pine needles cover more area but the smoke is a bit harsh. I save that for BIG places. All of these will leave a smokey smell on walls and furniture. If the owners of the location are into fireplaces, then they may not mind the smell. As far as nausiating, everyone reacts to smoke differently. Everyone on my crew smokes so that's why we've used the cigarette bundle. It's not much worse than a smokey bar. It will, however, stink up that vacuum cleaner forever. Keep in mind that any and all of these devices will set off smoke alarms. I pull and take out all of them and reinstall AND test them when we're done. I tried out my water fogger in a small room trying to match the conditions you mentioned. The coverage was ok (twenty minute linger) but it dissipated quickly unless all the doors and other leakage points were bunged over with towels. The fog was fannable and distributed evenly. However, it is still optically denser than smoke. Smoke grabs those light rays nicely without thickening the air between camera and subject. On the good side of water foggers- I stood in the room filling it with fog for over an hour and didn't get any side effects. If you can put up with it's light characteristics and can seal up leakage points, it may be the gentler way to go. Dr. Bob sold me an Eliminator EF400 for $37.95. If you're going to do a living room sized area, especially with adjoining rooms, you'll need something at least three times bigger. If I were in that situation, I'd probably get permission from the owners and consider straw (dried hay) for the bee smoker. I wish there were an easier or cheaper trick for you. Good luck

Hello, If all you need the flos for is motivation, then tungsten lights will override most of the color spikes from the flos. That will give you the moody lighting control that you need anyway. You can throw the color over to green in post if you're looking for that "Fight Club" look. This would save you money. Just a thought.

Hello, Lamps, housings, lenses, filters- everything effects footcandles. The newer meters often have footcandle measurements. That's the only way to really get a bead on output. Take the plunge and get a full-function light meter. You'll love yourself for it later.

Hello, Some people love their filters and old-timers swear by nylon stockings and nose grease. Most of that looks pretty cheezy to me. Good lighting will usually do what you want to do.

Hello, Lighting the action isn't so hard. Balancing the action light with the background lights can be a bit of a challenge, especially at wide lens lengths. I've enjoyed Oh, Brother. Where Art Thow? (spelling?). They used old Hollywood schemes to light the exterior, night backgrounds. Just a fall of light from out of frame here or there can be very dramatic and doesn't eat up money and juice like the bigger rigs do. Just a thought.

Thanks Michael, I'll do a patch test on the paint issue. I may just shoot over-cranked on a dry set with a big fan to move the hair. It's cheaper and my budget is all too quickly running out of contingency money.

Hey, I've used a bee-smoker before loaded with pine needles. It makes a helluvastink but the effect is nice. It's cheap too. You can tape cigarettes together and pull them lightly with a vacuum cleaner nozzle. The smoke lingers very nicely. However, everyone can get pukey if they don't smoke. Dr. Bob sells water based foggers. I got a small one for $35.00. It's the most gentle on people but the fog is heavy and hard to control. Oil foggers cost more, hurt people and can even kill them by clogging their lungs and asphixiating them. It is, however, the time tested method used by Hollywood for dependable results. I fear oil foggers because of their danger and all the residue they leave all over the gear.

Hello, I've done the same thing in B&W DV. I found that the most important thing is the light-to-camera angle. Gells had no noticeable effect. Some of that has to do with the fogging solution you use. I used water based since I had to protect the DV drum and heads from oil residue. Oil fog may have a different relationship to color. Sorry, I can't answer for that.

Hey Chulakov, Check this thread for a cheap daylight solution: http://www.cinematography.com/forum2004/in...?showtopic=6196 One dichroic PAR would be enough for a facial shot and can plug into the wall. Good luck

Hello, You can get the reflectors from construction supply stores for $6.00 per 4' X 8' sheet. The generally most useful is 1", single sided styro. It gives you a foil side on one side and white on the other. Tape them around the edges with 2" gaffer's tape to reduce damage. You'll need two crew guys to hold them on windy days. You won't be able to use them much on a rolling car. Your car thing is a pretty wicked situation to work with. You can cut White foam-core sheets to fit in their laps angled and taped to the dash board. Other than that, You've got a challenge to meet without the usual tools DPs use to meet it. Good luck.

Gee willikers Batman, I could use the lens. I want to fire the rig out of the 18" guns on a US battleship. Wouldn't that be nifty? My brother in law is naval reserve. He said it would only cost four consecutive life terms to do it. By the way, any DPs need a job? Hyar, Hyar

Hello, I'm going a new route on my next feature. I need high light volumes at both daylight and tungsten temps shooting 5274 Kodak stock. HMIs are out of my budget range. This is what I did. I bought theater cans. 1K PAR cans are obtainable from Dr. Bob's for under $30.00 per. You can put 1K 3400 Kelvin PARS in them for about $30.00 per. You can get 1K Dichroic PARS that run at 5200 Kelvin (half stop loss in footcandles) for about $140.00 per. I get the Star-PAR lens set and mount them so they can fit into the barndoor assemblies (lens from B&H and barndoors from Dr. Bob). The set of four lenses costs about $40.00 per set and the barndoors are around $60.00 each. That keeps you from having to buy a full compliment of bulbs since each has it's own lens (I'm running VNSP on 3400s and NSP on the 5200s). You can scrim and ND them at the barndoors for control. The other benefit of PAR cans is that they don't make flicker hassles. So, you can use sloppier camera motors. Is this useful for you at all?

Hey good folks, Has anyone checked Dalsa? Their Origin cam is not shabby. I can't get a price out of them. They only want to talk to big-timers. I'm not crazy about the cost of storage, yet, film scans take up whopping space as well. Just wondering if anyone here has heard any buz on the cam.

Come on guys, I'd could use some feedback on the green sccreen thing. Thanks, Paul

Hey Michael, I'm glad you like it since I've got one coming from B&H. My old Calcu Light XP is due for retirement.

Hey man, Remember that the sockets in the wall usually have a 15 amp limit. That's part of why the breaker is rated at 20 amps. That means the breaker can cover a socket meltdown. At your power needs the dryer or stove plug-in would be a better idea. Even then, keep your load at under 4/5s available power calculations. Most of the pro's here really endorse that approach to avoid gennie noise, socket meltdown, and panel tie-in issues. If you aren't sure how to make your own cords, get a licensed electrician to make them up for you. They are definetly worth the price given their usefulness. Good luck, Paul

Hey Joe, It's nice when a pro joins in. Through experience, Daniel will learn just how hard color timing can be. It's not even about mastering the software, which provides more and more complex solutions, it is about training the brain to really SEE the image critically. I've spent the last five years getting a BFA in Art. It has taken that long to train my brain to see critically. Just matching shot to shot is a trial. I found on my previous DV color feature that merely changing camera angles under exactly the same sun and reflector use that gamma, contrasts and colors changed radically. Reflected light changes frequencies based upon angle of reflection. Matching those intercuts took many passes with cool down time inbetween. It took me a month to color time it and it was only a 72 minute run time. So many people don't realize that a color timer's real power is in his well trained eyes and brain. Thanks, Paul

Hey Phil, The Kodak DCS runs 12 bits per channel. It can output straight to the computer (bypassing the memory cards) via firewire as seperate RAW files. Kodak and Adobe both make plug-ins that handle that proprietary file type. By seperating the channels, bad pixels will be much easier to average in. They both have controller software that controls the SLR through firewire including batch capture. All I have to do is work out the macro and path for the intervalometer. This may be the easiest solution yet. Thanks, Paul

Hey Stephen, Ken was very forthcoming with info. I find many techs are closed-lipped in an attempt to force you to pay them for the info. Ken was totally cool about it. I'm buying a pressure plate from him. I still have to find an EDM shop to bore new holes so I can move the rollers and make a see-through pressure plate for my scan rig. Ken usually glues in optical glass on this conversion. Since I'm shooting 2 perf, I just need to move the rollers about 1.5mm each. He really liked the idea of keeping the rollers in. As soon as I get fresh spring belts from him I'll shoot some test rolls to make sure the clutch is OK. After that, I should be in business. Thanks for all your help, Paul

Hey Marc and Stephen, I got the low-down from Ken Stone of Stone Cinema, Pine Mountain, CA. The swing up thingie is actually a time code device. The time code read out mounts on the top of the L-plate. There's a small lens above the light path. That projects the timecode into a prism in the thingie when it swings up. The timecode projects onto the film. The cameraman heads and tails each take with time code by pushing down on the spring-loaded rod. The notcher is actually a dimpler. It is for queing the print guy so he doesn't have to view the footage for slates. The button on the back was likely an electronic slate button. However, it could serve any purpose. That's all of the mysteries. Thanks again, guys, Paul

Hello, As much as I hate to say it, it won't be long before 4K, 24FPS, color seperated, digital cams will kick film out. Dalsa already has a close contender. Currently, I am obliged to say, film is the far superior asthetic. If you can't tell the difference then you should become a keygrip or something.

Hello fellas, Have you ever been swimming at night? Do you have any idea how many PARs are in the water with you? The cases on those things are sometimes filled with water leaving only the PAR globe between you and the electricity. In the old days, they used to solder the connectors on the mogul ends and goop them up with caulk. Between shock boxes, individual GFCIs, extra safety grounds to each light and minimum safe distances between persons in water and lights, your rig is as safe as many pool having lights built in (especially if you use PARs and cut them on and off in the water only). PARs are tough globes. As well, the entire pool does not become electrified (unless you pour a fifty pound sack of salt into it). A busted light creates a field around it. If you don't get anywhere near that field, then you won't get shocked. This is assuming, of course, that you have two marbles for brains. If you can't manage your safety factors, then shoot it poolside and stay out of the water. I always get in trouble over these kinds of posts. I apologize in advance.

Thanks for the tip, Phil.