Michael Morlan

Hi all, I finally posted a commercial/industrial reel on my site. And I updated my narrative reel with some feedback from the forum. Many thanks. If you're looking for A DP in Austin, Texas, enjoy a look-see. Michael

He he. You joke but a gaffer friend of mine was working on a Bollywood set and experienced just such a request. Apparently, the Indian D.P. had never worked with such large fixtures before and made a call for a 10k HMI about 10 feet from a child actor. Fortunately, our boy was able to advise his boss on the matter. :)

Howdy all, Does anyone know of any distance limits between Kino ballast and heads. I have a Gaffer Kit with two 4-bank's and I bought Kino-built break-down cables to power four single lights placed within set pieces etc. I've bought additional AMP connector sets to wire with zip cord but don't know just how long I can make these. Anyone? M

Hi all, Been away awhile. I'm returning to edit my reel soon but never thought to submit the current one to this forum. Give me your thoughts please. http://michael-morlan.net/pages/lighting.htm Technical Note: I'm not pleased with the saturation/contrast of the Quicktime conversion from the source imagery. As you will see in the still frames below the reel, they look much better. What might I do during the conversion to retain the look of the original footage?

Photoflex is discontinuing their cine soft-boxes. You should be able to find some good deals there.

On "Double Tap", I had a scene in which a ghost, the deceased wife of the protagonist, makes an appearance in an Irish Pub. The pub was dark with lots of architecture and character specials. The actress playing the deceased wife was costumed in a flowing, white nightgown. Since she didn't have to move around much, she received a special from a source four ellipsoidal near camera with a 14/ blue. She definitely popped in the scene. That was shot on a Varicam "H" so no halation effects possible as Mr. Mullins notes. Use that front light with some of the hair/back lights suggested by others and you should arrive at a really nice look.

I replaced my Sekonic Studio Deluxe and Minolta Spot-F with a Sekonic 558Cine and am very happy. (Actually, I kept the Studio Deluxe as a backup.) As Kevin notes, there are many threads on the subject here.

Dave, What film or video-quivalent ASA were you shooting at? What were you getting on your meter? What size china balls? Were you able to sufficiently eliminate talent shadows on the floor? Inquiring minds want to know.

There is a reason Mole's designs haven't changed for decades - they work. Really, most lights are relatively simple devices. Besides formfactor, features, and materials, take a close look at illumination tables available on most manufacturers' sites. These tell the true story of how much light and the character of light each instrument projects. You would be surprised, for instance, at the difference between Mole's 2000watt 412 Junior and their 2000watt 4131 Baby Junior, which is less efficient. Pyramid Films is a good place to buy used, but be careful. I have received some real crap from the end of their inventory at times. Dave worked really hard to give me satisfaction, however, sending me additional parts to bring my purchase up to an acceptable spec.

Here's some odds & ends from various projects: 1K Baby over roofline to create positive/negative space - XL-1s 750w Ellipsoidal framed to create a square of bounce on white ceiling simulating flouros - dvx-100a @ 24p - 200ASA A view of that light setup Shot on shadowed side of street with sun bouncing from office tower windows for key, street bounce and sky dome for fill. The sun's a light, right? :D - XL-1s - 400ASA Baby 1K + 1/4 CTB on left plus practicals everywhere else, including floor-to-ceiling luminescent wall on right. - XL-2 - 400ASA All practicals - luminescent wall practical as key on left. - XL-2 - 400ASA Practical two-tube flouros on stair landings, one with .3ND - XL-2 - 400ASA Practicals plus 250w pro-light bouncing around entry way. By sheer luck there was a blue bulb in the porch light for the location where the antagonist is first introduced, creating this very creepy feeling. I just went with it. - JVC GY-DV500 - 800ASA 300w tweenie through diamond-pattern flouro light cover + silver bounce at left - Sony HVR-Z1U 125ASA One of my cheap tricks, shooting micro-budget shorts with sensitive cameras, is to scout for locations with well designed architectural lighting - a coffee shop with 12volt track lighting - an elevator lobby with a floor-to-ceiling luminescent panal. These existing practicals take care of 90% of my lighting task. I'll add a light or bounce to finish the job.

Bob, I learned, the hard way, about easily bumped settings on the XL-2 when I would have focus and iris drift. When I shot with the Z1U, I always hit the "lock" switch to secure everything. There are way too many buttons to just grab the camera blindly without that lock in place. :) Beautiful shot!

I agree blue can be easily overdone. I like to add 1/4 or 1/2 CTB to "moonlight" then desaturate the blues in post a bit. This approach also allows me to chroma-separate the moonlight from warmer light sources (if they exist) giving me even more control in color-correction.

I read, in another thread, that +3dB on the Z1U is essentially "free" since it introduces next to no noise. That'll give you a stop back. Sony really engineered this camera conservatively. No low-light level boasting for them.

Remember that, no matter what bit-depth the camera's processing package samples in, if you are recording to tape, your final image will be in that format's bit-depth. For instance, the JVC-GYDV500 has a 12/24-bit image processor. Too bad you lose all that when the data is recorded to the 8-bit DV25 tape.

Remember that the camera's sensetivity can change drastically based on your choice of "creative" settings. For instance I found the DVX100 to be a 400ASA at 60i but beomes a 200ASA camera at 24p. (Don't ask me why.) You can determine your own ASA with a grey card and light meter (either incident or spot.) To do so: o Set the camera to your preferred settings (and document them assiduously for your camera team to replicate on set) o light an 18% grey card o use the camera's auto-exposure to set the iris and note the f-stop o match the camera's exposure speed on your meter o use your meter to measure either the card (spot) or the light (incident.) Adjust the meter's ASA until it reads a similar f-stop. You now have your camera's ASA for your given creative settings. All that said, I find that I only use the meter when I am getting familiar with a film/video speed I haven't used before or in awhile. Typically, I light by eye then use my spot meter to look for problem spots or to match difficult lighting setups. I also keep 100% zebras on the camera's viewfinder at ALL times to watch out for clipping. It's better close the iris slightly if you don't have time to tone down a hot spot and risk underexposing video slightly. I measured the HVR-Z1U at 125ASA for 30p.

Conversely, does a 1/8 even read on a DV camera? Anybody done any tests with DV, HD, or HDV? Michael

I own a GY-DV500 and shoot narrative shorts with with that camera amongst others. Check out a variety of images shot on that camera at the following pages on my site: Shades of the Past In Between The Hypocrite The Real You Haunting Kate Candle Shop I think it's a fine camera with good contrast latitude, rich colors, and a 1/2" chip for a bit better control of depth-of-field than most pro-sumer cameras. I believe you can achieve a variety of looks with the camera, not just "glossy." It's all in the lighting and composition. The camera's one downside at this time is a lack of progressive recording. However, I have a de-interlacing process I use as described in the following article: De-interlacing with Vegas

A great article on the history of the fresnel lens here: http://www.lanternroom.com/misc/freslens.htm

What!? You paid for a failing battery!? That is just right out! A battery is a long-life item that eventually fails of its own accord. If it is declared "new" and fails, then it was just bad to begin with. It's very hard to abuse a battery into death short of shorting the connections and causing it to melt or smashing it somehow. If the casing was intact, there was no excuse for that rental house to charge you for it. Bad rental house! Bad! No cookie for you!

I would add that just about every consumer level film scanner is really soft - no matter what resolution specs they are touting. I discovered this when comparing my CanoScan 2710 against drum scans of still 35mm frames. Canon declares a native resolution of 2720 pixels per inch. But the resulting image is much softer. You simply aren't going to get the detail that a high-end scanner can muster. That said, I have a CanoScan 2710 I'm selling real cheap... :D

Tomas, I geared up my package from a variety of sources: Modern Studio Equipment - www.modernstudio.com - ask for Jiro. They had a hard time fulfilling my $11K order in a timely fashion but they definitely made up for it in the end. Just give them sufficient lead time. Get them to send you the printed catalog and download their pricing spreadsheet from their website. The Rag Place - while I didn't get my rags from them, they are highly regarded by other pros in my town. www.theragplace.com B&H - They almost always have the best prices on lights. I discovered they were selling a midget barndoor at near cost. Pyramid Films - They post their HMI's and other gear on eBay as well as rep the Bardwell & McAllister line. www.pyramid-films.com & www.bmlighting.com. But be really careful. I've received some real crappy used gear from them. They have been happy to rectify the situation but it's a pain having to deal with it. Be very clear about what you are getting - "I thought I ordered BEEFY babies!" eBay! - I just scored a 9-light FAY for $180 - with five working globes! Many ebayer's are companies that can print a receipt for you. One other thing: You're not setting up shop in Austin, Texas are you? ;)

That's a pretty good low-cost solution. I scanned the eBay seller's other items and found these dolly skateboard trucks: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...item=7533176681 I might get a set just to be able to build custom rigs on the set. Looks like good construction. I'd easily spend as much in raw materials building my own. And, they have a three-day return policy. Not bad at all.

Downmix, I'm late to this thread but thought some of my experience renting my grip/electric gear to low-budget features and shorts might serve you. First, I decided to stay away from cameras - too sensitive, too expensive, too easy to break/steal/destroy. And, digital cameras are too soon obsoleted. Of the dozens of choices of 35mm, 16mm, s16mm, HD, HDV, DV, which one should I get? That said, I have a couple legacy DV cameras that go out on occassion. I chose, instead to invest my dollars in grip/electric/dollies/jib-arm/etc. Every set needs that stuff. It's rugged, lasts a decade at least, easy to check for renter damage, easy to repair. My small inventory can support two or three shoots if I'm lucky. For about $35k, I have a nice 1-ton package plus dolly/track/jib-arm, Kino Gaffer kit, soft boxes and other miscellany. As a DP or gaffer, I am in greater demand since, again, everyone needs that gear no matter what format or camera they are using. I'm checked out on many of the cameras at other shops, so I'm completely viable as a crew member while still being able to offer value to productions as a crew/gear entity. But most important: I get to use it for my own projects. :D Check out my site: austinfilmtools.com There you will find everything I offer my renters including contracts, inventories, rental standards, etc. Hope that helps.

ROFLMAO! Thanks for that Phil. Late to this thread but; Any time someone starts talking to me in those overblown terms, I make a hasty exit. It's obvious they lack perspective and that they and anything to which they are attached will suffer for it. Even worse when they have the temerity to insult others so brazenly. Yuck!!! Interestingly, I learned this lesson in the music industry when I was a guitarist and audio engineer in my early twenties. I auditioned for one of these guys who, not only promoted his efforts in overly-glowing terms, but was prompting me to offer similar opinions of myself. I could only say, "well, we'll see what I got." As it happened, I didn't join as a guitarist (because my audition completely sucked) but was later asked to tour with them as their engineer (at which I was brilliant.) Near the end of the tour, a couple of the musicians confessed they had been really concerned about my coming on as an engineer after they had heard how brilliant I apparently thought I was as a guitarist. It turns out this self-promoter extraordinaire was blowing huge smoke up their a**es as well. So, he was doing *me* a disservice by making me out to be something I decidely was not and would never have claimed for myself. These people can hurt you either way. Run, don't walk, to the nearest exit.

I tried the Cinetactics mb100mmatte box with my JVC GY-DV500 and Fuji 20x6.4 lens. I think it's a neat idea but I found it dissapointing for several reasons: While specified to fit my 72mm lens diameter, the web-strapped shade regularly "squeezed" off the front. The filter sleeves were pretty rough on my resin filters. It's a very tight fit. Vignetting was a big issue. The filters were positioned within the shade rather than behind it between shade and lens. Rotating the filter was impossible since you have to essentially tear it off the front of the matte box and re-seat it. I like the concept of a light-weight sun shade but I can get that stock with the lens. The Cinetactics products are a neat idea in need of some refinements. I look forward to seeing future versions.