Phil Gerke

JD What would be a good strain relief for a rig like this? I'm thinking of making one myself. Its hard to tell in that illustration of the porcelin socket how it goes together. Is the idea that wire would go through the small circular piece which would then thread into the base? Great thread by the way. Had to use some plastic sockets recently and it scared the hell out of me. Rated at 60 watts, no good. Thanks!

Thanks guys! Great pointers. I'll definately remember the sheet/foamcore on the ground suggestion. It seems that this gets used as fill, but also people use it to create a lowangle sourse. Michael and Adam I think you guys addressed just what I have been most puzzled about. Using the bounce not just as a means of fill, but more as a low angle light. Obviously some experimentation is involved, but my fear is that in the hands of a novice, low angle lighting could get pretty rediculous pretty fast. If its motivated, (such as the sun) I feel more confident, but as an unmotivated source it seems a bit slippery. Adam you mentioned using this as a "jaw light". Just for the sake argument, why not use a low angle, softlight? What about bouncing the light, makes it more desirable? I'm asking because I am thinking about trying this with a setup I have coming, again your example seems unmotivated and I am curious. Thanks a lot!

I have heard of and occasionally seen lights being bounced into the floor. What motivates this desicion? Or rather how is this most commonly used? I can imagine certain situations, but I'd like to understand this better. Thanks a lot, Phil

Thanks Gentlemen, I appreciate the info. I'll keep the cosmetic gel tip in mind though this time around I'll not have access to any. Turning off the "Cine-Like" setting is certainly a good idea, and I think I'll be futzing with the chroma for sure. I will definately try the CTB on the key, that may be a good idea aesthetically as well. The shoot is still a ways out, but I'll will try to get a screen grab or a still to post. Thanks again!

Hello all, I'll be lighting for an interview in a couple weeks and although I have worked with the subject before, I have not let her. I plan on using a large soft key with just bead board to bounce some fill. Still deciding about kicker/rim. The background will be all black. The subject matter is pretty serious, in this matter she is an "expert" and I would like to make her look as good as possible (obviously). Here is where I would like some feedback; her complexion is pretty fair, and her cheeks and skin tone in her face is a little red. I feel like she may be a bit self conscious about it. What can I do to help minimize the "redness"? Obviously makeup will be key. I'll be shooting progressive on a DVX, would there be an advantage shooting tungsten verses daylight? Maybe pull some red in camera? Thanks a lot! Phil

What about reversal stocks? Specifically cross processing color reversal film. In order to get a denser negative you would over expose the revesal stock correct? Wouldn't your negative be too dense? Would you pull when creating the negative? Sorry to open up a whole new can of worms. Thanks!

Hi Phil, I just wanted to check something with your math. My understanding is that with HMI you cant just devide the watts by the volts and get your amperage. This is true for incandescent, but I thought that did not quite work for HMI, or anything with a ballast for that matter. Am I missing something? Our 800 Joker pulls 14 amps on 110, so what gives? I'm just trying to get my facts straight for the future. Thanks a lot!

Again, I have not worked with these, but I image if a voltage controller can be used as a dimmer than I would be willing to bet the usual temp change would occur.

Ok, got our Joker back. First off, K5600 was very quick and easy to work with. I am still unsure what created to problem to begin with, but not only was our bulb toast, but so was the striker. It was still well under warrenty so the striker replacement was no prob, in fact it may have been defective to begin with and may have led to the extremely short life of the bulb. On the other hand the bulb may have been a defect as well and so they replaced it for us. All in all it was pretty painless, had to rush to get it back for a rental, but it made it fine and works fine. My only gripe was that our barndoors got left behind it seems. Next piece of business is to get a replacement bulb. Thanks everybody!

Forgot to setup up notification for this thread. Delayed response I know, bare with me. Now in this situation the shutter angle is fixed, as it is in many circumstances due to the physical limitations of the camera and its need for closed time. This had not occured to me and makes total sense, thanks Michael. So the recomendation to light for the fastest speed and ND for the slowers seems the best course of action. However Nick, your comment put a flag up for me. You speak of strobiness being greater when using shutter angle to achieve consistent exposure. Now correct me if I am wrong, but by increasing your shutter angle proportionate to your frame rate increase you should still be exposing the negative for the same amount of time. Is that right? I guess I am unclear as to what would cause the strobiness, what am I missing? Thanks a lot!

I have not worked with those quartz lights. Is there any reason a normal dimmer would not work with them? I see the fixture that film tools sells, the one David pointed out. I assume the dimmer in that simply controls the voltage right? Thought I'd ask before I get too excited, getting sick of photo floods. Thanks!

OK, admonishment accepted:) I'll keep the dumb questions to a minimum. Thanks!

David, Can you provide an example of when this was appropriate? It sounds interesting, but I can't think of a good time to implement it. Thanks!

I thought standard practice with over cranking would be to increase your shutter angle? Could you not do that in this situation? That would save the ND and maintain a constant DOF. Thanks!

I have no experiance with diopters. Are there any drawbacks or does it simply make your minimum focus closer? Thanks!

Well I have done as much diagnostic work that I am comfortable doing, which sad to say is not much. I followed much of the advice given by you guys. Some things I simply could not do for no other reason than we have the only 800 in town and no means to trouble shoot with another. The decision was made to just send it to K5600 to have them take a look at it, it won't be too big of a deal to not have it around for a while. That being said, I still think its just a spent globe, however I am dissapointed at getting such short life span and this is why I want the ballast looked at, just in case something is up. I'll report back with details. And yes, we should have an extra bulb for the Joker but we don't, we will though. Thanks everybody!

Thanks a lot for the advise. I will check the things you mentioned. However I am hearing the ignition pulse, but no strike. I should have been more specific, its our rental, meaning we rent it out to locals and such. As far as I can tell the bulb is not puntured or anything, I'll pull it and check the contacts. I did not know about the color shifting as it gets older, and from what you said now I am wondering if it is not the ballast. Ok, more investigation. Thanks!

Hi all, I have little knowledge in the realm of HMI lighting and I am trying to figure out if the globe in my Joker 800 is toast or if it is something in the ballast. My gut is that it is the globe, even though it is relatively low hours. However it is a rental and though I know most of the renters it is possible that something happened. Basically it just won't re-strike, the ballast seems to be doing its job, the globe is just not taking it. I really don't know what to look for in a bad HMI globe. Can anyone help me out? I could probably post a photo if need be. Couple other things, the light was purchased in September of 06, 300 hours at most. I did get it back from a rental once and it was damp, though I dried it out well and it worked fine. K5600 has a pretty good rep, I really don't think its the ballast. Any info would be great, thanks a lot! Phil

I do understand. Except, I can't quite wrap my brain around this. So I understand that if you underexpose your negative is going be more clear, shadow areas will go totally clear. Are you saying that a totally clear spot in the negative acts much differntly than if there was a little of color to it? If you underexpose your blacks too much pushing in the development won't yeild a whole lot because there is no "information" there to begin with? Also can you explain gain based fog, or rather what causes it, pretty sure I have seen it me own photos. Ok, I just can't figure out some of this. If the layers are sensitve to RGB, why is a negative created. As I think about your post further you state that "on processing" the layers form CMY. So its not negative until the correct chemicals enter the equation? I'm just having trouble grasping this. Why would it be impossible to create yellow? Thanks a lot for all the responses, I am not getting more confused I am learning a lot, but its one of those things where one question leads to many more.

Also notice that they put his face on the darkest part of the room. Framed any way else and they would have been in trouble. Good post, thanks.

I know you would not use your DVCAM for film transfer, my syntax was poor. Certainly the lo rez stuff is strictly for an offline. I should have been more specific. Why not use the EDL created from the offline edit of the DVCAM to then assemble a print master from the IN. Isn't that how it is done when a DI is not involved? You do a scan to DVCAM or whatever, offilne edit on whatever, use the EDL for an online assembly of the actually film, then make prints. The way I understand it is that he scanned his selects (determined by the offline) and then blew that up back to film. Am I not understanding something? If not what is the advantage of the extra step? A poor mans DI? I am more than willing to accept that I may not have a strong grasp on things such as this, the film world is pretty new to me. Thanks!

I am curious about your decision to scan your selects to HD and then film out from there. What are the advantages? Why not just use your offline to put together a print master with the film and go from there? Color grading? EFX? Thanks

Now I understand, that helped a lot. This is because Kodachrome is a reversal stock right? That is interesting. Generally speaking a 1 or 2 stop push will still render color correctly? That seems to be what I am hearing. Ok, so here is a new one; The three layers of color film are RGB, is it possible or has it been done to use Cyan Magenta and Yellow? Am I nuts? I know a graphic artist who does a lot of print work and I am pretty sure he told me CMYK yeilds better results. I know that is a little off topic but it popped into my head.

I don't mean to be defensive, but why pick on me? :D I have been trying to get my facts straight thats all. For what its worth I think the numbers game gets old pretty fast and quite honestly it is usually fruitless. I think for the vast majority of people here the numbers that end up dictating a project are the ones with a $ in front of them. I could argue all day long how HDCAM SR is superior to DVCPRO HD or that 1080i is better than 720p to a producer, but if the money aint there, it aint there. If the best we can afford is a Varicam (or maybe somebodies cousing works at a rental shop) then thats what we shoot. I don't mean to be apathetic its not that I don't care about the all the cool numbers (1080, 720, 35 etc..) but generally speaking it comes down to what is most cost effective. I realize this means something different for each of us, but you can't ignore it. I thought "Zodiac" looked great. Sorry to go off topic.

Alright, now I am getting somewhere :D Thanks a lot David, that made a whole lot of sense, though the last bit about emulsions introduces a few concepts I am not overly familiar with, though I get the point. I have very little insight on the actual developing stages and processes, B&W still developing is all I really have been exposed to. I just made the connection between IN/IP and DI, duh! Now that process makes a lot more sense. As far as "signal flow" is concerned. Here is one last (maybe) question, how do dailies fit in? Are these struck right from the camera original? Again, thanks to everyone who has posted. Very enlightening for me.