Bob Hayes

Success! My good old Spectra consistently read 64 FC when placed against the white chip on the colors bars. No fluctuation. I removed the dome and all slides. My Minolta color temp seems fairly accurate with a -1 Magenta to +2 Magenta fluctuation. I?m still testing this. Not that my own skills and eye aren't absolutely dead on but I'm looking at $400,000 dollars worth of equipment delivering a picture that I am eye balling the contrast and Hue. Hmmm.

With much joy and excitement I tried my Sekonic ball retracted and found a range pf 15 FC to 30 FC depending on when I pressed the button. Drat!

The three act structure is a really powerful tool. Many films today are drifting away from that concept and the result is a rather plodding film. Even huge nonstop action films with out those key plot driven changes are dull

You have to plan your shots very carefully like you were pulling a bank heist. One thing you can do to extend your magic hour is to shoot your close ups first. Shoot them in direct sunlight in a direction where the back ground is starting to turn to magic hour. Be prepared to use your lights. A ½ CTB might be the right color balance. Be prepared to keep shooting after the sun is gone and use the glow of the warm sky as a key.

I built my own handheld camera support system using bungee cords and aluminum tubing. It worked pretty well at stabilizing but was uncomfortable to wear. I ended up buying an easy rig. I built tons of my own foam core collapsible soft boxes. I think the best homemade soft boxes I?ve ever scene. I ended up buying Chimeras because they folded smaller and people were more accustomed to seeing them on the set. At least I was on the right track with these ideas. They worked great until I could afford the stuff guys were doing but better then me. Bottom line was I had a great time inventing, building, and using them. My next invention? I want to build an ultra cheap 20? jib arm to hold a $200 video camera. The goal? A view finder for placing and designing my crane shots.

Leo, Very true soft light has been around for a long time before 1983. I was more responding to the request to put a date on the passing of hard light as the flavor of the month to soft light. Commercials, where I started as an assistant, were using large soft sources a lot in the seventies. I remember going head to head with my gaffer, a feature guy, on my first dramatic short. Me trying to light it with a 2k through a 6x6 silk and him trying to use a hard baby and a hard back light.

I always carry a wheel chair on the camera truck for those quick flexible moving shots. It?s a great way to keep you camera moving smoothly and yet feel hand held. If I need to get higher I sit on an apple box. It?s a good idea to always have a grip keep a hand on the chair for safety

My guess would be soft lighting kicked in after 1982 when EASTMAN Color High Speed Negative film 5293 EI 250 came out. Up to this point the ASA of color film was 125. The next year 1983 Kodak came out with 5294 at EI 400. For me it was 1985 and John Seale, Witness and then 1988 with Peter Biziou and Mississippi that hooked me on softer more natural lighting. Before then I was Freddie Young and Doctor Zhivago all the way. With regards to Barfly and Kinos they were a wonderful tool but I think soft lighting would be there regardless. Fast film stocks made using kinos more practicle.

Although matching multiple monitors is great, I just want to standardize how I get my DIT monitor to spec.. I thought this was going to work but now I don?t know. I was in a post house color correction bay yesterday and decided to test my theory. I used my color temp meter. One monitor was 5,500 and another in another bay was 5,650 and it seemed pretty accurate. Checking the Kelvin seemed to work. But when I checked the Green/Magenta it fluctuated between -2 and +2. It just depended on how I held the meter and when I hit the button. The foot candles fluctuated between 15 FC and 30 FC. Again based on when I hit the button. I feel like my idea of using a Minolta Color Meter and a Seconic Light meter to calibrate monitors is not going to work.

If the job is that important to you get a hold of the original footage and cut your own piece. If you like the way it was cut then use the original as a guide. Next time keep in touch with the post process and get a high quality copy before they dump it from the machine. This happens all the time. When you start shooting features it may be a year before you get a hold of usable footage.

Does anyone have any experience using meters to set up HD monitors. Using my Sekonic meter I read the white square on the camera sent color bars and it read 18 Foot Candles. Using my color meter the Green/Magenta was 0, the color temp was 5600. Is there a way to use these tools to standardize my setting op of a field monitor? This was a properly set up monitor.

Everyday folks use them all the time. They spit fire sometimes so you have to keep them away from flamable stuff. Also they are also used to spray Fumigants so you want to get one that is used for film purposes.

I'm going to try and get there Friday. I'd love to see some of you guys.

It's really not that difficult. Two grips can easily accomplish it. Theices as small so it's easy to carry and assemble on sand. You will have to do much of the same gripping to creat a base for the jib to stand on.

Just Zen into it. After a while it will become second nature. Like meditation. It's a lot easier then hitting a 90 MPH fast ball. But, if you can hit a 90 MPH fast ball 30% of the time you are a super star. As an AC they expect you to hit it every time. :-)

We shot the wave in Malibu. I haven?t seen the film in a long time but I believe it is one cut in the film and is stand alone not composited. It felt like one of those goofy last minute shots big films sometimes shoot when they?ve run out of money.

I actually worked as an assistant on the tidal wave shot in ?Meteor?. It was one of the worst shots of the film. I spent the day swimming around with an underwater camera in Malibu trying to keep the Chinese junk models, made in the Philippines for tourists, from hitting me. If I remember correctly the ?producers? of ?Meteor? thought of the title, hired an all star cast, and printed a poster with out having a script. It generated some press in the trades because of this bizarre style of packaging. It was obviously dead on arrival.

The amount of gear I own (Arri Soft light kit, Lowell DP and Lowell Tota kits, 8x8, 6x6, 4x4, C-Stands, Flags, Skateboard Dolly, Jib Arm, and Sand Bags) will all fit in my SUV. This size package one guy and I can handle. If I need more gear then I need more guys and just rent a truck. I don?t have proper stands for the 8x8 so I never use it with out getting and extra guy and the proper stands. Having my own small package has been great. On little projects I have exactly the gear I want and that makes the job so much more fun.

Haskell Wexler lit a lot of Blaze with large umbrellas not Lowell style. There are much larger and softer sources then umbrellas. I own em and use them. But sometimes ease and speed outweight the quality of a large bounce, a Chimera, or a Large soft frame.

I am interested in new wheels also. The flat spots and need to roll out the wheels are a pain.

I own two tota lights and they have become great work horses. Currently I keep the 2 totas, gel frames, umbrellas, a Pepper, and some extension cords in an old tripod bag. When I need to run out and do a quick small shoot it is always ready.

Matt I'm sorry to see that you decided to back away from something you were obviously very excited about. As I mentioned earlier I for one would like to see you achieve your dreams. When you aspire to being in the camera department it is in many ways an elite arena. It is tough and challenging and to succeed you have to be dedicated. Please feel free to e-mail me if you feel the need.

I have found an 8' x 8' frame is the best size for any production. Small enough to be hand carried and large enough to cover two actors comfortable. Any larger requires a good amount of gripping to make it safe and is always a problem in the wind.

Practice at home with a tape measure. Place something next to you to represent the camera then start guessing distances. On the set measure other items in the room that are fixed close to you actor, edge of table for instance. This helps give you a reference. Run your tape right before the take. If it is a tough shot ask the actor to freeze, they won?t but they might learn, and run a tape to where they were. Try to do this with confidence rather then insecurity. More like a gunslinger then Barney Feif.

If you are trying to do this on the cheap, and it sounds like you are, PVC tubing will not be ridged enough and a white sheet will be too thick. I?d get steel tubing half inch with elbow connections. Shower curtain works well as a diffuser and they have many differed levels of opacity. That?s where I?d be heading.