Aaron Moorhead

I think that you should just embrace what you have! Keep some fast lenses on you, and focus on your camerawork. It could be really useful to have a 1x1 or brick-style LitePanel, but that might attract more attention -- it is a beacon, after all. Good luck!

I was in a DGA Q&A by Aronofsky, who answered a question similar to yours. He said the point was to make an ugly film, one that didn't feel comfortable, but felt real and visceral. He got away with it because the film was not supposed to be noticed for its aesthetics. We all know Libatique is stunningly talented, but the lighting (at least) in that film was often less beautiful/polished than a lot of his other films. We can say the same about the camerawork too, with the knowledge that it was a very conscious choice we can come back and call it beautiful again, if it made us feel emotionally the way we were supposed to. It did, for me.

Also, not a bad possibility is that you were watching a poorly transferred version. Netflix is especially guilty about the quality of their transfers (but I wouldn't put it past a TV station either). A lot of stuff that was shot at 24 fps, then telecined to 29.97, then back with a bad pulldown or with a weak framerate reconform, have ghosting and flickering errors in scenes with a lot of movement or detail.

Almost every time it's best to be an LLC. It's designed for small business.

Probably ISO 500, White Balance Tungsten, F stop is whatever's on your motion camera, shutter is 1/48 (or 1/50, which is darned close). Might want to make some picture profile settings too, mainly to decrease saturation and contrast a tad.

You can use any practical light at all, then control its exposure. In the example of using small tungsten practicals such as a standing lamp, you can bring your own very low wattage bulbs, normally between 15 and 60 watts (available at any Home Depot or anywhere that sells bulbs), putting the fixture on a dimmer and dimming down (which will change your color temp, but is highly controllable), or if the light is in a shade and you can't see the source directly, you can wrap it or the shade with ND gel if need be.

Simply stunning. Love every bit of it. If you ever need a hand on a shoot out of LA, drop me a line.

I think that it depends on the your opinion on the role of the audience in the film, as well as the director's. I think that the sadness and loneliness of the character will come out the absolute most in the person's eyes -- the window into the soul. I think we will feel HER disconnectedness if we don't see the eyes, but will feel disconnected from the character ourselves if we don't. Also, consider knocking out some of the lights at the top in large segments, so there's a bit of light/dark depth in the factory.

We found some really awesome results (thanks to an on-point production designer) with Scotchbrite reflective tape and a 2 way mirror. Not the same as a blacklight, but works really well for what we're doing. Now the question is how to keep the light and mirror on the precise same axis as the camera as it zooms all around the set on a dolly and jib. We're thinking of removing the need for the mirror by using an LED ringlite. Anyone done this before? Testing it tomorrow. We're still using blacklights, but the need for enormous light quantities of blacklight is no longer as important for the purpose we're using it for (the Scotchbrite replaced it), so we're just going to use 3 Kino fatboys with blacklight tubes in them and walk them right up next to camera. Thoughts? Thanks! Aaron

I'm shooting a music video with costumes that have ultraviolet strips on them. I'm shooting pieces of it on Phantom around 500 fps, so I assume I need a lot of punch to get those strips to glow, which is really tough to do with blacklight. I've done a good amount of talking with people who have shot under blacklight a lot, and gather that it's basically all a reflective measure and there's really no way to ambiently measure the blacklight. How would you suggest that I get the biggest punch of of my blacklights? - I have 5 10ks, I was wondering if I could use something like Lee Ultimate Violet or Lee Congo Blue ( http://www.leefilters.com/lighting/product...ours/showall:1/ ) on them to get the most punch, place them right behind camera. I might be just misunderstanding blacklights, though. Is it possible to convert a tungsten source to a blacklight with just a gel, or is it in the nature of the bulb itself? I know the light transmission on those gels is very stiff, which is why I was thinking of huge sources. - Perhaps use blacklight tubes from Kino? If so, how do I avoid flicker, and also, how do I get enough exposure without dozens of banks of blacklight kinos? Thanks for the help in advance.

Got this program, and I really like it. On the note of cine apps, anyone know of an online application or anything that's like PocketLD, but I can use it on my laptop?

Consider asking your art department to make up some pounds bags. They're small sacs made of really thin cloth and filled with flour, and before the shot you pound them together to make the dust float around.

Thanks!

I've been looking around for a definitive answer on this one and come up empty. A lot of people have complained that the 7d is not full frame. However, looking at relative frame sizes, it seems that the 7d's 1.6x crop factor is actually equivalent to that of larger motion picture formats (Super35, RED). So, by extension, Super35 and Red aren't full frame either. To put it another way: if I put a 50mm lens on a 7d and on a RED from the exact same position, will I get the same frame size? I know the answer seems obvious, but I am curious if this is only an issue because it's different for STILL photographers, but in the world of cinematography it's a moot point. Here's a sensor/frame size comparison from RED: http://www.red.com/cameras/technology/ Also, I have a small director's viewfinder from FilmTools -- can I trust the S35 markings for my 7d lenses? Thanks! Aaron

I would say EXTREMELY soft, several stops under (depending on the latitude of your medium), just rimming/topping (no fill) and slightly cold or neutral. If you go any strong color preference, people will infer the wrong things (warm - tungsten light source, cold - moonlight), which you don't want them to even subconsciously think about. Do you have to see anything very clearly in the scene, or is it just dialogue?