J. Lamar King IMPOSTOR

The way for the younger, lower budget DP to avoid some of these problems is to argue hard for some stand-ins. It's so important to have them. You need stand ins that match in skin-tone and relative height. They need to watch the blocking, so they can go through the movements while you light them. Yes you can do it without them but they will make your life so much easier and the set run faster.

Personally, I try to be challenged by the blocking the director wants. If you are setting up a master, the common problem I find is that the actors and thus camera and lighting may have to cover way to much of the set. Say they make dinner at a stove in the kitchen then retreat to a back ground table to eat. You have to ask yourself how are you going to get that all in a way that fits the story? You might quietly suggest to the director that you would rather slice the scene up into two parts, the kitchen, then the table. First, give serious thought to how you might do it the way it was blocked. Sometimes this can create some pretty cool shots.

The worst problem with open face lights is when they are pointed up and a bug gets too close. The heat stuns it and it then falls to it's crispy death. If it lands on the globe it smokes quite a bit and smells like hell. It's a little Icarus story that plays out every night on set. Don't fly to close to the sun!

Not sure what you mean by "Parallel direction" but if you mean having an 18K on one end of the runway and another at the other end, yes that would work. If you had them in a 3/4 back to side position the intensities would change from one side to the other as you went down the runway but I think it could be gradual enough that it wouldn't matter as long as there was always a cross back light feel. It would be disguised by the editing.

Also yes, you would probably want to keep the PAR intensities lower at a smaller airfield, if you used them. You could use ND gel or a thick color like blue, red or even green to stylize it a bit.

First of all let me say that it is very dangerous working with planes. Adding a condor to the mix is even more of a safety concern. I leave the safety up to you and my comments are only in relation to the look of the lighting.

You could position a condor with two 18K's at one end of the runway. Send one light down the runway to back/side light the plane and cars. the other unit could hopefully rake some trees and buildings in the back ground. At 350 or so feet from the 18K you'll be down to around 5 foot candles if your lamps are flooded. Keep that in mind. I would be very tempted to have a long row of PAR cans or similar set up on both sides of the runway aiming upwards but angled enough that the plane and cars would drive through pools of light and dark. These would be motivated by runway lights but of course much brighter. Again you must be careful that they are not going to be run over.

What kind of light would I use to create contrast and hot streaks? I'm thinking tweenie or betweenie? How can I achieve different light intensities?

Theoretically you could use any fixture with enough power to provide highlights. It depends on what your Key level is of course. A good rule of thumb would be a fixture roughly equal to your key light fixture but use it clean. Say you had used an 18K through a frame of light grid to key a large restaurant interior. Well you could use a hard 12K or 18K a little farther back to push hot highlights down the back wall.

Yes that scenario would work with the following caveat's,

ND .6 might be too much or too little depending on the light conditions and things seen outside. (spot metering ahead of time might help) It will probably be enough though.

Gelling windows evenly is a pain. Best solution acrylic ND+O, next Single sheet of ND+O that covers the window frame entirely, worst two sheets of gel applied to the glass.

Is the window accessible from outside?

If you then want to bounce light inside, go for open face units for more punch.

i'm supposed to shoot only the jewels...actually a turn table is a great idea, as for the color temp, i guess i could shoot tungsten balanced, keying with + 1/2 ctb...besides the shop is very small, it is the eldest jewelry in rome, therefore it should be a sort of "main character" in itself...

Reflective surfaces like to have something to reflect. Be sure to bring several 4x bead boards or white foam core. If your going to use a soft box as a key light that's great because the surface of the diffusion will reflect at certain angles. You can get more reflection by rigging your bead boards or foam core at the right angle then hitting it with an inkie or something.

Thank you for the advice. I agree that I need more contrast in my interior day scenes, I feel that this will give me the more dynamic feel that I seek. I am really inspired by Robbie Ryan's cinematography in 'Fish Tank'.

 

Thanks for the advice about the HMIs, I am going to get two 1.2 HMI fresnels instead of the tungsten 2k with CTB. am right in thinking that running a 1.2 k HMI with draw around 6 amps when on a 220v circuit? How many more amps will an HMI of this size draw upon striking, I do not know whether the ballasts are electric or magnetic, I am assuming electric though.

 

Can you give me some advice in operating HMIs since I don't have a great deal of experience with them? I don't want the shoot to be held up.

 

Thanks,

 

Ian

You should have no problem running a 1.2K HMI off of a house hold circuit. I don't know how many amps per breaker are usual in the UK but in the US on 120v the standard 15 or 20 amp circuit is fine. The light would draw 6 amps in 220v. Just remember to hook up your head feeders before plugging in to be safe. Once your hooked up, plug in the ballast and if it's a 575/1200 ballast make sure your switched over to 1200. Turn on the breaker and push start. If the ballast has a dimmer make sure it's at 100%. On most units if they are going to be stationary I leave the ear open to facilitate quick changing of lenses (PAR's) or scrims.

Once plugged in and running it's usually better to keep it running when you move it (carefully) a short distance. Hot re-strikes on smaller units usually aren't that bad but I've seen the occasional unit that didn't want to re-strike for upwards of 10 minutes.

Thanks for the advice. I just wanted to see if anyone thought my planned techniques were in the right ballpark. I have lit and shot alot of student film, one thing I have never managed to do (successfully) is Interior day scenes.

 

Cheers,

 

Ian.

 

http://vimeo.com/11744998

After looking at your reel, the only real problem with your day interior scenes (if there is one) is that you don't have a wide enough range of light intensities. I'm thinking of that bar which looks like a day interior. If you had just hit some of those walls or people with hot streaks of light, it would work. You need some hot areas and some dark areas. Sun streaks are the obvious way to do this but even soft day interiors need contrast.

For shots in the interior away from the window just mimic the quality and general direction of light from the shots where the window is seen. Keep in mind how the natural light will change as the day progresses. ND with fill light inside is your best bet for balancing while seeing inside to out. No tricks for fill light really, just keep it soft, less directional and at a low enough intensity to feel natural. You'll just have to eye it, that's where the 'DP' part comes in.

For some reason skip bounce to me means a bounce from the floor or below the subject. Most specifically, skipping large daylight units like 12K's off of 6 and 8x ultras propped up on apple boxes in front of the unit. Sends a nice ambient. Didn't read the article so don't know if this is what they are referring too or not.

Only difference I've ever noticed is that Rosco CTB has a slight purple tint when compared to LEE. Nothing to worry about, more of a curiousity.

+1 on this but it's a big problem for me. I absolutely will not mix the two brands of the same color, especially the CTB, keep it one or the other.

Thought some of you might like this. This monitor is insane. It's really accurate. I was the Gaffer on some of these interviews so I got to see the monitor in person at Laser Pacific.

http://vimeo.com/19130893

DP was Josh Collinsworth who posts here sometimes.

I second Adrien and have done it many times. 1K PAR's through a thick dif like 216 or Grid to smooth out the multiple beams. Works great. I usually cluster about 8 to 10 behind a 4x frame with diff and CTB. Comes out about like a 4K HMI. Better to use the MolePAR's but rock and roll PAR's will work and are very cheap to rent.

I have seen the Lee "Industrial Sodium" and "Hi Sodium" they both look excellent. Perfect match. I would assume the "LO pressure" looks just as good. Keep in mind the low pressure gel looks thick, haven't seen it on a light yet so don't know how much stop loss.

Adams wrote three books that are probably the best ever written on the photographic process The Camera, The Negative and The Print. Of most interest these days and to cinematographers is The Negative. In it he explains the Zone system in detail. I'm not going to explain the zone system, best to read the book or Google search it.

The basic theory of the zone system does apply to cinematography and that book and a spot meter will give you a whole new outlook on the photographic world and what your film stocks can do. That being said, you won't necessarily use it as a system but it can help you understand and therefor create the range of tones you want to include in a scene.

These scenarios are so hard without knowing how big of a window area we're talking about and which way the building faces. You could theoretically use the Ultra bounce in these ways...

1. Get it close in to the windows blocking all sun/skylight and bounce your 1K's into it. You might as well tent the front of the restaurant though. Of course you couldn't see outside while shooting the inside actors.

2. If the building is facing the right direction and not too tall a 12x Ultra-bounce would bounce a lot of light in. You would have to shake it up throughout the day. This is probably what I would do.

Also, again if you have constant sunlight on the front of the building and not too deep of an overhang a 12x silk leaned up against the front of the building scan "spread" light in. But not far.

See the attached pic for an idea of an OTS setup, but again I could be way off not knowing the specifics.

Well you don't say what type of film stock you are using or type of digital camera. Most of the Surefire type flashlights have plenty of power to register at say ISO 320 and probably much lower. How much reach you get out of the beam is dependent on the particular flashlight and how well it's charged. Testing is needed if you have to have a certain throw out of it. If you set it up right, the actors can light themselves with their own or each others flashlights by directing them at each others body or bounce cards off screen.

I went. I must admit all that gear just kind of becomes hazy mess when it's all together. I stuck to looking at the major lighting manufacturers new units, lenses and had some hands on time with the Alexa. Most useful thing I looked at were the LED units that will do lightening flashes. Good cheap-er way to get a lightening effect.

Met Chayse Irvin too. Turns out we have a friend on common.

I find duvetine cloth too heavy to hang on one side of a lantern without it tipping in that direction.

 

What I like to use is this thin black plastic tablecloth material you can get at any cooking supply store like Smart & Final.

What he said, plus you can buy black rip-stop nylon that is light and very durable.

Are you asking? It looks like it was.

 

The look you want will help with the question.

Yeah not sure of the look you are going for. I would use a bunch of inkies directed where you want pools of light. Looks like there is plenty of space to rig above. Just don't rig to fire system or gas pipes. Check this clip from a feature I Gaffed in a similar type of place. Besides the china hat practicals we hung lots of inkies and a few babies with no lenses over those cages for a sharp shadow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jo2c7BL21X4...feature=related

I was at a 600 screening of Star Trek and Daniel and his Gaffer were there. He explained to me that the Primos were hard to flare and they did lots of experimenting to get the right effect. I believe he mentioned they used a 60mm (i could be wrong on that length) that he said was easy to flare and it looked interesting. Lots of the flares come from small bright LED lights built into the set and aimed at the lens others were made by various hand held lights just out of the frame.

Sure, a shiny board would work. The light however, will get you more control for longer and you should bring it if you have the budget. Personally I would just use a light in that situation.

At 2:43 there is a very recognizable red headed actor holding the reigns of a pony. However, I recognize him from the camera department! :lol:

Yes, it will be plenty strong at sunset. Keep in mind that uncorrected it will be blue compared to any orange-y light from the actual sun at that time so bring some CTO/S along.