michael rand

a little clarity: i'm doing a bunch of different styles within the one shoot over the course of the move it will go from dark, moody to pooled lighting to shafts of lights backlighting haze to larger areas where haze is more evenly lit from lights up high any examples of these you have would be a wonderful help thanks!!

hey guys i'm needed some lighting advice. so i'm doing a wooded shot..camera on piccolo crane over a 60 foot dolly run...properly crewed and setup for success. i have an effects guy who will be hazing a very large area so in terms of the lighting, I'm looking for some examples from movies, your shoots etc (not so much set stills but actual examples of the final to help explain to my crew what I"m going for) i'm doing a combination of dark moody pooled lighting, the typical shafts of light, large lights up high backlighting haze evenly any advice or input would also be very much appreciated. In general terms, i"m showing dark progression and moody (at the beginning of the move) to more brightly lit distinct shafts of light (at the end). very slow dolly push and camera moves we will have 2 -12ks HMIs, a couple of 4k HMIs, a ocuple of 1.2k hmis, possibly a maxibrute, 2- 5k fresnels, 2 - 2k fresnels, 12 1k molepars etc thanks!! michael

thanks for the replies. to answer your question David, the room is filled with much daylight, but the natural light is filtered thru colorful stainglass. also there is tungsten down lighting. so there is tons of mixed lighting. I most likely will balance for daylight or somewhere in the 4200K range and let the background go warm. So the light on the subject (podium) needs to be somewhere in the daylight or "warm daylight" range. I will be mixing the wide shot with closeups of the speaker at the podium for this. its a documentary and i want to to look natural...so I'm looking for some natural fill on the subjects face. the podium is a dark spot in the room. would it be easier to simply hide a light behind a pillar and simulate sunlight hitting the subject from the "sun" side of the room or do you like the hidden podium light idea. how woudl you do it? see attached

i have a scene in a cathedral that I need to light someone speaking at a podium. it will be a wide shot from the floor of someone at the podium. the space is well lit from the sun punching thru stainglass but the podium area is quite dark. the podium has a 4-5 inch lip all the way around it and I'm trying to figure out how I can plant a source on the podium. here are some of my thoughts, but curious for other ideas 1. rent mini kino flo kit 2. construct something low profile using rope light 3. construct something with few low profile Compact flo bulbs 4. have a podium light that with a higher wattage bulb shooting down and let the bounce from that light the subject (maybe add some foamcore flat on the podium to bounce light off of) any thoughts or criticisms would be greatly appreciated!!!

anyone ever tried to use window screen material to serve as a "net" outside of a window to reduce light level. (as in the black, verythin flimsy type you would find on a large screened openings on a porch at the beach). I'm not referring to the heavy aluminum material found in most homes, but rather the rolls of screen that is more of a soft mesh material. yea yea yea, ND is the way to go, agreed. I'm more referring to the shoot where there is not time or budget to ND multiple windows, but the level needs to be reduced. I was thinking double this stuff up, tack/staple it to the outside of windows and you could potentially treat 6-8 large windows with much less effort than one would encounter with ND. something like this but most likely black http://www.qualitywindowscreen.com/store/i...products_id=185

Mount Kilimanjaro after further research, I've found this product: http://www.affordable-solar.com/gse.sunlin...solar.panel.htm any thoughts? my battery specs: 7.2V / 5.7 amp hours

I'm climbing mt Kili and documenting a team on a 6-8 day climb. Most likely I will use a compact HDV camera. I'm envisioning a solar panel that can attach to the outside of my pack, with batteries on charge inside. any thoughts or other ideas? does anyone have a specific solar unit in mind that has been used successfully in a remote situation like this. Small size and durability would be important.

I thought I would post this: 60" roll of waxed paper (uline proudct number s-12820 if link doesn't work) I'm going to sample some related to this shoot which might or not work, but at 1,500'X60" I thought it was decent value for $162 unrelated: I've heard of people using this for diffusion material which I've never tried. what is it similar to opal? (chocolate opal in this case:) related: wonder how it will looked taped to the mirrors (cutting down on reflection) but serving as a cheap substitute for frost http://www.uline.com/Browse_Listing_1960.asp?keywords=baking

I'm humbled by all the great responses. Thanks to everyone for participating. Those were some well thought out detailed guides for success! VERY much appreciated. Are you ALL available to scout it with me tuesday. :)

I was hoping the smiley face made it clear that I my intention was not to be a wise guy Michael Nash, I appreciate your response to my question and your knowledge-shared throughout this forum. that being said, here is some more detail.... in this case, cinematic for me equals beautiful images. The opposite of news. Lighting that evokes an emotion that caters to the story. I'm simply asking the forum what people would do artistically with the mirrors. How would you approach that challenge creatively. There are mirrors on 4 sides of the room. That is very limiting and presents a problem for camera placement and lighting instrument placement. They could be covered completely or covered allowing some degree of transmission (hampshire frost?) So the story is 4-6 Yoga participants with a lead teacher. I'm looking for nice modeled light so I'm most likely going to hang a large silk from the ceiling with multiple 2ks shooting through or experiment with a 25 foot roll of light grid (with a bunch of totas shooting through)- rigged horizontally. I'm looking for warm fleshtones, slow subtle camera moves, most likely we will shoot with primes (mini35 adapter) so that should help some with the reflections from all angles. I'm hoping if I get my source big enough (close enough) I won't have to deal with fill and that the big soft beautiful light will wrap the subjects well. the plan is to keep the camera moving...lots of slow, subtle yet motivated moves (jib arm and P+S skater dolly) thanks in advance

want it to look warm, clean and simple. (approaching it like a car shot....or at least attempting to with limited budget) we will be doing some slow subtle dolly moves, jib overhead of single person performing exercises, most likely using 2 cameras to cover action then going back for "beauty" close-ups can we talk about the problems of the space now :) I'm specifically looking for advice on how to deal with mirrors (hampshire frost a good idea?) maybe some lighting advice also. thanks to everyone in advance

so I'm prepping for a yoga series....see attached photo. How can I take such a terrible looking room and make it more cinematic. the mirrors are problematic and not much is pleasing to the eye in here...very cliche' yoga space here were some of my ideas 1. hampshire frost on mirrors 2. large artwork leaning on mirrors 3. light the talent (4-5 girls) with a 25X4 foot roll of light grid....large source for relatively cheap how do I deal with reflections (all walls have mirrors) how would you make it look more cinematic? michael

thanks a ton for excellent detailed responses. I now have options!

Darryl and Robert, thank you for the detailed responses. It definitely sounds like a job for a key grip (which I am not) Robert - I'm trying to imagine what you are describing, and honestly I'm not tracking. Would you mind elaborating? i can't picture how you are using the furniture dolly love how helpful people are in this industry, thx

"lazy susan" is something that is typically small and found on a kitchen table. various food items can be placed on it and rotated instead of physically passed around. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazy_Susan so obviously it wouldn't work for this project but something much larger with similar properties is what I was originally referring to....maybe placed on a western dolly.