Bragi Schut

I'm not a DP, I'm a writer/director with an interest in cinematography..but I shot a short several years (on super 16mm) and we did some extensive testing on a really old set of optar illumina lenses and they were fantastic. Really impressive. They were primes and held up every bit to much more expensive glass. Just my two cents, but I would seriously consider renting and shooting on primes.

I've seen some dailies... Looks pretty damn good. I was kind of amazed. They've color-timed it like crazy so everything is really vibrant and rich, and the resolution looks fantastic. Honestly, from the little pieces that I saw, it looked better than most HD projects I've seen. I know they used mostly Canon's XHA1, but they also used HF10 for a tiny bit, and the PMW EX1 and the RED. So I can't be hundred percent sure what camera footage I was seeing. --Bragi

Our lighting budget is pretty tight and the DP just added a bunch of HMI's to it, which caused our costs it to shoot through the roof. My question is this, if we're taking our footage to black and white (we're laving select areas colorized, as in PLEASANTVILLE, but in general it will be black and white) do we really need HMI's? Will you notice the difference between HMI's and the cheaper Fresnel lights somehow? My DP insists the difference will be apparent, but I fail to see how. Any help or advice would be appreciated. Thanks, --Bragi