Jason Love

Any ideas on how to achieve a look of golden honey like sunshine light within a kitchen. Similiar to maybe the french films Delicatessen and Amelie. In particular I want to see blonde hair backlit like its on fire, and the dust you see through the air when shafts of strong sunshine come in from the window... Thankyou, Jason

How did they do the shot in La Haine where Vince gets shot in the head at point blank range? It cant be blanks, that would be too dangerous. The slide blows back and theres a muzzle flash and blood on vince's face. Im trying to recreate a similar shot, obviously i dont want to use blanks for safety and noise reasons. I got replica guns with moving parts. Is it gonna be after effects? Any suggestions helpful, thanks.

I cant work out how you have done that... in the picture it looks like a floating glow of diffusion. where is the stand? and why isnt the light switched on?

So I should shoot in HDV 1080 for the quality, then downsize resolution in post?

The sensor chips picking up light on HDV cameras are bigger than DV cameras right? So I presume using a HD camera means produce better light, colour, and depth of field results that are somewhat closer to 16mm quality than standard DV is? What about using a HD camera on standard DV resolution? Is the properties of light, colour, and depth of field etc... maintained in both 1080 and 576 resolution? [PAL] Or if you use a HD camera with standard resolution is it the same as using a DV camera? Im using a Sony HVR V1E on standard resolution 576 DVCAM mode 25p 1/50 shutter speed. Am i wasting my time shooting with this camera in standard DV?

Yeah you are right sorry, hand holding bounce boards is the easiest solution. I guess i just assumed my crew would be too lazy. lol. I've done 3 scenes in overcast light already now. One of them in an estate turned out a good result using bounceboards on close-ups. Looking back on some footage I now realise that bouncing the light up to the front of the face would be more benifitial on overcast days. I was just worried that overcast light would produce flat results. Thanks for the tips

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Thanks, How would you position the reflector behind the subject? I presume it is quite low to the ground below the subject's waist as to not be in frame... I cant imagine it being off-frame to the side... this would be too far away and not to the back enough. So how would one put a reflector behind the subject? Is it just a low C-stand? I cant imagine a grip guy holding it, lol. But i dont have C-stands available. so what are the other solutions? Also, I'm not sure if reflecting natural light on an overcast day-time is enough light to create a backlighting. However, if its gonna be raining too then I cant use lights. Well, I cant really use lights in a particular location because its outside a Hospital, so I dont want to disturb too much with generators and such. Working with natural light on an overcast day... is back-reflecting possible? Or resort to another method of background seperation on this case? Thankyou once again.

Spend £1000 on a renting a decent mini DV camera and lights. Then hopefully your crew are friends willing to work for free.

i posted twice by accident... the postman always rings twice

I would say when starting out filmmaking to storyboard as much as possible if you are the director, to get an idea of the shots you want, and this gives the DOP the idea too. Then make a shot list slightly more detailed than the storyboard. Obviously this is only a guideline, but planning helps. When it comes to the shoot, the location may inspire you completely differently or just add to the shots you had in mind. Be methodical about following the shot list or the master-scene method if you think you might miss something out. Do wide shot, then MCU, then CU, then cutaways if you listed them. Then if you see anything interesting on location, take a shot of it, maybe it can be used as a cutaway if you run out of coverage to edit. This is my two pennies worth, but maybe somebody more experienced could help you.

I'm no expert, but I would say get a digital camera to start; on the basis that film is expensive. Plus video should be fine for just commercials and stuff. The quality of DV is good enough for anything up until a feature film really. (Thats just an opinion though i guess) But if you got loads of money then I guess you could get a film camera with lots of film. It also depends what look you want aesthetically. If you are making short films then 16mm film might be what you want. But for most commercials, music videos, corporate videos etc... then I would say dont waste your money on reels and reels of film, get a DV camera. (Like I said though, just my opinion)

Thanks for the help guys

Does anyone know of a way to make cheap DIY C-stands? Or some way of holding up diffusion/silks/flags etc... They cost £90 (in UK) [probably $150 or something, i dunno] I cant afford that for just a pole... I thought about using a cheap hat/coat stand with some clamps but not sure if i can find the right cheap clamps.... Any thoughts please... Thankyou

Thanks for the help on this one, the tips should be really helpful to me. Im thinking now of putting up two 500w worklights as the court's own light source. If I put them on opposite sides of the court; this would be a logical place for lights to be on a court? But then im wondering whether there will be too much light filling the court; them worklights do spill out everywhere. Plus the lights would be pretty high up, which is gonna mean subjects might be top-lit. I dont know if this is gonna be an advantage or disadvantage to me. In some angles they would act as a strong backlight, but maybe too high and strong for my key? Although, having them there would mean they are my source of light direction, im not sure if the 250w would do much to suppliment them, in the way of key lighting. (that probably didnt make much sense, it was kind of stream-of-thought...sorry) I read somewhere that the backlight has to be 2 stops stronger than the key to have any effect... is this nonsense? Thanks for the image of Ray Liotta too. It looks amazing without any backlight, or any sign of fill either. What film is that from? I would like to get some of the texture in the fence lit in the background, im supposing it only needs a little bit though... Thanks again.

Hello, I am a still a humble student so dont know that much.. I know that backlight seperates subject from background but im wondering how important this is. Are there any cases you dont need to worry about the backlight? I ask because i find it hard to imagine where to put the backlight in most cases without seeing it in frame. (especially when panning the camera and such). Limited space inside a room may also cause a problem for positioning the backlight. On a set they probably hang it on the ceiling so no problem to worry about. Also very difficult when the subject is close to the wall. In particular, I ask for a more specific example: I am shooting a urban drama on HDV. One scene is at night in an outdoor basket ball court enclosed by a high mesh fence. There is no natural source of light that is close, so i was thinking of using a 500w worklight as a practical attached to the top of one of the fences. (ie - a floodlight for the court). I am wondering where to put a backlight, or whether i need one. Since i dont want it to look too artificial and polished, do i need one? I want it dark and gritty, I will use Collateral and Miami vice as convenient examples, but the subject-matter is closer to La Haine. I dont want to put too much light onto the court, keep it dark, only the people lit. I've got access to 3-6 250W pro lights with dimmers (to be ashamedly honest, I dont know what type they are). Plus I will have 1 or 2 500w work lights and some methods of diffusion. There is a fair number of people in this court. So... Do I need a backlight, first of all? Where should i put it? And any general tips on how to light this particular scene? Any thoughts that can be thrown at this will be greatly apprieciated. Thankyou

Where did you get such cheap things from may i ask? Are they common at that price? Im from UK but im hoping there is some sort of equivelant store that does them here... Thanks