Sing Howe Yam

Sean your work is amazing, did you happen to meet Jeremy Grant at the ASC awards? He was honorable mention for the ASC heritage award for "Nest of Spiders" from North Carolina School of the Arts. He's a good friend of mine and we went to school and graduated together. Congrats on the award, that must of been an awesome to receive. This is my friend/cinematographers website: Marco Garcia - www.magarcia.com My website - www.singhoweyam.com - I'm currently waiting on 4 music videos and a feature I shot to get me the footage to update. if anyone likes either one of the sites posted above and would want to get one made. the website designer is a long time friend of mine and his contact is - dan@mosomov.com

Here are some of my albums from facebook. My flickr account is all sorts of screwed up. 1. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2012...mp;id=166600135 2. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2010...mp;id=166600135 3. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2014...mp;id=166600135 4. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2009...mp;id=166600135 5. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2010...mp;id=166600135 ignore the Ilford Delta 3200 stuff, I will never shoot on that stock again. Kodak t-max 3200 is much better and not flat! If you do shoot the ilford 3200, rate it with 2/3 of over exposure! 6. http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3028...mp;id=166600135 this is just one picture, my favorite cross processed picture. enjoy, all of these photos were shot on film, no digital. all original and no post alteration. cameras (35mm): leica r4s, canon f-1, contax 159mm, minolta srt-102 medium format: mamiya c330, mamiya rb67 pro-s, kiev 88

I agree with everyone that says it depends on what you're going for. My last year at school I shot two different project and one called for natural lighting and the other I had a more stylized look for the film. The backlight here is motivated as "moonlight". The source was a 4 bank kino flo with daylight bulbs behind the van. I also added the red light inside the VW bus to put her within a colored frame (the scene was taking place at a party where her interest notices her, hence framing her within the doorframe with the red). I find this lighting setup natural, the backlight is not harsh, just a hairlight. This might not be natural to anyone else, some people might have liked it more if it were at 2 banks or at 2ft setting on the kino. This is my go at natural for a film set in the '70's For my more stylized look these are some pulls from the actual film. Both characters had different lighting, the girl in yellow is much brighter for story purposes while the girl in red has a devilish influence so I played her more in the dark. Extremely stylized and I shot in an old abandoned RJ Reynolds warehouse and sold the light coming through shafts in the ceiling. This is not really a backlight but a hard top light that pops her out, in a since she is backlit too from the bounce coming off the column. I feel color can also be a natural way to give characters a pop. Source 4 Leko rigged above. I also had the actress dye her hair even more blonde then it was to have it pick up the light even more. This is a pull from her intro shot. I just use the natural sheen off the concrete and the blown out windows to edge her naturally. The light hitting her is multiple source 4 lekos hitting her straight down goal posted. This is for the devil girl, no backlight at all. In the shot she walks out of the darkness into her key light and then out of it back into the darkness. So I completely think it's all based on what you're going after. The stylized project I shot was me trying the bob richardson effect with a cross look (unfortunately I couldn't get an reversal film to cross!).

I think it completely depends on what is going on in the scene. I think a great example of using eyelight in a creative way is in Harris Savides' in "The Yards". There is a scene where Wahlberg is in a building by the train yards and the building has these slotted openings providing the key light, then a train goes by and cuts the light out and in in slivers. The actor disappears into darkness and the only thing you see is a twinkle in their eyes. You should check it out, I think it's an awesome lighting effect. I'm waiting for my chance to do a suspense/thriller or horror movie to apply the technique.

Bob Richardson ASC - Kill Bill Vol. 1 & Vol 2. Think about how many different looks he does within in that movie. The O-Ren Ishi scene, Pei Mei scene, all of it, the control and confidence he has with his stocks and lighting is incredible. Conrad Hall ASC - Cool Hand Luke changed my world when I saw it in high school. Road to Perdition is a true testament to his career, Sam Mendes said a D.I. would ruin his photography for that picture. Guillermo Navarro ASC, AMC - His work in Pan's, both Hellboy's, his ability to create those worlds with lighting is amazing. Amy Vincent ASC - Hustle & Flow and Black Snake Moan look incredible, her colors are amazing. Henri Decae - 400 Blows, kept me glued to the screen the first time I saw it. Emmanuel Lubezki ASC, AMC - Sleepy Hollow, Lemmy Snickets, and Children of Men. All different, all amazing. Gordon Willis ASC - The Godfather is the sole reason I went to film school. Harris Savides ASC - The Yards, the scene in the train yard and when the trains go by it cuts out all the light and all you can see is the actors eye light. Might be just eye light but the visual of that is astounding. He is a risk taker and I respect that. Robert Elswit ASC - I love all the P.T. Anderson work and how they avoid D.I. Photochemically finished films have a special place in my heart. By the way, I have no problems with D.I. I think it has its place and time where it is needed. I just personally love films that are photochemically finished. I develop my own still film so it's something I've grown to love.

I'm glad David brought up Doyle's work on Hero. As much as I have read in this post about Doyle and his drinking issues, that has nothing to deal with his photography, the man was not formerly trained. He is a self-taught cinematographer and that is incredible. His lighting, lens selection, shot composition is top notch. People can argue what they want about Hero, but the movie is visually stunning, I put Doyle and Bob Richardson in the same tier as DP's. I did a my master class presentation on Doyle and I was even more impressed with him after viewing his fashion work as well. David is right about how he downplays the technical side of photography. But to do what he does means he knows his poop. Like everyone I don't understand how people can critique his work like we know him. There might be one or two cinematographer's in this form that even stand a chance against his work. Also at the end of the day it's all opinion, I have fellow friends that think Navarro's work is crap and the man won an Academy! What would our world be if every cinematographer was just like every other cinematographer? A lot of us wouldn't be doing this if that were the case, so I thank the fact we have diverse cinematographers in the world. About his working style, if he is slightly drunk on set that might be the perfect atmosphere for some people. I've worked with crews that put out great work but their set was not for me and then I have crews I absolutely love. It's different for everyone. Also the thing about his work not being consistent. I don't know but I think everyone has that one film they feel could have been better, plus some stories just call for cinematography that isn't mind blowing based on the script. Read Lubezki's article in AC mag about Burn After Reading. As cinematographer's it's hard to step out of our world of trying to make everything look great. Sing

Hi, I'm looking for some advice and tips on successfully shooting a a scene where I have to sell the person getting hit by a car and it not being hokey. I asked the director if we could make the viewers think the person got hit by the car by using sound and camera movement to sell it. This is a no, he wants to actually see the person get hit or make it look like the person got hit within the shot. I've never shot anything like this and I'm concerned about selling the effect and the safety of the actor/stuntsman. Our budget is not the biggest and I don't know if we can do this with SFX (although we're shooting it on the RED, plenty of information) I think for one the budget and the release date for the film is extremely tight and hinders us from doing that. So please and advice on this or tricks would be greatly appreciated. I start shooting in December. Thanks, Sing Yam

The wind is a big issue, are you using them for interiors or exteriors? Depending on the shot or the scenes camera movement you can do things to help fight the wind if you're not doing a steadicam shot or handheld that requires you to see more than 180 degrees in one shot. I've actually posted 3 poles and tied the balloon off forming a triangle to keep the balloon ties taught = less movement if it is windy. Definitely in great condition if you have existing things like trees or columns in the architecture of buildings to tie off to. Also be extremely careful while packing it up if you plan on using it multiple days on a shoot. I had one that was leaking terribly on the second day of using it because people were tugging on the power cord and pulled the seam and ripped the stitching on the bottom of the balloon. Although my key grip saved the day and rigged 4 - 4x4 frames with gridcloth to create a 4 sides of almost a cube and we punched a 5k through it. So if your balloon acts up, this is a solution and it provided about the same light quality. Hope this is helpful, good luck with your shoot! Sing Yam

I really dig your work, the Luda video looks awesome, the lighting and angle selections are slick. The part with Luda recording in the studio is great. The hot top light that over exposes reminds me of Bob Richardson's lighting, I love the flare that comes in too. Great work. From looking at your website I'm kind of heading towards your route of work. I just graduated from film school and have been shooting music videos in the VA Beach area. I haven't gotten anywhere in the ranks of your artist though. Biggest I've done is shot a music video on the RED that featured Willie Nelson (nicest dude I've ever met). Any possibility you can shed some light on how you kept stepping up with your caliber of musicians you're shooting? What's your working relationship with most music video directors like? I find the one I work with the most is always scatter brained and it drives me a little crazy. The running part of the Luda video going down the strip, what color temp were you running the RED at? f-stop? If you get a chance man check out my website - www.singhoweyam.com I'd like to hear your critiques on my work. Unfortunately I'm waiting to get 4 music videos from the production so I can update