Sherwin Akbarzadeh

It should do it. thanks Adrian.

Hey Kevin, I'm working a project without the money for proper grip gear. Instead of a floppy/duvetyn, what cheaper non-reflective material would suffice for this task? Would this do it? http://www.amazon.com/Prism-Backdrops-Muslin-Backdrop-Background/dp/B001C6IWME/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top I like how big it is! Cheers

think it'd be too hot to stick 2 of those 250w halogens in a 30' china ball using one of these? http://www.amazon.com/Leviton-128-I-660-Watt-Light-Socket-Adapter/dp/B001ATG0JU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1339048731&sr=8-1

Thanks David. I was about to get the film tools ones but if the ebay ones tested ok then why not. Kinda wish i could find the same in 500w though. I'd get these if it weren't a paper lantern fire hazard: http://www.filmtools.com/rps-studio-650w-3200k-quartz-halogen-bulb-e-27-socket-adapter-034447041494.html

Thanks for sharing that David. Interesting test results between incandescent and CFL. I'll get some incandescents or halogens for my tungsten scenes. I was attracted to the CFLs for heat and safety reasons but everyone seems to be happy with halogens in their china balls. For the daylight stuff, I guess I'll stick to the CFLS and look at some 1/8 minus green. I don't see what choice I have within my budget range. Thanks.

Resurrecting this old thread... Anyone ever use CFLs in chinese lanterns? They run cool and If i run 2 85 watt bulbs in a y-socket adapter, it's a 600 watt equivalent light. What do I need to know about the quality of light of CFLs vs Halogens? I'm looking at ALZO video lux bulbs - http://www.alzodigital.com/online_store/light_bulbs_compact_fluorescent_video-lux.htm- supposedly there is no green spike. Also it's nice to have the option of daylight balanced bulbs. What do ya'll think? Am I missing something here?

Hi All, I'm making up some 30 inch china balls for an upcoming project. I'm looking into bulbs and with heat/safety in mind I am considering compact fluorescents. There are a lot of open windows in my locations that I cant afford to block and replace so I want something that will match daylight. The Alzo bulbs (http://www.alzodigital.com/online_store/light_bulbs_compact_fluorescent_video-lux.htm) claim 5600K but they get mixed reviews - some people measure them at 6100K. I was going to put a Y-adapter socket in my china balls so that I could potentially run two 85 watt CFLs if i really need the light. But if these bulbs are really 6100K, I could run an 85 watt in one socket and warm it up a bit with a 27 or 45 watt tungsten balanced bulb in the other socket. The question is, does the light bounce around inside the china ball enough to mix these two color seamlessly? If so, what is the maths for calculating the resulting color temperature from these combinations? Appreciate any feedback on these questions or anything else that strikes you.

Thanks for your response David. I see now that maximum color separation is the sensible choice. I'm letting go of my idea about lighting the wall blue. Whilst helping to grade the blue wall separate from the foreground, the blue hue will limit the color information within the wall and thus my ability to grade details in the wall itself. Sometimes it helps to write things out! Thanks for your time.

Hi All, I'm shooting a black and white short film on digital. I will be shooting in color to capture the most information and allow flexibility in the grade. This led me to an idea - if I were able to light parts of my scene in fairly uniform colors it would help me to isolate those areas in the grade. My problem is that the main location is a huge warehouse with 10 feet high pure white walls. There are windows near the roof and at one end of the warehouse which bring in a medium intensity soft ambient light. There are artworks hanging on the wall and each artwork will be accented by a 30w tungsten fitting. My thought was that if I used blue bulbs in these fittings, which more or less correspond with the blue ambient daylight also lighting the wall, I could isolate the wall in post and darken it / recover detail in the white wall. I'm shooting on the Sony EX1 into an Atomos Samurai 10-bit 4:2:2 recorder which delivers Pro Res HQ files that grade quite well. On a different but related note - I know about the use of orange or red filters in b/w photography. I would rather retain color information than use a filter on the lens but it got me thinking about whether adjusting the white balance to warm everything up would have the same effect on contrast as using an orange filter. Would skies be 1/3 stop darker with wb set at say, 7000K? It seems like an extreme thought. Thanks

Thanks guys! Freddie, great to hear advice from the set of Moon (!) albeit second hand. I'm doing some tests tomorrow with lots of small fluoros - like 8 watters. I'm hoping the weak source will have a rapid enough fall off and the small size of the tubes will result in a not so soft light when the character is within range. I may experiment with putting camera tape on the non-camera side of the tube to limit spread. I'm a bit unsure of the colour rendition index on these lamps and how important it should be to me. I'm hoping that the light coming out of these fluoros will be weak and supplemented by proper lights so the green spike produced by the fluoros won't be all that noticable? I should mention i'm shooting at around T2.8-4 on 200 or 500T 16mm stock (sorry if that's too vague but that's how it is). But if CRI is a problem, these 14 watters seem decent..... http://www.anllighting.com.au/shopping-cart?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=23481&category_id=26 Anyone wanna guess the wattage on the fluoros in the still from Moon ?

Hi, I'm trying to work out my lighting plan for a sci-fi short film. The film is being shot completely in studio and I want to build practical lights into the set. The setting is an underground facility. These are my aims: 1. Emphasise architecture/perspective using rhythmic practical lighting - eg. a small light every couple of feet along a tunnel. (a still from Moon is attached to illustrate this) 2. A 3:1 or 4:1 lighting ratio (still from Deeper Than Yesterday attached to illustrate this) 3. An industrial quality to the light (as in both stills) From a design perspective, I like the tubes of light used in Moon, which leads me to think about fluoro tubes and LED tubes. Fluoros are cheap but if i place so many in a small space i'm afraid they'll wash my set with direction-less soft light, limiting my lighting ratio. I don't want to use egg-crates because i prefer the look of the bare tubes. From what i understand, LEDs are more directional but has anyone used LED tubes with the frosted coating? An idea about making fluoros more directional would be to inset them within the wall/roof. I want to see the tube clearly so I would only be able to inset about 1/2 tube diameter. Will this do much for me? If I do go with fluoros, I'm considering what would happen if I ND them down and make them less a practical source and more a set dressing. I still want them to be hot (at least 3 stops over) so I would have to open up the iris to compensate, but the effect of the fluoros would now be relatively less than the studio lights augmenting them. Given that I want to shoot at T2.8 or T4, I'd probably be using ND.3 or .6 at most. I'm not sure if the end result will warrant the effort. Any ideas on achieving the look that i'm after with fluoros or other lights much appreciated. Sorry to ramble and let me know if i've left anything out.

and i no longer have the metadata!

No reason to give the backstory - suffice to say half of the film was accidentally shot in 50i and I need it in 25p. What's the cleanest way of doing this? Cinema Tools? I don't have too much overt motion. Cheers Sherwin

Thanks for taking the time David, I was indeed talking about 4' x 4' frames. Sorry not to make that clear initially. I'm aware that this limits me to use diffusion only on medium shots and close ups. Shame I don't have a bigger crew for a 20' x 20' frame. I've just got one guy on a stepladder! So you can imagine the kind of distance he'll be from the subject if he's trying to block the sun near the middle of the day - around 2-3 metres tops. To produce the most even light i'm going to go with the full silk 216. The important thing is that I'm softening the light so that I can key out the subject effectively. So even if I have to underexpose the subject a little bit to get the right exposure on the background, it won't matter. Sherwin