Kevin Zanit

Looks good. We always use tungsten sources, never HMIs because of the above, the arc wander (and flicker). 5k and up tungsten is the best bet for the most part. We rarely correct the tungsten sources when working with the Phantom because the RAW files it makes has so much information that we can white balance well in post (for example, see the link in the bottom of my signature). Kevin Zanit

Your in one now! ;)

I have shot plenty of 5217 and 5218, not a lot in 16mm though. That said, use the '18 - Shooting 5217 at 160 (over exposing by a 1/3 of a stop) or at 200 is not very viable with the amount of light you have unless its all close ups. There is not a huge difference in grain between the two to be honest, not as much as you would think.

I posted a bit ago some tests I did for a film, testing 5218, 5229 and 5279. This stuff was for a war movie, so it is definitely contrasty. I also have the same tests processed normal & bleach bypassed. http://www.cinematography.com/forum2004/in...mp;#entry170410

Interesting, I'm going to guess the Sepulveda Dam by the 101/ 405 split (just north of the freeway, about 80% of all car commercials are shot there ;)

Thanks guys, Chris: You kicked ass on that video, it was a huge setup! As for film length, all this stuff was shot with an HD camera, so there was no film. Photosonics film cameras take a 1000' load, and burn through it in one take when you account for the coming up to speed and coming back down to zero. They do make film loads in 2000' lengths, though I have not seen them in a long long time. They were used a lot on sitcom type shows for the extra run time. I remember trying to load one of those mags in a changing tent; it worked, but it was really really tight. Kevin Zanit

I truly hope two things happen: That generator gets serviced, and that I never end up getting that same generator on another job ;) Just saw a rough cut of the video, the editor was thanking for the strobes due to giving him cut points. You should still post Richard!

Haha, ken, I know a few; very few . . . ;) Shana tova to you as well. What area was the beach located in btw, guessing Tel Aviv?

Coming from a movie background, owning gear is the exception not the norm. That said, I have started renting my own lighting gear to some extent fairly recently. The rate I charge for my gear has no relation to my day rate. I try and match whatever deal we are getting from our main rental house. If our rental house would be renting a 4x4 Kino for $50-$60 a day then I will rent for $45/ $50 a day. There are some jobs I have done that I make more in rentals then in day rate. I have done other jobs where the rentals are beer money relative to my day rate, it just varies; and thats why I like owning some gear.

Thanks all, it was a lot of work but I think it was worth it-ish . . . ;) The generator definitely did not like us very much. A video one of the guys took of the amp meter on one of the hot legs during a take: (watch it all the way) Good eyes on the Red Bull, I think someone stole the entire case from crafty knowing how much work lay ahead! Kevin Zanit

Are you going to the camera prep? You can ask then. They give small bottles of silicon in the camera case. When you open the side door there is a diagram that points out the oil points of the camera. If it is just a weekend shoot you probably don't need to worry too much about oil.

Anything that puts particles that catch light in the air will work, its really a question of how well/ how safe/ how much trouble it is. I HATE using smoke machines for shafts of light, I always use a haze machine (DF50) for the job, the results are much better.

We started with a wide, side to side master of the band performing on a stage. (digital still from Elhanan?s camera) The band was lit with two 12-light maxis on the stage right and left sides. The camera right side was the 12-light through a 12x12 frame of ¼ grid cloth The camera left side was another 12-light through an 8x8 frame of ½ soft frost and then a 12x frame of ¼ grid The band is pretty heavy and edgy, so I really wanted sidelight for them. One thing I hate when shooting band performance is when I put a large source on one side of the frame and then the band starts going crazy doing their thing and shadowing each other/ burning up/ getting too dark. Thus I wanted really big sources far away, and it worked great. We used 2 6k fresnels in the background low, sometimes in frame sending blue light on the floor as well as placing several 8? mega Kino tubes vertical on the columns in the background. For atmosphere we placed two DF50 hazers (one on each side) going through big fans pointed up in the air in front of the strobes. When they went off you could see the haze and it looked really interesting. We also did a wet down to the parking lot which helped bring up a lot of reflections. The only problem was that we could not get a proper water truck up due to the clearance and the water trailers they had really did not have enough water to do the entire area. It worked out okay though. I am sure I am missing something, Frank the gaffer is on the board so hopefully he can interject some as well. Here is a crappy quality video of me shooting performance with a few of the strobes going in the background to give some idea of how they were used, as well as see my back in motion ;) And here is a 360 of a lot of the setup in the day: I have to thank my amazing crew; they worked super hard for very little money. I can not thank them enough. Gaffer Frank DiPaola and his guys Key Grip Bobby Woo and his guys 1st AC Ken Bender who somehow managed to keep everything in focus from 20 feet away and no line of site to me or any warning half the time of what I was going to shoot. I think he may have a sixth sense. DIT Elhanan Matos did a great job as usual 2nd AC Collin Cates Gary over at Dalsa gave us a great deal on the camera package, I thank him as well!

Hi all, Just wrapped a music video this weekend directed by Brie Campbell; we shot for two days on an F900 with Digi Prime lenses all from Dalsa. Day one was shooting various story segments for the piece. This involved shooting a split day, starting late afternoon and shooting into early morning. We had to cover several smaller scenes in different rooms of the house we were in as well as a large party scene in the living room. We shot in a run of the mill suburban two story house which made things very cramped when working. The production designer did as good a job as he could to try and make this fairly boring looking house look interesting. One scene was a love scene taking place on a pool table. We shot the scene day for night, and I had the grips fly some nets/ diffusion to just bring down the windows to a blue glow which looked nice. I used a 4x4 Kino overhead, skirted off the walls as well as an Image 80 double diffused with something I can?t remember, I think it was 251. I also had some Dedos on the ground doing up-lights on the instruments, and then at the last minute added a Leko for a dramatic edge light on the talent when they were standing. It looked a little dramatic because I hazed the room, but it is a music video, and I think it works fine. (this is a frame grab off of the waveform with very rough color correction, it looks a bit too dark on my computer monitor, but it should give a rough idea) Next we shot the party scene, of which I only managed to grab two horrible stills of. Essentially, it was a bit chaotic, I think we got what we needed, but I definitely didn?t have time to grab any stills. My gaffer, Frank DiPaola was working ahead of us doing a lot of pre-lighting. He did a great job mixing Kino Flo super blue tubes with gold tubes bringing some contrasting color into the mix. (sorry for the useless picture, but here you can see the super blue at work) Essentially the rule for the house scenes was to keep it simple and fast. It was mostly Kino Flos and small tungsten units danced around. We did light up the backyard with some 6ks, but never ended up looking in that direction due to time restraints. The next day was a nighttime band performance on top of a parking structure. This ended up being a massive setup that took around seven hours to get up and running (started at 1pm, first shot was at 8 or so). The biggest part of the setup involved a 120 foot row of 3000watt strobe lights (42 in total). The strobes were Martin Atomic 3000s that I was able to control via DMX from a consol that was linked to the playback system. Essentially playback sent SMPTE time code to the slate and MIDI time code to the lighting console that had cues I programmed (and I say I not in the possessive sense, but in the literal sense: I started as a theatrical light board operator, and though a bit rusty, still know how to use an ETC board ;) ). Frank and I joked that every god of film making joined forces in an attempt to keep us from getting all our strobes up and running. It was one of the most difficult fights I have ever had. It started with trying to afford 40 of these things, then finding 40 of these things and ended with the crew making cables on the day of due to an unbelievable amount of bad luck/ rental houses trying to be ?helpful?. It came out really cool, but fu*k did we have to earn it! The parking structure was six stories up and only had 8? clearance which meant we could not get a single of our trucks up to the top. We had several stake beds, but those were deemed too heavy for the structure and thus were used minimally. There was a slow elevator and someone?s personal pickup truck. First, the crew laid down a ?water fall? of 4/0 cable to the generator. Then the fun began: We originally planned on using stands But then just ended up with them on the ledge, woops . . .

I agree for the most part with the above, sharing is good, and cinematography as an art form has a long history of openness and willingness to help a fellow cinematographer. That said, in the commercial business especially, there are certain skills and tricks one develops that can be your bread and butter. Of course a DP has to think of actually using the trick in that situation, but there are some that are very obvious, i.e. tricks with water drops or cars, etc that are very very specific and are used by such few people that it very well could affect my bottom line. All of that said, these are very rare instances, and for the most part I am very open. I have been on here I think since 1998 learning, but also sharing any knowledge I gain on an almost daily basis. Nothing like David Mullen, but my point is that I do believe in a good amount of freedom of information. Kevin Zanit

Sababa! Any video with a bunch of Israeli women in bikinis has my attention for a few!

You just answered your own question with ". . . respect for the art . . .", the lighting choices are driven by creativity not rules. It absolutely is the DPs choice as to what units to use, though some DPs may decide to let their gaffers make specific choices.

The advanced title has nothing to do with what the people who run the forum think of your knowledge, just based on post count; and to be honest it seems your post count has been generated through a bunch of RED arguments, not much productive.

Eh, most times you aren't doing anything that special then you are not giving much away. There are a few tricks I have that I keep to myself, especially in commercial product shot type photography. Other than that, I usually doubt I am giving much away. That said, there are a few things I tell the gaffer I work with to not use with another DP unless it would really be a life saver.

I like them, they make the viewfinder more comfortable. They do get pretty nasty quickly, which is why they are usually changed every day. If you are good about controlling who is looking through the eyepiece then eye infections are not a big issue.

Or any tungsten light 5k or over on AC power will be fine, see the website in my signature for proof of that.

Sounds good, I'll email you when I get in front of a computer that can accesses my email accountant. They are coming off the show they are on this Friday/ Thursday night. Kevin Zanit

Thanks, the lighting was all tungsten, mostly 10ks with maybe one 5k. Any tungsten source smaller than a 5k will flicker at these speeds. HMIs are hopeless. Kevin Zanit

I may be able to do that, what area are you in? My Kinos are currently on a job with me until the end of this week or so, but after that the one I am looking to sell is available.

Whats your budget like for a 4x4 system (Head, ballast [the ballast is the older style w/ out four switches, just a two position switch), head cable, quick release, etc.)?