klas persson

That is just graded sunlight. There are also a couple of hidden and gelled redheads in there to make certain things pop out of the shadows. Normally I would expose and white balance directly in the camera for the look, but because I wanted the muzzle flash to light the room I exposed it naturally. Just watched the highlights.

I have done one, inspired by Roger Deakins's diy rigs, in a bread crate. The one I did have no mounting options for any stands or anything. It is just a box of light that you can stand wherever. Link! Just a bread crate with a plywood sheet and then another bread crate as a lid for protection. I like it a lot and have used it quite a bit. Mostly for fires, candles, lanterns and that sort of things.

If it is on location the term "day for night" should still be valid though? Anyway, the concept is the same(pretending the sun is the moon). Personally, I love day for night. Especially when doing side lit interiors. So as an advocate for our best friend, The Sun, I thought I should make my case. ;) This is shot day for night where the actor is chased by the undead through a derelict house. It is a quite long, hand held, wide angle, action shot with a lot of whipping around the camera. Controlled chaos. I was careful not to shot through any windows, blanked out those needed and then doing some extra black outs in post. At the end there is a day for night and night for night cross cut too. In the next episode I have a int/ext day for night scene shot in a car. This is maybe more interesting, depending what it is you want to do, as it is lit by a candle. Scheduled to be shot in the first morning light but wasn't until the sun was high in the sky. Anything not orange in these stills is the sun. Then in the fifth episode I had a long exterior shot day for night. Nothing to do with what you are doing, but could still be interesting. This was something I had hoped to do at night but the schedule didn't allow it. Wouldn't have had enough lights for some of the wider shots anyway. The reason I was a little hesitant was because of the snow. And that I was doing all the post production. :) White backgrounds! I knew the actors would only be silhouettes without heavy and time consuming rotoscoping. But in the end, it looks cool so the work was worth it.

I didn't do that many dolly shots, but it was down to choose a few focus points and riff between them. I did, however, have quite a few hand held, run along with the actors, shots. On one I was running along side the actor into a building, through debris and then settling down on an old sofa. So I had to keep my distance while running, changing aperture and then pull focus for the final composition. It worked too, not on the first takes though. :) We were shooting until dusk every day, and often continuing for night stuff, so I was always full open at some occasion. It is all about the actors hitting their marks, at which some are better than others. It is not that I pull focus by eye. I will see if I am off and can get it right, but i can't make a smooth pull by eye. If I was shooting weddings, or something like that, I would not use a 5D. With actors and blocking though, I wasn't afraid of opening up. I was often in the 1.8-4 area. Very rarely over 5.6. In the opening shot of episode 3 I have a 400mm lens on the 5d, open at 5.6. I had the actors walking towards the camera and put focus points at landmarks. About monitors, I am not a fan of having a them on set. I have a small one for those setups where I can't look through the viewfinder though (which is more often on a 5D as you can't rotate the lcdvf) but that one is mostly packed away somewhere. I actually shot a couple of scenes blind as the monitor cable broke down, I had forgotten the spare and it wasn't possible to look through the viewfinder.

I have just finished up the post on the season finale of a web series( thread here at cinematography.com, site) shot with the 5dmii and I pulled my own focus. I used a lcdvf with my both eyes open, one composing the shot and the other making sure I was hitting the focus marks on the focus wheel. Worked alright for me.

The season finale, episode five, is now online at www.thegreatdying.com It has been two incredible fun years working with this. We started shooting in september last year and did the fourth and fifth episodes in november and have been working day and night pulling the episodes together since. Enjoy! This is lit with the homemade light I mentioned earlier. Symbolizing a oil lamp shown earlier in the scene. This is the same homemade light also symbolizing the same oil lamp. The moonlight is a single redhead coming through the entrance of the tent. Here I have an orange gelled redhead bouncing off a regular sheet clamped on a c-stand. The moonlight is blue gelled red heads pointed directly on the actors. These are all day for night. Here is an digitally extended shot. I used Shake to get the Rocky mountains into the scene.

I just wanted to say I really appreciate these production diaries. They are pure gold! I am a strong believer in that generosity pays it self back multiple times over, so I think you'll benefit as much as we do from your efforts.

Episode four is out.

I think it is Braaains! that is the correct response to a forum thread involving the undead, though I might be wrong. :D

Thanks Aaron. I have not used the 7D.

Check out episode 3 at thegreatdying.com. I have some stills extracted from this episode too that I thought I should share. This is shot as day for night under the unrelenting midday sun. The wider shots were meant to be finished in the morning sun but delays pushed us to not begin until the sun was all the way up. Then we continued with the singles until it was time for lunch. This is lit with three redheads, one pointed at each actor and one making a ring of light around the candle(actually a tin can filled with grease with a wick made of natural fibers, survivor style). Any moonlight effects is just the sun working. This is done with a homemade light. I did a variation of the Roger Deakins way of building a board with several house bulbs. Look here for pictures of it. So this is just several house bulbs, making a soft light source. As always when doing fire I have a dude sitting in front of it waving either a branch or some blackwrap. Natural light on all of these. No reflectors used either. The first two images is from the opening scene of episode 3 when the heroes are pushing forward on a railroad. The last image is from a later scene when they have decided not to use the open railroad due to a ghoul attack. The first image is shot through a 400mm super tele to get the effect of them just walking and walking but not coming anywhere.

Here are a couple of images from Episode 2 with descriptions. This is a shot of the hero, chased by ghouls through a derelict mental asylum. This is done as day for night. Interior day for night is very effective, you just have to be careful where pointing the camera. As this is a pretty long handheld action scene we had to rehearse the whole chase quite a few times, blind some windows I couldn't avoid and placing a red head to enhance the ghouls face when he enters the scene. This is also day for night. But a quiet scene with no action. Just a camera on a tripod. The location does a whole lot for me here. Above day for night shot is cross cut with this lit scene. This is done with a blue gelled red head pointed through a window. I have some kind of reflector or maybe a red head bounced of a white sheet too. Can't remember but it looks like there is something coming from the other way. In front of the actor i have a burnt out fire glowing. This is a little earlier in the episode than the above image. The fire is still burning and is done with a bounced red head. The moon light is the same red head, through the window, as above. Same location, during the day. The backlight is actual sunlight coming through the window. One or two redheads are bounced of a white bed sheet. On the wider shot I've also lit a dripping from the ceiling, which is not visible on this exact frame. Very effective in the actual episode though. Exterior from the above location. Only natural light, very cloudy and raining. Oh, and I've forgot to clear the lens from the garbage bag I used as a cover from the rain. Only one light behind the actor. Then bounced of a steel plate to light his face.

Episode 2 is now online. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBQpbZslcHc

And now we have the first episode up. Check it out. Either here or at thegreatdying.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFCY6Eqncv4

A teaser up at www.thegreatdying.com

Saw Monsters yesterday on iTunes. They have a test right now where they have premieres at the same time or before they go up on theaters at a higher price. It is just Monsters and I'm Still Here, so I guess only Magnolia are doing this but if it works I hope it will catch on. I mean, there is nothing like seeing a movie on the big screen but I think the industry as a whole is better served with all these time and region restrictions gone. Did an article about it at my site too. Anyway, so I rented this film just seeing the trailer some time ago not realizing exactly what it was. And it was fantastic. When I like movies I usually read up on them and a bit and boy was I surprised. It is an independent $15000 diy with a ex3 and an adapter movie! Very impressive. He did the effects himself on a computer at home. Done just as a lot of us work. This is what the new generation is doing, just doing it. Despite the title the film is more about characters than monsters, but what monsters! When in the end you see them as a whole for the first time(as I remember it) I just fell in love with them. Really cool lovecraftian tentacle beasts with giant squid heads. The cinematography was just great. Even though I rented the SD version as I have had problem renting the HD ones since I moved to a new house, I guess I have my wifi too far from my appleTV. I guess a lot are going to have an issue with the adapter generation style use of the focus plane, but I thought it fitted the pacing and was quite beautiful.

Last day of shooting finished yesterday. Ten days of sleep deprivation is now finished. The cast and crew has just been wonderful and I am proud of the result. The 5D has been a real trooper. I have used very little lights on this show and the 5D sensor has just kept giving me wonderful images, even, at times, with some ungodly high isos. It's almost spooky how clean images you can get with very little light. Some days I was just forced to pick a notch higher on the iso for every take as we were shooting until the sun went down. Now, post production...

Thanks! And I've got a Zombie still...

Thanks for the tip. We will probably be looking for some more funding at a later date if we can continue with more episodes. First day of shooting completed anyway. It went absolutely fine aside some minor mishaps and delays in the beginning. I will keep posting the shoot through at odmarden.se and will try to get something nice here too. I've got two stills to share taken with the 5D using the same setups as when I was shooting video.

We are in the final month of pre production of a new web series called The Great Dying. It is a post apocalyptic zombie tale of a group of people traveling from the west coast to the east coast in search of a promised land where the dead stay in their graves. I will DP and share the directing job with my spouse who is directing and producing the show. It will be shot on a 5D MII. The plan is to shot three episodes every quarter and continually release an episode every month of which the first is scheduled for october. I will update this thread from time to time. These are some zombie make up tests we did earlier today. Enjoy!

Well, your definitions are a little biased though. I mean. People will die while only the strongest will survive? You're right though that free market capitalism suggests that "the market"(=the people)knows best how their money is spent. Socialism, national socialism, conservatism, fascism and what you call true democracy on the other hand are all Planned Economies which suggests that the government(still only people, just a selected few) is better than ourselves deciding where our money should be spent. I tend to disagree on that regard. Wether it's a socialist or a conservative doing it, he can't now me better than I do. Everybody are liberal at least to some extent. A socialist maybe want to legalize cannabis or gay marriage. A conservative might want religious private schools to be legal or lower taxation. You could agree or disagree with either of them but they'll never get what they want as long as the other side want the total opposite and can't stand the thought of them getting it. It is a loose/loose situation. Liberalism(libertarianism in the US) means that all humans are different and should be treated that way. Not right, not left but up. There are several levels of hell. Socialism has been tried in several versions. Everything from socialism lite here in Sweden where I live and the horror that is North Korea. The more the country leans left though the more misery is laid over the people. And you could say that there's never been a real socialist country. Well, if these isn't exactly the real deal then I don't think I want to see the full realization of it. Many socialists also believe that there can't be real socialism until the whole world is socialistic which is a thought to horrible to imagine. Think 1984. Because people don't want to give all their money to the government which must point their guns towards our heads to get what they want. The more they need the more regulations they have to put on us. And because the people in charge are ordinary people but with unordinary powers it is easy for the rich to buy powers too which is why socialism always ends with corporatism. Ironically, yes but true none the less. So you're sure that that is true are you? How come that countries that lean towards freedom always leads to prosperity? In fact there is a clear line between a country's higher degree of freedom=better lives for it's people. Look at your own country. Look at which ever socialist country. Compare. Oh, but you're so wrong. It's not an extension of free market. It is planned economy which is much closer to socialism. Different goals, yes, but the same means. I agree though that corporatism is evil. But you've got democrats in charge now and the difference isn't that big. Still planned economy. Still corporation bailouts. Still in war all over the world. Still... Yep, that ideology(corporatism)has brought the world to this point as that is the dominant ideology right now. Even former socialist countries like China has corporatism now. And it is evil. New World Order is some kind of conspiracy theory, isn't it? And Naomi Klein, well... Let's say I disagree with her and think she, if not lies, has got it quite wrong. I could recommend reading Ron Paul or Ayn Rand but I think you would disagree with them too. So lets not hold up any books and say it is the truth, as all got a separate version of what is true. I mean this(48% + 25% vat) with high taxation. As I live in Sweden and have ever only payed taxes in this country.

I've learned that you should tread ever so gently when discussing politics on the internet. Anyway. I believe you're mixing up corporatism and free market capitalism. Capitalism doesn't serve the rich, it doesn't serve anybody, or everybody. Because it's free. The only way to gain power and earn unfair money is through corporatism. Socialism, fascism and any other totalitarian ideology always ends with corporatism. Don't think, for even a minute, that there wasn't any rich people in the USSR. There were, and they were powerful. The government and the capitalists go hand in hand if there is corporatism. That's where the oppression of the poor comes from. That together with high taxation. Oh, but that's up to the director/producer isn't it? Not the unions. And in Europe we do it that way all the time. And I don't think you complain over the quality of, say, Sven Nykvist's cinematography? Or if you've seen Jan Troell's masterpieces "the Emigrants" and "the New Land" where he directed, were the cinematographer and operated? Because it is a beautiful film. I just don't believe in forcing people to work in a special way. People are different.

Well, as I have never produced anything in the US I might be totally wrong here, and you are free to slam me if I am. The problem that I see with the unions is not the wages but the rules on how many people there should be on a set. I often hear ridiculous claims that the DP can't operate. The director can't direct the extras. And so on. What is up with that? And I'm not taking anything away from the operators or their work. Absolutely not, I suspect that a lot(most) of the productions still would use an operator even if they didn't have to. And what are the problems doing a low budget movie outside the unions? Wouldn't it be easy ignoring the unions if you're not doing a big production? Just avoid signing anything. Or will they(union) put a blockade on your set if you do?

Well, I loved the movie. I'm baffled that you call it pretentious though. It's a SciFi action flick... How is this movie pretentious? Because of the apartheid allegory? That doesn't make it pretentious. It's got an original story, bold hero character and an almost videogame kind of story but made in a good way. Can easily see how their Halo movie would've been pretty damn good. Cinematography. Liked it. Gritty. The shaking camerawork fitted the premise so it didn't bother me.

I hear you. I had one crap ass cell phone, Samsung I belive, that kept taking photos in my pocket due to idiot button design until the memory card were full and I couldn't recive any more smses. Then I had to erase those damn little black photos one by one. <_<