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

Hi, I've got a special effects shoot involving chroma key suits in a sunny outdoor environment. Test shoots have been positive but to help limit shadows and highlights on the suits I want to use diffusion. My choices are 250 half diffusion and 216 full diffusion. I know that these diffusions cut light by f2 and f2.6 respectively, but what i'm most concerned with is which will produce a more even light. I'm guessing it's the 216 because it's a heavier diffusion but are there are any other factors i'm not considering. Cheers, Sherwin

Thanks for your help Scott... I knew tracking points had to be on stationary objects - not sure what drugs I was on earlier... Your suggestions about getting a wider shot for the clean plate is a good one - I figure I can get away with a bit of scaling up in editing given that it's a soft defocused image. I'm having the suits custom made, as soon as i decide whether magenta or red is the best option..... Anyway, thanks for talking me through this one. All the best with your projects. Sherwin

Alright, I'll just go ahead and tell you exactly what this project involves. I am animating the character's bodies with various imagery but often the silhouettes are filled by the defocused image of their background - as if their bodies behave like a prism that defocuses what we see through it. For this imagery, I'll shoot a defocused clean plate after every take. The easiest way to make sure the defocused footage matches up with the alpha footage is to keep both shots static on a tripod but as I'd prefer a handheld feel so I'm experimenting with motion tracking options. My idea is to shoot the takes with the suits handheld and motion track the movements in post, shoot the defocused clean plate on a tripod and attach it to the tracked motion so that things vaguely match. I figure that with defocused image, I do have some margin for error since the forms are blurry. My main question is whether I need to place markers on my actors or the background to facilitate motion tracking. Once chroma keyed, wouldn't the silhouette provide a sharp enough point somewhere to motion track off? But the sensible option is probably to place a marker on the scene. Would some brightly coloured gaffer tape, which I key out and replace with a clean slate, do the trick? I'm still not sure whether to go with red or magenta suits (which will give me a lower IRE reading at the same exposure?) I'm sure you envisage problems so i'd love to hear about them! Cheers, Sherwin

thanks for replying scott. No, the problem is that the suit gets washed out under bright sunlight. I'm looking at having a suit custom made with 95% cotton / 5% spandex fabric. Much duller. This is a 15minute movie. I don't want to rotoscope it!

Hi, I'm in pre-production on a project which makes heavy use of chroma key suits. The tough thing is that I'm shooting it outdoors in bright sunlight. After initial tests with industry standard lime green suits I discovered that they reflect too much light and the result is washed out and basically unkeyable (luma keying is messy too). Is anyone aware of chroma key suits in alternative, duller fabrics that do not reflect as much light? Official chroma key suits seem to come only in shiny green, lime or blue so I had to think laterally. This COULD be an option: http://www.milanoo.com/Fuchsia-Red-U...it-p16069.html And yes, I am aware that it was built for something other than chroma keying! Think it'll float? I'm opting for magenta because it clashes least with my background. Anyway, if anyone has ever used a chroma key suit under bright sun, I'd love to hear from you! Cheers, Sherwin

Thanks Chris, but i'm going to Mexico tomorrow - buying a filter won't be possible. I was hoping there is a DIY answer. Is what i described about creating a notch on the cassette so that the filter cancel button is not pressed accurate? Using the internal filter is better than nothing, right? I was hoping to take more stills than video. Will this affect the exposure at all? Cheers

Hi Guys, I'm heading to mexico tomorrow and was looking forward to shooting some of the scenery on my canon 310XL with some tri-x b/w reversal (7266) that i have lying around. This was until i found out that it's an extremely fast film that may be overexposed in bright sunlight. How do i shoot this film and have nice contrasty results in daylight? I don't have time to buy an external filter. This is my plan: I have read that it is possible to cut a notch near the bottom part of the cartridge (on the gate-facing side), so that the internal filter cancellation pin is not pressed. I will set the internal filter switch to 'daylight'. I will leave the red meter filter down (If light to the meter is being filtered then the camera will compensate by opening the iris even wider, right?). Is there anything else I can do? Any DIY tricks? yellow cellophane?! Anything. Please let me know. I'm leaving in 12 hours! Cheers