Mark McCann

I really enjoyed Erik Wilsons work on Tyrannosaur http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvyqXFmV-LI the night scenes looked particularly beautiful.

Hi all, I have a shoot coming up and one of the scenes i need to light for is a pretty commonplace one which I haven't had to light for yet. the main character is sitting on the end of his bed whilst watching tv, its a frontal medium shot on him. "I was thinking for the flickering effect of a tv i would bounce a CTB'd 1 k onto a reflector just in front of him, and flicker manually a half CTO gel in front of the light, Does anyone have experience with this type of lighting? Would this idea work fine?

Hey interesting read on the article. Was another good bve, shame i didn't get to see all i wanted to see.

Hi all, I'm going to finally invest in my first light meter, I'm wondering if anyone can give me advice on which one of these two to invest in? https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kenko-1100-Professional-Light-Meter/dp/B000UKUHOE/ref=sr_1_18?ie=UTF8&qid=1318376906&sr=8-18 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sekonic-Flashmate-L-308S-Digital-Light/dp/B000BTCJNG/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1318377331&sr=1-1 any help or suggestions would be fantastic. Thanks Mark

You sure your light is balanced to 3200k? By the sounds of it you have a 5600k light, thats the only reason it could be blue when you dip below 5600k and warmer when over it.

Ah thats relieving news, i was already coming up with excuses to make to my media department when i returned it tomorrow.

What upbeat and positive advice for a 15 year old to hear.

Well we used it earlier in the day, shooting a scene for about two hours without a prob, so ill guessing it was an older bulb. Fortunately no one was hurt, it has a steel mesh over it so alot of the glass was kept inside, just want to check for any reasons it could explode incase i did something stupid that i dont want to do again with a light. Thanks

Hi all, I was testing some lighting scenarios out in my house tonigh, i was using a 1kw redhead light when after ten minutes of usage the bulb exploded. I know the grease on the fingers can make the bulb explode, but i didnt touch any glass elements with my bare hands so i cant figure out why the bulb would explode. It was in its case for a good while today before i brought it out to test outside at about 9pm, would the temperature change from its case to outside have had any effect? The bulb has been in use for a long time, i booked the light out from my film production course at any so its probab ly had alot of usage without being change, could it just have exploded because it was a very old bulb? Any replies would be awesomeness. Mark

Hey all, thanks very much for the info, mucho apreciato. Im gonna try the Sprite method tomorrow on a test window and see how it goes, if it goes good ill give the location a shout about doing that hoping they would be okay with it Just checking, when you say sprite you mean the drink yeah? thanks Mark

Hey all, ive been looking around for tips to help cutting down the light from a window to no avail ,i gure here would be the best place to get some tips. Ive got a small student shoot in a local bar coming up, low lit interior it has couple windows about the place that i need to prevent blowing out, whats the best way to do this? Is it as simple as cutting a roll of nd to the windows specs and gaffering taping it or attaching it on? would the nd be noticeable within the shot? Are there any good ways to hide it? appreciate any help Mark

Enjoy.

Hi all, we use a JVC GY-DV5100E in my filmmaking degree course and for a short piece i have coming up im trying to hire a decent set of primes or a 35mm adapter, so far ive been struggling to find decent sets. Can anyone help me out? Im considering trying to source a Bayonet mount to PL Mount adapter, if there is an adapter, would that be the easier option? Thanks in advance for any help

interesting. I cant give expert advice, but id like to give this a try and see if anyone will correct me if im right or wrong. Judging by the lamps shadow on the second photo the main light source outside [ the sun?] seems to be behind the left hand side of the curtains, if if where inbetween the curtains then yes the venetian patterns would be on her face. But what seems to be lighting her face is the ambient light from outside, which isnt harsh enough t create the shadows. Im only a student so you would probably be better hearing from someone more experienced on this matter.

First off if your looking for a low cost camera with a mounted mic, can i assume your recording the sound for the video while shooting? if so, then thats a bad idea, Synch up the song in post is your best option. Use the mounted mic sound as a frame of reference for when synching. Its hard to give tips,your post was a bit vague. Can you be a bit more specific about the music video,any details of it?

That was a great read. I would call this the most powerful film ive ever seen without a doubt.

Hey, this doesnt have diagrams, but its pretty good and i hope its useful to you.

PI dont think to become an expert cinematographer you have to have 10,000 hours in the field exactly, as well as the field work i think evene noticing and appreciated lighting whether it be in films or whether it be a sunset then that adds to your "expertise". I quote "expertise" as i think thats an ambiguous term, i can view someone as an amateur and someelse can view them as an expert and vice versa.

Thats good news, im waiting for 3d in general to hurry up and die a hard death. We dont need 3d tvs, we need 2k/4k tvs, the future of television shouldnt be based on the gimmick that it looks as if something from the tv is about to hit you. does anyone actually want a future where hard hitting dramas such as schindlers list pop out of the screen at you?No.

Well i havent got to see true grit yet, but im hoping this will finally be Deakins year. He's been overlooked for way to long, i look at all his films and wonder- why the hell doesnt this man have an oscar yet? Im also a massive Cronenweth fan though, and loved the cinematography in the social network, so im hoping for him or Deakins

Hey, thanks to both of you, i think i understand now. I never knew the shutter was a spinning disk hence the confusion of where the shutter angle term came from. This has been cleared right up for me. Thanks

Hey all, I've a question. Ive been hearing the term shutter angle thrown about and it confuses me. Why is it film cameras use shutter angle when alot of digital camera [cept the alexa if im not mistaken] use shutter speed? whats the main difference between the two? why does one use a shutter angle and the other simply lets you select the speed? Thanks in advance for the help Mark McCann

Thanks for the replies guys. Jonathan- i dont exactly want to use just daylight tubes and add CTO's to cool it all down. i want a mixture of color balanced light with some pool coming in from the non-balanced tubes. However i will try the tungsten tubes on daylight balanced cameras to see how well it brings out the fleshtone.

Hi all, Im a student filmmaker and im plotting for a piece ill be filming after christmas. I have been planning on lighting a certain scene with a few 2ft/4ft Kino's, my idea for a scene is too camera balance for 3200k with the kino flos at 3200k for the most part but replacing a few of the bulbs with 5600k temp ones to try and give pools of blue within this scene. I am still learning and experimenting with cinematgraphy so i hope my logic with what i want to achieve is right, My question is has anyone on here tried this before? Does it work well? Is there any video examples on the web of the lighting style im trying to achieve i could see? Thanks Mark

Hey all, Im currently planning for a short i am to be filming sometime in january. Im planning for a short sequence of it to be in slow motion 600fps give or take 100fps. Im aiming to hire out a weisscam hs2 for a days filming, but im unsure about post production process for slow motion filming. If i shoot at about 600fps, and i need a PAL playback of 25fps, if i set up the editing system for PAL, will it automatically play back the slow mo footage at 25fps? An answer will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.