Andrew Sisnett

After posting this upon impulse, I've noticed a topic at the top of this forum which answers my question, so I feel this topic is actually quite redundant and don't know how to remove it. If however anyone has anything new to offer, please do!

Hello Cinematographers! I've been ghosting these forums from time to time and returning every once in awhile when I have certain questions about the art of cinematography & thus far I must say I'm very thankful a site on the net like this exists where professionals are so willing to discuss the particulars of their craft. Truly a blessing. I put the question out there: Is there an exceptional book out on the market which discusses the art and craft of cinematography in great, and digestible detail? I'm sure answers may differ, but perhaps some can lend their inspirations and influences to me so I may study further. I currently own a well-used copy of the American Cinematographer Manual and do grasp the technical aspects of cinematography quite well now, but want to explore more of the "look" and "feel" of it from a conceptual standpoint. I look forward to reading any responses offered and exploring new avenues of inspiration from the minds of others. Cheers, - Andrew

Thanks for the feedback thus far, I'll definitely be looking into these. Cheers guys!

I have a few great prime lenses for a Pentax K-1000 still camera of mine, one in particular, a fisheye lens, that I'd like to adapt to motion pictures. The most accessible camera for me to use at the moment would be a Sony PMW-EX3 and it does have an adapter for 35mm lenses, however my PENTAX lens is a K-Mount and I'm quite certain there is an adapter out there that would allow me to fit this lens to the EX3. Anyone know a readily available source to get lens adapters, hopefully inexpensively? I find the ultra-wide fisheye look is very fun for tracking characters in close quarters (Chris Doyle shot the majority of Fallen Angels in a similar way) and would love to experiment with it myself. Cheers. Andrew

The Tunnels are supposed to be under a graveyard, dug out by large rats. We did mull the idea of cutting small holes and have shafts of moonlight spill in, but I am more concerned with bringing out a general level of detail in the tunnel walls and subject, especially while they move and we track them through the tunnels.

Great feedback! I will definitely try this to verify, thank you so much!

Hello, I have just shot half of a short film with a Sony PMW-EX3, and I had not even had a chance to see/touch the camera until the cameraman showed up on our set the day of shooting. Prior, I did attempt some research about the camera but found difficulty determining the PMW-EX3's effective ASA/ISO setting or finding a menu where I can change that. I am a student cinematographer and perhaps this is an elementary question, but how do I figure this out on these digital cameras? Without knowing my ASA I had some difficulty determining exposure levels on the set I was trying to light and felt like I had my hands tied the entire shoot. With the director and production crew pushing me to hurry up, I had only inconsistent visual references between the EX3 viewfinder and the monitor output to try the lighting setups. Not knowing the ASA/ISO impeded me greatly on this shoot and I'd like to know how either determine this value on the camera or whether or not I can change it in camera via the menu system. Any and all help regarding this would be GREATLY appreciated. Thank you, Andrew

i will also add we were severely limited with lights for the shoot, we had 2 2k HMI's, NO flags or silks, no scrims, and only Full/Half CTO. At the film school we are at somebody cleaned us out before the shoot... What i thought may work very well would be a light mounted on the tracking dolly.... comments?

I've recently started production work on a short film involving tunnels we've constructed from 12' long, 3' wide Sonotubes (Cardboard cylinders) to simulate tunnels our actors will be crawling through. The set design turned out really well and the tunnel effect is indeed convincing. We've been mulling over lighting options in such confined spaces and haven't been able to come up with a setup that looks appropriate. The setup I used to do most of the footage involved cutting out a large section of tunnel (1/3 to 1/2 vertically on some parts) and having key and fill set up at the front/back of the actors as we had tracking dollys for the length of tunnel. I'm attempting to light the tunnel to bring out the earthy tones, so CTO is a definite must and i've been trying diffusion to reduce the harsh shadows that would reveal unrealistic sources for light in a tunnel but that also conflicts with the fact that natural shadows do occur when the only apparent light source (to the viewer) would be a flashlight. I have shot all the tunnels scenes with actors and when I get the footage back I will post a link to to show what I did, but I'd like opinions on alternative methods to attempt for the future or even a demo reel as I don't feel the way I lit them works as well as I had hoped. We have a lot of coverage shots involving rats in a scale model of the tunnels (10' wide tube, 6 feet long) to make them appear unnaturally large but are having great difficulty figuring out lighting setups for the miniature....we're basically limited to backlighting or front lighting, the latter of which reveals how cute the rats are as opposed to how "scary" the director wants to make them look, heh. I've mulled over cutting the tube in half vertically and shooting through a clear sheet of vinyl and setting up typical key and fill that way, but are there any other options here? Has anybody lit tunnels before? What are your thoughts, comments on how to light these appropriately? Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you in advance.

Unsure if this topic goes in this thread, but.... Any opinions on a great workhorse light meter at a low/moderate price range? Also a color temp meter? Maybe even great a site or store that supplies countless other tools? Thanks - Andrew

Got the dailies and studio stills back from the shoot. Disaster! A question for all you working cinematographers out there, what would you do if your director insisted on not using a video tap, changed literally all your shots last minute, discussed framing and lenses and lighting techniques with your cameraman instead? This is what happens on student shoots and it pissed me off because I knew what the film looked like before it was shot and the director disregarded most of our pre-production. I walked off set half way through the shoot because of this and wow, the director paid big time, the second half of his dailies are unusable. I almost feel bad about leaving, but at the same time knew this film suddenly became a director's shoot and I no longer had any creative input other than "lighting" and couldn't accept that as the extent of my role. I was wondering if any of you experience this in the working world as well. Here are some digital stills with identical camera settings to the 16mm I took from the set followed by the 16mm shots I had some control over, and you were right about the grain, lots of noise in the background on 16mm. I decided to light 3, 3 1/2 stops over, could have pushed it more probably. Any thoughts/comments? I do like the crispness of the digital shots and I have a sneaking suspicion my AC left out my instructions for the lab that the over-exposures were intentional since the differences between the two versions are huge! Digital Stills: Set Stills http://i381.photobucket.com/albums/oo254/A...oot/001Set2.jpg http://i381.photobucket.com/albums/oo254/A...hoot/001Set.jpg Effect and Framing Stills http://i381.photobucket.com/albums/oo254/A...hoot/Fetal1.jpg http://i381.photobucket.com/albums/oo254/A...hoot/Fetal2.jpg http://i381.photobucket.com/albums/oo254/A...hoot/Fetal3.jpg http://i381.photobucket.com/albums/oo254/A...t/LightTest.jpg http://i381.photobucket.com/albums/oo254/A...teredPapers.jpg http://i381.photobucket.com/albums/oo254/A...MonitorTest.jpg http://i381.photobucket.com/albums/oo254/A...ngLightGood.jpg http://i381.photobucket.com/albums/oo254/A...t/Breakdown.jpg 16mm Stills: http://i381.photobucket.com/albums/oo254/A...imbingCyclo.jpg http://i381.photobucket.com/albums/oo254/A...oot/001Desk.jpg http://i381.photobucket.com/albums/oo254/A...alPosition2.jpg http://i381.photobucket.com/albums/oo254/A...orandShadow.jpg http://i381.photobucket.com/albums/oo254/A.../001OnFloor.jpg http://i381.photobucket.com/albums/oo254/A...teredPapers.jpg http://i381.photobucket.com/albums/oo254/A...indingLight.jpg I would love any feedback regarding this. Cheers!

I'd like to thank all the great suggestions everyone gave for this project on how to light the "White Void". We finished shooting yesterday and hopefully it all turned out well, which I'm sure it did. Will know by Monday and for all those curious I will post stills from the transferred footage. Thanks again and all the best.

YES! I thought the exact same thing. I had just rewatched this film four days ago and was thinking the exact same thing. The effect is truly astounding and ultimately what I'm trying to achieve. I'd like to again thank everyone for their feedback and thoughts thus far on this idea and I'll be taking some 35mm test slides either tonight or tomorrow morning to see what we can achieve with what's been discussed so far. So again, thank you all very much for the support and hopefully something great turns out with the tests. If all turns out from the lab, I'll post the results if the forum allows for it. Cheers, - Andrew

As a side note, we have access to 1/4 and 1/8 black pro-mist filters. Would those help with the "seeping" or "fringing" effects that have been mentioned?

First of all I'd like to thank everyone for all the great feedback I'm getting about this project so far, it's very much appreciated. The school is giving us 200t film to shoot with and we plan on using 3 walls inside a studio to create the space but essentially we only need 2 and can cheat shots if necessary. Some details of the project: Must be shot in studio. - 80% of the project is 16mm - 20% is video - "void" scene will be the 16mm portion of the film - A woman is trapped in "void" like room with no apparent windows or doors. Inside the room at one end is a monitor/desk and exactly opposite that against the other wall is a filing cabinet. The nature of the script tells me it's more of a psychological torment going on so I decided to keep a large portion of the shots tight on the female talent and let her go wild since she was so impressive during casting. I like the idea of taking test stills with 35mm, I'll end up doing that to see what happens. Thanks thus far guys this is all great information! I thought of using a shallow depth of field for my closeups and coverage, hoping this would also help mask the walls. Any thoughts on manipulating depth to help mask problems or would that just ruin the "void" effect altogether?