David Desio

Hey all, not sure where to post this so move it if you need to... Anyway, I just completed post production on a short that I wrote and directed (and for the most part was the DP) and I have been asked to screen at the premier of another short film in the area. Here's the deal offered to me: I get my film on screen for free, the other film has paid for the rental of the venue and the catering, online promotion and print ads for the event that is highlighting their film. All I have to do is sell 100 tickets to secure my spot in the event. How do I get 100 people interested in paying $15 to see a short film that they've never heard of? The event is a showcase of 3 local short films, the featured short film being the one that the whole thing is really about. So much for the set-up, now here's my concern: I haven't shown this film anywhere yet, so it'd be a premier of sorts. I am not being given any comp tickets to the event so I would have to either buy all of the tickets for my cast and crew or sell them tickets, which I'm not keen on doing since they all came out for little to no money. So, that being said, does this sound like a deal? Or should I find my own venue?

I just had a meeting with the director. This shoot should be an interesting challenge because we will have very minimal lighting, I'm talking a few china balls and a couple of small tungsten units to get this done. I normally like to keep things simple anyway and this will really force me to do that. Its only 2 set ups but the camera in the "lazy susan" (and yes it really is a lazy susan) needs to spin just about 360 degrees. The other shot is tracking an actor backward from a table into a small hallway, the camer starts behind him, then swings around to track him as he walks toward the lens landing in an OTS of another actor with whom Actor 1 will have a dialogue. I like the idea of running the cable from the camera straight up but think for this it makes more sense to just go to the floor with it. We will fake the table as the director said that seeing it was not all that important. Thanks for the advice guys.

Was thinking China, that seems to be the most practical way of going. Thanks for the input!

I am going to be shooting a short film that takes place in a diner. One scene happens at a table with about 6 actors sitting around talking. The director would like to place the camera in the middle of the group and have it spin to cover the dialogue. I can already see some complications with this technique on my end, how to light (we are on location so we cannot build in to the structure), and how to monitor the shot. The diner is pretty small though I have not been in there yet. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Also, I should mention that most of the crew apart from myself and my AC are students and the budget is nothing to speak of.

Hey everyone. I've been using Frame forge for a little while now and love the newest version, it has a "cinematographer" mode that allows me to set f stops and virtually light the shot on my computer. So now I've got to thinking, are there any of you out there who use software of any kind to do your pre-lighting diagrams or to sketch out lighting design ideas? If so, what are you using?

I work on a green screen alot and I haven't tried the kino green bulb thing yet. What I use are a bunch of 1k cyc floods with 216 in each to get my cyc wall lit. Then I have 6 1k spacelights hung over the floor and a chicken coop built around them to keep'em from spilling everywhere. That gets me almost where I need to be. For the subject I light them completely seperate from everything else and try for them to be about 2 stops under the cyc. I like to use a bounced tungsten key, or daylight depending on what we're compositing, then 4'4bank kino for the fill, though recently I've been foregoing the fill light and using a white board to catch the spill from the key and give them a lift on the fill side. Then I use 2 arri 650 fresnels for the backlight, on on each side. To minimize spill I will cover most of the floor in cardboard and leave just enough room for the talent if we are seeing head to toe. I've found that the light from the key will add luminance to the floor and while it may not be completely even, I have never had any trouble pulling a key. I know that you are supposed to try for absolute eveness in the green screen but sometimes time contraints get in the way of that. What kind of problems did you have in the key whe you were all tungsten? The main problems I've faced are noise in the blacks (Due to studio limitations I'm usually shooting at a 2.8/4 split) and dirty shadows under the feet.

How about mounting a GoPro to the cam? Those little suckers are only about $300. Not exactly sure if you can monitor those though...

psst...I don't think he's even listening anymore <_<

I was really saying that in jest...I look good in ALL pictures. ;)

wow Mike, you'd think that you would have put a more flattering pic of me, perhaps one where I'm doing the typical DP pose where I'm looking off into the distance with a smirk of contemplation on my face... In all seriousness though I must say that the string method was pretty ingenious at the time. Now if we could only figure out how to operate that dolly/jib combo better. Its so cumbersome, too many points of contact. It's good for faster action shots but awkward for smooth flowing shots...

Very nice, I love the use of color in some of your shots. Particularly the scenes with the girls in that living room and also the weight room. Were you the operator as well? I remember you from UCF, you shot a capstone that I was 1st ADing back in like 2006. Are you still in the area?

you may have already done this but there are a few ways to deinterlace footage in your workflow. 1. you can go in the FCP effects folder and go to the folder called "video". There is a deinterlace filter in there. 2. bring your footage into apple color(included in FC studio's bundle) and while you are color correcting, (you are color correcting right?) you can click on a little check box that will deinterlace your footage. 3. when you export using QT conversion you can choose to deinterlace your footage Hope this helps. Dave

Ok, I did the shoot and I'm still here. Everything worked out pretty well...alot of "gee I didn't think you'd pull it off..." from the director and producers once they saw it through the lens. Some screen grabs: granted these are low-res... ...wonder if this would be better suited to the "in production" section...

Question, why not rent the cameras? Unless you are planning on using them for future projects. The DVX100 is a good little camera but Joe is correct, it needs light to sing. When you say low light interiors, I assume you mean dark and moody, not under exposed so in that case you will need to get a good contrast between shadows and highlights. This does not mean that you want to use very small and weak lights necessarily because especially with the 2 cameras you mentioned, things tend to get murky very fast. What you do want to do is get your shadows working for you, let your light fall off in to darkness. Look at some dark scenes from horror films and really look at the lighting and how that relates to the shadow play in the scene. I'll try to find some stills for you...

I was busier than last year, but this was as a salaried guy. The crew that I hire on for shoots seem to mostly be saying how scary it is right now.

Hey all, I have a shoot coming up where I am DPing as well as production design/set construction (no budget blues). Part of the shoot is in Santa's workshop. We have a dolly in to the scene and the director wants to see Santa in his shop through a window that the camera moves through without cutting then lands on our "2" mark (Kinda like that opening shot of Citizen Kane though the window) Anyway I'm not really a carpenter or set designer but I need to make this work. Here is what we'd like the end result to look like: http://www.mydisguises.com/wp-content/uplo...t-c10032316.jpg ---sorry about the link but I can't seem to attach any pictures. Any way I am going to be keying from the left from an implied window using a 5k through unbleached muslin, the letting everythig fall off. Now worst case scenario: 1.we don't have money for the 5k and have to use smaller units... 2. I have minimal frunds for building materials 3. I get a gaffer only on the day of the shoot and we also need to light a completely different scene where we try to emulate a snowy field(we're in FL) 4. I have only myself and my 2 hands righty and left-fellow to get this construction done. As you can tell I feel a bit overwhelmed and am seeking any advice or suggestions. Thanks, Dave

Since you've only got one camera, try setting it up to frame the interviewer, have the interviewee sit across from them, like a normal interview. Then place a large mirror over one shoulder of the interviewer so that we see the interviewee in the reflection. It's different... the limitations here would be cutting the interview up, unless you went in tight on the reflection for portions. You'd have to be careful in how you lit this, dark backgrounds would probably work the best.

Jeff, I mean final image, I'm shooting digital and the windows must be in the frame, no way around that. So I was thinking along the same lines as you Alex, warm balance the camera and be done with it. Then I thought maybe I'll position the people so that the window act as an edge source giving a whiter edge and use a couple of tungsten soft boxes for the keys from the inside of the place. I saw that there is some red furnitureat the place and I am going to try and insist that we use it in the shot to enhance the warmness. Thanks for the help guys.

OK, so I can't get the pics up right now but I'd still like the help... Dave P.S. it keeps saying that the file is larger than the available space but my pics are both under 100k...?

So I have a sit-down interview coming up in a few days and I need a few suggestions as to how to approach the lighting. So the client wants the experience to feel warm and intimate-read late evening and tungsten coloring predominantly. So I suggested shooting in an old bed and breakfast and we found one that looks very nice, rich earth-toned furniture and all. Then the dilemma, the room that we are shooting in is very brightly lit by a number of large windows with white sheer draping and yellow trim. We MAY NOT dress the location other than moving a few pieces of furniture around. Here are 2 pics:

Do you have After Effects? You could try brining in the capture scratch files, and seeing how AE displays them. If it is still 4:3 then try making a comp in the aspect ratio that you want and resizing the video manually to fit. So if the video looks squished, resize it until it looks normal. Then export the file as an animation and bring that into your NLE. I don't know the NLE that you are using so this may be all for nothing. But have you tried just manually stretching the footage in your editing program to the correct apsect ratio?

I've gotten some really convincing results from using a small light, tweenie should do it. Gel it with CTB and aim it at your subject. Then have a grip sit right behind the light and gently wave a few fingers in front of the light. The fingers have to be RIGHT in front so as not to create harsh and obvious shadows. Another light could be a small LED panel, there are hand-held sized LED lights but they are a little pricey. The same gag applies to that light as well. How big are your Flo's? Are they switchable between 2 and 4 ft? Those might work well too. I know this method sounds kinda crude but I swear it works. It also works for campfire light as well : http://www.dme-studios.com/portfolio/RCW_Roughin_It.asp

Sure you can fake it. Just be careful to match the color temp to the wide shots. Are you going to use natural light only for the wides? It really depends on what color that you decide "sunlight" will be. You can use the 5600k preset or try making your own, if you don't like it, then you can always go to the preset. Remeber that when you are doing the white balance to remove colored gels from the lights you are using. You can also experiment by doing a "warm" balance by putting a 1/8 CTB over white card and balancing from that, or using "warm Cards". You can also do the reverse to cool it down by using "cool cards". Anyway there are probably many different ways to get the look you want and we all have different methods.

Good luck, you've already got a good understanding of the mood so just do what you think fits that tone. Also remember that the set designer and art department are your friends. Get with them and have a good plan of attack from all angles.

Hey José, You wouldn't by chance be shooting in FL would you? The plants out front look like florida landscaping. Anyway, I hardly ever use the presets in the HVX unless I can't really control the lighting and am in a big time crunch. Usually I dial in the settings by hand so I have something that I really like and is closer to what I want in the end. To each his own though... There is a formula for figuring out the falloff of a light. Its called the inverse square law: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverse-square_law How much time will you have at the location before the shoot? Probably only a quick walk-through and no pre-light day, right? The formula will give you a good jumping off point but you will really need to see it to be sure that it is what you want. what's the mood of the scene? Maybe experiment with using a bounce for the fill rather than a Kino, unbleached muslin perhaps to catch the light from the key? That way you could save the flo's for accenting the room a bit. And never underestimate well placed practicals.