Kiarash Sadigh

yes, make sure you diffuse them really well (so you might need bigger bulbs i.e. 100w or bigger) because having a set up like that with not enough diffusion will likely create multiple shadows..

I did something similar years back and this was my set up: 2 sky-hi stands on either side of the talent with goal posts and 5 feet grid pipes (this whole thing can be done with plain C-stands reached to the top and arms over 90 degrees...but I prefer sky-his and pipes)...then hang two soft banks and have an operator on each stand and get them to operate the lamps like this: lamp "A" is ON in position 1 in front of the talent, lamp "B" is OFF in position 2 behind the talent, your "A" operator then swings the lamp over your talents head to position 2 behind the talent and turns it OFF as your operator "B" swings his lamp over your talents head to his front and turns it ON...so as you see these lamps cross each other in mid air over your talents head and that's why they have to be set on different heights....now if you have talented lamp operators, you can try dimming down as opposed to turning off... As for your second set up (revolving desk) you need tell us a bit more about what is going to be replacing the blue screen , as that's what you ultimately want to replicate...

Looks pretty good, share with us your lighting set up...

You didn't mention what type of tungsten lights you have...but this is based on an assumption that you have enough of them: Lights in gyms are usually soft and topy and in most gyms you have enough existing practical lights not to worry about lighting anything but filling shadows a.k.a cleaning up faces, and back light talent or accent-light machines and brands...and for all these (with your gear) you need to have two things, number one is a bounce board or any other way of turning you lights into big soft sources and number two, you need some color correction gells to match you tungs with existing flouros....meaning that you put those color correction gells on your tungstens untill they match to your flouros (use your eye) and then for every shot white balance on a spot where you read a little bit of your corrected tung and existing flouro.....I normally match tungsten to most fluros with 1/2 or full blue and 1/4 green now this depends on the color temp of the existing bulbs but it's not a bad idea to scout and test. Depending on your style you can bounce your corrected source into a 4by4 white board as a filler or even as a kicker (i'm a fan of big, soft kickers)...you can hang your corrected sources from the drop ceiling (use a scissors clamp or some end-jaw cardellinis) and back or hair light your talent....or some other ways of lighting as it has been described on this site only a few thousand times :P

I like the Source-Four idea, rent one with a 19 degree lens ...put it on a stand and hide it behind the columns...you can gell it blue or throw a piece of opal for diffusion... I have to say though that I've shot docs in many many churches with a few readheads and a 200w HMI...I've mostly used the readheads for situations like this and balanced for tungsten...

I agree. Who says that lighting must be realistic...and what is the definition of realistic lighting anyways? I have to say that I really liked what Mr. Hall did in Road to Perdition, however it looked a bit over lit to me, meaning that things and characters were in most part conveniently lit, an American tradition of motion picture photography I'd say.

It depends what kind of look you want to achieve. Bleached muslin in a mid-day sun will give you a very very soft early-morning effect. It's however a great bounce material for such situations.

Unless one of the 15 people surrounding the client monitor thinks the shadows are " a bit too dark" <_<

Which side is your window facing? you need to make sure that your light stays pretty consistent during the shoot (a north-facing window works best for this). If there is enough natural light then I wouldn't go about adding lights to the already existing daylight coming through the windows, taylor your daylight to your needs ( i.e. use silks, mirror boards etc) and bring in your hmi for fill (there is a fill light in the commercial, pretty visible in the first 2 seconds as the guy walks to the girl, watch his left shoulder catching it, and also the usual practice there is more fill in the M.S and MCUs)

Though it's not a rule , I like the "smart side" better, and I always tend to find myself a way to light from the "smart side" or the "far side" (as still photographers put it)...I like the modeling better and I believe it enhances the features. Depending on the age, gender and the features of the actors, I bring the "far side" light closer or farther from the camera axis, then I fill from the "dumb side" or I simply don't.

You can use Data Flash to replicate camera flashes, you can also set it so the unit produces longer-lasting strobes in an uneven pattern, which is ideal for lightning effect... A agree with David in terms of the punch, to my knowledge this unit has a maximum of 3500 watts output, which is pretty darn good for most interior shots ...it's perhaps not the ideal device if you're want to use it in a field at night etc.

No I don't have any examples as we speak...but I can tell you that I was very skeptical about all the el-cheapo ways of creating lightening and this was pretty convincing for the budget...it looks better than shutters for sure... Now, Data Flash comes with a control board that is armed with many many preset strobe effects, what you need to do is to learn which one you like the best before you hit the set because it takes time to go through them all...I did the same and spent a good 20 minutes with the unit at the rental house...you basically have control over the intensity of the light and the strobing pattern, from what I remember, I had the intensity down to %20 and used preset#11... the lower the intensity the less recycle time ... hope it helps :-)

Well, that's what came to my mind first time I saw the picture too, but I want it to look clean and without clutter and am not sure how to hide the cables on either end of the tubes...it'll look like a jungle of cables if I go about hanging 15-20 kino tubes, unless there is another way/ trick I've never tried

Ok I give up uploading, here it is in the link below: http://picasaweb.google.ca/hourofthewolf/P...key=F2HNva-kCqQ I'll try to upload it later again...

Sorry, it looks like I have problems uploading the picture...it's hard to explain without it though...I keep trying

I have a meeting with a client tomorrow to shoot 13 intro/outros for a series and this is the sample picture they've sent me...it looks like they've done some quick post effect and I'm assuming that the host will become lit as he/she gets closer to the camera....have any one of you folks done something like this? how do I go about creating an effect similar to this? I'm using an HVX200 with Letus 35mm and Nikon primes..

Here is a device I used a few months ago and was quite happy with it...it rented for $60.00!! and gave me a very good rendition of lightening... hope it helps.. http://www.highend.com/products/effects/dataflashaf1000.asp

To achieve this effect I usually put a 1/2 minus green (Magenta) on my key fixture and then white balance on a white card under it...this will render the key as white and the rest of the army of lights (that had not been gelled with minus green) as green...so your actor or key subject will have a neutral colored light on them whereas the rest of the lights automatically shift towards green... For flicker you need to narrow down your shutter angle ( increase your shutter speed) until you see it. This effect will be cyclical as both frequencies ( Shutter rotation i.e. 200/sec, and Fluro i.e. 60/sec in north america) go through peaks and lows at different times...as a result you'd have times when flicker is at its most visible and you'd have times when flicker is non existent or less visible...and in the edit the best flicker footage will be used... Check out the link below, I shot this a few weeks ago and right at around 0.20 you see a photography booth flicker, I used an HVX with 250/sec shutter speed ...the extreme flicker lasted about 5 seconds which is used here on this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ORhcB0KxRQ

There must be tens if not hundreds of threads on this site about how to light for green/blue screen, do a quick search and they'll come up . Also check youtube for Walter Graff, he has a sample video instruction on this matter which could be quite useful for what you need...\ have fun!

For sodium vapor I normally use a half bastard amber with 1/4 cto...however for more detailed list there are a lot of threads here on sodium vapor gel packs...just punch in the key words in the search engine...

Daylight is already rendered blue if you're shooting for tungsten inside (which is the case in majority of shooting scenarios) ...you don't need to add more blue, you just need to bring the intensity down

I once lit a studo with a number of source fours (around 25 to 35 if I remember correctly) shooting through 2x 12 by 12 silks, the first was about four feet away from the sources and the second about four feet away from the first silk, the entire studio was lit with this very diffused top light... Another way of recreating overcast day light would be to shoot up your lights into big sheets of styrofoam or foamcore hung from the grids...the lights are on the floor aimed up at the ceiling.... and to stop light leak you can build a box of black around them i.e. 4by floppies etc...the goal is to have as big of a white bounce as possible... good luck

You should look up a post from a couple of weeks ago called "gelling windows for DFN" there are a lot of interesting comments there...good luck!

You're absolutely right David, sorry I wrote all that based on my personal understanding and without enough research...looking forward to see yours.

This is a short list for poetic landscapes, just from the top of my head...all in color: -Nostalghia -Stalker -Sacfrifice (Offret) -Mother and Son -Edge of Heaven