John Thomas

I've had very little luck shooting Day for Night. It's rather tedious. You really need a sunny day so that as you underexpose the sun light and then print it down, the sunlight feels like weak moonlight. An overcast day will not have enough contrast in my opinion. Keeping the daylight cool (blue) helps to sell the night effect to some. Make sure that you don't show a bright sky behind your talent, dark backlit trees work well to keep the background black. If you must show the sky, some graduated filters may help. A bright practical lamp in the frame (tungsten) helps to sell the phony night and the blue moonlight. Your director will have to work with you to make all of the elements work. It can all feel very theatrical if that's a good thing... Good Luck, JT

Andrea, Take a long walk alone in a quiet wooded place on a partly sunny day with your still camera. Create some frames that are touched by light and speak to you. See if you can find some frames without a feeling of light. There some treasures to be found for those who look carefully enough. Don't let anything but light and shadow distract you. Good luck, JT

$$$$$$$$ isn't owning equipment fun? :(

Many times I've goofed up the feeling of a scene by "taking care of the actor" with all this close-up voodoo. Generally if I have the guts to leave the moody wide-shot lighting alone, and carefully take care of the talent without doing much, the photography is better. Doing "new" close-up lighting has gotten me into trouble. My number one close-up rule is: Don't let the older actress's face be the brightest thing in the frame. (Then you can take care of her without it being as obvious.) Regards, JT

Beautiful work David... I'm looking forward to seeing more. regards, JT

Mark, You are so right about testing. To save some dough, I would only test 500 and 800 speed stocks, as they are your only hope for available light photography. Also I'm afraid that you will have to rent some high speed primes T1.3, for a candle lit scene and get a brilliant focus puller. Also rent a prime blimp housing for the 16BL if you're recording sync sound. Don't be afraid to do some under exposure during your test and transfer your test exactly as you plan to do your dailies. Also it's no joke that you should have a fire extinguisher on a set with open flames. Good luck, JT

Beth, Help yourself by keeping the talent far enough from the cyc so that the background is soft and not influenced by the lighting you do for the actors. If you can, back the camera up so that you're not on the widest part of the lens. good luck, JT

Uwe, It's been quite a few years since I was involved in a blow-up but here is what I learned: There may be digital blow up options now, but in my optical blow-up I was suprised how much of the frame was lost. The optical people felt the need to inlarge the 1.66 Super 16 neg beyond the 1.66 space in the 35mm positive. It really effected the framing of the film. I would try to do a test with a chart to see what you really get after a blowup and mark your groundglass. We are doing a new video transfer now from the original camera negative and when we are done we will finally have a properly framed version of this film. If it is a film for a U.S. market I would fight for a 1.85 masked frame for the release prints. The projectionists had fun with our 1.66 film here in the U.S. I've had people ask me about my curious choice of no head room. ( I walked into one screening and the top frame line was on people's eyebrows) :o . Use the finest grain film that you can get away with and overexpose it. (as per DuArt book) Long lenses look great, out of focus backgrounds make the foreground look sharper than it really is. Contrast in lighting helps too. Flat scenes in our film look grainy and soft. Good luck, there some great Kodak stocks around now which should help you. JT

Yes, there are some fine bellows attched lens systems which you can use just like a view camera. (you can't swing and tilt the film plane of course) Now, if we only had a 4x5 or 8x10 inch negative. :)

I don't use software but a decent digital camera with a long zoom is very helpful. If you get decent prep on a show you will be in every location scouting and have an opportunity to take stills and movie clips. I like to go back to the office and goof around in photoshop and show the director some photos based on the discussions we have had. For complicated action sequences, storyboards are indispensable but normally I prefer a shot list and a few of my own sketches. My main beef with a director's boards done with an outside artist, is that they are usually not based on the realities of the location and simple physics. (some of these people can draw some crazy cartoons :blink: ) I like to use my own distorted imagination. Recently I've been doing a lot of episodic television. Those directors rock! They either have their act together or they're out. If every feature director first had to graduate from television before they got to do a movie, there would be many cinematographers and ADs with a lot less grey hair.

Jon, The lights are going to be in the shot. That's OK, just spend your limited time finding something that looks appropriate on camera and helps you light the musicians and dancers. Good luck, JT

Jack, It's location, location, location. I work in New York City and shot a low budget film that took place on the upper east side. The Director wanted several night "walk and talk" scenes on Madison Ave. I spent a day of prep looking for a smooth sidewalk on Park Ave. with a good background. I had to use Park because there is an island between the North and South lanes where I could hide some par cans to light the scene. As the shot progressed the par cans in the background were dimmed out and invisible in background of the shot. We ran the whole thing on a put-put around the corner and a battery light on the dolly. The Dolly had big pneumatic tires and with a wide lens on the camera we got away with it. I never would have pulled it off on a bumpy sidewalk on Madison. If they don't give you the money to do it right, then only work with directors who will help you do it any way you can. good luck, JT

We've strapped small Honda generators to the back bumper. They make some small, quiet ones that may give you enough juice. Good luck and be careful, JT

Mike, I owned one of those lenses and I don't think the front element is easily removed. I hope I'm wrong. Good Luck, JT

Demian, Great job, don't change a thing. Just get it out there. Good Luck, JT

Johnny, I shot a ton of 7218 and 7217 this year. I'm always shocked how great the 18 is. Whenever possible I tried to shoot the 17 but at times looking at the dailies (also for the small screen) I wondered why I bothered. Have confidence with 7218, it will look terrific. ( unless you f*ck it up :D ) Good luck, John T.