Rick Kelly

Advantage Grip lists it as: The photographic white surface is used for bounce while the black side can either block light or prevent ambient bounce. This product is similar to ClayCoat. It isn't shiny like a black/white griff. Almost reminds me of foam core. Most D.P.s I work with call for it to bounce the fill light. Very Nice.

I just got off a motion control shoot with Ben Butin. He told me that he had used other formats but now would only do 35mm using a Mitchell camera package for registration reasons. I don't know the details but he has been doing motion control for quite a long time. www.benbutin.com

Thanks for the input. My main concern was getting as much light as possible with out throwing multiple shadows. I would rather have one large source (like a 6k) but I'm stuck with the small lights. We are going to white balance to tungsten so the fire will be nice an yellow/orange and the HMIs will be moonlight blue. I was thinking very light diffusion just to blend the sources. If I mount three (2-1200/1-575) on a triple-header at about 75 feet from the subject without any diffusion, do you think it will look like one source? I'm using 4x8x1.25" styrofoam with silver foil backing for the bounce. It works great for firelight.

The film is secondary to the event. We built the bridge but don't have money for troops, horses, costumes etc. so we worked a deal with the re-enactment group. The scene is being covered with 5 HDV cameras, 3 Canon XLH1s and 2 others. Each shooter has his/her own directions for shot coverage. There is no dialog and the coverage just shows that the troops did destroy the bridge. The dialog scenes will take place around the smoldering remains and will be lit separately. They are actually going burn the bridge (pine straw and kerosene underneath where the water normally is) and I will have some 4x8 bounce placed for some of the close-ups that are planned when the bridge is fully involved (to show our actors amongst the re-enactors). After sleeping on it I think my hands are fairly well tied. I have 50amps at best and no pre-lighting time. I may just spread the instruments along the length of the bridge. Maybe the best I can hope for is to provide enough exposure be able to see the troops before the bridge is lighted.

I'm trying to light a night scene where a 100' covered bridge will be torched in a micro budget Civil War picture. A Civil War re-enactment group will be used to stage the attack on the full size mock up and the water will be computer generated. Because there will be an audience I can't use a large genny (plus there isn?t any money) so for my key I'm limited to a couple of 1200w and maybe one or two 575w HMIs. I don't have a lot of experience with night exteriors but I wonder if I grouped them closely, and added a little diffusion if they might act as one larger light that would seem more natural in the wide shots. I'm not able to get access to the set for any pre lighting and will have only two hours on the night of the performance to set up so I'm trying to think it out in advance. Any ideas or suggestions are appreciated. Thanks.