Bob Hayes

Want soft small and easy. Haskell Wexler shot much of Blaze with large umbrellas. Easy to set up and very natural. I own handful of 3?x 3? frames. They work great in small interiors. I even made up some 3?x 3? floppies to compliment them. The problem with using smaller ?soft? sources is that they have to be pretty close to the subject to appear soft. This creates a huge problem if the actors move. Even leaning a little bit closer to the light can drastically change the exposure. So a small source can create a big problem.

I?ve enjoyed the cosmetic gels. Particularly in video where flesh tones can loose some of their glow. I white balance before adding them to my key lights.

Neal your work is a wonderful epilog.

Bob

Although for many years the director has been considered the driving creative force behind a film. That has not always been the case. In the studio days it was the producer. The producer invested the money to make the film. He hired the writer to develop the film he wanted to make. Then the producer would pick the director, the cast, the cameraman, the designer, and everything else that went into the making of the film. By this process producers were able to exert creative control over many films. A handful of talented and strong directors were able to put their stamp on their films. But for the most part the producers were king. Who accepts the Academy Award for ?Best Picture?? The producer.

Saw the new Arri Scan at Siggraph. 6K resolution. It is a 3k machine but by dividing each frame into four quadrants and scanning them separately they can double the resolution.

Correct me if I?m wrong. I know you will. But isn?t the auto DCC adjustable so you can change the setting to meet the situation. I remember on one shot changing the DCC so it had a very pronounced effect. And then dialing it way down on the next.

Many of the larger hotels have a licensed electrician on staff and are more then happy to tie in and give you a box. It?s pretty common when you shoot higher then several floors. I?ve done this for Features, television, and even press kit style interviews.

?Collateral? is sure generating a varied response. Here?s my two cents based on a digital 2k projection. It was Murky, Milky, Smeary, Blurry and Dull. Not only did the night scenes look like video they looked like poorly exposed video. There is all this talk of how great HD performs in low light. I don?t think so. But I?ve shot enough Kodak 5218 to know it excels in that kind of environment. There are documentaries shot on Mini DV that capture a more seductive night world. Don?t get me wrong I like HD. There is great HD product out there. I especially enjoyed ?Once Upon a Time in Mexico?. Also this isn?t the kind of look that you need to drop $10 at the cinema to see. I bet, by the time this gets to DVD the HD footage will all be ?fixed?. Better black levels and all.

Bob

Put the dark room in the front and make it smaller. Keep lift gate clear.

I was shooting 100 ASA film with a NPR. I was loading under a shady lunch tent in the Bahamas. When I pulled the tape off the mag the lid flew off and up into the air a couple of feet. In one split second I looked down, saw the exposed film, caught the lid in my right hand and slammed it down perfectly in place. The film was usable and fogged just to the inside of the perf. A slight reframe corrected the problem. Whew!

Dangers of tie-ins. When I fist started and was young and dumb I tied in many times. It is EXTREMELY DANGEROUS. Many people have died or been seriously injured doing this. Several years ago a grip was killed just by walking by a tie in where the power jumped from the box to a c-stand he was carrying. And went to ground. He didn?t even touch the box. Sometimes boxes are installed improperly and the box can be hot. I have seen it.

Awesome boards!

First you have to decide if you are shooting side to side or a front angle on the action. Rain will help you by blurring the background. If you do the side angle a little wind from an e-fan and smoke looks great. A good efan is quiet enough. Also they will add car noise to the scene anyway. A dark highway is pretty tough because their ain?t no light. If you can motive some light like a small city a couple of miles away I find some dim Christmas bulbs on a black stick work well. Just move them from front to back slowly. Objects a couple of miles away don?t move that fast. Then just shake the car a little and run some branches through your moonlight sources to imply movement. I tried pulling trees on dollies once and forgot to tell the actor. As we started filming these trees started rolling by. He nearly died laughing.

Two words for you ?Pepper?s Ghost?. I?ve done this effect many times. It is fun and it takes a little magic show to produce it. It can be easily achieved with a ?Ghost Matte Box?. It?s a matte box with an angled piece of glass and was very popular from the 20? to the 50?s. Point the camera at your lit set and lock it off. Turn off the lights on the set and illuminate the area reflected in the matt box with a work light. You will see it through the view finder like you are looking at something in front of you. Hang a black, a 12 x12 might just be big enough, so that all you see is the black. Actually you won?t see it because it is black. . Turn the stage lights back on. Have an actor stand in the real set where you want the ghost to appear. Have your actress stand in the ?Ghost? set and move her until her reflection matches the stand in. Now light her so she looks ghosty. It will take more light then you think because it only a partial reflection. But playing her under key will help the ghost elements. If she needs to walk behind objects make solid black versions on the ghost side to matte out her reflection so she can walk behind a table for example. I find that if you stretch a nylon stocking between the mirror and the reflection but not between the lens and the mirror it will help her ghostiness. She will look better against darker rather then lighter objects. Try an e-fan on her clothes. Try slow motion if you can get away with it. One problem is the camera must be locked off. If you operate the ghost image goes nuts. I believe if you took a large high quality piece of glass 3? x 3?, mounted it separate from the camera, and use a nodal head like a weaver you may be able to operate. I haven?t done this yet.

The "Ghost Matte Box" is the easiest way to so the effect but I've also done it using a 6x6 optical flat on a prime and rocked the Matte box out to 45%. This worked pretty well. In a jam last year I did it with a 4x5 optical flat and it was very difficult forcing me to use a longer prime then I wanted and I spent a long time lining up the effect. Regardless ?Pepper?s Ghost? has been a fun old fashion and still effective technique.

Bob

David Mullen:

Is there a place we can see some of your story boards?

Bob

I was watching the behind the scenes on ?Men in Black II? and it looked like they used green tape X?s for there tracking points. You could still see them enough to get registration points and yet I think they were green enough to easily remove. I?ve always used a color that stands out. Any ideas?

Haze machines like the DF-50 are the way to go. They hang longer and look less like the set is on fire.

I own one of those cheap disco foggers and I keep it on the camera truck. On shows where I don?t have an effects team it has come in pretty handy. I?ve found the best way to use this style is to point it away from the set. Point a fan at it and try to break up the clouds. The trick is to fill the off set areas and let it drift into the set. When you cut the camera run the smoker for a bit. I also use a small light like a Tweenie to back light the smoke right in front of the camera. I leave it off unless I feel I?ve lost too much foreground smoke then I click it on to lower the contrast.

When green screening night scenes I?ve found it very useful to build an 8x8 solid black and place it behind the actors. This gives my eye a better idea of how my lighting would look with a dark background.

Out of the multiple elements on a Star Trek effects shot only a couple are originated on film anyway. So doing it all on HD seems like a logical step. Also the attention to quality and detail on effects shots seems to lead to a pretty good looking image. It is the non effects shot where the HD looks awful. Look at Spy Kids 2. The effects work shot on HD looks like film. The live action looks like ?Teletubbies?.

?Traffic? is another wonderful handheld film. Also ?The Shield? is a great handheld show. I especially like the way they intercut two cameras. They use an actor?s blocking of an angle to force the cut to another camera. Very real.

Bob

My first question is what would really be outside the window. Is it tree?s or a skyline? You definitely need a backdrop that is white or sky blue. Over exposing it will help. You may want to add dirt to the windows. These will create overexposed elements that are closer to the camera and will help to obscure the background. Large double nets are great for adding atmospheric haze to a shot. I?ve had good luck adding stylized elements to suggest a sky line. 4 x 8 Black foam core can create the side of a sky scrapper. Foam core painted gray gives a better impression of distance. You can really have fun adding elements like windows, billboards or water towers to add realism. You can also diffuse the windows. I?m getting away from the tracing paper blown out windows in favor of diffusion that just blurs the view. I?m currently into Hampshire frost of Vinyl light for this purpose. Then you can add lots of stylized elements and they still look real.

Innovision has a great sellection of close up lenses.

http://www.innovision-optics.com/index.shtml

When I shoot green screens I try to put small tape ?X?s? on the green screen as tracking points. They seem to work great however when I go in for closer shots they quickly go out of focus. So, how do you handle tracking points on close ups?

Also I spaced that there was a green screen thread already running. And I read it three days ago. Duh! Please relay green screen responses to ?Green Screen Lighting?.

Thanks

Bob Hayes

Dave

Thanks for the info.

Bob