David Desio

I'm going to be shooting a horror film which consists mainly of nights and the production can only afford an XL2 (because they own it) and are spending the rest of the money on my and some lighting and grip equipment. Anyway I did some tests with the camera and found it extremely difficult to get an exposure lighting by eye. I mean I really have to pump light into the scene for it to read. I set the meter to around 100 ISO and it seemed to be close to what the camera was telling me, basically open up the iris all the way. I can;t find any literature that rates the camera's native ISO and was wondering if any one here might know. Thanks.

Right, raking a light across a back wall, but skip bounce refers to how the light is bounced not what it is effecting.

The sunlight scenario seems most common among gaffers I work with. It's used when the sun is not shining in a direction that a normal direct bounce will do, so the shiny board will be put at an extreme angle and make the sunlight basically turn a corner so to speak. Like say your sun is shining from the west and you are facing east with your shiny board, but your actor is facing south and his dark side is toward camera, camera facing north...Ok I need a diagram...basically it is like skipping a rock, the light throws at an angle, usually from the ground. I'll try and do a diagram...

Thanks for the clarification David.

Awesome, thanks for clearing that up guys. I guess it turns out that my Gaffer had it right, eh, you learn something new on every shoot don't you?

a little of both, I wanted the highlights to bloom a bit and have the overall look be different from the video look of some other shots.

On a shoot yesterday I was using some BPM filters for a few shots when the Gaffer, who has years of experience on me pulled me aside and asked if I knew the rule for using pro-mist filters in relation to the focal length of the lens. I gave him a blank look and said I did not. He said that he thought the rule was that the longer the lens, the higher the pro-mist value should be, but he wasn't certain. Anyone know of this rule of thumb?

Well, since you are doing a period peice I would say that the window(s) would be doing most of the work as far as lighting the scene. Maybe a few practicals insde the classroom here and there, but if you had a strong enough source coming through the window, I'd try first to do a bounce using that light, back into the scene. the smoke should lift the over all ambience and sice it's a small room you don't have a huge space to fill. Maybe a 1200HMI for an edge on the subject(s). without pics that's as far as I can go

Hey all, I have a shoot for the Orlando Magic coming up and I want to stick with their color pallette for the most part, which is blue, black and white. I am planning on using mostly HMIs for the subjects' key and would like to accent the scenes with an icy blue color. I was speaking to my Gaffer and he recommended getting tungsten bulbs for blue screen work. I've never used these and am not real sure how they would read on camera, especially against the blacks in the shadows. Anyone have any experience with them? I will be shooting on an HPX500 using a set of super speeds on a pro35 adapter and filtering through a Black promist.

Richard, funny because that's what I say about Florida. I'd love to hear some stories and hope to have a few to share when I get back. Brian, yup this will be my first time this far west of the mason-dixon line. (or is it north...?) Yeah I'll try in n' out burger. Question: do I need to have cocaine in my possesion to go through the drive-through or will being dangerously intoxicated do?

Hey guys and gals, I'm going to be out in the LA area from this Thursday to the following Wednesday and am looking for some tips on where to go, eat, stay, see. I've never been out there before and the trip is really to check the area out for possible re-location. I have my first night booked in the Manhattan beach area (I'm a surfer as well so...ya know). I'd rather stay away from the touristy areas and try to get a sense of the real-life aspect of the place. Any advice or tips are welcome and appreciated. Dave

Hey all I thought I'd give you an update on this topic. I was hired on as the DP for the film and recieved the deal memo a few days ago. Everything looks good so far, the director and I hit if off over the phone and the producer already likes me so that's good. Still unsure of the format as the director mentioned that he liked "alot of coverage" and the producer wants to have an editor on set to begin doing some cutting as we shoot. There will be some CGI work as well on a set (I think). It should be an interesting ride to say the least and pretty soon I guess I should move this into the "In Production" section of the forum. Thanks for the advice everyone...by the way. Anyone have a used spot meter for sale?

I've crunched the numbers as well and it works out to me working for a small amount of money on what will probably be a 12-14hr day plus the time spent planning for the next day. I'm not looking at this film for the money/comfort. I mean I already have that with my job shooting commercials as a staff DP. I would be taking the hit and the gamble in the hopes that this could lead to other million dollar films.

yeah it does make sense. So to get it straight you're telling the meter that the stock is slower than it actually is and the meter figures the stop out to compensate, thus when the I set the stop on the lens I'm giving the film more light. I think I got it. I'm calling the producer later on today. I'll post what his response is (paraphrased of course).

great reply Adrian. thanks a bunch. I normally rent cine lenses with a 35 adapter for the HD shoots that I do and have found that if I can, I try to stay between a 2.8 and 5.6 which I think would be about 1 stop or so off in the under direction due to the loss from the adapter. So by rating the stocks slower, you mean on the meter right?

From my still experience, I seem to tend toward contrasty images. With my taste being for that and this being a genre that would seem to want contrast, low-key lighting, shadows, etc. let me see if I have this right. For more grain, I'd go under in exposure and for for less grain I'd go over, right? Then bring it back in post either way? Also the post will be done back in LA and they didn't mention having me be there for it for the coloring, I prefer to be present when any of my footage is colored but is that the norm?

Thanks for the replies guys. I am going to call the producer today and remind him that I'm an experienced HD cinematographer but have little experience shooting 35. I do agree that if the camera team is made up of an experienced 1st and 2nd, it would be a little easier. Aside from not being able to light to the monitor and having to rely on meters, knowing which stock to use for which situations (d for exteriors, T for interiors), what would be the main things to focus on for making the switch?

Thanks for the advice Adrian. As for talking to my current employer, I've thought about that route but would be asking for a leave of absence, unpaid of course. I figure that way if I decide to stay with my choice of pursuing the elusive "film career" they stand to lose nothing but me (but I gotta say that I am a great guy). I'm gonna sleep on it.

Hey everyone. I have a bit of a decision to make and would like some input. I'm not asking for anyone to make the decision for me, mind you. I would just like to hear from others in the field on the matter. So last night I got a call from a producer about a feature film that I had submitted my resume and reel for. I put in for the DP position thinking that the project sounded like fun and feeling like I have enough experience (am the DP for a small production company which shoots commercials and the like). The producer was very nice and we chatted for a bit before talking business. Basically he offered $1200/week for a 4 week film with a 6 day work week. The production would put me up for the duration as well. It all sounded good until the producer told me that the budget was $1mil. and they were going to shoot on 35mm. This wasn't mentioned in their post on Craigslist. Now in my letter to the production I slated myself as an HD cinematographer. My experience with 35 has been in shooting stills, never a movie. Now I understand lighting and all but having never DP'd a 35 shoot, I'm a little worried that I may be out of my element. At the end of the conversation the producer told me that he liked my attitude and was going to put my name at the top of the list and that he would give me his vote for the position. I guess the director has yet to see my reel so it's contingient on that. So here's the decision I need to make: Do I leave my salaried job with benefits where I am DPing, but will never have the chance to advance, or do I jump off and take this movie with the very good possibility of ending up without work and benefits at the end of the shoot? I'm hoping that if I take it, it will lead to other films which are what I want to work on anyway... I have some reservations however. The production is from LA but is shooting somewhere else. I am not from LA and not from the location area either. Why would they look at me and not bring on someone that they know or that the director likes? I am not in the 600 and wonder what happens when the union starts checking them out. I don't have the money to join and really don't feel the need to right now. Any advice or anecdotes would be appreciated. Dave

without knowing the psycological context of the scene it's hard to say whether the stark look of the room is appropriate vs. the moody shadow drenched alternative. either way though, don't forget to get with your wardrobe person and set designer. What colors the actors are wearing will play a huge part in the look.

I use both FCP and Premier Pro CS4. I like FCP because I can really beat it up, but it lacks in compatibility with any CS4 software such as after effects. Invest in a program called AUTO-DUCK because if you want to work back and forth, you need to render out of one, then import into the other which can get frustrating when little mistakes start happening such as animations being a few frames off and what-not. Also I use P2 cards alot and FCP can't take the footage directly like Premier can. For FCP you need to import the footage which FCP has to convert to a usable codec which takes time, with premier I can drag and drop the P2 files and they instantly appear as workable clips. Then when I'm ready to go to AE from premier it's as simple as cutting and pasting, no render needed to go back and forth. What you change in AE automatically updates in Premier's timelines. The reason I use FCP for important jobs is because it seems more robust, less buggy and crashy than premier. The navigation of FCP uses different keystrokes than the CS suite, which can be a little annoying, but that's minor. What I do love about Premier is that you don't need to go into your finder (Mac) to get files, the finder has a tab built into the program itself which is convenient. I have not used the new CS5 version of premier nor the new final cut studio so I'm not sure how those compare... Don't know much about Avid... Overall I'd stay with FCP despite the annoyances because it would be hard to explain to a client that their project is delayed because my editing software crashed...again.

Big chicken coop over head(20x?) with spacelights (don't know your power limitations so can't say what size spacelights, Maybe then augment from the ground using 12x's at least, with some large sources bounced into them in a semi-circle around the car starting from screen left and scriming down as you work your way toward the middle. Then big pieces of foam core on the car's camera side to reflect white into the metal. I'd definitely not use the light from the street light overhead as a source.

I did think about the UV reactant paint as well, I want the light to actually hit the character and bloom in the frame. One large source seems liek the way to go, although it would be neat to have the angles go in multiple directions. As for the source(s), I was thinking of usin a few 2k fresnels, would I maybe need something with a bit more punch?

Maybe use a Black ProMist filter? It would make the highlights bloom.

Hey everyone, I have a shoot that I'm planning that calls for some tricky situations. The biggest one is a scene where the actor is writing all over his jail cell, walls, floor etc. What I want to do is have the letters, which will be made using white chalk, start to glow and cast light during one of his hallucinations. I was thinking about jusing a jigsaw to cut the words and letters out of the wall and hazing the room, letting most of the scene fall into darkness. I'm wondering if I need to light each word individually or use a few larger sources and hit them all. I'm planning on having about 30 or so words for the hallucination shot. Thanks for the help in advance, Dave