Bob Hayes

I shot a second unit night scene at the Down Town Los Angeles police station on “The Closer”. The plan was to use existing lighting with no genie. To our surprise the police station doesn’t turn its exterior lights anymore on because of cost of energy these days. I shot the scene with the Van head lights and grabbed all the crews’ flashlights and hid them in the planters like Malibu lights. Worked great!

Beginning film makers are often seduced by the recording format. People will take me more seriously if I shoot my film on 35mm. Do yourself a favor and shoot on a format that fits your budget. Having actors work through their scenes one line at a time because you are shooting a short ends helps no one. 28 days was shot on small format HD.

In television you arrive and nothing is what you expected and you have to improvise on the spot and you have no time to do it. 90% of the time I haven’t even seen the set until I arrive that day. Feature films have the luxury of lots of pre-production and story boards can be very useful. On feature films that have lots of stunts and visual effect work storyboards are in dispensable. In fact many times I will be matching to full action animatics. If the effects guys are good and they usually are they will nail what I need to do in pre-vis. Then my job becomes paint by the numbers. Funny as a director I usually story board a lot. I do it my self and I’m fast mediocre storyboard artists. As a DP I find they sometimes get in the way. They blocking a has been designed by a guy at his desk and doesn’t reflect the juicy realities of a real location. More and more story boards are being included in the DVD special features. It is amazing how closely they match the real thing. I hear Sami Rami hires multiple storyboard artists and picks the shots he likes for each scene. Also I hear Walt Disney invented the idea of the storyboard. Any truth to that?

Thanks for clearing this up. I was really off base on my answer.

Get a 35mm still camera and take a course in still photography. You will love it. You will find out that you already know 95% of what you were trying to learn. The best part is it may re-inspire you to keep seeing the world as new and exciting.

I like to use fans and blow smoke to give the feeling of movement. It will also help the effect of the rain.

Light the set not the actors. Just walk backwards through the house as if you are a camera and hide lights in areas that make sense and create the mode you want. Think practicals or hiding lights behind furniture. Hopefully many of the lights will also light the actors as they walk in a natural way. Then walk your talent through the set and see if there are gaps where you really feel they need light as David M. says. Let them walk through darkness. That is more interesting. I am a big fan of floating lights over camera on a pole. My current favorite is the Rifi light by Lowell. It is the lightest Chimera style light made and it doesn?t spill like a China ball. The light can be used to add eye lights to the actors or key a dark area. It can also be a soft gentle key for the whole walk.

I?ve owned SUV?s for the past twenty years and it has been a great choice for me. You can use them as a personal vehicle and they look like regular cars which is great for meetings, networking, and scouting. A van may be a better production vehicle but it says blue collar worker. As a starting DP you are going to be hauling around camera packages. You may also be getting work as an ENG shooter where you are loading a camera, sticks, lighting kits, grip kit in you car. You may even throw a dolly or a jib in the back. As you get more established and work on larger shows with grip and electric trucks you?ll need your vehicle to drive you personal gear and gags to the set on day one and a truck to drive all you stuff back at the end of the job. I?ve also accumulated some larger gear like a jib and hot head which also fit in my SUV. I also have a small grip electric package that fits in the SUV packed to the gills. My philosophy has been to accumulate the maximum amount of gear I can fit in my SUV and which a very small crew can handle. If I need more gear I get a grip/electric truck and crew.

Great tip. I was thinking you might want to hide a small light low off in the distance behind a tree or gravestone and back light some very thin smoke. The night air might just pick up enough to glow.

It used to take a lot of skilled craftsman to make a bad film. Now anyone can make a bad film.

LOL Walter, in your first post you sound like you think trying save energy and protect the planet is a waste of time. Then your next post says you rushed out to do it.

There are several ways to approach the 360 style of dialog. Screen direction always gets screwed up and it is really tough to get key dialog on camera. There are several tricks a use. I will put two cameras on the dolly. Maybe 20 degrees apart. They are close enough together so that they don?t get in each others shots. But the timing is off enough to insure you get correct6 screen direction and key lines. With single camera I try to change the start mark of the dolly for every take so you have a variety of footage. Changing the direction of the camera can also give you the variety you need. You can also take key dialog lines and repeat them to ensure they are caught on camera. Because screen direction is becoming less and less important these days you can if you desire to just ignore it.

Dave, I have to agree with your AD. I've shot three episodic television series on HD and I have always had HD monitors for the Directors. I've gone with 17" Panasonics. If my shows can afford them I am sure yours can.

Get an HD monitor for the director and sit with him or her. Many HD monitors have a waveform so you can check exposure. I just run back and forth between the DIT tent and the director spending 80% of the time with the director and 20% with the DIT. It is easy to get seduced by the great image in the tent but your place is with the director. By checking in with the DIT you can keep an eye on what is happening.

I just bought PARANOID PARK and watched it last night. I thought it was great. Chris Doyle and Rain Li did a terrific job photographing it and Gus did a wonderful job capturing the story. Performances were captivating and the style of the film making really enhanced it. The version I bought said widescreen on Amazon but the DVD is 4:3 what happened here? The box says standard version protecting the aspect ratio of the original theatrical exhibition.

I?ve been using Kino Flos with half of the bulbs tungsten and half daylight. Seemed to work pretty well.

The Deep had some pretty good day for night. Especially when the boat leaves the habor.

I would say it's an 12 mm lens with the center 35 mm being sharp and high resolution dropping off to pretty poor resolution on the periphery

Put a thin diffusion like hampshire frost on the windows. Over expose it. If you want move some objects through the back ground to give a feeling of movement. Works better in an action sequence with lots of distractions.

It's not the frame rate. If you want you action action screamingly sharp and edgy shoot at a 45 degree shutter.

I'm looking for recommendations for good books on improving DIT skills.

I'll check tomorrow. It really depends on where the gamma is set on your camera. The cross over on a DSC chart tends to fall where you have the gamma set. So if your gamma is set a .45 I'd expect to set the cross over there.

Backlight Backlight Backlight

I am a big highlight fan but I haven't worked much with half soft frost.

I?ve done my share of green screen animal work. I think plywood is the best solution although you have the cost of building the plywood and painting it with expensive green screen paint. In this case I used ?Student? green screens. These are green screens that have been trashed already on underwater shoots. The tigers did slip and slide a bit on the fabric which was a pain in the ass. Below is a VERY COOL 360 degree view of how I shoot green screen animal scenes. It was shot by my assistant Pat Swovelin. I usually silk the set so I can maintain consistent lighting on the green screen and talent. http://www.lookineverydirection.com/panora...s/tigers_1.html