Jump to content

J. Lamar King IMPOSTOR

Basic Member
  • Posts

    769
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by J. Lamar King IMPOSTOR

  1. If I were lighting it I would hit all of those numbers on those poles from above with some small tungsten fresnels creating hot hits that would give you great depth. Then create pools of top light for the character to walk through. If you had the character walk in profile to to the lens side to side instead of from front to back in depth, you could hit him with a side light from far off that would cover the actor during the whole walk.

     

    P.S. don't clamp onto sprinkler lines. it's illegal and dangerous.

  2. I assume you are talking about using the china balls as practicals as if they were put up there for the party. Remember that in life there are two kinds of light at night. Moonlight and man made light. If this party took place in an environment lit with china balls...it is a lit environment thus moonlight plays a minimal or even a non-existent role. An example would be if you were looking at a whole street of houses at night. You would see most of the area bathed in moonlight punctuated by, house light, window lights and street lights. If you got close to one of the houses and looked at the front door, now your seeing mostly the house lights.

     

    You should have no problem in the wide shot stringing up a bunch of china balls bathing the main action area in warm light then using a small HMI to hit the back ground with a subtle underexposed moonlight effect. When you go in close cheat the chinas in closer or even just bounce a redhead off a 4x beadboard slightly above the subjects eyeline. I do that all the time. You could just use tungsten back light then because you are now inside of the lit environment. Understand? Could be a bit easier for you than trying to include both types of light in all of the shots.

  3. I usually light the environment first with the caveat that the lighting also works on the talent. If staged correctly you can get it to work with one lighting setup then just make tweeks in coverage. A prime example would be positioning the characters near windows then creating a key by pounding light in that works the talent and environment. If you can't make it work then you have to light the talent separately kind of cheating the angle of the light you used for the environment.

  4. I hope nobody minds if I dig up my old thread for a bit of shameless pluggery! If you are in Los Angeles there will be a FREE screening of "GARRISON" which I shot and outlined some setups in this thread. It will screen this Friday the 28th of March, 3:30pm at the Regency Fairfax Theater in Los Angeles. Corner of Beverly and Fairfax Ave. I'll be in attendance along with the director. Please come on out. It will be a digital projection probably from Beta on who knows what kind of projector so I'm hoping it will look OK.

     

    For a little thread follow-up the film did not get accepted to Sundance but I never thought it would. I wish filmmakers would not let themselves be pressured by that deadline and scramble to complete their movie. It did screen at some other fests and won a Gold Remi for Cinematography at WordFest in Houston.

     

    After the first round of fests the film attracted some additional capital so a year later some scenes were re-shot and new material added. This turned out to be a big chunk of the film and I wasn't available to do it so I have to thank A.J. Garces for doing such a great job on the pick ups.

     

     

     

    "GARRISON"

     

    A military mystery, Garrison revolves around an AWOL soldier who is being searched for by his fellow troops.

     

     

     

    http://www.garrisonthemovie.com

     

    http://digitalvideofestival.bside.com/?_vi...filmId=51990340

     

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0985051/

  5. With the spring loaded stands I grab them with my left hand place the outer two of the leg tips behind my right calf and pull once on the short leg then again on the medium leg. Lighting fast and unfolds virtually inside of its own footprint. To close pick up the same way put the short leg against the front of your right calf or thigh then in two quick motions whip the other legs shut...Done.

     

    One peeve of mine is when the electrics head up a lamp and let it slam all the way down on the pin then tighten. There are two reasons you don't want to do this:

     

    1. You aren't getting the strap into the groove of the pin, a big safety issue.

     

    2. Some lamps will bash into the protruding pin when trying to adjust the tilt. Bad form.

  6. I've seen and handled the Matt Kelly special front box and endorse it whole heartedly. I suggested an iPod dock with some speakers and Matt said he would make that happen. It's really a nice piece of work, so call Matt up and put him to work on one for you at a great low price. I happen to know that in between measuring, cutting, sanding and gluing up front box pieces all he does is play Halo 3 on 1080p HD. That's what the strike does to hard working camera guys!

  7. Matt, did you stop to think that the confessional you saw was the camera truck dark room? Next time I think I'll have the guys gaff tape your laptop directly to the putt-putt, I think it will save time and we won't have to drop a 1200 D-box just for your loading "station." :rolleyes:

  8. The only way to know what's going on with HMI's is to fire them up before the shoot and keep the same ballast/head combination for the whole shoot. Take a color temp reading and mark the head and ballast.

     

    What you will find if you carry a color meter with you is that you will sometimes see a difference from what you read before. My experience is that they can be absolutely maddening and very inconsistent. I've found that a big reason for this is some kind of bad connection in the line. The ballast power feeder is a big culprit.

  9. I have an ASC film manual 9th edition. Never been in the field, has a small gouge in the front cover but thats it. Selling for $50 plus $5 to help differ shipping to USA only but it can be picked up in Los Angeles. Contact me at 8/1/7-9/0/7-1/5/0/9 or jlamarking-at-gmail(dot)com.

  10. It's not very technical but interesting, there is a new book out called "Harnessing the Technicolor Rainbow" by Higgins. I'm halfway through it and so far it's been eye opening as to color theory in Technicolor movies of the thirties.

  11. I have a like new Sekonic L-358 meter for sale. Bought new two months ago from Filmtools and used for two features. It's in like new shape with case, flat disc, cord, manual, box etc. You can pick up in Hollywood, L.A. or I can ship it to you in the U.S only. $200. email jlamarking-at-gmail.com or call 8/1/7-9/0/7-1/5/0/9.

     

    Thanks

  12. Maybe they were supposed to be scared or whatever. I guess I was going by the old Western movie rule about having "the drop" on the other guy. That is you are pointing your gun at him before he does at you. They could've just told him to drop it.

     

    I remember several night ext. scenes where the backlight was really low or non existent and there wasn't much landscape lit. Anyway it didn't feel backlit Hollywood style which I liked.

  13. OK film, I liked the fact that they eschewed backlight on night exteriors. There was a scene though that I am still scratching my head over that seems completely illogical. Maybe I wasn't paying attention or something. Even now I think I might be confusing two different scenes.

     

    The posse is camping at night while escorting Ben Wade to the train. They are attacked by a group of indians who shoot at them. Wade gets hold of a pistol goes up the hill and kills the indians. He comes back down the hill with the pistol in hand. All of the posse are pointing there guns at him. Evans has gotten a head wound and passes out/falls asleep and when he wakes up Wade is gone. Someone in the posse said he 'just walked off.'

     

    However the scene happened why would the posse, still armed to the teeth, just let Wade walk off?

  14. And no, it is NOT film... it's RED.

     

    Jim

     

    This is what I don't like about the RED company. Don't get me wrong, I can't wait to use a RED camera. It'll be awesome. BUT this camera nor any other will ever make me stop shooting film. Don't even care if it's RED III the 100K camera or whatever. Film is a different medium with benefits of its own that are well worth its cost.

  15. I've been interested in movies from very early on. I can remember seeing "Fiddler on the Roof" and "Jesus Christ Superstar" as a child of 3 to 5 years of age. My Mother always took us to movies. I guess it was our primary form of entertainment. The movie "Breaking Away" in 1979 had a huge impact on me. I loved the cinematography but I didn't yet know that word existed. Anyway I bought a bicycle and some Mozart tapes and rode around trying to recreate the feeling of those camera shots!

     

    The first time I shot something on film was making 8mm stop motion, animated, edited in camera, shorts featuring massive battles between the forces of Good and Evil of the Lego Medievil Empire. Shot entirely on my brothers bedroom floor in 1983. Though continuity suffered when our dog got into the room and quickly decimated the forces of Good.

     

    Around then I'm sure I must have found my first American Cinematographer and discovered that the Director and the Cameraman were two different people. After that the first movie I can recall seeing where I went and specifically looked at the cinematography was "3 O'clock High" I guess that was 1987. Shot by DP turned director Barry Sonnenfeld. Who subsequently shot "When Harry Met Sally" "Millers Crossing" and "Misery." So I was 17 in 1987.

  16. Are you using the XLR as ballast feeder? If so I'm really curious as to how you did it-- I've been toying with some of my own designs for homemade flos and zip cord is really clumsy.

    Sorry if this is too off-topic, just very curious.

     

    I'm not using it as ballast feeder from the ballast to the lamp head. Though I would be interested in that myself. What I did was take those flimsy metal shop lights with onboard balasts and replace the cable to it with SO 3 wire. I made the fixture ground better added a grommet to protect the cable exit from the fixture and terminated the cable with an XLR connector rated for 120v which I think most of them are. I then made up several 25' extensions and a custom switch box for 4 circuits. I also made up some Edison to XLR so I could just plug straight into a stinger as well. These are basically just a fast way to install color-correct practicals with a little more control. They aren't high frequency or anything, but I've used them in place of a Kino with no problem. The only mistake I made was that I used three pin XLR and now I'm affraid someone is going to plug a Mic into A/C power. So whenever I use it I set it up myself. Probably would be better to use DMX XLR because they provide for power feed through on certain pins and can't be plugged into a Mic.

  17. Well IMO it USED to be like this although these are all blurred together now:

     

    A Cinematographer knows how to shoot film.

     

    A Videographer doesn't know how to shoot film.

     

    A Director of Photography I guess now is used for both. Except I see people (Videographers) using the title who have no idea how to shoot film. I must admit these people do tick me off a bit. Maybe that's where Stararo's beef comes from.

     

    Suppose you pick up the phone and someone on the other end says to you, "I need you to shoot Anamorphic 35 and I need you here tommorow at 6am can you do it?" It seems to me that if you go around calling yourself a DP or a cinematographer your answer should be YES.

  18. Well I used to be a still photographer myself and I would say that if you had to make that choice I would go with whoever was Kodak certified. Maybe they both are.

     

    What I would suggest though is that you check out some pro labs in your area. You can usually get processing and a contact print for a very low cost and you will know it is done right. You can then only have prints made from the good shots. After a while you can just loop your neg and know a good shot when you see it.

     

    Be very careful processing pro stills films in these mini labs. I can remember way back in High School I was shooting for a local paper and I got paid a pawltry amount for each photo printed. They sent me out on a story where I photographed lots of people from the community for a 'Day in the Life' kind of thing. They were going to publish 30 photos guaranteed. On this ocassion I used a film that I didn't normaly shoot with but had shot and processed at a PRO lab with no problems. The paper had a film processing deal with a local grocery store so I took their project film there. Guess what? They F'ed up those two rolls so bad it was unreal. Not one usable shot. Not one dollar for me. Turns out the film was thicker than most and not recommended for mini labs. It looked like a 35mm sized accordian. I can't remember what stock it was but I'm sure it is long obsoleted by Kodak now. Anyway, lesson learned.

  19. I own just a few pieces that are handy to have like white and half black painted China balls and home made lantern locks. A bunch of 211's, Photofloods etc. Flourescent shop lights with Chroma 50's and home made XLR cabling and switch boxes. I also have some home made difussion snoots for eyelights. Mostly just special and/or handy stuff that you don't have to spend time making up or buying for each production.

     

    I'm considering purchasing a lightpanel with obie bracket for eyelight/fill.

  20. You're probably right about being a little too bright on the key in a few shots. Would you perhaps say this is most evident on the shots of the 2nd guitarist (blonde guy on screen right)?

     

    Exactly.

     

    I would have liked to have added a little light to the background to create some interesting reflections/highlights, but we were pretty much using all that our resources would allow.

     

    I thought the points of light you see in the BG in the wide shots looked good. Any more light and you might have overlit IMO.

×
×
  • Create New...