Kiarash Sadigh

A scary and very strange situation I encountered last week when I was shooting a short film on a Sony FS7 MKI ( my friend's camera, immaculate condition )...Please help if you know what did go wrong here. We shot all morning on the first card ( UHD, 23.98, Cine EI mode ). The DIT wan't there all morning , I was thrown into this situation and didn't know anybody except for the director and the production designer. Half way into the morning we played back one of our takes and everything was there...everybody saw the playback on the monitors and there was no issue with the footage. I played it back myself and all the thumbnails were there and available...nothing to worry about. Around noon someone came to the set from the holding area ( same as the DIT area ) which was a block away from the set and received the first XQD card which was almost full. About 15 minutes later they came to the set and asked me and the director to put everything down and go to the DIT...because " there was no footage"!! We walked over in disbelief and met with the DIT for the first time, he was introduced to me as very experienced and thorough technician, and he came across as that....he then told me that the xdroot folder copied had nothing on it and then I right clicked on the xdroot folder from the card reader and it was only 4gb big!!....there was no footage...in panic I took the card, and put it back in the camera...all the thumbnails were blacked out and in front of the timecode there was a red circle with a red slash on it. It was devastating, we had to move fast and re shoot a bunch of scenes, next day I had to travel to attend some family matters so I had no time to think about this...now that the dust is settled I'm becoming very curious to know what could have happened to a perfectly functioning card. Has anyone experienced this? The card is still with the production company and they wanted to revive the footage but from my understanding it was helpless and they gave up on it. I'm yet to pick up the card, I know that's my most important piece of this puzzle...perhaps I can put it back in the camera and record on it to see if it's been permanently damaged or not...but then again I can't wrap my head around what may have gone wrong. Let me know what you think.

Hey all, I'm curious to hear if anyone is willing to share their experience if they've been on long camping/working trip where they were to shoot on a small boat going down a river...here are the conditions : - on a small chase boat going down a river. The river has both calm segments and not so calm segments when going down a few canyons! - weather temp: mild during the day and cooler at night/ water temp very cold - camera: Sony fs7 + canon lenses + shape handles ... basic - chasing a hand made canoe for 25 days , with one lunch stop and camping at night - two camera crew + assistants + director + sound ( second camera and team in their own boat ) here are my questions: - have you been in a situation like this where you worked for hours day in day out? what's your advice on being more efficient at work ? - have you ever had to wear a drysuit for long hours? day in day out while shooting? do you have any advice on that? how do layer properly as we start in a cool morning and shoot the whole day under the sun and into the night? - have you used a spray deflector on a handhold rig? - how do you best go about keeping your gear and the camera on your shoulder dry? thanks all!

hello all, I'm starting a film next week, shooting with an Alexa mini, UHD, RAW...almost all night interior and on location.. I wanted to pick your brains on LUT packages...is there a series of LUTs you recommend for download or purchase? I have used the built-in LUTs of the Alexa mini before but I want to have a larger selection of display-gamma and colour space for my director on the set...any suggestions?

thank you gents!! I purchased a bunch of LEDs and going to try them soon...the down side of LEDs , I guess is that even the dimple ones don't dim down %100...

hello all, I'm starting a film next week, shooting with an Alexa mini, UHD, RAW...almost all night interior and on location.. I wanted to pick your brains on LUT packages...is there a series of LUTs you recommend for download or purchase? I have used the built-in LUTs of the Alexa mini before but I want to have a larger selection of display-gamma and colour space for my director on the set...any suggestions?

hello lighting gurus , I'm shooting a musical in a restaurant that has a bunch of overhead fixtures and we're going to include these fixtures into some of our shots...each fixtures can be best described as a three socketed bulb cluster that's been packed with CFLs and one inverted paper umbrella ( with a slight yellow tint ) that diffuses the throw....the insets are painted blue/green and they affect the bounce to a degree.... I want to shoot a "sodium vapor" source through the windows on the right , the windows will be diffused...I'm thinking of playing regular tungsten on the floor, like shooting through silks with open faces or kings bulbed at 3200 etc. and scenes all take place at night... I want to be able to use these overheads as they are..meaning fluorescent , to achieve that blue/ green type of hair light ( picture 1 )...but since we have a lot of musical queues we have to be able to dim the overheads up or down depending on the scenes' requirements...so I don't think I can keep the CFLs in there because I can't dim those...instead I'm thinking of replacing them all with tungsten and gel them to match fluorescent , what's your best advice for this....am I on the right thinking path ? I've included two pictures...one is the restaurant and the other is an inspiration for the colour pallet I'm after....although I have to say that in the portrait shot here the blue green is a little too heavy handed ...I want to go for a much more subtle version , meaning that there is less blue-green One last note; we're going to have a lot of wide shots , director loves to see the ceiling and drilling base plates into these ceilings is out of question... thank you!!

thanks guys! much appreciate your help....

Satsuki, thanks for responding...the effect we're aiming to achieve is a in-shot change of aspect ratio...it's a post animated effect that's going to mask over the 16:9 to create a 2.39:1 ratio... My concern has little to do with the post effect, rather with the precautions I need to take in pre production and during the production...for instance: does this method force me into using wide lenses for the most part? I'd be losing a big part of my vertical and some horizontal real estate....a medium shot becomes a close-up composition ...so on and so forth... also how is this change in aspect ratio will play once done in conjunction with a move... for instance: wide shot, dolly in to a medium and change ratio at the same time....or start with a close up in 16:9 , then dolly back to a wide and change to 2.39:1 at the same time....I've never seen an example of this and I'm very curious to know if anyone has done this before with successful results.... I hope I managed to explain this clearly....

I'm filming a short comedy musical in about a month using an alexa mini + zeiss ultra primes ....this is for broadcast television and we're shooting 4k ...my director likes the idea of changing aspect ratios in real time...for instance: we are on a close up of some performer in 16:9 and all of a sudden they break into a song and the aspect ratio changes in front of our eyes to 2.39:1 ...here are some questions I have: -has anyone done something like this? if so what are the challenges for pulling this off? -in your opinion how can this blend with camera movements? for example pushing in/ pulling back on a dolly and changing from 16:9 to 2.35:1 ... thanks in advance!

What would be some of the better ways of scratching the film after processing; i.e. what equipment to use etc. I have a projector and am willing to experiment with post processing scratches...any ideas?

I'm wondering if anyone has experience with scratching the film...my plan is to scratch a roll and shoot some texture and grey card, then use it as a sub-layer for my other stuff....is there a way, for instance, to open the cartridge, scratch and hand-roll back, close the cartridge and shoot? I know the effect can be achieved digitally, but I'd love to be able to pull off an analogue version.... let's talk... thanks.

Has anyone had any experience shooting in Cairo? I'm traveling there in a few weeks to shoot a portion of this television series and would like to know anything that can possibly help. I'm traveling with an EX-1 and a tripod. I may have to find lights there or take some from here, things are still up in the air in this regards. Any information would be great.

Yes there are a few other cheap versions you can do, here are two: 1- use a real tv! I've done this many times, these days every one owns a massive size tv, and you hopefully find one in your location, if not maybe one of your crew members can borrow their parents 42 incher lcd.... pick a channel (hockey games usually work fine) then boost the brightness of your tv based on your readings...wallah! 2- Shoot a light through a 3by frame ( your redhead would do good) then cool it down using some ctb, then have a pa holding a piece of foam core in front of the frame (not blocking it but keep the foam core perpendicular to it)..then ask the pa to slowly pivot the foam core over it's vertical axis (to picture this you need to put yourself in the talents position, in the first position of the foam core you (talent) only see a line which is the section of the foam core, then as your pa pivots the foam core the thickness of that line increases gradually blocking some of the light coming from your 3by frame, is that clear?) .. now, you don't need to completely block the light, just do it subtly and you see the effect...to add to his you can cut holes in the foam core and use color gels to add more complexity. these are some lo-bo tricks, obviously what other people have mentioned here create great effects too. have fun!

Thanks John, so the cheap stuff is good for lights, would they also work with CFL bulbs? ....since they dim to %50, should I worry about them flicker?

I've been doing a little bit of research on how to get my lights working in other continents and with different voltage currencies (I'm in canada). First off, i've considered the option of switching bulbs for 220, however there are some serious loss of foot-candle when it comes to my compact fluorescent bulbs; so I want to stick to my 110 bulbs and travel with a couple of voltage convertors. I looked a few places and to my amazement, there are two radically different types available, one that is a small and compact version, claiming to convert 220 to 110 and up to 1600 watts, this piece goes for $6.00. There is another type that goes for $70.00 and is the size of a brick and weights about 10 pounds, this one claims to convert 220 to 110 and max wattage of 750 Watts. I'm a bit confused and love to receive a little bit of education over this whole 220-to-110 conversion issue and hear from those who have had experience traveling with their north american lights. Thanks

My experience is that the best resources in food lighting is found in the world of still photography, in almost every still-photography lighting technique book the food set up is thoroughly discussed...look up your public library's list of still photography books and order them all! you'll be amazed how much you learn. ....you can also google "food photography" to see how much information you'll find....good luck!

One of the boys made this set up for me on a set of a low budget feature I did : a ladder at the bottom of your window ( sand bag the hell out of it, or rope it) , a c-clamp that has a 2k spigot biting into the upper body of your ladder with the spigot pointing directly up , take a turtle-base c stand, take the base off and secure it into your 2k spigot ....now you have a c-stand on top of your ladder which will reach up easily to a second floor window... have fun!

Thanks guys, I still really like to know how to handle this in a 230 volt country, meaning wether I should get the 230v bulbs ( with much lower foot candle ) or use the 120v bulbs and carry a 230 to 120 convertor? any ideas? pros and cons?

So I'm going to be traveling very soon for a doc and I need to put a lighting package together that is : 1- portable and quick 2- switchable between 3200 and 5600 3- switchable between soft and hard 4- switchable between 120w and 230w other specs: crew of 3 max, sony ex-3 or panasonic hpx-170, some tough locations like deserts etc. , there could be instances when I'm all by myself so the portability is a key that's why i'm leaning towards Rifa66 ex (the ones that has a switchable fluro head)...I own an older 66 and am quite happy but I've never used the fluro heads... now look at a spec sheet from Lowel's site: For Rifa eX 66 - Maximum 750w LampCode Volt watt K FC 5' FC 10' E1-27 120 27 5500 20 (217) 6 (60) E1-27E 230 25 5500 20 (217) 6 (60) X1-65 120 65 5500 67 (722) 18 (196) from this you see that I get 67 foot candles if I go with the X1 which is a 120 volt bulb...if I take some E1-27E bulbs to middle east then they'll only give me 20 foot candles (more than a 1/3 drop!!) Question 1: should I take the X1 bulbs and use voltage convertors instead of switching bulbs to that of 230 volts? Question 2: I can't get my hands on these new versions of Rifas unless I order them...has anyone used the Fluro heads? how are they...can you compare they're punch to a 4bank 2 feet kino? Question 3: Is Rifa my best choice? or should I look elsewhere? really appreciate your time...

Kinos and tungs are flicker free...and 18fps is not an hmi safe speed

This is too broad...what is your product?

I would say that the "good looks" in situations like this is more on the set decoration and hair/wardrobe departments because to light shows like that you're pretty much limited to the big scoops (soft sources) coming from the top, and then some back lighting....the choice of the unit is up to one's resources etc. but you want to minimize shadows and contrast as it is considered more appropriate for the "on-camera talents"... for film references I can think of Magnolia and Natural Born Killers...but again feature films are treated differently as you tweak your lights once you move in from wide-shots to close-ups etc. can you do that on your tv show? good luck!

yes, glad to hear you got through it successfully, looking forward to see the pics...

Exposure time in a standard 24frame/sec or 24p in video with a 180 degree shutter angle is 1/48th of a second, so a 1/24th will cover for more than the duration of the open position, however even if you have the strobe at 1/24th of a second you're still dealing with two separate "pulsating" entities , it's like synchronizing two pendulums at the same time; even if they stay sync for a while they sure go out of sync and then back into sync again...in other words unless your strobing device is connected and synchronized with your camera system you will get out-of-sync eventually. Anyhow, i'd like to hear about your experience and learn more...

Your safest bet is to use the type that allows you to manipulate the duration of the strobes...this is simply because you might lose part of the light cycle due to the shutter rotation etc..... I would look into Dataflash a 3500w fixture that allows you to prolong the light cycle the way you want.